Terribly Poetic

So I glanced at the calendar and realized that it’s March…. What? How did we get here so fast? It seems like winter is fading away and I hardly remember it. Maybe it was all the craziness of Norah’s journey that made everything seem to pass by so fast. Either way I am now looking at the calendar and the huge amounts of things on it as Spring brings many things for us. House renovations getting done; which will bring a slew of jobs for me soon; to spring LIT retreat, youth group visits, lots of R/C Truck Events, planning programming, beginning to start thinking about video for this summer, and the list goes on and on. And this doesn’t even include all the things on the calendar for our family. Luckily one of those is a family vacation in Edmonton for Easter. I am really hoping this will help put my head on straight before Spring really hits and I start heading out to camp for rentals, staff training, etc, etc.

As always, the think to take a backseat is this site. Many are probably checking back here for updates on Norah. But she is doing so well that I forget to tell everyone that. She’s great. Growing, getting chubbier everyday. So makes us all smile each day. I wish you could all come cuddle her and see for yourself just how much she has changed. Pictures are cute (I guess I should post more too) but they don’t really show how much she has changed in the past month. She has healed so well that we are starting to pick her up under her arms now. So glad for that. Makes it easier to cuddle with her. Before we know it she will be rolling over.

I wish I could write something profound and earth shattering here. But life really seems to be “back to normal” for the first time in a long time. And by normal I really mean busy. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.

Before you know it, it will be summer and we’ll be moved back to camp for the summer.

So its been a whirlwind past few weeks. When camp ended we left the very next day for our family vacation to Idaho. It was a great trip and if you aren’t alive and haven’t seen some of our pics on Facebook, just look me up here. I could give you a long story on our vacation but I don’t feel like updating many weeks in one post. I just need to get back into regular posts here. So here goes…

In my last post the most pressing prayer request was my job situation. For those that don’t know, my job at Ranger Lake Bible Camp will continue to year round. We are so excited about this answer to prayer. Already I am busy preparing program, brochures, theme for next year at camp. I am excited to use the skills and gifts God has given me here at Ranger. I am also very excited to be doing alot of work with our newest program of the Radio Controlled Trucks. So much so that I bought my own! More on that on another post. So our fears are done away with and I will have a job when our new baby arrives in around 7 weeks!!

So vacation ended and then I got sick! This has been the worse sickness I have had in 10 years. So much that when I went to my doctor they didn’t have record of me being a patient because I hadn’t been in 10 years. I guess sometime ago they upgraded to a new computer system and “old” patients didn’t get put into the system, so I got deleted. Needless to say I ended up at a new doctor in Stonebridge area, which actually helped me, and with very little wait time. After going on antibiotics for awhile the sickness seems to be gone, however, the energy levels aren’t quite there yet. After all these years of not being sick, I realized how blessed I am for my strong immune system. Here’s hoping it returns soon.

So mark this down on your calendars, Daryl is back from summer. Holidays are over, summer camps are done, sickness is gone, so I am officially back. If I have a long time between now and my next post, I blame it only on myself.

Hey everyone, just thought you should all know that I am very much Alive. Camp is going great and is very busy. For those that have ever worked at camp before, they will know that this is a very good excuse for not posting for such a long time. Dawn and Libby are really enjoying their time out at camp as well. It has been hard at times as June required Dawn to be in Saskatoon for most of the time and we therefore have had to spend way to much time apart as a family. This past month was much better as Dawn and Libby have been at camp for quite abit of it. Libby loves being at camp and runs around tons. This has helped Dawn to get good naps in the afternoons as Libby runs so much that she usually naps for a few hours each afternoon and allows Dawn to rest. Thankful the summer hasn’t been extremely hot, however, it is plenty hot for any pregnant lady.
I’m so sorry that I can’t post some great photos of us at camp, but my time is so precious that I haven’t had much time to take pics. When I get away from editing videos and out from behind the camera, the last thing I want to do is take more pics. So if you want to see us you will just have to come visit us at camp.
Well, tomorrow starts the beginning of our busiest time of year as we now will be running two different camps at the same time for the rest of summer. What this means for me is that I will be making two different DVD’s each week instead of my usual 1. Thursday nights are about to get even later. Until September, don’t count on many more of these updates.

And if you are the praying type, please pray for us as my future job here at Ranger Lake is still up in the air and with only two months till October 1st hits, and 3 months until our second child, I am getting abit anxious.

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.

Who’s with me?

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

Hey everyone, just thought I would post a short update on my current job status. Last Monday I told you all that I was leaving YFC, and doing it with my next job not setup. Well, God knew what He was doing, and just two days later, I had successfully secured a job at Ranger Lake Bible Camp. This is the term job that I briefly mentioned. It will start April 1st, and run until Sept 30th, upon that time we will evaluate my future at Ranger. We feel that God has called us back into camp ministry once again and we are extremely excited about this opportunity. My job will have three focuses, Mentorship, Promo, and Program. Here is an excerpt from my support letter which I managed to get in the mail last Friday.

Mentorship is one of the areas of camp ministry that made the biggest impact on my life. Through being mentored, my life was changed, which in turn helped guide me into fulltime ministry. Part of my job will be very deliberate in mentoring younger staff members and seeking to establish relationships with them not just during summer, but during the off-season as well. God has given me a vision to help equip, train and mentor young leaders to passionately serve God with their lives. We are very excited to see where God will lead us in this vision.

Promotion
I love making videos, and designing graphics, and this gift will be put to great use at Ranger! At the end of every summer camp week I will produce a souvenir video to sell to campers. This will enable campers to show their family and friends what Ranger is like; we’ve used similar tools like this at YFC and had great results. Already I have had much input in designing the promotional materials for this camp.

Program
There’s more to a camp program that just games! During the summer, campers learn four “skills” every day like archery, wall climbing, backcountry adventure, and horseback riding. Part of my job will be to help ensure that each of these skills are as effective and excellent as we can make them. If they need to be retooled, or updated, I will seek out the right tools and resources to help make them the best they can be. Ranger also runs off-season camps for church youth groups, schools, staff development retreats, and various other groups. I will help plan program and offer leadership training for these groups as needed during the off-season.

We are still responsible to raise funds for my salary, but thankfully, Ranger requires us to raise a minimum of 50% of these funds, and they will cover the rest! If you are interested in supporting the ministry at Ranger Lake, please drop me a note.

Announced this week the Barenaked Ladies and singer, Steven Page will be parting. For those that don’t know. I am a huge BNL fan. I have seen them 3 times in concert and loved each one of them. These guys have more talent than so many of today’s “pop” stars. Thankfully, the rest of BNL, we stay together and are going back into the studio in April. I am very excited to see what they churn out, without Steven. Steven is launching his own solo career, which I’m slighty leary of. While he is a great lead to BNL, I’m not sure he has the whole package to go it alone. Time will tell I guess.
I am alittle sadden to see them parting ways, but I trust that the remaining members, Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn, Ed Robertson, and Tyler Stewart will not disappoint me, as they are all very talented musicians. I know I will be seeing them in concert next time they are in Saskatoon.

First off I will preface this post by saying that I am not downsizing the blog. While it may appear that way because of the lack of posting to the site, I am in no way planning to downsize my blog. In reality, I would like to increase the amount I post here. However, I would rather wait to post something good, than post alot of junk. If you are looking to here more from me than I encourage you to follow me on twitter here, if you don’t know what twitter is, then you are missing out. You can also see my most reason twitter in my lifestream on the sidebar to the left.

Now to what I meant by downsizing. I have decided that I own to much stuff. While I don’t think of myself as a pack rat, I have accumulated too much. Oh sure I have many useful things that I might like to use more often at a later date, such as my pool table or coke machine. The reality is that I don’t need this stuff and can easily get rid of it, sell it, or even throw it away. While the idea of selling the stuff I have to get new stuff is a reality, I hope to be more diligent in spending this money. For instance, I need new tires for our car, this would be a wise use of money I would get from selling my coke machine. However, one of the biggest reasons I want to downsize is because we don’t need all this stuff to live. Modern consumerism has played a HUGE part in helping me acquire all the stuff I don’t use. My plan is to get rid of stuff and not to free up space for NEW stuff as consumerism would tell me to do. Jesus told a parable about the rich man, and when told to sell everything he had and give it away he was very sad, because he had lots.

How many of us have too much stuff. I know I do and I plan to do something about it. I will sell anything of large value, like my pool table. But I hope to be able to donate alot of it as well. We have so much and others have so little. Sometimes when I see my garage, my basement, my storage rooms, I get sick to my stomach by all the waste. Today I am letting you all know that I have had enough. It’s time to downsize.

My sister tagged me in this meme, and I thought, since I’ve never been tagged by her in a meme, that I should do this one.

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a post with
25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you.

1. I am a complete and udder coffee addicted, espresso loving, darker the roast drinker. So much so that I actually believe that Starbucks doesn’t fall into the category of amazingly great coffee. But I must also admit that I am so addicted that one will find me drinking just about any coffee, no matter how bad it is, when I really need a cup.

2. I am a huge fan of BNL, or for those who know them as The Barenaked Ladies. As a side note, they just got nominated for another JUNO®.

3. I love action movies. Yeah I know you are thinking duh, but I actually like action movies even when they are dark and have no happy ending, as well, I like action movies even when the plot sucks as long as things are exploding.

4. I get paid a salary because many people support me and donate money to YFC. In fact, if you want to help me to keep getting a pay check, just click here

5. I am apart of the growing number of couples who struggle with infertility. Yes we have a daughter, but NO, it didn’t heal or cure us. And yes, we know that our daughter is getting old and we should really have another one. Stop asking us, we don’t know when either.

6. I love my wife, I love my daughter, and they happened to also be the cutest most loving family a guy like me could ask for. Thanks God.

7. I watch alot of TV, sometimes to much, but I gotta say that I HATE all forms of reality TV. This includes, but is not limited to, American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, Amazing Race, Extreme Makeover:Home Edition. I know I might get hate mail over that last one, but Ty Whatever your name is, you are helping people, and you might be a great carpentar, but I just can’t stand watching you.

8. I love Food & Drink and all forms it takes. The more I am exposed to different forms of it the more I am witness to the amazing creativity of God and His creation.

9. Following the previous “thing” I would love to tour France or California Wine County if given the chance.

10. I love Shrimp, it might be the best food EVER.

11. I think about food too much.

12. I love music and can’t go for very long during a day without having it on.

13. I also really love Jazz music and haven’t missed the Jazz Festival in Saskatoon for quite a few years. Favorite concert is a tied between Dave Brubeck and Ed Thigpen

14. I hate snow and cold, but live in Saskatchewan, must run in the family as my sister said the same thing. But she’s moving back to SK after living in lower mainland of BC, so she really is crazy.

15. As the title of my blog suggests, I do actually write poetry, just not for awhile.

16. I am an avid athlete, at least I once was. I love the Ultimate Frisbee league I play in and will be sad to have to leave it this summer as I go to camp for the summer. I’ve play all of the following on organized teams/leagues/tournaments, basketball, soccer, softball, slowpitch, baseball, hockey, football, volleyball, Ultimate of course, ping pong, billiards (its on the sports channels it counts), Beach Volleyball, Track & Field, Gymnastics, I think I got them all.

17. I survive on little sleep most days. Staying up late and waking up early. This drives my wife nuts who needs her sleep.

18. I can sometimes be quite blunt and this can sometimes offend people. Sorry in advance.

19. I am a youth worker, and I am organized, and for those of you who are the stereotypical youth worker who is always late, has a disaster of an office and can’t seem to figure out how to “get it together” as the rest of us would put it, you can give people like me a bad name. I don’t want to be painted with your brush. Sorry if this is offensive to you, but, see #18.

20. I would love to be able to get paid fulltime for graphic/web/video design and production, and bonus if its my own company.

21. I would love to be more disciplined in my spiritual life

22. I would love to be a better writer.

23. I would love to be able to hear God’s voice and plan for my whole life right now.

24. I wish more people would visit and comment on my blog.

25. I hope people read this and learn something about me.

There it is, now I would love to hear from you. As this is a blog post I will try to tag people in facebook (where this meme started), and as well mention those bloggers I know. Such as Jared, Jess, Ben and Shannon

While I wasn’t official tagged for this meme, I did find it interesting when reading these entries at The Eagle & Child and Living in the Gray so I thought that I should really write my own.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?

I went out on a limb and printed my own T-Shirt Designs to sell as a fundraiser for relief in Africa. Unfortunately, I really only broke even on that and still quite a few shirts. Anyone want one for $20? They are the first three designs over at www.poeticindustries.com

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I never made any. They are lame.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

My sister did.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

My last Grandparent, my Grandma Heppner.

5. What countries did you visit?

United States, boring huh.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

Hmmm, maybe more design work, although I did alot of that. But more importantly, what I really want in 2009 is another kid.

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

Probably finding out my Grandma died.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

The website I built over at www.cornerstone-church.ca

9. What was your biggest failure?

The fact that I lost way to many connections with students I work with.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Nope. In fact, I can’t really remember the last time I was actually sick.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Of course this has to be my iPhone 3G.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

My daughter. I love her to death and she is my little Princess.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

I won’t mention any names here.

14. Where did most of your money go?

To pay for my house and renovations.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

See #11

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?

Unfortunately, it will probably be the really annoying Katy Perry song, “I kissed a Girl” simply because it was so over played as well as the Wired 98 BillBoard conflict. If you don’t live in Saskatoon and drive down Warman Road you won’t understand, but I trust you understand my dislike of the song.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?

Probably no change on happier or sadder; thinner abit due to playing 4 nights a week of Ultimate this past summer; and of course poorer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Loved other people.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Sulk and complain

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

Since I am abit late on this meme, I spent Christmas with family in Saskatoon and at my folks farm in Waldheim. It was a blast seeing Libby and her cousin Taylor play together. As well it was awesome having Dawn’s folks come to Saskatoon for Christmas, thereby eliminating our driving this past December.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?

I am always in love with my beautiful wife, Dawn and my daughter, Libby.

22. How many one-night stands?

hello, I’m married. come on.

23. What was your favorite TV program?

Chuck

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Nope. I’m pretty laid back, so I don’t really hate anyone.

25. What was the best book you read?

Probably Wide Awake, by Erwin McManus, but I can’t really remember as I am not a big reader of books.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

That indeed I am not musical.

27. What did you want and get?

I wanted an iPhone and I got it. See above

28. What did you want and not get?

A 2nd Child

29. What was your favorite film of this year?

In, Bruges and The Dark Knight.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I can’t really remember and it was only a couple months ago. I am 27 now.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Probably if I wouldn’t have had to cancell my Dimension Four program and join up with the D4 Group because our numbers were so low.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

I wouldn’t. I would ask someone else to describe it cause I don’t know what I am talking about.

33. What kept you sane?

My wife and daughter.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

None, they all seem pretty boring to me.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?

Anything related to economy or low income families such as myself.

36. Who did you miss?

My Grandmother Sarah who is in heaven.

37. Who was the best new person you met?

Hmmm, that’s a hard one, I don’t think I could boil that down to one person. It would probably be all those members of Irish Smzmigielskis, or anyone new that I met who is know coming to my small group on Monday Nights. You know who you all are. If you are reading this. Please let me know.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.

Perserverance, perserverance, perserverance.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Can’t think of one right now.