We are very pleased to announce that sometime at the end of October we will be blessed to have a second child. For those that know us well, you will understand how blessed we are to have another kid. You will also know that this is another miracle story. For those that don’t know us well, just rejoice in our good news.
This week we had the chance to see our little one through an ultrasound. We also got to bring Libby in to watch and while she was abit shy of the technican at first, her excitement came when she could see the babies hand, nose, belly, head, etc, etc. She also become even more excited when we got the news that she would be having a sister. That’s right folks, the Grunau Household is about to get even more girlie!
The ultrasound also told us that she is doing fantastic and so is Mom. So until next time, enjoy our good news.
These are the things I would choose from to buy a gift for my husband on Father’s Day or just because he is awesome.
1. Tippmann 98 Custom
This gift is for the man who likes to get his gun off, run around and hit other people with flying paint. I mean, who doesn’t want their very own paintball gun. And with a gun like this, people will take you seriously when you pull out this at the range. With the optional long barrel, your man will make people pay on the field.
Every man, whether they smoke or not, really ought to have their own engraved Zippo. If your man really is manly, then he needs to light things on fire from time to time, after all, he lights your fire, so why not give him the best most sophisticated lighter out there. And getting it engraved just adds a nice personal touch. There are plenty of gift sets out there to choose from as well, so why not pair it with a flask for a truly manly gift.
This gift is for the true coffee lover. Renowned for making coffee like its come from a $6000 coffee machine. This coffee maker will brew a single cup of coffee in 30 seconds. Coffee aficionados all praise the smooth, rich flavour of this amazing coffee maker. If your man is concerned with having the best tasting coffee and already uses a French Press, then this coffee maker will take it to the next level.
Visit Aerobie for more info. Can be bought from Transcend Coffee, a Canadian Based company. Priced around $40
4. Traxxas E-Revo Brushless Edition
This next gift is all about speed. What man doesn’t love speed. This gift is perfect to give to our husbands as we are constantly telling them to slow down when their drive, but with this gift, they will be in control of the speed at all times. This little RC wonder will top out at 70mph right out of the box. While its the most pricey of all the gifts, it will provide hours of fun for your man.
Nothing says fun like cruising the streets on a longboard. This gift is for those men that can’t seem to get enough sports in. Why not choose today to start them off on their next adventure. Sure they might not be young and you don’t live in California, but who’s man doesn’t look hot cruisin’ the streets on a longboard. It’ll knock off a few years of your man, plus a few pounds too! And what better deck than a Poetic Industries one, its beautiful design is sure to catch an eye.
I can hardly believe that my beautiful daughter is three years old today! We love her so much. She is becoming our little Princess although sometimes she pretends not to be one. Oh, how she has grown up so much and is becoming our little girl, even though she will always be our baby. Here is just a few pics of her, and we will have to add some pics from her birthday party when that’s over.
So I need to apologize as I have been fairly absent from this blog when it comes to actual writing. Blog meme’s, reposting, and videos have taken over and I need to get back to real writing. The real reason is actually Twitter. If you aren’t on it and don’t get it, that’s too bad. Follow me here
Okay so now comes the real difficult task of actually writing. Seems like so many things have been on my mind lately. Must things related to my new job as spring is a busy time preparing for camp. With long TO-DO lists for the camp, and many projects on the go or needing to start yet before the summer, it seems my mind is constantly scheming, dreaming and thinking up new ideas. So narrowing down something to write about specifically is hard. So for today I will pick…. men…. huh? Is what you are thinking now.
Over the past few months, (largely my new job and our church) I have been witness to ministries being very direct in targeting “men” and “boys” in their respective areas. At Ranger Lake, we have been trying to do more things to reach out to boys, with activities such as RC Trucks, Riflery, and our boys only paintball camps (called D.I.R.T. camp; which means Direct intentional Recreational Training) we are trying to get boys to come to camp, so we can train them to be Men of God. Also at our church, our pastor just shared his vision for the church, one part of the vision is to be intentional in reaching out to men. I have to say that I love this and hope to see more places return to bring manliness back to our boys and churches. As someone who grew up going to “boys club” and learning boys things, like building campfires, shooting, making shelters, etc, etc, I learnt alot from the Godly examples of what it means to be a Man of God. I am extremely grateful for being raised in an environment like this. However, I see many boys, growing up without this example, and (sorry ladies) I see many co-ed environments that are largely led by women (such as kids clubs, worship teams, etc, etc) that aren’t helping to raise men. Young boys in today’s society no longer have a ‘right of passage’ into manhood, and grow up sitting infront of their TVs, internet, and video games, without learning to be a man. It is largely this reason why we see so many ‘men’ in our society that are so childish. It also makes me angry to see how the roles of men and women are so blurred. Sure I am all for equality and do believe in it, but I also believe that God created men and women different for a very good reason. We all know very well the example of a great mother, and how she cares for us, and is there for us when we are little, etc, etc, all those good motherly things. However, how clear are we when it comes to the father, the dad’s? In our society, (take pop culture, like, “The Simpsons” as an example) dad’s are the bumbling idiots, who are dead beats, who never listen, always forget to take out the trash, and are only good for drinking beer and getting into trouble. This is the sentiment that we as a Church need to stand up against. And we don’t all the time. Take the upcoming Father’s Day for example, how many of you have been to a Father’s Day service at church that plays right into society and joins in the “bashing” of dumb Fathers? I have. And I don’t like it. It’s time we as a Church returned to building up men. Tough Men of God. Men who stand for what’s right. Men who look after their familes. Men who aren’t babies and complainers. Men who teach, and train their children. Men who lead their familes. Men who provide. Men who love their wives. Men who are honest and trustworthy. Men who aren’t afraid to get tough when they need too. Real Men of God.
Images and design are not often thought of being combined with faith and values. However, for a Christian to design images and be involved in these types of things without thinking about culture, and what they value and relating it to their faith is a serious error. Design and images are critically related to what our culture values and what we as Christians believe. These things cannot and should not be separated, but in contrast they need to be closely linked and combined. Images and design display what a culture values and what they hold to in tradition. In our modern church image and design display these attributes combined with faith, and sometimes design displays cultural values that do not reflect true faith.
In my study of images and design I want to be able to display my faith as well as my values, making them culturally relevant without displaying values that I do not agree with. I draw most of my philosophy of images from H.R. Rookmaaker, who states that a Christian artist is free to make art that is relevant to our day, through understanding our culture and studying it, however, he continues to say that the Christian artist is not purposelessly free, but he is free to praise God and love his neighbours. As a Christian artist we are to work to create art that has a meaning and a purpose in our culture, one that displays our values, our faith, not “Art for art’s” sake as Rookmaaker puts it.
Images and design display our cultures values and traditions. John Heskett displays this concept by his example of toothpicks. While the Norwegian toothpick represented a value of efficiency through its design, the Japanese toothpick displays a cultural value that was long established through tradition. Therefore, design must be thought of in terms of values, culture, and tradition. As a Christian artist, there is not a real Christian tradition in the arts today, but a Christian artist has to do something that establishes a new tradition, this can only happen if they understand their work and task of understanding their world and all its values. As a Christian then, we must be critical by what we design, are we displaying cultural values and traditions of the world with our faith, which would in turn lessen our faith. Or are we using these values and traditions to heighten the impact of our faith in a positive light. Values, culture, and faith are so connected with design and images that we must be very careful what we design.
As Neil Postman points out, our technology, which is part of our cultural values, affects the design of images, and how culture will understand our values and faith. Just as he talks about the symbol drain so we must remember that this does apply to the design and images that we as a Church are trying to use to communicate its message. As much as the church tries to do everything like popular culture, we must also remember that the culture has a particular value associated with those symbols already, and we need to ask whether that is the value that we want to communicate our faith.
I know, hearing all about my life is exactly why you all read this isn’t it? Okay you probably just check the site, or subscribe because I know you or I twisted your arm to do it. Sometimes I think my blog is more like Creed Thoughts but then I realize that I am not nearly that creepy, weird,popular of a guy. But for whatever reason I still enjoy coming back to this site and putting out an update, a thought, or whatever else strikes me; even when I have know idea how many people actually read it, know exactly how few of you actually read it. Yes, that’s right I am also a geek (duh right), and I track my blog’s stats quite often and know how many of you there are. Wow, that may have been my longest pre-blog I have ever had. Nonetheless, I will care on.
So it has almost been 1month at my new job and I gotta say, I LOVE IT! It has been a challenging month just learning the ins and outs of Ranger Lake, but I have so much to be thankful for already. I am working with so much more purpose and direction than I have been in awhile. I feel that my skills and giftings are being tested and that I am being pushed to use them to a greater potential. While its hasn’t been all easy, no its been challenging, but I love that. I want to be challenged to be more effective in the things God has given me. It’s nice to be working with a small group too. The full time staff consists of only four people, one of whom lives out at the camp and I don’t see him much. So between myself, Greg Benson, and Dave Thiessen it makes for a very fun atmosphere to work in. We have had a lot of laughs already, but between the laughs, I get to see a man with a clear mission from God push me to use my gifts to be apart of that mission. The amount of “God Moments” in the past month has given me a new outlook on prayer. WOW is all I have to say. In this short time I have seen some amazing answers to prayers. I can’t wait to see what God is going to do this summer. Man its great to be working back in camp ministry. I forgot just how the environment of camp ministry pushes one to rely solely on God for EVERYTHING. So with that said here are some prayer requests that we have right now.
Female Senior Cabin Leaders
Leader in Training (L.I.T.) Director(s)
Volunteers as we have TONS of work projects to do before camp
Greg and I as we are in the midst of developing the summer discussion curriculum
As a graphic designer I have done quite abit of screen printing and have designed clothing and merch for organizations. As well as being in fulltime ministry I have done most of this work for churches, camps, and other ministry organizations. Over the past few years, social justice, , Fair Trade, economic accountability, etc, etc, have led churches to being more ‘picky’ about the clothes they print onto, particularly, T-Shirts. For those of you in the “know” about blank t-shirt companies, such as Gildan, Alstyle, Fruit of the Loom, and others, they are not known as “sweatshop free” and “Fair trade” companies.(I’ll get back to them in a minute) Therefore, the much advertised, and now quite popular with young people, American Apparel, has risen as the company of choice for those looking for “made in USA”, Fair Trade, “Sweatshop Free” clothing. They have already established themselves into pop culture and if you don’t believe it, just visit an American Apparel store, one is found in downtown Saskatoon. Yes, American Apparel t-shirts in particular are nice, soft, and generally very well liked as a blank shirt to print onto for merch than say a heavy boxy Gildan shirt. BUT…these churches, ministries, youth groups that are ordering merch on American Apparel thinking that they are supporting a company with good values and fair trade and all that are being lead astray by its great marketing. Oh, I am not saying the shirts aren’t fair trade, and aren’t made 100% in American, but I am saying that the company has many short falls in its morality that we ought to be aware of before choosing to support them.
I encourage you to read the interview with the founder and CEO Dov Charney here on MSNBC.
Here is just one excerpt to read which will make your mouth drop.
In the videotaped deposition [this deposition was about a sexual harassment lawsuit], over several days, her lawyer grilled Charney about all of it.
Fink (the attonery of the women filing the lawsuit during deposition): Did you ever, at work, refer to women as “sluts”?
CEO Dov Charney: In private conversations, where such language was generally welcome.
Fink: Do you view “slut” to be a derogatory term?
Charney: You know, there are some of us that love sluts. You know, it’s not necessarily—it could be also be an endearing term.
Fink: An endearing term. Is that something you call your mother?
Charney: No. But it’s maybe something that you call your lover.
Fink (This is now back to the orginal dateline interview): I’m very difficult to floor me. That floored me when I heard his explanation that “slut” is an endearing term.
I hope you read the rest of this article, and if you really want to read more, just google, Dov Charney and you will get many more articles. If we truly are going to be more responsible in the Church for where God’s money goes, (yes all our money is His) then we cannot support this company. And that is why I don’t buy American Apparel anymore.
Now, back to the other companies. Just because Gildan, Alstyle and these other apparel companies have been around for so long, and because they don’t “market” themselves as Fair Trade, etc, etc doesn’t mean they aren’t. Here are some facts that you should know about these other companies.
Canadian owned (sounds better than “American” already), Gildan, became the first Activewear Apparel manufacturer to receive Fair Labor Association Accreditiation. When you ask? Back in June 2007. Actually they had the accreditation earlier, but had it revoked due to one factory, which they promptly shutdown and dealt with to receive the accreditation. Read about it in the company press release here
I couldn’t find as much info about Alstyle, but here is a quote from there “About us” page on their website.
Alstyle Apparel recognizes its responsibilities to workers for the conditions under which its products are made and that these responsibilities extend to all workers producing products or services for Alstyle. We believe that good workplace standards, decent health and safety requirements, fair pay and conditions, and care for the environment are important elements in business success.
I did find information about Fruit of the Loom, which also owns Russell Athletics. The information on them isn’t so good. In fact, 13 Universities in the States have ended their agreements to print school clothing on Russell due to Human Rights Violations. I won’t spend long on this company, only to say that I don’t think I would support this one either. Read about it here
I hope this has educated you and given you tools to make the right decisions about apparel. And if you are ever printing shirts and would like more info, design help, etc. Give me a call and I’d love to help.
We are very pleased to announce that sometime at the end of October we will be blessed to have a second child. For those that know us well, you will understand how blessed we are to have another kid. You will also know that this is another miracle story. For those that don’t know us well, just rejoice in our good news.
This gift is for the man who likes to get his gun off, run around and hit other people with flying paint. I mean, who doesn’t want their very own paintball gun. And with a gun like this, people will take you seriously when you pull out this at the range. With the optional long barrel, your man will make people pay on the field.
Every man, whether they smoke or not, really ought to have their own engraved Zippo. If your man really is manly, then he needs to light things on fire from time to time, after all, he lights your fire, so why not give him the best most sophisticated lighter out there. And getting it engraved just adds a nice personal touch. There are plenty of gift sets out there to choose from as well, so why not pair it with a flask for a truly manly gift.
This gift is for the true coffee lover. Renowned for making coffee like its come from a $6000 coffee machine. This coffee maker will brew a single cup of coffee in 30 seconds. Coffee aficionados all praise the smooth, rich flavour of this amazing coffee maker. If your man is concerned with having the best tasting coffee and already uses a French Press, then this coffee maker will take it to the next level.
This next gift is all about speed. What man doesn’t love speed. This gift is perfect to give to our husbands as we are constantly telling them to slow down when their drive, but with this gift, they will be in control of the speed at all times. This little RC wonder will top out at 70mph right out of the box. While its the most pricey of all the gifts, it will provide hours of fun for your man.
Nothing says fun like cruising the streets on a longboard. This gift is for those men that can’t seem to get enough sports in. Why not choose today to start them off on their next adventure. Sure they might not be young and you don’t live in California, but who’s man doesn’t look hot cruisin’ the streets on a longboard. It’ll knock off a few years of your man, plus a few pounds too! And what better deck than a Poetic Industries one, its beautiful design is sure to catch an eye.
