Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Student of The Month

Late last week, our oldest son brought home what looked like a school newsletter. Our lives are pretty busy, so a school newsletter isn't always the first thing that we read.  Yesterday, he casually asked if we had a chance to look at it.  He waved it around and then left it on the table.  After he left we picked it up and noticed that he had been named 'Student of The Month'.

Here's the copy of the article:
This months Student of the Month is Zack Schindel.  Zack gets the award this month because he gets up early every morning to make breakfast for everyone in his house.  After that he runs to school to help his teachers prepare for their day.  After his classwork done, he helps the other members complete theirs.  Rather than spending his free time with his friends at lunch, Zack picks up trash and litter on the school property.  After classes are done for the day he runs to the nearby seniors home where he reads to the residents until dinner time.  He has straight A's and perfect GPA.  Congrats on being an excellent example to all of us Zack!

His 'newsletter' was really a computer science project.  It should also qualify for creative writing...

  Zack, we are very proud of you even if you don't do any of the things that earned you 'Student of the Month'.  Thanks for making us laugh!!

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

In The News....

See the latest article on LIM in the BC Christian News by clicking here.

Marking Our Progress

The Legislature recessed last Thursday and you could almost hear the sighs of relief from members and staff alike as everyone headed for home.  In the last calendar year, we had an election, two budgets, two throne speeches and 3 sessions.  If my count is correct, there were almost 80 sitting days in the Spring session.  That's about 2 weeks longer than usual and doesn't take into account the extended summer and fall sessions.  Small wonder the general consensus over the past few weeks was 'is it time to go home yet?'  

I always marvel at the sacrifices members and their families make to serve our province.  For all of the 'talk radio' rants about soft hours and public troughs, I've yet to meet a single person who serves in this capacity who is there only for themselves.  Politics aside, these are good people who give themselves selflessly to represent their ridings and constituents. 

God has helped us be a source of encouragement and blessing to the members during this past session..  I wrote about our Annual MLA Prayer Breakfast in my last email.  This was our biggest and best breakfast by far and is a strong indicator of the progress we have made.  While not nearly as 'big' as the breakfast, we've been able to develop some significant 'behind the scenes' ministries that have been very appreciated and fruitful.  Most significantly, we've launched a weekly prayer and ministry time.  It's been exciting to meet and pray with members in a context away from the Legislature in a place that has become their sanctuary.  The prayer times have often resulted in more ministry opportunities at the Legislature too.   God continues to open some significant doors of ministry to us and we are very grateful.

There's something new happening for us too.  Because of the length of the last session, I've been able to establish intentional relationships with staff who work at the Legislature in a number of roles.  This comes as a direct result of God's favour.  This is a natural outflow of ongoing ministry in the buildings and it's exciting to see what God is doing with it. 

It's important for me to say thank you to those who pray for us and partner with us financially.  We are only here because you stand with us on both fronts.  Thanks for everything that you do for us!

Monday, June 07, 2010

You Should Stop Praying!!

Every so often you get to experience something new and fresh.  Last week was one of those moments for me.  I opened an email from someone telling me that if I couldn't do any better than this, I should stop praying and do something else.  As you can imagine, I was a bit puzzled about how my prayers could have failed so miserably.  As I read a little further, I discovered that the writer had determined if I had been more effective in my prayers, BC would have been spared the HST. 

After 27 years of ministry, I've learned that there are a lot of things that pastors can be blamed for.  The music is too loud, too soft, too long, too short, too old, too new.  The sermon is too long, too short, too deep, too light... the heat is .... well you get the general idea...  I may be the first pastor in history to be blamed for a major shift in taxation policy. 

Last week, I went out for dinner with several MLA's.  They were delighted to hear that I was the one to blame for the HST.  One remarked 'had we only known, we would have said something during Question Period!'  On more than a few days through the last session, the government would have appreciated being able to point to someone else.   I can see it now.... 'Mr. Speaker, we implemented the HST because Tim's prayers weren't working.  He's the one to blame for this tax!!' Now THAT would have made for a REALLY interesting day...  Given enough creativity, I might be the reason the Canucks are done too....  LOL!!