I haven't taught or been in a degree program for a stretch - I am getting itchy feet academically speaking (although it could be from the steam room at the gym). I am really missing the whole academy thing. I tend to think I'm pretty down to earth and practical, but I miss unadulterated theoretical conversations. I have a few possibilities to do some teaching in the winter and next fall so I hope that works out.

Here is a little doodling I was doing on my tablet PC and Photoshop. The list is the schools I have taught or studied at...


And yes it is true I have a map of Southeast Asia where most others have a hairline. In fact there is even a growing bald spot that testifies to the truth of Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth (either that or Kim Jong-Il is testing nuclear weapons in North Korea).

And now for something completely different...
I don't know how I stumbled across these video shorts, but I thought I would share them with y'all.

It's Japanese videos (I am assuming from the style and text) about two rabbits in a Russian prison (based on the Cyrillic script on the posters, calendars, etc.).

Someday I'll figure out how to put these right on the blog - until then here's the link and enjoy!!

http://www.usavich.tv/movie.html

Today we celebrated our second anniversary of meeting together as a church. It turned out to be a good day but it has been a tough weekend. There have been a number of deaths among friends of our congregation - a mother at the school my boys attend, a family friend of another couple, a supportive member of our mother church. It makes you take stock of your life and priorities.

It also happens to be Grey Cup Sunday and the only two teams I have cheered for in the CFL are going head to head. I can't watch it because we have our monthly potluck and tonight we are tying in our anniversary celebration.

I take my laptop out to the little country church we have the potlucks at and we are able to watch the game via webcast - but it is pixelated and rather herky-jerky. We watch the final 3 minutes in a minimized screen because it is the only way the feed will allow us to watch. One of the guys notes the irony that we watched an earlier rider game on a 52 inch plasma and now we are watching the Grey Cup in 3x3 glory.

I don't regret not watching the game - we had a great time together. Our congregation is very multicultural so the potlucks are great (if at times a little scary). Part of the evening we just shared how we came together and what it means to be a part of SouthGate. The thing that came across from each person is that they enjoyed the church being 1) local 2) friendly and 3)international. This was nice to hear because these are all things we value.

The second year can be very difficult according to the church planting pundits - and we did have some challenges over the last year, but the potluck has given me the confidence that we are right where God wants us. This point was underscored by the Riders winning the Grey Cup - even God is a member of Rider Nation!!

I guess I'm not cut out to be a blogger. I just got back from Banff. Every year our denomination holds its Pastors & Spouses Conference at the Banff Springs Hotel. It may be one of the greatest mysteries of the Christian faith - how did a denomination made up of mostly small, rural churches manage to find itself in the likes of that hotel. I'm not complaining - it is a great week of being pampered and living like the beautiful people do!!

Juli and I have been the mc/hosts for the conference the last few years. It makes it a bit less of a personal retreat for us, but I really enjoy it. They ask us back so it must not be too bad. Although this year I did crack a joke that made a reference to Li'l John & Crunk music - again remembering that most of the pastors serve small rural areas (and come from the same) it went off like a WMD. I have to admit that I always liked Jackie Mason and Dennis Miller most went they bombed and made jokes about how bad their jokes were!