Neat

THIS is extraordinarily neat.

And now for the other things I read...

So I have added a feature to this blog, that is, a series of links of what I have read in other blogs that I felt like sharing. If you are using Google Reader or another device that scours the web for the stuff you like, then you can find this shared post thingy at the following address:

http://www.google.ca/reader/shared/10423456311940825785

Apologies for the unsightly link, but if adding to a news reader it makes is mildly easier.
I've also added links for searching through posts according to tags.

On(line) Community

As some know, I am a big fan of a MMORPG (Massive-Mulitplayer-Online-Role-Playing-Game) entitled RuneScape. (Colin this is close to what you describe here.) It is loosely based on medieval theme, essentially you get to work on one of 23 different skills, and take part in many different quests and adventures. It is based entirely in JAVA, which for the computer challenged essentially means that you can play from virtually ANY computer with an internet connection (even dial up). The trade off is, however it has what some consider to be substandard graphics (read DAVE!) especially when compared to World of WarCraft, which is, to me, it's most significant competition. For me RuneScape is fun, inexpensive and the game is updated almost every week with new content, fun times for me.
So why do I share this with you, my faithful blog readers? Well, I recently joined a online group of players aged 30 and up (as you can imagine many of those who play this game are decidedly under 30). This group provides a network of people to trade items with and to do activities together. The reason I share this with you, is this group (it wasn't my fault, I promise!!) just went through a very significant division. The group had been about 350 or so, and currently it's dropped to about 244, but it also included some of the leadership. This has caused a great deal of stress and it certainly isn't the same as many of those who have stayed are upset about their friends leaving and for how everything was handled.
The fact that I'm a big geek aside, does this not remind anyone of what happens in the church? Needless to say, I don't play video games for that kind of interpersonal drama. If I want drama I'll watch ER (is that show not a little over the top recently?). Yet it was fascinating for me to see this happen outside the church. Although, it was very sad to talk with those who left. As a new member of the group, I was very much surprised at all this and had no idea what was really going on. It was stressful for me, as one of the people who introduced me to the group is now gone. While there were a lot of things that were totally unlike church in the situation (what with it being online and being all about a video game), there were some things that I did learn. These are things I won't soon forget.

• It's difficult to sort out what's going on when you feel like you only know a handful of people. It's difficult to know who to believe when people take sides.
• It's hard to know what to do when you like the group, but the people you knew best are gone, should I stay or should I go?
• Your emotions that run the gamut all at the same time, you find yourself in some measure identifying with all sides.

Now truthfully, the intensity of those emotions are for me, were not nerely as intense as I have about church and serving the Lord. (For anyone reading this from that group... that is primarily due to the strength of my convictions about church life and community and the length of time I've been in the group).
In the end, it's good to know that other groups struggle with what we do, but it's sad to know that as the church we're not that different either. Did that make sense? It has given me a great deal to think about.

Snow, again.

Snow is super, really it is... (sarcasm doesn't quite work the same in print oh well.)
And still it snows.
It's snowed a lot this week. If anyone would like to send me a snow blower, I'd be grateful. The bigger the better, but beggars can't be choosers.

Oh, and by the way - baby should be coming soon.
I am so looking forward to her arrival. Posts and pictures will follow!!

Water & Powder

So I know it's been awhile since I posted and my readership is probably quite low. However I will press on. For those who live in Saskatchewan you are aware that it's been very wet weather we've had recently. Well, it's been wet at our house too. Somehow one of the boys socks got in the drain in the floor in the basement and we didn't notice until the dishwasher and the washing machine had done a load each (with all the waste water flooding the floor in our basement!!). So we flooded our own house!! Then one of the boys spilt water on one of Tara's bibles and then on a journal. So we had a water themed day this week.

Then a little later in the week our boys decided it would be fun to play with baby powder. They thought it was great stuff and proceeded to empty more than 2/3rds of a LARGE Johnson & Johnson's Baby Powder into various parts of our bedroom. Including, but not limited to our bed, the closet, the clothes in the closet, the clean clothes in the laundry basket, the heating vent, the walls, under the bed, onto books, they tried to get it in my camera bag and pretty much anywhere else their little minds thought would be good. My house smells of baby freshness. So if you see me with wrinkly clothes that smell a little of baby powder, you know why.

Also, Randall has had some excellent referrals to articles in the last week or two. Check it out.

Also for those who care... I found via here, a site that will let you watch any episode of the Simpsons at any time for nothing. Oh dear, I'm sure someone will get in trouble for doing that, but for Simpson fans, getting things done just got harder.

To quote a tshirt I saw once....Procrastinators UNITE... tomorrow.

Blessings.

Will be back with some more soon...

Greetings to those who read my blog.
My apologies for being slack as of late posting. Several reasons for this. The largest, Sasktel has made a small mixup with the internet connection when our church moved into a new building. This building is in fact another reason for the lack of posts, but I will post on those reasons next week. I would write more tonight, but I'm fried. Spent the day helping out at a fundraiser all day in the sun (yet another post) so while I haven't been posting, I have lots to post about. I am slowly catching up on my "blog" reading.
Blessings
DJR

Prayer, division and a van

Sweet Lord, have patience with us. We build walls that divide. We close doors to keep others out. Teach us how to topple the walls stone by stone. Show us how to open the doors and bless all who enter.
-Christopher De Vinck

I have been thinking about this today. I have just come back from vacation and spent my first day back in the office. I have noticed that everything is still here. I am more refreshed than I expected. However, as I reflected on this little prayer today, I realized yet again in my own life how easily it is to be taken off course in our relationship with God.
Why is it that when things are difficult or challenging we so often try to do things on our own? Why are we so slow to understand and remember that if we simply turn to God at the first moment of trouble/temptation/questioning and seek his help things would be so much easier.
These are not "new" thoughts of mine, just the refrain that seems to permeate humanity with regards to following God. We divide ourselves from each other, and from God himself; even though no one likes to be lonely.

Be assured though that God loves us. I am continually amazed at the protection and blessings God brings. We traded our car (94 Chrysler Intrepid) for a used van (1996 GMC Safari). Bought the thing on Friday. Saturday my family and I along with my parents (6 of us including me) jumped in the new (to us) van and drove around. We ended up putting on about 250kms that day. All got home safe and sound. I went out Saturday evening to drop something off and as I was driving home a ball joint let go. (See picture) Had the van less than 24hrs and it breaks. Now, that might not sound at first as a big reason to be thankful; but it didn't let go on the highway. It was on the driver's side front wheel, had it let go at highway speed we would have been forced into oncoming traffic. Aside from that, because we bought the van from a dealer they are replacing both ball joints on the front end of the van for us. Now, I won't have to worry about that with the van.
Now it has been frustrating to not have the van I bought when I bought it, but we're all safe and a few days in the course of (I trust) years of use is not much. Besides, I'm driving my old car for the time being, it's not like I'm walking (although in Tisdale that would be fine too).
God is good. We were not sure if we would be able to get a van in time for our new addition around Christmas (for those not up to date, we are expecting our third in December, we think it will be a girl). A car doesn't hold 3 kid's car seats, and now we have a van.
There is more to say about the van, but I'll leave that to another post (perhaps I'll even tell you all why we will call the van "Earl"). I'll leave you with a parting shot of our beloved Intrepid
a car that we towed our tent trailer across this great country of ours and has seen more than a few kilometers beneath it's rubber; just before I went to trade it in.

Blessings.

the Doug begins

And so we begin...