We went to a massive christmas market as a school, and critical services came along.
I found this lovely hat...yes im joking

This is a bit out of order. After the market we went to find a christmas tree. The boys instantly became...boys, and the battle began.

Att he market, we went to a beauty table, they gave us "lip plump" gloss, and it was strange, it actually felt like we were becoming angelinas.

I encouraged everyone to wear an ugly christmas sweater to go to the market. Here i found a legit ugly sweater, for 80 bucks...

Heres the family of ugly sweaters. Hopefully i have started a new tradition in ywam.

predestination is not related to the topic of who you are going to marry.
Just so you know.
more food for thought to come, but, on a different topic....
these are some rough notes on Romans, that i agree with
Romans9v14
Election; Its by God’s mercy.
Mercy-benefit they (mankind) don’t deserve
Justice-to receive exactly what they (mankind) deserve.
To say that God is unjust suggest that HE owes US.
“though justice be thy plea, consider this, that in the course of justice, none of us should see salvation” Shakespeare.
God is free to extend mercy
God is free to extend wrath
BECAUSE
Consistent with character, accomplish purposes, bring glory to his name.
Why would he still find fault?
9v19 Who are YOU O man!!!! To try and find fault with God.
Preach it Bible, go for it Shakespeare.

connecting with community

So, my room mate came up with a great and challenging idea.
We have become friends with the local, a woman named Lori, who owns the bar in turner valley. Of course, she is having a big bash tonight because its halloween. So, we offered to help her clean up her bar after. She had told us a few weeks ago that she had to stay til 4 am last time she had live entertainment, so she could clean up.
SOOOO
We offered ourselves up as free labour, we are going to go to the bar around 130 am tonight, and help clean up. Last call is 2 am, so it will be a late night. But she was so flattered and gave us hugs, i think its a great way to show some love.
so, pray for us?
just that we won't be too thrown off schedule by doing this.
nic

What do you think it means when I woke up this morning, and instantly had
"OOOOOOOOOOOOO we're half way there, OOOOOOOOOOoooo livin' on a prayer"
In my head?
Ironically, i am about half way done first semester.

My life relies on post-it notes

Please continue to pray for me, today I am having a hard time concentrating....as you can tell, im taking pictures of post-its.

Despite the unrest in my head...

there is simplicity to keep me sane.
thanks Lord for nature.

Luke down, Acts up, Ephesians on deck

Yes, cruising through
passages that mostly stood out from Luke to me were
Luke 17
7"Will any one of you who has a servant[c] plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and recline at table'? 8Will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, and(N) dress properly,[d] and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink'? 9Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are(O) unworthy servants;[e] we have only done what was our duty.'"
The last line really echoed in my head, teaching me servant heartedness.

The passage about ask knock seek; (Luke 11v1-13) primarily
"If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him"
I think too often, the ask seek knock passage has been used and told to people who want something materialistic, but when the whole passage is read, the reader can recognize that it is the Holy Spirit God's wanting to give.

Luke 12v32-34
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, give to the needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens, that does not fail,where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
Primarily I love the imagery in the the first line, "little flock" makes his corwd sound so eager to follow and yet still in such a fragile state of their spirituality.
And then, it's God's pleasure to give the kingdom? cool.

So this week we are being Acts-ed. It will be a very face paced week, with additional assignments than we have had for other books, which will include a map and timeline of Acts. But then we get to take it a little slower on the weekend, going back to an epistle, Ephesians, which is only 6 chapters but is apparently jammed with tough stuff. Then will come Romans.
I did a very nerdy calculation yesterday, when we finish acts this week, we will have covered 36% of the new testament already.
please pray for endurance.
nic

Quote it

life is about a good God in a hard life.

The week of mark

This is what i did...all week long

530 or 6 am-wake up, eat something, maybe get dressed
630 or 7- start and finish one chart (which has about 4 observations, interpretations and applications
930- class, learn what i should have been observing in the morning
1230-lunch. I look forward to lunch because a) i havent eaten in 6 hours, b)its the last of society i will see for the next 4 hours
130-start studying, finish 2 charts
530- supper, thank the Lord, people.
630- study, finish one more chart, which takes 1.5 times longer cause i dont work well after supper, i just want to hang out.
9- somehow i was always done homework at 9. Which was great. I would wander the halls in silence, since my head was buzzing with the observations of the day. Usually, after 9 is when the DTS are wanting to socialize with the SBS, since they have not seen us at all, tucked away in our rooms and classroom. So, after 9 is reserved for getting to know the dts and the staff. This week included after 9 activities such as: Chai tea night, so you think you can dance night (thanks to steph) and walking in the dark. Tonight, a couple of us shall head to turner valley (1 mile walk) for a long deserved beverage, visiting the owner Lori who likes the fact that we are "such good kids, you must not be local"
Thank you if you prayed for me, i did not run out of steam studying.
Highlights of the week:
Studying parables
Studying mark 13 and figuring out what Jesus is talking about there.
Studying the "why have you forsaken me?" passage, and if you look in the foot note of your bible, you should see Psalm 22 is quoted. Very interesting parallels.

Today, i have finally become human again, i have cleaned up my room and table, even vacuumed, and im currently doing laundry for my room mate and i.
til next time,
study.

Marky mark.

So, i just came back from a class studying how to interpret parables.
So lets look at one, shall we?
Mark 4

1Again(A) he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him,(B) so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2And(C) he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3"Listen!(D) A sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6And(E) when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root,(F) it withered away. 7Other seed fell among(G) thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and(H) a hundredfold." 9And he said, (I) "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
The Purpose of the Parables
10And(J) when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11And he said to them, (K) "To you has been given(L) the secret of the kingdom of God, but for(M) those outside everything is in parables, 12(N) so that

"they(O) may indeed see but not perceive,
and may indeed hear but not understand,
lest they(P) should turn and be forgiven."

13(Q) And he said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14(R) The sower sows(S) the word. 15And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it(T) with joy. 17And they have no root in themselves, but(U) endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately(V) they fall away.[a] 18And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19but(W) the cares of(X) the world and(Y) the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 20But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and(Z) bear fruit,(AA) thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold."


So, thats the chunk. This is considered a true parable, since it has a beginning, plot, and conclusion.
So, these are the types of questions we asked...
Observation (what do we see with in the text)
Q What is the Point of reference? (whats Jesus using to make his point applicable)
A The sower (4:3)
The seed (4:4)
The 4 types of soil (4:4-8)

Q Who is the audience?
A The very large crowd (4:1)
The disciples (4:10)

Q Who is the parable for?
A All people (4:9)
The disciples (4:10)

Interpretation (figuring out the text)
QWhat is the expected response of the OH? (original hearers, aka, the crowd and disciples)
A. The crowd is to reflect on what type of soil they are in relation to the parable, and how they receive the word.

Q What is the response tot he teaching of the Kingdom of God?
A It is demonstrating that the word must be sowed to all types of soil evenly, regardless if it is a good place to sow. The sower and the seed are consistant, it is the receivers of the word that choose whether they will receive it or have hardened hearts.

Application (to the 21st century)
Q How does the parable influence my view on where i am supposed to sow the word?
A That the word must be sowed to both hard and good soil, since the sower and the seed are consistant, but i cannot determine the response, if the seed will grow or not. I am just to sow evenly throughout, sow to all.

I really liked looking at this parable, i think that we within a christian body tend to just want to sow to the good soil, to ourselves, to our christian friends who are wanting the seed, and not realise that we need to be consistant. What happens to the seed is not determined by the sower, just the ground. But have faith Gods a farmer and is already tilling.

Hike a Hike

We went hiking this weekend. I saw it as kind of our last hurrah before we get buried in the book.
Here are some highlights. The pics are a litle backwards, sorry.

Pic 1. This is on our way back. Steph had an unforgettable moment on this ridge
Pic 2. Hike a hike.
Pic 3.Nature
Pic 4. Dave (who i call sherman)with his first ever inukshuk. Very proud.
Pic 5. reflectimagation
Pic 6.
Steph, with amy laugh about the abe lincoln eraser steph has had for 2 years. The head managed to become a topic of conversation during our lunch break.
pic 7.
My room mate amy went home to calgary for the weekend, thus, she didnt come along. Instead, i stole her coffee mug and treated it as amy (besides stuffing her in my bag) Here, Amy calls shotgun before anyone else can.

here, settled, shower curtained.

Hey, So i have officially landed in TV. Its been great, i even got to go to banff with my long distance driver presley, which was touristy and unusual; someone from new bothwell called out my name from a shop, it was very small world feeling.
The base is great, its right beside a creek, horses on both sides, 3 fire pit areas, just outside a very small town on a road that deer cross with ease.
The base is a renovated 1930s hospital, so thats pretty funky, apparently the hallway im in used to be the maternity ward, suiting, since the course is 9 months.
My room mate is fantastic, the other 7 people are also great. We have 6 cdns, 2 americans.
We had our first official day of bible related lectures-starting to take apart philemon.
updates to follow.

tick tock.

I will be in alberta at SBS in 3 weeks...
and i have 3 weeks of not working to think about it...
While im thinking, i am having an art gala/musical coffee house/baked and home made goods sale farewell fundraiser at maranatha church, sept 8 (tuesday) from 7 til 10 pm.
No admission, but generosity is encouraged.
nic

How to read the bible for all its worth

So i have just barely begun to read Gordon Fee/Douglas Stuarts "how to read the bible for all its worth" and i have already enjoyed its aim and direction, heres why

~The concern of the scholar is primarily with that the text meant; the concern of the layperson is usually with what the text means. The believing scholar insists that we must have both. Reading the Bible with an eye ONLY to its meaning for us can lead to a great deal of nonsense as well as every imaginable kind of error-because it lasks controls.

~Interpretation that aims at, or thrives on, uniqueness can usually be attributed to pride. (an attempt to "outclever" the rest of the world), a false understanding of spirituality (wherein the Bible is full of deeply buried truths waiting to be mined by the spiritually sensitive person with special insight), or vested interests (the need to support a theological bias, especially in dealing with texts that seem to go against that bias). Unique interpretations are usually wrong. This is not to say that the correct understanding of a text may not often seem unique to someone who hears it for the first time. But it is to say that uniqueness is NOT the aim of our task

Just by reading the first half of the first chapter, i think that i should have been required to read this book (and practiced) on my DTS.
later
nic

go, do. reconcile part 2

I'm finding more and more people my age who have grown up "christian" and yet, are scared to admit that they have questions and doubts about whats been TAUGHT. Why are we (christian collective) so nervous to admit that we may be lost amongst our own faith? Doesn't questioning refine truth? Why do i feel like im faced with frustration when i ask fellow christians where they get their definitions of the basic definitions of our faith from? (faith, love, holy spirit, revelation, etc.) I ask, not (usually) because i think i have a better answer and i want to chop someone down, but i honestly want to know. I want to know if we (collective) are using words to its true biblical definition, or, by its christian culture definition, potentially misinterpreted and misunderstood. 'Cause if theres a whole handful of a "churched" generation that, after 20 odd years don't have the confience in the general preached doctrine to stand by their beliefs, then we may need to wipe the slate clean and start with the Bible, read in context.
Reconcile is a word found in scripture, which, in dictionary terms, suggests "coming back to" or "living in harmony with."

2 cor 5
16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

So, in short, i'm trying to figure out how to "go, and do" reconciliation. I'm learning, it starts with me no longer sitting and waiting.

go, do. reconcile part 1

To my seemingly best ability, i am trying to live by a godly standard. (Standard DOESN'T have to imply negativity or obligation) A new way that i have been trying this out is meeting new people, OR, better yet, meeting the people i kind of interact with, yet do not know well enough to feel obligated to converse with. Example: Almost anyone in any service industry- yes they are my server and they have to be nice to me while they make my coffee, but they are needing real interaction as i do. Example: My back yard neighbor. Me and my friend sara decided it would be a great idea to sleep outside last weekend, no tent, just blankets and mosquito spray. Ironically, my backyard neighbor decided to have a bonfire with some friends. Sara and i were too lazy to make our own fire that night, but i did go and buy smore stuff in case a fire occurred, so, after psyching myself up for 15 minutes, i walked over there with my bag of smore stuff and just gave it to them, and they were very grateful, and we ended up joining them for an hour. But in order for me to go over there, i LITERALLY had to ask sara, "okay, whats the worst case senario if i go over there to give them this food?" Why? Why whould i be so hesitant to do something nice? Why do i sometimes avoid eye contact with random people i recognise from high school?
I'm going through a phase where i would rather go and do than sit and wait for people to interact with me. I'm thinking that this may be spurred on from the fact that for the last 2 months, i feel like i keep running into very random people from high school in very random places. I think it's also from my observation of the people Christ was focussing his attention on while he was on earth. Of course we READ he was with lost sinners; tax collectors, the poor, lowly citizens, but, at least for me, i get this Monty Python and the Holy Grail-ish/Life of Brian imagery of dirty people with the creepy cackle when i think of the crowd he preached to. I have only recently thunk (i know) to modernize this imagery.
I have come to recognise that, if i'm aloud to pick out a "people group" that i care for and hope "bring to the understanding of Christ" (ugh, cliche) it would be the ones who have been "churched" their whole lives and yet feel like there are too many unanswered questions for "christianity" to be worth betting a soul on: The people who are extremly interested in talking about religion and life, yet, are 1) too old for youth group or drop in centres 2) too uncommited to christianity to join a "college and career/young adults" church group thing, or 3) too frustrated or stubborn with the idea of going to church as a whole. Of course, some people (myself included) use these 3 situations as an excuse not to try any venues. I didn't have any desire to go to church for 5 years, under of the "too stubborn and disagree with church" excuse, until a co-worker at the time/christian challenged me by saying that my protest towards "the dumb way church is" by simply not going was accomplishing nothing, that if i saw a need for change, i should stop my complaining and start going to a church so i can start implementing change.
Well, duh. Shut up and do something about it if it bothers you so much.

Title

Hello world. I have officially moved out of doug and kathie mays basement, where i had lived for the last 15 months. (which happens to be the longest i have stayed in one place since high school)
Though i love Niverville, i decided to move home to my mothers in Steinbach a little bit early, just so i can settle in my boxes of stuff and things before i take off to the wild wild west. Plus, i missed my Steinbach house, and mom...hopefully we will get used to living together again quickly.
So, for the next 7 weeks, my life will primarily consist of working, still at the daycare, but i will now be carpooling with someone, shuffling and cleaning my room, drinking coffee at Lekoka so i can use the Internet, and hanging out with my few steinbach friends I've collected over the years. Sounds pretty relaxed.
I have recently found out that i fellow Nivervillian will be at turner valley with me in fall, Ms. Steph Armbruster. She has signed on to staff, So that should be an interesting adventure in itself. It will be nice to have someone who knows who I'm talking about when I'm reminiscing about home.
I am hoping to plan a farewell fundraiser in september before I go to alberta, so, look out! I'm hoping it will pull together nicely, but i still have some time. I'll just leave it at that for now.

Acceptification

SBS shall commence Sept 14, 2009, and i shall be there as a student. Turner valley alberta, here i come. I am glad and nervous, satisfied that this decision has been officially made.
over and out.

Communimication

I have exchanged some electronically delivered words with the co director of SBS in the last week, i should know if i am accepted in a few days i think. hoo haa.

"I can die now"

Though i do not want to post too exhaustingly on this blog, i just wanted to share a quiet yet overwhelming feeling im experienceing this evening. Like im playing poker (which i can) and i know i have been dealt undeniably good cards, and i almost want to warn the other players to fold now, cause i got the unbeatable hand.
Of course, poker isnt the best analogy since poker is a game of chance.
Another example, i remember seeing steve erwins wive (crikey australian croc hunter stevo) in an interview after his death, saying how after every new experience with new animal adventures, he would come back saying, "i can die now" meaning, he was so content with what he was able to experience and learn, he'd be ready just to end it on that high note. (yet of course, he would try to top it the next day)
I feel constantly convicted of living life according to God's principles written in scripture, sometimes to the point of annoyance, and i feel like im onto something. This burden is a blessing and it's becoming like an addiction to me. The fantastic and scrutinized task of bearing the name of Christ, and my conviction to figure out why I have taken up and continue to stand for the gospel, through studying scripture, through developing logistical debates, researching apologetics, withstanding criticism and rebuke... Wow, what a winning hand i have!
Though in my personal life I take a more studying/thinking/debating approach to grow in my faith (as apposed to searching for experience) and i question and stretch and throw out and doubt and change my opinions and thoughts about my understanding of God and everything related, I nonetheless am constantly fueled by the underlying understanding in my heart that I am loved so deeply by a being who chose to sacrifice what He had for me, that at my lowest feeling of worthlessness, I am worth a life...in a moment like this,..."i can die now"

a step towards commitment

I am almost finished filling out my School of Biblical Studies application. The directors of the base im applying to, turner valley, were out in niverville over christmas, and seeing them and hearing andre preach was encouraging enough to push me to get 'er done, and in writing, commit to doing an SBS in 2009. I suppose it can be considered a new years resolution of mine, along with visiting my dutch friend mel in august in holland.
In any case, im glad to be aiming towards something that i know will benefit me.