ABSOLUTELY Loving It!

I had to write something tonight, even though it will in no way capture the feelings that cocooned my psyche this evening in a tenderly woven, sensationally evocative, baby blanket. It may have happened because of a simple act of surrender, or perhaps it was a unyielding embrace from a Father who understood the depths of my need this night. I surrendered to my family and went to a beach for a cool off swim, and was lifted up from this earth in a sublime warmth of spirit for which words fail me. As I slowly swam on my back away from a far distant shore lit by the last fragrant fires of this day's death every movement, sound and color was like a harmony of living caresses. I've tried before to manufacture such a moment, but those were pale corpses gnawing on my desires compared with this rapture. The slightest movement of my hands beneath the surface bent those reflections into crystal beauty, resurrected in true form to lightly flow away from my open hands. Even the sound of the buoy chain beneath the water blending with my own rhythmic breaths became the refrain of a much larger melody my body felt dripping from the fingers of my spirit. I was captured by the perfection of the water's reflection of my movements within its womb, the waves of force it expressed as it allowed me to propel myself through its form.
These words grasp so weakly, but the source of this great peace knows His breath upon my weary, dry soul.























Thank you.........Dad

Not Again!!!

This is a little too strange, and already tragic. There are memories of 2003 and the fires that destroyed over 200 homes in the Lakeshore area of Kelowna.

(Pics from 2003)
This time it is going on in the Glenrosa area south of Westbank, on the other side of the lake from Kelowna. We are listening to the local AM station online and there is so much going on already. Today was a very sunny, hot day and there were high winds in the evening which have whipped the fires very dramatically. There are currently two fires burning, one in the Glenrosa area and one west of the Fintry area north of Kelowna on the west side of the lake. There are over 10,000 residents evacuated from the Glenrosa area already this evening.
We are also weirded out by this on another level because it was after the fires in 2003 that we left for China the first time, now we are preparing to leave again, and it is happening all over again. A friend of ours actually had a dream last year that there was a huge fire right where this one is happening.
Like our 8 year old son said, with no trace of accusation,"What is God up to dad?"

LOL

I had to laugh when I came across this. It was roundabout as most surfing is, and this ride started with a search for a story about the Neverland Ranch replica being built in Shanghai for the Expo there in 2010. When I went to the Shanghai Daily online paper I stumbled upon this section in the sidebar where they highlight a certain block of the city and give links to businesses. When I hovered over the links I noticed this one for the Big Bamboo on 南阳路 (Nanyang Road). This was the bar where the other Canadian guys I worked with would hang out. I went there with them once and ended up talking to an American gal who was oozing American attitude, although it was obviously to make up for being so out of her element.
Just a bit of a laugh for me this morning.

How Great Thou Art

This has been a very interesting season for us, with lots of work and lots of waiting. It has been a season of many hopes being fulfilled and many hopes walking the wires of public opinion. If you look over at my wife's blog you'll see some of the fallout of this season that we have both had to deal with. On this post I will try to synthesize the other half of what we have been going through, the half that involves the family that lives outside our personal four walls.
The gathering of saints (I humbly refrain from calling this a church) that we have been traveling with for the the last decade and a half has found itself in yet another crisis and there is no end of meetings and media being spun from it all. We have been a part of some of these, both small and large. We have mostly been listening for the words that we long to hear, we yearn for the waking of the dream we have dreamed. We yearn now, with hearts that are turning to the east (actually that would be a European perspective as it is actually 6500 miles to the west). We yearn, knowing we are leaving. We yearn with the hope of Christ.
I know this all sounds a little too ethereal, but truly, as we look inside, there is a deep love for the people that the Father has joined us too. There is not just a history, there is a shared DNA and a common lineage. This is where the hopes find their roots. Not to say that I am more mature than any of the people, because I actually feel that the opposite is closer to the truth, but there is a sense in which we look with hope as we do towards our kids. We hope and dream for them, and we pray to the Father to see them through. We see so much potential, and in the Father we hope. Personally I see these people as so much more than myself and actually see a lack within myself when I watch them. I know it would be so much easier to just pass judgment on them and go my way, but I could no more do this to them than to my own family.
This is a time where the Father is calling them to so much more than they have ever imagined for themselves, and yet there is so much fear to overcome. I do believe that there will be an overcoming, but not because of the people, rather because of the greatness of our God who loves us enough to continue this work He has begun. This is where the substance of my prayers lies, in the purpose of God, and His eternal desire revealed to us in an ever increasing measure. When I step out on this ground there are seas that part, dead that rise, angelic armies unveiled, and simple gatherings of saints that overcome.
The only sadness is not actually being there for the working out of these purposes.