Year of Blessing

I've been working on this posting since Friday morning... yet seem to get interrupted from actually concentrated writing time by more and more blessings! So, this may be two (or more) part posting...

I'm not usually one to "name the year" but I can only say that I very clearly felt the Lord calling me to "wait" in January/February 2006 and thus, I would call last year my "Year of Waiting." This year has certainly been the "Year of Blessing" (though I realize that every moment of every day is a blessing from Almighty God, that seems to be the best term for it). Obviously the most incredible blessing of this year was God bringing Sarah and I together in marriage and the amazing generosity and kindness of family and friends in celebrating our engagement and wedding with us. And the next most amazing gift is our little baby that is already growing and should arrive in mid-March 2008.

I usually get quite reflective at the end of the year, but it started a little earlier than usual this year as our new bedroom furniture was delivered on Thursday afternoon from Leon's. We purchased this furniture partially with wedding gift money and partially as M&D Ibbotson's wedding gift to us. MDI came over to see the furniture - and Dad patiently helped to move the couple of pieces that I misdirected the moving guys on (oops!) - and then they stayed for supper... after admiring how nice it looks! And that again reminded me of the blessing of our parents, who are always so helpful in these physical tasks that I cannot do, and yet both Dad I and Dad Hunt are so gracious and helpful and generous with their time and energy. They love to serve Jesus by serving others and they do it sooo well!

As we prayed together on Thurs night, we reflected on all that God has blessed us with over the past 18 months since we started dating... and I realized I should start a blog about this year. So, when I headed to the office on Friday morning, I began to think about the things to include in the "Year of Blessing" summary - Sarah, baby, family, friends, church family, new job, etc...

Yet before I could even get the computer on at work, I found in my mailbox more of God's gracious gifts... my paycheque in good time for the Christmas break, a Christmas bonus from Prairie Christian Academy Society, and of course all the friendly and supportive people I work with, and the students too! And then, just as I'm ready to put a temporary end to the list of gifts to blog about, our pastor and my dear friend Tim, shares a blessing with me/us too!

And to top it all off, I'm sitting here on a Saturday afternoon trying to help my amazing wife finish up the last of our wedding thank you's and I realize again all these people that gave so generously to us, not just in gifts, but esp for some of the people like "Uncle Ray & Auntie Anna" and "Uncle Rex & Auntie Dot" (and their families) who have known the Ibbotson family from our days in South Africa (and even before) and prayed for MDI and their "sick baby" many years ago... and now they are part of the crowd that is cheering us on, praying for us still, and so thrilled for us.

So... I close off with words from the Matt Redman song, "Blessed Be Your Name." There were many times over the past few years when I could sing and feel the "when the darkness closes in" or "I'm found in the dessert place" for various reasons. And I trust that I was praising Him nonetheless. Yet in this year when "the sun has been shining down on me/us" and "the land is plentiful" and "the world's all as it should be", I/we want to be sure that we realize it is not MY/OUR doing. It is all GOD'S grace and work. "Every blessing you pour out, we'll turn back to praise... Blessed be Your Name."

PCA Teacher Hunt

Last night the PCA secondary school students went on a teacher hunt at Chinook Centre in Calgary. The idea is that various teachers dress up in some costume and the students try to find them as they walk around the mall and shop. I am not much of a dress-up person (or a shopper!) yet I wanted to try to be involved in some way in a outside-of-school event. My wonderful wife had the excellent idea of "dressing up" as a young child and sitting in the children's section of Chapters. So I wore my Calgary Flames hoodie and sat in the kid's books section of Chapters for the first hour or so. While there were lots of people at Chapters, none of the PCA students were searching for me there! I guess they get enough of books during the school day!

It was amazing to sit and look through different children's books... esp now that Sarah and I are expecting our first baby in just over three months time. I found a new series about a kid named Brady Brady that seemed to teach some good lessons - and it related to hockey and sports so I was interested in that. Of course I also saw a number of Robert Munsch books... a name I'm familiar with for many books, but especially for the story, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always. As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be." My friends Stan & Lynay Parker read that book to her son Christopher when he was little and then wrote a song to it and she and Christopher sang it just before they moved on from the Prairie Tabernacle to begin serving at Campbell River Baptist Church.

But what really got me was seeing the "Curious George" collection. Its just as well that none of the PCA students did come searching for me because as soon as I started reading Curious George goes to Hospital I could feel my eyes welling up with tears. You see, my amazing parents did everything possible to help their young Steven prepare for hospitals and surgery when I was young. And since we'd been in Africa for almost 3 years before coming back to Canada, the Curious George collection was another "connection" point. Yes, mom & dad Ibbotson prayed with me and committed my life and the doctor's hand and the surgery to Jesus. And as I grew older I liked Math and did not like reading as much. And yet I have very distinct... and obviously fond memories... of sitting with mom or dad and reading Curious George books (and others) as a way my parents used to try to explain to a 3-4-5 year old that hospitals and operations were not something to be scared of and that God would take care of me even if mom or dad were not there in the operating room (cuz they were there any other time). I remember later as our family began to adopt... first my sister, Ruth, then my sister Sara, etc that we also had books about Why Was I Adopted that could try to help Ruth and Sara understand what adoption was in basic terms. And so, all those memories flooded back last night as I sat in the children's book section of Chapters at Chinook Centre!

So thanks mom and dad for reading to us as kids, and for doing all you could to explain a complex world of strange situations to each of us through the use of stories. Your thoughtful and intentional parenting is such a rich blessing and heritage for me as I begin my life as a parent.

Mitch Albom's "For One More Day"

Last night my wife and I watched “For One More Day,” an Oprah Winfrey movie production of the book by that title by Mitch Albom (I read the book a couple years ago so knew what I was getting into). The essence of the movie is that a son, Chick Benetto is the character's name, always seeks his father’s approval and affirmation, even though his dad is hard on him and eventually leaves his mother and the family before he is a teenager. Yet even when he is in college or even after he has retired from pro baseball, his dad shows up and the son does whatever he asks. And "Chick Benetto" lives his whole life trying to win his father's approval. When he almost dies in a car accident, drunk and ready to shoot himself anyway, he realizes that all this time his mother did everything for him and he would give anything “for one more day” to tell her how much he loves her… but she has been dead for nine years. The book/movie point to the desire of every boy to please his father, for the father to be proud of him and express that affirmation.

I would suggest that John Eldredge's books – Wild at Heart and its follow ups (criticized in some Christian circles) - are a good response to this reality. The reason that his books were such best-sellers in the Christian world in the mid 1990's and early part of this decade are because there is a large generation of men... including Christian men... who have experiences more like "Chick Benetto" in For One More Day than the biblical ideals of a father-son relationship.

A father-son relationship and a father-daughter relationship are different, though obviously there’s some common responsibilities. A son needs to hear a father express, “I’m proud of you, you did great,” and I feel so blessed that Dad Ibbotson did (and still does!) that regularly for me and my brothers. A daughter needs to know that her father cherishes and treasures and adores her… and when I see Dad Hunt and Sarah (or her sisters) you know that is true. We are sooooo blessed.

And since we don’t know if our baby is a boy or girl it got me thinking a little more last night… Amazingly, my dear wife listens to my philosophizing and appreciates it. That's all for now...

Fun, Family & Friends in the cold Alberta winter

Overall the end of another pretty great week! (No I won't blog this week about how amazing my wife is... at least not too much... though it is still very true!)

On Thursday, we had a "School Spirit Chapel" (assembly) at PCA Secondary School culminating in the men from the Colombia Missions Team performing the "Evolution of Dance." It was a whole lot of fun and laughs and along with the students, teacher John Stewart and Principal Randy Wood were such good sports... and thus the reason the extra funds were given to the team. It is good to be able have some "good clean fun" as Christians. Most times, people think that if you choose to follow Christ, you give up all the good fun and life is just one somber moment after another. But Christians of all people should be the most joyful people and the best partiers!

Also great to have my brother Tim and his two daughters, Lauren and Macey visiting this weekend. Even though we won't all be getting together for, this is like a "family Christmas" with all of us being together - and the weather being soooo Christmas-like (cold and snowy!)

And just a few minutes ago, Sarah's friend Shirley (Selvaraj) who is visiting her sister for the weekend here in Three Hills stopped by and we got to have a good visit. We last saw her for just a few minutes as we were returing from part 1 of our honeymoon on Vancouver Island. And today is my friend Phil Krahn's birthday, though I don't think we'll be able to get into Calgary to see him and his family until the Christmas holidays. Hopefully the Flames will win tonight for his birthday.

Been a while

Hard to believe its b een over a month since I last blogged... lots going on in life, that's for sure...

1) Three Hills Thrashers Jr B hockey team is doing well... Last weekend we won games in Red Deer (7-1) and Rimbey (6-0) and stayed at the Super8 in Rimbey. Of course, the Three Hills Thrashers management very kindly provided for me and my wife to stay at the the Super8 with the rest of the team. They have always treated me with abundant kindness and generosity and continue to extend that generosity to us. A great example of the importance of leaders being extra-good to their people.

2) This weekend we will celebrate the Hunt family Christmas before M&D Hunt head over to the Philippines to see Lois in a couple weeks. I am so blessed to have married into such a great family! They aren't perfect (no family is) yet they have certainly been nothing but encouraging, supportive and helpful to and Sarah and our growing baby in so many ways this year. I hear "in-law stories" and don't know what to say.

3) Lots going on at the Prairie Tabernacle too - a congregation I am privileged to serve as an elder. Every once in a while there's some situations/discussions that cause my mind to wonder how "thinking" and "spiritual" people can actually believe certain things about the nature of faith, the church, leadership, etc. Fortunately I'm reading through Alexander Strauch's book titled Leading with Love - but I confess that I have a hard time loving some of these dear people who at times seem more set on preserving a habit than of taking a moment to think through a situation.

4) Along with a great principal and associate principal, it is a real joy to work with the folks at Prairie Christian Academy... and the society board - who I am "officially" employed by - is incredible too! The chapel ministry seems to be going great and I'm so impressed by the quality of the student worship teams in the secondary school (esp).

Lots of other stuff happening in our lives too, but I'll end off with one last amazing blessing. Yesterday for the first time I felt baby kick/move in Sarah's tummy. WOW!!! Leaders, don't forget to enjoy the little blessings along the path that remind you Who is really in control!

Saturday night at home

After hockey season starts, it is quite strange for me to be "at home" on a Saturday night. However, despite the fact that our Three Hills Thrashers are on the road tonight in Claresholm, I decided to stay home. NO, my wife does not "make me" stay at home... I want to stay at home and spend time with her (and baby) and it truly does not feel like a "sacrifice" in any way. Of course, it does help to be able to hear the Hockey Night in Canada game in the background - Toronto vs Chicago... and to hear Canada's second national anthem a few minutes ago... and to know that the Flames and Oilers will be playing later... that should be good for our marriage... Sarah cheers for the wrong team and I'm a Flames fan! My amazing wife comes to our home games (usually on Friday nights) even though I'm immersed in the action and can't talk too much to her. But she loves me, is learning to like hockey, and believes this is part of our life/ministry together. Yes, I'm too blessed!

Amazing Technology for an Amazing Baby

On Monday, Sarah and I had an appointment in Calgary for the 4-D ultrasound. And we had the incredible privilege of seeing our little baby in all his/her at 18 weeks! It is incredible to live in an age of such technological development... and to be able to see baby's legs, arms, head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth... which was moving fairly steadily... must get that from his/her grandma(s)!
And yes, the lady doing the ultrasound could measure the length of baby totally, of the femur, kidneys, liver, etc, etc. We bought the $20 DVD of a couple of real-time pictures and then showed them to both M&D Hunt and M&D Ibbotson. Of course baby is/will be amazing - after all, look who his/her parents are! (just kidding, sorta) Actually, its really "How Great is our God"... Yes, we've been enjoying that Chris Tomlin song lots in the past few months!

Of course, with such amazing technology as this, no person on the planet has any rational argument to deny that life begins at conception (and thus abortion is murder)... but "willful ignorance." Remember Spiderman 1:1 - "With great privilege (aka living in this age of technology) comes great responsibility."

Happy Thanksgiving

Given that it is Thanksgiving weekend, I should pause and share a few of the MANY things I have to be thankful - though as Mark Buchanen shared in PCA chapel on Thursday, being thankful is one of the signs of a person who is "dangerous" for Christ... and of course, any good leader knows that the last thing one says is "thank you" (I believe that's a Max DePree quote, but I'm not 100% sure!)

First of all, I am so thankful for the gift of life, physically, but also spiritually through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Second, I am so thankful for my family... and esp this year for my amazing wife, Sarah, and are new baby that is due in March 2008. And yes, I love my mother and father and siblings, and my mother-in-law and father-in-law and new sibling-in-laws too. I thought I already had one amazing family... and God has blessed me/us with another incredible family that prays for us, supports us, encourages us, and loves us! WOW!

Thirdly, I'm thankful for my brothers and sisters in Christ, esp those we fellowship with at Prairie Tabernacle (shameless plug: check out the new website). We are soooo blessed with Pastor Tim Strickland and his wife, Carol, and their family. They are a gift of God to our congregation and also good friends!

I could go on forever thanking God for all His blessings... but you don't have time to read them all and I don't have time to type them all. So, happy thanksgiving!

A couple interesting links

Two interesting pieces of reading...possibly for the weekend:

First, an article by Ed Stetzer for those who "love Jesus" but don't want anything to do with the church.

Second, the latest edition of Time magazine (Sept. 24/07 issue) and the very interesting article regarding the various spouses’ of presidential nominees in the USA . Along with being an interesting article (though I don’t follow American politics too closely), I think it would be a good read for church leaders (ie elders, board, pastoral committees), pastors, and other para-church organizations – and to discuss honestly.

September 07 Newsletter

(I've emailed this to most of our friends, but just in case... thought I'd post it on the blog).

Dear friends,

While we have emailed or talked to many of you individually, it has been a few months since I/we sent out an e-news-letter. So, let us update you on the latest happenings…

After an incredible wedding day, we were blessed to take part 1 of our honeymoon on Vancouver Island . We returned to Three Hills on Mother’s Day (May 13) arriving to a houseful of gifts that we enjoyed opening. We were so overwhelmed with people’s kindness and generosity! After a couple weeks back at work – Sarah at the Prairie Tabernacle church office and Steve cleaning out his office at Prairie Bible Institute – we headed off to India for part 2 of our honeymoon… An incredible 3½ weeks, highlighted by 10 days at Hebron International School where Sarah formerly taught and served as a dorm parent. It was an incredible pleasure and privilege for Steve to see this part of her life and meet many staff and students. Upon returning to Three Hills on June 20, Steve finished moving his office from PBI to Prairie Christian Academy (PCA) and began officially serving as Christian Education Co-ordinator on July 1. Sarah continues part-time (20-25 hours per week) at the church office. It has been a real blessing to have the summer months to settle into married life and my new job.

The school year began on Wednesday August 29 with registration and then a nice welcome BBQ for all students and their parents and an introduction to the PCA staff/teachers. Classes began the next day and we are praising the Lord that He has brought just over 400 students (approx) from pre-school to grade 12 to PCA this year who will receive an excellent, provincially accredited education under the influence of godly teachers as well as have the opportunity to grow in Christ personally through various co-curricular programs.

We also continue to be involved in our local church, the Prairie Tabernacle. In addition to Sarah’s role at the church office as administrative assistant, Steve also serves on the board of elders. Last year, Steve led a small group on Sunday nights and Sarah attended another small group (with Mom & Dad Ibbotson). Our small group was VERY glad to welcome Sarah in and we “re-started” after our summer break last Sunday (Sept 9). Our Senior Pastor, Tim Strickland, began a summer teaching series on the judges (OT)… and these rarely preached portions of Scripture have come alive and challenged our hearts. Tim plans to continue this series into the fall as the response has been so positive!

For a few months, Sarah has sensed it was time to move on to other avenues of service. Though she loves serving the people of Prairie Tabernacle, she is not called to be an administrative assistant. This position was a good “temporary” role for Sarah (and for the church) after returning from Hebron to see what the Lord had next. Seeing the response of the staff and students at Hebron confirmed (to Steve) that Sarah’s primary passions and gifts involve teaching and nurturing international students. So, we were already looking for the right time for Sarah to give notice to the church of her resignation when…

We found out that we are parents!!! The estimated date of our little one’s visible arrival in the world is March 16, 2008! We had our first pre-natal appointment on August 20 and were amazed and overwhelmed to hear the little baby’s heartbeat! We have spent the last couple weeks sharing the exciting news with our parents and siblings.

So what can you pray about for us?
1) Praise the Lord for a safe, healthy and wonderful trip to India ! You can check out Steve’s blog for a more detailed report of the trip!
2) Praise the Lord for a restful summer and smooth adjustments to married life and Steve’s new job.
3) Praise the Lord for graciously allowing “us” to get pregnant so quickly (and for almost no “sickness” for Sarah in the first trimester)
4) Pray for wisdom for Steve as he serves the various needs of PCA students… (It is a lot different working with Kindergarten to grade 3 students than college students!!!)
5) Pray for health and strength for Sarah during the pregnancy (and God’s hand upon our little baby!)

Ephesians 3:20 praises the One “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (NIV). We truly feel that the LORD has been doing incredibly wonderful things for us in the past 15 months! His grace continues to be overflowing to us in so many ways beyond our best (human) ideas… and we want to be sure to give Him ALL the praise!

For His glory,
Steve & Sarah

PS We would love to receive an email from you to hear your latest news!

Follow up to Holy Discontent Blog

As a follow up to Wednesday’s blog, I just read an article from John Maxwell’s “Leadership Wired” newsletter (Vol 10, Issue 13) where he summarizes nine principles from Dr. Henry Cloud’s book, 9 Things You Simply Must Do to Succeed in Love and Life. Principle #6 is “Hate Well” and describes the difference between subjective hate (the kind that poisons and corrupts a person) and objective hate (anger with a purpose). I believe this parallels the “Holy Discontent” Hybels’ is talking about, though I haven’t read or even seek this book from Dr. Henry Cloud.

Initial Reflections on Bill Hybels' new book

I generally enjoy Bill Hybels’ writing (and speaking) and so I must say that I was eager to read Holy Discontent (Zondervan, 2007) when it arrived in the mail about a month ago... from my favorite book seller Amazon. In some ways it is encouraging me in one of the areas I am passionate about: leadership. However, I do have a concern about the general premise of the book (realize that I haven’t finished reading the book yet!).

Hybels’ basic premise is that God develops in each of us a holy discontent with something that becomes our life passion (no problem there). Often times this comes out of frustration or disappointment with a situation we experienced/saw during our formative years and this becomes something that we feel a burning desire to change… so that others never have to experience what we see/experience. Using the words of good ole’ Popeye, we come to a point when “I can’t stands it anymore” and we decide to do something about it. And that’s where I see the problem. If we set our life’s mission/purpose on the basis of what we cannot stand – even if it is an issue/concern that is in line w/ God’s character, values, and principles – I think we are eventually doomed to fail… or at best succeed minimally/temporarily. If our goal is NOT to be someone/something, we are basing our mission on a negative, not a positive. I agree that God does use our negative experiences to shape/influence the purpose(s) He has for our individual lives. But if they are only shaped by negative experiences, that’s a weak foundation, both spiritually and psychologically. That’s how people “go off the deep end” or “burn out” in trying to accomplish an individual or organizational mission.

For example, the child who watched a sibling (or parent) battle a disease for weeks or months before dying and then chooses to go into medical work “to help others” is not a good long-term candidate as a doctor/nurse. (Frankly, they may not have grieved properly!) On the other hand, the child who was sick and in hospital a lot and so decides to become a doctor so s/he can give back to others as s/he has benefited, MAY (though not necessarily) be a more good long-term worker in the health/medical field.

Again, to be blunt, I think I can talk about that one example with a fair bit of credibility… I’ve watched my fair share of medical dramas to know where my personal (unresolved?) “issues” are and how to work through them vicariously through tv… rather than on real-life people!

Last point: Don’t become a leader because the leaders you see/observe are soooo bad at leading. Choose to be a leader because God has developed in you the character to be one and the skills (competencies) to do the job well.

Labour Day Weekend Starting

After a great start to the PCA school year with the welcome BBQ on Wed night, classes started on Thursday and it was great to see eager students at both the elementary and JH/HS! And though I did not have too much to do since chapels don't start til next week, I'm still glad for a long weekend.

This Labour Day weekend Sarah and I will probably head into Calgary to visit some friends, do some shopping and go to Centre Street Church (Lord willing). The Labour Day classics - CFL football games for those of you non-Canadians or non-football fans - are always fun too... and I hope to watch them on television on Monday afternoon.

The Generations Thesis

Surfing around www.christianity.ca (yes, I am Canadian, eh!) I found this excellent article on the various generations and ministering to them effectively and graciously!

Desperate Pastors' Housewives

I blogged a couple weeks ago about a book I read by Shawnthea Moore concerning the television show Desperate Housewives. In scanning through the Christianity Today website I found a new title that looks even more intriguing: Desperate Pastors' Wives (Howard, 2007). I have not read it yet but the initial reviews look interesting.
(Click on my Shop at Amazon.ca if you would like to purchase it)

If you are going to buy online

You'll note two fairly new links on the sidebar - one for WestJet and one for Amazon.ca

Along with being two of my favorite online shopping sites, I know am an "associate" for both companies. (Insert lame "WestJet owner" joke here, if you wish). The bottom line is that if you click on the link and then shop at either of these sites I will get a small commission. So, if you are going to make purchases at these places anyway, why not support a friend while you are at it!

By the way, I will NOT be calling a meeting, send you an email or inviting you to come to a presentation so that you can support my business. This posting and the sidebar are the only "invitation" anyone will get!

Happy shopping!

PS If you need a reminder as to why I am NOT supporting Air Canada, click here.

Don't know what to title this

I don’t know what to call this blog entry… On Monday evening, Mr Allan Bienert went to be with the Lord. “Uncle Al,” as he was known to our family, was like a grandpa to me… in some ways more of a grandpa than either of my two biological grandparents. When our family first moved to Three Hills, Uncle Al and Auntie Vi and their family welcomed us in various ways. Initially, I was impressed with Uncle Al because of his love for sports – hockey and baseball especially, but other sports were good too! As a young boy of 7, 8, 9 or 10 years old, he was the only guy as fanatical about sports as I was!!! BTW, years later, Uncle Al was the person who won the “Name-the-team” contest when the Three Hills Thrashers Junior B hockey team started. I remember going to countless sports events with Uncle Al… and my brother Tim joined us sometimes too – to baseball games and tournaments, to the Mac’s Midget Hockey Tournament where we first watched Petr Nedved and Uncle Al knew he was a “special player,” to Olds Grizzlies games, and local sports too (PCA Sabres, PBC Pilots, etc)

Of course, as our families got to know each other, I also learned that he was a fantastic teacher – having taught in Three Hills at both Prairie Christian Academy (formerly Prairie High School) and Three Hills High School, especially English! He was also a fine father to their five children – not a perfect dad as he would tell you, but a dad who loved and prayed for his kids and loved each of their unique gifts, talents, abilities, quirks, etc. And he and Auntie Vi prayed the same way for their grandkids too! As their children left the nest, they had our family over many times and we enjoyed Auntie Vi’s great cooking and Uncle Al’s great humour… and playing “Dictionary game” and Rook with the Bienert and friends.

I was privileged to visit Uncle Al a couple times last week before he passed away… and he was very much aware of what was happening to his body and was very much ready to go home to be with the Lord. He wasn’t fatalistic or depressed about the situation, but in fact very much at peace with the end of his earthly life nearing. It was great that all his children got to be here for a few days and say their goodbyes… and that Mr B (another nickname from our family) did not have to “endure” 2-3 weeks (or more) of a slow, painful decline in or out of consciousness.

These next few days will certainly be a mixture of joy and sorrow for the family and friends. And dear Auntie Vi will certainly miss Uncle Al LOTS!!! Yet there is no doubt where they put their strength and hope during their entire lives… and we know that the LORD will continue to give grace to Auntie Vi for each moment in the days ahead.

Married for 3 months - WOW!

On Sunday, August 5, Sarah and I celebrate our three-month wedding anniversary! WOW! Every once in a while someone asks me, "So how's married life treating you?" and of course, my answer is "Great!" (I have been tempted on a couple of occasions to answer: “Well, to tell you the truth, its really difficult and horrible. I wish someone would have told me it was gonna be this tough. I wouldn’t have got married at all” – just to see the look on the person’s face.)

I continue to be amazed that the Lord has blessed me with the www – World’s most Wonderful Wife! I’m reading through a Max Lucado book, Come Thirsty, and in the acknowledgements, he describes my thoughts/feelings pretty well…

“To my wife – Who would give a Renoir to a hillbilly? The Hope diamond to a pawnshop? Entrust a Lamborghini to a ten-year old? I guess God would. For he gave you to me. And I’m still amazed.”

I’m not a hillbilly or ten-year old or a pawnshop… yet I know that God has blessed me with a wife who is a priceless treasure and a Proverbs 31 woman in every way!

After preaching out of town the last two weekends, we are looking forward to a fairly calm weekend here in Three Hills. Sunday is also my brother Paul’s 43rd birthday (approx!) and so we’re going to have a party that afternoon.

Oh yeah, if you’re trying to figure out how these daily details of my weekend plans fit into “leadership” – after all the name of the blog is Leadership and Life – well… If you as a leader cannot rest and enjoy the blessings of God, you are in deep trouble.

My new job

In between trying to provide updates on India trips and just settling into being married to the most wonderful wife in the world... I realized that I have not blogged about the new job I officially began on July 1st. In fact, it really is much more than a job... its a special privilege and pleasure to be able to serve the LORD in this (new) way and receive a salary for doing so.

As of July 1, I began serving as Christian Education Co-ordinator for Prairie Christian Academy. The role entails a variety of different aspects - overseeing the chapel program(s), developing the Christian service, missions, and leadership development aspects of PCA, and serving as a resource person for the teachers in integrating our shared Christian faith in to the classroom, whether in science, math, english, etc.

Prairie Christian Academy was formerly the K-12 program of PBI. In 2004, PCA became a separate entity (apart from PBI) and is an "alternate" school in the Golden Hills School District within the province of Alberta. It is overseen by the society board consisting of parents of children in the school. The board and the staff are a fantastic group of people to work with and I am sooooo blessed to be able to serve the Lord, His people, and the next generation of Christian leaders in this way.

Faith and "Desperate Housewives"?

I finished reading Shawnthea Moore's book regarding faith in the television show "Desperate Housewives." Take a peak at my review at the Amazon.ca website.

India Trip (part 4)

Thursday and Friday (June 7 & 8) were a couple more days of meeting more Hebron friends. Friday night we had supper at Tom & Valsa’s home. Saturday (June 9) was “graduation day” or as they call it at Hebron (and other British-system schools), the Leavers Ceremony. As one might expect at a school operating on a British education system, it was a very formal service and it was also quite God-honoring. After the ceremony, the majority of the staff and teachers, along with the leavers and their parents attended the banquet. Sarah and I went over to Selborne, mostly to “hang out” with the other couple on-duty for the evening (for those girls who were not at the banquet). Sarah also began preparations for the next day’s cooking spree. Rachel got back around 10:00 pm – apparently quite an early ending compared to most years – and so we visited for a little while before heading back to Farley.

Sunday (June 10) morning I had the privilege of bringing the morning message at St Stephen’s Church and again, the Lord seemed to used it to challenge and encourage people (which is really what matters!). The one rather humorous part of the morning and sermon was the pouring rain just as I began speaking – and the message was on Jonah! – and then a few loud thunder crashes throughout my talking, one well-timed one just when I went to emphasize a sentence that everyone had a good laugh at! From St Stephens we headed over to Selborne where Sarah and Rachel cooked up a storm in preparation for the official “Selborne Staff Party” (for us!) that evening as well as the rest of the staff coming over for dessert. They cooked up three soups, Sarah’s fluffy buns (like Pillsbury rolls but much better!), a couple good Indian dishes, and then four dessert options. It was another great chance to meet people, visit, and of course, the staff chipped in and spoiled us with a money gift that we used to go purchase some genuine Indian gifts later in the week! Oh yeah, and then at 8:15 pm we went into one of the Selborne lounge’s where Dez had set up the projection unit and we showed the staff and a group of Standard 9 girls our wedding pictures. There’s nothing quite like viewing wedding pictures with a group of 14-15 year old girls!!! Its so sweet, so sappy, and every once in a while I threw in one of my cheesy/romantic comments… and they loved it! (The only small down side of the day was that Sarah tripped coming out of church and scratched her left foot fairly badly. It is healing now but its taken a while.)

More to come…

India Trip (part 3)

The primary purpose of our trip was to visit Hebron International School in Ooty, the place where Sarah did her internship (1998-99) and served as a dorm parent, religious studies and ESL teacher from 2000-2004. We traveled from Farley to the school by auto(rickshaw) Wednesday afternoon, stopping at the new “Modern Foods” store to get a Coke (for me!) and say hi to Merely, the owner who remembered Sarah and was glad to see her again! Even before we entered the staff room at Hebron, the warm welcomes, greetings, and hugs began. In fact, the security gate man recognized Sarah and just waved us through without checking that we had any badges/passes! I was introduced to a number of the staff that Sarah had served with (and some new ones) and they were, of course, all glad to see her again!

A group of girls were in PhysEd class as we arrived and word “leaked” that Miss Hunt was here! However, Miss Rachel Carter would not let them come from their sweaty (field) hockey playing in the rain into the staff room to greet Miss Hunt and insisted that they stay on the bus, go back to Selborne (the girls dorm) and shower and then they would see Miss Hunt there in a while. Rachel, was/is one of Sarah’s closest friends from their time at Hebron, as they served as dorm-parents together for one group of girls during Sarah’s final two years at Hebron. We headed over to Selborne with Rachel a little while later. Even before we got to the door of Selborne, the girls starting running over, screaming “Miss Hunt, Miss Hunt, it so great to see you again” and throwing their arms around her! It was precious and beautiful to watch. (After being away two years, one could understand if these teenage girls had “moved on” and made connections to new dorm parents and new teachers… and they probably have… but Miss Hunt had made a lasting impression!)

After the emotion of seeing the various girls welcome Miss Hunt with such joy and affection, we then went to the Ds’ home for a potluck supper. During Sarah’s four years at Hebron, she was part of a care group that met each Wednesday night at the Ds and so this was another significant time to meet Sarah’s friends (even though some of the members of the group were different people from when Sarah met with the group). After a very tasty meal and good visit, it was off to Selborne for the year end all-dorm fellowship. This meant that all the young women who lived in Selborne, ranging from Std 6 to Std 13, would meet together for the last time. The sign on the door as we walked in was most “interesting” (to say the least):

TOMORROW
All-dorm Fellowship
WHEN? Wednesday at 8:15 pm
WHERE? Selborne Common Room
WHY?
*sing-a-long
*say good-bye to leavers
*welcome back Miss Hunt and
*meet her husband

So… about 80+ teenage girls from multiple countries of the southeast Asia (as well as other parts of the world) are gathered in one room and I can certainly understand another reason why Sarah loved this place – you really can impact the world for future generations in a dramatic way. In fact, as they begin to sing some choruses – “God is so Good” and “Guiding Light” – I find myself getting incredibly emotional as I consider all that God has brought Sarah from, and through, and now back to, with me. And as you probably know if you’ve read my previous postings, I’m not necessarily afraid to show emotion – tears of joy or sorrow or even anger. However, at this particular time, I feel I need to slightly composed as I am supposed to give the “testimony” or devotion to this group of teenager girls. (And they all know Miss Hunt and probably expect her husband to be an articulate, intelligent, brilliant speaker; after all he’s supposedly got a PhD! They probably don’t expect him to blubber like a baby when he gets up to speak!). Fortunately, I remember the #1 rule for speaking to youth – energy! Be energetic and enthusiastic – even if you have to fake the energy initially. So… Sarah gets me a drink of water and I get up to speak and… by God’s grace (of course) it goes incredibly well! I probably talked too long… but they didn’t seem to mind. I talked a little bit about how God brought Sarah and I together at the end of my talk and that generally goes over well with teenage gals, so that probably helped keep the interest. Afterwards, various girls kindly came up and told me that the talk was just what they needed to hear and that they really appreciated me speaking. So… praise the LORD that He used His Word to speak. We had a snack afterwards and sat and talked with various ones and then with some of the staff colleagues afterwards.

Although the rest of the trip was excellent, the first day at Hebron – Wednesday June 6 was really the highlight of the whole trip for me. We went so that I could see this part of Sarah’s life and that day encapsulated the key elements of it – the school, the staff, the students, the friendships with individuals within those groups, and the fact that Christ was at the centre of it all!

Oh yeah – one last thing: I knew it beforehand but I didn’t “click in” on it until after we got back to Farley that night. The place where the all-dorm fellowship took place is simply called the Common Room. It was in this room on May 5, 1949 that Sarah’s grandparents (Mom Hunt’s parents), Reinhard & Helen Friebel were married. Is God really that into “sentimental”?

PS Sorry it took soooo long to update this page!

Leadership Lessons from San Juan

Sarah and I had supper with our friends Tom & Leah on Monday night. Afterwards, Tom introduced us to a new game, San Juan. In this game, you have to build, produce, trade, etc using various supplies. Of course there are “speciality” cards – in this game, beautiful purple cards – that help with special bonus features for the game… but are also more costly to build and have limited immediate benefit, esp in terms of production, trade, replenishing of stock, etc. The end of the game comes when one person has built a dozen places. I was the player who “ended” the game as I was the first one to build twelve sites. However, in the end I had the fewest points of all four of us. You see, Tom, Leah & Sarah had all built fewer production sites and thus had not built as many places as my dozen, but they had built more speciality sites that at the end of the game gave them more victory points. So even though I was “productive” and got the most sites built the fastest, I was not even close to the winner. Yes, the leadership lessons are just so abundantly obvious... 1) Building Fast has its dangers. Often in the face of immediate pressures – meeting deadlines or quotas, financial targets to meet or else – leaders push themselves and other to build too much too fast. (I’ve suggested that the NHL lockout/strike of 2005 can be significantly attributed to the fact that the NHL did this in their expansion!). While its great to hit targets, have impressive looking “improvement” numbers, and show consistent signs of growth – that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are winning. In fact, it probably means you are putting up lots of glitz and glamour… and there may not be much left when the sizzle stops.
2) Build Strategically. My dear wife, Sarah, kept getting the purple/specialty cards at the beginning of the game. And while she wanted to use them, she had no means to “pay” for these sites because she could not get any production sites built. Yes, these purple/speciality cards served her well at the end of the game, but it took a while before she was able to get enough production to use these well. In fact, she had to wait too long – and it was her first time playing too! Tom (though I don’t believe he had played this specific game before) has played other games like this much more than the rest of us and knew the value of having some production sites early, but strategically building a “specialty” site, sometimes even waiting a turn and not building even when he had the resources, so that next time his “speciality” site would build some immediate gain and even more long-term (end of the game) benefits. Just as one cannot go 1000 miles per hour through life, a person in leadership cannot run their business/service perpetually at high speed – even in this high-speed, interconnected world. There has got to be some times of waiting, letting the current resources settle, even have some slower production time, in order for the long-term benefits to truly be reaped.

India Trip Report (part 2)

We left Mumbai (Bombay) on Saturday (June 2) and flew into Bangalore where we were met at the airport by Mohan, husband of Janice (nee Faszer). Janice taught music for a number of years at Hebron. On Saturday night we had the pleasure of visiting with Janice & Mohan and staying in Sathanur at Door of Hope, a boys home that Janice's parents, Allen & Hilda Faszer began and have run for about 40 years in India. It is pretty amazing to realize that some of the key workers at the home are men who initially were "brought" there themselves to live. On Sunday morning, I shared my testimony as part of their "fellowship/church." Afterwards, they were glad to view some wedding pictures on my laptop. Sarah got a really nice picture of this activity!



From Sathanur, David & Annette Faszer and family drove us to Jungle Retreat on their way back to Ooty. We stayed two nights at Jungle Retreat - yes, it is just what the name implies. After making our way through the Banipur National Park - complete with monkeys, deer, elephants and tigers - we came to a beautiful retreat/resort place just outside the park. As we drove through the park we did see a nice elephant, even a tusker (though we didn't see a tiger). Sarah and I spent two nice days and nights at Jungle Retreat, enjoying our bamboo hut, the incredible scenery of the Nilgris ("Nilgris" means blue hills), and some pretty good Indian food! The only disappointing part of Jungle Retreat was that the swimming pool was not filled... something Sarah was really looking forward too! We did get to dip our feet in the water while it was filling Tues afternoon and look up at the Nilgris around us and admire God's incredible creation in that part of the world.



Eventually on Tuesday evening - after waiting not-so-patiently for the taxi that was coming at 4:00 pm but didn't arrive til 6:30 pm - we drove from Sathanur to Ooty, up the 36-hairpin turn road and up to an elevation above 7,700 feet. We arrived at Farley, a Guest House currently run by the Faszer's, where we would stay for the next 10 days while in Ooty visiting Hebron International School. Hebron is the school where Sarah served as a dorm parent and religious studies teacher, first as an intern (1998-99) and then for four years as full-time staff (2001-2005). Sarah's mom (and uncles) attended this school as they grew up. The purpose of our trip was for me to see this part of Sarah's life and get to meet as many of the people who she had invested in during these years and to meet those who had also invested in her and became lifelong friends.

MORE TO COME....

India Trip Review (Part 1)

M&D Hunt dropped us off at the Calgary International Airport on the afternoon of Friday, May 25 and we left Calgary at 6:40 pm via Air Canada, landing at London’s (England) Heathrow Airport on Saturday morning at 10:30 am. Although there were some last minute questions as to whether Air Canada (AC) would actually let Steve fly, my cardiologist/specialist was finally able to convince the dear folk at AC medical desk that I was safe to fly. The service on the flight was excellent (My letter to AC expressing my concern at the way they treat physically challenged people is still forthcoming but my lack-of-impressed-ness will be very clear!)

Within two hours of arriving in London – and that’s just standard for landing in Heathrow right now it appears – we were met by Sharon McGowan, one of Sarah’s close friends from their time together at Hebron International School. We spent three wonderful days with Sharon, using a very nice bed & breakfast which Sharon had arranged for us in the town of Henley, as our home.
On Sunday (May 27) we toured downtown London including Trafalgar Square, saw Big Ben (the clock), the London Eye, drove past Buckingham Palace, and had a cup of tea with the queen (just kidding!). We then went to Hyde Park, where the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain is located, and met some more friends from Hebron. Actually, we ended up meeting with most of these friends in the not-so-wet confines of the home of Roman & Catherine Dembek, as it rained in London most of the three days we were there. It was great to meet these people and show them our wedding pictures.

SIDEBAR: Perhaps as a Canadian you've had the experience of dear American friend asking, "Oh, I know someone from Canada. Do you Bob who lives in Toronto?" Realizing that Roman was from Poland, I was tempted to ask "Oh, do you know my friend Mirek who lives in Poland?" and then I realized how annoying I've found it when that happens to me. So I did NOT ask the question but asked about his connections to the church in Poland and who some of his encouragers and mentors were and sure enough, one of his church leaders is a fellow I graduated from Prairie Graduate School. He knew the one person I knew in Poland!

On Monday May 28, we went to Oxford. Along with seeing some nice old sites as we drove around before and after, it was pretty cool just to be at Oxford... and see a handful of the 37 colleges that make up Oxford. Fortunately, Sharon explained Oxford to me before I asked the dumb questions that most North Americans (apparently) ask, like "well, which one is the main campus?" After sitting down in coffee shop on the second floor of the Blackwell bookstore, a young lady looked over at Sarah and said, "Don't I know you?" to which Sarah replied, "Kathi?" Sitting at the table having a coffee right next to us was a young lady Sarah had taught at Hebron! Later that day we went to the Cottswalds and had a nice English cream tea and again took more tourist photos!

On Tuesday, May 29, Sharon continued her excellent tour guide and chauffeur service as we went to visit Windsor Castle. Although we didn't get to see the official changing of the guard, we did get to see the guard we getting his 15-minute afternoon coffee break (at least that's what we guessed it was). Later that day we also got to see Mark & Alex Ronalds and family - more former Hebron staff!

Bright and early Wednesday morning (May 30) we got to London Heathrow airport to fly to Mumbai (Bombay). Our flight departed at 8:40 am so we had to be there officially three hours early... lots of waiting. However, we did discover why Emerates Airlines is ranked one of the best in the world - their service is incredible, both for getting me as a wheelchair passenger to and thru the gates and for their in-flight service and entertainment options. Our flight to Mumbai had a brief stopover in Dubai and their "special services" area was impressive too! Oh yeah, and free email stations in the airport too... though the email we tried to send at that point since we had not yet connected to our parents had a problem so we had to wait until we got to Mumbai to actually let the families know we were safe and sound!

We arrived in Mumbai (Bombay) at 3:35 am in the morning on Thursday May 31 and got thru the luggage and security and picked up by our hotel taxi and to the hotel before 5:30am. Needless to say we slept a good bit of that day! When we did got out to get some bottled water, and orange juice at the local store, I had my first India "experience." Initially, we saw an elephant across the road and so Sarah took a picture of me with the elephant in the background. The look on my face is priceless... and I didn't realize how humorous a look it was until we got back to Three Hills and started showing the pictures to our parents! I have this "deer in the headlights" or "what on earth am I doing in India?" look of shock on my face! Anyway, after we got our couple of purchases, the same elephant came up and nuzzled me right on the arm with his trunk. Some of you will know that I am NOT a fan of pets (at all!) so I kinda shrugged away a bit when I first felt the nuzzle. Then the owner of the elephants, riding atop him, smiled down and said, "He likes money too!" As you can guess, he did not get any rupees from me!

My second India experience came later that evening as we had supper at the hotel restaurant. After one waiter moved some extra cups, plates and cutlery away, another waiter came and put our respective plates more in the center of the table. Then a third waiter came and took our order for drinks. Then another waiter came and asked our order for food. Somewhere in between there waiter #1 or #2 returned to put some condiments on the table. Then waiter #3 or #4 came back with the first part of our meal and began to serve it to us. I was thinking, "I know I'm a tourist but I do know how to dish up my own meal." Some more of the meal came a few minutes later and another waiter offered to serve but this time we indicated we'd dish up our own. Whenever we finished with one type of food, one of the waiters would step forward, ready to serve us some more. And the majority of the time we are eating, most of the 4-5 waiters are just hovering around and watching us eat. I was trying not to be too culturally inappropriate but I finally asked me dear wife - who knows the culture much better - "Are they just gonna stand there and watch us eat the whole time?" to which she nodded and replied with a "yes." So that was a bit unnerving. But my brother-in-law Jon felt the same way a couple years ago when the family was over visiting Sarah so I was comforted by that similar frustration and it was good that he was able to identify with that experience as I shared it with him upon our return to Three Hills. As he not-so-tactfully put it: India has one billion people and about 10 million jobs so you seem to have five people doing every one job!

Our second day in Mumbai (Friday June 1) we did a bit of shopping at FabIndia - okay, my wife did the shopping and I did the watching and waiting - and then got an ice cream at the McDonalds (yes, that's the only time the whole trip I ate at McDonalds!). From there our taxi took us to another part of the city so that we could have supper with some friends that Sarah had met during her time with Hebron. Two of these ladies (Jeanie & Mindy) work with an organization called Destiny Education that provides educational services and consulting to schools in Mumbai and area, esp focusing on teaching English. Another lady, Ruby, has also been working with them but has just taken on a new position outside of Mumbai in the city of Pune. We had a great evening of food and fellowship with them and it was great to meet Andy too (having another guy there was nice!) who works with street children and tries to get them into vocational education.

NEXT PART OF THE TRIP WILL BE UPDATED TOMORROW (LORD WILLING!)
STAY TUNED...

Back from India

Now that we have arrived back in Three Hills, many people are asking us, “how was your trip?” In one word: Sensational! Some of you would like a little more detail than that, so please check this blog in the next few days for a not-so-brief review of the trip. Thank You to so many who thought of us and prayed for us during our journey.

Let it snow... I'm leaving Canada!

This morning in Three Hills, many people awoke to the sound of crashing tree branches, falling as a result of being weighed down from the overnight snowfall. Yes, this is being posted on Thursday, May 24. (Oh the joys of Alberta weather!)

I am not one who minds snow too much most of the time anyway - it means hockey season is coming soon, underway, or nearing the end and btw Go Senators Go! I am even less "concerned" about it today as Sarah and I will be leaving tomorrow for "part 2" of our honeymoon, our trip to India via London (England).

I may try to blog about our trip... we'll see... Nonetheless, I will be away from the office until at least June 22.

Overwhelmed by God's Goodness & Grace

My wonderful wife, Sarah, and I returned from our honeymoon (part 1) on Sunday, May 13 and with our parents present and helping (esp for Mother's Day) we spent 5 hours opening gifts and cards. And amazed, overwhelmed, embarassed, and blessed-beyond-words are just a few words to describe the past ten days.

After I came into the office for a few hours yesterday, we drove to Red Deer to do a few errands before my love, Sarah, went back to work today. On the way home we listened to the Chris Tomlin, "Arriving" CD as we drove by a few dusty fields with farmers readying the land to put their crops in and a nice peaceful Alberta sky and then the sunset just over the fields near the Three Hills. It was just another batch of those moments that God has blessed Sarah and I with over the past year where you have sooooo much to thank God for and can just belt out the songs (sometimes amidst some watering eyes for me) about "How Great is our God" and "Your Grace is Enough," having seen God's Hand so beautifully, powerfully, and richly at work in bringing together His perfect and wondrous plan - and being able to simply revel in His Love and Grace and enjoy Him and His kindness towards you. Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart" has been through our minds often these days. Anyway, I'll quit rambling on... but when the LORD gives you those moments, don't miss them. Live them, enjoy them, savor them, and thank Him for them.

There are a few pics from the wedding and reception available if you want to see them at the following website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ssmay507/ - Thanks to my new sister-in-law, Lois, for setting this up!

Out of the Office

I will be officially out of the office beginning tomorrow, May 4 - though some of you may have felt I had disappeared already in the past couple days. I will not be back to the office until Monday May 14.

Meanwhile, it is just over 48 hours until the wedding ceremony begins. Yes, the stress levels are increasing... as it gets down to the last details and "crunch time." Likewise the excitement builds in anticipation of a wedding day that will honour God's Name and even moreso officially start a marriage that will also honour and bless His Great Name.

Though it is fairly overcast here in Three Hills this morning, as I came down the hill and passed the RDAC, I was singing (to myself), "Our God is an Awesome God," and then "How Great is our God" including the Chris Tomlin bridge to "Then Sings my Soul" - and I just couldn't help but cry tears of joy at how INCREDIBLE God is and has been to me, esp in the past few months. These days, we know many people who are experiencing real sorrow and pain (and out of respect for their privacy won't mention names) - and at the same time are "celebrating" with and for us. I've been on the other side of the fence, and want to make sure that in my exuberance and excitement, I don't get wrapped up in myself. As the saying goes, "anyone wrapped up in themselves is a pretty small package."

Meanwhile, Sarah and I continue to be incredibly blessed by soooo many people, some of whom we know by name and to have a conversation with, but would not generally consider "close friends" and yet God is pourly out His generosity and kindness to us through them in ways that are actually overwhelming, even embarassing. I do not deserve such kindness, but again, "every blessing He pours out, we will turn back to praise." (from the song Blessed Be Your Name)

One last thing before I sign off: Of course the best blessing of this whole wedding is that Sarah will be my wife. I love her more every day (really, its not just a romantic line) - for what she does, how she does it, and most importantly who she is. Of all the many blessings God has lavished upon me this year, Sarah is truly too incredible for words and all I can do is THANK GOD for HIS grace and kindness in giving me a wife of such true beauty.

Exam Season

Here at Prairie Bible College it is Exam Week. And so in keeping with this theme, I've provided a couple exam questions for whoever wants to read my blog.

On Sunday night, my favorite hockey team, the Calgary Flames were eliminated from the playoffs by the Detroit Red Wings (you just knew the Wings were not going to lose out to an Alberta team three years in a row!). And with our wedding just 11 days away there were a couple of "interesting" thoughts going through my mind about if the Flames had advanced in the playoffs...

Question #1. If you were considering how to watch your favorite hockey team while on your honeymoon, you should be thankful that they were eliminated because...
a) ...your wife would have killed you (and rightfully so!)
b) ...your marriage would have died (or at least been starting on life supports)
c) ...you would have died (if being with the person God has brought you together with for life is not more exciting than a hockey game, than you either should not have married this person or you should "get a life")

Question #2. The best things about the honeymoon is that it means...
a) ...the wedding went perfectly.
b) ...all the wedding plans, preparation, and activity is over.
c) ...you and your spouse can be alone together.
d) ...you and your spouse begin to understand and experience a different aspect of God's love for the human race and for individuals.
e) ...your perfect marriage has now begun.

That's all the questions for now. One question as a bit of a humour with some theology mixed in and the other question, a bit of theology with some humour mixed in. Leadership means having both, humour and theology, well-balanced.

Last Day of Teaching (for a while)

I planned to blog about this on Friday... but the incredible amount of snow falling in our wonderful town of Three Hills meant that the power was out most of the day and so there was almost no one around the office, myself included. Fortunately, I know why all this snow is here this weekend - because my soon-to-be-sister-in-law, Lois, who arrives from the Philippines tomorrow evening wanted to see snow when she arrived! (She must have a much more direct connection to God right now than the rest of us, eh?)

Thursday was the last day of classes here at Prairie Bible College and thus, the last college class I will teach... at least for the foreseeable future. Strangely and/or amazingly enough, it was not a difficult matter to think about or to go through. I thought I might be more "emotional" about it - and yet the fact that I'm not leads me to conclude that this is another confirmation from the Lord that the next step He has called me to is indeed, His good and perfect will. I may indeed be nostalgically "emotional" next Saturday at baccalaureate and/or graduation - and that's fine, even good. I don't think that will mean I'm NOT in the Lord's will. I guess I just am surprised that such a significant life transition is happening with the sense of God's calm peace.
By the way, I'm very excitedly and sentimentally "emotional" about the other MAJOR life transition happening in my life - in two weeks!!! Its beyond incredible that I will be marrying the most beautiful (in every way) woman in the world, Sarah Lynne Hunt, in 14 days!!! God is TOO Amazing! I am being blessed beyond all I can ask or imagine. Thank You Lord!

The Case for Reality TV

An interesting article by Michael Handschon in The Atlantic (May 2007) on the merits of "Reality TV."

Breaking News

Last week in my posting "Tears for Blessing" I mentioned that the Lord brought another incredible blessing my way. Join with me - as many have already done - in rejoicing in God's Amazing Goodness!

Women in Academics and Ministry

Looking through the Chronicle of Higher Education and came across the sad report from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary about the termination of a female faculty member in the school of theology. Over the past couple weeks I've also been reading Women in the Canadian Academic Tundra: Challenging the Chill (edited by Elena Hannah, Linda Paul, and Swani Vethamany-Globus, McGill-Queens Univ. Press, 2002) a book about the "chilly climate" for female faculty in Canadian post-secondary institutions. Seems like we (white) males really do a HORRIBLE job at honouring women, both in academia and in the Church - and in SBTS's case, both!

My only encouragement right now is that here at Prairie Bible College, we are offering a spring session course titled "Understanding Women and Ministry." The course is for both men and women and will attempt to deal with various views on the Biblical passages as well as looking at church history for examples. Most of you probably know I have very "heretical" views on this topic. Or as the Chancellor Emeritus of PBI Dr Ted S Rendall has said, "You show me the verse where the Scripture talks about "ordaining" men and I'll show you the verse about ordaining women." Fortunately PBI had a great history of women in significant ministry/leadership positions too!

Tears for Blessing

A combination of three "things" converged last night. First, I'd made the comment in our Spiritual Formation & the Church class the other day (Wed or Thurs) that "I find its always valuable to have a good cry every couple of months." Second, my incredible fiance, Sarah, had her bridal shower last Sunday (March 25) and we have been amazed at the incredible generosity of people towards her (us). In addition to the gifts last Sunday, every day last week (literally) she received a couple more gifts, one or two were wedding gifts, but most were bridal shower gifts. And it has been simply overwhelming. Third, last night, after a great dinner at Samosa Grill in Calgary to celebrate Sarah's birthday with Mom & Dad Hunt and Jon, and Mom & Dad Ibby and Amanda, and after reading Scripture and praying together, my beautiful bride-to-be started humming the words to the song "In His time," having read the phrase from Ecclesiastes 3:11 that was noted in another bridal shower gift stood out - "He has made everything beautiful in His time." And so those three things converged and I just had a little cry with tears of blessing. Both Sarah and I have heard that song - and a few dozen others like it - and talked to God knowing it was true, believing it was true, and yet not seeing how/when the Lord would work that out. And now to see God's incredible grace to bring that to each of us together... its really is overwhelming. I headed back to my house shortly thereafter, had a bit more of a cry in my bedroom and then turned on ShineFM and the second song that played was another of those songs - More than Enough (Chris Tomlin?). Thank You Lord!

PS There were other incredible blessings also last week that I'll talk about in a future posting.

Schooled by "American Idol"

This article in last weeks' Chronicle of Higher Education is most interesting. As someone who loves to show how TV culture connects to life and leadership, I appreciate what Christopher Ames connects in this article. Have a good read and a good weekend!

Reflections on the Weekend

Just a few miscellaneous events to blog about after a nice weekend...
1) Prairie Bible College Junior/Senior Banquet was exceptional!!! It reminds me why I love working with college age students. They had a lot of fun with the theme of "Neverland" - yes I was prepared for many lame jokes about "not wanting to grow up" - but alas, the junior class outdid themselves in presenting a good and deep biblical message on childlike faith amidst academic learning. Mr Douglas Lewis did an outstanding job (as usual) with his closing remarks tying it all together.

One last comment re: leadership. Some AWESOME female leaders in both the Junior & Senior class and both Valerie and Beth gave superb speeches (no surprise!!!) and will be great preachers, should any wise church not mute them just because they are women!

2) Prairie Christian Academy Sabres win Provincials - congrats to coach Bob Murray and the PCA Sabres Men's basketball team for capturing the 2A Boys Provincial Title this weekend up in Edmonton. They went all season as the #1-ranked team in the province and won the championship!!! That's so awesome!!! Their banner will now join the 1999 Provincial Title banners - another great basketball team (and volleyball provincials that year too!).

One comment on this event: You know you are marrying into an awesome family when dad (Marlowe) goes up to watch the quarter-final and semi-final games on Friday, and then goes up with mom to the championship game Sat night (and they had stuff to do on Sunday at church!). And they say *I* am a crazy sports fan!

3) The Ambassador Choir & Jubilation ensemble presented their program at the Prairie Tabernacle yesterday morning and proved the truth of "teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, & spiritual songs" (Col 3:16). You don't always need a "sermon" of preaching to hear the message of Scripture clearly - even the pastor told me that after the Ambassador's presentation. Then in our small group last night, where we normally discuss the message/sermon, we discussed the "message" of Bandeti - A Place of Refuge. And then we prayed for the many people and situations we knew of that needed God's refuge.

So, as you can see, a weekend with much to be grateful to God for!

NCAA March Madness and a few related trails

Unfortunately I do have classes to teach this coming Thursday afternoon (okay, I'm actually blessed to have the privilege of teaching these classes, its not really unfortunate but...) so I will miss a little bit of the beginning of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament aka "March Madness."

I have two standard favorites - the Duke Blue Devils because I've always just liked them and Coach K, as well as the Gonzaga Bulldogs, because they are one of my alma mater's. However, while I hope that they both do well, I think it will be tough for either of them to win more than one game in the tournament and I doubt if either of them will make it to the Sweet 16. The Zags will face a very stiff challenge from Indiana, though that should be a great contest. Duke should be okay to take out VCU in the opening round, but I don't like their chances against Pittsburgh. If Gonzaga does manage to beat Indiana, it would be awesome for them to get "revenge" against UCLA in the second round. And if all went really well for both teams, they would actually play each other in the Sweet 16. Now that would be great!!!

Speaking of playoff basketball, it would be great to see the Prairie Christian Academy Sabres men's basketball team win provincials this coming weekend in Edmonton. They have been the top-ranked team the whole season (now that's pressure!) and so hopefully they will win at all for PCA for the second time in school history. The first time was in 1999 when my great friend, Stan Parker, was the PCA Sabres coach and my soon-to-be-brother-in-law, Jon Hunt, was one of many fine players on that team, including Ryan Reed, Nico Jol, Andrew Peters, etc, etc.

Which leads to another related trail... The zone championship game in 1999 was the BEST event ever in the Rick Down Athletic Centre (previously known as the Sportsplex). The Sabres defeated Siksika 108-100 in an incredible championship game and yours truly was running the clock and the scoresheet for that fantastic match!!! However, in just less than 8 weeks, that will become the SECOND BEST event in the RDAC... :-)

And one last related trail... speaking of the Rick Down Athletic Centre, check out my colleague Michael Pahl's recent blog on "being a grandpa." It is very touching... and shows a side of Professor Pahl that students probably don't often see/hear but is indeed his true heart and character.

Just say "NO"

Those of you who know me will understand that I am NOT particularly good at saying "NO" to various opportunities to be involved in many sorts of activities. And I'm usually quite glad - and even proud - to be involved in lots of activities, whether those relate to Prairie Bible College life, Prairie Tabernacle ministries, sports, etc.

So I just wanted to blog today and let you know that I said "NO" the other night at the first meeting of our new elders board at Prairie Tabernacle. I believe (with evidence) there were some who wanted me to continue serving as the chair of the board of elders. Various ones have been very kind and affirming of my abilities and talents in this area of leadership and I do enjoy this type of ministry. Of course, glory to God for providing the abilities, talents and working through me!

Nonetheless, I believed very strongly that for at least the next year, I needed to not serve in any "executive" position on the elders board - and so I said "NO"! (Really, I did... and I'm so proud!!!)

The first reason I said "no" is because of a leadership philosophy that believes leadership needs to be broad, not just held in the hands of one (or a few) person(s). I think right now most people in the Prairie Tabernacle would be comfortable as I stayed as chair. But this is not good for the congregation to have one person always in the lead. There are other elders capable of leading and just because people like Steve, and feel comfortable with Steve leading a meeting (and Steve enjoys it too!!!), does not mean it is in the long-term good of the congregation. We have all seen leaders who refuse to let go of a position and thus leave a dearth of other leaders in five, ten, or 20 years when they finally die, retire or get pushed out. Just cuz I'm not "old" (compared to a senior citizen) doesn't mean I am immune to the same temptation. So the first and primary reason I said "no" was because Leadership needs to be shared.

Secondly, I am not sure that I will be living in Three Hills for a long time. No, I don't have specific plans to move in the next months - okay, I will move into my fiance's home after our wedding on May 5th - but I don't want to commit to leading the elders board when I may not be here for the whole time. And with various things happening in the next few months, my schedule will not allow me to really function as the chair should.

Thirdly, I have new responsibilities as a husband that will begin soon and so I want to be faithful to that call from God. Now I do NOT agree that I should be "exempt" from all ministry responsibilities because I am getting married. There are those who probably think I should "take a year off from the elders board when I get married." After all, in the OT didn't a soldier get a year off from war when he was newly married? Yes... - and I don't think that serving as an elder at a church should be viewed as WAR!!! If it is, you probably don't want to serve on that elders board at any time, not just when you are newly married.

So, I said NO because I believe God has called me to say "no." And I actually listened, despite urgings - from others and even selfish ambition - to say otherwise.

Reading Day Break

Its that time in the semester where students at Prairie Bible College enjoy Reading Days - though as they are quick to point out, this year it is only a reading day (singular!). We do not have daytime classes regularly scheduled on Mondays and so the fact that we do not have classes on Tues March 13 means that we really only have one "Reading day" break. Of course, being shrewd students, a few of them left campus Thursday, before or after their respective classes. That doesn't bother me... we all make choices and each student made one for which they will live with the consequences, positive and negative.

Meanwhile, I need to make sure that I have both a restful and productive Reading Break - like I encourage the students. After my Friday morning class and chapel, I do NOT feel like grading the computer assignments that are being emailed to me. I could leave them til Monday... but they will still need to be graded. So I can do them today and have a slower pace to Monday or do them Monday and enjoy the start of the weekend earlier. But either way, each of us, students and profs make choices and have to life with the consequences.

And that's leadership too... making choices and taking responsibility for the consequences.

Leadership & the NHL Trade Deadline

A few thoughts about leadership in light of yesterday's NHL trade deadline.

1) Emotions do play a part in tough leadership decisions - and that's good. Esp thinking about Kevin Lowe dealing Ryan Smyth to the Islanders, it was a very tough decision and I'm glad the Oilers GM was honest about that. Though I don't listen to Edm radio stations, apparently there was a great deal of angst that the Oilers wouldn't cough up the extra $$$ to simply sign Smyth. And Smyth is and always has been a classy guy - as even further evidenced by his decision not to comment on the trade when the day was one to celebrate Mark Messier. And even as a Flames fan, I kinda hope the Oilers can re-sign Smyth after July 1 when he becomes an unrestricted free agent (UFA) - unless of course the Flames could sign him!!!

2) Good leadership makes the tough decisions - Although it was a very emotional and difficult decision, Oilers GM Kevin Lowe made the tough decision (I believe an excellent trade) for the good of the organization for the long term. He knew he would/will get criticized by fans, the media, etc and is/was willing to live through it - and still made the tough decision for the good of the organization. Making the tough decision may not be popular but it is still the leader's responsibility. Of course, if its the wrong decision, the leader also has to take the heat and/or admit the error.

3) Be shrewd - more than a few hockey pundits, esp the good friends on TSN and Sportsnet, where debating the rightness of the St Louis Blues actions in the past week, believing that they traded Bill Guerin and Keith Tkachuk to other teams and yet already have plans in place to sign them back on July 1 when they become UFAs. And if that is true, then full marks to John Davidson the Blues GM for being so shrewd. All of his actions are above board, and won't be a surprise to anyone. And if the rules/system allows such actions, then use it wisely. The Blues desperately need to be re-built and so if Davidson is doing it shrewdly, using his assets to gain future assets and then will be able to re-acquire the recently departed assets, then more power to him. That's simply shrewd leadership.

Please understand that this does not mean "fudging" the rules or even applying the rule-of-law, and totally ignoring the spirit of the law. If Davidson truly pulls this off come July 1, it will be all above board with everyone aware of the possibilities.

Law & Order vs Evangelicals?

Just curious if anyone else out there has observed the "strange coincidence" of NBC's Law and Order having two episodes that seemed to me to rather "opportunistic" in "capitalizing" on a recent Christian/Evangelical scandal?

Last week's episode of L&O: SVU and then last night's episode of L&O: Criminal Intent both featured a "prominent leader of an evangelical empire" who "preached strongly for family values and against homosexuality" and was involved in a murder (that's the main difference), both in an effort in some way to cover up a homosexual relationship with a male prostitute.

I'm obviously a fan of the Law & Order series (all of them) and generally a fan of NBC programming (especially "ER" though it has dramatically faded in recent years), but these two episodes just seemed so "opportunistic" that I just wondered if anyone knows of an anti-Christian, anti-evangelical bent in NBC leadership - or if it just shrewd programming?

And of course, recent evangelical "scandals" have given the media plenty of opportunity to condemn Christians without having any axe to grind. By God's grace, any Christian leader, myself included, will refrain from looking for some sinister anti-Christian "plot" behind any television story/program and simply ask God to keep us from the same failures... and live beyond the criticisms and false presentations to live the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Great article by ESPN's Chris Broussard

I found the link to this article on Tim Ellsworth's blog - and I agree it is a well-written article. (And some of you thought that guys who love sports and/or Jesus couldn't also be smart and articulate)

Valentine's Day

This is truly a very different Valentine's Day... because I have a special woman in my life - and not just a girlfriend, but a fiance, who will be my wife in 80 days! God's Ultimate Gift of Love was the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, so that I could free from the death penalty of sin(s), and be restored to right relationship with Him, now and for eternity.

And undoubtedly his next best gift to me is the incredibly beautiful woman that He has blessed me with as a friend, fiance, future wife, and a true partner in the work of His Kingdom. God has always loved me, and has always blessed me with loving people around me. Yet this Valentine's Day I celebrate and understand His Love in a new and richer way because of Sarah.

I love you, Sarah. :-)

Budgets, Finances and Christian Leadership

Last night I led the "Finance Information meeting" for our congregation and today I started to work on the Church and Ministry dept budget here at Prairie Bible College. And so finances, budget and those sorts of topics are flying in my brain this week. And most interestingly, the LORD allowed me to hear Tony Campolo speak twice over the weekend at BreakfForth 2007 in Edmonton and he spoke about living simply - or to use the phrase I've grown up with here at PBI as a staff kid and staff member, "the simple lifestyle."

And as Dr Campolo more than adequately pointed out, most of North America, and I would include Three Hills/PBI in that too, do NOT live simply. We live Extravagantly!!! So here's a few of my thoughts so far out of the last 5 days related to Christians, Leadership and Money.

1) There are times when it is okay to be extravagant and celebrate. For example, my fiance and I are NOT going to go cheap on our wedding or the honeymoon. This is a once in a lifetime event and its worth celebrating because God says that marriage is good. Nonetheless, we are both committed to making sure that the wedding ceremony does not get more attention than the marriage, and that neither the wedding ceremony nor the honeymoon costs more than either of our annual salaries! I've seen "nice" Christian families who throw their daughter a ludicrously expensive wedding - and I can't stand it!!!

2) Christian ministries should err on the side of generosity. Far too many Christian organizations are known for their cheap-ness and stinginess with money. Whether it relates to a staff member's salary, the benefits an organization offers, or giving gifts or honorarium, those who work for the Lord will already be making a sacrifice - I don't have to make it "more sacrificial" for them. By the same token, as a faculty member at a Bible college, I do NOT expect to make what a prof at the Univ of Calgary or Univ of Alberta earns - and I'm okay with that. Christian organizations can't compete - and shouldn't try. But they don't have to be so tight they squeak (to use the words of my too generous brother, Tim).

3) Christians should "make it easy" for the Christian organizations they work for to be generous by not "demanding" corporate standards. Yes, if a business person goes away to a conference, s/he probably will get a room to themself and not have to share it with a colleague. But a Christian worker doesn't have to "claim" this "right" but can save the ministry some money by splitting a room w/ a colleague. You shouldn't have to eat your meals at McDonalds (though I personally love to do so anyway!) but you shouldn't go for steak and lobster either.

Summary comment: My life experience bears witness to the truth laid out in Scripture that when we as Christians are generous with what God gives us, He is more than faithful to take care of our financial needs (and wants) beyond what we can ask or imagine.

Miscellaneous stuff from the weekend

Just some miscellaneous things from my life this weekend to blog about...

1) My fantastic fiance, Sarah, was away with a few of her girlfriends on Friday evening and Saturday and so I had a bit more time by myself on Saturday. And though I missed her lots and was glad to see her again on Saturday evening (Flames beat the Oilers 4-0!), it was also good to have some time to read, rest, do a bit of grading and then do a fair bit of "nothing" and just veg. I strongly believe that as a leader, you need those kinda days once in a while - and not feel guilty for them!

2) I'm glad to see the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts will be meeting in the Super Bowl. Not only will it be a great matchup of defence vs offense, but lots of great leaders on both teams, including Peyton Manning, Brian Urlacher and of course, two African-American coaches, both good friends, Tony Dunge & Lovie Smith.

3) Leaders pray to know God's will - and my experience in the past couple weeks reminds me that we should be careful what we pray for! God may just answer! Mostly thinking of the recent situation in the PTC where we called someone to come and serve as our Pastor of Student & Family Ministries and after initially accepting the call, they let us know this week that they will need to decline the position. And though I'm disappointed, as is most of the church, it was also very clear to them (and to me as I read through their letter) that God was closing the door and saying "no" to this ministry for them at this time. Of course it would be terrible for them and for the congregation if God said "no" and we pushed on anyway and said "yes." So thank you, God, for answering prayer, even if we don't like the answer!

Little Mosque on the Prairies

Last night I watched the new CBC show (no, I can't believe I just typed those words...) "Little Mosque on the Prairies" - and it was truly hilarious!!! In fact, I think I will have to add it to the "required watching/reading" for the show on pastoring in rural churches that I talked about in a previous post. I confess that as a non-Muslim, I wondered if the show may have been offensive, and if so, the Muslim faith is NOT what I found entertaining about the program. It was the small-town, "redneck" approach to religion and anything new in town, esp that was from "the East" - the East being Toronto!

Learning from Job Interviews

I have been involved with three job interviews this past week and they have been wonderful experiences - both in meeting new people and in learning about myself, organizations, and how to lead. For the sake of anonymity/confidentiality I will just refer to the three candidates as A, B & C. They are all interviewing for different positions and not at the same organization.

For the organization to NOT hire Candidate A would be insane. While it is a good organization, for them to have a chance to hire CandA is amazing. This would be an incredibly good hire!!! CandA was a good communicater, answered the interview questions well and also showed some good insight in the questions that were asked of the interview committee. CandA has the necessary education and experience for the position and was comfortable with the uniqueness s/he would bring to the organization.

Candidate B was fairly good in the initial interview (not for the same position as CandA) and then really showed well in a second portion of the interview. Again, s/he has the necessary education and experience and would seem to be a good fit for the organization. Most interestingly, CandB knew s/he needed a change from the current work context for both career and lifestyle reasons and believes that the new position and the new organization would help that change happen. CandB's honesty that s/he was "giddily excited" about the possibility of serving the organization in the position was refreshing - and one wondered if it was a bit too idealistic. But then again, would you really want someone joining your organization who was pessimistic or hesitant to work with you?

Candidate C had a fairly decent interview also, though it was again different from the other two. It seems that CandC has the raw tools to do a good job in the position, but s/he doesn't actually have the experience in the context. S/he certainly has the education for the position and has shown most of the skills necessary for the position but in varying contexts. I think the organization may be willing to give CandC a shot at the position on some sort of contract basis or short-term contract which would seem to be reasonable. CandC seems like a good quality individual who has good talents and would be a good person to have in the organization, but whether s/he can totally fit the job is still a question.

So that's been an interesting week. Now its off to watch Hockey Day in Canada. I'm thinking I'd like to offer an elective course sometime for pastors in rural communities in Canada. The pre-reading would not be reading at all - it would be watching 2-3 episodes of "Hockey Day in Canada" and then watching all three seasons (now available on DVD) of "Corner Gas." Here's my title for the course: Dog River Shepherding: Corner Gas, Culture & Canadiana. Any takers?

Canada Three-peats at the World Juniors

As noted a couple blogs ago, one of the best parts of any Christmas season is the World Junior Hockey Championships on TSN. And once again, for the third year in a row, its a GOLDEN celebration today after Canada defeated Russia 4-2 in the gold medal game. A couple great leadership stories...

1) Carey Price who allowed a soft goal two years ago in the final of the U18 world championships and was then cut from last year's Canadian team, not only provided solid goaltending for Team Canada, but was named the top goalie of the tournament and the tournament MVP. In other words, times of testing and hardship will come. Its how you respond that either builds character and makes you stronger (or makes you give up).

2) Brent Sutter coached the last two world junior champions for Canada and last year Craig Hartsburg was one of the assistant coaches. This year Hartsburg was the head coach and did a fantastic job keeping the Canadian team focused and playing well. Hockey Canada seems to do a super job of succession planning!

3) And last but not least, how can you NOT be proud to be a Canadian when your Prime Minister is interviewed live during the first intermission and provides good hockey analysis, and yet is so clearly cheering on the team, and even is glad to make jokes when James Duthie (TSN announcer) says, "we profusely apologize for any troubles caused in the economy this afternoon by Canadian hockey fans skipping work to watch the game" and PM Stephen Harper replies, "oh that's okay. I imagine I'm not gonna get too many answer to some of my phone calls today either!"