January & Music

A catch-up blog is long overdue. I have become a bad blogger, and I don't know if any of you even read this anymore, due to my long absences. The month of January started with a great dance party and ended with a trip to Breakforth in Edmonton.

Which was an odd experience. I loved getting to hear Shane Claiborne speak, I went to all three of his sessions and I was encouraged and challenged! The rest of the weekend was just odd. I'm not sure what I think of the glossy mega-conference, with celebrity speakers and worship leaders. That's the short version. I wrote pages about it in my journal and I've had many discussions, in short I don't think it's something I would go to again.

I did enjoy a concert with NewWorldSon! If you get the chance to see them live, GO! They aren't my favourite anything, but seeing them live, what a show! I danced and jumped my heart out alongside the Wiebe boys for the whole set, what a blast!

This past weekend Scott, Barry, Andrew and I hosted The Gallery, a coffeehouse venue for local art and music that we love. This was our second go at it, and it was incredible! I got to showcase my photos, which was really fun. And the evening started with my sister's first gig with her own tunes, included the local act This Conviction and Chanda Cooper with some of her musical friends. What a great night! I love good music!

This Conviction

Chanda Cooper (w/ Bob Cooper on the kit, and Daxid Stobie all blurry on the djembe)

Martin Johann Kloppers (playing w/ Chanda)

New Years

So this was New Years, in many many pictures. Let's just say it was a total blast, and very very cold outside! So that is my justification. Thank you Kayte and Nyla for such a good shindig!

We're time confused.

Kayte edited these, hence her calling me cool.

We may have found Nyla's old dresses, wedding, bridesmaid and grad! It was snazzy, and required dancing and posing! Here's a classic bridal magazine shot, plus a shower curtain.

And I guess I should explain, the pictures you are about to see are intended to be a sequence. This is the birth of my adult child.





Oh my baby, she's so beautiful! I'm so proud!

Remember, it was cold. Happy New Year!

Three Hills

I unexpectedly spent the weekend in the little town of Three Hills. A sudden opportunity came up and I traveled down with our Sr. High Youth leaders for a Youth Worker conference. I'm really glad we went, I think God really spoke to a couple of my co-workers, and that's an awesome thing.
The most encouraging thing for me, was hearing long term, "successful" youth pastors and profs, share about their absolute failures! Strange, right? It just really lifted a sense of guilt and inadequacy from my shoulders. It also normalized my experiences and struggles this Fall. And I have some new resources. It was time and cashola, well spent.
And I got to see Mia. It's been a year and a half, and we've never actually seen each other on Canadian soil, even though we live in the same province. It was very good to see her, it was a sort of debrief and catch up. And also a new light to see each other in, normal life, not life on steroids as our other experiences could be likened to. It was too short, but I am glad for the visit. Thanx for the tea Mia!

the D tour

Last weekend I made a province-wide road-trip with stops in Edmonton, Calgary, Okotoks, Longview, Kananaskis, Canmore, Banff, and Jasper. I also managed to see Ben and Lisa, Jessica and Jordan, my Nana, Kayte, Dakota, Sarah and Heather. I slept in my car one night. And took in Canmore's annual free Pancake Breakfast. Pretty good for a trip taken alone!
Now I didn't use my camera on the first half of the trip, but from the time I saw D, to the time I got home, I took a couple hundred shots. Stopping at every great view, all the way through the Rockies!
You'll have to forgive the little blur spot on most of the pictures, my lens needs looked at, and the pics need retouched. I have yet to do either.

"Friends"

I just discovered a function on Facebook that is utterly fascinating. And I quote:

You can select up to 30 friends that you prefer not to see in your News Feed. You will only get stories about these people if nothing else is available.

Ah yes, Facebook has once again really captured the spirit of true friendship! It's a good way to take care of those pesky "friends" and make your life easier. Who wants to read News Feeds about these people anyway? Well, maybe, if there's nothing else to snoop on, then I'll want to catch up on the gossip of the lowly.

Tag

My dear friend Jen tagged me in I dunno-what-kinda tag. And I'm not really sure why I have the impulse to take on the torch being "it", but I am being "it". Therefore I will now quote to you the 5th, 6th and 7th sentences of Page 123, of the nearest book, which happens to be "Help: My Kids Are Hurting." I should reiterate that I'm currently a youth pastor, which makes the book choice seem a little less, from left field. Question: where is the number 4?

In a 1993 survey conducted by the YWCA of Indianapolis at the Indiana Juvenile Correctional Facility -

• 141 of 150 female offenders had experienced at least one painful loss prior to incarceration.
• a 2003 update of the survey found the 99% of those surveyed had experienced multiple losses prior to incarceration.

And those are the facts about grief and loss I guess! So I've played my part, and now I tag Chantal, Mia, and Lindsey. If you're reading - you're "it"!

Soul Restoration by Moonlight

As my whole family found it prudent to be elsewhere this Family Day, I took advantage of the day off with some dear friends. And filled a deep need in my soul for nature, not quite the Rockies, but a bit of beautiful medicine, in Tumbler Ridge.

It being several hours drive away, and us starting mid-afternoon, (due a certain game of Settlers lasting till the middle of the night before), we started our outdoor pursuits at a rather late hour. And you will see, as we traversed this bit of Woods, the sun slipped away into night, the pinks hid behind the hills and the moon rose higher.


I had the good fortune of traveling and trekking with the lovely young-Jones family, which meant that we had great conversation, good travel tunes, and lots of hilarious fake-sneezing, on Lilah's part.



Before we ended our journey back at it's beginning, we paused to overlook the expanse, dark but for the moon, and quiet but for distant highways. We felt mighty from our vantage point and then we closed our mouths, as the truly Mighty roared suddenly through the trees.

By the night light of the moon,
You wrapped Your arms around me,
Told me I was safe here,
And told me that You loved me.

In silent words You spoke it,
To a feeble body such as mine,
Your gentle, tangled forces blow,
By the moon, hung in Your sky.

The End

It's all coming to an end. Sunday night marks my last shift at Glory Reborn, and the next morning I'll be heading to the nearby island of Negros ("knee-gross", not "knee-grows"), for 5 days of relaxation and sightseeing. Next Saturday I fly to Manila, and say goodbye to all my friends there. Four days later I hop another plane to cross that big, big ocean and make my way back to the cold of GP.
I'm ridiculously excited about home, albeit frigid, and a couch in my folks basement! But leaving is never easy, especially for an emotional wreck like myself. Here in Cebu I have had the privilege of working with more than a dozen fabulous Filipina nurses and midis, then there's the ever-so-helpful guards, the gym-folks, and Church friends. My Can-American friends Jen and Andrey have been God's great blessing to me! And I will seriously miss the cooking and eating of mouth-watering homemade meals, enjoyed with great conversation, local beer and The Office!

Sonja, Pedro and I

Welcome to Fort San Pedro!
This is my friend Sonja, we were roomies way back in Malaysia.

And we're hanging out again in the Phils!

If I wasn't wearing the sunnies, you'd see that my eyes were squinted shut. Apparently somethings you never outgrow!
Look at us and our monkey friend! This isn't the first time we've tangoed with monkeys together!
So Sonja is on her way to Bacolod City for 2 years with YWAM! I'm totally impressed with her commitment, and her monkey taming skills.

Hmmm...

This is the only green and pretty place I've found in Cebu!

Apparently in German this means, San Pedro's Fart. I'm guessing the Spanish didn't know that.

Tired

Tired midis crash on my living room floor!

Because I Have To

I've been telling myself I would blog when I could post some pics from last weeks Clinic Anniversary party. But I feel like it's been too long since I last said anything. And how lame is this, I'm blogging about blogging because I feel like I have to blog.
Well today was my very last Cebuano class. From this point on I'm winging it, and not giving too much time into learning more and more. I've reached a level of fluency at the clinic (read very, very not fluent!), that I feel proud of, considering I've only been speaking the language 3 months. And I hope I get better just by being here and using the language and asking questions. But I have decided that my weekly time of studying grammar and sentence composition is done! And that's a little relieving. I enjoy gaining the language, but man, the whole language learning thing is tough!
I got a very exciting email today, my friend Sonya, who visited me in Manila this spring, is coming back to the Phils in 2 weeks. And lucky me, we'll get to have a couple days to re-catch up, and do some touristy things. I'm excited to see her, maybe we'll even have a couple small adventures!
I'm hoping that tomorrow I can post a few pics from last weeks party. So, be on the alert!
For now, goodbye.

Fiesta(s)

Well this has officially been the longest photo uploading ever! Thanx to dinosaur computers and 3rd world dial-up! But finally, my last two pics for today are up and ready to post!

I celebrated my birthday on Wednesday with two midwives from the clinic Lyn (middle) and Tess (my roomie). We went out for dessert and all got too full!

I also got to celebrate it last Saturday with my local Western friends, which not surprisingly, also included dessert!

Look closely at this one, and you will see the crowds of people on both side of our taxi, and the tricy directly infront of us! For the last week our street has been celebrating a Fiesta, which involves plays, bands, kareoke, historical songs, and Mass. At all hours, at the loudest volumes! That means that just trying to get through the street is like the parting of the Red Sea, minus God being the one to do the work! It felt a bit like being famous though (and I mean more than day to day life usually does), what with people pressed against the car on all sides and peering in. I'm kinda hoping the Fiesta ends sometime soon!

Christmas in July

Around the clinic we have been joking a lot of about Christmas in July as many of us sport some fashionable Holiday themed scrubs. Well I experienced a little Christmas in July on Friday; my birthday came early!
I had received the little slips from the post office that tell you you have a parcel, and I was excited that I was finally getting a package I've been waiting for these last 5 months. I arrived at the post office (escorted by the same dear guard who did my visa run), and found to my delight that I actually had 3 packages waiting for me. And to my surprise, NONE of them were the one I'm waiting for!
So I sat in the back of a taxi and opened each of my parcels and smiled and teared up and laughed and then had to explain to me driver what all the drama was about! It is great to feel loved, and that's what those parcels did! Thanx to my dear Family for sending love and pics, gum and books!

Cebuano It Is

Today I began official Cebuano lessons. I've signed up for tutoring with a new friend Jen who is just starting to study midwifery here at Glory Reborn. While I've been picking up a lot from the girls at the clinic I really want to vamp up my efforts, and after todays session I guess we're full speed ahead!
Seriously I don't even know what a "predicate" is in English, they don't teach you that kind of stuff in school! So wish me luck as I test out my new sentence building skills.
Daghang Salamat!

Ironic Dolphins

A dolphin comes dancing around the food court, and the little children at our table are captivated by this lovable plush bank mascot. Cause what represents a bank better than a teal, plush dolphin??
Well, amidst the delight of a 2 year old, and the ensuing pictures, we weren't paying enough attention to our surroundings and a man slipped behind my chair and nabbed my wallet from the purse hung over the side. Right in broad daylight, people all around, me in the chair. And once I realized it was gone we even knew exactly who had taken it! But by then it was too late, dolphin gone, man gone, disappeared into the other 18million people in town. Lame, eh?
Ultimately he only got maybe 1000p ($20-25), my cards and ID, and a really great wallet! And neither myself or my friends were harmed in any way. And maybe the guy needed those 1000p a lot more than me. What I find ironic is that I traverse this city daily, alone, up and down, and I'm regularly in the "bad" neighbourhoods, but it was in a classy, shiny mall with a group of friends. That's when it happened. Ironic!
So the moral of the story is, when a bank-endorsing dolphin comes dancing past you, grab your valuables and don't trust the guy with the kid who looks like he's looking at the dolphin. (Clever plan though!)

Latest Fun

As some of you will remember I received a package a month or two back including mini eggs, that arrived in slightly less than prime condition. I was actually surprised they didn't melt, my mother wasn't. Well she tried again, and this time not only did they go through the blender, but the summer sun apparently had an effect!

Just to assure anyone who worries that if they sent me something and it melted I wouldn't use it. I did, I mean, I would!

I went on a date this week! It was pretty great, dinner at the Pancake House, Spiderman 3 and a sleepover. I had the privilege of two sweet companions, Dorothy and Diane, daughters of my Ate Doris. It was great fun taking them to their first ever theatre movie!

Caving!!

CAVING PHOTOS ARE HERE! Okay, so this is just a start, and when I get a chance I'll touch them up make them a bit prettier, but alas I have no such software myself. So take a look at the raw, untouched versions...
Notice here just how small this little passage way is - be proud of me!

I think this formation is supposed to be an animal's jaw, ROAR! And I think Jen is more cold and less scared.

And if you squint you will see, we are swimming in a murky, cold water hole somewhere down in the center of the earth! I avoided the menacing center of the pool, preferring where I could touch!

And here we are in front of our cute little Traveller's Inn - home for a night.

the Cordilleras, cont'd

So, in no particular order I give you more pictures of my expedition, and a promise that the caving pictures really will come! I just have to find the man with the camera!

A woman works hard under the hot sun.

Translucent butterfly.

The amphitheater of terraces in Batad.

Collecting his crop.

The path is narrow.

Francis, myself and Jen following a good, sweaty hike. Notice none of us want to get too close to each other!

Layers of majestic mountains, bringing to mind the praises of our God!
To see the rest of the album, click HERE.