I married in to a family that LOVES Swiss Chalet. We eat there often. In the one by our house they have a great collection of "Group of Seven" prints. The kids get crayons with their place mats - so I often 'borrow' them to doodle pictures. Sometimes they copy my pictures.

Ehkosit
Migwec

I had coffee a while back and was swapping 'Dad Stories.' I killed myself when the fellow I was with described he birth of his oldest son. He was timing the contractions on the way to the hospital with an old alarm clock. He said he looked like Flavor Flav walking into the maternity ward!! He then asked me if I knew who Flav was - c'mon I used to stay up late on Fridays to watch "New York Hot Tracks" when it was the only place that played rap videos. I was the very first person to have a bootleg copy of 2 Live Crew in my sleepy prairie city thanks to a friend in Miami. I still make way to many Crunk references for a man my age and profession.

Ehkosit
Migwec

Just a Doodle of a dude (aka a Dude-le) at the local purveyor of finely brewed caffeinated beverages.
Ehkosit
Migwec

This is an old house in Calgary - one of the first residences to have electricity!! Some really neat architectural features. Fun to sketch.
Ehkosit
Migwec

This is a sketch I did on the C-train. I don't often sketchon the train (I'm still self-conscious about drawing in public). The fact that the guy was blind made me feel a little freer to doodle (I started drawing other things in the car).

This was one of the kids from our VBS (or at least thats where the inspiration came from). It was a fun time that saw the weather hold out for the whole week - we were outside with no indoor space. I really like that we are a small enough church that I still get to be involved in the day camps, youth group, midweek programs etc.

Ehkosit
Migwec

I still do some teaching, consulting and speaking that takes me out of town. I have a love hate relationship with this arrangmement. On one hand I enjoy it immensely and feel affirmed in doing it. On the other hand I find it hard to be away from my family (especially as they grow in number and age).

Ehkosit

Migwec

There is a tree in our front yard that is loved by the birds and kids alike. For the birds it produces a berry that has a similar effect on them as meth does on most teenagers (I know because I watch the birds out my window like I used to watch the "tweakers" out my office window when I pastored at an inner-city church). To the best of my knowledge the neighbourhood kids have not been sampling the berries, but they do love to climb it.

Today it lost one of its bigger branches as too many kids were using it to swing on. It loses a branch a year but keeps on growing - it kind of reminds me of the tree in that Shel Silverstein book The Giving Tree. Is it just me or is he the scariest looking children's book author ever?!?

BTW I picked up a set of PITT brush pens from a clearance bin and so I have been having a lot of fun playing with washes etc. in my sketches. Part of my things to do over the vacation is to figure out Photoshop a bit more (possibly even play with Illustrator a bit).

Ehkosit

Migwec

I had forgotten what it was like being a dad for a new born. My youngest son was born on Saturday night. I have been sketching him a bit, but I prefer to hold him. This morning though I watched him sleep and smile (he was much more safely positioned but this was just a quick sketch so I stuck him on the edge of the couch rather than in his car seat - don't call CFS on me). I didn't know what was going to happen when he finally arrived. We live pretty busy/chaotic lives most of the time. God knew what he was doing. We have received an outpouring of love/hospitality/genorsity/... from the people within our community and friends.

For some people it has been a way back into a friendship that has drifted because of busyness (this city moves too quickly for its own good at times), for others it has been a chance to extend hospitality (I am getting fat[ter] from trying to keep up with the food that has been brought over), and for others it has been a chance to take over a task or duty and that is incredibly welcome also.

This little baby has allowed me to (re)learn to accept grace in my life. That is really saying something because I became very cynical and hard-hearted - not so much towards God as towards His people. An quote often attributed to Augustine is "The church is a whore, but she's my mother." I've never come across it in the writings of Augustine I have read, but the sentiment I have felt. There have been times over the last number of years that I started to wonder about how we can get the church back on board (like its my responsiblity to save the church). This baby, Matthew, has reminded me that the church is the people. It is not so much about structures and governance and all of the stuff we make as it is God's spirit moving in God's people to fulfill God's mission throughout God's creation. Anyways its getting late and I'm rambling. Just know that I have fallen even deeper in love with the church of Jesus Christ in the last few days (and especially the little corner of the kingdom known as SouthGate).

Ehkosit,

Migwec

The kids have found some scrap lumber under the deck and constructed a ramp to jump their bikes off of. For the first part of the day they mostly built and talked up the tricks they were going to pull (e.g., lazy boys, donkey kickes, superman airs, etc.). The next part was spent rationalizing why they were pulling up short of the ramp (e.g., chain problems, stones in the way, other kids being too noisy, etc.). Eventually they did get around to making the jumps (though the tricks seemed to be forgotten). There were a few injuries, but everybody seems okay and eager to get back out to jumping...tomorrow.

I still remember jumping ramps on my bike as a kid. Though it wasn't the highest or furthest jump of my career, the one I will be most remembered for is when I 'borrowed' my mom's fold-up travel bike. Mid way through the jump I realized that I hadn't tightened the front wheel on very well. I say "Realized" meaning that I saw it come free from the front forks and go in an entirely different direction than the rest of the bike and I decided to travel in. When those front forks dug in the rest of the bike did what it was designed to do and it folded up into a tiny little space (with me in it). I walked the bike home and put it back up on the garage wall, but my mom noticed that it folded in a few new ways and I was busted (that and everybody on the reserve had heard about my jump). Anyhoo good memories - but I don't think I am going to show the boys any of their dad's jumping prowess!!

Ehkosit

Migwec!

I don't know if I will be able to do it, but for the three weeks of my holiday I will be trying to post a "Doodle-a-Day." The first one is actually a sketch I did on Canada Day at the local beach. I never got to finish it then because we didn't stay long enough - it was stinkin' freezin'. Anyways I finished it up abit and here it is.

Ehkosit

Migwec

Matthew is all of two days old and so he spends most of his time sleeping. Here is some rare footage of him with his eyes open. Enjoy.

Ehkosit

Migwec

I have been confronting a lot of memories and dreams this week. Mostly all of which are good. This week we are doing a day camp (Vacation Bible School) at our church. The camp is being run by youth from the church Juli was the youth pastor at (and she started to do this for other churches across Canada). The response has been great and it is a real opportunity for us to connect with our community.

I have also been clearing out old files from my desk, filing cabinet and computer that pertained to my old job with First Baptist. We are now officially an autonomous church - and although we will always have a connect with FBC - the relationship has changed. This is not unlike my feeling when I moved out of my parents' home. I was old enough and felt ready to do it. It didn't mean I stopped loving them or being their son, but now we operate on a more peer-to-peer level. In many ways it would have been unhealthy to stay there longer, the timing was right. I think the same is true for SouthGate and FBC. They have major changes ahead of them - finding a new senior pastor, giving life to the ministry plans and new governance set out in their "New Futures" document, etc. I spent a while reminiscing about some of the ministry that took place - I feel content that I finished what I was called to do in that context.

Last week at a church meeting I was officially voted in as the pastor for SouthGate Baptist Church (as Sarah put it "now we're officiallystuck with Jeff"). I am looking forward to the new chapter - but even more so (right now anyways) I am looking forward to the arrival of my new son and some planned holidays!!!

The doodle is inspired by the Flight of Icarus. The feathers are a little singed, the body somewhat bruised, what hair is left is greyed and toussled, but I am confident that the ending of this story will be different than the original (...it was a story before it was an Iron Maiden song).

Ehkosit,

Migwec

This was a quick sketch I did at a red light of a guy I see in my neighbourhhod collecting bottles. He is from Guangjo in China. I found this out by trying to talk to him in Mandarin and his wife told me they were from the Cantonese speaking part of China (at least she recognized my efforts as Mandarin). It has been fascinating to watch the progression of his 'tools of the trade.' In the beginning he just had a really big bag. Then came a baby stroller and those extending-gripper-thingies for picking up stuff. This year the latest addition is a garrish sombrero. At some point I want to try to colour this in with photoshop - holidays are coming and I am going to fool around with Illustrator and Photoshop (as well as catch up on some reading).

Ehkosit,

Migwec!

Soccer season ended. Because of the irregular amount of rain this spring many games were rained out. Ironically it was my daughter's team that pulled together an extra game - out of all of the teams they were the least soccer crazy. It turned out to be the best game of the year for Maggie. All because the coach told her it was going to be a 'Make-Up Game' That Saturday Maggie took the field with her hair done up, pink shoes tied as well as lip-stick, eye shadow and blush applied...it was afterall a make-up game!!

I also included a quick doodle of Micah doing his patented "running golf clap" goal celebration.

Ehkosit,

Migwec!