Monday, September 26, 2005

frustrations

Two posts in a 24-hour period. What is going on? Oh yeah, I'm frustrated. But I don't quite know how to put my frustrations to words quite yet. They were birthed out of a conversation with a friend about her experiences at a CRC church service. I had to agree with her in some respects (ie. lack of excitement during 'worship', formality, structure....if you belong to this demonination or have experienced it at all, you know). But what these frustrations became weren't about my denomination, my church, my tradition. They became a frustration about what I was doing in the CRC. I'm employed by a church of said denomination, I grew up in said denomination, I have become traditionalized in the sense that I don't question why we do things a certain way....well I do, but what do I do about them? Heck, James (the drumming one)...you know. How many conversations have we had about our church back home? Maybe the question shouldn't be 'what do I do about them', but 'should I be doing something about them?' And I think that's where I'm frustrated. I find myself frozen with fear when it comes to facing the politics of my church. I want to make sure everyone is happy with what I am doing. And I think this may be causing me to become a product of the environment I'm in...ie. I live for the fear of man, not the fear of God (thanks, Mary Ann for that realization). But what would happen if I lived out of the latter fear? What would that look like? Do I even know? Would God allow my frustrations to be an avenue of change? And I think my biggest question honestly is: Do I really care?

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Top Ten

So here we are, the end of summer. It came quick. Too quick. Out here, summer seems to slide into fall unannounced. Leaves simply turn brown and fall. No explosions of reds and yellows and everthing in between to declare their defeat to the cold. Just shades of brown before the rains come. That's fall in BC I guess.

Top Ten Things about the Summer (in no particular order):

10. Paintballing - first time ever. Such a blast. There's something in the male blood that causes one to enjoy pinging off the head of a 10 year old. Poor guy. He survived though.

9. Seeing friends from Ontario. Good thing swans don't attack, eh Caitlin?

8. Fireworks @ English Bay. Nothing like sitting at the very edge of the ocean watching the colours and hearing the sounds of a sweet fireworks show ...

7. Youth Camping @ Newcastle - a weekend spent on an island. Camping, cards, games, hiking, water, raccoons and deer ... fun all around!

6. Manitoba-in-a-week trip! Woohoo! Driving long distances...hanging out in the Butte, Regina, Morris, Regina (again), Calgary and all the stops along the way. Tons of laughs, good convos...

5. Youth Work Stuff - it was a busy summer...paintballing, waterslides, day @ the beach, fireworks, grouse grind. Tons of fun, awesome kids.

4. Days off - relaxing's always good

3. Learning Crib - who knew jumping little plastic pegs around on a board could be so much fun! Muggins!

2. Swimming in the Ocean - another first time event. Salt kinda spoils the taste, but hey...

1. Grouse Grind - 1 hour 15 minutes of hiking straight up. The gondola ride down definitely made it worth it though... next time we take the gondola up too...

Farewell Summer, Hello Fall!