Crocet... Crochet... Crow-Kay?

So I don't know how to spell crokay. You know that game where you stick the little white things in the ground and you get a mallet to wack you ball through it. Sounds sick and wrong when I describe it like that, but I don't know how else to.

This was a game that I vividly remember playing when I was younger. It was probably one of the times that our neighbor's mom forbid her children from ever playing with us again. But that happened about every second week, so we got used to it. It really got serious when one of us Mumby brother's chucked sand in one of the Belouw brother's face and sent him to the hospital to get his eye flushed out. Come to think of it, things also got serious when one guy ran home with blood running down his face after our little game got somewhat out of hand. But that was a regular occurance with us growing up.

I remember we had this cool... crow-kay... set and me and my friend Remi (we called him Bay) would set up and play for hours on end. We were not normal. It generally turned into setting up the little white things on complete ends of our yard and blasting the ball as hard as we could. I don't think we cared about accuracy... we just wanted to hit things really hard.

I revisited my childhood again this evening with a vengance. My friend, Andrew, had recently aquired a nice new... I wish I knew how to spell freaking crow-kay right so I didn't have to use phonetics every time... set. This was the first time it had been used so we set up a wicked course in his backyard and proceeded to start the first of many games in what could be a very long tournament. A very long tournament only because I will not stop until I win.

Judging by my performance tonight that could be a while.

Although, I did make a shot of a lifetime. A bank shot off a concrete wall, over a sidewalk, that went straight through the little white thing! I was so proud of myself. I would like to say that I judged the vectors and angles just perfectly, but in all honesty I was lapsing back into my childhood and just wanted to hit the ball really hard and see what would happen.

Once again, prooving the need to have closed circut television on my life at all times.

Andrew won the best two out of three event. So we went to 2nd Cup and celebrated.

Other happenings of note today would include the construction of the Mumby Pier out at our lake. Aaron and Dad made the first section. Geordie, Kayle and Dad completed the last section. It was good that Geordie was there because he made the operation somewhat more streamlined. Turns out Aaron and Dad were using very much the wrong screws that took a gajillion times more effort to put in. One recommendation from Geordie fixed that and dad said, "Geez, that took about a quarter of the time with the right screws..." So sorry, Aaron... your effort does not go un-noticed.

Then mom and I watched at Dad and Geordie wrestled the pier pieces into place in knee deep muck. Unpleasant. Geordie just about lost his flip-flops and he sank surprisingly far into the muck at the shoreline.

I think the greatest part was when dad had to move a giant boulder out of the way. Somehow he reached down and picked this thing up which had to have weighed at least 150 pounds. He stumbled away a bit and tossed it as far as he could away from them, causing one of the largest splashes I have seen in recent history and soaking both himself and Geordie.

Once again I ask myself the question, "What the heck do our neighbors think of us?"

But when walking back to our cabin we saw this one older guy who lives out there... in his sweat-pants... just his sweat-pants... that were far too small... far too small to cover his crack...

And at that point I thought to myself, "We're perfectly fine."

Things and Such

Today I:

- Saw Star Wars with Aaron and Bobbie and Kandyce. It was great and I loved every second of it. It's very, very rare when I honestly enjoy special effects and stuff like that. I usually think special effect movies are a load of crap because I'd rather enjoy a good story and something that gets me really deep into it. But this time, I loved every second of it and the story was just as good. Fun.

- Welcomed Geordie and Stefanie back to their Alberta home. It is good to have them back.

- Prayed at Grant's store. We had fun. A new person came who was a blast and we all told some neat stories. I like said, I like stories.

And now I will leave you with a cool quote that I have been thinking about a lot lately. It's so good that I wrote it on the front page of my Bible. And here it is:

"What is the secret to success? I got up as many times as I got knocked down."

Quote of the Day

Well...

The last entry was something that we did at our Kinship group. It was really neat. During worship you have to pick two words that would best describe where you were at. Then you'd also come up with a picture to best describe those two words. For example joy may mean one thing to you and a totally different thing to me.

This was sort of an excersise not only in creativity, but also in communication. It's really cool because for the longest time I have felt that way, but when I try to articulate it I never felt like I was heard. Last wednesday I finally felt like I was heard. That is way more important then I thought... knowing what you are saying is getting them same meaning in someone's head that it is in yours.

Maybe I will do that from now on. When someone asks me how I am (because it's the social norm to ask that and not expect a honest response) I will tell them how I feel in two words and give them a quick illustration. I'm sure people will start to think I am insane. Oh wait... they already do.

One thing that I simply must share with you was the quote of the day from our last kinship night. We're a different group and generally can switch from being ultra serious to ultra crazy in about 0.32 seconds and then back again. One guy was saying how his hero in the Bible was Joseph and if he could choose to be anyone in the Bible that's the guy he would be. Then Doug pipped up and said, "If I could be anyone in the Bible, I'd be God!"

Works for me!

Recklessly Hopeful

Picture a man caught between two worlds. Both real, only one holds promise. Picture a man with full rights to the promised world - one hand rooted solidly on the promise, one hand slipping from the real world. The worlds are moving apart and the man is caught in the void between them, slowly being torn apart. One is real and easy. One is full of promise and the dream this man has sacrificed all for.

There is no certainty in this picture. He does not fit in the real world, nor do the inhabitants of the real world understand his strange existence. They get a normal life, moving ahead, gaining, enjoying independence. But this man strangely waits for the promise.

In the real world he's a picture of shame, foolishness, embarrassment. In the promise he's seen as recklessly hopeful. He doesn't know what to feel, but chooses still to wait.

Only one world holds promise.

Ridiculously Funny

Well...

My stint at internet fame grows. Mainly due to the tireless efforts of Kristy-Anne and the picture currently up on her blog. I have sat here for about the past five minutes studying the picture and finding more and more things that are hysterically funny about it. Best of all it is a really quality picture... sadly... the content in the quality picture is somewhat of a different nature.

Mainly me looking as if I just slapped my own a$$ and the facial expression thereby given. Also, if you look real close it looks like I have a wee bit of a paunch, which is adds to the hilarity seeing how skinny I am. Poor placement of shirt.

But so funny. I LOVE IT!!!! My mission to have the wierdest photo ever taken of me may have now been realized. Now I can stop annoying my family and friends by pretty much always ruining every single photo I'm in. I knew I had to tone it down when I asked my mom why the only picture of me on display at our house was a hideous one. Turns out that is pretty much the only picture they have of me with a half-way normal face. So from then on I decided to smile nicely in at least 50% of the pictures taken of me.

But Kristy-anne.... this one is gold. Kudos... kudos... cudos? whatever...

And speaking of people with an "anne" ending name, merry birthday to Katieann Howard, soon to be Browning. Three cheers on your birthday and three more for Josh's birthday which strangly falls on the very next day.

Families with conglomerate birthdays are strange. Mine included. We basically have two Christmas celebrations a year, only on one of them my brother Geordie is excluded. Within the space of four days everyone in our family gets to celebrate some sort of day and Geordie gets to buy us all presents.

Mom and Aaron share the 12th of June, while I get the 16th. Father's day usually lands somewhere right in the midst of it all so that covers us all. Geordie is way over in March, so much like Christmas he has to buy the entire family gifts, only much unlike Christmas he gets no material possessions in return. Except for about a week of perpetual parties.

Speaking of perpetual parties (do you like the flow of this entry?) I hung out with A+B and Claire this evening. Claire and I also happen to share a birthday day and have begun plans for a small get together celebration of the day of our birth. It will be glorious. Plus the even stranger thing is I know people who have birthdays every day from June 6th (I hope I have that right) all the way through until June 18th. Very strange indeed. Makes you wonder what is happening about nine months previous to all these birth stories. I think that is September... maybe the fall has some sort of baby-making power. Maybe it's the joy that the children are being shipped off to school and in haste and lack of forethought passions run amiss. Maybe I am creeping myself out and need to stop typing right now.

Speaking of typing, I have been asked to submit some more writing in a certain manual that is being put together. That is all I can say about that for now. And another little write up that I did is about to go national, which is really cool. I just need to tweak it up a little and re-submit the thing. Kind of strange, really. I should submit my blog entries and see what happens. Probably the opposite of positive feedback would come.

Now if only I could write that book to make a gatabazillion dollars...

Well... I think I am going to bring this rolling adventure of a blog entry to a close. Go check out Kristy-anne's website either through the links to your right or by clicking on this nice blue word.

Upheaveal

Did I spell that right?

If the above mentioned word is spelt correctly, that is currently what I am feeling. Complete and total upheaveal and basically no clue what to do or where to go next. But that is what I signed up for. To do something new that nobody has done before. Like Star Trek, only with Jesus as my warp drive......

That was possibly the most corny thing I have ever written in my life. Ever.

Moving on.

This last weekend was a really nice time. It was honestly a gift from God. The prayer team I have been serving with was officially dismantled. Thus ends one of the hardest seasons of my life. And I had it easy compared to a few others on the team. But it was so good. I learned so much through these last two years and I really see how God used a nasty situation and turned even that for good for those who could find it.

Then I got added blessing by spending a lot of time with my spiritual father, Dennis Wiedrick. He is an amazing man of God who travels internationally speaking as a very influential apostolic voice. And I mean apostolic, not one of those people who grabs a title to sound impressive - this man actually functions in that way. It's really neat to see and to be able to get such a close relationship with him.

My times with Dennis are always mind boggling. He has watched out for me very closely since 1999 so we got quite a history. I very much trust what he says. The bummer is now what he is saying is really hard and I have basically no idea how to move forward! Haha!! I laugh at myself because I always get into these situations. I'm not freaking out (well, I kind of am) but it's a good freak out. If you want to do great exploits for God sometimes that means you're going to have to do a bit more then walk around any old corner. There is this little thing called faith that at times is required when it comes to this relationship with God....

Time to count the cost once again and push all the chips to the middle of the table and gamble it all on God. I've been here before, but the stakes are getting higher. The thing I have been discovering is even when I push all my chips to the middle of the table that God wins every time anyway. But the strange thing is after He wins it all He gives it all back to me and says, "You got guts, boy. Now have all my chips."

Yikes.

If you think of it, please pray for me. I have a brand new slate. This happened once a few months ago, but now it's time to write on the slate. I have many things open to me that I'd love to share, but just won't right now. I need to know where to pull the trigger and where not to. My dreams and my destiny have never been this close and I need to figure out how to jump those barriers, or better yet to know that there is no barrier at all because it is through Jesus that all this is accomplished.

Oh yes, for any Eagle's Nest Ranch Summer people, it looks as if I will be there for the week of staff training! Woo!! I'm considering a couple more weeks after that. But we'll see.

And as for the Eagle's Nest YWAM Staff... I was there on Friday night... most of you weren't there. But all I have to say is you missed quite possibly the most unusual party ever thrown on planet earth. An "English As A Second Language 80's Forced Dance Party". That was just not normal no matter how you look at it.

What I'm Anticipating, Everything Else Will Be Over-Rated!

Short post. Maybe cheating a bit...

The title is a nice line from a CD I have been listening to lately. It's a nice thought and dares me to dream God's dreams. Everything else will be over-rated compared to what God has for me. Nothing but His will can ever compare.

And now, check out this blog. A friend of mine writes these. I just spent the better part of an hour on her site. It has given me life. Especially this post: Enjoy......

Some Pretty Cool Stuff

Okay... first of all if you haven't checked out Jason's blog or the We Will Live Again wesbite, then go check both of them out. I think you may enjoy the words contained in them. Tonight I heard another story of the strange blue lights from four seperate churches and the response was always the same when the people saw the sky - overwhelming worship. I like that.

I hung out with Peter this afternoon. It was good as I have not seen him in a long time. By the way, he is making his third attempt at blogging and has opened up his latest venture. You may check it out at this fun little link. Which reminds me I really need to update my links section. There are many blogs that I am a fan of that I do not yet have up there. Silly me...

So this week holds some interesting things for me. Thursday I drive off to Calgary for a little meeting which I am not sure if I am looking forward to or not. The subject matter is not one that is easy to say the least. What I am happy about is seeing Carolyn, Dennis, Daniel and the rest of the prayer team. I love them all very much and it's always good to be with them. Then I get to drive Dennis and Carolyn to Medicine Hat, which I am really looking forward to. Plus, Kip the dog is going to join us and I just love that thing. Any dog which runs as fast as it can and then flips on it's back to do a big slide in the grass is my friend.

Last summer Carolyn and I were walking the long way to prayer mountain with Kip and I thought the dog was having a seizure or something and freaked out. Turns out that is just normal behavior. But I suppose that is better normal behavor then that of my dog, who decides to poo in the middle of stores that we bring him into. Don't get me wrong, he's not a freak of nature and is actually a really good dog. Just for some psychotic reason he likes to take dumps on linoleum of bike shops, I guess.

Oh yes... I was driving home the other day after hanging out with a guy named Andrew. It had stormed all night long and I was blasting along the Yellowhead. When a puddle ambushed me and almost killed me. It was quite possibly the largest puddle ever known to man and I plowed the mighty Mumby Mobile directly through that thing. I couldn't see for a long time. All of a sudden there was this huge splash that came out of nowhere and the truck was submersed. I couldn't even see out of the back cab window because so much water was gushing all over the truck. That lasted for longer then I thought was possible and somehow I made it out alive.

That and I was laughing extremely hard.

The only bummer was the truck was nice and clean due to Aaron putting the sprinkler on it all evening and that puddle was far from clean. The truck was basically caked in a layer of mud after that. I had to keep spraying the windshield because mud would keep seeping all over the window as the water slowly ran off the truck all the way home.

Anyway, all that from starting to tell you about my weekend.

Thursday is Calgary, Friday I drive to Medicine Hat and will hopefully hang out at ENR for a while. Saturday I'll spend the majority with Grandma and then drive directly to our cabin. Sunday is Cabin time. Monday is Cabin time and then in the evening I'll head back out to Edmonton to hang out with some friends again because that is the only time that really works.

I just reviewed this entry and have decided that it is possibly the most random entry I have yet posted. So with that, I'm off to bed.

God Makes Good Stuff Out Of Crap

Yes, that was the quote of the day for our sunday morning service. Once a month we have this time called "God Stories" and instead of a message people come up to the mic and share some story of how God has been moving in their lives. Last sunday was absolutely astounding with some fairly incredible testimonies. One of the best ones being an 11 year old raising his little puppy from the dead. Or the story of a guy who was beaten until the doctors said he would either die or be a vegetable. People prayed and he broke our of his coma and doesn't have any brain damage. The doctors then said he would never walk again and he was walking just fine today! Pretty cool.

The best one was a lady who was sharing about her family. She said this one line that I laughed really hard at, "God can make good stuff out of crap." Kind of a new twist on the beauty for ashes scripture.

I was chuckling about that when Daniel and his mom Lynette started laughing behind me. Daniel pipped up, "Crap is more moldable then clay!"

I suppose he has a good point...

I slept for 900 hours last night which was a welcomed change. Time to get rested up and then off galavanting this weekend again. One day of meetings in Calgary and then I'm driving my spiritual father, Dennis Wiedrick to Medicine Hat. I'll spend a day there, pop over to Eagle's Nest, see grandma and then drive back home and to the lake! WOOHOO!!

Dad just came home and needs to use the computer, so I'm going to go now. More later, I suppose.

More MORE MOooORREEEeee!

With all my postings about Vancouver, I have totally neglected the mayhem that has happened here this last week. Alas... it has been grand and has included such things as being wild models for a photo shoot, going places in Whyte Ave that I never knew existed, sitting outside by a fire that made me stink (still) of smoke and every article of clothing that I have stink like smoke because I gave it to everyone to stay warm, having wild dance parties in the car (what's with me a vehicular dance parties??), visiting a friend's house and having us all gather around the bar of the house they are sitting and capturing some of the most hilarious video of all time (none of us drank), driving Trisha to the airport well before any human should have been awake, waking up just now and having to go to a wedding, a crazy prayer thing and a late night prayer strike I am helping lead this evening. PHEW!! Which reminds me, if any of you are in Edmonton and want to join a group of us this evening click on this link for some goooood stuff and join us. It will be very, very good.

So, Kristy-anne wants more Vancouver stories... I think I might hold them for ransom until she updates her blog. Or at least until I have time to type out a good and proper story. Our Watchmen team met up last Thursday and we had an astounding meeting. One of the leaders read a prophetic word from this man named Jim Goll and it was freaky how accurate his word was. It was so cool to know that what you lived and acted out in Vancouver had actually been spoken last April and we had no idea about it. And it wasn't general stuff that we had to bend or stretch - it was specifac, accurate, clear stuff. SO COOL!!! As if God is not up to something in Canada. My prayer as that people become more and more hungry and get to tap into this incredible flow.

This July the flow should grow just a bit as now over 5,000 people are expected for the One Heart Gathering. 300 of them are Inuit coming down from Northern Canada at a massive cost to them. But 300 Inuit from a region that has been in full blown revival for a few years now is always good. You can check out what is happening with them on a video called Transformations 2.

There's a neat new video that you'd probably like to take in on the watchmen website, so go check it out! Just click here and its the very first thing on the front page.

Vancouver Tourism

I have a few minutes to steal away for another Vancouver story. Much is happening at home, but you'll have to check out A+B's blog and Trisha's Diary for those. They are doing a much better job of it then me.

I fell in love with Vancouver this last weekend. I went there a really long time ago and have travelled through that airport a few times, but for actually staying in the city and being able to take it in... wow... I loved it so much. I often wonder why I am in Edmonton because I think it is a cultureless dump and when I go to someplace like Vancouver my heart sings. But I know that I know that I know I am supposed to be here right now. I know that the thing which will make Edmonton be beautiful is the spirit of God and I will pound away until my assignment here is finished or until the Glory of the Lord fills these streets again.

Anyway....

Alison, I think I might have answered your question on the comments of the last entry, so check there. I think it sounds like we got a fairly significant mix up in the communication. So check back there and see if what I said made any sense. It might not have... because I was typing that looped out on cold meds... pray for Kayle's head... it's bursting with snot.

A very, very cool thing which happened for me was to be able to help lead the Gen-X and young people in how to approach the "fathers and mothers" of the church. This is something that is massive on my heart - being a bridge builder between the generations. During one of the sessions the Lord lead us along that line - repentance between the generations for judgement and bitterness. Not just for the youth to the parents, but the other way as well. It got very intense to say the least.

I was able to speak to the young people for a little while and encourage them and talk them through the road that we all must travel in order to see our church truly unified. Something that people talk a lot about is church unity between different church bodies. Although that is a good thing, I often wonder if that is really what unity means considering all the other scripture out there concerning unity. I think it means unity between the 17 year old and the 87 year old. I think it means a life giving exchange and trust between the 23 and the 56 year olds. That's unity. Then the world will see we are one.

Anyway to make a long story short all us young people were eventually on our faces before the leadership and the fathers and mothers as a prophetic act of laying our lives down for the sake of God's Glory. It was a prophetic act to break the chains of the cycle of criticism and bitterness and turning those chains to ones that would bind our hearts together as one. It was so powerful as this is something BC hasn't really walked through yet. Alberta has great freedom for the most part, but you could tell that there was a great hesitancy for the young people to step out and take responsability for their lives and for the church.

This turned into a time of all of us on our knees together before the Lord, humbling ourselves and crying out that the Lord would come and take up habitation in our nation again. It was a frightening time of the presence of God on us all, as we knelt down and wept before our King.

This opened up an incredible door of opprotunity for me, but I will have to tell you about that later. It was profound and life changing to say the least. But I have to run now.

I was also going to tell you about how Amy got stuck in a wall overlooking the ocean at Stanley Park, but that will have to wait. And she really was stick IN the wall. Not on the wall, in it. So incredibly funny. But since we were tourists we felt like we had lisence to be a little dumber then the local population.

Vancouver Story 1A

If you have ever been to a Gathering you will understand that it is next to impossible to describe what goes on, the level of the tangible presence of God, how much is accomplished in the spirit and the remarkable level of natural effect that comes with them as well. It is amazing. This gathering was no different.

For those who are unfamiliar, basically crack open a book about the Welsh Revival or the Azusa Street Revival and you got yourself a very accurate picture of what happens in Gatherings. Remarkable, breathtaking, the reason why we are alive. Worship will go however long it seems the Holy Spirit is leading us. There is a loose worship set, but that usually goes straight out the window by minute two. There is no set speaker and whoever it seems the Holy Spirit is anointing at the time will speak their bit as helped and directed by the core discernment team. You have to be at one to experience one. Nothing compares, and I have been all over many countries in hundreds of revival meetings... nothing compares.

This Gathering, as they have been having lately, had major effect on the natural realm. As usual, when we meet there is generally a great shift in the government. I was at one Gathering where we really focused on Quebec. That night we got a frantic phone call from Quebec about the toppling of the Bloc Quebecois (the seperatist gov't) in their running for election. The election was going to be three days later and they were far expected to win. As this representation from the nation was praying they fell from popularity and the provincial liberal party (which ran on a main point of being federalist) skyrocketed into power and they got elected.

This time in Vancouver we happened to be praying a lot about the sin that Canada committed against the Chinese and how we used their lives to pave our railway. There was a shocking amount of Chinese (born in China) present at the Gathering. I'd say at least 300. That very day in the provincial government there was a huge debate going on about chinese investment and the party in power didn't want it. The debate shifted to the railway and we actually had a member of the Legislative Assembly show up the next day to testify about what happened in the debate time. He said that all the people opposing the Chinese had their mouths shut up and he was able to speak clearly for justice and for the betterment of the province. He also happened to have been a native born chinese person. I don't know if I am describing that correctly, but it was amazing. Also the next day in the newspaper the front lines said that the research had been done and confirmed that British Columbia was discovered and explored by the Chinese long before Columbus set foot on the land.

We did a bunch of incredible stuff, but I will wait to describe that later. Just imagine 300 Chinese people praying as if our very lives depended on it for Canada. All those videos and pictures you see of the persecuted Christian Chinese people and the intensity and fervor they pray with we got in our meeting, for many used to be those people. And we released them to their fullest destiny and freedom for our nation.

They turned and said before us all, "We laid our lives down to build your railway in the natural. Now we will lay our lives down again for revival in our nation and to make Canada a dwelling place of our God. We will become the railway for the Glory of God to spread across our land."

Humbling to say the least.

Words fail to describe the magnitude of what is happening or what has happened....

Anyway, funny story time. When we were driving home we met up with a slight traffic jam. Traffic was moving horribly slow on the freeway and we were bored. So we did what any normal human would do. Crank up the Micheal Jackson, open the van doors and have a dance party on the 1A. It was hilarious. We cranked out at least 5 or 6 amazing tunes, our van was rocking and people were looking in mild shock and horror at the van load of people dancing like rock stars in the van. We got a lot of smiles and laughter, and even a few dirty looks because apparently you are not supposed to have fun on the highway. Ever. Poor people.

We saw the lights of the police and quickly became very well behaved as we passed by the accident, and began our night time sojourn through the mountains back home.

Much happened during that night, but you will have to stay tuned to find out.

Maybe I'll even tell you about the man who is a direct desendant from the Sung dyansty or the time we had coffee with Delirous' youth pastor.

A little peak

I'm so sorry for not updating like I should. Just a little gong show crazy busy right now and I have a raging sore throat which doesn't help. Plus still catching up on the 90000 hour sleep deprevation contest that I had with myself isn't helping. Plus Trisha is here and quite frankly she is a little more exciting to pay attention to then this computer right now.

But to wet your whistle, I will be updating on stories of Vancouver soon with things such as:

- The Highway 1A dance party
- Having a latte made by one of the world's best and famous barristas!
- Seeing Amy get stuck in a wall over the ocean at Stanley Park
- Meeting Helen
- Operatic theme singing at 6:00am after driving for 10 hours through the night and being awake for nearly 24 at the time

I'm going to bed right now.

You'd Never Believe

Lots happened this weekend to forever change the face of our nation.

Most importantly, it is 10:30 and I have been awake since 7:30am YESTERDAY morning. That means it is now time to go do sleep. I also have to get the half-van back to the dealership early tomorrow morning, so I am heading off to bed now.

Tune in for more... so very much more! We took Vancouver by storm...

Insanity in it's Purest Form

I went to get the van for Vancouver today. It's a nice van. Red. Brand new. No seats.

NO SEATS??

I didn't know that I had to ask for the entire vehicle when I made my reservation. Silly me. I also didn't know that I had to drive around the city of Edmonton in order to pick up the seat that I ordered with my van.

The rental guy was apologizing profusely for the mistake and honestly felt bad. While he was giving me directions to where the van's seat was he noticed that the van also did not have any gas in it.

It just get's better.

I drove home in my seatless van to tell my mom that I was about to race over to pick it up, but right then I had to call Steph, who is one of the main administrators/she runs Watchmen. She just booked herself a plane ticket, so now she didn't need to come in the van.

Perfect.

Now we have enough seats! One person even get's a massive amount of leg room. Yay! So that seat will just have to wait in north Edmonton for the employees to pick it up and put it back in their own car. That was so annoying.

Tomorrow we're leaving from Nathan's house at 5:30am. Please pray for us!! I have to run now... maybe I will update a little later. JUST PRAY!!

Bye Bye Brandon

Got some not so good news today. Anyone from Eagle's Nest reading this, you may have already heard, but today was my day of being informed. Our friend Brandon has died. The funeral will be held this friday in Medicine Hat.

We fought real hard for him. Even this summer we got to see some incredible miracles happen. For example his blood iron count going from a shocking 7800 to a normal 18. The doctors were really amazed with that because #1, they were trying to figure out how Brandon was alive with blood iron levels that high and #2, your blood iron level doesn't just drop that much in such a short period of time.

For a long time Brandon fought a very rare blood disease. Basically his body did not produce red blood cells, or much of what your body was supposed to make when it came to blood. He would be told repeatedly that he should make his final arragements and every time his doctors would witness a miracle, as each time he would be touched and bounce back to health.

He really tried his best to live a normal and fearless life. He achieved that. He wanted to go to YWAM, so he did. He wanted to be a youth pastor, so he enrolled in college last semester. He just went for it. He fought to live a normal life and for the great majority he accomplished that.

This last fall and winter I got to know him and his family a lot better. It was wonderful to spend time with them and they all quickly skyrocketed up my list of favorite people to hang out with. VERY authentic and real. VERY giving and loving. I think they learned that the hard way, always having to be mindful to treasure every moment. They are instant family people.

Although we all knew Brandon was sick it was kind of like we all knew he would never leave. I spent the better part of this evening convincing myself that Brandon had died. It's just really wierd.

A couple of months ago Brandon got really sick again, but this time it was too much. Brandon got to go home. I remember him telling me that he really wanted to learn more about spiritual stuff... I guess now he is the master! It would be the nice thing to say that I can't imagine what he is experiencing right now, but that's not true. I want to imagine and I am going to try my best to imagine where he is and how much fun he is having with Daddy in Heaven right now. He has joined the great host of Heaven and out of anything, that has got to be one wild ride right about now.

If you can, take a few moments and pray for Brandon's family. They're solid and they are awesome. Still he's got younger siblings who'll have to work this one out. Thank the Lord for his parents. Just bless them and speak major peace and God's perfect presence over them and the family.

Where, O death is your victory?
Where, O death is your sting?

That's right. The victory is in Jesus. Wonderful Jesus.

Here's to you, Brandon........ we'll be catching you later.

Something is working!

Well.... I just got off the phone with my friendly rental car company. And thank God, I will be able to rent the van!!!! And to make things work even better, the other driver just happens to be in St. Albert meeting with someone RIGHT at the time that I am picking up the van, so I don't need to organize anything else, or drive around the city and get photocopies of people's lisences.

Now if I can just figure a way out of having to leave my house at 5:00am on Thursday morning. I suppose it won't really matter anyway, seeing as I am not going to get out of the van until 7:00pm that night. But I will be in Vancouver! HAHAHA!!!

Special thanks to Devon for the nice comment on the last entry. I did manage to choke on my lasagna I was laughing so hard. If you want to check out his site just click on this nice little blue word.

I think now I am going to eat more brownies... errrrr.... ummm... nothing... and go to Starbucks. They have Italian on tap and that makes me very happy.

I should post an entry on something crazy that Devon and I did. There is a lot, so I'll think about it an post something fun and weird. After being "Team-I" all last summer out at Eagle's Nest you get a few interesting stories to tell. I am still unsure if I am going to subject myself to that torture again this summer. Although it was funny to walk around camp and have everyone treat you like the local buddha - if you're nice to those people God will shower down blessings on you. It was either that or utter terror. Which brings me to a quick funny story of when Devon walked right up to the person who was most afraid and said, "Why are you so afraid of me?" Interesting results came of that one.

The Australia dates are looking a little iffy now, so that could open up July for ENR. But still.... is my sanity worth that price? Nobody may know...

Vancouver

This week I'm off to Vancouver. It should be wonderful! It has been slightly gong-show-like trying to organize the whole deal. But the results are good. Yesterday I booked two hotel rooms for our group and today we finally heard that we will be able to get billets. In fact we have something like three different homes open up to us! So today I'm going to rent the van and tomorrow two vans will probably be given to us. hahaha!!

When I get home I will be a (tired) happy boy! Trisha will be home!!!! YAAAAY!!!! This is a good thing and I can't wait for her to be here. Now I just have to plan an excessive amount of fun things for us to do.

I don't really know what to type in here right now. I ate brownies for breakfast this morning. Mom made a bunch and I didn't feel like eating anything, so down went a few of those. I don't know if I really recommend brownies for breakfast. I'm feeling a little off right now.

I am avoiding calling that hotel to cancel the reservation so I might as well stop typing stupid stuff and do what I need to do. Should be interesting to see if they know who I am... yesterday I think the lady I was talking to thought my name was "Mr. Moopy" or "Mr. Punedy". At least I have confirmation numbers in case they have totally butchered my name and have no idea who I am.

Then I need to rent the van and make a billion phone calls to see if I can figure out what I am doing with my self this summer.

I need more brownies.....