I went to the t3c Genesis (our college/career group) summer retreat. I went into it hoping to meet some people and make some friends, and I think I did just that. Sometimes I forget that in a larger church, everyone has busy lives and it's hard to slow things down and stop and get to know people. I'm glad I went to the retreat, aside from the 5 mosquito bites I got on my feet!

A friend of mine forwarded me a free long distance site, anywhere in Ontario. I have yet to try it, since I lost all my Ottawa numbers. Anyway, to sign up, go to http://www.labattblueline.com.

Something that struck me at the retreat was when the speaker was talking about how someone at his church speaks very passionately about Krispy Kreme donuts, and that when we talk about God, we should get excited like that. In truth, the only person I've ever known to speak about God the way I might talk about say, computer games or football, is Pastor Ted, who is at SCBC now. Even other pastors who speak on Sundays, they don't speak passionately, not like they're excited about what they are preaching. What really struck me is that the speaker said that if we can't talk *THAT* passionately about God, then we haven't really experienced God's love.

I mean, I can tell you all about a video game and how great it is, but in order for you to really experience the same type of passion that I might have for it, you would have to experience it for itself. And on the flip end of that, it means that I would have experienced it myself, otherwise I would not have been so passionate about it. The same goes with sharing the love of Christ. I've known friends to talk to me passionately about their work, video games, sports they play, books they read, etc. But I can't remember the last time someone approached me about being excited about God's love. That's something to think about.

Some interesting sites I discovered while talking on icq today. http://www.loser.com goes to google, which i thought was kinda cool, since loser is quicker to type that google, plus sometimes i type gogle by accident, or googel, or gogole. you know, it happens..

Also, http://www.god.org, where you can send a letter to God. If anyone tries it, please let me know what happens!

I think if I did any sort of missions work, I wouldn't want to have to do the presentation that everyone seems to need to make in front of the congregation. Or even the follow-up presentation. I don't think I would want anyone to know what I was going to do there, or even where I was going. I think just timing would be enough, just so people could pray for me. I feel that I wouldn't want to go just to make myself feel good, I wouldn't want any sort of self gratification to come out of it, and I know that if people knew I was going, I would feel that, as foolish as that sounds.

I've been to hundreds, maybe thousands of praise nights, testimonials, conferences, etc. Last week at church someone spoke about her upcoming missions trip, and I was given two prayer letters, one from the girl who spoke, and one from another friend. My parents always ask me about why I've never been on a missions trip. A simple answer, I've never felt that burden. Even at Urbana, an event focused on missions, where a popular 'catch phrase' ("... ever since I went to Urbana I have been praying about ...") was coined after, I never felt any burden, no appeal towards missions.

Tonight God spoke directly to me about missions for the first time ever, at another ol' P&W. I can't even remember what song we were singing when it hit me, but God's message was simple: What have you done for me lately?

Just a quick update: There are still a few chunks of cement on my hands, but the stuff on my arms and fingers have been washed off.

Apparently liquid cement is corrosive. I had to find out the hard way though. Yesterday I woke up at 7:30am and worked straight until 8:30pm, with my dad on our front door enclosure, putting tiles on the cement steps. When someone tells you something is corrosive after you've been touching it almost all day, you sort of automatically don't believe, because it doesn't hurt when you touch it. But afterwards, I showered and applied some Great White (industrial soap), not only were my hands cut up from the cement corrosion, there was still cement stuck to my hands. Even now, a day later, there are still bits of cement on my arms and hands, stuck!

Praise God, the strike is over!

My dad came home today, his face was all red, nose especially, and his arms were red as well. As some of you know, my dad works for the City of Toronto. He's not part of the unionized parts that are on strike and as a result, he had to work at the garbage transfer station today. Conditions sound pretty bad there, there are about 50 tonnes of garbage that need to be sorted through, and apparently my dad and 4 other people got it all done. Please pray for this garbage situation to end quickly. It seems I didn't fully understand the strike situation as well as I thought. The garbage people are on strike but not by choice, it's the union leaders who have made them go on strike. The fact is if the union leaders allowed the workers to vote for whether to continue the strike, it would've been over long ago.

Pray for the union leaders!