Plowing ahead.

Ok, I have not had a very busy day, but nonetheless, I feel tired and light-headed as I write this, and definitely don't see myself staying up very late tonight. I think I had too much coffee last night, and couldn't sleep until late, and had a restless night when I finally did, so maybe that is why today was so tiring.

The Chad, and Peter Outasaf;ldskfa;sdfastadkfasd;fanlkewpjaroisj came over and played Bibleopoly with Andy and I. This was the second time I played it ever, and the first time we played a complete game. I started out with the least amount of properties, and had one bad thing after another happen, and I came out on top and won in the end. But I had to much coffee too late in the day, and paid the consequences of it. By the way, that is not Peter's real last name, but it is pretty close to how you spell it.

I got several important things accomplished today. I finally met with Rick, but before that I met with John Maclean, pastor at Auburn. It was refreshing to see and talk to them both, but partly emotionally taxing as well, as I had a lot of things to catch up on with them both, but my appointments with them both fell on the same day.

For one thing, I was able to get into nitty gritty detail about real life ministry and glean from John about what ministry is really like and share my heart about the 6 months I was in the Netherlands (I know some of you reading this don't need to be told!) and listen to his recollections of life as a 24 year-old. He described to a letter T the situations that have been happening in my life, in 2 different countries during 2005. But, better to learn from disapointments early on as opposed to later. Though things were not picture-perfect and it's no secret to some that many of my high expectations were not realized, I am pumped nonetheless. I have a note in my Bible that says "Better to be disappointed with reality than to be elated with fantasy." So my internship in the Netherlands served its purpose very well. Now on to the real ministry.

Merely touching on it briefly in a blog entry doesn't do justice, but it was refreshing to talk to John, and that I can keep meeting with him on this level even now that I'm going to Peterborough Christian Fellowship with his blessing and knowledgement ahead of time before I even went to Holland [that I'd be going there once I returned]. I will touch on that more later and maybe a future newsletter for those who would like to know more about the decisions that led to changing churches (other than "all my friends go there, and all my friends' parents go to Auburn")

Then I came back to the apartment for a bowl of Kraft Dinner before heading over to KAOS Radio for my appointment with Rick Kirshner. Though a brief 45 minutes or less this time, it always goes by jam-packed with stuff to discuss and it always makes me more excited to get back to what God has been putting on my heart. Who doesn't like and respect Rick? So I'm applying for licensing with the Independent Assemblies of God International, which, from Rick's encouragement over the last year and a half, as well as carefully reading through their website seems really suitable under my circumstances.

So when that was over, I got to talking to Darryl Parsons, who is my parents' neighbor and also goes to Auburn. He co-hosts a show on Sundays called Lucid Noize, and was editing & mixing things on his laptop in his office adjacent to Rick's. Darryl briefly showed me how the editing is done. I never knew there was so much work involved. We got talking about the current federal election--nothing heated, just comparing notes on how fast we think the Liberal ship is sinking and how desperate Prime Minister Paul Martin is getting.

I shared with him a story I'll share here; one day last week Linda Slavin came through my building and I unfortunately answered the door when she knocked on mine. She's the local candidate running for the riding under the New Democratic Party (NDP). Don't get me wrong, I really don't have anything against the NDP and appreciate their social causes, but I just think they won't win the majority vote, and have no history in Canada's existence of actually being the party in power. AND I don't want the opposition vote split. I want to make sure a party knocks the current Liberals out of power--FINALLY!

I don't write about politics on my blog, mostly because I don't burn with it, but this election is important to me and I DO want to see Stephen Harper as the next Prime Minister. It's not something I care to be challenged on, you vote for who you want. But I just know Darryl has to edit the bit he had me record for his show so that it remains non-partisan. Well, this is my blog so I can tell what I want without giving equal representation to anyone.

Well, they were campaigning in my neighborhood. Nuff said. They spent 5 minutes patronizing me for my views and decision to vote Conservative this election because that party is the one that's the closest to my overall views and convictions. I don't remember the exact five minute span of time verbatim, but two things stick out as being interesting to me about their visit:

1) She and her assistant told me how much Conservative Leader Stephen Harper and Prime Minister Paul Martin both in their own separate ways are concerned with "buddying up too much with the United States".

Boy, were they talking to the wrong person! So I said "well, I'd rather live in the United States than Canada, I think we got a lot of things morality-wise bass ackwards up here." I'd never renounce my citizenship of course, I'm a proud Canadian. But the look on her face was priceless.

2)Then the assistant, a middle aged man chimed in towards the end and said he used to be a conservative just like me as a young man, with the subtle implication you knew was about to come that he's now "enlightened" and wants to uncontaminate my pour misguided soul--that "the country got rid of the Conservative party in 1993 and this revived party is just a resurrected Progressive Conservative Party that most people just want to make go back to non-existance."

Hmm, if that were true Mister, then how come the Conservatives are not only way ahead of the NDP in the polls, but have finally just edged forward past the Liberals in those same polls? Clearly, not as much of the country is as afraid of them as you say.

Anyway I was doing a sort of monologue with enthusiasm for Darryl about this visit, who got a chuckle out of it, and then came up with the idea that it was interesting with all the "why not speak up when everyone is listening" ads the Canadian media is launching at young people during the campaign, that a candidate was in fact not listening to what a young person had to say.

He began to pull out his microphone and asked me if I'd repeat the whole thing again, and answer some other questions. The only thing is I couldn't do it the same way, because it had to be non-partisan, and the main thunder had to do with the comparisons between the Conservatives and the NDP.

I'm kicking myself actually that I didn't tell her (to make her go away faster) that I was voting Bloc Quebecois! I so wish I thought of it at the time! Boy they woulda really felt they were wasting their time on a misguided young loser.

Well anway, he recorded me answering some of his questions about why young people should vote, and it wasn't really funny or anything, but I shared what determined the way I'd vote, what is important this election, and answered questions like that. It will probably be edited into other answers and stuff peppered throughout the show.

But it still felt cool to have something relevant to contribute to a radio show on KAOS.

Even though I've never listened to Lucid Noize.