Libby's Wedding

Yesterday was Libby's wedding and it was a beautiful event. It started off with the ceremony in the backyard of her parents property and finished with the reception taking place at the Vitners Hotel and Winery.

Here's some pictures from the day...

Arriving at Libby's parents, being greeted by Libby's horse...

As we walked through the gates, we were welcomed with a glass of bubbles...

Waiting for the bride to arrive...

Libby pulled up in her dad's old car and it was really sweet to watch Mark (the groom) turn around and wait to see her walk down the aisle instead...



The ceremony was short and sweet and had all the personal touches that Libby so carefully planned out for the day...





The MGC crew...

The bride and groom's first dance...

Emily & Mark playing with shadow puppets on the wall...

My little nephew, Matthew

Just got these pictures in an email from my sister. She says there will be copies of them waiting for me when I get home.





Oh my goodness! Soooooooooo cute! I want to gobble him right up!!!

My he's getting so big! He's developing into a little boy now! What a huge change from the last set of pictures I got...

ps. Love the hair buddy... nice work! He's definitely got your curls!

Book Review: Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell


Warning – this post contains very few of my own thoughts and a whole slew of the author’s thoughts. I just figured that it was easier to take the direct quotes that resonated with me rather than try to summarize in my own words. I’m not sure what the current laws are, but hopefully I don’t get nailed for copy-right infringement!! Lol..

Although I finished this book way back in January while doing copious amounts of tramping over my summer holidays, it has taken me until now to consolidate my thoughts on it.

To summarize, I really liked this book. I think I was most moved and most inspired by Chapter 2. It is titled “Jump”. Here is just a wee flavour of some of my favourite lines:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Several years ago my parents and in-laws gave our boys a trampoline. A fifteen-footer with netting around the outside so kids don’t end up headfirst in the flowers. Since then my boys and I have logged more hours on that trampoline than I could begin to count…

…It is on this trampoline that God has started to make more sense to me. Because when it comes to faith, everybody has it. People often tell me that they could never have faith, that it is just too hard. The idea that some people have faith and others don’t is a popular one. But it is not a true one. Everybody has faith. Everybody is following somebody. What often happens is that people with specific beliefs about God get backed into a corner, defending their faith against the calm, cool rationality of others. As if they have faith and beliefs and others don’t.

Subtitled “Way”:
+++++++++++++++

As a Christian, I am simply trying to orient myself around living a particular kind of way, the kind of way that Jesus taught is possible. And I think that the way of Jesus is the best possible way to live.

This isn’t irrational or primitive or blind faith. It is merely being honest that we are all living a “way”.

I’m convinced being generous is a better way to live.
I’m convinced forgiving people and not carrying around bitterness is a better way to live.
I’m convinced having compassion is a better way to live.
I’m convinced pursuing peace in every situation is a better way to live.
I’m convinced listening to the wisdom of others is a better way to live.
I’m convinced being honest with people is a better way to live.

This way of thinking isn’t weird or strange: it is simply acknowledging that everybody follows somebody, and I’m trying to follow Jesus.

Subtitled “Springs”:
+++++++++++++++
…This is where the springs on the trampoline come in. When we jump, we begin to see the need for springs. The springs help make sense of these deeper realities that drive how we live every day. The springs aren’t God. The springs aren’t Jesus. The springs are statements and beliefs about our faith that help give words to the depth that we are experiencing in our own jumping. I would call these doctrines of the Christian faith.

They aren’t the point.

They help us understand the point, but they are a means and not an end. You take them seriously, and at the same time we keep them in proper perspective.

Take, for example, the doctrine – the spring – called the Trinity. This doctrine is central to the historic, orthodox Christian faith… So God is one, but God has also revealed himself to us as Spirit, and then as Jesus. One and yet three. This three-in-oneness understanding of God emerged in the several hundred years after Jesus’ resurrection. People began to call this concept the Trinity. The word trinity is not found anywhere in the bible…. But over time, this understanding, this doctrine, has become central to how followers of Jesus have understood who God is. It is a spring, and people jumped for thousands of years without it. It was added later. We can take it out and examine it. Discuss it, probe it, question it. It flexes, and it stretches.

In fact, its stretch and flex are what make it so effective. It is firmly attached to the frame and the mat, yet it has room to move. And it has brought a fuller, deeper, richer understanding to the mysterious being who is God.

(continuing about the springs)…This truth about God is why study and discussion and doctrines are so necessary. They help us put words to realities beyond words. They give us insight and understanding into the experience of God we’re having. Which is why the springs only work when they serve the greater cause: us finding our lives in God. If they ever become the point, something has gone seriously wrong. Doctrine is a wonderful servant and a horrible master.

Subtitled Bricks:
+++++++++++++
Somebody recently gave me a videotape of a lecture given by a man who travels around speaking about the creation of the world. At one point in his lecture he said if you deny that God created the world in six literal twenty-four hour days, then you are denying that Jesus ever died on the cross. It’s a bizarre leap of logic to make, I would say.

But he was serious.

It hit me while I was watching that for him faith isn’t a trampoline; it’s a wall of bricks. Each of the core doctrines for him is like an individual brick that stacks on top of the others. If you pull one out, the whole wall starts to crumble. It appears quite strong and rigid, but if you begin to rethink or discuss even one brick, the whole thing is in danger…

…What if tomorrow someone digs us definitive proof that Jesus had a real, earthly biological father named Larry, and archaeologists find Larry’s tomb and do DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was really just a bit of mythologizing the Gospel…

What if that spring was seriously questioned?

Could a person keep jumping? Could a person still love God? Could you still be a Christian? Is the way of Jesus still the best possible way to live? Or does the whole thing fall apart?

…a brick is fixed in size. It can’t flex or change size, because if it does, then it can’t fit into the wall. What happens then is that the wall becomes the sum total of the beliefs, and God becomes as big as the wall. But God is bigger than any wall…

…Somebody showed me a letter from the president of a large seminary who is raising money to help him train leaders who will defend Christianity. The letter went on about the desperate need for defense of the true faith. What disturbed me was the defensive posture of the letter, which reflects one of the things that happens in the brickworld: you spend a lot of time talking about how right you are. Which of course leads to how wrong everybody else is. Which then leads to defending the wall. It struck me reading the letter that you rarely defend a trampoline. You invite people to jump on it with you.

I am far more interested in jumping than I am in arguing about whose trampoline is better. You rarely defend the things you love. You enjoy them and tell others about them and invite others to enjoy them with you.

Me again here... I just have to say that the last line there really resonated with me. I’m all for the jumping! Finding the joy that jumping has to offer and inviting others to join in with me!

There was so much more about this book that resonated with me too. I could probably re-type half the book if I was to highlight every single line that I liked. But I won’t. Instead, I’ll share just a few more and invite you to read the book yourself if this sort of thing interests you.

(page 108)…The goal here isn’t simply to not sin. Our purpose is to increase the shalom in this world, which is why approaches to the Christian faith that deal solely with not sinning always fail. They aim at the wrong thing. It is not about what you don’t do. The point is becoming more and more the kind of people God had in mind when we were first created.

(page 109)…This now leads to another danger of embracing only one dimension of salvation. When faith is defined solely in legal terms, the dominant idea often becomes “inviting Jessus into your heart”, a phrase that is not found anywhere in the bible. That doesn’t mean it is not legitimate; it just means we have to be careful that we don’t adopt ideas that come with it that aren’t what God has in mind. The problems come when salvation becomes all about me. Me being saved. Me having my sins forgiven. Me being reconciled to God.

…It is one thing to be saved. To believe in Jesus. It is another thing to be healed. It is possible to be saved and miserable. It is possible to be saved and not be a healthy, whole, life-giving person. It is possible for the cross to have done something for a person but not in them.

(page 144)…Christians are people learning who they are in Christ. We are being taught about our new identity. Do you see how deeply this new identity affects the life of a community? I heard a teacher say that if people were taught more about who they are, they wouldn’t have to be told what to do. It would come naturally. When we see religious communities spending most of their time trying to convince people not to sin, we are seeing a community that has missed the point. The point isn’t sin management. The point is who we are now.

AAnd yes… the list goes on – that is, the list of quotes and phrases and paragraphs that I enjoyed in this book. But I’ll stop there. Although I plan to give my copy away to a lady at school that very kindly covered one of my classes so that I could leave early for my long drive to Wanaka for my marathon, I still plan to buy a new one to keep on my shelf when I get home.

Aliens??? & RIP Garmin

Last night I awoke to an incredibly loud noise outside my window. The noise sounded similar to that of a really large vehicle, or a massively large machine. Upon pushing my curtains to the side, I couldn't help but also notice a bunch of flashing lights in the yard...

My initial thoughts: The aliens are landing!

Seemingly unconcerned about this fact, I rolled right over and fell back asleep.

I might not have even remembered this odd occurrence if I hadn't met up with Willy for a run in the morning and she happened to mention that there were lots and lots helicopters in the sky last night and early this morning. Yes... that's right. It's frost season in Marlborough and the vineyard owners are going crazy trying to protect their grapes. Apparently it's quite common for their to be over 100 helicopters flying overhead on a particularly frosty night.

Upon reflection, I'm a wee bit concerned about the fact that the possibility of aliens circling overhead in a spaceship even came to mind when I was awoken from my deep sleep...

In other news, my Garmin is now officially dead <sniff sniff>. I charged it last night so it would be ready to use this morning and when I went to turn it on, the screen would not appear. Several attempts and a few gentle whacks on the table were of no use. I'm sad to say goodbye to this ingenious piece of technology, but I guess I can be happy with how much use I got out of it. Considering I purchased it in 2004, I'd say it had a good life. I think I'm gonna have to start searching for the latest Garmin model and add it to my birthday wish list :)

A Better Day

Ah... what a relief. Today was a much better day.

During 2nd period, one of the DPs showed up at my classroom door with the naughty student from yesterday in tow. After stepping outside with them for a minute, I received a formal apology from the student along with a written apology for her inappropriate behaviour. A quick chat with her now seems to have that problem resolved.

At lunch, when I stopped by the main office to drop off some letters to mail home, the receptionist informed me that someone had sent me some flowers. Completely shocked and confused, I insisted that there was no way they could be for me, and asked if she was confusing me with the Mr. Edwards that also teaches at our school. Alas... the card proved me wrong, and it turns out that Donna-Marie had seen my desperate need for a cheer-up (possibly a result of the text I had sent her the night before saying "shit man... I'm in a dark place right now") and ordered a beautiful bouquet of flowers to be delivered to the school.

Apparently she received my text this morning and immediately went into full-prayer mode. Donna-Marie is convinced of the power of prayer and wants to prove it to me. She prayed for me at several points today and also sent me several motivational texts staggered throughout the day.

Although the skeptic in me says "well, it could have just been a better day", the other side of me considers the alternative possibility...

Either way, thanks a million Donna-Marie! You rock!

Over It!

I can't get over how much I'm struggling these days. It's really hard to describe it too. I can't figure out if I'm stressed with work, feeling homesick, feeling unsettled with my upcoming move home, or if I'm just plain unmotivated. But everything is a struggle. Getting out of bed, being positive at work, getting out for physical activity... it's all tough work.

Today I had a really shitty class last period of the day. It started with a student breaking a window, and was made much worse when a student told me to "f-off" and shove the "f-ing test up my a**" when I caught her talking during a test. This was followed by two hours of parent-teacher interviews for my senior students. Uggh... I'm so over it right now!

I've only got one more day to go, and then my holidays begin. We shall see if the time off helps out in any way...

Later this evening, after rushing home from the PT interviews and catching the first half of the the end-of-term dinner at the hostel, I showed up late to my Tuesday night small-group session at Susan's house. The focus of tonight's session was on one of our group members, Matt, who gave his testimony. Matt shared a truly inspiring story about how he got involved with drugs at a young age and how he overcame it in the end. He told us about how the drugs started to take over, how his life became overshadowed with guilt since he was always telling lies (lies to his parents and lies to his friends), and how he ended up having to deal drugs just to cover the cost of his next fix since he was always in debt with others. His story continued with even more shocking and horrific details of how bad things got and how trapped he became. The whole time I couldn't help but think about how completely sheltered and innocent my childhood was in comparison.

Matt's story has a very positive outcome, though, and he went on to describe how it all changed in one pivotol moment. One night, his brother (who was equally involved with drugs) was admitted to the hospital after having a seisure. Knowing that he had to tell someone the truth, Matt fessed up to his parents about the drugs that his brother was using. He watched his parents break down after receiving this devastating news and then found himself standing outside in his backyard with this enormous force weighing him down. It was at this moment that he felt a calling. He knew that it was time. This was his chance to be freed. So he went back inside and told his parents about his own struggles with drugs, beginning a tough but successful road to repair in his life.

The best part about Matt's story was his conviction - his conviction that he has no doubt that his life was changed by the Holy Spirit reaching out to him. He is certain that God spoke to him that night and led him on a path to recovery. Today, he lives a completely transformed life, totally at peace now, knowing that God is fully in control.

Matt's story has left me feeling both inspired and jealous. Yes... jealous.

I am inspired by this story of how, yet again, humans are capable of overcoming anything. If only you could see just how transformed this guy is. Wow... it's amazing.

Oddly enough, I do feel jealousy as well. Jealousy of just how certain he is about God and His role in his life.

I must say, it's definitely been an interesting experience for me the past several months as I have begun to further explore my beliefs. Many parts of this search have been exciting and moving. However, on many other occassions, I can't help but find myself looking at everything from a critical standpoint and wondering just how certain I am about my discoveries so far.

Alas... I suppose it's all part of the journey. Ups and downs. And when it comes down to it, it comes down to what you feel in your heart...

Marmite vs. Vegemite

Since moving to NZ, I have discovered a new type of spread. It comes in two forms: Marmite (made by Sanitarium) and Vegemite (made by Kraft).

According to Wickipedia:
Marmite is made from yeast extract, a by-product of beer brewing, and is suitable for vegetarians and vegans. The British version of the product is a sticky, dark brown paste with a distinctive, powerful flavour, which is extremely salty and savoury with umami qualities, somewhat comparable to soy sauce. This distinctive taste is reflected in the British company's marketing slogan: "Love it or hate it."

This spread is blackish-brown in colour and smells like crap. On the first few tries, I'd say it tastes like crap too. On several occassions I tried it and just couldn't do it. I honestly wondered how anyone could ever like the stuff.

Well... that was until recently. While away on the Adventure Camp the other weekend, one of the instructors insisted that I give it another go. For whatever reason, I did, and this time I liked it. Go figure!

I believe that the secret to enjoying this stuff is entirely in the application:
- You must start with a freshly toasted piece of bread.
- You also must use real butter, and make sure that the butter melts into the bread.
- You then finish with a really thin application of the spread -- too much spread and it's no good!

I'm really not sure why I like it now, but I do. Apparently it's also really nice with a slice of avocado on top!

After discovering that I liked this stuff, I decided to give it the ultimate taste test and do the comparison test: Marmite vs. Vegemite. It's quite useful that the hostel stocks both brands to keep the students happy (apparently people are really particular about which brand they prefer).

The official taste test is out: Marmite wins hands down!

I actually like it so much, that I might end up buying myself a bottle of my own. I wonder if I can get this stuff in Canada?...

Libby's Hen Party

This weekend I attended a bachelorette party for a co-worker of mine. I don't think there are many culture differences between a Canadian version and a kiwi version (apart from the obvious name difference "hen" vs. "bachelorette"), but this one in particular was extremely impressive. My hat goes off to the lovely ladies that organized this for Libby. Her bridesmaids deserve a top award for the work they put into it, and how smoothly it all unfolded. I will summarize the day's events with a picture diary:

Arrived at Libby's place for some nibbles and drinks in the summer sun. Played a few games including a relay which involved a toilet paper roll and a plunger. I think the pictures describe this one well enough! :)


From there, we were broken into teams and sent off (with a pre-arranged sober driver) on an Amazing Race style scavenger hunt with a bag of supplies and instructions.

Card #1: A list of bonus items that accumulated extra points for the team.

Task #1: Start drinking one of the THREE bottles of bubbles we were given to consume along the way...


Destination #1: The Fairhall Golf Course where we found a row of bikes locked up and we had to use a secret code we were given to unlock the bike for our team. Along the way we snagged a golf ball as one of the bonus items.


Since Libby knew where the next clue was taking us, she hopped on the bike and took off. Being the supportive team-mates that we were, we tagged along with her giving motivational cheers along the way.

Still biking...

STILL biking (it really was a long way!)...

We arrived at this gorgeous house (I think it belonged to one of the bridesmaid's moms) complete with a swimming pool and tennis court...


It was here that we were greeted with Challenge #2: eat an entire cake between the 4 of us team-mates. Man, it was good, but oh so filling! Being the good friends that we are, we ate extra so that Libby (the bride) didn't have to...



From here we earned our next clue which sent us to a bar at a winery. Along the way we decided to make a few stops for some extra bonus items.

A quick stop at the Renwick pub, "Woody's" for a beer coaster...

A random stop on the side of the road to catch a bonus picture with some beautiful horses...

When we arrived at the bar, we captured another bonus item when we spotted a good-looking guy to get our picture with. It was a bit of a fight to get the shot (some other teams decided to steal our idea)...

But worth it in the end...

On our way to the next destination, we stopped off at our sober driver's house (at her suggestion) and raided her son's top drawer for some more "bonus items". MAN was I ever surprised at what we found. I was even more surprised that our sober driver was not surprised at what we found...

Next stop, pole dancing around the rotunda in the middle of town...

Final stop, a picture outside the police station (unfortunately, we couldn't find a single police officer to pose with us)...

To finish off, we stopped off at one of our teammates houses and completed Challenge #3 - designing a beautiful dress for the bride...



We met up with our competition and waited while the results were tallied and our bonus items were judged...




Yah for our team! We won! And the winning prize was a package of jelly willies...

After some more nibbles and drinks and a game of "pin the penis on Mark" we headed off to the local Indian restaurant for an evening of dinner and games.

From here, my picture taking started to dwindle, but we thoroughly enjoyed the games and trivia that were planned for us while we waited for dinner to arrive...


A fun day, indeed! Definitely raised the bar for me in terms of bachelorette festivities. It's always great to steal ideas from people for the next one that you might have to plan...