May Long Weekend

Just a quick update. I've got some serious stuff perking for the blog, but I'm told by at least one lurker that she prefers the family stuff over what I think is profound. One day she might even post a comment but for now she lurks in the background...

Anyway... our boys are in a baseball tournament this weekend. Actually it's only supposed to be Zack, but the team only had 9 players yesterday and one guy missed the ball on a strange hop and got hit right below his eye. He couldn't finish the game last night but was able to play today. The coaches asked Tyler to dress for them so we had the pleasure of watching both boys play today and for the rest of the weekend. Zack got on base 2 times (once on a walk, once because he was hit) and he came in one time. Tyler came off the bench late in the game and played centre field. He made a few strong plays defensively and hit twice. He was walked the first time. He tried to steal home on his first at bat and almost made it. The bat was dropped in the batters box and he slid over it on the way into home plate. He struck out on his second at bat. (The whole team was struck out by a 13 year old who was amazing...) He's very excited about playing this weekend and we are too.

This afternoon, they did a skills competition. It was so much fun as the boys did relays and then finished the competition with a home run derby. The first batter hit it out of the park 3 of 5 times and won it all. Zack and Tyler were on a pass/throw relay that they really enjoyed and came in a close third (missed second place by .2 of a second...)

Barb and I look like lobsters. The breeze was cool enough that you didn't realize you were getting burned. It's the first really nice weekend here so we weren't really thinking about sunburns. I'm hoping it turns to a tan.

This week we celebrate 20 years of marriage. We've got some plans for next weekend... :-)

PrayBC Continues to Grow

It started with a simple question. ‘What if the Church in BC came together to stand in the gap as a people of blessing?’ What would be the impact of thousands of people joining together in worship and prayer celebrations all across our province? We wanted to find out and so we launched ‘PrayBC’.

Here’s what’s happening so far. As I write this article, we know of at least 12 communities that are committed to hosting PrayBC celebrations. We know of many more that are in the process of coming on board as well.

As you might know, this is BC’s 150th Anniversary. As a result the Provincial Government is encouraging a variety of community groups to host community events to mark this very special point in our history. We see PrayBC as an excellent opportunity for churches to use as a way to celebrate our 150th anniversary. There is no registration and all of our professionally developed resources are available for free. All we ask is that communities register with us and receive an offering to help us cover our costs at their event. We believe that we will see over 30 communities join the PrayBC team.

For more information visit http://www.praybc.com or call our office to speak directly with someone who can help you.

Prayer Breakfast Report

We held our second MLA Prayer Breakfast on May 1st. Just over 70 people joined us for the morning. It was exciting to watch our MLA’s, partners and friends come together for a morning of encouragement, affirmation, fellowship and prayer.

The breakfast was held at the Union Club of British Columbia. It is a beautiful venue and serves our purposes very well. We are thrilled to be able to use it. Our speaker for the morning was former NHL player and Stanley Cup winner, Ryan Walter. In addition to telling a few hockey stories, Ryan did an amazing job of sharing how he came to Christ and put his ‘inner game’ on the right track so that his ‘outer game’ would become everything that God intended it to be. We highly recommend Ryan as a guest speaker. We are already making plans to have him back with us for another event this fall.

As we were planning the breakfast, there was a real sense that it was important for us to include some young people as part the program. We became aware of a Next Generation Prayer for Authorities that was written by a group of young people from North Western BC. We were able to put a copy at every place setting and Noah Bolinder, a student from Victoria prayed the prayer publicly. It was moving and inspiring for everyone present. There isn’t enough room to print it here, but I’ve posted it on the ministry website and you can find it there on the ’Event Archive’ page.
We know that we had many friends and partners praying for us as we planned, prepared and presented the breakfast and we want you to know that people were blessed, strengthened and encouraged. It was a great day and you helped make it that way!

Thanks for standing with us.

Prayer Breakfast Report - What MLA's are saying...

Here are some comments coming from our Prayer Breakfast last week. I'm witholding the names of those who shared these things, but it's pretty exciting to see the impact that we are having on the lives of those who lead us.

This comment was made during debate at the Legislature during the week of May 5th. I found it by accident but it made my day!!

I'm touched every year by the prayer breakfast. There was one just last
week. The thought that there were people who were praying for the leadership
of the province…. I've got to tell you, it's a kind of moving and emotional
thing.
I'm not necessarily convinced the Bible requires us to be prayed for,
but the concept that people pray that we do good work here, to assist
us in doing good work is a wonderful thing. It gives one a sense of
community, and it encourages us to value what we do here — the honour and
the privilege it is to serve in positions of leadership, whether you're in
the opposition or the government back bench or you're in cabinet or you're
the Premier of the province. What we do here is important.”

This came from a card I received in the mail.

'As an MLA I would like to thank you and Leading Influence
Ministries for being so supportive and encouraging. My community
has had a similar prayer breakfast for years and as elected officials we
always appreciate such support and guidance. Please keep up the good
work!'

I'm really humbled to see what God is doing and how He is doing it. Our commitment is to continue to serve and be a blessing to those God has called to serve our province in this way. We know that as we do, God will continue to open more doors of opportunity.

Visiting Ontario

I grew up in Ontario. Admittedly, it was North Western Ontario and we lived closer to Regina than Toronto, but I did grow up in Ontario. I'm back for a week visiting my sister, preaching for a friend and then speaking at our National Pastor's Conference.

On Monday, I visited Queens Park otherwise known as the Ontario Legislature. I had looked forward to this part of my visit. I absolutely believe that the MPP's in Ontario need the same kind of pastoral ministry that we are establishing in BC. I went to pray, observe and quite literally to put my feet on the ground as a prophetic and symbolic act.

Serving and reaching the MPP's in Ontario is critical to our vision. While it might be hard to take for those of us in other parts of Canada, the reality is that Ontario and Toronto really shape so much of our national culture that it's critical that the key spheres of influence in this province be reached with the love, life and transforming grace of Jesus Christ.

My hotel room was on the 18th floor and I had a fantastic view of the Skydome and the CN Tower. As I was getting ready I found myself praying and making proclamations regarding this city. I'm convinced that God has a plan for Toronto and Ontario and that as His purposes and plans for Toronto are fulfilled, He will redeem the media, commerce, entertainment, the arts and government and then use them as a catalyst to transform our nation at every level.

For some of you, this might be an enormous stretch, but the bible is clear that God loves cities and that He loves to transform them. Canada cannot be transformed without Toronto and Toronto can only be transformed as we reach it's leaders and influencers.

I have a dream...

From Toronto

Hi Everyone - greetings from the 18th floor of the Hilton in Toronto. (Relax, I got a screaming deal on www.hotwire.com that cost me less than staying at Super 8) I'm in Toronto attending a conference for a few days. Yesterday I preached for someone I really admire. His name is Murray Lincoln. Murray is an amazing person who I see as a real trail blazer and pioneer. In addition to being a fantastic pastor and leader, he's also a carver, handyman and writer. I'm posting a link to his latest blog post. I hope you enjoy it.

http://northviewchurch.blogspot.com/2008/05/48-hours-of-victories-and-five-victors.html

Quick Update

Well - it's the night before the MLA Breakfast. It's going to be a great morning and we are all looking forward to enjoying it. We've had an excellent response from friends and MLA's so I'm very pleased. My hope is to do a follow up post after the fact with some photos as well so watch for that over the next few days.

It's been a while since an update so here's the latest for those of you that long for family details but don't bother with my spiritual insights...

We went to Kamloops on the weekend. I was speaking in Logan Lake on Sunday morning so I brought the boys with me and they had a dental visit on Friday afternoon. Tyler was done in about 3 minutes as his ortho work is going very well. Zack is making amazing progress but has required more work. He spent 3 hours in the dentists chair, most of it waiting. He had 7 (yup 7) needles as he had to have some gum surgery. I'm really proud of him! It will be worth it later on when he has movie star teeth.

We stayed with our friends in Kamloops and the boys had a ton of fun seeing their buddies. They were up until 1 AM and awake before 6 to play their computer games and just laugh and talk. We are always treated like gold by this family and this time had the added bonus of grandparents there as well. It was a full house, but we had an awesome time.

Sunday morning I was in Logan Lake with the boys. This church has been so good to us and very supportive and generous. The pastor took me over and showed me the most amazing missions table I've ever seen, and what really made it special was it was all about what I'm doing. It was really pretty cool.

We made a pitstop in Abbotsford for gas and quick break. On the way to the ferry I really began to feel very tired. I love to drive and even on a very long trip, it's very rare that Barb does more than a very little bit of driving, but I would have gladly let her drive home from the ferry. On Monday morning, it was apparent that we had some kind of bug and Barb, Tyler and I were all under the weather. I worked from home a bit but took about 3 naps just to make it through the day. Monday night Zack had a baseball game but it was pouring rain. I was on for field prep so with a lot of help from some other parents we got the field dragged, raked, lined and ready, only to be told that we had to move to another field. After we moved, that one was prepped and then the game was called.... I was home by 6:20, asleep by 6:30 and didn't wake up until 7 AM on Tuesday.

So there you go BD (and everyone else...) I've given you the scoop on the Kamloops weekend... :-)

Catching Up

Well - here' s the latest from the past few days. After about 14 days without a real break, I took Friday and Saturday off. Day 1 was okay (although I did sneak a bit of work in when Barb wasn't looking...) Saturday was a different story. The problem on running on adrenaline and caffeine is that when you slow down, you crash. Crashing for me usually involves being grumpy and negative. None of this is a good thing for anyone around me so Barb gently suggested that I take a nap in the afternoon. After about 10 minutes she came upstairs and told me (ever so sweetly and yet so very pointedly...) that I needed to get it together and that being grumpy wasn't fair to anyone around me.

The thing with Barb is that she has a wonderful way of getting her message through to me without raising her voice or making a scene. This time was no exception and after about an hour of solitude and rest, I was a much happier boy.

I read a book a few years ago. It was called 'The Contemplative Pastor'. I didn't like it at all but it was exactly what I needed. The author talked about 'the rythmn of the Sabbath'. The idea is that we are made to need a rest every 6 days. When we fail to honor the Sabbath in our lives, we begin to 'wobble' physically, emotionally and spiritually. While it' possible to keep going, our creativity, productivity and general effectiveness starts to decline dramatically and continues to do so the longer we go without a rest. Relationships begin to suffer and we make poor choices all because we fail to rest and be refreshed. These are the consequences of sin, as we fail to honor the Sabbath in our lives. Given enough neglect, we crash and burn and God often provides us with an 'enforced Sabbath' to give us time to properly recover be renewed.

It feels funny to be thinking like this and yet I know that failing to permit myself a Sabbath rest, caused me to be spinning my wheels for most of last week, not to mention the fact that I took out my fatigue on those who are closest to me. Needless to say, I've been making ammends today and it's been much better for everyone around me.

So... while I'm not about to start taking an obligatory nap on Sunday afternoons, I'm learning my lesson about the need to take care of myself while I seek to care for other people.