I was watching The Village on TV tonight and I noticed a great line that I had not appreciated before:
The world moves for love.
It kneels before it in awe.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Rainy Evening
Tonight I was a bit bored so I decided to go out for a walk. I discovered there was an Einestein Brothers bagel shop nearby and although it was closed, I wanted to have a look around to see if there were any other shops nearby. It started raining but I stayed out for a bit longer anyway. Feeling somewhat peckish, I got a big bag of Tostitos and a can of Red Bull. The rain was pretty heavy and I sought refuge in a few interesting places along the way. Here are a few videos in case you're interested.
This first one is a commentary on my walk in the rain:
In this one, I talk about a potential Parkour feature I found:
This first one is a commentary on my walk in the rain:
In this one, I talk about a potential Parkour feature I found:
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Puja
On Sunday evening I attended an interesting worship experience. It is called a "Puja" which is a Hindu term from the Sanskrit language. We were learning in class about contextualisation, which basically means presenting the gospel in a way that people can relate to in their culture. Too often, missionaries present the gospel as a very western thing, resulting in the indigenous people thinking it is a western God, when in fact no-one in the bible was western at all.
The analogy we heard about contextualisation was to think of the message as the water of life in a container. The container it is presented in might be different depending on the culture. In the west, we are quite familiar with mugs with a round handle and an image printed on the side. In India, though, this would be very foreign. Contextualisation is the technique of using a vessel people are more familiar with so they can receive the drink.
The whole setup of the meeting was very different from anything I've ever seen before. We were still singing songs of worship to Jesus, though. We were simply using a style that Hindus would be very familiar with. This has been really successful in India where people have felt comfortable and familiar with the surroundings and able to receive the message and understand what is being said.
We had communion as part of the Puja. Instead of bread and red wine, we used bananas and milk. These are both things that are very abundant in India and easy for people to get. The milk can represent purity because it is white and the banana can represent Jesus body which was broken.
We also heard the gospel explained using a coconut as an illustration. As Dag, the leader, explained that Jesus was bruised and beaten for our sin, he hit the coconut with a hammer several times. Eventually, it cracked and the clear milk poured out of it, reminding me that when stabbed with the spear, water came out of Jesus' heart along with the blood. He talked about how we can now be as white as coconut because of this. To someone in India, a phrase like "as white as snow" would not make sense as most of them have not seen snow, yet everyone knows what coconuts are like.
Another interesting aspect was the use of incense. As we worshipped it was interesting to engage the sense of smell as well as sight and sound. It reminded me that Jesus can be like the air we breathe, able to expand and rise to places we couldn't reach.
We sang songs in Hindi with the English translation alongside it so we could see what we were singing. We sang about the name of Jesus, how it is a powerful, beautiful name and we sang about how he is our ultimate Guru and even that his word is our mantra. All the time, we were using terms people would be familiar with to help them understand our faith better.
The whole Puja experience gave me a bit of a feeling for how it must be for someone from a different culture to come to a "normal" church meeting in the west which is in a different language with all kinds of new things happening. At first I was constantly reading the English beside the Hindi to work out what I was actually saying. After we had repeated some of the songs a few times I started to remember and I was able to focus more on actually singing.
I've learned that there's no one structure or pattern that is correct for worship. In our western churches we are so stuck on the pattern of having a band playing worship songs and us all sitting in rows listening to someone at the front. These things are not bad, but they are not necessarily relevant to all cultures. It would be wrong to re-create the same thing elsewhere in the world and expect people to be familiar with it.
The analogy we heard about contextualisation was to think of the message as the water of life in a container. The container it is presented in might be different depending on the culture. In the west, we are quite familiar with mugs with a round handle and an image printed on the side. In India, though, this would be very foreign. Contextualisation is the technique of using a vessel people are more familiar with so they can receive the drink.
The whole setup of the meeting was very different from anything I've ever seen before. We were still singing songs of worship to Jesus, though. We were simply using a style that Hindus would be very familiar with. This has been really successful in India where people have felt comfortable and familiar with the surroundings and able to receive the message and understand what is being said.
We had communion as part of the Puja. Instead of bread and red wine, we used bananas and milk. These are both things that are very abundant in India and easy for people to get. The milk can represent purity because it is white and the banana can represent Jesus body which was broken.
We also heard the gospel explained using a coconut as an illustration. As Dag, the leader, explained that Jesus was bruised and beaten for our sin, he hit the coconut with a hammer several times. Eventually, it cracked and the clear milk poured out of it, reminding me that when stabbed with the spear, water came out of Jesus' heart along with the blood. He talked about how we can now be as white as coconut because of this. To someone in India, a phrase like "as white as snow" would not make sense as most of them have not seen snow, yet everyone knows what coconuts are like.
Another interesting aspect was the use of incense. As we worshipped it was interesting to engage the sense of smell as well as sight and sound. It reminded me that Jesus can be like the air we breathe, able to expand and rise to places we couldn't reach.
We sang songs in Hindi with the English translation alongside it so we could see what we were singing. We sang about the name of Jesus, how it is a powerful, beautiful name and we sang about how he is our ultimate Guru and even that his word is our mantra. All the time, we were using terms people would be familiar with to help them understand our faith better.
The whole Puja experience gave me a bit of a feeling for how it must be for someone from a different culture to come to a "normal" church meeting in the west which is in a different language with all kinds of new things happening. At first I was constantly reading the English beside the Hindi to work out what I was actually saying. After we had repeated some of the songs a few times I started to remember and I was able to focus more on actually singing.
I've learned that there's no one structure or pattern that is correct for worship. In our western churches we are so stuck on the pattern of having a band playing worship songs and us all sitting in rows listening to someone at the front. These things are not bad, but they are not necessarily relevant to all cultures. It would be wrong to re-create the same thing elsewhere in the world and expect people to be familiar with it.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Village Experience
On Thursday and Friday we did an interesting practical exercise called the "Village Experience". We didn't know quite what to expect and we were told very little about what was in store for us. All we knew was that we had to bring a bag of overnight things including a sleeping bag and that we had to be able to carry everything. We were only allowed one piece of food each as well.
It started off late on Thursday morning when we were blondfolded and loaded into a van. We were instructed to be silent and to keep our blindfolds in place. We drove for maybe 10 or 15 minutes. It's hard to say how long it was because it seems longer when you can't see anything. Maybe it was some vague recollection of a Hardy Boys book or something but I started mapping our route in my mind. I memorised all the turns we took and tried to visualise a map in my head of the path of the van. In the end it turned out that information was irrelevant, but I suppose it illustrated that I still had to keep my mind active. Actually, if the journey was much longer, I might have just forgotten about it entirely.
Once the van stopped, we were told we could remove our blindfolds and get out. We assembled by the side of the road with our backpacks on and Randy explaned the procedure to us. We were given the first clue which would lead us to the next clue. Each clue would lead us to the next until we finally reached our destination. We were to collect the clues to give to Randy at the destination and we were to pray for the village at each clue.
The journey was a fairly enjoyable hike along a few country roads on the Missouri/Kansas border. The clues were pretty straightforward and they were easy to find as well. It was a bit weird praying for "the village" since we didn't know what that exactly meant. At the first clue, we were presented with 3 logs that we had to carry with us to present to the villagers. This proved to be quite challenging with the additional weight. Later one, we collected a jar of Jalapeño Olives which were also to be presented to the villagers. We also collected three more logs further on. This was really sneaky and deliberate of them. There were five people and six logs. The uneven load was a strategy to test our teamwork. Someone would need to carry more logs than the rest and that would test our patience and co-operation.
When we finally reached our destination, we were allowed to rest for maybe ten minutes before we were taken to "meet the villagers." The rest of the experience was far more bizarre than the hike.
As we walked down the path, we saw a secluded area of grassland up ahead that was surrounded by woods on three sides. We were confronted by two or three men dressed in middle eastern outfits with some kind of arab headdress. They blocked the path and looked inquisitively at us. They spoke amongst themselves in Spanish and didn't understand anything we said. Fortunately, we had two girls in our group who could speak Spanish so they translated for us.
It would take too long to describe each event in great detail, but we had all kinds of things happen. They didn't trust me because I wasn't married, and they got the girls in our group to each throw a log to see who could throw one the furthest. Then they tried to get me to marry the one who threw the furthest. When I refused, they gave her to one of their villagers instead.
When we first arrived, we gave them the Jalapeño Olives. They looked suspiciously and made us each eat one to show them that they were ok. They fed us roasted grubs (which we had to eat), chicken and "cat". (which was actually rabbit)
The grandfather-type character was sick and we asked a few times to pray for him. When they let us pray, he got worse and called for the Witch Doctor who relieved the pain for a while. Later on, when we prayed again he got healed. The Witch Doctor wanted to buy the power from us with one of his necklaces.
We slept in tents nearby and it was COLD at night. In the morning there was frost on the ground and on the tents. It had dropped to freezing during the night.
Here are some videos I made along the way:
You can also browse the video playlist on YouTube.
It started off late on Thursday morning when we were blondfolded and loaded into a van. We were instructed to be silent and to keep our blindfolds in place. We drove for maybe 10 or 15 minutes. It's hard to say how long it was because it seems longer when you can't see anything. Maybe it was some vague recollection of a Hardy Boys book or something but I started mapping our route in my mind. I memorised all the turns we took and tried to visualise a map in my head of the path of the van. In the end it turned out that information was irrelevant, but I suppose it illustrated that I still had to keep my mind active. Actually, if the journey was much longer, I might have just forgotten about it entirely.
Once the van stopped, we were told we could remove our blindfolds and get out. We assembled by the side of the road with our backpacks on and Randy explaned the procedure to us. We were given the first clue which would lead us to the next clue. Each clue would lead us to the next until we finally reached our destination. We were to collect the clues to give to Randy at the destination and we were to pray for the village at each clue.
The journey was a fairly enjoyable hike along a few country roads on the Missouri/Kansas border. The clues were pretty straightforward and they were easy to find as well. It was a bit weird praying for "the village" since we didn't know what that exactly meant. At the first clue, we were presented with 3 logs that we had to carry with us to present to the villagers. This proved to be quite challenging with the additional weight. Later one, we collected a jar of Jalapeño Olives which were also to be presented to the villagers. We also collected three more logs further on. This was really sneaky and deliberate of them. There were five people and six logs. The uneven load was a strategy to test our teamwork. Someone would need to carry more logs than the rest and that would test our patience and co-operation.
When we finally reached our destination, we were allowed to rest for maybe ten minutes before we were taken to "meet the villagers." The rest of the experience was far more bizarre than the hike.
As we walked down the path, we saw a secluded area of grassland up ahead that was surrounded by woods on three sides. We were confronted by two or three men dressed in middle eastern outfits with some kind of arab headdress. They blocked the path and looked inquisitively at us. They spoke amongst themselves in Spanish and didn't understand anything we said. Fortunately, we had two girls in our group who could speak Spanish so they translated for us.
It would take too long to describe each event in great detail, but we had all kinds of things happen. They didn't trust me because I wasn't married, and they got the girls in our group to each throw a log to see who could throw one the furthest. Then they tried to get me to marry the one who threw the furthest. When I refused, they gave her to one of their villagers instead.
When we first arrived, we gave them the Jalapeño Olives. They looked suspiciously and made us each eat one to show them that they were ok. They fed us roasted grubs (which we had to eat), chicken and "cat". (which was actually rabbit)
The grandfather-type character was sick and we asked a few times to pray for him. When they let us pray, he got worse and called for the Witch Doctor who relieved the pain for a while. Later on, when we prayed again he got healed. The Witch Doctor wanted to buy the power from us with one of his necklaces.
We slept in tents nearby and it was COLD at night. In the morning there was frost on the ground and on the tents. It had dropped to freezing during the night.
Here are some videos I made along the way:
You can also browse the video playlist on YouTube.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
End of week one
I've finished my first week of CPx. (The church planting experience) Today, Monday, is my day off so I thought this would be a good time for a brief update. We had class from Tuesday to Saturday with each session starting at 8:00 am. That's been a bit tricky to get used to. Usually we finish at 4 or 4:30 in the afternoon.
The class hasn't exactly looked like what I expected, although I didn't really know what to expect in the first place. We meet in a small house in a residential district of Grandview, which could be considered either a suburb of Kansas City or a neighbouring town. I normally get a lift to class in the morning from one of the others on the course, although I'm hoping to get a bike soon. One odd aspect of Kansas City is that a lot of the roads don't have pavements to walk on beside them. (sidewalks to you N. Americans) Even in residential neighbourhoods, I need to walk on the road or on the grass. It's a strange omission.
Each morning we start with an hour of prayer and worship. So far this has been a very quiet routine which I've found difficult to engage in. I think the point is to strip everything back to the absolute basics of what we might encounter when planting a church. Combined with the early start, I tend to find it hard to stay awake.
As for accommodation, I'm staying with an elderly couple who feed me and look after me. They have their own eccentricities but they are good to me. They have matching rocking chairs and a clock that sounds every half hour. On the hour it chimes the appropriate number of times and on the half hour it chimes once. (I noted this could lead to ambiguity around 1 o'clock.) Although this clock is in the living room, it has woken me up a few times in my room.
We've had a fairly interactive teaching curriculum so far. On the first day (Tuesday) we learned about prayer walking and then went out in pairs to walk through the neighbourhood and pray. The next day we learned more about contacting new people in the street. We went out again in pairs, this time to talk to people in the area and start to make connections. On Thursday and Friday we had testimonies. We each had to prepare a 20 minute talk about our testimony.
On Saturday we had a seminar on "What is church?" We looked at the different ways the word "church" is used in modern day English compared to what it actually meant in scripture. We looked at the Western model of church and noted some of the things that aren't actually essential but are still part of our image of church. When planting a church, you tend to reproduce what you are familiar with and care must be taken to avoid placing a Western worldview on a new church in a different culture.
On Sunday we had a small house church meeting before going out for lunch. It was fairly simple and community-based but it was still church nonetheless!
The class hasn't exactly looked like what I expected, although I didn't really know what to expect in the first place. We meet in a small house in a residential district of Grandview, which could be considered either a suburb of Kansas City or a neighbouring town. I normally get a lift to class in the morning from one of the others on the course, although I'm hoping to get a bike soon. One odd aspect of Kansas City is that a lot of the roads don't have pavements to walk on beside them. (sidewalks to you N. Americans) Even in residential neighbourhoods, I need to walk on the road or on the grass. It's a strange omission.
Each morning we start with an hour of prayer and worship. So far this has been a very quiet routine which I've found difficult to engage in. I think the point is to strip everything back to the absolute basics of what we might encounter when planting a church. Combined with the early start, I tend to find it hard to stay awake.
As for accommodation, I'm staying with an elderly couple who feed me and look after me. They have their own eccentricities but they are good to me. They have matching rocking chairs and a clock that sounds every half hour. On the hour it chimes the appropriate number of times and on the half hour it chimes once. (I noted this could lead to ambiguity around 1 o'clock.) Although this clock is in the living room, it has woken me up a few times in my room.
We've had a fairly interactive teaching curriculum so far. On the first day (Tuesday) we learned about prayer walking and then went out in pairs to walk through the neighbourhood and pray. The next day we learned more about contacting new people in the street. We went out again in pairs, this time to talk to people in the area and start to make connections. On Thursday and Friday we had testimonies. We each had to prepare a 20 minute talk about our testimony.
On Saturday we had a seminar on "What is church?" We looked at the different ways the word "church" is used in modern day English compared to what it actually meant in scripture. We looked at the Western model of church and noted some of the things that aren't actually essential but are still part of our image of church. When planting a church, you tend to reproduce what you are familiar with and care must be taken to avoid placing a Western worldview on a new church in a different culture.
On Sunday we had a small house church meeting before going out for lunch. It was fairly simple and community-based but it was still church nonetheless!
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
I uploaded some videos to YouTube
I've been making videos with my phone for ages now but I've finally taken the time to learn a better way to share them with you. I previously uploaded them to a really obscure website and then added links to the files manually. It was pretty clunky to set up. Now I've got an account with YouTube, which makes things a lot easier. You can see my latest videos on my YouTube profile page: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=kencares.
To kick things off here, I thought I'd share some specific videos of things that I've mentioned in a few recent blog entries.
Sailing on Lake Ontario
Windsurfing
There are two videos here. I made one each day at the end of each session in the water. In this first video, I discussed a few of the technical aspects of windsurfing.
In this second video you will notice I sound much weaker. That day was really cold and I think it shows in the fact that I look like I'm about to faint any minute!
Fun with Steve's Car
This first one shows Steve explaining how things work under the hood of his beast.
The second clip shows us flying round a dirt road on the way from Newmarket to Toronto. At one point, we skidded out pretty wide on a turn. Don't be alarmed by the extreme angle of the video. The car didn't actually tip! I temporarily lost control of the camera a bit as I was distracted by the slide.
After the fun and games on the dirt road, we stopped to inspect the damage.
Once we got to Toronto, we had a bit of fun doing donuts in the Colossus Cinema parking lot. There's not much happening at the start of this video but I couldn't find a good way to edit it.
This is the second video of donuts in the parking lot. We got quite fast in this one and you can even see the smoke from the tyres coming into the car.
We went and looked at the parking lot after the donuts.
Kansas City
When I arrived in Kansas City, I saw a tetherball which I found really amusing. Here's my Napoleon Dynamite impression.
To kick things off here, I thought I'd share some specific videos of things that I've mentioned in a few recent blog entries.
Sailing on Lake Ontario
Windsurfing
There are two videos here. I made one each day at the end of each session in the water. In this first video, I discussed a few of the technical aspects of windsurfing.
In this second video you will notice I sound much weaker. That day was really cold and I think it shows in the fact that I look like I'm about to faint any minute!
Fun with Steve's Car
This first one shows Steve explaining how things work under the hood of his beast.
The second clip shows us flying round a dirt road on the way from Newmarket to Toronto. At one point, we skidded out pretty wide on a turn. Don't be alarmed by the extreme angle of the video. The car didn't actually tip! I temporarily lost control of the camera a bit as I was distracted by the slide.
After the fun and games on the dirt road, we stopped to inspect the damage.
Once we got to Toronto, we had a bit of fun doing donuts in the Colossus Cinema parking lot. There's not much happening at the start of this video but I couldn't find a good way to edit it.
This is the second video of donuts in the parking lot. We got quite fast in this one and you can even see the smoke from the tyres coming into the car.
We went and looked at the parking lot after the donuts.
Kansas City
When I arrived in Kansas City, I saw a tetherball which I found really amusing. Here's my Napoleon Dynamite impression.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
First Sunday in Kansas City
Yesterday was my first Sunday in Kansas City and it was a day of several "firsts". To begin with, I went to Metro Christian Fellowship for the morning meeting which was preceded by "biscuits and gravy" because it was the first Sunday of the month.
I was introduced to a number of people including a few of the students who had arrived already. The meeting was good and I particulary appreciated the pastor's message which was about the way God makes us wait to allow the issues that are inside us to come to the surface. He communicated well and I identified a lot with what he was saying.
In the afternoon I visited the International House of Prayer for the first time. I was really excited to do this because I've heard so much about it. It was really great to experience firsthand the atmosphere of the constant harp and bowl worship with people pacing around praying and others singing along with the band. I also saw some of the faces I recognise from the podcasts such as Mike Bickle, Misty Edwards, Dwayne Roberts and one of the drummers. It was strange to see them in real life but I suppose it's only because I've seen them before. I'm not going to get distracted by the people. The house of prayer is for God and he will be my focus as I go there from time to time.
I was introduced to a number of people including a few of the students who had arrived already. The meeting was good and I particulary appreciated the pastor's message which was about the way God makes us wait to allow the issues that are inside us to come to the surface. He communicated well and I identified a lot with what he was saying.
In the afternoon I visited the International House of Prayer for the first time. I was really excited to do this because I've heard so much about it. It was really great to experience firsthand the atmosphere of the constant harp and bowl worship with people pacing around praying and others singing along with the band. I also saw some of the faces I recognise from the podcasts such as Mike Bickle, Misty Edwards, Dwayne Roberts and one of the drummers. It was strange to see them in real life but I suppose it's only because I've seen them before. I'm not going to get distracted by the people. The house of prayer is for God and he will be my focus as I go there from time to time.
Flight and first experiences of Kansas City
The flight from Toronto to Kansas City was really easy going, especially compared with the Customs experience earlier. The plane was really small. It had 13 rows with a total of four seats across. There were two either side with one aisle down the middle. There was one toilet at the back of the plane. A few times when I stood up, I hit my head on the ceiling.
This time I was able to take my laptop and small backpack onto the plane and I managed to fit them both in the overhead locker without a problem.
A pretty cool thing was that I had an empty seat beside me. I effectively had two seats to myself with the aisle to one side and the window to the other. That's the same as the other flight. God has been good to me in that regard.
When I arrived, I was greeted by someone from the Metro Fellowship who offered to take me for something to eat because my host family hadn't prepared anything for me. I suggested Perkins and we set out on a mini-adventure.
We pretty quickly found an exit that claimed to have a Perkins at it. For whatever reason, though, we missed it. At this point my driver decided to take a brief detour via the school she worked at to get something from her desk. It was there that I saw this pretty sweet Napoleon Dynamite-esque tetherball.
After the stop at the school, we returned to our quest to find Perkins. We drove about 3/4 of the way round Kansas City and none of the exits from the highway had signs for Perkins. We ended up using Google on the cell phone to find the number for the restaurant to call ahead. We got there in the end but I felt kinda bad that I hadn't asked for McDonalds or Taco Bell in the first place. I really wanted a tremendous twelve, though. It was definitely worth it in the end.
This time I was able to take my laptop and small backpack onto the plane and I managed to fit them both in the overhead locker without a problem.
A pretty cool thing was that I had an empty seat beside me. I effectively had two seats to myself with the aisle to one side and the window to the other. That's the same as the other flight. God has been good to me in that regard.
When I arrived, I was greeted by someone from the Metro Fellowship who offered to take me for something to eat because my host family hadn't prepared anything for me. I suggested Perkins and we set out on a mini-adventure.
We pretty quickly found an exit that claimed to have a Perkins at it. For whatever reason, though, we missed it. At this point my driver decided to take a brief detour via the school she worked at to get something from her desk. It was there that I saw this pretty sweet Napoleon Dynamite-esque tetherball.
After the stop at the school, we returned to our quest to find Perkins. We drove about 3/4 of the way round Kansas City and none of the exits from the highway had signs for Perkins. We ended up using Google on the cell phone to find the number for the restaurant to call ahead. We got there in the end but I felt kinda bad that I hadn't asked for McDonalds or Taco Bell in the first place. I really wanted a tremendous twelve, though. It was definitely worth it in the end.
Fun and games getting into America
On Saturday afternoon I made my way to Pearson International Airport (or Toronto Airport to those not in the know) to fly down to Kansas City. When flying from Toronto to the US, you go through passport control prior to boarding the plane. That way you can arrive at the domestic arrivals in the US and go straight to baggage reclaim and out of the airport. I'm never sure what to expect when entering the US and so I approached this experience with interest.
The first assistant wasn't the frendliest I've ever met. He asked me a series of questions without ever actually looking me in the eye. He seemed a bit unimpressed that I intended to spend 83 days in the US without actually having any documents I could show him about the training course. I had figured that since I would be staying less that 90 days I could get in with a visa waiver and, consequently, without too much scrutiny. It seems they are still quite cautious, even with visa waivers.
At the end of our conversation, he asked me to put my index finger on the pad to take a fingerprint sample. I concluded that he had decided to let me in since he was checking me over. Unfortunately, his camera wasn't working, so he passed me on to the neighbouring booth. The lady there asked me a series of very similar questions before redirecting me to a separate room for more questions.
When I got into the other room I was greeted with another fairly grumpy individual. He sent me through to another room which appeared to be for agriculture. The man there made me wait a good distance from his desk for a few moments before calling me over to deal with me. He x-rayed all my bags and then sent me back through to the other room.
I waited there for a while and wondered just how long they would keep me waiting. It seemed I still had some time before my flight was going to leave, but still I didn't want to wait too long. I still had a sense of peace, though. I really didn't care if they were going to deny me entry or whatever. I decided if God wanted me in America it'd happen.
There was one guy behind a desk who didn't appear to be doing anything but he didn't call me over either. A couple came in and he called them up straight away. I found it strange that he hadn't called me up so when he had finished with them, I went over. I was holding the large yellow envelope that they give you containing your passport, customs declaration and visa waiver. He took it from me, announcing that "you're never going to get seen if you don't hand that over." I thought to myself that it might have been an idea for someone to tell me that in the first place, but I knew better than to point that out to him.
I then waited five or ten minutes more before he called me up again. He had gone away to another room and come back again in between times. I don't know if he was checking up on me by calling someone or if he was just going to the toilet. I sometimes wonder if the whole process is just to make you wait for a while to see what you do.
When he called me up, he stamped my passport and gave me my visa waiver and told me to enjoy my day. I noticed with amusement that he didn't actually check my fingerprints or take my photo but I didn't think he'd appreciate it if I reminded him.
I'm here now, though, so that's all behind me. Now I have my three months of church planting to look forwards to.
The first assistant wasn't the frendliest I've ever met. He asked me a series of questions without ever actually looking me in the eye. He seemed a bit unimpressed that I intended to spend 83 days in the US without actually having any documents I could show him about the training course. I had figured that since I would be staying less that 90 days I could get in with a visa waiver and, consequently, without too much scrutiny. It seems they are still quite cautious, even with visa waivers.
At the end of our conversation, he asked me to put my index finger on the pad to take a fingerprint sample. I concluded that he had decided to let me in since he was checking me over. Unfortunately, his camera wasn't working, so he passed me on to the neighbouring booth. The lady there asked me a series of very similar questions before redirecting me to a separate room for more questions.
When I got into the other room I was greeted with another fairly grumpy individual. He sent me through to another room which appeared to be for agriculture. The man there made me wait a good distance from his desk for a few moments before calling me over to deal with me. He x-rayed all my bags and then sent me back through to the other room.
I waited there for a while and wondered just how long they would keep me waiting. It seemed I still had some time before my flight was going to leave, but still I didn't want to wait too long. I still had a sense of peace, though. I really didn't care if they were going to deny me entry or whatever. I decided if God wanted me in America it'd happen.
There was one guy behind a desk who didn't appear to be doing anything but he didn't call me over either. A couple came in and he called them up straight away. I found it strange that he hadn't called me up so when he had finished with them, I went over. I was holding the large yellow envelope that they give you containing your passport, customs declaration and visa waiver. He took it from me, announcing that "you're never going to get seen if you don't hand that over." I thought to myself that it might have been an idea for someone to tell me that in the first place, but I knew better than to point that out to him.
I then waited five or ten minutes more before he called me up again. He had gone away to another room and come back again in between times. I don't know if he was checking up on me by calling someone or if he was just going to the toilet. I sometimes wonder if the whole process is just to make you wait for a while to see what you do.
When he called me up, he stamped my passport and gave me my visa waiver and told me to enjoy my day. I noticed with amusement that he didn't actually check my fingerprints or take my photo but I didn't think he'd appreciate it if I reminded him.
I'm here now, though, so that's all behind me. Now I have my three months of church planting to look forwards to.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Windsurfing
Keeping up my theme of going places outside of the city, I spent some time with my friend Marcel in Barrie. His house is quite nicely placed on the shore of Lake Simcoe. As if that wasn't cool enough, they have a wee dock beside the water with a canoe and a windsurfing board. Indifferent to the somewhat chilly late September weather, I decided to give windsurfing a shot. I always like trying new things and, well, windsurfing is a new thing.
I need to be honest here and point out that I wasn't entirely unprotected from the elements. Marcel lent me a wetsuit-vest thingy. I don't entirely know how to describe it, but it was a short-sleeved t-shirt sort of a garment with a zip on the back. When you zip it up, you have your own "Keira Knightley in a corset in Pirates of the Caribbean" moment but you do forget about it after a while. Actually, by the end I didn't want to take the thing off because it really did keep me warm.
I was also given a pair of water-shoes (or river-socks or some combination of the two terms) to protect my feet. I was warned about a curious creature called a Zebra Mussell. It seems these strange little things amuse themselves by sitting on the floor of the lake and sticking a sharp pointy thing up the way in the hope that some unsuspecting windsurfer might step on them. Odd, I know. I think they might be a product of The Fall.
The windsurfing itself took place over two days. The first was fairly windy. In fact, as we were in the water we noticed the clouds were getting darker and we expected a storm to come in soon. I actually saw lightning in the distance but I didn't mention it to Marcel until afterwards because I didn't want him to call a halt to things. We went in when it started raining. (As if that would stop us in Scotland!) The second day was much more placid and I found it much easier then. Having said that, I did have a day of experience under my belt, as it were.
As with a lot of sports, windsurfing has a bit more to it than meets the eye. You have to keep your balance on the board and you have to point the board in the right direction. The mast must lie at right-angles to the board on the surface of the water. You also need to lift the mast out of the water with your back to the wind and ensure that when it gets close to upright your body is counter-balancing enough that you can hold it at arms-length. Then once you can do that all you need to think about is rotating the sail to catch some wind and steer it in the direction you want to go. What could be easier? Well, pretty much every other water sport ever invented, except that kiteboarding one. It's wack.
I managed to stand on the board. That was ok. It was quite hard to get onto it in the first place because the board has a hard surface and kneeling on it is sore on the knees. Once standing, I had to be sure my feet were equidistant from the mast. (Great word) This meant I was applying equal pressure to both sides of the board so it wouldn't rotate either way.
The next thing was to raise the mast out of the water. This is achieved by picking up a rope that is attached to the mast and pulling it towards you, leaning back and using your bodyweight rather than your arms. As you do this, it might get interesting. Hopefully you have positioned yourself with your back to the wind and your board across the way. If so, the sail will point directly away from you as it comes out of the water and it won't catch any wind. Think of this as being in "neutral". Now imagine an automatic windsurfing board. That'd be weird.
If the wind is NOT directly behind you, it gets fun at this point. The wind blows the sail until it points in the direction the wind is blowing. Think of the sail here like the classic "Dad's hankie prior to launching a kite". If the sail starts to turn, you can no longer rely on it as a couter-balance and the chances are you'll fall in. If you don't fall in, you can correct the situation by rotating the board until it is perpendicular to the sail.
Rotating the board is achieved by putting more weight on one foot than the other. Whatever side you push will go forwards, so left foot goes clockwise and right foot goes anti-clockwise. This is a bit weird at first but after a while I found myself instinctively using my feet to correct the angle of the board to the sail as the wind changed or the board drifted.
As the mast gets closer to you, you need to grab the bar. The bar goes all the way round the sail and it's what you hold on to while riding. It's not possible to raise the mast out of the water by pulling on the bar in the first place because you wouldn't be able to keep your balance wrestling with the force of the wind, weight of the mast and your own balance on the board.
Once you have the bar in your hand (I managed this a few times) you start to rotate the sail to one side. The first time I did this I got a fright because it was the first day I mentioned and the wind was STRONG. I suddenly caught the wind and thought "Oh no! What do I do now?". I answered my own question by promptly falling into the lake. I'm pretty sure that wasn't the next thing on the list.
All in all, I had a great time. It was tricky and demanding on my balance, co-ordination and physical endurance but I liked it. By the end I was becoming quite confident with the first couple of steps like correcting the board angle and raising the mast out of the water. The part I was finding tricky was leaning back enough so that I could hold the bar at arms-length. I was standing too upright and pulling the mast completely vertical. This meant I didn't have much stability and my arms were weakening fast.
The other bizarre thing of note was that I got slashed by a tiger mussel, despite my protective footwear. The blighter got me on the hand. I think it was actually my very first attempt and I fell backwards off the board. I instinctively reached out my hands behind me to break the fall and cut my right thumb in the process. I didn't feel anything but when I was about to climb onto the board again, I noticed blood coming out of my hand. The cut seemed to be fairly deep. When I looked at it the area inside was white with a few red dots of blood on it. It looked odd to me. Someone later suggested the white stuff was called "bone" but I don't think it was that deep.
I need to be honest here and point out that I wasn't entirely unprotected from the elements. Marcel lent me a wetsuit-vest thingy. I don't entirely know how to describe it, but it was a short-sleeved t-shirt sort of a garment with a zip on the back. When you zip it up, you have your own "Keira Knightley in a corset in Pirates of the Caribbean" moment but you do forget about it after a while. Actually, by the end I didn't want to take the thing off because it really did keep me warm.
I was also given a pair of water-shoes (or river-socks or some combination of the two terms) to protect my feet. I was warned about a curious creature called a Zebra Mussell. It seems these strange little things amuse themselves by sitting on the floor of the lake and sticking a sharp pointy thing up the way in the hope that some unsuspecting windsurfer might step on them. Odd, I know. I think they might be a product of The Fall.
The windsurfing itself took place over two days. The first was fairly windy. In fact, as we were in the water we noticed the clouds were getting darker and we expected a storm to come in soon. I actually saw lightning in the distance but I didn't mention it to Marcel until afterwards because I didn't want him to call a halt to things. We went in when it started raining. (As if that would stop us in Scotland!) The second day was much more placid and I found it much easier then. Having said that, I did have a day of experience under my belt, as it were.
As with a lot of sports, windsurfing has a bit more to it than meets the eye. You have to keep your balance on the board and you have to point the board in the right direction. The mast must lie at right-angles to the board on the surface of the water. You also need to lift the mast out of the water with your back to the wind and ensure that when it gets close to upright your body is counter-balancing enough that you can hold it at arms-length. Then once you can do that all you need to think about is rotating the sail to catch some wind and steer it in the direction you want to go. What could be easier? Well, pretty much every other water sport ever invented, except that kiteboarding one. It's wack.
I managed to stand on the board. That was ok. It was quite hard to get onto it in the first place because the board has a hard surface and kneeling on it is sore on the knees. Once standing, I had to be sure my feet were equidistant from the mast. (Great word) This meant I was applying equal pressure to both sides of the board so it wouldn't rotate either way.
The next thing was to raise the mast out of the water. This is achieved by picking up a rope that is attached to the mast and pulling it towards you, leaning back and using your bodyweight rather than your arms. As you do this, it might get interesting. Hopefully you have positioned yourself with your back to the wind and your board across the way. If so, the sail will point directly away from you as it comes out of the water and it won't catch any wind. Think of this as being in "neutral". Now imagine an automatic windsurfing board. That'd be weird.If the wind is NOT directly behind you, it gets fun at this point. The wind blows the sail until it points in the direction the wind is blowing. Think of the sail here like the classic "Dad's hankie prior to launching a kite". If the sail starts to turn, you can no longer rely on it as a couter-balance and the chances are you'll fall in. If you don't fall in, you can correct the situation by rotating the board until it is perpendicular to the sail.
Rotating the board is achieved by putting more weight on one foot than the other. Whatever side you push will go forwards, so left foot goes clockwise and right foot goes anti-clockwise. This is a bit weird at first but after a while I found myself instinctively using my feet to correct the angle of the board to the sail as the wind changed or the board drifted.
As the mast gets closer to you, you need to grab the bar. The bar goes all the way round the sail and it's what you hold on to while riding. It's not possible to raise the mast out of the water by pulling on the bar in the first place because you wouldn't be able to keep your balance wrestling with the force of the wind, weight of the mast and your own balance on the board.
Once you have the bar in your hand (I managed this a few times) you start to rotate the sail to one side. The first time I did this I got a fright because it was the first day I mentioned and the wind was STRONG. I suddenly caught the wind and thought "Oh no! What do I do now?". I answered my own question by promptly falling into the lake. I'm pretty sure that wasn't the next thing on the list.
All in all, I had a great time. It was tricky and demanding on my balance, co-ordination and physical endurance but I liked it. By the end I was becoming quite confident with the first couple of steps like correcting the board angle and raising the mast out of the water. The part I was finding tricky was leaning back enough so that I could hold the bar at arms-length. I was standing too upright and pulling the mast completely vertical. This meant I didn't have much stability and my arms were weakening fast.The other bizarre thing of note was that I got slashed by a tiger mussel, despite my protective footwear. The blighter got me on the hand. I think it was actually my very first attempt and I fell backwards off the board. I instinctively reached out my hands behind me to break the fall and cut my right thumb in the process. I didn't feel anything but when I was about to climb onto the board again, I noticed blood coming out of my hand. The cut seemed to be fairly deep. When I looked at it the area inside was white with a few red dots of blood on it. It looked odd to me. Someone later suggested the white stuff was called "bone" but I don't think it was that deep.
Heidi and Brian's Wedding
Ok, so I'm totally on a roll with this blog-a-thon thing, but my battery is running out and I can't connect to the Internet and charge my battery at the same time, so this is going to be some pretty rapid blogging...
The wedding was really cool. I had a great time. It was outdoors in an apple orchard. They had a grassy area set up with two sets of chairs and the obligatory aisle down the middle. At the end was a nice canopy/gazeebo kind of set up with flowers and what not. The whole area was surrounded on three sides by trees on the left, right and just beyond the aforementioned canopy thingy in front of us. They also had some leaves and other autumnal things strewn on the ground for the bridal party to walk on as they entered.
The most noteworthy thing in the ceremony itself was the prayers of the nations. I'm not just saying that because I was part of it. I thought it was a really cool idea. They basically called up lots of people of varying nationalities and language skills to bless them in their own tongue and to welcome them to their nation as a representative of that place. Lacking the Gaelic for the occasion, I prayed in a Scottish accent. Many wept at the beauty of my words and thousands got saved. Ok, so I made that bit up, but it was good anyway.
The reception was unlike any I've ever been to. As well as the expected speeches, Heidi and Brian took time to individually honour each of their bridesmaids, groomsmen and parents. If you're not familiar with "honouring" just think of it as the opposite of a Scottish wedding. They said really nice things about each of the people I mentioned, and they meant it. (Compared with us saying nasty things and not meaning it.)
All in all, a great day was had by all. My battery's about to die so I'll sign off now.
The wedding was really cool. I had a great time. It was outdoors in an apple orchard. They had a grassy area set up with two sets of chairs and the obligatory aisle down the middle. At the end was a nice canopy/gazeebo kind of set up with flowers and what not. The whole area was surrounded on three sides by trees on the left, right and just beyond the aforementioned canopy thingy in front of us. They also had some leaves and other autumnal things strewn on the ground for the bridal party to walk on as they entered.
The most noteworthy thing in the ceremony itself was the prayers of the nations. I'm not just saying that because I was part of it. I thought it was a really cool idea. They basically called up lots of people of varying nationalities and language skills to bless them in their own tongue and to welcome them to their nation as a representative of that place. Lacking the Gaelic for the occasion, I prayed in a Scottish accent. Many wept at the beauty of my words and thousands got saved. Ok, so I made that bit up, but it was good anyway.
The reception was unlike any I've ever been to. As well as the expected speeches, Heidi and Brian took time to individually honour each of their bridesmaids, groomsmen and parents. If you're not familiar with "honouring" just think of it as the opposite of a Scottish wedding. They said really nice things about each of the people I mentioned, and they meant it. (Compared with us saying nasty things and not meaning it.)
All in all, a great day was had by all. My battery's about to die so I'll sign off now.
A house in the country
Although I've lived in the city (or town) all my life, I still feel like I'm a country boy trapped inside an city boy's body. Is that bizarre? Probably. One of the places I got to stay on my travels was in the blip of the Ontario map known as Baden. My friends Chris and Lorri stay there and it also happens to be really close to Stratford, where the wedding was.
Chris and Lorri's house is in a new area where some of the houses on the street are still wooden frames and one is still a big muddy bit of ground. Theirs hadn't even had the driveway paved yet. The coolest thing by far, though, was the view behind their house. The back garden was freshly laid turf (covering all manner of building refuse I wouldn't wonder) with a fence at the end. Beyond the fence was a rather large corn field. Yes, corn. I looked at it up close and I could see them on the cob, on the plant. Weird. So that's where that stuff comes from. I kept expecting Mel Gibson to burst out and annouce "you won't get famous doing this". From the upstairs window, I could see across the field to the rest of the farmland. It's nice to get out of the city.
Chris and Lorri's house is in a new area where some of the houses on the street are still wooden frames and one is still a big muddy bit of ground. Theirs hadn't even had the driveway paved yet. The coolest thing by far, though, was the view behind their house. The back garden was freshly laid turf (covering all manner of building refuse I wouldn't wonder) with a fence at the end. Beyond the fence was a rather large corn field. Yes, corn. I looked at it up close and I could see them on the cob, on the plant. Weird. So that's where that stuff comes from. I kept expecting Mel Gibson to burst out and annouce "you won't get famous doing this". From the upstairs window, I could see across the field to the rest of the farmland. It's nice to get out of the city.
Eating in my favourite places in Toronto
It's funny the things you miss about a place. Most people who have spent significant time at TACF could be excused for listing things like "the presence of God" and "the Father's love" as things they miss when they leave. Well, I missed all day breakfasts and quirky Japanese food. I suppose we're all different.
Within my first day or so back in Toronto, I had eaten at a number of my favourite establishments. First of all, I had a Beef Teriyaki at the infamous Woodbine Mall, near TACF. Later on, I managed to make it to Perkins, where they do all day breakfast, 24 hours a day. What a deal! I always think of breakfast food as very special. It's kind of like my equivalent to caviar or lobster. What is the reason for this accolade? Well, basically, places like McDonalds stop serving it at 10 or 11 so I'm never there in time to buy it.
Within my first day or so back in Toronto, I had eaten at a number of my favourite establishments. First of all, I had a Beef Teriyaki at the infamous Woodbine Mall, near TACF. Later on, I managed to make it to Perkins, where they do all day breakfast, 24 hours a day. What a deal! I always think of breakfast food as very special. It's kind of like my equivalent to caviar or lobster. What is the reason for this accolade? Well, basically, places like McDonalds stop serving it at 10 or 11 so I'm never there in time to buy it.
Sailing on Lake Ontario
The day after arriving in Toronto, my roommate-for-a-few-days, Maciek, offered to take me out sailing on Lake Ontario. Although it was September, it didn't take me too long to agree. It was pretty good fun. I liked the fact that all of the odd looking wee bits and pieces on the boat actually served some function or other. It was also pretty cool to all of a sudden be very interested in the direction of the wind, relative to where you want to go. Too often these days we take for granted that we have motors and engines to take us wherever we want to go regardless of the environmental conditions.
We sailed out of Port Credit and headed towards Toronto. Although it was quite far away, the CN Tower still dominated the skyline from our position. We headed towards it for a while. I took a turn of steering (or should that be "navigating" or "piloting"?) and it was a strange feeling. Whenever I turned the tiller one way, there was a short delay as the new angle of the rudder caused the water to deflect off it. I would then realise that I turned it quite far so I would compensate in the opposite direction. For a while the boat was wiggling from side to side as I tried to keep the CN Tower in line with the bow. As time went by, I tried a form of "prophetic steering" where I turned it a bit and then guessed how far I had oversteered before the boat actually turned. Either that or I made smaller adjustments, I don't know which.On the way back, it was more tricky. This was because the wind had been at our back on the way out and now we had to sail into the wind. "How do you sail into the wind?" I hear you ask. Fear not, I shall explain. It seems that a sailing boat can still use the wind by pointing diagonally past it. In other words, if you were facing into the wind, you could turn say 45 degrees to the left or the right and the wind would propell you in the direction you're facing. How exactly does that work? Well I think the wind kind of pushes past the boat, causing it to move in the direction that has least resistance in the water, which would be the direction it's facing. Also, I suppose you can turn the sail a bit. I don't actually know what I'm talking about. I'm just guessing.
In order to get back to where we started, we had to adopt this 45 degree angle to the wind that I was just talking about. The only problem with that was that we really wanted to go into the wind, rather than off at some angle to a different destination altogether. For that reason we had to do some tacking. This is simply a technique where you travel to the left of the wind for a while and then turn 90 degrees to travel right of the wind for the same distance again. You then keep repeating this until you get to your destination. Think of the direction you want to go as a straight line up and down the way, and the actual path as a zig-zag line that veers off to one side and then turns back across but gets to the end eventually. Ok, that was a rubbish comparison. I basically repeated what I just said. Undaunted, I carry on...
Sailing into the wind is a bit slower than having it behind you, as one might expect. For this reason, we changed the front sail to a bigger one to help speed things up. This was pretty good fun. I had to go to the bow (front for you landlubbers) of the ship and lower the front sail, unclip it and gather it into a big bag. I then had to repeat the process in reverse to attach the larger sail. It was great fun. All that bouncing up and down made me slightly sea-sick but it was good to feel alive again.
The return trip was much bouncier and the boat tended to lean to one side quite impressively. Maciek assured me that it would be impossible for the boat not to right itself in the event of an extreme "leaning" (?) situation. The reason for this is that the keel is very heavy compared to the weight above the water. Basically, that means if it capsizes it'll right itself. Thankfully no capsizing occured, although a jaunty angle was entertaining in its own way.
Blog catch-up
Ok, so I'm about to splurge lots of stories onto my blog as fast as possible. I don't want to do them as one big super-post, though, because then it's harder to find them in the future. I will post them as separate posts, starting with the topics I promised in my most recent post.
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