Terribly Poetic

This past weekend God worked it out through His plan that I would attend a concert of “The Watoto Children’s Choir”. For those that don’t know, the Watoto Model is….

“In Africa, there are over 60 million orphaned and vulnerable children (HIV/AIDS, conflict, disability, street children). These staggering numbers will have impact on a family, community, and a nation’s future. In Uganda, the future for many of these children will be changed through the work of Watoto. Raising the next generation of Ugandan leaders is our number one focus. It is our mission, our purpose, our passion. We place these parentless children in families where unconditional love, spiritual discipleship, care and nurture, and the meeting of their physical needs takes place. These children will grow up to be change agents for Uganda. If these children are equipped with essential moral values and life skills they truly can live lives of significance and lasting impact.”

Children from the choir shared passionately about God’s faithfulness, his love and Grace in their lives. They each shared a dream that they had to impact Uganda and how they believed so strong that their dreams would become reality. They shared in a way that I don’t hear from many high school or even college students about God working in their lives. And they where mostly between 10-14 years old. Not only that, but these kids where ALL orphans, they had ALL lost their parents to war, poverty, or HIV/AIDS. I firmly believe that the church needs to get involved in missions like this. Its like the old saying goes, “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish, and feed him for life.” This great project in Uganda is more than just aid, it is “rescuing a child, raising leaders to rebuild a nation.”

That is why I am going to be printing the first Poetic Industries shirts and donating profits to this Project. If you would like to order a shirt. Please email poeticindustries AT mac DOT com.

Yesterday I embarked on a one day roadtrip down to Regina for a reunion with those from “The Irish Szmigielski” bus during Calbreak. So we (leader, Patti and myself) loaded up lots of food into our shiny rental, Kia Rondo and headed off. Tyson Liske, who was also a member of our bus staff, set us up with the use of a building from his church to watch the Calbreak movie, laugh, chat, hang out and eat lots of food. While the turnout was quite low, only 5 students and 3 leaders, of a possible 30 that could have come. We made the best of our time together. So with our sweet bus shirts on and the 7 of us piled into the Rondo, (Tyson had to go home) and headed out to explore Regina. None of us live in Regina so we just drove and took alot of pictures along the way. Eventually we did found our way to the Parliment buildings, Wascana lake (although I’m not sure it can really be called that), and some other odd places. All in all it was a great time together and I am so glad that I took the time to drive down. While I usually would have a web gallery to display the pics, this time, because our group is so well connected on facebook, I created a facebook album that can be publicly seen here

Go Power Team!

So this week marks a few things that I have been waiting for. Firstly, the summer league for Ultimate Frisbee started this week. This year I am playing on two different teams. And I managed to rope Steven Thiessen into joining me. I figure since someone once roped me into playing (and I am now addicted), that it was my duty to do this same to someone least expecting it. Good Luck Steven. The other milestone is that my winning disc design was finally released into the league. That’s right, the disc I designed back in November is finally flying around Saskatoon. Here is the graphic that I am so proud of. If you are interesting in buying one, they are only $10 and they come in blue,red, green, and black.

While I was hoping to have Part Two while we where still in Banff, however, internet access disappeared midway through our stay, it seems wireless signals don’t do well in cloudy weather or something weird like that. Anyways, we had a great time in the Canmore area hanging out and spending time as a family. On Monday, we drove into Calgary to goto the Zoo. This turned out to be a highlight of the trip. Libby LOVED the zoo. We had to stay for over 1/2hr alone just watching the gorillas and monkeys. You’ve got to check out the other pics on our web gallery from the Zoo. Particularly the ones next to what I call, “The Buddhaphant.” Our last full day in Canmore the weather turned to rain. However, we made the best of it and spent some time in Canmore and even rented a movie. I am so glad that I was able to get away and spend time with Dawn and Libby. April was so busy, and I needed the time to get away and reconnect with my family. The hardest part was going back to work these past two days as we drove home on Wednesday and I was right back to work. Check out more pics from our trip here

We have been having a blast here in the Banff Area. Saturday was the wedding of Dawn’s child hood friend, Crystal Forbes. It turned out to be a beautiful spot on the edge of Lake Minniwanka. We were worried that the weather would be cool, what with a wedding in the mountains in early spring. However the weather turned out to be great. Check out pics during our trip here

I hold in my hands the first complete copy of this years Calbreak DVD. After a month’s worth of work from myself and many other people, the DVD is finally finished and in the duplication process. In 3 days time all the students and staff from this years trip will be viewing our creation. I am sadden to be missing the première of the movie as this year marks my first go at being “The Director” of the movie. I feel like I have put so much of myself into this movie and to be unable to witness its premiere is a disappointment to me. However, it is also for that very fact that I am nervous about showing it off as many artists are about there own work. It is abit scary. However, God has blessed me with an amazing team to work with to produce this DVD. As well, just went I was ready to pat myself on the back for a great job I did, God had to step in and make sure that I knew that this DVD was His and not mine. He did this by showing Greg and I just how He can control the “encoding” process of the movie. (Ask us later as it will spur both of us on to tech geekery)

If you haven’t checked out the trailer to this movie see it here

The one great thing about being done is that I can return to seeing my family again. A project like this means long hours away from home. Dawn and Libby have been so great during this time away. However, tomorrow morning we are off to Banff for a short time away. I can’t wait to spend all my time with them. For those that are interested I posted some new photos of Libby here