Prayer request

If this hits too close to home for some of you, I'm sorry; but I need to get this out there.

For those of you who don’t recognize this picture; it was the last good picture taken of my wife and me. On October 4, 1997, I was incredibly blessed to call Jean my bride. May 7, 2005, our life together was ended when cancer won its battle against her. Anniversaries are always more challenging times and I’m noticing it again this year. It seems strange how I can be living life the same as I did the week or month before, but somehow my body decides to not have as much energy, my mind doesn’t focus as well, motivation for anything goes down, sleep comes harder; and it takes a few days for me to realize why. I noticed it again this time and as I looked back, I found that the symptoms started on the exact day of the year that Jean’s final downturn started. It intensified on the date she went to the hospital for the last time. Realistically, I need to be prepared to face more of this on the date of her death and the days leading up to it. So, I’m putting this out there for anyone who cares and anyone who believes in the power of prayer – I could use a little more of that for the next week. Overall, I’m doing very well, but certain times of the year are major trigger points that I still have to deal with. Please pray for me in this. Thank you.

Response to Ryan's post

In case you're wondering what this is about, check the link to Ryan and Amy's blog...it could be worse :-)

Party time

Each week there is a social gathering after Saturday night church for those aged 25-35. This week one of my housemates was asked to host it so you can guess what I did that night.




Even though the party was at my house, I had very little to do with hosting it. The food was all prepared for us (although I did help out a little). Take note, no pepsi!!!!!!!






I wanted to get a few pictures of the people in the house and ended up getting one with a number of people eating. One person in particular was a little embarrassed being caught with an open mouth. Oh well. It lead to a good conversation. Still no pepsi!!!!!!!!

And some more people enjoying the party. You guessed it. No pepsi!!!!!!!!!!

I had a few other good pictures, but I think my point has been made. Interesting; a few people said this was the best party they had been to yet; and there was no pepsi. Any correlation????

Easter Weekend

Sorry these pictures are a bit late. I went to the Blue Mountains on Easter Monday instead of doing assignments as I should have been. That's ok, it just finished a weekend of not doing assignments. Saturday I spent most of the day helping a friend move, Sunday, well it's Sunday, and I went to a friend's place for dinner, and the Monday was this trip. Thought you might like to see some of the pictures...



I'm intentionally not putting a picture here of how high this cliff actually is. See the bright blue sky????








The trail we went on was a bit wet from the rain earlier in the day and over the last few days.








Here's everyone in the group I was with. Sorry the background scenery isn't the greatest. It was really nice. I guess you'll just have to come visit if you want to see the real thing...




I learned something new about Australia again. There are too many traffic accidents so in select places they have set up stopping points and at these points hand out free coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and biscuits. The Aussies in our group insisted that we stop and then they thought it a good idea to get a picture of this Canadian at the stop so I told them if I'm doing an Aussie thing, I was going to get the Aussies with me. Besides me (so far) there is one other non-Australian in the picture.

Good Friday?

Being a day ahead of Canada, We’re celebrating Good Friday today. We’ve got some great church services planned; expecting a lot of visitors this weekend. I went for coffee yesterday with one of our pastors and we passed a fish market on the way. There was a huge line-up stretching out of the store with people waiting to buy fish because of a religious tradition that forbids eating meat on this day. That store has actually been posting a sign for the last few weeks saying they will be open today – while all other stores are closed! Stores are selling so much chocolate you’d think every woman, man, and child was having PMS at the same time – or maybe we’re all pregnant – there’s got to be something to bring on such a strong craving. Statistics show that this weekend and Christmas are the two times that the largest number of people show up in church; so as churches, we need to make sure we take the opportunity to present the Gospel message clearly and in a relevant way! Good Friday is a national holiday in many nations of the world. So why the big deal? Two thousand years ago a man was sold by one of his friends into the hands of a group that had been plotting for a long while how they would murder him, He was disowned by another friend and abandoned by most of the rest (by the way, if Peter disowned Jesus, where were the rest of the disciples at the time? Why was Peter there with the crowd and the rest were not to be found? We usually think of Peter as the one who denied Jesus but what about the rest? Do a little research and you may find an answer) He was beaten, tortured, disfigured beyond recognition, mocked, ridiculed, then killed in the most painful way people had thought of to that day. I actually wonder sometimes if Jesus embraced the cross because he knew it was the end. I wonder if he embraced the cross because the torture had been so severe it made the cross look welcome. Just a thought. And I wonder, what’s so good about that? What’s so good about that day that we celebrate it today, 2000 years later? Are we some sort of sick generation that revels in the torment and death of another man? I think not. The Bible tells us it actually pleased the Father for Jesus to suffer (The only place I can find where it pleased God to see anyone suffer – Isa 53:10 – so if any of you think God is happy with your suffering, I challenge you to find Scriptural evidence to support that thought!!!) but even in this case, the joy is not in the suffering but in what the suffering would accomplish. The Father was pleased to see his Son suffer because through it, we would not have to pay the price for sin. He loved us so much that He was happy to let His Son go through that to save us! I don’t know about you, but it sure makes me think twice when I take it so lightly. The other day I heard someone singing a Christmas song and while those around me had strange looks on their faces, I thought “How fitting.” At Christmas we celebrate the start of what Good Friday and Easter Sunday finished! What can be more fitting than remembering the whole deal together? And yes, it truly is a Good Friday – not because of what Jesus went through, but because of what His suffering accomplished for us.

Who are you?

Just a friendly reminder that I love to hear from people but when someone posts a message, I'd like to know who it is. So I'd appreciate some sort of identification on the messages. If you want to stay annonymous to the world, please send me an email with some other sort of identification that I will recognize when you post a message so at least I can figure out who it is. Thank you so much, keep posting!

Trailer trouble and birthday party

I was writing an email to a friend of mine and realized I had a good story for the blog and I hadn’t put it up here yet.

One of our weekly ministry teams was on their way to a community to help out in the area and long after they should have been there, my supervisor received a phone call from their leader. When he hung up the phone, he turned to me and said he needed a favour. The team had a van (bus by Australian definition) pulling a trailer with some supplies for the day and the van had broken. Most of the team went on ahead without the supplies, but a few people stayed with the van and trailer. We needed to find a tow truck to get the van to a garage and I went out to get the trailer. Well, when I found then, we hooked up the trailer to the car I was driving (borrowed since mine doesn’t have a hitch) and checked the lights; only to find they didn’t work. We found the problem (blown fuse in the car) and fixed it. We tried the lights again and blew another fuse. The wiring on the trailer was not set up right for the car so there would be no way to use the signal or break lights; but we still needed to get it back home. So I started back with another car on my tail being my signal lights for me and shortly before we got back, I saw some flashing lights and found a traffic inspector who had pulled someone over. I drove past him with much apprehension and stopped at a red light just a short distance along the road. Next thing I know, the inspector is pulling up beside me at the same light. Now I had a dilemma. If he ended up behind me in the turn, he could see my signals weren’t on, and if he got in front of me, he could see the same in his mirror. So I prayed quickly that God would blind him to me for a moment (we’re allowed to pray that kind of thing right?), then I made sure I kept him beside me through the turn and then drove really slowly so he would get out of sight before I had to make another turn. It just barely worked, as I made the next turn only seconds after he was out of sight, and I was thankful to be off the road.

On another topic, I went out with a group for a friend’s birthday yesterday. Ate some good German food, had a good time, got home late and tired, and took some good pictures. Here are some highlights.




The famous landmark. I hadn't seen it in a while so I had to take a picture... We drove to a train station and took the train to this spot, then got on a ferry for the remainder of the trip. Betty, you'll be seeing this place and likely getting a tour of the building while you're visiting!




Here are some of the guys on the boat. We tried taking a picture with the background in it but it was blurry because of the dark.






After dinner, we went to another place and some of the people started dancing.








...While others watched








And on the way home, I got this great shot. I really liked the way the lights and the stars in the clear sky were reflecting off the water. It would have been romantic if...

Colour and Album Recording

Well, Colour Conference is now done. Like I thought, I would have been lucky to get 6 hours of sleep per night. Wednesday was an easy day, leaving at 7AM and being done my part around 2PM (home just before 3) while the choir stayed to practice in the evening. Thursday was 6AM to 12:00AM, Friday and Saturday were 6 to 12:30, then Sunday was “easier” again leaving home at 7:15, getting almost an hour at home between church and album recording, and then getting home just before 1AM. I spent somewhere between 14 and 17 hours per day on my feet. It’s definitely tough but knowing that almost 17,000 women were impacted at the conference and millions of people will be impacted by the album that’s coming out; it’s worth it. It felt good to sleep in as long as my body would allow this morning – waking up for the day after a long 7 hour night. Hopefully, I can get to bed earlier tonight and possibly even take a nap.

I spent most of my time at the conference doing venue control (similar to security but without the legal rights and liabilities of security people) outside the lounge where all the key speakers, pastors, and their guests went to relax – making sure that only a select few get in while the rest are turned away graciously. It’s the same thing I do for the weekend services at church. As you can well imagine, dealing with people who are known by millions around the world and keeping them free from disturbance and distraction during their breaks can be quite delicate. To make things clearer and easier to enforce, most people allowed into this area have a special pass. Yea, MOST of them – not all.

Even the best of us make mistake in this area. One person on my team asked one of the key speakers for a pass shortly after she got off stage; some of the pastors that are around the church every weekend were asked for passes; and I even had an interesting one. A young lady wanted to come into the lounge with a friend of hers. She had the appropriate pass but he did not so I explained this to her and she graciously told me it was alright for him to be there with her. This being a common line that I receive, I told her that I had orders from my leaders that meant I could not let him in. She kindly informed me that her mother was the person running the conference and the person with her was her boyfriend. Upon asking who her mother was, I realized she had a lot more pull than I do. Brian and Bobbie Houston’s daughter can take anyone she wants into any area of the building at almost any time. Oops. She was very good about it and my colleagues had a good laugh at me telling them about this. Despite this little error, I was greatly honoured when my team leader said he was going to specifically ask for me to be on his team in this position for Hillsong conference in July.

There were a few interesting experiences during the conference. One lady told me at one point “There’s too many women around here!” Excuse me, were you expecting something different at a women’s conference? I mentioned this to one of the girls on my team and she just looked at me with indifferent eyes and informed me that she had said the same thing only 5 minutes earlier.

We also had one man causing a minor disturbance outside the door so our paid security man came over to help out. This guy is a few inches taller than I am and built like a rock. He’s one of biggest men I’ve ever met but also one of the most gentle. Within 5 minutes, the man was sharing his life story on his way back to his car.

I’ll leave you with a few pictures of the event…



The conference started with a grand opening which was truly grand. I was able to catch part of it including some dancers on stage and swinging gracefully through the air above stage. A few people (including me) commented that the only thing we had ever seen that was comparable was the Olympic games opening ceremonies. Here's a shot of one part. A woman started singing in an absolutely heavenly voice and continued as her platform rose about 30 feet up and the audience joined in singing.



This is what almost 17,000 women in one place looks like. Amazing! The largest indoor facility in Sydney was filled with women focused on God!







Another team member and me at our post.









There was quite a rush for seats for the album recording. Here's the line-up 1 1/2 hours before it started.







I was only able to get into the auditorium for a few minutes of the album recording, but here's one picture of it. My guess is between 15,000 and 16,000 people were there. I was able to hear much of what happened inside and I can tell you there are some amazing songs coming out on this album.

Colour preparation

Colour Conference is about to begin and today we were busy preparing. It feels like it’s the calm before the storm since some of us actually had half the afternoon and the whole evening off. We worked too hard this morning and got the work done quicker than expected.




We got off to an early start. Here’s my housemates at about 6:45AM. Tomorrow through Saturday we have to be on the bus by 6:00 and don’t get home till midnight.







Opps, somebody didn’t count how many people live in my community before deciding how many buses to send.







These people all had to wait for a second bus that was hastily found to transport – it was sent from a different location where they had an extra one.








That’s fine, the other one was the same as a regular city transit bus. We got the better one.






I've got a few more pictures of the prep work today but I need to get some sleep before my alarm becomes my most hated possession at 5:00 tomorrow morning. Since I only have about 6 hours per day (or night) for the next four days, I likely won't be checking this blog for comments or posting updates until it's done. Please pray for us as you think of it.

Mormons cont.

I’ve had some questions about how my meetings with the Mormons have gone. After the first meeting with the Mormons in February, I received a phone call from someone else saying that because I had moved from where I lived before Christmas, I was in someone else’s zone, and asking if I would be willing to meet with them instead. I set out the same conditions as the previously and after a few questions and about 20 minutes of talking on the phone, they agreed to meet under them. Our first meeting was at a park and when I got there, I found three people and a dog instead of the two I was expecting. I guessed because I was now meeting with two women, they may feel safer having a man with them whom they trusted. They just said they had been talking with him before our meeting and he asked if he could come along. He is a member of their church. A second thought I had was that based on our phone call, the ladies were concerned about not being able to back up their beliefs and having someone else there would help with that.

Before our next meeting, I received a call asking if we could meet in someone else’s home (I’ve not bee receptive to letting them into my home and their rules keep them from inviting anyone to theirs). I agreed to this and we met there. One interesting thing I’ve noticed is that in all of our meetings, the missionaries have not answered any of the hard questions; that’s always been done by the other person in the meeting. I found out at my last meeting with them that this man is actually one of the leaders in their church and what’s more, he’s one of the heads for this district! At this point, I’m left to wonder why we’re meeting in his home.

In our second meeting, I started by asking about something one of the missionaries had stated in our first meeting. She said that one of the reasons she didn’t accept the doctrine of the trinity was that she didn’t understand it. However, near the end of the meeting, she told me she didn’t fully understand the Bible but was learning more about it and gaining a better understanding of it. So I asked why she would accept the Bible although she didn’t understand it but reject the trinity because she didn’t understand it – using the same measure, but coming to a different conclusion. She had no response but the man whose home we were in stumbled to some sort of answer.

She later asked (very sincerely) if I could explain the trinity to her. I told her I couldn’t fully explain the trinity but I have to search the Bible and it tells me that Jesus was killed on the cross because He claimed to be God. In His days on Earth, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of gods being worshipped; and the Jews didn’t try to kill anyone because they claimed to be another god; but they wanted Jesus dead because of his claim to be God. If Jesus made the claim, either it’s true and I better believe Him, or it’s false and I can’t trust anything he says.

I also pointed out that Jehovah (“Father God” as they call Him) clearly says He is one God and there is no other; and we are to worship no other. The interesting thing here is that the Book of Mormon says to worship Jesus. So, they are told to worship both Father God and Jesus, but they are also told that Jesus is not God. So how can they obey Father God in worshipping Him only and obey the Book of Mormon in its command to worship Jesus unless Jesus is God? They had no real response for this.

Virtually all differences between Mormons and Christians hinge on the one question “Was Joseph Smith a true prophet of God?” I took a list of prophecies to our next meeting and asked them to explain the discrepancies to me. After only the third one, they realized they couldn’t explain them and had to admit that some of them appeared to be false. In the end, the missionaries took my list of prophecies so they could check into them and try to find answers for me.

Mormons regularly say to pray and ask Father God if Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God (misinterpreting James one where it says if any of us lacks wisdom we should ask God for it) and his Holy Ghost will confirm it for us by a feeling in our hearts. As we talked, I brought up the historical inaccuracy of the Book of Mormon (Another whole issue I won’t get into here except to say that the book tells of a people living at a certain time and history tells us they were not there and the place claimed was actually inhabited by a completely different people) together with the prophecy issues and some other stuff, and I stated that if I’m looking at something and everything I find goes against it, I’m not going to trust a fast beating heart and some goose bumps (two signs they have claimed); and especially when I’ve already prayed to God and asked him to show me the truth about Joseph Smith and He told me that the man is a complete fraud!

As many of you can well imagine, I’m shocked that these people keep meeting with me. From my perspective, it takes much time out of my schedule and takes much thought and prayer to be prepared; but as long as they want to keep meeting, I will do so. I’m convinced God has called me to a specific ministry of preaching “good news to the poor…and freedom for the captives.” All of Heaven rejoices for the salvation of one individual and I will do all I can for this. Although I can’t explain the reason, I have a feeling about one of the missionaries in particular questioning her beliefs and I’m praying that she will come to a true knowledge of God. As I left the last meeting, I knew there had to be seeds of doubt planted in their minds so I prayed that God will take that seed and make it grow like a weed. I also asked Him for the opportunity to bring these people to Him.