Christmas YAY ^_^

Brent:

Yeah, Christmas is over; I don't know about you all out there in blogging land but Christmas time is becoming less and less exciting and more and more stressful.

BAH HUMBUG is an understandment of my Christmas season. There is the pressure of getting people presents, the stress of my family deciding what to do for Christmas, the stress of my mom, being my mom times 11 because it's Christmas.

But enough about complaining; my Christmas was turning to be disappointing until my beautiful lovely better half decided to hang out with me for Christmas. I was still disappointed to a point; but the fact that I had someone I could talk to, someone I could hold was really relieving to me. It reminds me about the access we have to Jesus through his spirit; how when in trouble we can always find our father ready to embrace us in his arms and to cheer us up. Or other times to push us forward to meet our goal. Like when we lose our cell phones and want to give up looking when you are driven to continue looking for it and eventually discouvering it in the snow.

Maybe this makes completely no sense, but to me it is insightful. Or not... bleh whatever.

Ok, your turn Jessica..

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Jessica:

Christmas this year taught me a few things.
1) 6 hours a day of kettles is too much.
2) I'm way to unorganized.
3) I focus on silly things too much.

This was not a normal Christmas for me. I didn't get to do any of my usual Christmas time traditions, spend any time with my mom and sister before hand, or really, prepare for Christmas is any way.
I only got a few gifts for a few select people. One of which, hasn't even come in yet. I can't wait until Brent's present gets here. He's going to love it.

Christmas carols had a whole new meaning to me this year.. The one they are supposed to have. Last year I understood maybe a little bit about it.. But this year, I got a lot more of the actual meaning out of them. Singing 2nd, 3rd, and 4th verses to songs I thought only had one verse, understanding the idea of "round yon virgin mother and child, holy infant so tender and mild" and so on. It made kettle shifts more interesting. Up until Christmas day I could focus on that, but on Christmas eve and Christmas day I got distracted and focused on the old meaning of Christmas for me. Family, feasting, and presents.

It was cool to have Brent around for Christmas, 'cause, he's a kinda cool guy.
And by that, I mean it was probably my best Christmas yet.


Sorry about my gramatical/spelling errors Brent, I know you'll point them ALL out to me later.

What if his people prayed? (Music Video)

Well, I finally got a new computer; so I made compiled this video together with it's tremdous video editing power;

check it out:
What if his People Prayed
And for my college friends who can't access youtube due to dans guardian...

GodTube Link

And man my html editing is getting rusty I need a website to make...

December.

Kettles make my feet cold.

Free coffee makes my heart warm.

Christmas this year, has so much more meaning than all the previous years, partially because now I actually really care about the whole Christ's birth thing, and also, it will be the first time I'm not living at home. Even though I will be there anyways.

Should Pastors be put on a higher standard?

It's an open question.
Discuss.
-Brent

How can a young person stay pure?

By carefully following the commands written in your book.

Powerful words, yet do they really apply today?

More on this later.

A winding road

A winding road
A story untold
A heart unknown
A journey foretold

Deep dark pain in the middle of the night
The sharp regret of shame and fright
A bleak removal of everything right
Leaving you breathless without might

White roses across the sky
Give new hope to even try
To find new paths of this love
Will you soar forth spotless dove?

Now so free you still façade
To believe in misery a life decayed
Yet not to those you light ok?
Your gifts are his splendor forever portrayed

And so to one accord I say
To live a life of only one way
To be who you are and not to see
Who others than him believe you to be

RAW '07

This year of RAW I was blessed enough to attend for free.
Also I was able to bring along my girlfriend Jessica as well. Kinda signed her up against her will, and when I say kinda I mean, most definitly.

You see she was planning on attending VFS(Vancouver Film School) to learn more about filming, because that is her gifting. However she was crushed when it was cancelled. I had told her about RAW, and she asked if she could still go, last minute. Jon was willing to let her come for free, and film RAW, so I signed her up, then told her about it.
*GUYS* Learn from my mistake, never do this, always ask your girlfriend if she still wants to go. Anyway, she was forced, although my argument, is that she wouldn't have asked if she didn't want to go.

Man, 614's organizational skills are chaotic. We get there, we don't know who's cell were in, what are missions will be, how were getting to cariboo, yet god made it all happen.

We did missions, and Jessica got to film lots, but that's not the important stuff that I got from RAW.

I did learn, that if I truely want my church to evangelise I need to do it. Don't wait for them to do it, show them how it's done. So I have an action plan for the community, school, and my home on how to evangelise.

The main thing I got to see at RAW didn't even involve me, it was concerning my girl.

Jessica, accepts Jesus into her life. Ya it was done before, but I think she fell from the path a little and never came back. But she recommited to God, something I've prayed for since I've been dating her. It was totally awesome. Because before that, all the worship at RAW I was distracted by her, and whether or not she was involved. The one time I fully surrender to Christ 100%, commit to full worship, kneel and weep to my God, she comes over to comfort me. As I kneel there, surrendering to God in full for the first time in my life(which is a totally different story) she says in prayer "Me too, I want you to be a part of my life."

Understanding that this is the same person who is afraid to pray outloud, and was struggling understanding this whole Christian thing. It wasn't just a verbal thing either, I could see from that point, through her worship, her heart, and her new wisdom, that the change has really happened. She is freed from her past, her flesh. I have never seen this kind of change in a person so personal to my life. It's amazing.

I could talk about this all night, but my computer is lagging as I type. So I'm going to update this later.

See His Love(UpDAteD*)

this is my second and final draft of it.

What if everyone cared?

Man, I'm working on a music video for the Casting Crowns song called "What if his people prayed" and I just can't stop at remembering how much the music video "What if Everyone cared" by Nickelback had an impact on me.

Seriously it's a great vid, I'll give ya'll a youtube link to watch it. It's great.

Ski-weekend

Hey all, it's been awhile eh?

Well, recently our church went up to Vernon for a ski-trip.
I went tubbing and skating...

the pics our on the youth site which you should all check out, cuz well, I made it!

HAHA...

anyways here are the pics
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As for me, I'm doing this 40 days of lent thing with our youth group. It's actually pretty neat, we got a pamphlet for 40 days of scripture and little action tidbits to do daily. I'm going to put some discipline into this and stick with it.
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I'm having problems coming up with something to give up for LENT... if you guys have ideas that'd be neat... I could give up wearing a shirt... but you know, that might not sit well....

Any idea would be cool.
-Brent

Let's act on Homeless(ness)... as if we weren't already?

I was reading the 24 free newspaper at the sky train and I read a poorly written article about solving the problems in the GVRD.

It's a good read, if you want to chuckle.
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Let's act on homeless- *note* Typo? That was the exact title, not homelessness.
by: Erin Airton
(RIGHT ON)*note* this was posted underneath her name as to signal her writters voice.

It is finally time for innovative solutions for the homeless in our province.
Years and years of throwing money at the problem hasn't worked - the number continues to grow and taxpayers are weary.

In fact, what we've done is develop a whole network of government and non-profit agencies devoted to helping the homeless stay homeless. They provide emergency food, shelter, and medical care. There is an old adage in economics: If you want to encourage something, subsidize it; if you want to discourage something tax it.

Right now, in a sad way, we are encouraging homelessness, making it "bearable" to be homeless by providing these "emergency" services.

Now, before you get all twisted up, I'm not saying it is pleasant to be homeless and I'm not saying anyone wants to be homeless.

But let's not forget we have built up a substantial industry of well-meaning people who make their livelihoods and defend their funding on the basis of supporting a homeless population.
The 2005 GVRD counted total homeless population (in a 24 hour counting period) at 2,174. I would suggest the number is higher, just because of survey techniques... Let's say 3000 people in the GVRD are homeless. These, of course, are the truely homeless without access to a friends spare sofa and not knowing from night to night whether they will be sleeping in a crowded, fetid shelter or over a vent at Georgia and Burrard.

From GVRD reasearch, they are likely medically or mentally ill and struggle with some form of addiction. Most startling was the information that 55 per cent of homeless had some form of welfare, a pension or disability benefits.

So here's one radical idea and I'm sure there are more.
Why don't we gather together each and every homeless service organization at B.C. Place along with each and every homeless person? Why not take each person, one at a time, diagnose the issue at the root of the inability to find or maintain housing and then put a planned place for each?

More money for homeless services isn't going to rid us of homelessness. In fact, it will do the opposite. If we take those funds and direct them to removing each person from the streets, we may actually make some lives better.

In short term, we can house them at BC place while we sort it all out.

It is not right to help people stay on the streets. The only morla course of action is to remove them, forcibly if necessary, and assist them in building a new life.
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Comment your hearts out bloggers

-Brent

Following a yellow brick road.

This week has been tough for me. Not only is the first school semester coming to an end, but also that I've realized that society really doesn't expect much from people.

I was in a play this week, A wizard of Oz production set in a high school setting called 'Oz High', and as I played a metal head rocker Tim, the Tinman... I enjoyed every laugh from every audience member I recieved. I took my role, added my own quirks and said my lines in a manner that I knew would get laughs out of even the most depressed people in the audience. Applause at a theatre is almost required in our day and age, ovations are not. To get people to really look at you, you need to go beyond the average. I realized the other day, that society is much like that.

My highschool year is coming to an end and I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do for a career. Part of me doesn't see the point in having one. I mean a career for the sake that people say you need one to do well, doesn't seem like a just cause to break my limbs to obtain.

I'm not saying I'm lazy, even though alot of me is most of the time, I'm saying that I'm at a crossroads and I have a lot of decisions to make in a short time. That's the stress society forces on us, even though I have my whole life ahead of me and in realistic sense, tons of time to think things through.

The bible brings up a very good example of how we should lead our lives, and that is the example of Jesus, but that golden standard is realistic terms is impossible to follow. I'm pretty glad my version of realism and God's version aren't the same. Anyways, my goal now is to keep follow my yellow brick road, and I'll hopefully end up back home again when my story ends.

-Brent

--> I just realized the Wizard of Oz has alot of Christian symbolism.