TREVOR'S WRITING

Just got back inside from cleaning up some vandalism to our Church bus. This is not an unusual thing, in fact, when I think about it I can list a few of the vandalism acts that stick out in my mind over the last 3 years: people spinning out their vehicles on the Church lawn (probably about 5 times - and usually when the grass is wet and soft, leaving great ruts) 100's of people spinning out in the parking lot (especially the pastors) but one in particular that apparently lost control and crashed into the bus. Paintballing of the bus throwing rocks at the parking lot lights graffitti on the bus - my personal favorite because they crossed out "evangelical" and wrote "penis" so the decal then read "Winnipeg Penis Free Church." Smashed beer bottles in the parking lot - quite often Apparently last thurs. some kids were on the church yard on their knees while the police handcuffed them for "causing a nuisance" ...still not sure what that was. This ...

This last week we were together with my family to celebrate my parents 40th Anniversary! It is amazing to see my parents marriage. We had a great time celebrating it and just being together. We don't get together often enough. I was talking to my brother (another Pastor) about people who complain about church and all that goes on there. He said that it really frustrates him when Christians say things like, "I hate it that Christians are..." or "I hate it that the church is like this..." I was convicted by this. If you read some of my posts you will realize that I am one of those people. I like to complain about the Church and about Christians. However, I am a Christian, and I am a part of a Church...in fact a Pastor at one! I realized that I need to stop blaming and start taking responsibility, just like I said in my last post, "I am the Problem." Call me on it.

I was reading Blue Like Jazz by Donal Miller a while back, and something in this book has really stuck with me since then. I borrowed the book from someone, who had borrowed it from someone else, who got it from who knows where. But there on page 20 is a 4 word sentence that is highlighted (the only highlighting I saw in the book). The sentence says, " I am the problem ." Everyone (including me) loves to blame someone else for their problems, and few people take responsibility for their actions and yet here in this book is the statement, "I am the problem." We create unions, so we can blame management, we are activists so we can blame other people for environmental, social and political problems. We fire people because we blame them for the organizations problems. We blame the government for everything. We love to blame. However, it does no good for me to protest something or blame someone if I am doing nothing to make the situation better. Miller puts it this way: ...

Because I follow a lot of sports, I hear a lot about steroids. I am always annoyed when Sports Illustrated fills it's magazine with personal info and dirt on the people involved in sports. I JUST WANT TO READ ABOUT SPORTS! Maybe I am insensitive but I really don't care who Derek Jeter is going out with or whether Cecil Fielder talks to his son. Steroids is sort of like that but different...Sports Illustrated had an article entitled "Should We Care" about the whole steroids issue, I didn't read the article but I have often asked myself that question. Should we care if baseball players take drugs that eventually make them look like bobblehead dolls? Should we care if track athletes can no longer perform reproductive activities? Should we care if football players muscles are so big that they break their own bones? If these people want to do this to themselves then let them! But then there's the Chris Benoit story ...a pro wrestler who just murdered his family and...

If you can find Waldo in this link you are amazing! Turn up the volume, there is some good music going on too.

The whole idea of "Christian" music has bothered me lately. There is this whole industry that exists to produce and sell "Christian" music. It's as if the music itself could be Christian...I am pretty sure that music itself does not have a soul (well OK there is Soul music, but c'mon!). I prefer to think that music is just music, sometimes Christians play it, sing it or write it. What if Christians did not have the advantage of having Christian labels producing their music, or Christian radio stations playing their music and Christian book stores selling their music? I think it would be wonderful...I think there would be more "Christian" music on secular radio stations and in regular music stores. There would be Christian artists who are more prepared to be honest about their faith. There would be people outside the Christian circles who might be exposed to some good Christian artists (I think there are a couple of those!?). I think this would make...

We just got back from a week of holidays...a really great time. We went camping in Spruce Woods and then dropped our kids off at their grandparents for a couple days while Nicky and I got to visit the mall and hotel in Minot, ND. One of my favourite moments happened on our very first night. Carberry ( a small town near Spruce Woods) was celebrating it's 125th anniversary. They had a fireworks display and we decided to take them in. It was a normal fireworks show...actually quite good for a small town. Our kids loved them so much, but my favourite was the drive home. Ben kept telling us which were his favourite fireworks. "My favourite was the one that looked like...[pause as he considers how to describe it]...a water fountain...exploding!" "Actually my most favourite one was the one that looked like a squiggly spaceship from Mars, that one was really cool!" "Wait, the best one was the green one, you know, the one that filled my whole window (we were ...

Had supper with our friends the other night, they are people that we have met because Ben is friends with their son at school. They are from Sri Lanka, later from Norway and moved to Canada a few years ago. They actually have family in Sri Lanka that was hit by the tsunami and many people they know were devastated by it. As we were about to leave I had a real good discussion about faith with the father (good discussions usually happen when you are about to leave). We talked about religion in general and how God created us for peace and to care for one another, and almost all religious teaching is about peace and love...yet religion is often the cause of war. He is a very smart man and seems to have read up on everything. I really felt a good connection with him and a kinship in the way that he understands religion. They are a devout religious family who happen to worship at an Islamic temple. It's interesting though, I really feel as though we laid the groundwork to understand each...

In a previous post (called Speaking in Cambodia )I talked about giving an "altar" call in Cambodia and how I was uncomfortable with the whole experience...wouldn't you know it, my friend Dale has a post (check it out here ) that discusses that issue and says a lot of what I was trying to say (make sure you check the comments out as well).

Went camping with the College age people from our Church this Canada Day weekend. We had a good time just hanging out. Hiking on a trail... if you can call this a trail!? The storm from last weekend hit the whiteshell and this trail in particular. I always appreciate the way these people look after our kids and pay special attention to them. Going with Ben on "hikes", cheering Hannah on when she learned to ride her two-wheeler, and trying to entertain Owen even though he almost always cries. Thanks you guys for putting up with our family, so we could enjoy being there with you. I especially enjoyed the cliff-jumping and the little bit of rock climbing that went along with it, it brought me back and I felt as though I was in Alberta again. Good times...