I am currently sitting in a Serious Coffee in Victoria reading Emerging Churches and trying to continue relaxing or maybe begin relaxing. You see after Christmas day, Anna’s family went to Mount Washington where we went to enjoy some snowboarding and chillin, but then came “the Flu.” No snowboarding for Kyle, no relaxing for Fran, no sleep for David, what a few days.

So tonight is our pseudo new years eve with Anna’s friends, hopefully i am over this flu, but i tell you i am not in tip top shape.

that’s it for now, but at least you know i am somewhat back…perhaps a more thoughtful blog in a day or two?

Anna and I are currently enjoying some family time on the Island for Christmas. Good
Eats, Cool treats, and hopefully some relaxation.

I probably won’t have a lot of time to blog, so maybe don’t expect a blog for the next 4-5 days.

cheers and to all a Merry Christmas!

Sit down for this one. This is a SNL rap video, hilarious!

I know it’s just a rumour, but i’m picturing myself in downtown Vancouver wearing a Maple Leaf Jersey that says Bertuzzi on the back…heh!

So after Tucker Carlson rips us Canadians in his consistent arrogance, i had to enjoy John Stewart ripping into him.

Enjoy!

Last night our little team at the open house went to St. John’s Shaughnessy to attend a Anglican service.

I have to say it was quite beautiful. There was endless Christmas Hymns and choruses, as well as powerful readings of the Christmas story, and i have to say Anglican churches just get me in the mood for reverence. (A funny side note for my friend Justine, who grew up Anglican, and is a priest in the Anglican Church, she tries to stay as far away as she can from the tradition, and prefers to do church in coffee shops. I think it’s my un-churched background that lets me appreciate the tradition in small doses.)

Anyway aside from all the beauty and awesomeness that seems to be portrayed in the service, I was a little disappointed in the message. Don’t get me wrong I am not slamming the message itself, it actually was very inline with what I expected, but it’s what’s contained in it that makes me wonder where we get our information.

What I mean is that the speaker, amongst his message about shepherds, and Jesus in a manger, went off about how horrible our world is, and how Jesus had to come back because of the mess we had made of it. Now I am not totally in disagreement to this fact, but the way it came out was as if everybody in our world see’s it this way, and everybody is crying out for Jesus to save them from their brokenness. Well, somebody failed to tell the people I keep meeting. Many of them, humble enough not to say they have it all together, see such beauty in our world, and are really trying to share that with others. They don’t feel as if they need saving, or as if this world is a write off, in fact they believe they can have a part in saving it!

Although this is not proper theology, I have to say, could some of these people that I am encountering be more onto what Jesus had in mind when he came to earth 2000 years ago?

John 3:17 – For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Seems like a lot of condemnation to me, and little hope. I think it’s good to hope!

Well for some reason my flickr account won’t “blog” them for me. So you can scroll to the bottom of this page and view them, or you can visit the open house, as i just posted it!

cheers

For those of you wondering, we had a great party thursday night with many of the people we know and have met over the past 4 months of living here in vancouver.

I took a few pictures and i hope to have those posted sometime today!

there is a great pic of alexis and her white elephant gift…quite hilarious.

For those of you who are wondering what we will be up to tomorrow, we would like to share about our white elephant party.

According to Wikipedia:

The white elephant gift exchange is a popular party game played during the winter holiday season. The objective of the game is for guests of a party to each contribute one gift to the game, and ultimately each guest walks away with one gift from the game. Along the way is a random drawing for the turn order who gets to open wrapped gifts or “steal” previously opened gifts…The name “white elephant” loosely refers to an old tradition of the game in which guests bring gift items consisting of old trinkets, knicknacks, or unwanted gifts from previous years.

This little party will be a good way to bring all the rad people we know and have met together to meet each and mesh a litte. Also we are encouraging everyone to contribute in a special way.

Christmas Shoe boxes to the Drive is a special Christmas outreach sponsored by one of the local churches and in collaboration with Chili Wagon, a weekly hearty and healthy meal distribution to the poor and homeless at Grandview Park. Every Christmas, Chili Wagon gives out shoe boxes filled with basic necessities for those who are in need. We would like to invite you to help out by donating various items for the shoe boxes. If you are able to provide one or several of the items, that would be awesome. However, please don’t feel obligated. We just wanted to present an opportunity for people to connect with and invest a little in the community. If you could spare some of your time, you are welcomed to help assemble the boxes and/or to help give them out on Tue, Dec. 20. If you are interested in helping out the day of the assembly and distribution, please contact Kristin.

The items that are still needed are:

socks (men’s) – a lot more are needed
toothpaste
gloves (stretchy, one-size-fits-all kind)
bags of wrapped candy/candy canes

Let us know if you want to contribute.