the new look?

Imagine my shock of horror when I opened up my blog page after upgrading to the new blog. Its UGLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my poor baby blog. I guess my template wasn't included in the new one. Probably by the time you've read this, I'll have changed it all. But picture this, Text, no pictures, text, no pictures, and ugly! Hee hee.

Anyway, a much needed update to my blog:
I'll give you the condensed readers digest version of most of whats happened.
Got to Calgary, and had my bus changed to the faster more direct route to Kelowna, knocking 7 hours off of my original time. But when we hit the Revelstoke area we were stopped twice for a total of 3 hours for avalanche control. So when we arrived in Salmon Arm where I would have transfered to a bus to Kelowna, we were told that the bus had left and that we were to be taxied to Kelowna. So after a very tightly packed journey I arrived in Kelowna still 4 hours a head of everyone else's expectation.
The first week was good and bad for me. Good in that i got to see the people i missed, and bad in that EVERYONE who knew me seemed to want their piece of Dan and resulted in a PACKED schedule. It was good though. I missed everyone.
Got to go to my parents church (my childhood church too) . This would have been the first time our entire 9 person family attended at once. It was good.
This week was my relaxing week. Nothing planned except work. I got to go to a good friends house and give her her Christmas present and then make an effort to help move another friend into his new condo.
OHH... Christmas! what a great Christmas. perfect gifts all around and my parents went above and beyond to make it an amazing Christmas. I mean, does 3 i pods mean anything? I appreciated the family time the most though. I think I've had the hardest time adjusting to the newest sisters in the family because I was never home a lot, but this Christmas was the first I was able to really begin relaxing into this family again and not learning new personalities.


Not to sound mean or anything, but I GO BACK TO SK IN A WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I miss my friends there alot.

but thats enough for me. I have to work in 2 hours....that sucks....

The time has come!

Well, the moment we've all been waiting for has arrived. Dan is coming home. I'll be on the bus for 27 hours to arrive home at 11:00pm on Friday. Love you all and I'll blog more when I'm conscious.

Dorm Date!

I suppose I should say exactly WHAT this dorm date is.
Briercrest has a tradition in the Student Residences. Every year each guy dorm will ask thier sister dorm out on a dorm date. Then usually in second semester, it flips.

What happens during a dorm date?
Pretty much depends on the creativity of the dorm organizing it. Our dorm did a photo scavenger hunt in Caronport then in MJ. (I'll try and get some pics from that part up here). Then we all went to tim's because we finished much faster than anticipated. Our booking for the bowling lanes was for 9. We finished the scavenger hunt at 8:20ish. After bowling, we all came back here and hung out, watched movies, played games, and had FUNdue (sorry...i couldnt resist the pun).

Thats about it. Its just a chance to build friendships with the sister hall.

No girl guy date like you're all used to... Sorry.

Marked!

A quick celebration. Got my major youth min project back and i got 87% on it!! Got an encouraging quote on the front page!
"I appreciate the passion with which you've undertaken this project. You've developed a workable outline that should be successful. ...I like your direction and hope this thing takes off!"

I've got a few things to change before its fully practical, but even after I pull it off, it'll be far from perfect. See ya, Dorm Date tonight so i gotta get extra homework done during the day.

Love ya.

Dan's off his rocker

The insanity has finally reached my head. I took advantage of my extreme cold tolerance and took a challenge. Very similar to the polar bear dip. Its -23 with a wind chill of -33. Josh says, lets run to the point and back....with only our t-shirts. Now I wanted to do it with shorts and t-shirt, but none of them wanted to. So anyway, once we were all ready, 3 of us stood at the door waiting for the signal. It would have taken longer had I not jumped the gun and started running. the other two were discussing whether or not they should take a test run, or take it slowly. Well, If it was a race, i would have lost, they both over took me. But, i like to think i won. I was less fatigued at the end. AND I ran back from the point while they walked.

This sure felt good though. Its very much an exhilarating experience. I may do this more often...though as it gets colder i will dress slightly more. Gosh. I LOVE SASKATCHEWAN WINTERS!!!!!!!!!!!! must have been the winter walks my mother took me on as a baby....

BEAT!!!!!!!!

Hey guys,

I'm sorry i never finished my idea...I would right now, but we finished 4 sold out performances of our christmas musical last night and spent between 4:30 to 8:30 packing up props, resetting the lighting grid, packing up 10 very large speakers, and about 30 large roadcases of various chain hoist motors, lights, soundboards, etc. I'm exhausted. I barely made it through class and chapel.
But on the good side, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Rather than do these huge beasts of events for the tech stuff, I enjoy spending my non-existant spare time building relationships and meeting people. I went from painting the set one day, and ended up as stage crew, safety belayer ( we had people dressed as angels in harnesses clipped into hoists to fly them) , stage manager assistant, and personal assistant to one of the lead actors. I was also offered the PAID position of Lighting Assistant next year. But the best part was now I have new friends.

But now...to sleep before my 4 pm youth min class.

Love you all and i will see you in 12 days.

That aint cold!

You haven't truly experienced Saskatchewan until you've experienced a winter here.
Its SO different here from BC. Beyond the obvious lack of mountains, straight roads, and amazing sunsets, lies the most experiential experience you'll ever have. Honestly, its worth it. The last few days its the mercury has been dropping steadily and the wind has been picking up speed.
You'd think that -21C with a wind chill of -36 would be miserably cold, but its weird, I don't think so. And its not just me either, one of my friends doesn't bother to put on a jacket or an extra sweater when walking to class from the dorm, and its important to note that he likes wearing t-shirts.
My theory is that between 1 and -10 your body is shocked by the freezing temps and begins to revolt. Even if you add wind chill in there, as long as the base temperature is between 1 and -10, you're going to feel COLD. Now once it dips below -12, your body has gotten used to this abuse and begins to think that this is normal. So now cold doesn't really feel miserably cold, its just cold. NOT to say that walking out half naked won't hurt me as long as I don't feel miserably cold, it just means that I have to remember to dress warmer .
But back to experiences, when I got back to the dorm from Musical practice, I had this strange feeling that although i didn't fully enjoy the walk back with blowing snow in my face and no jacket, I had to go back out. And I did. Twice. Once just to check the mail to see if a letter from a friend had arrived. (I was saddened to find out that it hadn't yet) And then once to spend an hour shoveling snow. I really need to go to bed now and my room mate is getting a bit peeved at me for typing while he's trying to sleep. But I'll log back in to talk about frozen stuff, like nose hair, facial hair, head hair, snow, snow, snow, snow, wind, and other stuff i experienced while being outside tonight. Love you all.

Oh Quiet, Blessed Quiet!

Today I got to wake up later than normal. A full half hour later. There aren't any classes today, just a day of prayer so the day has been quite laid back. No one has to be up untill 9:30, so its very quiet in the dorm right now. Actually, people are JUST starting to get up now.
I've always enjoyed the quiet and stillness of the early morning and late night. There's something very calming and meditative. Even those who are constantly going and never slowing down to smell the flowers have tendencies to start off slow. I've found that the most powerful prayer times is in the wee hours of the night. Just me and God. No distractions, no loud noises, just authentic prayerful relationship with my creator.
So today being a day of prayer, I'm going to be doing my best and spend every moment of it in close relationship and contact with God. Even if you're busy today, Take 5 or 10 minutes out of your day, find a calm quiet place and just spend time with God. Don't try and do anything, just BE with God. Such a rewarding experience.

Love,
Daniel

Where's Dano?

Hey All, Sorry about not updating that much recently. I've been swamped with homework, extracuricular, and work. Welcome to crunch week of Miracle month.
I'll be honest, I haven't been handling the pressure and stuff as well as I should have. But there's a nice promise in God's word for people like me:

1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Not that I'm saying school work is a temptation (I haven't gone that insane yet), but even when we're faced with problems that seem so huge, like mountains, that we'll never get over them, God's promised that he won't let us be faced with impossible problems. There's always a way to get through them. Rather than trying to take the mountain all at once, take steps. Place your goal to that first ledge a few feet up the mountains. Take a rest when you get there, and then put your sights on the next goal. Its not going to be all easy fun and games, but its do-able.

This became real tonight when the stress got so high that I couldn't really do anything with out getting mad. A wise person pulled me back into reality, told me to take a break and go for a walk. Clear the clouds away. It works.

Now that I've spent more time on this blog than I should have, I have to get back to homework... Then sweet sweet amazing bedtime. *sigh* Thats one check of a goal to look forward to. Love you all.

Kelowna Youth Workers Conference - Dream to be reality?

Ok guys,

This is the first I've really publicly told anyone about this dream. As alot of you know, I've been doing some sort of ministry for a few years, and in that time, I've seen and attended many children's workers conferences. Not once, have I even heard about a Youth workers conference, much less attended. There is alot of amazing conferences and people in youth ministry, yet none in the Okanagan. See where I'm going? My dream, and possibly goal is to plan and organize a Youth Workers Conference geared for people in the Okanagan, especially Kelowna. I'm lucky to have one of the best youth ministry programs in the country here, and I really wish you youth workers could have access to the resources I do. This is why I'm bringing this conference to Kelowna.

It all started out as an assignment for my youth ministry class which required us to organize and plan some sort of programming for a youth group, or another youth related event. Then as I discussed my options with friends and my professors, I began feeling this dream being put on my heart to be molded and fired into reality.

In all honesty, I have no idea exactly where I'm going. I've never organized an event myself, let alone a conference. All I have is this dream and God. This is where you come in. I need your input, concerns, opinions, ideas, criticizm, anything. When this project goes beyond the scope of the assignment, I'm going to need creative, logistical, administrative, ANYONE!! I definatly won't be able to do this on my own.

Specifically right now, I'd like to see what kinds of workshops and speakers and things you'd like to see offered at the conference. And prayer. I'm gonna need alot of support to pull this off. But I know I can with God's strength.

MIRACLE MONTH!!!!!!!!!!

AAAGGGGHHHHHH!

Yup. Dan's just been hit by miracle month. I don't know why I do this, but I've been procrastinating this last 2 weeks. Now I have 1 essay which I had to restart everything last week because of a huge failure on my jerry rigged laptop. Lost everything. The professor knows, but I really want to get this done on time because there's no indication that I'm getting any leeway. I also have a theological critique to do on a 400 page book and I don't even know what a critique is.
Other than that, I had 2 conferences to listen to and write out outlines for them, but those are basically done. Thank goodness for the fixed laptop though, its saved me big time. It allows me alot more freedom to find quiet places to study.
Now that I've finished furnishing my room, I can take pictures of it after miracle month is done. I won't have much time for anything else. As much as I would love to skip sleep and meals, I really don't have a choice.
Sorry to all those people I wont be talking to this month. I want to get through this. Sane preferably.
The biggest thing you could do is to pray for me to have discipline in this next 4 weeks especially. Also pray for extra quiet dorm time after 6. It would help.

Gotta run and finish this essay. Love you all.

Mystery Solved

Got a little email today that explained EVERYTHING about the mysterious hard drive. I wont give out names and such, but a very good friend of mine felt that God had put on their heart to buy this hard drive. And the story behind it in their words is "It was pretty amazing. Most people on eBay don’t allow shipping to other people’s addresses when you have an unverified Papal accounts, let alone to PO boxes. There was only four minutes left and the item was in Canada." Just in case you were wondering. Got alot of homework to do today, so I'm cutting this short.

Love you all.

Surprises!!!

Well, so far, today's been very interesting. It was my first day on noon hour supervision at Caronport Elemenary. More to it than I initially thought. Here kids are allowed to go home for lunch with permission from parents, so theres about 25 kids from out of caronport that stay to eat. So my job begins with a form of attendance, making sure all the kids are there and such. Then from there I have to make sure theres none of that unsafe climbing, beating, choking, eating, etc. and make sure this CUTE little boy eats as much of his meal as possible (apparently he's on strict diets or something like that). Very good school, in the sense that there are not "bad" kids who misbehave for misbehaving.

The surprises today were, a letter from the Poo(h) Collector's Society stating my lifetime membership. (thanks Auntie S. from Membership Services) and a mysteriously delivered Hard drive for my laptop. Havent tested it yet. I'm half expecting it to disappear. But when a hard drive for a laptop arrives in the village of caronport from London Ontario, it does come as a bit of a shock. So if anyone knows anything about it, let me know...I'm curious.

NEW JOB!!!!

Someone is on the school payroll....Yup, its me!! Unfortunatly not as a teacher or anything like that, but I am getting paid regardless. And what better way to get paid than to stand on a playground with a full elementary school of kids running around you. I'll be doing noon hour supervision for the next week and possibly some after this week too. wish me luck.

Love
Dan

Such and Such

Some of you may have noticed my absence online recently. No, I'm not dead. I've just been super focused and super busy with school and extracuricular. I'm actually rather enjoying this state of constant focus and its accompanying feeling of achievement. As a result, I'll probably make limited IM and email access a general rule. Don't feel bad, I'll still be in touch with all you at some point and those of you who I call (with a phone ;) ) or snail mail, I'll continue to do that.

Totally unrelated: I just finished my most recent gem. Its not exactly a diamond. Its more like an amethyst (no relation to my friend Amythest either) still being cut. But I'm proud of it either way. Check it out. http://kidz-church.blogspot.com Its my childrens church site. (I made the tiger banner logo thing btw)

Peace

Winter, Snow, Cold, Wind...the whole package!

Well, Its here.

Winter has finally hit us. It snowed (however slightly) all day yesterday. By the end of the day, it was finally starting to stick to the ground. Its quite bizzare having snow this early when you're used to having snow in January. But I guess with lows being on average of -4 and dropping you're bound to get snow.
These lowering temperatures sure make me thankful that I'm only a minute's walk away from the academic building and post office. And thank you God, for giving me the dorm that's also part of the Caf.
Anyway, I have to run and work on my essay and other such homework.
Its open dorms tonight, which means girls running around my dorm (eek!), which logically means i probably wont be getting much homework dont tonight. Besides, I'm supposed to be getting my replacement computer today. Try doing homework when you got a new toy... Ya. about that.
Love y'all.

Pics and a story

Ok. so its been a week since I've updated. I don't have too much to blog about, so i'll tell you a little story about a couple of my kids, and post some pics (finally).

The Story:
So today for some reason, childrens church was canceled for my class only. (i was glad, all i had was last week's games, and an MA script) so when the kids came out to get their activity packs, I handed out some letters to the parents, and the packets and that was it.
I felt the need to go into my empty classroom and work on kids church stuff rather than go to the service, so in I went. Put on some kids worship music and went away at my planning. Later I heard a voice yell "hey Dan!" followed by the sounds of feet booking it. It took me a couple more times to be proactive (there's a grade 1-2 class right next door) enough to wait for them. Turned out to be the "bad" kids who refuse to listen to leadership. So rather than be Mr. Law and chastise them for being loud and running around the church, I decided to chat them up, let them know that I looked forward to seeing them next week and such. Amazingly enough, that worked much better than the other method would. Rather than the wall that I'm used to beating against, I saw 2 kids that wanted to be my friends. So, Prayers are being answered for me...

Pictures:

(reads: We Will Miss U)
My co-workers made a special last day of work for me. Complete with a cake and a huge box of school stuff.

Random picture of Zach's toy

Freshman Games
(thats Phil in the shark!)

Freshman Games again
(team pic)

"The 13 horned beast of Revelations"
(This is the FOH for our main chapel...if you heard it, you'd know why we call it the beast)

Saw these two girls playing in the mud, splashing and eating and such. And the mother was standing there smiling, laughing.

"The Point"
(or at least part of it. The cafe part is on the right of subway)

Sunsets here are amazing.

Seminary Wing (Bottom Floor) and Library (2nd floor)

My dorm

Entrance to Dorm and Cafeteria

More to come.................

Work in progress

GOSPELS
I've been asked to write an essay on Mark 16:9-20. These last 12 verses are in alot of the later manuscripts of Mark, but not in the earliest ones. My job is to explore the options, and essentially decide whether these last 12 should be included or not.
My first reaction was an indignant, "are you saying that part of the bible, which is truth from God, might not be true enough to belong?" Of course as I thought about it and did preliminary research on the subject, it became clear that it was a legitimate question. The things in Mark 16:9-20 are true and are backed up by the other gospels and it does bring up important points too. Discovering this, I abandoned my initial bias about the topic and decided to argue that these 12 verses are indeed part of Mark.
I hope to research the orriginal manuscripts to see if they cut off at verse 8, or if they wrap up on a 9th verse, or if its meant to continue. I'll also be looking at the mechanics of Mark's writing to see if he actually wrote the last 12 verses and when; the style, the characteristics, and the specific message he communicates about Jesus' life.
If you have any ideas about this topic or have stuff to contribute like sources, leave a comment here. I want this to be an awesome essay.

Youth Ministry
This is another one of my "gem" projects. I have to organise either a month's worth of youth programming (not just games and such, but what I'll teach and such), a weekend retreat, or a missions trip. I'm looking at either the month, or, if I can, organise a full youth Convention weekend. Much like spark or HM. Here's where I'd love to get the input of those of you still in youth, what do you want to see in programs, outings, speakers, bands, speaking topics, workships, anything related to either the YC or the month of programming I'm orgainising. You non-youth people can pitch in if you want. I'd love to have the voice of parents, teachers, experienced youth pastors, church leadership, etc as well.
Again, let me know.

Who am I?

On Thursday in chapel, the worship team sang a song that wasn't new to me. In fact, I used to listen to it so much before I came here. The song was "Who am I?" by the Casting Crowns. But this time, as the beginning notes rang through the air, I began to cry. Not the sobbing type, but the crying that opens the floodgates of your soul. I'd began a new form of worship the night before, where every word in the song, is a prayer to God. Not just a song, but a powerful prayer and soul song to the Creator.

Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt

Think about it. Even as I look at these words, my eyes fill up, because its so true. Who are we in comparison to God? We're nothing! Insignificant. Yet, God wants to know who we are. He wants to hold each of us nothings and take our hurt. Why would God love us so much?

Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are

The bridge says it all. We can't explain exactly why God loves us so much, but we do know that we can't do anything to get his love. God doesnt care what we do, what we say, or who our friends are, He loves us because He created us.
What a powerful song. I never realised it either untill I began trying to get closer to God. Prayer is the most powerful form of worship, praise, and communication to God. Scot McKnight in his book "The Jesus Creed" defines prayer as a "Loving communicaition with God." When I discovered this, I began praying daily. I don't go a day without this loving communication with God. In fact, I refuse to fall asleep untill I've prayed at least for those on my prayer wall.
I encourage you that every time you are listening to worship music, in church, youth, or even helping out in kids ministry, Pray the song as you sing it. If it helps, don't sing it all. Focus on meaning every single word you "sing" to God. It will change your perspective.
If you're into reading, Scot McKnight's The Jesus Creed is great too. Not exactly the simplest read, or spoon fed. But it makes you think and realise about Jesus' ministry and what he asks of us. Its only $20. Or wait untill Christmas, and borrow it from me.

In Christ's Unconditional Love...

Don't get me wrong, I love this place

It's thanksgiving weekend and the school has given us a 4 day weekend. So obviously most of the dorm left as soon as their last class was done on thursday to go home and spend thanks giving with thier families. Today the last of the basketball teams left to go home after their game at 2. That leaves a total of 10 guys who either live in BC or ontario, or are Americans who don't celebrate Thanksgiving untill november. I'll be honest, I'm lonely and homesick as heck.
I spent thursday keeping myself busy with homework, but mostly cleaning. Alot of the guys on the hall think I'm crazy, but I love organising and making things efficient. Spent about 3/4's of my day cleaning out 4 storage rooms which had boxes strewn about, bags haphazzardly stacked on duct taped shelves. Much like my room back home. Mom knows. After I was finished, there was floor and EMPTY shelving, and you could find things again. All this to keep myself from thinking about certain people back home, and just being home in general.
That was my mistake, doing everything at once. Now today, I am so sad, lonely, and homesick. I cant even eat today, homework just sits there and glares at me. I can't do anything really without losing focus as thoughts about very special people come to me. Oh, and to top it off, its a rainy gloomy day. Yeah, I miss home and the people there very much.
What are you supposed to do when you get off the phone with a certain someone, and find that it didnt help, that it only made you miss them so much more. Makes me afraid to call anyone else. I know, I know, I'm at Bible College and I should know that my trust and focus should be on the Lord who is my comfort, my best friend. But to say it and to actually apply it are 2 completely different things. Don't get me wrong, I'm trying to focus on God and take advantage of this quiet time.
I'm not posting this because I want pitty, or I want to make you miss me more. I really don't want people to think I'm perfect, or to think that this place is akin to heaven for me. Don't get me wrong, I love this place, but its missing 2 important things: home and people you love. I'm just another guy that God's called to learn. I have faults that I may never tell you guys, I've done things that only a couple people will ever know, I'm the furthest thing from perfect. What I am, is Daniel. Who God has made in his image with love. I am designed with a purpose in mind, with real problems, emotions, and issues. A work in progress.
So as I struggle to learn, and to trust God completely, I as that you pray for me, some comfort, focus, and a renewed passion for nothing but Christ.
I appologise for this somewhat depressing entry and also for the rambling and structurless writing.

I love you all so much