You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November 2007.
The mascots for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver were announced yesterday. I was hoping they would be cool and would represent Canada well. So was I ever happy when I found that the three mascots were all mythical creatures! Hooray! A Sea-Bear! A Sasquatch! An Animal-Spirit Hybrid! An animal spirit hybird? Behold! Canada in all its glory:
Probably the most accurate portrayal of Emily thus far…
Remember all those awesome little programs that Office Max put out at Christmas last year? Elf Yourself, Reindeer Arm Wrestling and so on? Well, this year they’ve made Scrooge Yourself…and it’s hilarious.Try it out for yourself!
I heard this quote this morning and nearly shot coffee out of my nostrils. It’s from a guy in my youth group named Brody, who is home-schooled.
“If there was a shooting at my school, it would be strictly a family matter.”
I think it just caught me off-guard. Hilarious.
Also, I’m pumped about some new youth group t-shirt designs I just got from a company called ShepBoy Creative. I met them at San Diego and they blew me away with their design work…and then they emailed me and said they could make our shirts for about $9-10. So…with the whole Canadian dollar the way that it is…
So sue me for helping destroy Canada’s economy. Everyone else is doing it.
Stay tuned for the final shirt logo…it’s going to be a challenge to narrow it down to just one.
1. It’s International Toilet Day. Did you know that the average person will use the toilet 2500 times this year? Now you do. So celebrate ITD by, uh, cleaning your toilet, perhaps.
2. This week’s Sunday attendance: 260. Last year’s average: 195. Woo-hoo!
3. The Brewers are proud owners of a new puppy! Yeah! We finally were able to buy a puppy (a dream for 6+ years…but housing never allowed us the opportunity) and so we did. The newest Brewer is Spencer, a 14-week old Cocker Spaniel who pretty much rules. I’m now not the lone male in the house, which is nice. I can blame all those smells on someone else.
A lot of very cool stuff has happened in the life of Olivet Wesleyan since I last ditched my blog and began this new one. This is no cliche, but the truth — God is at work in our church. And it’s exciting. A quick rundown of some highlights:
1. We hired 2 new staff members–Conard Symonds (brother of John, for all you BBC-ers) is our new assistant pastor, in charge of senior adults, visitation and, well, in true assistant pastor form, lots of other stuff. He has some of the greatest quotes of the fall but I’ll wait for his permission to post them…hilarious. And Amy Smith is our new children’s pastor slash secretary. We gave her two part-time jobs to make if full time but she still doesn’t work very much *cough cough* she lives here *cough cough*. It’s incredibly fun and exciting to have a staff to work with — our staff meetings usually take place at Starbucks or Second Cup, and if not, there’s at least a large pot of coffee brewing and a big pile of candy to pick through. OK, the pot of coffee is constantly brewing and there’s always a basket of candy to pick through during the day…there’s just more of it at staff meetings! It has changed the whole atmosphere of the office area at the church (read: food, fun and fellowship) but it’s also very satisfying to have other people to bounce ideas off of, to work with, and to pray with. We’re working hard, we’re working a lot and it’s incredible.
2. There’s now a Creative Team that meets monthly to plan/brainstorm our upcoming sermon series’ – we just wrapped up our last series called “Facebook” where services were themed around the ideas of Connecting with People, Editing Your Profile (are you really who you say you are?) and so on. We even constructed a big Facebook Wall (God’s Wall) in the lobby where people could write posts to God. Our Sundays are now part of a monthly series, have a weekly theme, and include a variety of creative elements. Awesome. Our upcoming Christmas Series (yet to be announced, so I’ll remain hush-hush) is going to be very cool.
3. We started a new service called “First Wednesday” — One the first Wednesday of every month, we hold a service that is unapologetically Christian. Whereas a focal point of the Sunday service is outreach, this service is intentionally deep and geared towards people who are already following Christ. The preaching topics are deep, the worship time is extended and the atmosphere of the sanctuary changes to fit the service theme. The lights were down this month, with most of the lighting coming from a candelit stage. At the center of the stage was a huge rugged-looking cross–the obvious focal point of the service. Another key part of the evening — the entire church family is invited to all eat supper together at the church. We sit, we talk, we eat, and then we ship our kids downstairs to their program (go Amy!) and we worship. Again–very cool.
4. A major (and very awesome) change is happening with our youth mininstry as we overhaul our youth night and, well, stay tuned for details. I’m pumped.
5. We got Razor Creative (a graphic design/advertising company) to make us some sweet-looking postcards to advertise our Christmas Eve services at the church. Yup–services. Two of ‘em. At the services, there will be a couple of stations set up for family photos. When a family arrives, they’ll get their picture taken (by two incredible photographers at our church – AJ Guptill and Brody Leblanc) and by the time they walk out of the service they’ll be handed a CD with their photos on it. We got 2000 of these postcards to give out–they look awesome.
6. We’re doing Uncle Phil’s Diner again this weekend — Uncle Phil’s is a comedic dinner theatre set in the 50’s. Picture Happy Days with a live band playing “Rock Around the Clock” and our wait staff dancing through the tables…and you get the picture. In fact, the Sunday service following Uncle Phil’s is even going to be called Happy Days and we’ll all be in full costume. Tim preaching in jeans and a leather coat will be fun to see.
7. Wow, #7 already? Needless to say, things are flying at the church. There’s new families, new Christians, and a great sense of momentum. Good days are here, and even better days are ahead. Good times!
I had a claustrophobic moment this weekend when I realized that it was freezing cold out…and it will remain that way for about 5 more months. That it’s. The end of fall, the end of warmth. Nothing but a cold, barren wasteland for the next 150 days.
I hate winter.
On totally unrelated notes, I finally beat Zelda’s Phantom Hourglass for the DS. It was awesome, maybe my favorite Zelda ever? Maybe. A Link to the Past holds a dear place in my heart. (Wow, that was nerdy)
I also traded in almost all of our youth group’s video games to get Guitar Hero III for the 360. Unbelievable! It’s one of those games that, even if you hate video games, you’ll like Guitar Hero. It’s just fun. So fun, in fact, that some of my ‘not-so-much video gamer’ youth leaders (all females…and Jeff) took it hostage over the weekend.
Lastly, I’ve not read a really good book for a long time. I’ve read some books, just not anything that I’m underlining and memorizing and quoting from in an annoying fashion. Any good books out there?
Last Friday, ye olde Olivet youth group loaded up some vans and took in a hilarious and entertaining John Reuben concert. Seriously, it was hilarious and entertaining. My shoulder was sore the morning after from trying to keep up with his vicious arm swaying, but it was worth it.
On Sunday, I spoke at the combined Sunday evening service. It went well until I was almost done, which is my when my throat decided to get dry and close up. So I figured God was telling me, “You’re too long-winded. Finish up.” So I did.
On Monday, ye olde Fredericton youth groups hosted an Atlantic concert @ Olivet. It was a wild rock ‘n roll extravaganza.
On Wednesday, ye olde Olivet youth group hosted our annual Halloween Outreach. We handed out 270 cups of Tim Horton’s hot chocolate to freezing cold trick-or-treaters and their parents. (Video to be posted soon)
On Friday, we packed up and went to Encounter @ BBC. I spoke on Friday night and began to lose my voice, again. So I finished up. And, for the first time in my ministry, I didn’t have any guys on a youth trip. I was the lone male, and thus, it was the easiest youth rally ever. In fact, I got more sleep Friday night at this rally than I do at home.
Now it’s Monday…a welcome day off. Except there are five kids aged 3 and under here and it’s basically just a day-long attempt at survival. Here are some highlights:
Overheard:Emily, don’t hit me. You broke my heart.
Proud Moment:At the beginning of Colbie Caillat’s song “Bubbly” she asks, “Will you count me in?” And so Emily did, giving Colbie an on-beat “1-2-3-4″ right before she began singing. Sheer musical genius.
Read: This month’s issue of Wired, this week’s issue of McLean’s, and 38 pages of Max Brooks’ “World War Z.”
Gave: Too much boring information on my blog.
In the new version of the Mac operating system (Leopard, which I sadly don’t have yet), there’s some sly humour found in some of the icons. My favorite so far? When a Mac user is looking at who’s sharing a nework with them, and discovers that someone on their network is using a Windows computer, the icon that appears for them is an aged-looking beige monitor showing the infamous ‘blue screen of death’ (which appears when your computer has crashed once again). Hilarious. A little mean, maybe kind of smug, but hilarious.
“The eyes are the groin of the head.”
-Dwight K. Schrute
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