oh canada!
i just returned from my homeland of canada and had a great time. i was on a multi purpose mission including spending time with both my brother-in-law, david and my sister-in-law, joanne. i am sort of like a big brother to them, especially since both of thier parents have passed away. we had good visits.
i also managed to cram in several games of hockey with my canadian comrades, go to a lacrosse game, visit all my old haunts including my old neighbourhood and my high school. i played lacrosse growing up and it is an amazing game to watch. rougher than any sport you've ever seen!! i spent some time with the athletic director of my old high school talking football and he was kind enough to give me one of our old football jerseys - cool! oh yea, the last day i went skiing at sonshine village in banff. for those that don't know i used to compete in freestyle skiing during my teenage years. it was a beautiful spring day and yes, i did attempt some old tricks including a fairly respectable 720... plenty of air, completed both rotatations, off axis by about 10 degrees, took a decent tumble.
i told you in my last post that my son jeremy went to denver with his buddy to see u2. check this out. he had written a note of encouragement with a great scripture from the book of psalms to pass on to bono should the chance arise. of course, it did! [the faith of a child] he had a chance to spend a minute with him before the concert outside the arena. when bono read the note he told jeremy, "i love this translation." [speaking of the message bible translation] anyways, the concert was incredible. i plan to go see them when they come to dallas.
well, gotta go. thought for the day... remember your first love. think back and recall what you were like the first few months after you really gave your life to Christ. how you prayed, read the word. witnessed to friends, looked forward to church... let's get that back! whatever has crept into your life that has tried to steal that passion - get it out!
your friend,
blaine
i also managed to cram in several games of hockey with my canadian comrades, go to a lacrosse game, visit all my old haunts including my old neighbourhood and my high school. i played lacrosse growing up and it is an amazing game to watch. rougher than any sport you've ever seen!! i spent some time with the athletic director of my old high school talking football and he was kind enough to give me one of our old football jerseys - cool! oh yea, the last day i went skiing at sonshine village in banff. for those that don't know i used to compete in freestyle skiing during my teenage years. it was a beautiful spring day and yes, i did attempt some old tricks including a fairly respectable 720... plenty of air, completed both rotatations, off axis by about 10 degrees, took a decent tumble.
i told you in my last post that my son jeremy went to denver with his buddy to see u2. check this out. he had written a note of encouragement with a great scripture from the book of psalms to pass on to bono should the chance arise. of course, it did! [the faith of a child] he had a chance to spend a minute with him before the concert outside the arena. when bono read the note he told jeremy, "i love this translation." [speaking of the message bible translation] anyways, the concert was incredible. i plan to go see them when they come to dallas.
well, gotta go. thought for the day... remember your first love. think back and recall what you were like the first few months after you really gave your life to Christ. how you prayed, read the word. witnessed to friends, looked forward to church... let's get that back! whatever has crept into your life that has tried to steal that passion - get it out!
your friend,
blaine
posted by Blaine bartel at 9:25 AM
1 Comments:
blaine, hope your time in canada was refreshing! good word about going back to our first love - we need to hear that so often... it's so easy to slip into a routine and lose the passion. (we can all identify with the pharisees more often than we'd like to admit.)
like i said in my last comment, my wife and i just started a church about 6 months ago. i'd love to hear about what the biggest challenges have been for you as you moved from youth pastor to associate pastor.
keep up the great blog!
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