CYWC Day #2 - Rest of the Day

Matt. 11:28 "Come to me, all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest."

This weekend for me is reflected well in this verse. These words spoken by Jesus are very timely to me right now. I have taken the words of Marko seriously so far by skipping sessions, concerts, seminar and having necessary conversations with people who have played a significant role in my faith journey.

I went to Jon Imbeau's "Spirit Filled Ministry" session (the one I did in fact go to) and was blown away at the great stuff he was sharing! So true, that my life needs to be spirit filled...to even think that my ministry will go anywhere. Even more than that...my students need to have lives filled with the power of the Holy Spirit...to dream their dreams...and to see them accomplished.

I got to spend time tonight talking to my wife tonight. I definitely miss her, and can't wait to see her again on Sunday! I LOVE YOU BABE!

I hope for anyone who is reading this that you're taking time his weekend to discover where you fit in God's story. As God continue to write His story...we are included in that. How cool. Anyways, it's after midnight and I need to get some sleep.

More to come...

-Tyler

CYWC Day #2 -Critical Concerns Course

I've really enjoyed spending the past 2 days with Matt Wilks in the Critical Concerns Course called "Students who share in the mission of God." This has been a great time hearing about God's story and how we as youth workers, can share with our students God's story and how they fit into it. If you want the notes for this course I've typed them all up and would be happy to email them to you. Just leave me a message.

These youth workers around me have really been a blessing through being so honest and authentic with where they are at. You can hear from their stories, and see it in their faces how in love with God they are, and how much they love their students.

God I pray for these youth workers that you show them how they can engage in your story throughout this weekend. I pray that when they travel home and spend time with their students that lives are changed...and that in everything that we do we show Jesus and how He gives us life and life to its fullest.

-Tyler

CYWC Day #1-SUSHI

What a great night. My buddy Chris and I headed off to what has to be the most amazing sushi restaurant in Vancouver: Shabusen. We ate and ate and ate until we had to undo our belts one notch! I knew I should have worn my stretchy pants!

I got news today that my buddy Darian (who's been the driving force in seeing the CYWC come to fruition) went into the hospital last night for an appendectomy. Yikes! I am praying for him, and that he will get well enough to join his crew and all the youth pastors/leaders who are here this weekend. So pray for Darian!

I really feel that for myself this weekend God is calling me to just soak it all in. To take time to have coffee with old friends (already lining one up this weekend with Marv Penner), to engage in great conversations, and to just rest in God's presence. This is going to be a great weekend!

More updates to come...

Tyler

CYWC Day #1

I made it. I got the wifi access code and we're up and running.

Today as been awesome so far. I learned about some guy who bought a really awesome Bubble Tea that had a picture of Pikachu on it holding his straw! He seemed really excited about it.

I think this is the theme of things to come for this weekend...TOTAL RANDOMNESS.

I ran into Marko today and apparently I'm no longer the only blogger for this conference! YEAH. And it's great to see so many friends that I haven't seen in forever! I can't wait to have some great conversations.

Anyways, time to head back into my critical concerns course.

Later,

Ty

Canadian Youth Workers Conference

Starting tomorrow and lasting until Sunday I'll be surrounded by 899 other youth pastors/leaders etc...oh you just know this is going to be great!

I'm really excited about seeing so many friends from all over the country who are coming out here for the conference. I'll be crashing in some church basement in Vancouver with my good friend Jeff from the church I interned at in Lethbridge! Some good friends from Lethbridge are also speaking/presenting at this conference...so I'm looking forward to sitting in their sessions and heckling them!

Knowing that Youth Specialties is partnering with Candafire to make this thing happen is really great. One thing I want to see is how "Canadian" this conference will be. So much of my life and the lives of students is heavily influences by American culture. And by reading Marko's blog I know that this issue has been forefront in the discussions surrounding this conference! I am grateful to these Godly men for ensuring that what we get as a conference isn't some cheap, watered-down NYWC, but rather our own, prayerfully planned CYWC. It is great to see how many Canadians with obvious God-given talent will be speaking at this conference. And to have Starfield & Thousand Foot Krutch perform as well...WOO HOO.

So I will be blogging from the conference...giving you all updates as to what I'm learning, and what other crazy things are going on when you cram 900+ people into a convention room for 4 days!

Later!

-Ty

FREE RICE

what a great opportunity! you simply visit www.freerice.com and by correctly associating the word given with its definition you donate 10 grains of rice. you can play as long as you like. today i donated 200 grains.

what a great thing to do when you've got a few minutes at home, or to send to all your friends. i'm going to send this to my students to challenge them that we can all make a difference! even if it's something as simple as this.

so see how well you do with the vocabulary! and donate some rice.

-tyler

What Would Jesus Buy?

JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS...

Yup, either this guy has a powerful message to bring to us...or he's a nut-job. Either way, I laughed hysterically at the trailer on their site. Especially the part where he exercises the demon's from the Victoria's Secret Cash Register!

So head on over to their site, and waste a few minutes of your day! I especially enjoy the fact that their title writing is in the "Disney" font...I enjoy the symbolism there!

Official Site: What Would Jesus Buy Movie

YouTube: Interview on Glenn Beck

God Save Christmas...or at least save us from this wacko!

-Tyler

ASBO Jesus

The picture might be a little small for you to see (click to make larger)...but man does it ever spew forth truth! I stumbled across this site while on one of my many "internet surfing safari's" It's called ASBO Jesus and for us non-British folk, the pages about section informs us that ASBO stands for "Anti-Social Behaviour Order."

This cartoon is #203 and is titled The Morning Jesus Came To Preach. The entire site had me in hysterics. Many of these cartoons are fitting (though somewhat satirical) commentaries on today evangelical church culture.

Many of them are no-holds-barred call outs from a generation who is growing apart from mainstream means of "doing church." For anyone who is a leader in a church, these comics are worth the read. For many people who find it hard to step into a typical church you may echo with the satire used.

Either way...they stir up and create conversation. I like conversation.

-Tyler

Jr. High Fall Retreat

This is going to be one of those "lightbulb moments" for me this weekend. I have the privilege of taking 14 Jr. High students over to Camp Qwanoes for their 1st ever retreat weekend.

Amidst the fear, apprehension, body tremors, lack-of-sleep, energy drinks, wedgies, and wrestling matches, God is going to rock the lives of these 14 students this weekend--and I get the joy of being there to see these image bearers of God experience a weekend unlike they've never experienced before.

Last weekend I was over at Qwanoes and fell ill with tonsillitis and a fever of 102. I'm still drugging myself up, and don't expect a relapse into my comatosed state like last weekend.

Jr. High ministry is something that you know you're called into. It's a joy to see these when these students have "God Moments" where something new clicks and it rocks their often naive and parent-centered-faith beyond what they've grown up hearing or have been taught by parents. These weekends can be milestone moments in a young persons life...and something that I am blessed to be apart of.

So pray for our students this weekend. Pray for sleep (praise God that we get 1 extra hour because of Daylight Savings Time!), pray for our speaker to really open God's word up to these kids and rock their socks, and pray for us as leaders to know how to best come alongside these students in this very precarious part of their faith journey.

I'll be home Sunday,

-Tyler

what i've learned

...is that sometimes you just need to take a break

...is that sometimes you just need to start anew

...is that sometimes your wife and real-life friends are more important than reading blogs

...is that sometimes when i feel like i'm being pulled in a thousand different directions, it's actually God trying to draw me closer to him with one hand while i'm still trying to hold onto the world with the other

so i guess you could say that i'm back. i don't know. a lot has been going on in my life since i last wrote. the death of my nana was a big deal for me...and in some ways how do you follow up to something like that?

to any of my readers i welcome you back. sorry for such an abrupt end to my blogging. this time around i think i'm going to take a deeper look into life and try to write about what actually has meaning for me.

the time spent these past few months with my wife has been amazing. the time with close friends has been irreplaceable, and through this all i still feel like God is drawing me closer to him with one hand while i'm still trying to hold onto the world with the other.

-tyler

Tonight my nana died.

My Nana is the one wearing the pink dress/jacket on the right hand side. This was taken almost one year ago at my brother's wedding.

It's always one of those tough things to hear. My dad called me about 30 minutes ago to tell me that my Nana (Grand-ma) had passed away peacefully in her sleep. I've always had a special connection with my Nana, and especially in these past few years.

Charity and I have had the privilege of getting out to see her twice in the past few weeks. These have been amazing times of praying together as a couple for Nana, and praying with Nana as well. Only in these past few years have I seen my Nana's faith really flourish, but it's been amazing to share about our faith together (me being the grand-son/pastor in the family).

Last week when we got together myself, Charity, and Nana all took turns praying. It was truly a moment that I have frozen in time. She was my last surviving grand-parent, so this is definitely something very different for me now, but none the less I am happy that she is no longer in pain.

Please be in prayer for my family as we process the loss of a great woman. Many people were impacted by her life. Through her cries to Jesus in our last time praying together and the final conversations we had about putting our lives in Jesus' hands, I know that she is now with Jesus in Heaven. This is something that is truly comforting. To know that I will see my Nana again.

This event puts the finiteness of our lives into clear view. That we are not here very long, and that God is calling us to himself, and we need to make the choice to live our lives fully for Him, or face the unpleasant consequences of a life eternally separated from God.

I'll see you again Nana...

Tyler

Weekend in Whistler

Sorry to post this so late, but I've been waiting for this video to load into YouTube before I put up this blog post.

So this past weekend my parent's treated Charity and I, along with my brother Terry and his wife Alisha to a get-away weekend in Whistler. We stayed at a 2 million dollar house overlooking the 14th Fairway of Nicholas North golf course! The house was amazing and had a sweet hot tub on the main level deck.

Charity and I had Friday off so we took our time getting up to Whistler. We stopped at Park Royal mall to do some shopping and eat lunch at one of Charity's favourite food-court restaurants: Edo's. They have one in Lethbridge, but only in Richmond & West Vancouver out here...so she rarely gets to eat at one. Needless to say she was quite happy.

The drive up was great...clear sunny skies, sunroof open...awesome. Saturday morning we got up and the 5 of us (Charity went to the Spa) went on the ZipTrek adventure! OH MY GOSH, this thing was awesome. So awesome that I HAD to capture this video for you to see. This was me going down on the highest zipline that they had on our trip.



I totally want to go back! They have 2 options for the zip lines. We did "Bear" but there is one called "Eagle" which has zip lines that are even steeper and faster! But at $100 bucks a pop I'm gonna need to save up some cash.

The rest of the weekend was quite relaxing. We ate great food, played games, spent the later evenings in the hot tub...just wonderful. It was a great weekend with the family. We haven't done a "Family Vacation" since before I left for college.

I hope you enjoyed the video,

Tyler

I'm Officially Official!

As of 10:30am this morning I am now fully accredited within the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches to officiate weddings, and other stuff.

WOO HOO. This has been a 6 month process that I am thrilled to see come to completion! I owe a great amount of thanks to Alex for mentoring me and my wife for encouraging me through this process.

-Tyler

BIG DAY TOMMOROW...

Most of you won't know this...but tomorrow morning at 9am I go before our Denomination's "Advisory Council" to defend my positional paper, and get grilled with tough theological statements for an hour and a half.

Truth be known, this isn't my first time doing this. I tried this process about 6 months after starting here at the church, but didn't have a good result. Because of this, since January I have been chatting theology with a good buddy of mine twice a month over coffee. Needless to say this has been a HUGE blessings to me, and I really feel confident going into tomorrow's meeting.

If I pass, then I am "officially" recognized as a Pastor in the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches, and am then granted the ability to marry people. So it's a pretty big deal. So please say a prayer for me...and good or bad I will update this tomorrow morning before noon to let you know how I did.

Blessings,

Ty

Closer to 30...

Well it seems to me that the running joke with most of my students and friends is to be reminded that I'm now closer to 30 than I am to 20.

HOW HILARIOUS!

So today I was supposed to go paintballing with the men from my church, but it's pouring rain today...so since I was the one in charge I guess my morning is going to be spent calling everyone and canceling.

But the good news out of this is that Charity and I will be able to head out tonight to Chilliwack to hang out with our friends Nate and Kristie (Nate's b-day was on the 14th). Then tomorrow night we're off to my parent's house for dinner. We're heading to the Korean BBQ House (only if it's raining) PRAY FOR RAIN! mmmm...Korean BBQ!

Charity is at work today...keeping us out of the poor house. Or probably earning back the money that she spent on my gift. Either way...it kinda sucks that she's gone for the day...but oh well. I'll see her at 2:30, since she only works a short day today.

Enough of my rambling. Time to get calling people!

Bye!

-Ty

Our Alaskan Vacation

Well we're back from a great week in Alaska. As you can see above this is what our weather was like all week: cloudy. But we were so lucky to only get a few hours of rain the entire week, and this was while we were eating massive crab legs in Juneau for lunch! And to top things off we really had quite calm seas for most of the trip...so thankfully people weren't getting sea-sick at all.

The one thing that really is a draw back on an Alaskan cruise is the fact that when your on your "at sea" days you really can't just sit by the pool and soak up the sun...mainly because it was never sunny and never above 12 degrees the entire trip! So you go a little stir crazy not having the outdoors to enjoy. You end up sitting around a table talking, playing games, and eating. The good thing is as I reflect back on this cruise...I certainly did get to relax A LOT! This was a very good stress-relieving vacation.
Charity and I got to take a historic train ride while in Skagway. It was a little boring, but still had some great views of the mountains and rugged terrain of Alaska. During part of the trip you actually enter back into BC. This was fun to be back in my home province...all-be-it for only a few minutes. The ports-of-call are very heavily focused on jewelry shopping...so make sure if you go to have a high credit card limit. This does detract from the trip...since you really take the cruise to "get away" from a consumer driven lifestyle. One of my highlights though was getting to eat 20 ounces of Alaskan King Crab Legs! Oh man were these delicious!If you've ever watched the show "Deadliest Catch" on the Discovery Channel you'll know how HUGE these crabs can get. Simply put...if you ever get the chance to eat some of these...do it! They were amazing. The really dissapointing elements of the trip were

1) Icy Straight Point: Our first port of call...should really be re-named "Icy Straight Point-less". There was so little to do in this small town...and really could have been left off the itinerary.

2) Hubbard Glacier: The fog rolled in...and the inlet was too frozen still to even get remotely close. So all we could see was a small portion of the glacier from a distance. I would assume on a clear day in August you'd have a much better time there.

It was a good time...and Charity and I really loved spending so much of it with her parents who came on the cruise with us. I highly recommend taking a cruise with other people...it really makes it a lot more fun! I don't know if we'll take another Alaskan Cruise...next time I think we'll try to go some place a little sunnier & warmer!

Head over to my facebook site if you want to see more pictures.

-Tyler

Bon Voyage!

We're outta here! I'll post pics from the cruise when I return! I hope you all have a great week.

Please pray for safety in our travels...and that Charity and I will be able to have a really refreshing, relaxing, and rejuvenating holiday.

As I'm sipping "ice tea" on the lido deck I'll be sure to be thinking of you all. Well...ok...that's a lie!

Bye,

-Tyler & Charity

Onward to Alaska !!!

This Saturday Charity and I (along with her parents) are setting sail on what most people tell us is the most spectacular cruise you'll ever take!

We're going north to ALASKA!!! Woo Hoo. The ship that you see is our ship...the Serenade of the Seas. It's a fairly new ship (built in 2003) which has a rock climbing wall, mini-golf, and indoor solarium swimming pool. We've been looking forward to this cruise for months, and we can't believe it's almost time to leave.

We leave out of Vancouver which I am incredibly excited about. I can't wait to see the city from the water, and to travel underneath the Lions Gate Bridge! Needless to say I'll have my camera ready with a full charge on the batteries. The ports that we'll visit are:

June 4: Icy Straight Point
June 5: Hubbard Glacier
June 6: Skagway
June 7: Juneau

So I'll make sure that I take lots of pictures...but don't expect much communication from me while I'm on the cruise. Priority #1 is to RELAX.

We started to pack last night--and then ironically enough--my iron broke! (If you really know me you'll realize how comical this statement is). So after work we have to go buy a new one since you can't bring irons on board and they don't have them in your staterooms either...so you have to pre-iron all of your shirts, khakis, etc...

So anyways, have a great week...and I'll post LOTS of pictures when we return.

Bon Voyage,

-Ty

Roomates

Some of you might not know that my buddy Corey, who was was the topic of my last posting, was my roommate while at Briercrest. We had great times while living together...but never did anything like this happen: at least that I don't know of.

WATCH THIS!



Thanks Corey for all the great memories! Too bad I never caught you dancing!

-Tyler

CE Studios Inc.

So my good buddy Corey is venturing into his own means of employment. He just launched CE Studios Inc.

Their mission statement is:

CE Studios will help your organization innovate for the future to create consistent and compelling experiences.

To learn more about the company head over to their website, and to keep up to date with Corey and CE Studios Inc. take a few minutes to read his blog. Some of the work CE Studios has done can be found here.

Theirs my shameless plug Corey!

-Ty