TREVOR'S WRITING

Today I started something that I have been talking about for years. It all began when I was a youngster. I remember looking at my uncle and noticing a funny shaped round belly on an otherwise very skinny frame. To me it reminded me of a skinny pregnant woman. I remember realizing that I have a similar build and I remember hoping that I would never wind up with that crazy shape. I am 34 now, and though I would probably still be considered tall and skinny, I am starting to lose the skinny part of that distinction. People used to often say things like, "how do you eat so much, and stay so thin?" Now they say, "how do you eat so much?" I have noticed that I am starting to get the round belly that my uncle had, and horror of horrors I am starting to grow two things on my chest that only belong on women. Yes, man-boobs! The breaking point came this weekend, when I was at a Vikings game in Minneapolis (they won, woohoo ), I realized that when I was climbing the stairs at t...

"The Event" happened in our family and it forced us to think about greed. I won't tell you what "The Event" was, but let's just say that one of our kids did something that will be regretted for a long time. However, this action has lead us to consider what we are teaching our children about greed. The first thing we thought of was all the things that we allow our kids to do. We let them play Webkinz, where the whole idea is making money to spend on stuff...we let them stare at the Sears Wishbook for hours on end so they can drool over all the things they want...we let them look at websites online that basically exist to sell them things...we take them to stores just to look at toys...we buy them things. All these things, we decided, encourage greed, so we thought it best to put a stop to many of these things. We told our children that we would not be buying them anything for a while (at least until they are "ungreedy" as one of the kids put it). Wh...

This has got to be the best thing since sliced bread. Amazing! I found this on my friend Phil's blog.

This weekend we had a BBQ at our church. We invited some friends that we know because of Ben's school. It was interesting to bring them into that world (you know...the church world), but what struck me is that we have lived here in Winnipeg (Windsor Park specifically) for 4 1/2 years and this is the first time we have actually invited any adult friends to anything at our church. I have noticed lately that we are now starting to feel comfortable in our community, when we go to school with our kids we know a lot of the kids and their parents, when we go to sports events with our kids we are getting to know a bunch of the families there as well. 4 1/2 years seems like such a long time for us (this is a record for us living in one place) but we are really just starting to build really good relationships with people. I am reminded of a couple things...when we moved to Winnipeg I remember our Real Estate Agent saying that on average people live in the same house for 2 years...also, ...

We have three children...Ben (7), Hannah (5) and Owen (3). The first two I would definitely describe as skinny, but the words I choose to describe Owen would not include that same word. It could have something to do with the way he wakes up. Owen will walk into our room, anywhere between 6:30 and 7:30 saying, "I need beckist (that's Owen for: Breakfast). I think the first thought when he wakes up is, "I NEED FOOD!" If we try to tell him that he will have to wait for "beckist" he proceeds to completely lose it (explanation: he is the youngest...and we do think he is cute, he might get his way when he shouldn't...on occasion). He has been known to cry, "I NEED BECKIST, I NEED BECKIST, I NEED BECKIST...(and so on)" This whole thing has lead to some really interesting problems with hand-me-downs, you see Ben grows out of his clothes when they are too short for him (thank goodness for adjustable waists because his are still at the skinniest setting...

The Bible uses the phrase "God is love" (1 John 4), and Christians do believe that this is true. However, if you go to a Christian church you are more likely to hear what God doesn't love about us, or what we need to do in order to live up to God's standards, then you are to hear how much God loves us. My friend Graham pointed this out to me the other day and it struck me. If we look in the Bible we find a lot about what we need to do in order to become better people. If we go to church and hear only about what we need to do in order to become better people, are we missing something? Maybe we are. The problem with only hearing this is that it can lead to legalism and/or guilt. I think what we could be missing is the basis for all the morals and behaviors that are spoken of in the Bible. The basis is his love. I believe that God has made a way for us to be imperfect and still have a relationship with him. I believe that we can not do ANYTHING that can separate...

I am an impetuous person. So far in my life I have held 4 career-type jobs and I am 34. I like to start new things, but I have a hard time finishing them (notice the last post is in March!). I am someone who likes change, but I am never satisfied with it. We are on vacation and visiting my brother in Sexsmith, Alberta (you've heard of a goldsmith and a blacksmith...these guys work on something else here). They have a trampoline, this morning I noticed Nicky (my wife) lying on the trampoline soaking up the sun and I went and lay down beside her. We talked about life and love, and I really enjoyed the conversation. I said, "I could live in a small town like this," and we went on to discuss my need for change and new challenges. The ensuing conversation challenged me to consider something that I have been learning over the last few months. I need to learn to be faithful in the things that I do, not to always look for something new, I need to be content in the life th...

I started taking guitar lessons a few weeks ago. I have been playing guitar for like 7 years, but after learning the basics 7 years ago I have never taken the time to practice, so I decided now was the time to learn some new stuff (plus Nicky gave me the time as a Christmas present...woohoo!). So, I walk in to my first lesson in this tiny little studio and there is a young guy (maybe about 19-20) with long greasy hair, he is sitting there with his black electric guitar (with whiteout all over it and a few band stickers). He just kind of says hi and then plays a quick little solo (about 5 notes) on his guitar. His guitar is not plugged in so you can barely hear it. He says, "so today we basically (6 note solo) need to find out (8 note solo) where you are at (25 note solo)." So I start to tell him a little bit about where I am at, I show him a little on my guitar. He sits and listens, seeming antsy, when I am done, he plays a little solo on his guitar, and says, "OK...

What a great way to do a concert! I really enjoyed going to see U2 at the IMAX. I have never really enjoyed a concert as much as I did doing it this way. You totally felt like you were there, the sound quality was amazing the 3d made you feel like you could touch Bono and the crowd was lovin' it. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that basically all the concerts I go to I am going with a group of people that are at least 17 years younger then me, and apparently music has changed a little over the last 17 years. U2 would probably rank as my favourite (if I really had to choose) and I liked that they were trying to say something in the concert. One of the major themes was "Coexist." The "C" being the Islamic symbol of a moon, the "X" being Judaisms star of David and the "T" being the Christian symbol of a cross. Bono at one point sang the following lines: Some graphitti was written up on a wall not too far from here It says coexist Jesu...

I did a little illusion in church on March 2nd, it created quite a stir, so I thought I would video tape it and show it to you here. The "child volunteer" is Mike Kiewitt, adult ministries pastor at our church.

I have never been one to really care about my birthday, but this year I felt more celebrated then ever. It was actually quite enjoyable and did my ego well (or maybe not so good...if it was already too big). On Friday night we have our youth program and during my talk I mentioned that my birthday was tomorrow and there was a huge cheer from the crowd (I didn't even think they listened during my talks). Saturday, Nicky and I both got to sleep in because the kids were at my parents, then we went out for breakfast, came back home and had lunch with Nicky's parents who had just returned from Israel...it was so cool to hear what they got to do there, and to sense how much they really enjoyed it. Someday I want to go there myself! They left me a very awesome present, then I got to have a nap before we went out for supper. Having a sleep-in and a nap in the same day...that is like my ideal day! Then we went out to dinner and a movie with our friends Colin and Jodene (it was Jod...

This is the coverpage of the Free Press a while back: This whole thing bothered me quite a bit and so I wrote a letter to the editor that went like this: Dear Editor When do we care about the homeless? When they make us feel uncomfortable, or guilty. When do we decide that we should do something about the situation? When we realize they are costing us money. This is a sad reality of our culture. We are not concerned that there are 38 people who obviously are in a very rough situation, who really need our help…we care that they are costing us. By presenting the story the way it was on the cover of the Winnipeg Free Press, you are perpetuating this societal reality. The result of the cover is that people will be angry with the homeless people who are burdening us taxpayers. The reality is that we as a society have failed these people. We have not provided them with the support they need to beat their addictions. We have not distributed our resources in a way that helps them. I know that ...

Not only will it be my 34th birthday making me feel old, but I also had the experience of feeling old this weekend at YouthQuake at Briercrest. They always bring in some great bands, and the bands they brought in this time were some of our groups favourites. Family Force 5 and Disciple . They were so pumped! I have listened to their music a little, but when it came time for the concert and the music started pumping out of the mass of speakers so loud that my pants shook because of the subwoofers, my head immediately began to ache and I kind of laughed to myself. The antics on stage were sort of comical to me. I got in there in the mosh pit and had a good time, but the thing that made me realize that I was getting old was that I really don't like the music that youth like anymore (sorry to any of my YQ friends that are reading this)! That doesn't really bother me though, I really appreciated that they were having a good time, so I did too. Here is a video of some of it (mostly...

I just started reading this book called The Truth about Social Justice. I think it is going to be amazing. The author talks about how we should advocate for people who are poor or on the margins of society, because they often don't have people looking out for them. This could perhaps include political advocacy, but could also include personal advocacy. Here is an example that came to mind for me: If I had a son, who got addicted to drugs (I hope this does not happen, but it is not out of the realm of possibility given what kind of Father he has to live with). I would do my best to love him (probably with some tough love, and with some soft love) I would fight for him, I would strongly encourage him to quit, and I would do what I could to help him. If he decided he wanted to quit, I would probably help him out, probably paying for and supporting him in the time he needed in Rehab and whatever else he needed. The problem is, that there are many people out there who do not have ...

I was looking for some pictures and came across these ones instead. ht: Jon Enns

A few weeks ago I decided to go to a downtown Winnipeg mission for lunch to try and understand what that is like and to get to know some people down there. I wrote a sort of journal entry that I wanted to share with all of you, here it is: Just came back from am inner-city mission where I went “undercover” for a while. This morning during my morning prayer and reading time I decided that I should go there and pose as a customer in need of food and just sit around and visit with people. This morning, I went outside, shoveled the driveway (big snow storm last night), got dressed in an old jacket and some older jeans, drove the boys to school, went to church, looked after a few emails, and took care of some other business and went to the downtown library to do some work on some talks I needed to prepare. All morning I was trying to talk myself out of going, so I had built in a little accountability. I told Nicky that I was going to do this, then at the office, I told Pastor Ron that I w...

I was pointed to an interesting discussion by one of the youth in my Church (thanks Dustin)between a bunch of young people discussing whether God or Science is the answer. The discussion can be found here (if you have a Facebook account), but I will warn you there are 96 posts at the time I am publishing this. There are so many interesting comments, but I wanted to share with you a little of what happened. This was the discussion starter: i wondered...is science wrong???or is god wrong???i believe in god, but what i'm wondering, is that how come that science is more believable than god? whats the difference? (have pity i'm 14 years old) science was created by mankind... so how come mankind isn't wrong?we've been wrong before... tons of times hell we may even be wrong about everything...haha just realized science made computers...but still... we think the big bang made everything, and it did...it also made godBTW!!! god didn't make mankind... if you've been to c...

I preached at my church on Sunday. A couple people have asked about getting the mp3 of it...so here it is. DOWNLOAD FILE (just click on Request Download Link, then click on Download File) Basically I preached what I blogged here .

A friend of mine recently put up this great blog. It is a conversation between an adult and a youth. It totally captures the generation gap that I see quite often. Check it out here .

Owen, our 2 year old son, was singing a song the other day, that I was not able to recognize for the first while (he is 2 after all - and makes up most of the lyrics), but I really cracked up when he got to the chorus. All I could hear was, "hmmm, hmm, la, la, la, pa rumble bum bum ." Fart jokes are always funny right?