Prologue

Hey Everyone,
I'm excited to tell you about some amazing things that are happening here at Briercrest. Unfortunatly, I really have to go to bed right now. So here's a quick bite: Basically, God has answered prayers. Revival is coming and has come here, Almost daily now, I'm seeing the Spirit break down walls, passions for God renewed, and lives saved. So far, one worship service and one chapel have had such presence of God that the worship and prayer have continued on for hours. God's teaching us the true meaning of church and fellowship. Brothers and Sisters have a new meaning to me in this context. This isnt just a small thing, its growing we're hearing more often of people getting together to worship or pray informally. Its a common thing to see entire tables at the caf. praying together. I'm so excited to see what God's going to do. Youth Quake is coming too.

My earnest and desperate request is we need prayer. Prayer for people to be prepared for this working of the Holy Spirit, prayer for those of us who have seen and experienced and been broken down for God, prayer for discernment, strength, courage, and wisdom. I really believe that this is part of a wide spread working of God for the revival of the Canadian (and North American) church. Please begin to pray for us here. Have your friends and the churches pray for this too. I'm not sure when I'll get around to emailing the church about this and asking for thier prayer, but if someone could bring that up, that would be great.

Praise God!

Ok. So I'm getting distracted again.

What if unforseen things cause me to go back on a goal/committment/promise that was something that I had decided for myself, but not a bad thing to go back on? Take my decision that I would get through my college years unmarried or unengaged, for example. What if I met someone?
Now don't get all excited or whatever, because thats far from happening. But is it detrimental to my reputation or unethical?
Just a question. Leave a comment and let me know!

I have good news! What I was fearing to be an extended miserable cold turned out to be a 3 day intense cold. At this point I'm in recovery, dealing only with a cough and the occasional Kleenex. Though yesterday was insane. I had a pretty bad congestion headache which kept me from my lit and comp class (not happy about that) and ended up dragging my sorry butt out of bed for my first day of spirit formation (again. I didnt do very well the first time. Procrastination rears its ugly head once again).
Just about everyone made some sort of comment about me not being fully mentally present. How true too. My wit was very slow and at best, made little sense. My balance was definatly off too, as I had issues keeping 3 glasses on my tray in the caf. eventually breaking one of them. The day ended off on a good/bad note. Good on my part, as I went to bed at 10pm and slept through until 10am the next morning. However, because of that early bedtime, I went against the wishes of my RA's who, in the face of my logic and desperate logic, insisted that I attend the Hall meeting at 10. I don't know if I'll be punished yet for this, but I'm positive that I chose the right method.
Today's been pretty laid back, started with chapel, then to story time about the Greeks and the Spartans. Then later on a great class in foundations of church ministry, followed by my favourite prof in Christian Theo Part 2. Right now, I'm happily relaxing in my own company at the Morningside Cafe just outside the Moose Jaw Mineral Spa. Couldn't get a better place to people watch!

I'm sorely tempted to take on yet another commitment. I'm sure my mother will understand in a bit. Once a week every morning, some mothers with small children get togehter to have devotions, and they leave their kids (ages baby to 4ish) in the care of college volunteers. My friends are those volunteers. Only today I overheard them arguing about who would be on "baby duty". ARGUING! Over who would carry a baby around all morning! I could scarcely believe my ears. I'd be in heaven to be on baby duty. They suggested that I join them. So here's my dilemma: keep my commitments to a minimum and stay sane, or for one hour a week, care for and love a baby that no one else seems to care to. I dont know.

I'm back to homework now...so go away! Just kidding

Love you all.

Sick, Lethargic, and Misery

The last couple days I really haven't been feeling tops. I'm sure its only the typical cold, but it feels like a massive cold and more. Its probably time for me to be sick as I haven't really been sick for a long time. But everything is taking so much more effort. Even this (blogging) became something i didn't want to do. I'm hoping that it runs its course quickly so that I can enjoy my classes.

I appologise for not being fully faithful in updating this or being available on line! I've been sick and I'm still getting used to having a regular group of good friends who I live, go to school, and eat with. I would ask you guys to pray for me so that I can learn to balance all of these.

Don't worry, I'm doing really well and having a blast. Oh, I'm also learning stuff too.
Well i'm off to bed.
Night All
Love You
Dan

Just a quick update:

I've discovered a new sweet wicked awesome hobby. Its called: www.garageband.com. I get to listen and review music for as long as my little heart desires. I get to listen to some great music, and well, feedback on the not so good stuff.

Love ya all.

Dan

Irony or all part of God's Plan?: My Life in a glimpse!

Sometimes I have to laugh at my life. I honestly could not think of it going any other way. But seriously, there are some things in my life that are quite unbelievable. People that know me now refuse to believe what people who knew me then knew.

I started out unlike other kindergarteners, I always had issues with umm... bathroom and the use thereof and so calls home for new shorts were not unheard of. My mother says that I was almost held back from Grade 1 as well. My social skills were not were they should have been, she says.
But when I made it to Grade 1, I like to think that I was more normal, except that I had few friends except for the "outcasts." I remember Michael, I don't think I ever knew what his condition was, but I seem to remember that he might have had a mental disability. Memories of my impromptu birthday visit to the fire station for a tour. All Michael wanted was to meet the fire chief. Not the trucks or the hoses or radio rooms that little boys like me would have given his favourite toy to see. (Yes, My dad kicks behind! He was the one who wrangled this!)

I think I'm proof that God has a sense of humour. Look at my older sister as a baby: Quiet, sleeps through the night, all around good kid. Every new parents dream. Enter the delinquent. I was quite the opposite. Up all night, eatting, getting into EVERYTHING that was and wasnt tied down, and all around being a very hyperactive child that led my parents to hang signs around my neck pleading that none feed me anything that would give me energy. (Mom and Dad can tell you stories, just not the ones where I was naked please!) God must have been laughing his pants off when Mom and Dad met me. (Does God have pants?)

Fast forward to grade six. I still probably hadn't developed the social skills they were hoping I'd develop in Kindergarten. ADD was pretty rampant then. I spent much of my time out of the classroom and in the Learning Assistance room with one other girl and her aide. I think this was probably not so good for my social skills, but amazing for my academic marks. (It was also this year that I killed my teachers fish by naming them). I digress. This girl was Kelsey, an ever smiling, laughing, fun loving soul that I was very privileged to become friends with. She had epilepsy and was quite prone to seizures of various degrees and as a result of these and intensive childhood testings, she fell behind her age level in school. But here again, I seem to find myself befriending the social outcasts. Infact, another example was JD. I miss that guy. Didnt have alot of friends, and even though he was in grade 7 (which scared the socks off me initially) he and I were often found together.

You can probably see God's plan so far here. Here's this socially behind kid, who prefers to shun and distrust the main group of kids to his very few and limited friendships with social outcasts. Right through till middle of high school I fully expected to live the rest of my life like this and was definitely ready to embrace it full on. But then God started to change me.

I began to take an interest in the techies at chapel. They always seemed to have the cool job, with cool toys and such. And so I began learning the art of Audio. And as I began working more and more in this area, God gifted me in it and I began learning how to interact with people. Not to build myself a pedestal, but I began to be in high demand as I branched out into lighing and AV troubleshooting. Obviously, I'm getting TONS of practice interacting with people now.

But it was never until grade 12 that my underlying mistrust of many of the "popular" or "cool" kids was pushed aside and I began embracing the social majority. I don't remember the exact turning point in that year, but at one point, I had had enough of hiding, I wanted this year to be a year that i could say that I had fun with everyone. I know people noticed this, but still knew me as the "kid who didn't talk" or "techie" or other terms that likened to those who belonged to the outcast group.

Thanks goes to Dwayne Schulz, my Christian Perspectives teacher who challenged my class to share 3 life lessons in front of the whole class. At first I hated him. I was always afraid of public speaking and was able to talk my teachers into letting me do a one on one presentation. Not Dwayne. I didn't even have a choice to do it or not. So at the end of the year, my turn came and my heart is racing 700 times a second. I'm still surprised that no one could see me convulse every single time my heart beat. But I sat down on the desktop and put my feet on the chair (that was the only comfortable way to sit on those horrid one piece desks.) I talked about my first 2 life lessons, I can't remember what they were though, and it went well. Then I came to number three. Don't judge someone by what they look like or how they talk, etc. And to illustrate, My first words went something like this: "Most of you know me as this kind of person, quiet, pensive, and nice. But you guys haven't ever been able to meet this side of me" - at this point, I jumped up on the desk and yelled (well, it was more of a quiet yell) - "THE SIDE THAT IS CRAZY, RANDOM, FUNLOVING, AND MISCHEVIOUS!" I think I scared them. I mean beyond frightened or surprised, but as my teacher put it: "Daniel, Please don't Yell. Just sit down!"

I think from that point on I decided to bring these two sides of me together: the one quiet outcast geek side, and the loud, outgoing, friendly guy side. As a youth leader I developed a few more friendships with the younger youth and then the childrens workers as the years grew on. Getting my first job boosted my social skills quite a bit. Finally, when I decided to work at a call centre, I think I finally learned how people work.

Now skip a bit to the not to distant past before I went to bible college. NO ONE believed me that I was once a quiet little kid that rarely had friends. My manager once commented that she couldnt get me to stop talking! At this point I'm making friends right and left because the person that the two sides became was a very laidback, easy going, friendly and outgoing guy that everyone seemed to love.

You know My mother said it right and I hope that my friends don't take offense to this, "He has way too many friends." (http://http://runningwithsharpsticks.blogspot.com/2007/01/cruising-altitude.html -- Middle of third paragraph from the top). I'm sitting here stressed out of my mind because I come home for 3 weeks, and all of a sudden, every friend I've made decides to get in touch with me and wants a slice of Dan. Unfortunately, Dan needs a few slices to himself AND the fact that there's only 3 weeks makes the pie even smaller. So in the end, close friends were denied their pie, work ate up much of the pie, and only family and close close close friends and Dan were able to lick the crumbs out of the pan. Perhaps I'll blog about this further, but to avoid further distractions I must conclude.

Sure its ironic that I'm having huge problems balancing all my friends, when i had a hard time just interacting with people initially, but the more I think about it, I become more sure that its God's plan. God started out with a socially blank boy and planted a special sort of compassion that caused him to spend his energies with those who were not wanted. Then He began to build other qualities in like social courage, friendliness, and other things that made him relate more to everyone else. Now this once socially blank boy is now in college, hoping to work with outcasts like himself. I honestly cant see this going any other way. I would not be as effective working with inner city kids and less privileged kids had I never learned how to socially interact with people. Nor would I have cared about these kids had I been socially endowed before I learned to value those who are rejected. I'm sure I could write on and on about this, but I know my point is made. I am a wierd, crazy, eccentric, friendly, loving, and caring outcast of a friend who desires nothing more than to let people know that at least one person loves them. I am Daniel. I am who God created me to be and desires me to be and nothing more or less.

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