Who's ready for the Cake-Off tomorrow?

Dust and Light

dust and light:

preparing us for, and pointing us toward, the truths of Easter.

visit www.poasispresents.blogspot.com for more details

Happy Birthday, Katherine

Today is my niece's fifth birthday--and yes, she's as sweet and as mischievous as she looks!

You know it's going to be a rough morning when...

...when you arrive at work to find that somebody has thrown up all over the front door of your bakery. Ahh, the joys of the public service industry.

Easter Time???

I was looking through children's ministry curriculum today when I found this song called "Easter Time". I wish I could say it was satirical, but no, this is an actual song meant to be sung in church. Just to give you a little taste, here's the first few lines:

Easter Time (Sung to: Jingle Bells)
Easter time, Easter time, we have so much to do.
Time for bunnies, time for eggs,
But time for Jesus too,
Oh, Easter time, Easter time...

And it goes on, but, as Jane Austen's Mr. Bennett says, I won't sport with your intelligence by making you read the rest.

this can't be a good sign

So I'm sitting on the couch at the cafe at the Place on Sunday, and I'm chatting with my friend Dawn, when she suddenly says, "Okay, I have to ask--what's with the two different shoes?" I stare at her with a blank expression until she says, "Oh, you mean you don't...oh." I look down, and, sure enough, I am wearing shoes from two different pairs--one black, and one brown. And not only are they different colours, but they are completely different styles. This fashion failure begs two questions: a) how did I actually put on shoes of different colours, styles, and indeed heights? and, perhaps more importantly b) how did I go three hours without noticing that I was wearing shoes of different colours, styles, and indeed heights? So for those of you who did notice my footwear faux pas, no, I did not purposely wear shoes from two different pairs in a misguided attempt at cool individualism--I'm just that scatterbrained. Or maybe it's God's way of telling me that I need a day off.

a winter morning

Was anyone else as excited as I was when it started snowing at 6:43 last night? My brother, my dad and myself were all trying to contain our euphoria over the possibility of getting out our cross-country skis this morning, but no such luck. Instead, I had to content myself with a camera, which I assure you, was little consolation. Oh well, at least it almost resembled winter for about an hour.

a frosty kiss

a melting heart

a fleeting glance

what kind of day has it been

There are some days when it just doesn't pay to out of bed. Like when kids throw up on you, or when parents yell at you, or when you do three suicide assessments in two weeks. And then there are days like today, when I got a random e-mail from a teenager thanking me for making a big difference in his life. I love my job.

what if...

It's that time of year again--the time of year a lot of ministry leaders dread more than any other--it's annual report time. Usually writing the report is no big deal for me, but this year I knew it was going to be a little more tough. Youth ministry at Westshore has been...has been...has been...exactly. Difficult to describe. A bit muddled, a bit directionless, at times almost motionless. Sometimes I wonder if standing still is even worse than taking a step backwards. It was a time of transition, and yet it wasn't. Maybe it was supposed to be a time of transition, but we--check that, I--was too stuck in the way we had always done things to see the movement God was trying to initiate. Funny. I swore I would never do that.
So now what? Where does God want to take youth ministry at Westshore, and how can we make sure we're along for the ride instead of kicking God out of the driver's seat so we can slam on the breaks? Over the past few days, some questions have been rolling around in my head like those marbles stuck in that old marble-maze game.

• What if every teenager in our community had a place they come could where they would feel loved by adults, accepted by their peers, and important to the Creator of the Universe?
• What if every teenager in our community had an adult in their lives who loved them unconditionally? who encouraged them? who cared about what was happening in their lives?
• What if every teenager in our community believed that God had a plan for their lives?
• What if there wasn't a single young person in our community who thought church was boring? who thought Jesus was dull? who thought Christians were hypocritical?

Sounds impossible? It is--at least it is for us. May we never limit God's vision by only seeing what we think is possible.

So how could those 'what if's' become actual possibilities? I spent most of Sunday afternoon asking God the same thing, and, as usual, He answered my questions with more questions.

• What if every Christian young person in our church had a non-Christian friend they were praying for?
• What if every young person in our church took time out of every day to honour God?
• What if every young person in our church felt accepted and loved by every other young person at Westshore?
• What if every young person in our church had a plan for how they would grow closer to God? What if each of them could answer “yes” to the question “are you closer to God now than you were a year ago”?
• What if every young person in our church believed they could make a difference in someone else’s life?

Maybe the most important question should be "what if we actually made God's vision for youth ministry a priority instead of just trying to survive youth ministry?" I don't know what would happen. I want to find out.