Friday, March 31, 2006

The River - Part 2


So as promised... there is the logo that I designed. No particular significance, all I was really going for was something cute and colourbookish. Tell me what you think!

It's going to be a very busy weekend, as usual! Tonight we have a bowling event, and I've been phoning the Jr. High's to see if they are going to be out... a few are even bringing friends! Then I'll be helping Jordan with her Psych project.

Tomorrow morning I'll be at the 1/2 day of Prayer here at Bethel, and leading the Canada and the World section of it. After that, I'm hoping to go see V for Vendetta, as everyone EXCEPT for me has seen it... grrr! Then back to Three Hills to either just chill or go to another church's worship service. I think I'm going to start making Saturday Night Services a regular part of my routine, so that I can get fed, as well as feed others!

Sunday morning is going to be a little nuts, as I'm teaching Sunday School, announcing The River, and then teaching the 3-5 year olds! It'll be a good morning, definetely busy! That evening we have Fusion as normal, and I have yet to get the curriculumn ready for that.

It's going to be a CRAZY weekend!

Thursday, March 30, 2006

The River

While I don't have the logo finished quite yet, I thought I mine as well post what I've been working on over the past week. Bethel has not had a Children's Church over the past two months, and it is starting to grate on the nerves of parents to have their Elementary aged kids. So I was asked to put together the Children's Church program, which I've decided to name, The River. That's based off of Revelation 22:1-2.

It's a pretty simple concept, they spend the first 15 minutes in the main service, and then come to the gym, and we do this...

15 minutes - Games
20 minutes - Worship
10 minutes - Speaker
15 minutes - Small Groups
5 minutes - Final Song

Total time - 65 minutes

That's enough time for the service to finish out, and time for us to build into the kinds life in a meaningful way. I'm looking forward to it, and I'm excited! Some goal to work towards!

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Far too busy!

It's been quite awhile... and just a quick update before I run out the door to go set up for the board meeting tonight. I'm busy working on our Children's Ministry program that will launch on April 9th. It's much needed at this point, as parents are getting frustrated at having their kids in the service with them.

Over the next few days I'm going to be phoning possible volunteers, finishing the logo, and planning out the curriculum. It's going to be a good week! More tomorrow!

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Passion

It's been quite the interesting last few days, I've learned a lot about myself, and a lot about where God is starting to take me. That's a cryptic sentence, eh? I've been constantly seeking out what God is going to be doing in my life, and that starts here, now. Passion has been a constant theme that has been coming up over and over again. People that I talk to, things that I read, experience that I go through. Passion is key.

One of the main things that I've learned is that pastoral ministry can quickly drain a person of their passion, and a lot of other things besides. I've been thoroughly enjoying my time here at Bethel, and I've been learning more than I can ever truly express. And one of the main goals of a 10 month internship is to really get a true experience of ministry, and I've definetely got that.

How do you maintain a passion when you are involved in such indepth ministry? When you are the one who is supposed to be feeding others, how do you feed yourself? I've spent a lot of time in personal devotions, and I have some really good friends that definetely help, but it's become clear that the hunger, the fire is not nearly as bright as it used to be.

While I may be an introvert (surprise!), I know with my spiritual life, community is VERY important to my health. So that's where I've been at, learning once again what it's like to be passionate, and putting my life on the alter for reworking. Refiner's fire. Here we go again.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Quickly...

Just quickly before I head off to teach religious ed. to the grade 5ers. It's been a tough past couple of days, kind of teetering on the edge of my rope. But I've learned that God is faithful. Just when I feel like I'm really out for the count, God brings people around me to lift me up, gives me time to relax, and friends to laugh with.

I'm in the process of figuring out what I'm going to be doing for the next few years. And I've got two 'sheepskins' I've put down for God. I need a decent paying job, where I can save money and also have enough to not worry about my living, and a good place to live, whether with a family or roomates.

As it stands right now, it looks like I may be in Three Hills for a few more years, and work in Enrollment. Depending on the pay, it might offer a decent compromise, with being able to travel all over NA and not do it on my bill! It would also allow me to save up to travel the world in a few years. I have a few options for the housing, so we'll see what comes of that.

It's an interesting time, but I'm really getting the sense that God is telling me to just chill out for a few years, and enjoy life a little before I throw myself into ministry and the rest of my life. Have an adventure and do some travelling. I'm young, so now is the time to do those things. God is faithful.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

The Future

Wow, it's been almost a week since I've updated. My apologies for that. My life over the past week has been absolutely insane, as I've been juggling a whole lot of different batons, and trying my best not to drop them all at the same time. Between Futsal, Youth, Church, Pastoral Responsibilities, Personal life, etc. it's been a hectic week.

Let's start with Futsal. It was playoff time, and I played my heart out. Friday night, the guys just didn't play all that well, and we ended up losing the game 4-3. This is when we only really 'played' 5 minutes of the game and scored all 3 goals in that time. Makes you wonder what would have happened if we'd played the whole game, eh?

Saturday was a different can of worms. While we didn't play the best that I've seen, the guys showed up, and played really well. It started of, believe it or not, with me scoring.... from my own crease! INSANE! First play of the game, and I score! It was a great feeling. We hung on for the rest of the game to win it 6-5 over RMC. It was a good game, and we ended up with a Bronze.

So that ends my current Futsal career, and may be the last time I play it in a league setting, and it was a good way to go out. I was satisfied with both of my games, and thought that I played well, so it was good to walk out with some medal. Apparently the coaches recognized that too, as I got voted onto one of the two all conference teams as a goalie. Quite the honour!

Church on Sunday went well. I didn't have a lot of responsibilities, other than serving communion, so that was an interesting experience! I didn't screw it up too bad! ;)

Other than that... lots of personal stuff going on. God is my anchor, and I think I'm learning more and more about what God's mercy is about.

Thy mercy, my God is the theme of my song
The joy of my heart and the boast of my tongue
Thy free grace alone from the first to the last
Hath won my affection and bound my soul fast

Without Thy sweet mercy I could not live here
Sin would reduce me to utter despair
But through Thy free goodness my spirit's revived
And He that first made me still keeps me alive
Thy mercy is more than a match for my heart
Which wonders to feel its own hardness depart
Dissolved by Thy goodness I fall to the ground
And weep to the praise of the mercy Ive found

Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Great father of mercies Thy goodness I own
And the covenant love of Thy crucified Son
All praise to the Spirit whose whisper divine
Seals mercy and pardon and righteousness mine

All praise to the Spirit whose whisper divine
Seals mercy and pardon and righteousness mine

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Having Fun!

I've been having a blast over the past week or so! Everything at the church has been going well, and other than an exorbant amount of reading that I've been doing, due to school work and other responsibilities everything has been awesome.

Futsal has been keeping me busy, and we play this Friday at 3 PM in Calgary in the Semi's and then again on Friday for the Gold Medal. As it stands right now, I won't need to be going to Nakiska to help supervise the ski-trip, which would be really nice. I guess we'll see once the deadline of today settle's.

Other than that, I've been enjoying the large amounts of snow lately, whether that be from throwing it at others, or driving my car VERY responsibly down the roads... sideways! :D It's been a good week, now it's back to reading.