A Surprise for BC!

There's some big news in BC this week that has nothing to do with the HST or possible recall initiatives.  In a summer that has featured some fascinating political developments, unprecedented heat waves and forest fires, we have been unexpectedly blessed with the largest Sockeye Salmon run since 1913.  As I write this 25 million fish are starting their journey up the Fraser river to return the streams of their birth. 

What makes this really fascinating is that NO ONE expected this.  The government didn't know it was coming, the scientists didn't know it was coming and the fishing industry didn't know this was coming.  What makes this even more interesting to me is that a year ago, the run was almost negligible.  The fishery didn't open, fishing boats remained tied up at the dock and processing plants remained empty.

It might be the preacher in me, but I can't help but think how similar this is to what happened in Jn.21.  The disciples have gone fishing.  They have worked all night and caught nothing.  No bites, no nibbles, no fish....

They are close enough to shore to hear the question that every fisherman dreads.  'Have you caught any fish?'.  You don't ever want to have to say 'no' to that question, but in this case, they didn't have much of a choice.  The person asking the question told them to cast their net on the other side of the boat and that they would find some.  It seems a rather ridiculous suggestion in the sense that if there had been no fish all night, why would they suddenly catch some on the other side of the boat?  I doubt that there was a lot of expectation in the next toss of the net.  After a night with no success, how much could you really believe that anything different was going to happen?

Can you imagine their shock when they started to pull up the net and discovered that it was full of fish?  No one saw it coming.  There was no reason to believe that it could or would happen.  But it did happen and the disciples quickly realized that GOD was on the scene.

Sometimes, we find ourselves in a place just like the disciples.  We have fished all night and caught nothing.  The temptation is to quit, pack it in and admit defeat.  But somewhere there's a voice that says, toss the net on the other side.  Don't quit.  Listen to the voice and toss the net one more time on the OTHER SIDE of the boat!

Happy fishing!!

Thoughts from the Road

We are on vacation this week.  It just so happens that it was necessary for me to bring my motorcycle on this vacation.  This is a distinct blessing as there are some fantastic spots to ride in the area.  Yesterday  I went on a road trip.  I left Birch Bay and went south through Bellingham onto Highway 11 which takes you through a State Park and out to the coast.  This is not a 'beach road'.  It's a high twisty, up and down kind of ride.  It's absolutely beautiful. 

I left Highway 11 and went across country towards 'Farm to Market' road where I eventually picked up highway 20.  Highway 20 took me to Whidbey Island where I crossed over 'Deception Pass'.  The bridge is 180 feet above the water and is 976 feet long.  A thick fog had rolled in about the same time that I arrived and there wasn't much to see.  Not to mention that I'm not a great fan of narrow high bridges to begin with....

I did some quick research into the name when I got back. Wiki tells me that the it was given it's name because it appeared to be the entrance to a bay rather than an actual pass.  Deception is about hiding secrets.  Hiding is hard work.  It's better to live with no secrets and have nothing to hide.

I stopped for lunch in Oak Harbour.  Oak Harbour is home to Whidbey Naval Air Station.  I would have loved a tour but I don't think the US Military offers tours of air bases.   I would have really loved the opportunity to ride my bike down the runway or at least on the road beside the runway like Tom Cruise did in Top Gun but I had to leave that for another day.

After Oak Harbour, I headed south on 20 for Clinton and took the ferry to Everett. I met another biker on the ferry and we had a good visit as we crossed the water.  He led me to I-5 and this is where things got interesting.  Traffic volumes were heavy and it wasn't long before I was crawling along thinking, 'what is that smell?'.  It smelled like something was rotting and decaying.  100 meters in front of me was a garbage truck.  He was in the centre lane and upwind (and it was warm) so it really didn't matter where you went, you caught the smell of Everett garbage.  It's not a great impression for a city.  'Drive on our Freeway.  Smell our Garbage!' is hardly a good tourism slogan.  As soon as I got past the truck and could breathe freely again, I started thinking about the smells that we leave behind us.  (No... not THOSE smells...)

Our lives are meant to be a fragrance.  To give off a beautiful scent that is as attractive as a rose garden.  Sadly, our scent isn't always sweet.  Sometimes it reeks of bitterness, anger or a distinct sense of 'betterness'.  At the end of the day, it's only as my life is transformed into the beauty of what God intended it to be that it becomes a sweet fragrance to all around me. Many years ago, a former pastor was leaving for Africa.  As he hugged me his last words were 'Stay Sweet'.  There are days I smell sweet and there are days I give off a horrible stench.  I try for sweetness but my garbage truck experience has strengthened my resolve to work harder at sweetness.

Having cleared the air at Everett, I pressed north to Burlington where I stopped at Cycle Barn and the nearby Starbucks.  Free wifi and a coffee after a browse through a motorcycle shop makes for a great way to finish the day.

Back to the Beginning

Our family just spent a week at a Family Camp for Pastors.  This has become a bit of a family tradition for us and is always a highlight of our summer.  The camp and the venue hold a special place in our lives.  God has spoken to Barb and I powerfully there over the 7 or 8 years that we've attended.  It was 5 years ago this summer that God quite unexpectedly gave me the vision for Legislative Chaplaincy.  It happened like this...

Our speaker that year was Ian Green.  If you've never heard Ian speak, he's fascinating and has a way of helping you hear God's voice.  We arrived for a morning session and Ian announced that the plan for the day was simply to take some time to let God give us a fresh vision for our lives and ministry. (I think this is a brilliant way for a speaker to use a session....)  Given that I was a pastor at that point, I fully expected to get some direction for an exciting fall program.  I was in for a huge surprise....

As I opened my notebook to begin to write, I was shocked to hear God speak to me about starting a Legislative Chaplaincy.  The vision was remarkably clear and specific.  Looking back, It's remarkable to see the way in which what I heard God say has become reality in my life.  It's really nothing short of a miracle.

Over the next few months, Barb and I began to sort out what this would mean for us and for our family.  Our kids would leave everything they knew, we would give up all of what we thought was our security and stability.  One huge lesson was that it's easy to preach about faith and trust.  It's quite another to actually let go of everything you have and know and simply to trust God with the only guarantee being His promise to look after us. The transition took longer than we anticipated, but without a doubt, we made the right decision and are so thankful to serve God and MLA's in the way that we do.

All of this reminds me of God's faithfulness and in His ability to make something out of nothing.  Without a doubt He has gone before us and made our way straight.  We've had our challenges and struggles but it has underscored our confidence in God's ability to absolutely open doors, make provision and calm us while He calms the storm.

We are off to a week of vacation with some friends.  Blessings to you all!

Mid-Summer Update

Hi Everyone. Don't tell your kids, but in less than a month, school starts! Here's a mid-summer update for you.  With the Legislature not in session, things are much quieter than they were a year ago.  Most members are happy for the break which gives them the opportunity to focus on constituency business at a less stressful pace.  This presents a unique opportunity for us as well to connect and engage in a more relaxed environment.  Last week I stopped in to visit a member in his office on my way home from a funeral. I was on my motorcycle.  I discovered that he rides as well so we've set up an evening ride in a few weeks.  I'll post pictures after we are done.  These are the kinds of things that happen through the summer.  Things are more spontaneous and relaxed.  This results in greater openness to strengthen relationships with leads to conversations about the things that matter most. 

We just sent out our summer newsletter.  If you haven't received a copy, please contact our office and we will get one in the mail to you.  We'd love to send one to you.

I'm on vacation for a few weeks and we are all looking forward to the rest.  Have a great summer!

Perspective is Everything...

A man lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs.
He was hard of hearing so he had no radio.  He had trouble with his eyes so he read no newspapers.  But he sold good hot dogs.

He put a sign on the highway telling how good they were.
He stood by the side of the road and cried 'Buy a hot dog, Mister.'
And people bought.

He increased his meat and bun orders.
He bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade.
He got his son home from college to help him.

But then something happened....

His son said, 'Father, haven't you heard the news?
There's a big recession on.  Times are tough. The unemployment situation is terrible.'

Whereupon his father thought, 'Well, my son has been to college.  He reads the paper and he listens to the radio and he ought to know.'

So the father cut down on his meat and bun orders.
Took down his advertising signs.
And no longer bothered to stand on the highway to sell hot dogs.
And his hot dog sales fell almost overnight.

'Your right, son,' the father said to the boy.
'We are certainly in the middle of a great recession.'

Written by Jimmy Pattison.  1987

Student of The Month

Late last week, our oldest son brought home what looked like a school newsletter. Our lives are pretty busy, so a school newsletter isn't always the first thing that we read.  Yesterday, he casually asked if we had a chance to look at it.  He waved it around and then left it on the table.  After he left we picked it up and noticed that he had been named 'Student of The Month'.

Here's the copy of the article:
This months Student of the Month is Zack Schindel.  Zack gets the award this month because he gets up early every morning to make breakfast for everyone in his house.  After that he runs to school to help his teachers prepare for their day.  After his classwork done, he helps the other members complete theirs.  Rather than spending his free time with his friends at lunch, Zack picks up trash and litter on the school property.  After classes are done for the day he runs to the nearby seniors home where he reads to the residents until dinner time.  He has straight A's and perfect GPA.  Congrats on being an excellent example to all of us Zack!

His 'newsletter' was really a computer science project.  It should also qualify for creative writing...

  Zack, we are very proud of you even if you don't do any of the things that earned you 'Student of the Month'.  Thanks for making us laugh!!

In The News....

See the latest article on LIM in the BC Christian News by clicking here.

Marking Our Progress

The Legislature recessed last Thursday and you could almost hear the sighs of relief from members and staff alike as everyone headed for home.  In the last calendar year, we had an election, two budgets, two throne speeches and 3 sessions.  If my count is correct, there were almost 80 sitting days in the Spring session.  That's about 2 weeks longer than usual and doesn't take into account the extended summer and fall sessions.  Small wonder the general consensus over the past few weeks was 'is it time to go home yet?'  

I always marvel at the sacrifices members and their families make to serve our province.  For all of the 'talk radio' rants about soft hours and public troughs, I've yet to meet a single person who serves in this capacity who is there only for themselves.  Politics aside, these are good people who give themselves selflessly to represent their ridings and constituents. 

God has helped us be a source of encouragement and blessing to the members during this past session..  I wrote about our Annual MLA Prayer Breakfast in my last email.  This was our biggest and best breakfast by far and is a strong indicator of the progress we have made.  While not nearly as 'big' as the breakfast, we've been able to develop some significant 'behind the scenes' ministries that have been very appreciated and fruitful.  Most significantly, we've launched a weekly prayer and ministry time.  It's been exciting to meet and pray with members in a context away from the Legislature in a place that has become their sanctuary.  The prayer times have often resulted in more ministry opportunities at the Legislature too.   God continues to open some significant doors of ministry to us and we are very grateful.

There's something new happening for us too.  Because of the length of the last session, I've been able to establish intentional relationships with staff who work at the Legislature in a number of roles.  This comes as a direct result of God's favour.  This is a natural outflow of ongoing ministry in the buildings and it's exciting to see what God is doing with it. 

It's important for me to say thank you to those who pray for us and partner with us financially.  We are only here because you stand with us on both fronts.  Thanks for everything that you do for us!

You Should Stop Praying!!

Every so often you get to experience something new and fresh.  Last week was one of those moments for me.  I opened an email from someone telling me that if I couldn't do any better than this, I should stop praying and do something else.  As you can imagine, I was a bit puzzled about how my prayers could have failed so miserably.  As I read a little further, I discovered that the writer had determined if I had been more effective in my prayers, BC would have been spared the HST. 

After 27 years of ministry, I've learned that there are a lot of things that pastors can be blamed for.  The music is too loud, too soft, too long, too short, too old, too new.  The sermon is too long, too short, too deep, too light... the heat is .... well you get the general idea...  I may be the first pastor in history to be blamed for a major shift in taxation policy. 

Last week, I went out for dinner with several MLA's.  They were delighted to hear that I was the one to blame for the HST.  One remarked 'had we only known, we would have said something during Question Period!'  On more than a few days through the last session, the government would have appreciated being able to point to someone else.   I can see it now.... 'Mr. Speaker, we implemented the HST because Tim's prayers weren't working.  He's the one to blame for this tax!!' Now THAT would have made for a REALLY interesting day...  Given enough creativity, I might be the reason the Canucks are done too....  LOL!!







  

MLA Prayer Breakfast Report

We recently held our annual prayer breakfast.  The breakfast is our showcase event and we look forward to it all year.  I'm thrilled to tell you that we had an incredible response from the MLA's with 17 in attendance and a total of almost 150 people with us for that morning.  God has been faithful to us!   I'm including some pictures of the morning that I hope you enjoy.

Our speaker this year was Karen Reed.  Karen had just completed a 15 month role as Executive Director with More Than Gold which was a faith network response to the Olympic Games.  It was an incredible morning as she spoke out of her experience on the power of collabaration. 

As Karen and I were having lunch together with a small group later in the day, one Cabinet Minister came over to thank her for her talk and commmented that 'we all took notes and have been talking about it all morning.'  Given that Cabinet ministers have a lot of things on their mind, it speaks volumes about the way God helped Karen as she spoke that morning.  Some people have asked for a copy of her talk. While we don't have a hard copy, you can view a video of her talk by clicking here.

Here's a picture of Tim introducing each of the 17 MLA's who attended.  What a thrill to have such a tremendous response!

 

On your left is Pastor Dan Cousins from Nanaimo.  Dan is the pastor of Genesis Christian Centre.  He led us in prayer for the 84 MLA's that give leadership to our province.  Here is text of the prayer that we prayed that morning.

We thank you for the leaders gathered in this room who give of themselves to serve our province as elected leaders. We ask that you would honour their willing sacrifice of time and energy as they give themselves to public service. We pray that you would grant them wisdom as they serve as leaders. Help them to discern what is best for our province as we move towards tomorrow. Give them courage to make good and right decisions that are in keeping with Your plans so that all of us will benefit. Fill them with compassion for the poor and weak among us. Help them to govern rightly on their behalf. Grant them Your strength that will enable them to fulfill all that is required of them. May they sense Your love for them today.

This picture was taken as we prayed for the MLA's.  What an incredible privilege to pray with ministry friends and partners along with leaders from the church, business and government with no agenda other than to ask God to bless them as they serve our province in their capacity as leaders. 

We've got some great candid shots that you will find below as well.  We hope that these photos give you a good sense of what it was like to be with us this year.  If you couldn't make it this year, please make plans to join us next year.

Pastor Peter Lewis with MLA Bill Routley and Tim Schindel.

MLA Harry Bloy with Tim.  Harry has attended all 4 of our breakfasts.

MLA Marc Dalton arrives at the breakfast.  That's Barb Schindel behind Marc.

Karen Reed meets Mabel Elmore. 

Dave Hauser (Victoria) and Dave Franke (Duncan) enjoy a moment together.  This was a great morning to smile as old friends found each other and new friends were made.

A group shot taken during our speakers address. As you can see, we've grown a bit.  We had 45 people at our first breakfast.  We had 150 join us this year.  We are very grateful.

A Tributue to Terry Fox - Mike Farnworth

I don't normally post speeches from the Legislature, but this particular speech caught my attention today, especially when Mike Farnworth mentioned that he was a classmate of Terry Fox. I hope you find the same challenge and inspiration from it that I did today!

This week we mark the anniversary of an astonishing achievement by one of our greatest British Columbians and Canadians. Thirty years ago, on the 12th of April in 1980, Terry Fox began his Marathon of Hope by dipping his artificial leg into St. John's harbour. 


All of us know the rest of Terry's remarkable story. His goal was to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research, and he pursued his goal for 143 gruelling days. He eventually had to stop outside Thunder Bay, Ontario because he was too sick to continue. The cancer that he had been fighting had returned.
It was a remarkable achievement, and I'd like to put those numbers into a bit of perspective for all of us in this room and in the gallery. Running for 143 days straight, no day off, running an average of 42 kilometres each day. Just so we can all appreciate that, that's like each of us getting up tomorrow, putting on your sweats and your running shoes and then going outside to run a marathon, and then the next day and then the next day and doing it over and over and over again for 143 days.
Are you tired even just thinking about it? But Terry did it for 4½ months. His run was a testament to the spirit of the individual, but more important than that, it showed us that it's ordinary people who achieve remarkable and extraordinary things.

I was at school with Terry. We were in the same class in junior high school. He was just a regular kid just like everybody else in that classroom, but he went on to achieve true greatness — greatness that wasn't thrust upon him, but greatness that came from inside him.

He had a heart and a determination to achieve his goal and his dream. He did that day in and day out, and that is why his legacy lives on. But more important than that, and just as important as the battle to fight cancer, is the lesson for us that it's within each of us with our determination to make dreams like his a reality.

Rolling Away The Stone

Mary Magdalene was having a tough day.  She'd actually had a pretty rough weekend.  On Friday she observed and attended the execution of Jesus.  It would have been more horrifying for her than most.  Jesus had literally saved her life.  Before she met him, she was a demon possessed prostitute.  He changed all of that for her.  Mary believed in Him, followed Him and loved Him.  Watching Him suffer and die in the most brutal way would have been a nightmare.  She followed as they carried his body away from Calvary and placed it in a nearby tomb.  She was there when the large stone was rolled in place to seal the tomb.

Saturday was the Sabbath.  There was nothing to do except stay at home and grieve her loss, but early Sunday morning, Mary went at the first opportunity with spices to sweeten the smell at the grave.  When she arrived, the tomb was open and vacant.  When she turned around, she encountered the person she thought was the caretaker and asked him where he had taken the body of Jesus.  Imagine her shock, when the 'gardener' announced that He was Jesus.  He instructed her to go and tell his disciples that He was alive and to meet him in Galilee.  As you can imagine, Mary ran as fast as she could to tell the disciples.  When she got there, they didn't believe her.  Jesus himself appeared to two other followers who were walking down the road and they didn't believe he was alive either.  (I often wonder if He just did that for fun...)

I've been thinking about this all weekend.  Perhaps the greatest challenge on the first Easter was rolling away the stone of unbelief in the lives of those who loved Him most.  I'm not criticizing the disciples at all.  We all live with our own stones of unbelief.  For the disciples, accepting the truth of the resurrection cemented their confidence in everything that they had heard and seen to that point.  In the previous 3 1/2 years, they had seen Jesus heal the sick, deliver the possessed, open the eyes of the blind, walk on the water, calm the storm and many, many other miracles, but in the moment that the stone of unbelief was rolled away from their hearts, He became the Unstoppable Jesus.  They were convinced and within a generation had changed their world.

I'm convinced that Jesus remains unstoppable.  I'm also convinced that as the stone of unbelief is rolled back in our lives, anything can happen in us and through us. 

Remembering the Resurrected Jesus

From the Victoria Times Colonist - April 3, 2010
Yesterday, for Christians, was the saddest day of the year, the day they crucified Jesus. Tomorrow is probably the happiest, the day he rose from the dead.

Today, we're in a kind of limbo between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Yet today does have a name -- Holy Saturday. This is the day Christians remember Jesus lying in the tomb. It was also a day of absolute sorrow, when his disciples and followers were lost, bereft and alone.

Then on Sunday, the third day, a rebirth, the miracle of miracles. He came back to them.

At first there was disbelief and then a kind of grudging belief. And then, over time, came Belief of monumental, stunning proportions. Belief through the ages and here, more than 2,000 years later, there are the churches and cathedrals and Easter bonnets (on New York's Fifth Avenue, anyway) to celebrate and bear witness to that joy.

The cross, not surprisingly, has been the enduring symbol of Christianity. Most Christian churches show paintings or sculptures or stained-glass images of Christ, his face contorted in pain, wearing a loincloth on the cross. His bloodied hands and feet are nailed to the structure.

It is, to be sure, the most heart-wrenching of images, even if you're not quite a Believer.

The comedian Dick Gregory once pointed out that if Christ were executed today, people would start wearing electric chairs around their necks. A strange motif, yes, but after the laughter subsides it's a good idea to pause. Many employ instruments of torture to remember one they love.

Interestingly, there are more -- many more -- images depicting the death than the Resurrection. The populist depiction of Jesus is a man in pain rather than a man of joy, of humour, of happiness and kindness. Or a man making miracles.

The Christ on the cross is a man crying "Why have you forsaken me?" to his father, and this is the image most of us immediately bring to mind. We seem to be celebrating man's inhumanity than Christ's humanity. Here he is vulnerable. Beaten. Bloodied. Broken.

Certainly, there are many images of the baby Jesus in the manger, but this is often a swaddled or anonymous Jesus. Centre-stage -- or centre-barn -- obviously, but Mary and Joseph, assorted wise men, shepherds and animals get equal billing.

The life of Jesus between birth and death is rarely depicted. Sometimes we see him in flowing robes, arms outstretched. Presumably, this is the image popes and cardinals like to model themselves on. Reverent. Ethereal. Pious.

Sometimes we see him healing the sick, raising Lazarus from the dead, and in one or two images casting out the moneychangers in the temple. These are rare. Eventually, everything heads back to that image on the cross or that baby in the manger.

I once spoke to a Lutheran minister who bemoaned the fact that almost every image of Jesus showed him as miserable, or pious, eyes raised to the heavens. This, he said, gave Jesus the wrong image. A man without human form.

"He was a man of humour, of decisiveness. A leader. Yet we have this Renaissance view of him that persists to this day. Artists are afraid to deviate from that image."

That's true. The image might have gone through various artistic permutations and styles, but it's still, usually, an image of overwhelming sadness rather than an image of joy.

That same Lutheran minister had hung a painting called Jesus Laughing in his church, a famous painting showing Christ throwing his head back and guffawing. Not smiling demurely, pope-like, but a man, enjoying himself, laughing at a joke, a remembered moment.

There are scant images of Christ risen from the dead, and these often have a bright halo above his head and scared, subjugated mortals at his feet. These images are historical religiously, but they lack the conviction or splendour of the crucifixion.

The fact is, the way we mostly depict him is in terms of Good Friday -- sombre, dark and sad -- rather than Easter Sunday -- a day of spring, of flowers, of rebirth, of wonder. And hope.

That's a pity. We should make Jesus happier. A man reborn. An Easter Sunday Jesus, not just a Good Friday Jesus. I'd like that. I'd like to think he would, too.

 http://www.timescolonist.com/life/Comment+should+remember+resurrected+Jesus/2759344/story.html#ixzz0k4P19q0n

Prayer Breakfast Tickets Available!

Our 4th Annual MLA Prayer Breakfast is scheduled for May 5 at 7:30 at the Hotel Grand Pacific.  A limited number of tickets are available through our website.  Click here for more information.

Missouri Legislators Call for Prayer

Perhaps this is something that should happen in our province....  from the National Prayer Centre in the US.

As the economic worries and struggles gripping our nation persist, there is also a growing openness among many segments of society to seek God's help and provision. The National Prayer Center recently received word of this joyous dynamic taking place in a somewhat surprising place: the Missouri State Legislature. Rev. Paul Meinsen, Director of Capitol Commission Missouri (a group that ministers through prayer and Bible study in state capitols), gave this powerful testimony:

Last week (week of March 1) several Christian leaders met with Key Leaders from both Chambers of the Missouri legislature -- House of Representatives and Senate -- meeting individually with leaders of both political parties. These elected officials all requested prayer as they are desperate for answers as how to balance the budget. They are at the "end of themselves." Because of the state's budget shortfall, they report that the pending budget cuts will cause pain to many of our Missouri citizens. They want to be responsible in balancing the budget, avoiding unnecessary debt that is severely threatening many states. At the same time they hope to avoid the painful cuts that they are now facing in currently preparing the state's budget.


These leaders asked Bob Loggins, Prayer Specialist of the Mo. Baptist Convention, and me as the Midwest National Area Leader for National Day of Prayer to meet with them. They requested a proposal (which is attached), wanting us to mobilize prayer throughout Missouri, which will include 40 Days of Prayer beginning on Monday, March 29.


Remarkable efforts are being made to avoid this great prayer focus being a political event! Indeed this great prayer focus is a bipartisan effort with united support from legislative leaders of both political parties. They want to avoid doing anything - as do we -- that would be divisive or distracting to this thrust of seeking the living God for solutions. They want it that way because they are seeking God -and want us to seek God -- for help, carrying no other agenda.


The plan is to be highlighted by a noon time of prayer (12:00 - 1:30 PM) in the rotunda of the Missouri State Capitol Building in Jefferson City on Monday, March 29th. We have asked Franklin or his son Will Graham to speak and are waiting to see if they are available. The March 29th date is the "kickoff" for the 40 Days of Fasting and Prayer.

The National Prayer Center encourages you to be in prayer for your state leaders as well, as they grapple with difficult financial choices in extremely trying circumstances. Let us seek God that they receive His wisdom and His grace, both in their decisions and in their personal lives.

Cheering Them On...

We are having a blast watching the Olympics at our house.  On Sunday night we watched Alexandre Bilodeau win Canada's first gold on home soil.  What an exciting moment.  As I it happened, I thought, this is a defining moment.  You just won't forget where you were when you saw or heard about it.  Then it happened again yesterday.  Maelle Ricker took gold in Snowboard Cross.  If the snow holds and we can score a few more golds on Cypress, a good headline for the Province would be 'Gold Rush on North Shore'. 

I love watching the crowds.  Every time a Canadian athlete is announced the red-clad crowd erupts with a loud and extended cheer. It reminds me of what happens in heaven every day.  Hebrews tells us that there is a great cloud of witnesses (fans) cheering us on as we live out our lives and faith on earth.  Maybe just maybe the population of heaven is really done up in home team colors and every time you and I face temptation, are faced with the choice of doing the right or wrong thing, perform an act of kindness or step out in faith in some way, a loud cheer goes up, led by the Champion of champions who calls our name and shouts 'Go your name here Go' 

Run your race well today.  Heaven is cheering for you!

My Brother Told Me About You...

I was at Walmart on a quick shopping trip and I was introduced to one of our daughter’s babysitting clients. The father and I went through the customary male greetings. ‘What do you do?’ ‘Where do you work?’. ‘Where are you from?’


Telling people what I do can sometimes be a bit of an adventure because I’m the only person in all of Canada who does what I do, so it generally requires some explanation. Given that I was standing in an aisle at Walmart, I fully expected to be providing the LONG explanation.

I started by saying that I provide chaplaincy services to MLA’s and then watched his facial expression to see how much additional explaining would be necessary.

You can imagine my surprise when he said, ‘My brother told me about you.’

His brother is an MLA and while I’ve met him on several occasions, I can’t say that I ever felt as though it was ever much more than a polite greeting in a crowded room.

When I asked what his brother had told him, I was even more surprised. He said that his brother was aware that we were praying for him and others on a daily basis and that their staff regularly checked the daily prayer blog to see who we were praying for and what we were praying about.

I hope this is a tremendous encouragement to you. It’s important for us to know that our prayers are having an effect and an impact on the lives of those we are seeking to bless.

I want invite and encourage you to pray along with us. We send out a daily email each Monday to Friday. Each email features a personalized prayer for different MLA. The prayers are short and simple so that you can pray them whenever you see them. You can join our daily team by subscribing at www.praybc.blogspot.com and clicking on the feedblitz button on the upper right side.

That's It.... I'm calling Santa....

Barb and I went to Walmart last night.  It was everything you might expect it to be on Dec 23.  Apart from a few elbows and eye pokes, we escaped relatively unscathed...

As we were leaving, a little boy was having a bit of a melt down outside the front door.  His mom was exasparated.  His mom,  trying to gain control of the situation, pulled out her cell phone and said 'That's it... I'm calling Santa...' As you can imagine, the added stress for the little guy, put him over the brink and he completely lost it.  What had been a mild disturbance became a full blown scene that caused heads to turn...

The little guy began to scream 'NO!!!!' at the top of his lungs. Mom's only response was... 'Okay, Okay ... I'm putting away the phone, I'm putting away the phone....' 

Sometimes things don't turn out the way you plannned, but they give people great blogging ideas.  This is one of those times....  I've been thinking about Santa ever since then and have come to the conclusion that he's really a rather fickle fellow.  Think about it.  Santa is entirely performance based.  If you're good, you're on his list.  If you're not good, you get dropped like a hot potato.  Sometimes he just doesn't show up, other times, he adds insult to injury and gives you a lump of coal in your stocking.  Sound kind of mean if you stop and think about it.

I think that the worst thing about Santa is that he's a poser.  He's worked very hard to position himself as the central character of Christmas, but everything he represents is contrary to what Christmas is really all about.
Without getting preachy, here's something for you to think about...

1.  Santa appears once a year.  Jesus is with us every day.
2.  Santa only shows up when you meet his criteria.  Jesus does not treat us as we deserve.
3.  Santa comes into your chimney.  Jesus changes your life.
4.  Santa says 'Ho, Ho, Ho' Merry Christmas.  Jesus says 'I am the way. The truth and the Life'
4.  Threatening to call Santa on a cell phone freaks kids out.  Telling your kids that you are going to talk to Jesus calms the down.  AND.... .  You can talk to Jesus for free!

Have a great Christmas everyone!!

2009 in Review

It’s not hard to tell it’s Christmas which means it’s time to recount our journey over the past 12 months. Last January we attended MissionsFest in Vancouver as Exhibitors. It was a great opportunity for us to meet partners and expand our ministry network.



Our goal was to solicit support for our Prayer Initiative during the Provincial Election. We gave away hundreds of PrayBC mugs and gained many email addresses that helped us build the largest prayer network in BC. By the time we were done, we had over 2000 people committed to participate with us. 


In February the Legislature was recalled for the Spring Session. Election Fever was in the air and it spiked most afternoons during Question Period. We also held our annual MLA Prayer Breakfast in February with an excellent response from MLA’s. Our speaker was Mark Buchanan from Duncan. He did an excellent job for us.


March included some travel time and generally just getting ready for the election campaign that would happen through April and early May.


The election was called in early April and PrayBC kicked into high gear. For every day of the campaign we sent out a daily email to all of our prayer partners. On most days, over 2000 people opened our email and prayed along with us. Through the election, we held provincial conference calls that were also very well supported. We believe that in the last year PrayBC has become the largest Prayer Network in British Columbia. PrayBC continues to be a vital part of what we do by providing prayer support for MLA’s on a rotating basis.  You can join our prayer network by clicking here.


In June, Tim attended the swearing in of the Cabinet and was able to connect with many of the newly appointed ministers. It was an important day for the ministry.


July and most of August was spent in ministry travel. On August 25th we celebrated another significant ministry first by leading a prayer gathering on the lawn of the Legislature during the Throne Speech. Mixed in with the protestors were many prayer walkers who had come to seek God’s blessing on the new government and the new session. You can see a video presentation of the event on YouTube by searching PrayBC. It was a powerful day!


The August start date resulted in the longest fall session in recent memory. During this session, we met many of the new MLA’s and reconnected with those who were re-elected. It has been an exciting privilege to pray with Ministers and members in their offices and to connect with staff and others as well.

We held our first ever 'Nation Builder' Fundraising Breakfast in October.  It was a great success and we are already making plans for our next event in April of 2010.


Our most exciting news out of the current session is that we’ve begun a regular weekly prayer time for MLA’s. We are thrilled to have established this weekly group and look forward to many more joining us as we continue to move forward.

We are so grateful to God and our partners for their faithfulness.  Two years ago we had many hopes and dreams.  By God's grace and your generosity we have seen some of those hopes and dreams become reality! Our vision continues to be large and we look forward to what God has in store for us in 2010.  Thank you for standing with us and believing in us!

Living Out The Real Meaning Of Christmas

Some say you pick your friends but are stuck with your relatives.  I am so proud to count Ken and Evie and their family as relatives that I would gladly choose as friends.

Thirty-four years ago, in the Christmas of the year they had their first child, Ken and Evie Hauser had the idea to leave their home in the suburbs and go downtown for the weekend. They would have dinner, spend the night in a hotel and, while they were there, hand out a few things to the needy.

For Ken, the visit downtown harkened to his past. When he was a boy, his father would take him to the Downtown Eastside every Wednesday night to the Gospel Mission, where they would help out. Ken's charitable impulse had been bred into him early.

"So we bundled up the baby that first year," Ken said, "and took the bus downtown. It was so long ago, I can't even remember what we gave out."

The years passed. The Hauser family grew. There was a second child, and a third child and a fourth.

And as the family grew, so did the annual Christmas trip. Each child meant another conscript for the weekend outing, and each was incorporated into it in his or her turn. And as Ken's father had taught him the worth of giving, so he and Evie taught their children. They took to the streets as a family, and the things they carried with them and gave away grew as they did.

"We'd make up some sandwiches and take those down," Ken said, "and we'd hand out things like gloves and socks and good warm coats. Most of the clothing was our own used clothing, but they were never throwaways. We always made sure that it was clothing that was in good shape and that we could still wear it."

There were lean years. Ken worked in a construction firm, and in the recession of the early 1980s, his firm declared bankruptcy.

"We knew charity then ourselves," Ken said. "There would be the knock on the door at night, and the boxes of food left on the front porch, because we would have trouble feeding our own kids.

"But I had a wife who loved and supported me, and my children, and my faith, and even though we were going through bankruptcy I found out that money is not all that it is supposed to be. Yes, you need it and yes, it puts food on the table. But we found out that our wealth was in other things."

The Hausers kept up the annual Christmas trip downtown even then. His kids especially enjoyed it, he said, and looked forward to it.

"There was this older couple I remember, and they would dress up as Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus, and they had a dog named Radar. They were needy, I suppose, but the kids loved them, and while other kids would be in the department stores waiting to sit on Santa's knee, our kids would be looking forward to seeing this couple out on the street."

As the years passed, Ken and Evie's kids grew up and got married, and they had kids of their own. Now, Ken and Evie have six grandchildren, and they, too, have joined the annual Christmas trip downtown.

Of all of this -- the annual trip, the charitable acts, the kids' and grandkids' involvement -- I learned none of it from Ken. He appears to be the kind of man who curdles at self-aggrandizement and whose personal code of conduct dictates that charitable acts are done and not seen.

But those charitable acts were seen by a friend of the Hausers last weekend, when the family did their annual trip. In an e-mail to me, the friend wrote:

"Last Saturday my husband and I were having breakfast (downtown) when all of a sudden we spied the whole Hauser family laden down with bags full of goodies, bundled up with grandkids in tow heading down the street to find the homeless. The smiles and energy radiating from them was noticeable from far away."

She suggested I talk to this "remarkable family" and do a story on them, but when I phoned Ken, he was reluctant to talk.

"It's not a huge thing," he said, of the annual trip, "and we don't like to think of it as a huge thing. It's just something we like to do as a family."

But his grandkids had come to love it, too, he said, and they were learning, as his own children had, the charitable impulse that he had learned as a boy. They looked forward to the weekend all year, he said, and the older grandkids had started volunteering in the soup kitchens at their churches.

"I think we try to teach them that Christmas is more than just about getting gifts; it's about giving, too. But listen," he said, "if you're going to write this, I don't want this to be about us. If somebody through this can be inspired to go down and help out, that'll be enough."

This last weekend went well, he said. He and the family spent some of Friday night on the streets, and all of Saturday, and some of Sunday morning. Almost always, he said, the people he meets and talks to are appreciative. This year, they gave out things like Tim Horton's gift cards, and bags of chips, and mandarin oranges, and clothes. In the tougher areas of the Downtown Eastside, like dark alleyways, only he and his boys would venture down them, but even there, he said, they never ran into trouble. He had given out shoes to men who were barefoot, and socks to a man wearing nothing but plastic bags on his feet and gloves to men whose hands were raw with cold.

"And there was this young girl last year who really affected me. She was sitting on the sidewalk in the cold, and I asked her if she was okay, and if she had a home to go to, and she said, 'I can't go home.' And I asked her why, and she said because her father abused her."

At this point in our conversation, Ken started to cry as he told this, and he excused himself.

"I'm sorry," he said, "but as a father, it just tears me apart."

This year, he said, he and Evie had talked about not doing the trip, because the recession had been tough on the construction business. And treating the whole family to dinner out and putting them up for a weekend at the Wall Centre was a big bill -- although the hotel, in its own act of kindness, had been discounting their rooms since they found out why the Hausers were staying downtown. ( "I think we must be the only guests that arrive at the Wall Centre with plastic garbage bags filled with stuff," Ken said.)

But they decided to bite the bullet, Ken said, because money spent on the family and on helping those who needed it was money better spent than on any financial investment.

I asked him what it cost him to do it all, and he told me, and I said that he must be fairly well off.

"I am," he said, and then he said he was talking about the riches his family and faith brought him, not his bank account.