campus fire recap

well it's been a pretty intense weekend hanging out with fellow your workers and student leaders. this was an amazing conference, something that really came at the right time for me. God found me this weekend, and really touched my heart. thank you to all the people at CanadaFire...Darian, may God continue to work through you all the days of your life.

the work of CanadaFire has a really special place in my heart...something that I've seen hatch from a small dream back in high school to this amazing network of students who earnestly seek God's presence in their high schools and university/college campuses accross Canada. how cool is it that God gave us wireless high-speed internet so that we can "feed" signals all accross Canada and get trained by leaders in other cities...all from the comfort of even your living room!

Even cooler was what we found out this weekend...for all those who have heard of Youth Specialties...and their National Youth Workers Conventions...guess who's getting one in Canada? Yup...those who live in the beautiful province of BC. Mark your calenders for Nov. 29th-Dec. 3rd 2007. More info. on this I'm sure will be coming soon on the CanadaFire website. I hope I'm allowed to even write this...the fact that it was printed on the back of our pamphlets makes me assume so...please forgive me if I wasn't!

so much to condense into this posting. i was so grateful to take 4 amazing students to this confernce with me. they are awesome, and i pray that God does an incredible work in their hearts too. if you guys are reading this..."WHAT NOW?" you know what I mean.

well it's been way too many late nights, and early mornings...so I'm going to bed. Hooray for church in the morning!

blessings,

ty

busy weekend(s)

I'm taking 4 students to campusfire this weekend. I'm totally stoked for this, and I know that it's going to make an impact in the lives of these students, and likewise in my life too. Many of the speakers are friends/acquaintences of mine...so I look forward to re-connecting with them also.

I must say I'm looking forward to hearing from Mark Yaconelli who recently release his book "Contemplative Youth Ministry." I picked it up and have slowly begun reading it. Hopefully this weekend will give me a far greater insight into his passion for writting such a book. Also, Starfield is going to be playing a concert during the weekend. I love these guys, and any opportunity to hear them play is sweet. It's going to be some early mornings, and late nights at this thing, so I'll try to throw some thougths up here about the weekend when it's all said and done.

and if one weekend of craziness wasn't enough...next weekend is our Annual Fall Retreat at Camp Qwanoes...YIPEE!!!!!

Peace:

Ty

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends. For those of you in America, you'll get yours...just wait another month.

I am very excited today because Charity flies back home! HOORAY! She arrives back into Abbotsford just after noon. I pray that all of you take time today to truly realize how blessed we are, and how thankful to God we need to be for all that we have.

I hope your time spent with family and friends has been enjoyable. Charity and I are off to Ladner tonight for our Turkey dinner with my family. mmmm. It's gonna be a great night.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Ty

All By Myself

Yup, this morning Charity left me. Well, maybe I should clarify... she flew to Lethbridge this morning to be at her sister's wedding this Saturday. But...that does mean that I'm bacherloring it this weekend...

so...

Here's to microwave dinners, watching hockey games with the volume up REALLY loud, and whatever mischeif I get myself into.

It's not like I'm gonna be bored outta my mind. I've got youth ministry stuff to be doing every day until she gets back. But, this really is the first time in our 2 years of marriage that she's left me to travel somewhere. It's a very weird feeling. Just a random factoid for my readers out there. 5 years ago TODAY Charity and I started dating. That means we've been together for 1/5 of my entire life! Crazy eh? We would probably celebrate...but instead she up and leaves me!

On the upside of things...while Charity's in Lethbridge she's picking up our new Canon SD600 digital camera! WOOT for no PST in Alberta. We're saving almost $30 bucks! What bugs me is that she gets to use it before I do. Either way I'm looking forward to testing this thing out in the weeks to come!


And just 'cause I think it's really cool...I found these AMAZING T-Shirts at LarkNews.com that are sooo perfect for any of my Youth Pastor friends out there. I think these are MUST HAVES! They have other text options as well for Pastors, Associate Pastors, and even Church Parking Attendant! These are just too hillarious. So pick yours up today!

Well I think that's enough to throw up onto this thing for one day. Enjoy your weekends, and babe, if you're reading this...I love you lots...and please come home soon. Who else is gonna cook my meals for me? I'm gonna wither away here without your amazing cooking.

I'm Out:

Ty

BOOK REVIEW

I've never posted a book review on here before, so after reading this entire book yesterday in one sitting while sipping on an extra hot-non fat-no whip-white chocloate mocha I figured I would post my thoughts about it.

If you've never heard of Joel Kilpatrick before, chances are you aren't a frequent visitor to his site: LarkNews.com. This online news site is 100% satire, and also 100% hillarious. Poking fun at many quirks and habits of evangelicals. Check it out to get a better understanding of where this book is coming from.

Immediately from opening the first page I was laughing. Though, it's awkward when you're sitting in a Starbucks and all of a sudden you find yourself chuckling to yourself. I maybe got a few confused looks, but otherwise people just let me be.

*DISCLAIMER*
In no way, is Kilpatrick trying to undermine, or strip evangelicalism of all its relevance and importance. Rather, Kilpatrick is--through the use of satire--trying to open our eyes to how odd evangeliscals look to a non-believer...when most of the time, we Christians think everyone else out there is "wierd".

Kilpatrick uses the chapters to formulate a "game plan" for anyone who may not be evangelical to follow simple methods of talk, dress, attitude that would allow them to "fit in" into any evangelical work space, church service, small group Bible study etc... Throughout the book Kilpatrick inserts various old news clippings from LarkNews.com. They offer a hillarious departure from the flow of the book...and would be great to use for various ice breakers for a youth event. My ultimate favourite is found on page 33. I'm not going to say what it is, you'll just have to go borrow/buy the book to find out.

All in all, this book doesn't require much deep thought. It's really meant as just a simple, light-hearted read when you've just got a few hours to kill. I read the whole thing cover to cover in just under 2 hours. I don't know if it's really worth paying the $15-20 bucks, but if you want to borrow it from me...I'd love to lend it out.

Maybe I'll do this again...

Ty