What Are They Thinking?

The NHL season opens in earnest this weekend. (Actually tomorrow) But here's what I don't understand. Anaheim and LA play 2 games in London, England this weekend before coming back to North America for the remainder of the season. But while those 2 teams are squaring off in the regular season, there are exhibition/preseason games being played at the same time. Tell me who's bright idea this was. The Americans already have trouble understanding hockey, now you throw in this confusing situation? Hog-Wash! Somebody please give Gary Bettman's head a shake.

Taking The Plunge

I finally took the plunge this morning... All summer I've been attending the gym of "real life," (golfing, skimboarding, baseball), but today I officially signed up for a real gym membership. It's crazy man, now I've got an appointment with a personal trainer who is going to set-up a meal plan for me, put me through the gears to see how my body reacts, where it needs work, and then come up with a tailor made workout plan for me. It's like I'm part of some high-performance sports team. It's pretty cool, but I feel like it might be overkill. I just want to get in shape, not take part in the next olympics. We'll see how it goes, my first session with the personal trainer is next week.

See You At The Pole

This morning I woke up nice and early, jumped in the shower (cause I stink in the morning), threw on some clothes and made my way to 421 Grove St to stand around the flag pole. I arrived promptly at 7 and there may have been 2 people at the pole. I had visions of being back in high school with 3 people standing around the flag pole... But it wasn't like that at all. Slowly people started to trickle in and by the end we had over 40 people surrounding the flag pole. It was a good time of prayer for students, teachers, the school and Barrie, but the hilite for me was something totally different.

3 or 4 times during the prayer time I had someone tap me on the shoulder and ask: "Who died?" It was the same question from each person! I smiled and told them that at this time each year, Christians across North America gather around their school's flag pole and pray for the school, the students and the teachers. Not a single person I talked to thought that was weird, rather most said "Cool." Now after our conversation finished they stuck around for a while watching us, and at one point I felt like I should ask them "Do you want us to pray for you?" But I didn't. I'm kicking myself for missing that opportunity, but the whole experience was a positive one for me.

Pre-Party

Tonight at EBC in Barrie over 100 youth came together to get pumped for See You At The Pole Tomorrow morning. It was a great night, lots of fun, and lots of sweat! It was SO hot inside their youth room. Pastor Dave had some serious sweat going on. Tomorrow morning isn't supposed to be as hot as today, so hopefully it'll be a more comfortable temperature for everyone to get around those flagpoles! I'll be hanging out with the young'uns at Eastview. Have a great morning!

HOORAY FOR PITSTAINS!

Observing

I watched an interesting scenario unfold in church Sunday morning... The dude on stage was praying, and a young man came walking down the aisle, saw someone he knew and began to move down the row towards them. Problem was that he had to go past a handful of people to get to his friend. As you know, there's not a lot of room to get by people in the pews, and consequently he bumped into a couple of the people on his journey. These people were not happy. I can just imagine the thoughts going through their minds: "Doesn't he know to wait until prayer is done?" "What is this guy doing disrupting my time with God?" You may agree with these people's thoughts, and support the daggers their eyes threw at this young man. I do not.
He didn't look like a regular church attender, who knows, maybe it was his first time coming in a while? He clearly didn't feel comfortable sitting on his own amongst strangers... I wonder why? Maybe because they look down on him because he doesn't know the "rules" for a Sunday morning? How about we scrap the "rules" and show some more love? Instead of giving the guy dirty looks, give him a warm smile and maybe even introduce yourself later? Maybe I'm wrong and need to be more reverent in church. It's a definite possibility. I just feel that church is missing the point when it comes to "the lost"... I'll leave it at that.