Have beard, will travel

Ken with beard
Originally uploaded by theken.

I was always told "Never trust a man with a beard!" It just crossed my mind today, though - didn't Jesus have a beard? Well, I don't know for sure - I wasn't there. Maybe he did. Anyway, now I have one.

 

Progress in the Immigration process

Yesterday I received a card in the mail which confirmed that the Canadian High Commission in London is now processing my application for permanent residence in Canada. They explained that there are three possible outcomes:

1) Waiver of an interview
2) Requirement of an interview
3) Refusal of application

Personally, I favour option 1! After that, I just need to wait for the final word. I'm pretty confident that everything will be fine. I've got more than enough points to be accepted as a Skilled Worker. They say it can take up to 21 months but I don't expect it to take more than 6. It'd be sweet if I could have it all wrapped up before my current work permit expires in the summer.

Christmas Schedule

In an attempt to be more organized this time, I'm going to try to plan my trip home for Christmas before the event. This is a bit of a change for me as I normally like to be spontaneous with things. However, since I'll only be in Scotland for a week, I don't want to spend half of that time figuring out what I'm going to do.

I will arrive in Glasgow on the morning of the 22nd of December. I return to Canada on the morning of the 30th of December. So, I'm available between those days. If any of my Scottish blog-reading friends and family want to catch up with me while I'm home, drop me an e-mail or post a comment in my blog. It goes without saying that family will get the 25th!

Where efficiency meets forgetfulness

Have you ever done something really silly and then felt a bit embarrassed for being so dim? I had one of these moments this morning. (and it's not even 9 o'clock yet!)

Yesterday, I realized I hadn't got a cell phone bill for a while so I logged on to Rogers.com to check out if there was a new bill for my phone. Well, lo and behold there was a bill. Not only was there a bill, it was due the day before.

"Oh no!" I cried, "My unblemished record of on-time payments!"

So, off I scurried to my local Rogers Video Store to pay my bill. I decided to overpay by about $2.50 so that I'd end up in credit and hopefully appease the powers that be.

I was confused that I hadn't received an e-mail telling me that my bill was ready, though. I was sure that I'd received that before. I decided to call them up today to see what the dealio was.

(Are you ready? Here comes the embarrassing part...)

I already paid the bill on October 27th! I was so darned efficient I paid it right away and then forgot that I had done so. Consequently, my account is $55 in credit and showing no signs of getting in trouble for late charges! I just need to upgrade my brain to remember what I've done in future!

Discovering new details in songs

As I already mentioned, I have been enjoying new headphones since my trip to Denver. However, today I noticed that I can now hear new details in songs that I never knew existed before.

Firstly, in Don Potter's Facing the Wall, I was listening to the track called Garden. (Track #7) At 0:27 I noticed a guitar harmonic that wasn't there before. It's really high pitched and is just a gentle pick of a string with a finger lightly pressed on it. It's not devastatingly exciting, just a note that I'd never heard before.

The other thing I noticed was in a song by The Corrs. The album is The Corrs, Live in Dublin and the track is Joy of Life/Trout in the Bath. (Track #5) I hadn't heard the guitar before. It's panned way out to the left and it starts on a kind of muted rhythm wotsit thingie at about 1:27.

These discoveries may not be too exciting to the average blog reader but if nothing else, you can have a chuckle at the fact that I can't be vague. It's not possible. I need hyperlinks to each band and album along with the precise moment in time that the audio feature occurs. Sigh. If only I could be vague. Blogging would be so much quicker.

More pics from Denver

I uploaded some more photos from my trip to Denver last week. I have added them to the existing photoset and I've also created another set which only contains the new pictures. That way, you don't need to look through all the ones you've already seen. That said, I've updated the description of them and I reckon some of them are pretty witty. If I do say so myself. About my own joke.

Noise Cancelling Headphones!

I bought a new pair of headphones in Denver airport on my way home on Sunday. I'd been considering getting these for a while and then there they were right before me in the departure lounge. I got a pair of Bose QuietComfort 2 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones. They are really cool. I'm so blessed to be able to afford them. They worked really well on the plane. I was able to cut out all the background noise of the engines and I was also able to watch the movie (I, Robot) with no outside noise. I'm very pleased with them. It's not often I buy something so extravagant for myself.

 

Photos from Denver

I've uploaded some of the photos from my trip to Denver with John Arnott last week. They all have descriptions and you can comment on them as well. Please take a look!

 

Tongue Cleaning

After a deeply traumatising event last week where I witnessed Alyn scrape a large volume of whitish "ming" from his tongue, I promptly went out and bought myself The Tongue Cleaner. Apparently cleaning the tongue has the benefits of 1) Eliminating bad breath and 2) Improving your sense of taste.

It's really a bit disturbing the first time you see just how much nasty stuff lives on your tongue. For those of you who brush your tongue, I have this quote from the above link:

Brushing your tongue with a toothbrush only stirs up this plaque film, without effectively removing it.

It seems scraping is the way to go. Here's to a cleaner, happier tongue!

More good times with healings and the rest

Today was amazing. First of all, because we got to sleep in until lunchtime and then get taken out to the Golden Corral again to eat. Sigh, it's a hard life I tell you. That was really the most trivial of all the good things that happened today but count your blessings, as they say.

This afternoon Jack Frost was doing one of his teachings and it was really good. He was talking about the importance of a mother's affection in providing security in the very early moments of life. He shared about how we can end up looking to other sources for comfort and love if we have not felt the love of our parents for whatever reason. God did a lot of deep stuff restoring people who had been hiding hurts for years.

Tonight John Arnott was talking about the importance of forgiveness. Again, it was pretty intense stuff. A lot of people were in tears. There was a girl there who had lost her sense of smell when she was about 6 months old. When she forgave herself for having this problem, God HEALED her! It was amazing. All her life, the enemy had held her in bondage because she blamed herself for not being able to smell. Now that she moved from law into grace, she could receive God's healing power.

The youth group at this church are amazing. I've never seen a group of kids so seriously passionate about Jesus and so raw. Most of them have not been saved for long but they know what life was like before they met Jesus and now they're mental! One of them got in trouble in his high school because he was talking to his friends about something God had shown him. I think it was a poem or something like that. One of the hall monitors gave him a hard time because he was using the name of Jesus in school. The church is going to defend him, though. There is freedom of speech for students in schools so he has every right to say whatever he wants.

The same kid was in trouble again because he was having a bible study in the school cafeteria wih friends and he got drunk in the spirit. He fell over and couldn't get up. Some of his friends were carrying him into class and he got taken to the "narc" who I presume is the staff member who checks to see if you're doing drugs!

I love these stories! God's breaking out in the schools and the kids are so raw and fresh in their faith they don't know how to be religious. They just go nuts, praying for everyone. It's really amazing to watch.

At the end tonight, we had a fire tunnel. Now, to the uneducated I should explain. A fire tunnel involves two rows of people facing each other. People walk down the middle and the people either side pray for the fire of God to fill them up. Some people don't feel or sense anything but a lot of people have really amazing encounters with God through this. Some of the kids were getting really powerfully touched by God and the thing I loved most about it was watching them coming out the end and then running back round, climbing over chairs to get back in for another round. They were so hungry some of them were going through three or four times. It blessed me so much to see the enthusiasm they had.

Daddy, give me that same hunger for you again. I want to be desperate for you like that. I want to be so dependent on you that I feel like a fish out of water when I'm not completely baked in your power. Give me that sense of urgency for more of you.

Daddy big, devil small

Ah, it's nice to get things in perspective, isn't it? We've been having fun in Denver. I tell you, this life on the road thing isnae sae bad. (Lapse into Scottish there) Life mainly involves sleeping, eating, soaking and meetings. I can cope with that. The eating especially is pretty cool since I'm not paying for it! Today we went to Golden Corral which I recall having visited in Utah during my book selling days for The Southwestern Company.

It's funny because we're meeting all these super-duper renewal-type people such as Jack Frost and Peter Dresser and I'm having the most entertaining experiences. Like at lunch today in the aforementioned restaurant. Jack Frost and I both finished our first plate of food at the same time and started to head over to the various options to peruse the tasty choices we could have. I drew his attention to the size of the steaks that were being cooked. (which were HUGE) He then informed me that he's not eaten meat in fourteen years. Woopsie. I don't think he was overly offended but it's not exactly how to win friends and influence people.

In other news, we saw some of the mountains today. The cloud had lifted a bit and we got a chance to go "ooo" and "aah" at various stages of our transience through the day.

The meetings this afternoon and tonight were pretty cool. I was being surprisingly noisy with "hooo!" type sounds. We saw some healings which was cool. One person who testified tonight was someone I had prayed for last night who's pain has completely left her arm. I wasn't the only one praying for her but my share helped! I really want to do more of this stuff. It's not rocket science really. Daddy's big, the devil's small. Ask for what you want and whoopee - there's a healing!

Denver by day

No, sadly there's no pitctures here but at least we've got internet access so I can write in my blog from the relative comfort of my hotel room.

I looked out the window and the first word that came to mind to describe the weather that greeted me was dreich (pronounced dree-ch where the "ch" is like the end of loch) It means it's somewhat gloomy and not so impressive. There's a lot of clouds and it's raining a bit as well. In fact, if it wasn't for all the american flags, I could be excused for thinking I was back in Scotland.

We've had a fairly leisurely day so far. This morning we started off with a breakfast with some local pastors at a place literally "round the corner" from our hotel. This afternoon John, Alyn and I had a bit of a prayer time and a relaxing soak in John's room. Now we're just chilling and waiting to be whisked away on a magical mystery tour to this evening's venue. John asked me to share a testimony at some point this week so I'm pondering what I might talk on. The most likely candidate is the topic of faithfulness.

Remembrance

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

By John McCrae (1915)

This poem is one I've not read fully before now although it's really famous. I've been thinking about remembrance recenlty, since it's only two days until Armistice Day or Veteran's Day / Remembrance Day depending on where you're from.

It's funny how the world's getting smaller. I'm a Scot living in Canada, surrounded by people from all corners of the world. I've met Germans here and had the somewhat morbid thought that if we had been born fifty years earlier, we'd have been forced to be enemies, though we would have no personal grievances with each other. We are truly blessed to live in a time where we have the freedom to do whatever work we want. I just can't imagine what it'd be like to be forced into military service. It's one thing to join the army if that's your choice of career but the thing that always stands out to me about the two world wars was the fact that the majority of these soldiers weren't people who had chosen a career in the army. They were regular people like me. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The lucky ones were separated from their loved ones for years, only to return home with a head full of nightmares. The others sufferred all kinds of pain, torment and death. It's just such a tragic waste of life.

I'm not saying I'm anti-war. I think there are times when you have to defend your own if you are truly threatened. If we hadn't fought off the German army in the 2nd World War, we would have been taken over and come under the power of Hitler. I have no doubt in my mind that we were right to defend ourselves there. Admittedly, some modern wars are a bit more "grey" in terms of the immediate threat to the average individual. I don't want to get into that discussion here, though.

I just want to say "thanks" to those who gave up their careers, health and lives to protect the future of Scotland, my home. Here's to learning from our past.

On the road with John Arnott!

I don't think I've written about this yet but it's pretty exciting news. This afternoon, I'm leaving to go on a ministry trip with John Arnott! I was totally amazed when I heard he wanted me to go along with him to a conference he's speaking at in Denver. It's Catch the Fire, Denver which I believe will be hosted at New Song Fellowship, Denver. In case any of you don't know - John is the senior pastor here at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship and he has an amazing anointing and ministry around the world. It's a real privilege to be part of one of his trips.

There are three of us going: John Arnott, Alyn Jones (a fellow Scot, might I say!) and myself. Apparently, Alyn had mentioned in passing to John one day that I had been working really hard on the new Premium Membership section of our website. John then thought it'd be good to take me along on a trip, to show that I'm worth more than my computer skills alone. I was so amazed to be invited - it's going to be great!

I will be part of the ministry team - praying for people and all that good stuff. I hope we get some healings. I like healings.

I Can Only Imagine

Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still?
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine

From the song I Can Only Imagine by MercyMe.

We did this song recently in worship and I really love it just now. It really captures the contrast of how we would want to respond to our first sight of Jesus balanced against the holiness and amazing intensity of that moment.

There's a video of the song available on Yahoo! Music. I recommend you check it out. (For some reason, it doesn't work with Firefox which is a bit unfortunate. However, you could always fire up Internet Explorer this once, couldn't you?)

The World Names The Dead on Election Day - Global News on the World Crisis Web

The World Names The Dead on Election Day - Global News on the World Crisis Web

I found this to be an interesting article. There are people all over the world saying it's maybe time for the US to call it quits in Iraq.

Structure of a Phone Conversation

I was talking to Drew last night about the structure of a typical phone conversation. I had thought this through a while ago but I suddenly realized this could be quite blog-worthy so here goes...

The basic structure of the call is as follows:

1. Preamble
2. The Point
3. Post-amble
4. Re-iteration of The Point
5. Goodbyes

Depending on the individuals concerned, preamble and postamble can be short or even non-existant. An example of this would be The Point ending with "okbye", often experienced by those arranging plans with Drew in a hurry over the phone.

If the parties concerned are of a more conversational disposition, however, pre and postamble may be fairly lengthy, creating a need for #4, the re-iteration of The Point. Such a call might go something like this:

Person A: Hey man, how's it going?
Person B: Good, good.
(Start of preamble)
Person A: Cool. How are tricks - did you have a good weekend?
Person B: (Talks at length about weekend)
(Start of The Point)
Person A: Nice one. Well, anyway, I was calling to ask if you're up for catching a movie tonight. Some of us are going to Colossus at 7.
Person B: Yeah, sounds good.
(Transition to post-amble)
Person A: Cool, it'll be good to catch up. Hey, did you see that other movie with that guy...
Person B: (Talks at length about movies, life and whatever else)
(Person A starts running out of time and transitions to re-iteration of The Point.)
Person A: Cool, ok so I'll see you at 7 then?
Person B: At Colossus?
Person A: Yeah, for the movie.
Person B: Oh, yeah. Right. OK, I'll see you then.
(Goodbye phase)
Person A: See you then, then.
Person B: Cool, bye.
Person A: Bye.
(End of conversation)

Now, I could have gone on to the extended goodbye version where there's a considerable amount of back-and-forth before the phones are actually hung up.

Also, I've not even got started on phone conversations where there is no point in the first place. I like to think of such calls as "pure amble" for obvious reasons.

With some cell/mobile calls, you can add the "where are you?" clause to the start of the preamble. That was always a favourite in calls I heard on the train back in Bonnie Scotland.

Do you have any thoughts of amusing phone call foibles and anomalies? Do comment, do comment...