Long Time No Read

As some may know I have not blogged in a really long time. I have been back in Lincoln for a few monthes now and I already feal the semester winding down and the work load picking up. This post may not have a point to it other than ranting. I am taking six classes, plus upgrading my English mark so it will transfer, and taking an orientation class that counts for no credit that has some homework and is needed to go on your internship. I am taking Theology of Ministry, a histiry class (IDS), Life of Christ 1, Hibrew History and Literature 2, and Advanced Greek. I have just sent off another draft for English. I have a research paper on John Calvin, a research paper for theology of ministry, and an exegesis paper on Philippians 2:1-11 that needs to be done soon. I also have assignments due every Wednesday for my Orientation class. That ends this week though. That is good. Not to mention the translations that are due three days a week for Greek class. I really just want to lay down, watch sports, and eat some tasty food. It feels good to complain sometimes. I am sorry that you have to read about. Wait, I never told you to read this! That's your fault form reading my rant. HA!
On a brighter note I am looking into doing my internship with the sports minister at Eastview Christian Church in Normal, Illinois. He seems like a pretty good guy. I have met with him and it sounds like a good fit. We haven't really got out much this semester with the business that the school and work load have brought. I did get free tickets to a St. Louis cardinals baseball game. they played the Phillies and lost 13-11 I think. The Cards were down 11-0 and came back to tie it. Very exciting. Trevor was down for intensive week and the three of us got the chance to go to a Casting Crowns concert. It was a blast. I would say it was the best concert I have ever been to. I truly felt that God was worshipped throught that concert.
We are planning on coming home for Christmas. We look forward to seeing everybody. There are things that remind me of the gang from MCC a lot here in Lincoln. Every Sunday when the worship teams play sonds that were sung at youth conferences or at youth group I think of Ben. I see people walking around with their laptop open I think of darrell. I miss Dan when I am listening to a Habs game on nhl.com. I see one way signs and think of Joel. I often remember sitting in my extremely messy room talking James. And Derick when I see anything small and hairy. There are a lot of teachers I think you guys would like down here. I want to ask a few if they would be willing to come up a do an intensive week sometime. I really miss sitting in the McGonnel's living room or Tim's talking about anything from the workings of the Spirit in peoples lives to farts and poop.
I guess when life is hectic and all I think I am thinking about is school work you guys are on my mind and help give motivation. That you guys! Hope to see you soon!

Hard Sides of Ministry

Since I have started working here at Douglas Avenue I have faced situations that I have never been in before. People are constantly coming in and asking for financial help. My first week I had two people come in. This week already I have had a guy call me for money to pay for his perscriptions and yesturday a girl came right into the church and said she just wanted to sit down. She looked like a normal university student but it was a strange situation. I am not used to being asked for money every day and strange people coming in. It makes me nervous everytime the phone rings and the door opens. Will I have to tell someone else that we are out of money because everybody seems to come here when they need something? I am disappointed in myself for being nervous when the phone rings and the door opens. I should look forward to finding the needs and having an oportunity to share the love of God that was shared with me. I am so uncomfortable in these situations. There has to be a way to help them. It feels like I am constantly telling people that we have no money or that we cannot help them. I call elders and give the people that come in other places to go and phone numbers to call but it is not enough. They feel snubbed again. What do I do? Sara keeps telling me that I cannot fix everything and she is right but can I at least show them something or someone who can? After a phone call or a visitor I am emotionally drained. I don't know how ministers can be out there and deal with this day in and day out year after year. It hurts my soul to see the needs I cannot fix.

Wha-What G-God Did For Me T-Today

Things are moving along here at Douglas Avenue. I am writing my first sermon for the congregation. I was quite nervous coming into the church this morning. I was asked to read chapters 42 and 43 of Psalms right before the service started yesterday. I near crapped myself because I am very conscience of reading out loud. So I attempted to take a few minutes to read out loud before the service because I like to practice before I read in public. Many a teacher was not happy with me because of my lack of cooperation with reading out loud. So, I went up to read and messed up the first two lines and sighed loudly into the microphone out of frustration. Sara said the sigh lasted longer then I thought it did. I then calmed down after another classic Randy moment and read the rest of the text fine. A lady came up to me after the service and said , "You stuttered while you read today. I'm sure you'll do better." Not bad, only one person died at Douglas Avenue my first week. I am kidding. I was rather nervous about writing my sermon and reading out loud next week.

God has a way of relaxing me. In a previous post, Nouwen Then, a while ago I mentioned my favorite writer Henri Nouwen. The community of handicapped people that he went to live with was called L'Arche Daybreak. There are many L'Arche communities around the world. The name of the one in Toronto is called Daybreak. Well, I found out that there is one here in Saint John and the organizer from the community came to the church today to visit me and welcome me for a visit whenever I had time. I was very excited. I then received a phone call from Dan about when I would speak at his camp in Deer Island and got very excited about the topic and the text I was asked to speak on. I went back into the office here at the church and felt like God was looking right at me. My prayer life has been a stinker lately and God and I reacquainted ourselves and just talked about whatever. I walked him through what I am thinking about my sermons and ideas I have. He will let me know what he thinks later I'm sure. It was during our conversation that I realized that I am not preaching here to look good in front of the congregation or preach/read to make them happy. Through my words and through my reading I am to please God and make him happy. If I am true to the Scriptures and preach the truth in love then the Spirit will either not make me stutter or better yet show me stuttering is irrelevant.

Thank you Spirit for dealing with the critics and helping me be excited rather then nervous to speak your name .

Home

Well, I have recently taken advantage of an extended stay in PEI. It was quite refreshing, not just to be around familiar Canadian faces, but to see the people I have been longing to see for monthes. We were over the for a week and it still felt like it was not long enough. I was totally freakin' pooped when we got back though. I have started my job here at Douglas Avenue Christian Church and I feel like things are going well. I was not aware of the interesting things I would find in the building of the 114 year old congregation. It was of great benefit for me to have gone to the island before I started here. Seeing some of the people that I love and served with makes the fire much easier to burn inside. I had not done very much in the line of ministry while in Lincoln. Playing ballhockey and talking church with genuine, God fearing Christians is what I missed the most about being home in the Maritimes. Oh, and talking about hockey with people who care and know what they are talking about (that does not included Ottawa fans).

My first day here at the Church helped me remember how you always know everyone in the Maritimes one way or another. A lady came to the church and said that she is close friends with one of my aunts. The maintenance guy used to be a rink rat at the Lord Beaverbrook rink when my grandfather ran it. The strangest one was when the secretary called a travel agent to assist a prospective minister in traveling to Saint John and it happened to be my sister in law. That just doesn't happen in the States.

When I started blogging I wasn't sure where this was going to go. I have had the opportunity to see most of my friends with a few exceptions. I will be seeing you soon I hope. I guess what they say is true. Once a Maritimer always a Maritimer.

Nouwen Then

As most of the people that read this blog know I am not a big fan of reading. Unless it is Sports Illustrated and I am on the can. For a class here at Lincoln last semester I had to read a book called In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen. I don't know if anyone reading this has had to read a book of Nouwen's for class or if they read it for pleasure but I recommend that you do. He has written over forty books and is who I credit for making reading interesting for the first time. I have had the motivation to write this because I had to read a biography on someone and I chose him. I read the previously mentioned book and thuroughly enjoyed it. It is a thin quick read (one that you can also do on the can). I will not tell you what is in the book but here is a tease. He is a priest and has taught at the University of Notre Dame, Yale Divinity School, and Harvard Divinity School. He stopped teaching to live at a handicapped community in Toronto called Daybreak. The book talks about his time there. For his biography I read a book called The Road to Daybreak.This tellss of what things happened leading up to the change in ministry. These are a compiling of his daily journals of the the year leading up to the change. I would read this after In the Name of Jesus. You can read the second book devotionally or even as a devotion because they are marked day by day and into chapters. In the Name of Jesus was the best book I had read until The Road to Daybreak. I highly suggest you read one of these books or anything else by Henri Nouwen.

Moments to Remember

Well, a lot has happened since the last time I blogged. Blogger itself changed on me. It took me over an hour to figure out what I was supposed to do in onder to blog again. For the first time since I can remember I got a new hair cut. If you would like to see the hair cut I will be home at the end of May. I cannot find the picture we took specifically to put on the blog. As read on Sara's blog we went to Florida on spring break. We went to Universal Studios, Disney World, and Cocoa Beach. But, maybe the most important thing of all, I saw my first NHL hockey game. It was between the St. Lois Blues and the Montreal Canadiens. WOOT! It was a great game. We bought tickets for upper bowl but no one was sitting down by the glass so we sat there for the first five minutes of the first period. I was there just long enough to see Saku Koivu up close, a monster check right on the glass we were sitting behind, and the first Montreal Canadiens goal. We sat right behind the net of the Blues net we the Habs scored the first one. I was sitting beside the goal judge who had a wicked drop mustache I may add. After that we were shewed to the upper bowl where Montreal blew a significant lead with about two and a half minutes left in the third. With a minute and fifteen seconds left Montreal scored and I was instantly hated by everyone in the closest five sections (Reminder: We were in St. Louis). It was wonderful. Canadiens fans greating one another as we left the building over the great win. I was only booed one by a drunk Blues fan. All in all it was a good time. Going to school in the USA now worth it.

Well I originally started this blog a couple of days ago and have since then found something else blog worthy. I went with our friends Josh and Missy to the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. It truly was a big event because the staff at the theatres had to wear turtle shells for their shift. It was a pretty good movie but it did not compare to the classic first two movies. I still support the best crime fighting team in the world though. GOOOO NINJA!

Hockey Day in the USA

I have started my secong semester here in Lincoln and as a present NBC decided to show nine hockey games from now to the end of the regular season. Along with a random journalist Ray Ferraro and Brett hull are anchoring the telacast. The game that I got to watch was the Pittsburgh penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers. The game ended with the Penguins winning 5-3. However, the entertaining aspect of the game was not the actual hockey but the commentayors and the network were. First of all Jen (Lohnes) and I never realized how often we look and see how much time is left until the words "Storm Watch" were put on the screen over the time remaining. The next thing I noticed was the shift clock. What is that you say? Under the the teams name on the boarder at the top of the screen a box dropped down everytime Sidney Crosby and Peter Forsberg stepped on the ice. It kept track of how long the star player was on the ice so the people watching would know to look for them. While being shocked at how different that was I hear the two commentators discussing what just happened. I did not know what happened that got them talking. I find out that it was a line change. One of the commentators asked, "How do they know to change?" My pants got five pounds heavier after hearing that. The last thing that I noticed was where the interviews were held during intermission. They walked right out onto the ice as they were going in and had an interview there. Also, the reporter, during the game, went onto the Penguins bench and was interviewing Therrien. That is against the law! Man, Americans sure know how to frig up hockey. Sheesh!