Respect your elders

I love my grandparents. My mom's parent's both passed away a while ago, before I was old enough to really appreciate them (that, and whenever we visited them we were also visiting a dairy farm, with acres of farm land, heavy machinery, hay lofts, apple orchards, cows; all of which tended to be more exciting to a 14 year old boy than listening to my parents talk to my grandparents in english/dutch/frisian). However, my grandfather, Jelle Dykstra, spent a good chunk of time writing his memoirs, which included a good deal of family history. My mom typed it out, and my Uncle Nick was kind enough to translate it into English, and edit it. Reading it really made me appreciate my family heritage a lot more, and made me realize a bit more of the sacrifices that were made by an immigrant family. My grandfather was a godly man, and whenever he spoke about my grandmother, he spoke very highly of her, and often quoted proverbs 31.
My dad's parent's live in a retirement home in Brampton, called Holland Christian Homes. They love it there. There's a woodshop that all the guys there have brought in their old tools too, so my grandfather is forever building things, and doing wood carvings, and making gifts. I've stopped in a few times on my own when I've been in the area in the past couple of years (usually something involving the airport), and it's been great, sitting down just the three of us.
Well, a few weeks ago was my grandmother's birthday, and I forgot to call her. I could make excuses; I stayed up the night before helping run the 30 hr famine... but really, I forgot.
The kicker is that she kept a list of who called!
My brother was even at their apartment on her birthday and when he found out she was keeping a list of who called he went to the other room and called her from his cell phone. Now, I'm typically a competitive person, so this bugs me; that he's on the 'list' and I'm not. I'm sure I'll find out the consequences of this next Christmas. I need to do something to remedy this situation. I'm open to suggestions.

Idiot Christians

Now, I'm the first to admit, as I did this past weekend while reminiscing with some friends from University, that I've done some stupid things in the name of Christ. What can we as believers do differently? If you lived down the street, or in the same town as these idiots who took it upon themselves to gain some attention based on recent news stories involving the Koran and a toilet, what would you do? Stealing their sign wouldn't likely accomplish much. Nor would pushing it over. It would simply add to their zeal. Civil discussion, prayer, a letter or a phone call?

Mystery Link

I haven't had a good mystery link in a while. If someone can explain this, I'd appreciate it. Any theories?

Identity

I watched 'snatch' a couple days ago with Garry Castle, whilst visiting him and his lovely wife in Kingston. Aside from some of the crude vulgar language (swearing that just drips with sexual vulgarities is not my thing), this is a very entertaining movie. During the opening couple of minutes of the film the characters are introduced; most with excellent nicknames. 'Doug the head', 'Frankie four fingers', 'Bullet Tooth Tony', 'Boris The Blad', etc. It got me thinking a bit; if I were a villian, what would I be called? "Dave the ......."

First round is on me.

So, 'Theology Pub' got off to a slow start tonight, (as in me drinking in the pub on my own for 20 minutes whilst reading the globe and mail and making small talk with the very pretty waitress) but soon got gowing when the group swelled to two people, and then finally doubled in size (that's 4 people in total for all you non-mathematical (todd) people). Good discussion was had. I left motivated to pursue God more, in a new, patient way, and to make some small changes to my life as a result. That's awesome. In yesterday's sermon, Karl said something like "I want to make the Holy Spirit appear less 'spiritual' and everything else appear more 'spiritual'." So, in a sense, reveal how God is present and at work in both the sermon listening and praise singing and prayer times of a sunday morning, and the mundane job time of a monday morning at 10:30. God was certainly present in the pub tonight, the 5th person sitting at the table, listening to us, and giving his 2 cents from time to time. Thanks God, it was good hanging out.
For those of you who missed out tonight, the plan is to do this every other monday. I'll keep you posted.

Pranks

While reminiscing in a mass email this past week with some of my old Queen's friends, I was reminded of a prank that my housemates and I pulled that just didn't go off the way we intended it. It took two attempts to accomplish, but could have used a third.
I lived in a house on Victoria St. in Kingston, in my second year, with 5 other second year guys. There was a house a few blocks away where a bunch of our friends lived, at 69 Mack St. There was no animosity between us, we just decided to prank them. (Note: I do recall a certain answering machine war, but I'm not sure if that was before or after the events of this story.) Anyway, I knew that they kept their spare key under or in their BBQ, and so we decided to go over to their house one Saturday night, dressed in black, break into their house, and cause mischief. It's an old house, standard student housing, where the main floor is a combination living/dining room/kitchen, and the bedrooms are upstairs, so we didn't have to be too quiet. Well, the first attempt failed, as I said, because the key wasn't where I thought it would be. In our disgust we went to the 24 hr A&P, purchased some eggs, and egged the girls house at 239 Division. I suspect the windows are still stained.
The second attempt was much more successful; due to better planning. During the day on the day we planned to prank them, I stopped in at the Mack St. household for a casual 'visit'. I played some guitar in the living room, probably some Atari 2600, and at one point, when no one was looking, snuck into the back storage room and unlocked the back door. Our entry was secure.
Later that night, dressed in black, we entered their home. Tyler had this crazy idea of gluing popcorn kernels to the roof of the microwave, which he did. Someone else used some turtlewax on the kitchen floor, to ensure that someone in the house would become a paralytic, someone else stole all their cutlery, and the rest of us gathered all of the furniture in the house and stacked it in a large pile in the middle of their living room. I'm sure there was more, but it escapes my memory. What doesn't escape my memory is the fact that the next morning at church, the Mack Street Boys were sitting directly behind us, and none of them said a thing about the prank. One Mr. Jeff Dixon sat there with a satisfied grin on his face. Apparently he woke up early that Sunday morning, discovered the mess that we had created, and cleaned it all up before any of his housemates woke from their slumber, spoiling our prank. Our spirits were broken. Our prank was foiled. They won.

Theology Pub

Theology Pub is set to begin this Monday, May 16th. We'll be meeting at St. Veronus Pub, on the corner of Water St. and Hunter St. at around 8:30. Questions or comments... use the 'comments' link below.

Veterans

Yesterday morning at church, the highlight for me wasn't the singing, the preaching, or even the socializing afterwards. The highlight, the most moving part, was when Henry Vandendort shared for a few brief moments about his experiences in the war, and what VE day meant to him. I've read portions of his memoirs online (in which my one of my grandfathers is mentioned), and I always love listening to veterans share their stories. I love that they don't glorify themselves as heros, but that they humbly speak about what they did, because they had to do it. After he finished speaking he received a standing ovation, which was very moving. He was in tears, as were a lot of others. A simple thank you and a standing ovation is not nearly enough to express our gratitude to people like Mr. Vandendort for the risks they took and the sacrifices they made for our freedom. My parents were both born in post-war Holland, so it hits close to home. So, thank you for the choices you made when you were still so young, giving up your teenage years to fight a just war, and for continuing to live these 60 years since in God's service. May he give you the strength to continue to fulfill your vow until he calls you home.

The Plague

Oh, Kingston, what have you done? In what way have you hardened your hearts to bring about this plague, this infestation of may-flies?

The picture below was taken in Kingston, just outside of Kingston Pen, on Wednesday. I was there for work. All the little black dots are flies. It was odd. Everywhere within a kilometer of the lakefront was covered in may-flies. It was impossible to walk without breathing them in, or having them cling to your clothing or nest in your hair. Let me tell you, it's awesome when you're sitting in a meeting pulling flies out of your beard. Really awesome.

Oh Kingston, how far you have fallen...

Machina

A couple of weeks ago I went to a church in Orillia, for a baptism service for my cousin's new kid. My uncle preached a sermon about Jesus. It was very refreshing. His sermon was pretty simple, in that he just spoke about Jesus, and the claims that Jesus made about himself during his lifetime on earth. My uncle didn't bust out any 3-step self help pointers from observations on how Jesus lived. He didn't talk about a new method for doing something based on what Jesus did. He simply talked about Jesus, and I really enjoyed that. Jesus is great.

'she looks good, all cleaned up'

Can anyone identify this?