Who is Jesus?

My friend Carolyn and I have a symbiotic relationship. She edits me university essays, I edit her videos.

Carolyn was recently speaking at her church and wanted to introduce the topic of her sermon with a video.

It's the end of the world as I know it, and I feel?

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Jill's Story

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It was a beautiful September day when Jill, Darryl and I took a short trip to the streets of Brampton so Jill could talk about what it was like to be homeless for four days as a teenager.

Why is this a story? Four days on the street in September isn't that long to suffer any setback, is it? But imagine if she was there for five days. Or two weeks? Or three months, growing more desperate and willing to give up anything for the necessities of life.

This is a first hand account of a rescue operation. Jill was saved from taking the wrong path in a fork in the road, a road that if she had continued down would have ended in tragedy. Instead, the experience has made her stronger and ignited a passion for social justice.

Today Jill leads a ministry in my church called 'Bags of Blessings', a Christmas time initiative that delivers care packages to the homeless in Toronto.

Relativism has never looked better.

I don't think I've ever posted an online quiz to my blog before. There's a first, and LAST, time for everything. I just find this so amusing. Amidst all my ponderings and wanderings through the faith, I've still managed to score a 100%.

You scored as Chalcedon compliant. You are Chalcedon compliant. Congratulations, you're not a heretic and you beat Jonny by 25%. You believe that Jesus is truly God and truly man and like us in every respect, apart from sin. Officially approved by the wonderfully clever Sven.

"Take THAT suckers!" - Michael Tyas

Chalcedon compliant		100%
Nestorianism		67%
Modalism		67%
Pelagianism		67%
Monophysitism		67%
Monarchianism		67%
Apollanarian		33%
Adoptionist		33%
Arianism		0%
Docetism		0%
Donatism		0%
Albigensianism		0%
Gnosticism		0%
Socinianism		0%

Are you a heretic?
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100% is great and all, but how about on the second pass I score 500%? That's five times the advancement. Man oh man, am I good or what?! Who knew heretics left so many options for improvement?? I actually had to go for a tie breaker, where I chose "Suicide is a good way to rid the body of evil."

You scored as Albigensianism. You are an Albigensian. You are, frankly, off your head. You hold that the good, spiritual realsm was created by Jesus, while the the evil, physical realm was created by Satan, who is to be identified with the God of the OT. There is no resurrection, and some believers will enjoy a reincarnation. Officially massacred on the orders of the Pope in 1208.

Donatism		100%
Albigensianism		100%
Docetism		100%
Arianism		100%
Gnosticism		100%
Adoptionist		67%
Apollanarian		33%
Monophysitism		33%
Monarchianism		33%
Socinianism		33%
Pelagianism		33%
Modalism		33%
Nestorianism		33%
Chalcedon compliant		0%

Are you a heretic?
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Narnia Rush

Narnia Rush

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I race to the theatre early to pick up tickets before the rest of the town get's the hint. The early bird get's the worm!

Winter in Canada: The Parade

Winter in Canada: The Parade

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My friend Renee and I were in the Christmas Parade this year for Orangeville, Ontario. The theme was 'Winter in Canada', and we were part of a 'Nunuvut Nativity'. None of you have ever heard of a Nunuvut Nativity. Nunuvut is only few years old anyways. Well, there were two Nunuvut Nativities in this parade. Our was lameHOMELY compared to theirs.

Renee forgot to bring anything warm so we had to stop off at the dollar store.

Stuck in Singhampton

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I feel like I'm entitled to an occasional splurge vlog. I present to you a 19 minute episode of my life yesterday. I don't expect you to lay down 19 minutes of your life if you don't have the time, either. And I won't feel bad if you decide to skip through the video to the highlights. However, if you do have the time, I'm quite confident that you wouldn't mind missing Sienfeld or spending Lunch in front of your PC.

Please leave a comment, they make my day!

It started out like any other Sunday and I had no plans at all. The wind was howling at a gusty 90 km per hour, fuel'd by a storm that had killed 22 people in indiana earlier in the morning. I made my way in to church and met up with Toni, Renee, Francois, and Steph. We sat together.

Afterwards Renee, Toni and I went for lunch at Swiss Chalet and we discussed out future married lives. Renee wants to be a Christian hermit, wanna come? My hat blew off in the wind, and I was lucky that it didn't get run over.

On a whim, I packed up Renee, Toni, Adam and Chewy and we went north of Shelburne to Singhampton to go caving and explore the caverns. Adam got stuck, and we had to yank Toni up the mountain to keep her from dying. Chewy thoght he was in heaven, and I had quite the experience lifting a dog in subterra cavities. We were all wearing Remembrance Day Poppies, but I lost mine. We had an immediate answer to prayer. You can clearly see Renee's butt crack in one shot.

It was such a great day.

Valancy Jane, The Lost Levels

Valancy Jane, The Lost Levels

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Valancy Jane reminded me that I had an interesting video clip of her apartment this afternoon. This clip was taken the day after I returned home from Portland, Oregon where I went to visit Imago Dei.

I'll let VJ do the explaining.

And if you're interested, check out the archive to my trip to Imago Dei in Portland, in chronological order:

Planning in the park
Greyhound, day 1
Finding Jesus in Portland
Imago Dei
Finding Vloggers in Portland
Poetry in Portland
Experiencing Mt. St. Helens
The Last Supper
The Long Journey Home

Total running time...you don't want to know.

The Last Supper

I return from Mt. St. Helens. I get stuck in Rural Traffic. I attend a barbecue in Portland and reminisce on my journey. I am lied to about Tony the Beat Poet.

Imago Dei

I travel to my new hostel. I visit Imago Dei. I meet Don Miller. I almost die. I visit Laruelhurst Park. I go star gazing.

Finding Jesus in Portland

You will see me wandering the streets of Portland, experiencing it for the first time. I find Jesus on the sidewalk of the most extreme left wing Democratic city in the world. I wonder about Imago Dei. I climb a mountain. I visit Powells and see signed copies of Don Miller's books.. I spill Gyros on me leg.

Why I was in Lesotho

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I recieved a comment yesterday asking about my interest in Lesotho, and why, how long, and where I was in that mountainous country. I'm going public on this issue.

As part of my school in Cape Town, South Africa, I was required to go on a three month long Culture Tour. The reason for this culture tour was to expand my world view through exposure to different cultures, learn different beliefs and ways of life, and an opportunity to share our own beliefs and culture. I know it was beneficial to everyone involved. We stayed in Southern Africa, visiting the Muslim and Indian communities of Benoni, and Florida, Johannesburg, for three weeks.

Afterwards, we moved on to the beautiful country of Lesotho. I almost wasn't allowed into the country because it was about the time that the SARS outbreak was an epedemic in canada. I only made it through because I could prove I had been out of the country for three months prior, thus I had no chance of spreading the virus.

My group of twenty was first stationed in Maseru for 2 days, where we had an orientation to the country, it's culture, it's basic language and structure. Cultural DO'S AND DONT'S!!! Afterwards, my group was split in half and ten of us journeyed to the heart of Lesotho, to a small village called Hanoha Valley where we stayed for 45 days.

We arrived by a very unsafe bus, traveling over very unsafe roads and mountain passes safely(Modimo! Kealeboha...ok, i can't remember the spelling...but that means THANKYOU GOD!) and stayed in a school/church. There was no electricity or running water where we were. We had to cook by gas stove, collect water which was a quarter kilometer uphill...and deal with harsher than normal elements like the snow that was on the ground ever day, and the constant cold. We were there between May and June. July is apparently their coldest, snowiest month. (Go figure, the Canadian get's stuck in the coldest part of Africa..."I" was prepared)

Despite all that was against us, I had one of the most wonderful, peaceful times of my life. For the first ten days, we had no interpereter other than our host pastor, who didn't speak english fluently. That left the days open to new possibility's for exploration, greeting new people, and day long quiet times of reflection and conversation with the creator.

Once our interpreter arrived, we were climatized, energized, and ready to take full advantage of our communication link between those facinating people and our dull selves. When I say climatized, I do mean it took us days to get used to the altitude. We felt weak and dizzy...gotta love it!

We quickly made contacts and formed new relationships in the community. We gave the pastor a six week sabatical by taking over the preaching and invested in new youth programs every other saturday, which drew over 30 kids and young adults every time. We enjoyed regularily going out and visiting families in the community, introducing ourselves and offering community service. I loved the people there so much, and getting to know them was an honour.

While we were there, a woman named Matuso died of AIDS. We had visited her previously on many occasions, offering words of encouragement, prayer, and bringing gifts of fruit and other nutritious "get well" gifts. We didn't know at the time she had aids, only that she was very malnourished and unhappy. We were invited as honored guests to the funeral and had a wonderful opportunity to share with the people how we knew Matuso. There was a feast afterwards; a cow was killed and it's hide was placed on the casket to keep the body warm in the afterlife, as well as a jug of beer was placed beside casket in the grave.

One of my best friends was Noha. He was heir to be chief of the village, but couldn't take on the responsibility as he was only 22. He spoke a little english, so that allowed us to move freely away from the group and spend time together, talking about life, love, future plans, and what home meant to us.

Noha guided a small group of us up the tallest mountain in the region on a day trip, which was fantastic! I had really felt God showing me that I should invite Noha to take us up the mountain, and upon reaching the top, we were to settle down for a rest and small devotional about commitment and following Jesus. So I followed God's direction and put the plan in motion. Everything seemed to come together as if guided by His spirit, there was sunny cool weather, little breeze, and Noha brought a friend Johan (both of whom showed up on time, which is miraculous in Africa). The hike was breath taking, and upon reaching the top we settled down for the small devotional. I spoke, along the lines of comittment, that we are to place our trust in Jesus and persevere, no matter who or what opposes or threatens us, to live lives that are noble and true. We are to live and love with one purpose; to futher the Kingdom of God and his Glory.

It turns out that those words really spoke to Noha, and that day he decided (he, not we for him) to re-commit his life, to live born again. He had been a Christian before, but had decided not to follow because of pressure from the community and inner struggle. It was truly God who directed me to speak on the subject that day on the mountain.

By the time we left, Noha's english had improved so much to the point where he was able to accuratly interepret what I was saying to his friends and family! There are so many other wonderful stories and experiences about my time in Lesotho, but alas, I don't think anyone would read them all. I do have many pictures though, and you are invited to check them out at my MSN photo albumn.