Hey, just so you know I have shifted over from regular Blogger to the newer (and there for obviously) better Beta-Blogger .

How will that affect you?

How should I know?

But let me know if there are any problems and I pledge to pay vague attention to your problem and them promptly forget the whole thing.

See ya :-)

Okay Okay Okay!!!


Every now and again something vastly cool happens and you say...WOW!!

This is a WOW!!! moment for me. A piece of history is for sale!

The S.S. Minnow is for sale!

Not the wreck that was on Gillian's Island beach, but the actual ship from the opening credits.

Growing up I had more than my share of T.V. and I had many shows that I loved to watch. But Gilligan's Island was a special one for me. I really identifed with Gilligan. We both made mistakes all the time, we both tried hard to please but often messed up through over-exhuberence, and we both were trapped on a deserted Island with two beautiful women and many chaparones. Well... okay maybe not that last one, but you get my drift (drift!!! Note the cool nautical reference). So now here is the original boat for sale.

Gosh. Its so cool that I could actually own that (if I had the $99,000) in real life. And yet, how sad it would be if I did.

If I owned it I would be ticked off at it quite a bit. Its a 46 year-old boat. And if you know anything about boats, then you know full well that a brand new boat costs money on a daily basis, so a 46 - year- old boat is going to be (as the saying goes) a hole in the water into which you throw money.

The thrill of the fantasy would be gone. It would be a real deck under my feet. I would have to get the hull scraped and cleaned regularly or do it myself. I would have to pay for fuel, repair the hull (its wood..trust me) service the equipment.

Fantasy doesn't hold up well in the light of day, or on a day to day actual living-type situation.

Maybe thats why I appreciate God so much. He isn't fantasy. He doesn't misrepresent Himself. Jesus has "been here and done that" as the saying goes (I like that phrase...as the saying goes...). Jesus knows what life is about from our perspective as well as from the perspective of the divine creator and sustainer of all. Day in and Day out, He is the same.

He doesn't change His mind, He doesn't look really great out in public and then fall apart in private.

God is cool for that very reason. He doesn't put on for others. He is God. He loves me, He knows when I have messed up big time and still loves me.

The S.S. Minnow would be a cool thing to see, to sail. But God is with me forever, and thats MUCH longer than a three hour tour (a three hour tour).

See ya

Okay, admittedly 3 months is a long time between blogs...but not the longest. What has been happening?

Well lets see.

I finsihed my job with Halifax Regional CAP Association, I have been looking for other work(over 400 resumes served), did two weddings in New Brunswick (that was GREAT!!!) had discussions with a Church in Montana regarding employment, but I thought it would be too expensive to live there, our son graduated with honours from High School, our daughter has her learners permit, Our son thought he would go to Bible College, our son decided he would work for a year first, our son has decided to go to Bible College (again) :-)

I was offered 3 different jobs, one paid enough for me to live in a box as long as the rest of the family moved in with someone else, one sort of paid better but had the potential to make me a zombie (this may yet come to pass) and the last involves working with Investors but requires a move to New Brunswick again.

I just want to be a minister....sigh

Anyway, this week I have refreshed my training as a School Bus Driver (contrary to popular believe this doesn't involve firearms at all) initiated contact with another church, fixed a tap, a flourescent light fixture and a hose, submitted a student loan application (for our son) made suppers, bbq'd, caught up on several friends blogs and actually updated my own.

Now we are trying to get things ready for our son to go to College in a whole different province..snif. If you thought I had a hard time at Randy and Sara's wedding wait till I have to leave him at Maritime Christian College .

I am open to suggestions.

See ya!

Okay , here is an experiment. Have you seen those freepay ads where they say that if you complete the terms you get a free ipod? Well I thought about it and decided I would like a free ipod, however I am personally opposed to giving out anyone elses email address to accomplish this. So what I thought I would try is this. I have it here on my blog.

http://ipods.freepay.com/?r=30260170


If you are interested in signing up for some stuff anyway (like the Columbia house DVD club, that kind of thing) and want to get your own ipod, then click on the link. Otherwise don't bother. This way if you want it, then you choose and I haven't given out anyones email address. Apparently I need 5 people to click and sign up for the program so that I can get my ipod.

So, if you want to, go for it. I signed up and I also signed up for the Columbia House DVD club. Thats me. Anyway, like I said , this is an experiment. I have wondered over the last few years when I have seen these if anyone actually got the ipod. Now we shall see!

So, how have you been?

See you later!

So here we go again!

My contract is up the end of next month, and I have begun a new job search. To be honest this gets old pretty quickly. Remember when you were young, and looking for a job was fun? I always enjoyed it. I have never had trouble getting a job. I thihk its a God thing really. Something always comes along at just the right moment.

But I would like to find something to settle down with for a while. A Church in the U.S.A. has contacted me, but thats a pretty big change, and I am not certain if its what God (or we) wants yet. So I chew away at it every day. Look at the lists, contact businesses, chat people up (as some British friends say) and wait to see what happens.

What do you think? Have any leads for me? Let me know.

See ya!

So April 19th 2006 was my son's 18th birthday. I am still figuring out how I feel about that. On the one hand I am very proud of my son. He has grown into a fine, dependable young man who has integrity. That is a fine thing. But, on the other hand, my little boy isn't a little boy anymore. I am not going to get all maudlin or anything thing about that (I do that in my head quite enough thank you) but it does take a bit of getting used to.

I had a manager years ago who was different from any other manager and he taught me some interesting things. He trained people so that they could move on to better things. He took in new workers and trained them to do the job the best they could. And when the District Manager would come along and want them to be Managers in other stores he was happy to send them off. Most managers I have known get ticked to train someone only to have them move on, but Peter said that that was the natural way of it. You couldn't expect someone to get good and then stay in a lower job.

Kids are like that too. We have them and grow them. They start out completely dependant on us for every little part of their life, then gradually they start to learn from us, then they figure somethings out on their own, and before you know it they are ready to move on to bigger things than being our kids.

Of course they will always be our kids, but still they have things to do and learn that are completely seperate from us. And that is a good thing. Its tough sometimes, but its good.

My son is always my son, but today is he more a man then he was yesterday.

If you want to hear a sermon of mine from a year and a half or so ago, here is just such a one.

01 - Sermon 1 Aug 8.mp3 (Semon MP3)

File by Bigupload.com

And I must say, Bigupload.com is pretty cool too. Keep us in prayer folks.

See ya

Well I have been internally debating how to do this post for a week or so now and I don't know if I am satisfied but we will see.

A couple of weeks ago the Dr. told me that I have diabetes. The good news is that I had gone to get my PSA count done and he had called me back into the for another appointment. For those of you not in the know, this is how they check to see if you have prostate cancer. When he called me back I thought I must have had a high count and that they would have to poke about more.

So when he said that I had diabetes I was actually relieved. Of course intelligence soon returned and I am not as happy with it as I was at the time. I must admit though that since changing my diet I feel much better than I did. (No "I told you so's" are permitted at this time.) I am more alert, I have more energy and am sleeping better. My memory is returning (I tended to forget things very easily and it seemed to be getting worse) and I am occasionally able to outwit my daughter again.

There are many things about diabetes that I am not happy about. The change in diet for example. I LOVE food. I particularly love the foods that I now must limit. Sigh...


Such is life. I now eat MUCH smaller portions than I had been. I am watching the substance of my food as well. Every morning I stick my finger and watch the numbers. All in all it could be a lot worse. So far I am able to keep the blood sugar at a reasonable level through diet, so I am not yet required to take Insulin or one of the other meds that can make up the requirements for continued existance on this plane.

Which of course brings me to God. Now some people might wonder how I can continue to believe in a merciful and loving God when I have been "smote" with such an unreasonable disease. And Some might have said that as well when I first discovered that I had Lupus. So here I am now with both and still praising God. As my buddy Ben would say "Whats with that?"

Here is the thing. Lupus and diabetes are inconvenient, but they both share a common factor. They really only kill you when you don't take care of yourself. Lupus gets you when you get too much sun. Diabetes gets you when you don't take care of your food intake. So the responsibility is mine.

God has given me a precious opportunity to show people His Glory and His Grace! Sure I have two icky-type conditions, but I have eternal life with God through Jesus Christ. Its like getting a splinter on the day you are going to Disney World. Yeah, bummer, a splinter. But hey DISNEY WORLD!!!!!!!! Come on, there is no comparison at all. Everybody here abouts is going to die. Some of us are going to die sooner and some later. Some will die in bed and some from bizarre accidents involving elephants and laxatives!

The point here is that to assume all is lost for me is ridiculous, God gives me each day, and waits to see what I will do with it. I choose to share with people that God is awesome and loving and that He is looking to give you what you need for a great life, both here and after.

God loves you

See ya!

Right, so here is the good news;


I have a job!!!! I am now the IT Development Coordinator for the local Canada Access Program. I will be working with a team to assist small businesses and entrepenuers in accessing resources to computerize their businesses.

Its a bit weird because its really the type of job that one of my other family members would get and I would be congratulating them about. But its pretty cool over all. Its a 5 month contract to boldly coordinate where no one has coordinated before :-) ( I used that phrase earlier today and I still like it)

The bad news is that I won't be driving a school bus anymore now, and that is really quite sad. I very much enjoyed the job and particularly working with the kids. All of them were fun, but the kids on the Special Needs Bus "S3" were wonderful. And here to you are the songs Spider-man, Cruelle Deville and Ghostbusters!

I will see you again.

Okay this one is simplicity itself.

We have an election on the 23rd.

If you are legally eligable, get out and vote.

See ya

Geoff

Ah Christmas...it heralds so much. The Birth of Jesus, the glorius time of hope and joy, great food, great time with friends, snowball fights, sleeping in..... ahhh!

Now having said that I fully recognise that Christmas and New Years can be a devasting time for many as well. People who have lost someone feel the absence, families that have sundered, and those who just cannot deal with the whole holiday-overwhelming bustle.

I guess thats what I want to talk with you about.

We all know people who deal with (or don't) depression centered around this time of year. And its often easy to forget that they are there in the hustle and bustle. They can easily fade into the background, washed out by all the people who are excited or socially active. That is something that we must be careful about. If we care, we need to make time for the ones who struggle.

What do we do with them though? I am not saying that you must "rescue" them. You don't have to cure them, and to be honest in many cases you couldn't. But what you can do is be there with them. Depression is a terrible load of weight, and somedays its a real help just to have someone sit there with them. Reminding them that they aren't alone.

One of the hallmarks of depression is an incredible and often insurmountable feeling of seperation from those around you. This isn't something that can be shrugged off. You wouldn't say to someone with two broken legs "Hey, just walk it off" but many people will say "Just get over it" to someone suffering from depression.

You may note that I haven't talked about people with bi-polar disorder as opposed to seasonal depression or situational depression or traumatic stress disorder related depression. Thats because there is, practically speaking, no difference. Remember I said that you aren't expected to solve their problems or cure them. Just be there with them.

It can be tough. Sitting with someone who is "dragging you down" or has trouble making conversation when you could be out with happy people or people who are excited and bouncy and festive can be very difficult and exhausting. But if you care for this person, if you want to help them then its something that you can do.

We all need to care, to help. Jesus came because we all need help. He spent 33-ish years wandering about trying to get us in a better position to accept a great offer, and He suffered immensely for it. All I am asking you do do is spend a little time this year with someone who will appreciate it.

Reach out and touch someone who needs it.

Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

see ya

IN response to some who read my previous blog the answer is no. I am not going to stop being a minister. This seems like a good time to explain what a minister really is. A minister is someone who serves God and cares for other people. There is not mention of pay in that description. You don't have to be paid to be a minister, you don't even have to be assosiated with just one congregation.

This leads us to an on-going problem in many congregations. There are many in the pews (or chairs) and only one or two behind the pulpit. That really isn't the way God intended it. Timothy's purpose was to train up the Christians to do the work of the Gospel. Thats what ministers really should be doing.

If your minister is doing all the visiting, the teaching, the preaching, the baptisms, the funerals and weddings, the youth and calling on visitors then both you and your minister are failing the Lord.

Imagine 1 or 2 people doing the work and 200 watching. Wouldn't more get done if the 200 were doing it too? Wouldn't the 200 learn more about the Lord if they were doing what He did? Don't athletes become stronger and more skilled by practising and playing the sports they work at? Christians do too!

People often tell me I am the only minister they know who tries to work himself out of a job. But its a foundational truth of Christianity that the people are to become better Christians by doing the work of the Lord.

Do

Its a tough word. Its an action word. it means to go through the activity so designated. Do the homework, do the dishes, do the yardwork. These things cannot be accomplished by sitting and watching. One has to get up and get into it.

SO...I will always be a minister. I will do the work of the Lord that He sets before me.

What about you?

See ya

3 Months, 11 days. Okay Okay, I know, I have left this for a while, but stuff happens doen't it, you get busy and let things slide.

Where are we now and what am I up to. Ummm well lets see, I have been working at the church, although that is coming to and end Dec 31st as my contract runs out. I have been driving a school bus as well and that is a blast! The kids have been great and its very enjoyable, alas it will not sustain us therefore I have begun the great job search.

This is the hard part. I mean I have to go to someone and say let me do stuff for you and you pay me. Its a weird world in that respect.

So now I am looking and trying to redefine my work parameters. Thats just means that I am looking for a secular job for the first time in 12 years. Thats pretty weird too.

Let me know what you think.
ttyl

Hmmm...its been a while since last we met. And here is why. WE MOVED!!!!

We (well we and the mortgage company) actually own a house!


This is so surreal.

We found this house and 20 min after looking at it we "made an offer" which, apparently, they couldn't refuse because they said yes :-) So to make a long story short we are moved in. The longer story involves tears and prayer and angst and agony, but the shorter version is easier to type :-)

So here we are, and here are a couple of lessons learned...

1) Trust God, He may not be early, but He is never late!

2) Count the cost, this is not just a nifty keeno biblical saying, its true! Figure out what it will cost BEFORE you get into it, and also make lists of what you will need to do.

3) Play lots of ABBA.

4) Lift with your knees, not your back.

5) Even in the middle of moving a piano, listen to God, He might have a better way.

So there you are, a few lessons learned and a home made happy by the Lord and my family. God is awesome in that He does what we need when we need it, not just what we want.

And a HUGE thanks to George McDaniels, our realtor and piano mover, if you are in the Halifax area I highly reccommend him .

See ya

Did you ever hear the old joke "Some days I wake up grumpy, some days I just let him sleep in." ? Well lately that could easily apply to me. I have been grumpy. One reason for this is that the sun is out, and has been now for three days. "What???" you may ask. "What is he thinking, how can you be grumpy with sunshine?"

Well I have lupus and that messes the whole summer up.

In case you don't know, Lupus is an auto-immune disorder in which special antibodies (which some genius named lupus antibodies) react to Ultraviolet Light B and attack the host rather than an infection. Now mind you I have the milder form of it, called Discoid Lupus. The more serious form of Lupus is called Systemic Lupus, and it attacks your internal organs. My form attacks my skin.

"Ah.." you say, "that can't be too bad." "Only the skin you say?"

Well yes, although I should like to point out that your skin is the largest organ you have. And it can develop into Systemic Lupus if not cared for.

Now what is my problem, just this. Sunlight hurts. If sunlight falls on my skin it hurts like a mild sunburn. It hurts my eyes. If I am out very long I get sick. Its not normal or natural and its ticking me off.

Imagine a hot summer day, now imagine putting on a jacket, hat and gloves. No I am not Micheal J. I just don't want to get sick.


Sigh....

So, here is the thing. Did you know that sin causes the same reaction in the presence of God? Its true. The Bible tells us that God is a Holy and just God, and that sin is abhorent to Him. And in His presence we become concious of our sin, and it disturbs us and won't let us be comfortable. In fact its a lot like Lupus. You see, if I take my medicine the Lupus is under control. Then I avoid situations that cause it to flare up and my life is a lot happier. But if the Sin isn't cared for and taken care of it can turn into a much more serious condition called Eternal Punishment.

If Jesus is your Lord and Saviour, then He cleans up the sin that you have accumulated and you feel better. And He will help you to avoid the situations in which sin flares up in your life. No more pain from the sin, and the Sonlight makes you feel better all around.

Okay so maybe I am not as grumpy as I was a while ago. Its good to remember that there are more inportant things in life, and that they can be ours for free.

See ya

I have seen a plethora of movies so far this summer and I have noted some things. Firstly its not a good idea to try to live on a budget if you want to go to the theatre. We went to see Batman Begins, and we watched it on the IMAX screen in Halifax. Wow! My head was buzzing when we came out of the theatre, my eyes took some time to come back to reality.

I have also seen the last of the Star Wars movies, and most recently the Fantastic Four. Am I wasting my time with this frivilous entertainment, well yeah a bit. But its fun. And there is learnable stuff here.

Not vast reams of deep stuff I admit, but good stuff none the less. The Star Wars movie showed what happens when pride interferes with repentance, Batman Begins showed that justice must be tempered with grace and compassion, and finally the Fantastic Four asked the question "What if we have been given these gifts for a higher purpose?"

These are the things of life. These are the things that you and I have to deal with on a daily basis. How do we back away from issues of pride to say we are sorry or that we were wrong. How do we confess our wrongs to others? When we know people have done wrong how can we judge without love, or forgive. And finally what do we do with what we have been given? What do we use our talents for? What if....what if God has given us our abilities to be used for something more that self gratification or self service?

Well my friend, the answer is this. We learn from God. He has all the answers, we just need to read the book.


See ya.

I watched a plane fly over head last night and thought it was cool...

I realised that I am excited to be living next to a city. We used to live on a small island in the Bay of Fundy, where there were approx 900 people. We had to drive an hour do do grocery shopping or even get cardboard boxes when we moved. We traveled to the mainland by ferry, there was usually a wait to get on the ferry, and often one or more (there were two) would break down, slowing up travel plans even more.

Now we live next to Halifax. We are hooked up to high-speed internet, we have restaurants and stores and medical centers nearby. We have several shopping malls, specialty food stores, hobby shops and tons and tons of reasons to spend spend spend!

It hit me last night while I was watching the jet fly overhead. This is cool. All this stuff is handy to us, we can see a movie, eat out and then fly to Toronto or London England if we want - all in the same night! We could go to a wireless cafe, we could stroll on the water front or visit a museum. There is all this stuff to do and its amazing. I see all the people racing about doing it all. Scampering hither and yon people seeking fulfillment from every neat and nifty thing around them. Kids go to two or three sports a month, their parents driving them. The kids take martial arts, dance, drawing, painting, and music. They have kid committees and kid boards... there is no end to the activities that are possible around here.

And this gets me thinking.

If this is how cool it is here and now, how much cooler is it going to be in Heaven? I mean my gosh, talk about being close to whats important :-)

And you know what?

I won't need to drive an hour to get boxes for that move :-)

See ya

Shazam!

I love saying that :-) Its important to do things that you love. Yesterday I got to preach again. I haven't really done that (well once a couple of months ago) in the last 7 months. I left a preaching position at a different church to come to the Family Minister position here at Hammonds Plains. What , you may ask, is a Family Minister?
A Family Minister is someone who works with Families and children. I am responsible for the "Sunday School" program, the youth programs in general, and over all the Fellowship and Discipling programs. But I don't get to preach unless Jerry, the Senior Minister, is away.

I miss it. I had been preaching for about 12 years when I came to this job, and that is roughly 1248 sermons comprised of 18720 hours of preperation. I really didn't think that I would miss that at all. But I do. Its good to preach, its good to give a straight forward message to people that addresses some need that we share.

Over the years I have had good sermons and poor ones. That is inevitable. I have had people say that something in the sermon what just what they needed to hear, and other who said I wasted their time. Such is life.

Here is the thing. If you have figured out what God has gifted you to do, then go do it. Don't sit around moaning and groaning about not being sure, or it doesn't pay enough. Get out and do it. Maybe God has gifted you with the ability to make really cool kites, or knit, or maybe make awesome pancakes. Great! Awesome! Get out there and do your thing for God.

If you aren't sure what God has gifted you with, ask your self these questions.

1) What do I love to do?
2) If I had no financial worries, how would I spend my time when I wasn't on a vacation?
3) When I am on vacation, what do I go to check out in other places?

A friend of mine is a Lobster fisherman. He does it cause he loves it. If he were worth a million dollars he would still do it. When he and his family went to Cuba on vacation one year, he went down to the local fishing guy hangout and helped knit trap-heads for lobster traps. He loves it and God has gifted him with an ability to serve others through lobster fishing.

What are your answers to the questions?

Get out there and do it!

See ya

Geoff

I am a games kind of a guy. My dream job would be to be a paid beta tester for almost any of the companies that produce computer games. Westwood would be awesome, or LucasArts...they have great games. I could sink into that lovely world never to emerge except for more Coke and chips. The thing is that unlike real life, games almost always show you the consequence of your action right then and there. You don't have to wait for years to see the fruition of bad or good choices...well except for the old Quest games (Space Quest etc) where if you didn't pick up the rock atthe start of the game then you were messed over at the end. In real life you don't see what comes of decisions for a while, if at all. You say something to a person and they are offended by it but don't tell you, they just tell other people, and thus you are affected. You pick a degree program that ultimately ends with asking if people want fries with that, but you didn't see that 4 or 6 years earlier.

With a game the manual tells you how to do things and how to make right choices in the game. The manual explains how things work, and importantly, how to save you game so that you can start over when you make too serious a mistake.

In real life there is a manual as well. We call it the Bible. It tells you how things work in life, how to make good choices and avoid bad ones, and it tells you how to save you life, and how to restore things when you make too serious a mistake.

Its been pretty useful for me, and I still get time for Coke and chips :-)

See ya

Geoff

Fine Fine Fine... Grant says I need a new blog post, so here it is!


Kids are growing up way too fast these days, and I don't mean it in a physical way. There seems to be some weird expectation that kids have to be little adults. I sort of understand the idea of getting a young kid a cell phone. You can keep a better eye on them that way. There there is far too much emphasis on kids dressing like their semi-pornographic idols from music videos. I am repeatedly astonished by the number of parents who apparently agree to their children dressing in incredibly revealing clothes. I know that I probably sound like everyones parents now, but hey, did you ever stop to think that they might be right?

Think about it

See ya

Geoff