an answer

So yesterday i checked my mail box at school and found one envelope inside. I pulled it out, read it and found that i had been awarded a scholarship for $2500. I tried to hide my excitement and managed to run into the bathroom before dancing around like an idiot. This was very timely as i've been thinking about going back to work at camp this summer, but wondering how i would ever get enough money for school next year.



Not only is this an answer to my current need, but its an answer to a long-standing question i've had of God. That question is "what the heck?". Let me backtrack. I went to Briercrest College right out of high school and began by degree in youth ministry. I got a $2,500 grant for use in the second semester, but at the beginning of December all of a sudden i began to feel that i shouldn't be there anymore. This was wierd because up till then i had really been enjoying it. It was even more wierd because moving would mean giving up the grant. Thats like throwing away free money and that just didn't make sense. So i prayed. I prayed more and harder than i had ever prayed in my life. And after weeks there were no real concrete answers about why i was supposed to do this. Just that i was. God wanted me to be back home. That was his will for me, and it was worth more than $2,500. I had enough of a peace about it to follow through on that, so i packed up my stuff and came home.



For the year following that i was really puzzled over the whole thing, and could not see why God had told me this. Life back home sucked. I was expecting immediate signs of why i was supposed to be here, and got none. A year later i ended up getting a position in the youth ministry at my church and things picked up. I think that had alot to do with God calling me back home. But this money i received last week reminded me of this whole process that i had just kind of forgotten. Woah, i mean... it really floored me when i thought about that whole story. God just kind of smiled and said "Denver, I'm taking care of you".




Sometimes God asks his people to do crazy things, crazy things that don't make sense. Often theres a cost involved in chasing after those crazy things. But He will always take care of you. Most of the time i'm really caught up in myself, but its times like these where i'm able to see a glimpse beyond my small plans and worries, and catch what God is doing. His plan is huge, and its detailed and He is in control. Praise him.



(A cool movie about faith and money is called Millions. If you haven't seen it, see it. Its pretty liberal, pretty funny, and pretty awesome.)

how one of the coolest bands just got cooler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b13rc6DY74A

This is the best music video i've ever seen. What is shocking is that its by a Christian band. That makes me happy. Its filmed backwards (which isn't the first of its kind), but also includes body paint, sticky notes, silly string, gymnastic antics, tunneling through a kick drum and destroying a keytar. It doesn't get much cooler than that.



I hope you like it too.



I had the chance to see them live at Warped Tour last summer and they blew me away. I suppose being able to play along with them as they passed a guitar out into the crowd certainly helped to win me over as a fan.



Here's a picture:

gum under desk

Today for the first time ever i stuck my piece of chewed gum under a desk. I had never done this before and it took a fair degree of persuading myself to just do it. After nervously panning the room i pulled it from my mouth, rolled it into a ball and pancaked it to the bottom of my study carousel. I made sure to put it right in the corner so nobody will end up with it on their jeans (unless they have really pointy knees). I'd like to think this is a one-time thing, and i just needed to see for myself what it's like, but i realize this is a slippery slope. So really i don't know where i'm going to go from here. Hopefully its to the garbage can to dispose of my chewing gum, or if not that, just swallowing it, but i guess i don't know... it might happen again. So keep an eye out, look under that desk you sit at every day... you just might find my piece.

What do you do with your gum when its done?

Building Hope

This reading break i spent building a house for a family in Mexico. This wasn't my first time making such a trip, but it seems like every time i go my eyes are opened to new things. The first time i was priveleged enough to make this pilgrimage my motives were quite different. At 15 i was more stoked on the fact that i got to travel outside of cold bitter winter Canada, i would get to go to Disneyland, and most importantly, there would be a bunch of cute girls. I returned home that year with a heightened sense of independence, a sunburn, and a pipe purchased on the market. Six trips later i still find myself lathering on the aloe vera gel and purchasing market pipes (now for smoking more legal substances), but my head and heart have been turned around. It wasn't till my grade 12 year (trip #3) that i realized that these trips couldn't be just about the Mexicans. There was too much money, time, and man hours, spent far too inefficiently. This trip was designed as a mission to someone else... me. Before, i had felt so great about what i was offering to this Mexican family, how they must really need what i had to offer to change their lives. But no... that's backwards. It's me who needs help, its me who had so much more to gain from a trip like this, its me who received something much more valuable than a two bedroom shack. I live a life that is completely self-absorbed, i barely ever stop to think about someone else. I live a life that is so busy i barely ever slow down. I live a life that is so influenced by the media i barely think before swiping a plastic card. Going to Mexico is a breath of fresh air, it's a time to look outside myself, a time to experience the joy of meeting someone else's needs, and a time for my soul to be with God.

These trips are an incredible ministry to share wealth, share culture, and share hope. It's a really beautiful thing to see white kids from the suburbs interacting with Mexican families, each party having lots to gain from the other. I would highly encourage anyone who has the opportunity to be a part of a trip like this to go. Go! Don't reason your way out of it, don't come up with excuses or say you'll do it later. Go! I did, and it's changed my life.

Here's a video about building houses in Mexico... http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=124320390

Here's Amor Ministries website... http://www.amor.org/

Check them out!