Red Deer and a TV Show?

Hello one and all

I leave tomorrow for Red Deer. I'm really looking forward to it. Any time I get to spend with my beloved Torwalts is a happy time. It will also be the official unveiling of my newest piece of clothing. A fantastic new zip-up sweater with funky cool patches and even cooler writing. Main reason I got it - "Freedom Mission" is written across the front.

My prophetic wardrobe grows. It has been a while since a find like that, but I am glad to have purchased it.

I'll be teaching one evening in Red Deer, so pray for me and pray that what God wants to get accomplished would get accomplished. And that we'd all get absolutely blasted, roasted and generally fried by the presence of God.

After a weekend of bliss I may then hop over to Calgary for a day to start recording some footage for this TV show that Faytene wants to start up. If not on the TV, then we're going to be putting more media splops up on the MyCanada website which has been getting a lot of traffic lately. That will be interesting. We shall see what happens. Which reminds me, I'd better call Faytene back about that!

Everyone knows that there is a lot of "secret" video tape out there of me. Pretty much all of it is horrifically embarrassing. This is just what we need. More of this footage being mass produced. Faytene can do all the real stuff and then I'll add in the "reality TV" aspect as I fall on my face or say really, really, really messed up stuff like I usually do in situations like these.

For example... not on TV, and thankfully not on tape, as far as I know... the time I told a whole church to come forward so we could annoint their mingles.

And with that lovely picture, I bid you farewell.

Bloggety Blog Blog

I had a very bad scare today. I thought Nani died. As you well know Nani is my new iPod Nano. Generally myself and electronics don't always mix. Thankfully Apple takes that into account and makes things really, really easy to work with. Until you add a PC into the picture. Which is very much in the picture because our computer is some sort of crazy PC Hybred put together in the dark confines of my dad's head office.

Because I have Nani, I also need to have iTunes. Because I have iTunes I think the PC part of the computer gets really jealous and decideds to freeze up at random times. Well... maybe not so random. I have learned never to have another program open when running iTunes or else in a few minutes to a half hour everything locks up and whatever you were working on gets eaten. That is the price to pay for a jealous PC.

This afternoon I connected Nani and saw that updates were available for both iTunes and the iPod. Yay!! So a downloading I go. But there is a distinct problem. In order to download the updates I need to have the internet browser open. In order to start the computer searching for downloads I have to have iTunes open. Gasp!! It's the forbidden two program rule.

Of course it has been a while and I thought maybe the PC has given up on it's bitterness and unforgiveness and made peace with the other software. I was wrong. About half way through the install process everything locks up and I am forced to restart the computer.

This is usually simply a minor annoyance. Usually. But this time Nani was hooked up to the life force of the PC. I have Nani set so that I have to manually tell the computer to disconnect the iPod before I unhook it. There are warnings EVERYWHERE never to disconnect the iPod until I have formally requested permission of the PC to release it.

I had not yet done this so the PC jumped at the chance to commit a murder/suicide of Nani and itself.

I freaked out and did what I my only choice was. Give into the PC's demands and I hit the restart button. The computer restarted. So did iTunes. So I started the process again. Guess what frozen instantaneously? Yep. iTunes. The PC was being very spiteful today.

I was able to save the computer before it jumped into oblivion again. So I was sneaky, opened iTunes, popped in Nani, got the updater started and quickly shut iTunes down. I thought this would work. Only then I started getting messages that both the iTunes, Quicktime and iPod software was all broken and that I had to re-load everything.

Near panic was setting in.

Thankfully each of those programs all had updates ready to be downloaded so all I had to do was click a button. I don't know what I would have done otherwise. Probably went into a rage.

I am glad to tell you that the 3rd time was a charm. No locking programs, no having to restart the computer and the updates thankfully reloaded the entire program structre and I was once again off to the races. I even successfully downloaded a podcast.

Currently I feel like a computer wiz, but that is probably being heavily influenced by the fact that Apple makes things so easy that I just need to click one button and everything works out just fine. Just don't tell the PC. As we have all seen, it gets rather jealous and simple reasoning leaves it's cognitive regions.

In other news Peter is off to see Coldplay in Vancouver this weekend and I am jealous. I fell in love with Vancouver last year and I want to go back. And I fell in love with Coldplay a long time ago so it would be simply fantastic to see them.

Since Peter is going to Vancouver I thought I would compete by going to Red Deer. Ahhh yes. The windy city of Red Deer. Strangely enough I love that place so much. It could be because of the people who live in the city. I love them so much. I can't wait....

It's a New Time for Canada

Wow...

It happened. It really happened. The dream is beginning to come true. Our federal elections finally came to an end tonight and it was an exciting ride to say the least! This afternoon I was so excited to vote that I think it showed and the lady taking my information smiled and me and said, "Is this your first time voting?"

No... but it's the first time I've ever been this involved and you better believe I was praying for freedom as I dropped by ballot in the box. I had a revelation earlier that even though voting may seem like such a small thing, in the eyes of God it's huge. It is you standing up for what is right. It is you taking your place and saying "My hands will be clean. I will make my voice heard - if not directly to our leaders, then to my God."

Voting can really be serious intercession.

Anyway, I proudly cast my ballot in a nation that has been blessed with freedom and democracy. I proudly cast my ballot to toss it into the massive prayer and original dream of our nation, Psalm 72:8, "He shall have dominion from sea to sea..."

I then went to call 65,000 people to remind them to vote. Dad and I did one last volunteer strike and helped our own MP by calling people on their phone list. We called for nearly 4 hours straight. That was crazy.

Finally we parted ways and I hooked up with Peter and Kandyce to take in Rahim Jaffer's election night party. And what a party it was. Historic... and very fulfilling. Why? Because I got to see practical evidence of all the hard work we have done not only locally in my city but from coast to coast.

Most thrilling victory would be the new MP for Edmonton - City Center, Laurie Hawn. He was one of our strategic people to get into office. The person he was running against was our Deputy Prime Minister, which is the 2nd highest ranking person in government. This was a big deal. Sadly she has consistently stood up for what was not righteous and not morally correct. She has squeeked into office for the past few elections. But this time? A candidate who committed to standing for righteousness and traditional morality, a candidate who we put many, many teams of volunteers behind... won. He won the riding. That was a very satisfying feeling, knowing that we were part of the team to get him in office.

At the election party they showed our brand new Prime Minister give his victory speech. He opened it up with a thank you and saying none of it would have happened without the hard work and prayers of the nation. Prime Minister Stephen Harper said many profound things that were hitting me and stirring my spirit deeply. Canada voted for change.

I grabbed a napkin and started writing. It's not much, but I'm going to leave you with the thoughts that were running through my mind while watching our new federal leader give his speech. Here is what I heard in my spirit:

"The dream is coming true. The dream for a nation, the dream for a people, the dream for a generation, the dream for you."

I kept thinking about the dream of Canada that our founding fathers had. I kept thinking about the dream of Canada that God had. This is a step in the direction where Canadians collectively chose to start walking in that direction again.

Finally I heard a solemn, yet incredibly inspiring phrase:

"Now, more then ever, engage."

The heavens are opening. The time is coming. Righteousness and morality, justice and truth, a Godly government is coming back into power. We may not be there 100% yet, but we are shifting the momentum to go towards this goal. Do we slow down because it is closer? No. Now, more then ever, we engage.

I echo the line in our national anthem.... "God keep our land, glorious and free..."

Delinquent Blogging

My goodness, I have been a poor updater these last few weeks. I guess that is what you get when you become somewhat more busy. Time to blog/inspiriation to blog suddenly gets chopped.

Since so much has happened in these last weeks that has not graced the pages of said blog why don't I do a whirlwind tour of update snippets? They're always fun.

- I volunteered about 45,000 man hours in campaigns to get the right people in office. Hahahaha... that is a total play on words that is funny in my head and probably makes no sense in yours. I volunteered others and in total would come to around that many hours of their hard work. But yes, I did join them for some wild campaigning fun.

- Campaign Highlight would be when little 3 year old Sasha asked his mom if he could have a drink from the fridge in the office we were in. His mom said yes. Sasha checked out the selection and then asked his mom if he could have a drink with the mountains on it. Thinking it was Mountain Dew, his mom said yes. Sasha grabbed the can, cracked it open and took a swig. He quickly realized he actually did not like Coors Light and passed it over to his mom saying, "I think this is a big person's drink." We all laughed hysterically. The campaign manager, not so much. He was pretty stressed. Luckily it was our group it happened to.

- Watched with great pride as Peter pulled off a huge county-wide youth event complete with a skateboarding demo, two skate competitions, a concert with 5 different acts, games in another part of the sporting complex we were in and tons of other stuff. Martin and I watched the near melt down of many people from our perch at the soundboard and were particularly impressed with the INSANE mosh pit that was spawned with the "Christian Hardcore" band started screaming and growling about the day they got baptized. Yeah... I still don't understand that one, but it was fun to watch and even more fun to watch the parents nearly fall to their knees laughing at the incredible spectacle.

- Provided 0.00005 hours of volunteer labour in the hardwood flooring project my parents have started. For those of you who have seen our basement, it has been transformed into GLORY!! The upstairs is next and I can't wait.

- Said goodbye to Remi

- Was overwhelmed with happiness when Niel and Giselle showed up randomly at church this morning. I told them I have been deeply craving Niel and Giselle time, so this came right at the best moment. I love them so much.

- Fell asleep reading good portions of the Lord of the Rings. Which, if you follow the history of me commenting on what I read it generally goes something like this: Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia and so on. Maybe one day I'll branch out to further my horizons, but... why stop when the books just keep getting better and better?

So how's that for a cool little update? These next weeks are going to prove to be incredible I believe. My next three weekends are booked, each with travel to different places that are all my favorite in so many different ways.

First stop? Red Deer.

But first we have the priviledge and responsability to vote. That is if you are reading this on the 23rd and are a Canadian Citizen!

Ahhhhhh Government...

Tonight was a unique one to say the least. It was a "pub night" with a local MP (a federal government representative) and a whole lot of young people came out. Mainly the Conservative Club of the UofA and then... a small but valiant delegation from MyCanada.

Very interesting.

I was excited to simply make more of a presence there and make our faces known. Little did I know how much of an impact we have already made. I got to spend a great deal of time with this candidates Ottawa office staff, which is really where the real stuff happens.

Not many people realize that the majority of our country is run by 20 somethings. The MP's have the public face, but all the research, all the grunt work, pretty much everything is run by all these young people who staff every office of our government.

So I was pretty pumped to be able to spend huge amounts of time just talking with this MP's chief of staff. Funny how all this week I had been thinking that he was just some guy who was volunteering. He was actually a big-wig! Hahahahaa... that just goes along with everything else in this MyCanada deal... we just don't know what we are doing but we try our best!

As the night wore on I kept talking basically only with the staff members and I soon discovered that they were all from Ottawa and all worked for this MP or on Parliament Hill for years. So wild. They kept telling me how next time I am in Ottawa I have to look them up and they'll give the me "hook ups" in town.

Yeah... who knows what that will actually look like. As the night wore on people seemed to want to talk more and more about their "power" and what they could do for another person. My general view is "whatever, go ahead and talk about it... I'll pretend to be impressed." But my mission is still very clear and my mandate is a top priority. And that mandate is really very simple - righteous revolution sweeping the nation and seeing Canada come into the dream that our founding fathers had which is based on Pslams 72:8 "He shall have dominion from sea to sea...."

I just keep laughing at myself through all of this. Here are people who have spent years on Parliament Hill trying to make themselves a name or whatever and then this group of young people walks up and we haven't the faintest clue of what we are doing and up to this point it has been massively successful. Then the really funny part is we wouldn't even know that it was successful if people didn't tell us. We're just trying our best to do what God told us to do.

It makes you want to stay humble! It also makes you want to not coast along. That could really be an option. To coast. Every time I talk to a government person about what is happening they are totally blown away. So I could choose to do one of two things. Pull back on the pressure and the urgency because obviously we are doing something right, or I could really pour it on... because obviously we've stumbled onto something that is so totally bigger then us and quite frankly out of our control.

All I can control is how close I walk with Jesus through this and how hard I hold onto His presence. I must never forget what this is about. It's not about power, it's not about becoming friends with people in high places... after all what can compare when I am the son of the God in the highest place... what can really compare and impress me compared to that fact?
This always boils back down to the fact that this is only about the presence of God and His presence flooding our land. This is all about Jesus and His plans. This is all about becoming the God's dream come true.

And when you think about it that way suddenly looking at all this high powered people, the glowing praise they heap on you, the rubbing of shoulders just isn't worth much. How does that compare with the presence of God? If I want to see God's dream come true for this nation the only place I'd better be looking is into His eyes and locking myself into His embrace.

It's all about His presence. No matter how big, no matter how small the situation is does not matter. It's all abot His presence. There is only one place to look that will help see that come to pass. Thankfully no matter if I am with the highest ranking leaders of the nations or with the poorest, most forgotten street bum, the situation never changes. It's all about the presence of God. There is only one place to look.

Lord... let me find it even more. Father I ask that those I speak with will notice where I am looking and they'd get locked in there too...

Something to Think About

I actually picked up this book that normally I would think would cause my fingers to ignite. Not the sort of book I'd normally gravitate to. It's a book full of this crazy stuff called "Catechism" or something like that. Questions and answers concerning faith and God.

I was able to read one question and answer. It really rocked me. It made me wonder if this is what I am living. It made me wonder if much of the church even believes it. Not believes it in that they think they do, but live that they do.

I give this to you to ponder for a while. I know I will be. And since I am so incredibly busy right now with organizing teams to shuttle all over the city to do our part in getting a righteous federal government into place I may not be able to update immediately. But I will try! Oh yes, I'll try.

But just in case... here's a little Catechism for you.

Question: What is the chief end of man?

Answer: Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever.

Now think about that. Really think about it. Better yet, as you think... do. And even better still - be.

The Official 200th Post on my Blog!

Greetings one and all!

I would like to welcome you to the 200th post on my blog. Grab the kleenex because I'm sure tears are welling up into your eyes right now. What a moving time. I would like to thank the Academy, Star Wars and Mexican Food for this great achievement. I suppose I should thank all of you too. But... that would take too long and the music would start playing as they cut to commercial. Alas...

It is but a few moments until I hop into the car and start volunteering tonight. Such an easy way to change Canada. But since I talk about that quite a lot, why not change the subject a little bit and get to trivial things, hmmmm?

I got my hair cut today at Raw. As always it was a wonderful experience. It was just a trim and a style as I progress to getting longer and longer hair. Very strange. It will be interesting to see where all this goes as I learn more and more how to actually use hair products to keep myself looking hot and not freaky scared.

Which makes me wonder... today I didn't care about my hair and just put a hat on. When I went to Raw I took my hat off and got all these comments about how good my hair looked. I was like, "What are you crazy people talking about? You're all insane!" Yes, I did tell them that, but they all laughed at me and said, "Silly style challanged male. No wonder you come here. You need to learn!"

So I guess I will stop placing my hair in any sort of style or fashion and just grow wild like.

Lately I have been having this very strange cough. I am fine all day long, but when I go to bed I can't stop coughing. Its rather super annoying. Last night I was up for a good couple of hours before I got super frustrated and popped my faithful Tylenol PM miracle pill. It says it stops dry coughs, but I think it does that through rendering you unconcious. I soon passed out, but slept the night... and most of the morning away.

I woke up near 11:00 today which caused me some panic. I guess it takes a while for my little body to process one of those magical blue pills.

Hmmm... I just watched a show on Dr. Phil with a massively addicted person. Now I'm starting to frighten myself. hahahaha... just kidding.

And now I will leave you with a random picture. Hope you enjoy. It will be the official 200th entry picture of the day.

I call this the giant/midget international friendship poster...

It's a Beautiful Day

I must say that my blogging skills have been lacking as of late. I have had a sudden influx of... things to do, shall we say? By the time I sit down to write something my brains are generally fried.

Maybe I should update anyway. It would be more fun with rattling gibberish coming out of my fingertips to your head.

Recently a friend of mine gave me a prophetic word that was essentially, "Buckle your seatbelt. You thought it was fast before, think again. It's going to be a whirlwind." She was right. It's so awesome though. I always find it incredible to see how God will use anything and everything to get through to you.

You may be doing something that may seem high profile and totally outword focused, but God smiles at that and focuses on the insides. That is currently happening with MyCanada stuff. We've gone to the next step of getting into the campaign offices and such. We're getting lots of really positive response from the campaigns and the candidates. Youth and young adults are having a blast. Everyone is realizing how easy it really is to change the nation. Lots of outword focus.

But inside God keeps doing neat things to my heart. Lots of changes. They seem rather small, but still... the fine tweeking of something generally takes the greatest care. Strange that He would choose to do this while I am learning how to run around like a chicken with my head cut off... but have it still on.

I've just about made peace with the phone. This is a miracle as many of you know. I still haven't bit the bullet and gotten that much needed cell phone, though. The funny thing is I will probably get around to doing that after this major blitz is over. But judging by the prophetic words I think I might need two.

It was so exciting to fill the campaign offices with people who believe that God can change history and that God WANTS us to do it. Still my heart was a little sad... maybe the better word is confused... that people who constantly talk about changing Canada prefer to change Canada via their basement by themselves or in their church building away from everything.

Oh wait a minute. They don't change anything.

But the thing is they think they do. They have great hearts. They have passionate hearts. They have good intentions and great ideas. They talk about it and get really excited and motivated. Just imagine what would happen if the switch made it all the way and they really saw how easy it is to do something about their passion and not just release it to the same people over and over again in a room, but actually engage with society and DO something about it.

They'll get it. Soon. It took me a while, so I don't blame them. My heart goes out to them. If only they knew how close destiny really was. If only they knew how exciting it is to change history.

I was told something this last weekend that really caught my attention. A staff member in one of the campaigns said to me, "Wow... it's neat to see Christians get out of the basement and do something about what they talk about." He was honestly impressed and said this genuinely. It moved him and he was thankful.

This just makes me think again and again about what Jesus told us to be like.

Be in the world, but don't be of it.

How does this look in our lives? Meditate on that one for a while. Church is not the world. Small groups are not the world. Family is not (although sometimes it is) the world. Youth groups are not the world. They are all good. They are all vital. They are all something that I participate in regularly. But they are not the world.

Be in the world. Engage with the world. You don't have to change it or manipulate it. Just be in it. And please... don't take this to the other side of the spectrum and don't be of it. So many of us don't understand that.

Getting drunk is of the world. Living a loose life is of the world. Turning your back on your Christian brothers and sisters is of the world. Being more concerned with the world then Jesus... if of the world.

Be in the world, but don't be of it.

This isn't my heart to get people to be "relevant". I personally think that is one of the greatest lies the devil has ever gotten the church to believe. I hate that term. We are not called to be relevant. We're called to determine the culture. But I promise you that will never, ever happen if you don't enter the world. And it REALLY won't happen if you are part of it. You'll be neither relevant or have any source for change.

Peter is here now. We're about to call people out into the world.

Revolution Day Number... something

I have no time to write, so I'll post pictures instead!! We're having serious fun. We thought we did good with hand delivering stuff to over 600 houses until the evening when we stuffed well over 2000 envelopes. We were told we did more work in two hours then the usual crew did in a full eight! YEAH!! Changing Canada is fun... as you can tell...


The wall of Rahim... Who wouldn't volunteer with helpers like these?

The envelope stuffing machine in action:

One of our favorites, Rahim Jaffer, and the crew. I told them 10-15 were coming. Oops!

Can A Nation Be Changed?

Yes.

In a day?

Yes.

Today was a full day. Phone calls, e-mails, more phone calls, coffee, more phone calls, more e-mails and.... hundreds more phone calls. With who? Everyone. Campaign managers, pastors, random friends, more pastors and then a few of the campaign managers again.

This is fun.

Amidst it all I'm basically starting a full out propaganda campaign to get the youth I have spoken with already to volunteer. We shall see if that worked this saturday. I expect it to. I hope it worked too well and we get tons of people out. That would be funny.

I was thinking today that things would probably be a lot easier if I got this huge group of people and directed them at one place at one time. That is usually how you organize people. But no, I like to do things differently so I take this same group of people and then give them different places to be, at different times, with different people and differente leaders all on the same day. Hmmm.... I guess this falls into the category of "if the Holy Spirit isn't there we don't want it to work."

But I do have some of the greatest people to work with who help provide great leadership. That is nice.

I was thinking about how a few years down the road this is going to be a good story. I'm sure I'm doing about 50,000 things wrong and could be doing so much an easier way, but hey... I don't know that stuff yet, so I'll work with what I got. Got to learn somehow, eh?

I just must remember to eat lunch tomorrow. I forgot to do that today.

My Year in Review

I've been thinking lately....

Maybe being scared isn't such a bad thing after all. Because then you're truly honest with yourself. Maybe not just being honest with yourself, but more with God. I am beginning to believe that there is a difference between fear and being scared.

Fear paralyzes you. Being scared makes you want to reach out to something bigger then you to help you walk through it. Ever watch a child when he's scared? He reaches out for mom or dad. He walks closer to where he feels safe. He relies on the protection of someone bigger. Fear stops you long before that. Don't fear being scared.

If I've learned one thing in life, don't ever loose hope. Pick yourself up and dust yourself off as many times as you find yourself back on the ground. Walk forward. You may go two steps before you find your face in the dust again, but promise me one thing. Promise that you'll pick yourself up, dust yourself off and try again. This next time you may make it ten steps. Maybe twelve. If you look at it that's ten or twelve steps further then where you were. Your past is now ten or twelve more steps behind you.

Always hope. No matter what. It'll be worth it in the end.

It's hard sometimes. You can't escape that. Neither can I. But one thing that is for sure is that we're in it together. I'll help you. You help me. Best help of all is to fight for your friend's eyes. Fight that they always stay locked on or even searching for the hand of God. I have found that there are a whole lot of different circumstances, but only one thing that remains the same. Better to look at that then what can and probably will change next year, next month... next week.

You're never alone. Even when you feel like it.

You're a success not a failure. God didn't mess up making you. You didn't sneak into the salvation bandwagon. He did it just for you. Really. Enjoy that fact. Get to know it. Believe it. Trisha always tells me that I'm a masterpiece. When you think about who created you, you simply can't argue that point.

Have fun.

It's okay to dream. It's okay to hurt. It's okay to be sad. But let me take this moment right now and remind you of where to look. That hurt and sad will probably change. Maybe next week. Maybe next month. Maybe next year. But it will change. So why look there? Find the wonder of God amidst it. Believe me, things get better that way. And you'll dream.

Enjoy the ride. Love deeply. Treasure your friends like they are your most precious possession. Because they are. Don't wait until they're gone or you've left to realize that.

Look for God. Everywhere. Because you'll find him. Right over there.

He's closer then you think...

Ever Wonder

I am planning on writing a little year end update. Just because that is really fun and I think everyone should do it. You actually see where you've been in a year. I promise you it can be rather surprising and very inspiring.

But I am massively tired. I pulled basically all the muscles in my legs. And I'm thirsty. Yes. Thirsty.

So until then, I'll leave you with a thought I've been pondering lately. It is concerning Jesus' mom. If you stop and think about it for a while it's actually something pretty darn amazing to meditate on.

Do you ever wonder how Mary's psyche handled it all?