BIG NOISE

Did you hear the big noise this morning about 7AM? The air vibrated, the ground shook, dogs howled, babies cried, and I'm sure the deer and bear are half-way to Tofino by now. They warned us, but I don't think anyone expected it to be that loud!

Hip 2B Holy

A Lesson in Cellphone Etiquette

May this be a lesson to us all.

Who You Following?

“The ultimate issue in the universe is leadership. Who you follow and what directs your life, is the single most important thing about you.” ~ Jan Hetinga

Who Is Your Role Model?

Don't scroll down until you've done 1-5. You don't want to skew your answer.

1) Pick your favorite number between 1-9

2) Multiply by 3 then

3) Add 3

4) Multiply by 3 ..... (I'll wait while you get the calculator....)

4) You'll get a 2 digit number....

5) Add the digits together





With that number, see who your ROLE MODEL is from the list below:

1. Einstein
2. Oprah Winfrey
3. Snoopy
4. Imelda Marcos
5. Bill Gates
6. Gandhi
7. Brad Pitt
8. Tiger Woods
9. Darcy Siggelkow
10. Barack Obama


P.S. Stop picking different numbers!!
I AM YOUR IDOL JUST DEAL WITH IT!!

Friends

In this latest installment of CBS News’ “Assignment America,” Steve Hartman visits an animal sanctuary where a dog and an elephant have formed a very lasting, and unusual, friendship.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Calvin and Hobbes: Scathing Social Commentary

This comic was published 15 years ago! I thought it was from Saturday's paper...

Josh Wilson's version of "Amazing Grace"

Mt. Washington

The pictures are deceiving. It looks like they have snow! But we had a fun time.

Super Bowl Bible Study

Dear Saddleback Family,

Some of you have asked me if the Bible gives us any clues as to who might win the Super Bowl between the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburg Steelers. Here's my answer from my personal study today:

1. Does the Bible allude to either the Phoenix Cardinals or Pittsburg Steelers?
YES! "I am like a wild bird in the desert." Psalm 102:6 (TEV)
"If a person is a stealer, he must stop stealing and start working. He must use his hands for doing something good!" Ephes. 4:28 (ICB)

2. Who will have the advantage playing in Tampa? Not the Cardinals.
"Anyone away from home is like a bird away from its nest." Proverbs 27:8 (TEV)

3. What verse favors victory on the field for the Cardinals?
"I will throw you on the ground and toss you in an open field. I will make the birds perch on you and feed on you!" Ezekiel 32:4 (GW)

4. What verses favor the Steelers?
"Just look at the strength of his back, the powerful muscles of his belly...his huge legs are like beech trees. His skeleton is made of steel, every bone in his body hard as steel. " Job 40:16-18 (Mes)
"With your well-muscled arm and your grip of steel— nobody trifles with you!"Psalm 89:13 (Mes)
"Wherever they turn, I will spread my net over them, and bring down the birds."Hosea 7:12 (NJB)

5. Who is favored to win?
"The Lord told me to say: Just as you cannot break steel, you can't defeat the enemy that will attack from the north. I will give them everything you own." Jeremiah 15:12-13 (CEV)

The scarlet & white uniforms of the Cardinals may be overwhelmed by the team from Three Rivers stadium:
Shields flash red in the sunlight! The attack begins! See their scarlet uniforms! Watch as their glittering chariots move into position... but they stumble in their haste, rushing to the walls to set up their defenses. But too late! The River Gates are open! The enemy has entered!" Nahum 2:3-6 (NLT)

I'm kidding. Don't write me!

Rick Warren
Saddleback Church
Purpose Driven Network

Jump

Property rights eroding state of marriage

By MINDELLE JACOBS, Sat, January 24, 2009, The Edmonton Sun

One of these years, there may be no difference, legally, between couples who marry and those who simply shack up.

Is there no social good left in marriage? Does society not bear a responsibility to promote it as a stabilizing, healthy influence in a world of fleeting pleasures?

Maybe I'm old-fashioned but I still believe in the institution of marriage. It signifies -- or ought to -- commitment and responsibility, as well as starry-eyed love. Yes, I shacked up with my husband for a couple of years before we tied the knot. But marriage feels different, more permanent.

Perhaps I'm just viewing the institution through the lens of history, with its swirl of age-old cultural/religious trappings. Nevertheless, I stand on my lonely perch to defend marriage, a formal bond amidst the rising tide of cohabitation.

In 2002, the Supreme Court of Canada also took a stab at defending marriage, in a Nova Scotia matter involving a common-law relationship breakup. The woman in the case was shocked to discover she wasn't entitled to half the family assets.

The Supreme Court declared there was no right to a 50-50 asset split. "If they have chosen not to marry, is it the state's task to impose a marriage-like regime on them retroactively?" the court asked.

But the provinces were left to devise family law as they saw fit and changes in recent years have gradually erased the legal distinctions between married and common-law. For a long time, all couples have been treated equally with respect to issues like child support, alimony and survivor benefits. (In Quebec, common-law partners who split up aren't entitled to alimony, but more on that later.)

The right to division of property was different, however, depending on whether you were married.

That is falling by the wayside. Manitoba has the most equitable legislation in this regard. There, if you've lived common-law for three years, you have all the property rights of married couples after separation.

In Alberta and Ontario, there is no specific legislation related to property division in common-law cases. Judges decide such matters on a case-by-case basis.

Alternately, common-law couples can draw up cohabitation contracts agreeing to marriage-like property-split obligations in the event of a breakup. Other provinces offer similar procedures.

A lot of people think that they are, in effect, married after three years of cohabitation. But that's a myth, says Toronto family lawyer Jack Hope.

They're "in for ... unhappy surprises at the end of 10- and 20-year relationships," he warns. "They have to resort to complex concepts from trust law in order to try and gain a piece of the other person's property.

"It becomes a huge, very uncertain lawsuit without any legislative support. But if you're married, then there's a very clear set of rules."

But back to Quebec, where a 34-year-old woman is fighting in court for $50 million plus $56,000 a month in support from her former common-law partner, a billionaire. (She already receives $35,000 a month in child support for their three kids.)

Arguably, there's a case to be made for spousal support for poor Quebec women, not just this Brazilian-born beauty, whom the billionaire met on a South American beach when she was 17.

But her lawyer wants all common-law unions of three years without kids -- and one year with children -- treated as marriages.

It begs the question: Is marriage losing its meaning?

My new hobby

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

We weren't whining about nothing!

Our endless December snowfall set a record
Darrell Bellaart, The Daily NewsPublished: Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Nanaimo's snowfall has now officially topped the one-metre mark. It's something that has only happened twice before in December in all the years since Environment Canada has been keeping records.

"This year we had 116 centimetres of snow at Nanaimo Airport," said David Jones, a climatologist with Environment Canada's Vancouver office. The weather office measured 111 centimetres of snow in Nanaimo in 1964 and 107 cm in 1968. Even in December 1996, the most awe-inspiring winter in recent memory, snowfall reached 95.2 cm in the city. The all-time record for one month was in February 1975, when 122 cm fell.

Nanaimo's snowfall has only exceeded 80 cm 12 times in December since the agency first started keeping records in 1947.

Well, things were such a mess at the Vancouver International Airport that after his midnight run, Santa came in to sort it all out. Either that or the down turn in the economy has forced Santa to take a second job!

Whiter Christmas

Enough snow. Next year, we want a green Christmas.

White Christmas

Here is the veiw from my office window. Merry Christmas everyone! Now come help me shovel...

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Current Weather Updated: Saturday, December 20, 2008, 8:00 PST - Nanaimo Airport
A few clouds, -19C!

What?! Did someone forget that this the West Coast? This is not a 'dry cold'!

And we've had over 2 1/2 feet of snow with more on the way! I feel like a shovel has been sugically attached to my arm. This is too much like Alberta.

Blame it on Global Warming.

How Not to Mess Up the Great Commission Too Much

A Neighbourhood in Search of Salvation

Here's a great article published in the Nanaimo Daily News that tells some of the old history of ET Family Church (Evangelistic Tabernacle). You can catch the full story here.

Like the street it is built on, the building at 25 Victoria Rd. has gone from modest to rowdy to downright seedy. Some hope turning the 117-year-old building into a performing arts centre will return the area to respectability once again.

People came to 25 Victoria Rd. to drink beer, meet friends and dance to music that echoed through the streets on Saturday nights.

They also came to worship their Lord and saviour on Sunday mornings.

Some longtime residents think the modest, 117-year-old building has a split personality, serving as a well-respected church for decades before showing its wild side in the seventies as one of the hottest nightclubs in Nanaimo.

Pastor Wayne Nelson knows this better than most people his own history is contained with the building's walls.

Nelson was introduced to the word of God there as child in the early 1970s, temporarily "fell away" from his faith while partying in the building as a teenager, and later as an adult helped return the historic place to its original purpose as a place of worship in 1996. That was after it was a bar for more than two decades.

The symbolism isn't lost on Nelson.

"It was like God was taking back the land. . .a declaration that he isn't finished with Nanaimo," said the Mountain Eagle Church pastor, as he looked up at the building, still bearing the cross from when it served as a place of worship last spring.

Not everyone thinks that the building's 20-year nightclub phase was bad for the community. Former bar staff say it livened up the street and, combined with the now-closed Caprice Theatre next door, created a destination spot for entertainment in Nanaimo.

But over the years, things have changed. That strip of Victoria Road has earned an unsavoury reputation for being a hangout for drug dealers and sex-trade workers.

Now, residents and city officials hope a plan to transform 25 Victoria Rd. into a performing arts centre - slated to open Nov. 28 - will bring back some of the street's appeal while revitalizing the neighbourhood.

It's a day Nelson awaits with pride.

The building was born out of controversy in 1892, when members of the St. Paul's Anglican Church split from the main congregation and built St. Alban the Martyr at 25 Victoria Rd.
Homes began to sprout on either side of a seven-block stretch of land bordered by Nicol Street and Victoria Road years before the first cornerstone was laid at St. Alban. The strip of land was once an active coal reserve, delaying development until 1891.

Even in its early years, this part of Nanaimo - often criticized today for having to carry more than its fair share of social services for addicts and the homeless - was defined by service-providers, including a fire hall, schoolhouse and church, rather than being a commercial-heavy area.

The Anglican fallout out didn't last long. By 1903 the church was closed when members rejoined St. Paul's.

Details on what exactly happened to 25 Victoria Rd. after that aren't clear, but it likely continued serving the community as a house of worship. Fire insurance maps from 1930s show that it was operating as a Pentecostal church. Then from 1955 to 1975 the building served as the Evangelistic Tabernacle. (*note: I think 1955 was just when we changed our name to ET...)

Its appearance changed considerably during that time. A Nanaimo Daily Free Press article from 1958 details how church members spent three years reconstructing the place. They added a second storey for Sunday school rooms and even dug out the basement by hand. (*note: I've heard stories about dynamite!)

"The reconstruction has been so extensive as to constitute in effect the construction of an entirely new church," reads the article.

Towards the end of the Tabernacle's days, Nelson attended Sunday school with his mother there nearly every week. It became a defining part of his childhood.

"I have memories as a child doing Christmas plays in there," said Nelson, a towering man with a deep, booming voice.

But when the Evangelistic Church left the street for its current location on Princess Royal Road, the aged building that had served as a religious haven for more than 80 years was about to change.

The doors would now be shut on Sunday mornings, but open to the crowds on Saturday nights.
For Nelson, the building's transformation into a nightclub symbolized the years he lost touch with his faith as a teenager, often frequenting the club to party with friends.

But for others, after the old church was renovated it became one of the most exciting places in town.

The party spot had a number of different names over the years - best known as the old Wichita North Nightclub - starting in 1975 with the title Shooters, according to City of Nanaimo business license records. Through the years, disco, country and then rock and roll music echoed down Victoria Road, sometimes drawing complaints from neighbours.

Brent Mark worked there for about seven years in the 1990s, when it operated under the well-known Wichita moniker.

"I had a blast working there," said Mark, who was employed as the audio engineer, ensuring the sound systems went smoothly for the club's live bands. "It was quite busy, there was a lot of big acts."

He easily rambles off a list of bands that played at the club: Carlene Carter, Prairie Oyster, Colin James.

Also at that time people could catch a movie at the Caprice next door, or have dinner at a nearby restaurant - other amenities that secured Victoria Road's reputation as a fun place to be in Nanaimo.

Toward the end of his time working at the Wichita, Mark started to notice that the neighbourhood was changing; sex-trade workers began plying their trade further up the road, for example. But the area remained a hot spot right up to about 1997, when the building's role as a piece of Nanaimo's nightlife ended.

Mark hopes a new performing arts centre will bring some of that excitement back.

"There was a whole different feel to it (Victoria Road) back then compared to now," said Mark.
With the nightclub gone, Nelson saw a perfect opportunity to "take back the land."

The Southside Christian Fellowship, later becoming Eagle Mountain Church, had bounced between locations for years until members purchased 25 Victoria Rd. - the church's first and, so far, only permanent location.

Renovating the building was especially satisfying for Nelson.

Most of the interior was painted in dark, gloomy colours, he said, and "tearing out all that black" had special significance to him. He was taking down something that represented a darker part of his life.

"It was quite a profound moment for me," said Nelson, who added that church members even gutted the bar's beer cooler and turned it into a nursery.

"My heart went out to the neighbours when we first bought it. They were coming out and thanking us with open arms because of all the grief they had over the years with it being a nightclub, the loud noise at all hours of the night."

From then on, until the building was sold last spring, it was the site of Christmas plays and Thanksgiving dinners, Sunday services and even a place where a homeless person could sometimes grab a meal or get out of the cold.

"We grew more as a tight-knit group," said Nelson.

In 2002-03, Nelson said that the once-pleasant neighbourhood took on a different dynamic.
"Definitely it changed, there was a lot more street activity happening. Even right out front of the church for a period of time there was open drug deals," he said, adding that the situation became better thanks to the efforts of the RCMP.

But such activity wasn't why Eagle Mountain Church moved to the Southgate Mall last spring, he said. The new higher-traffic venue makes their church more accessible for people and provides more suitable parking.

But one day, the congregation hopes to purchase another church and develop the same sense of community they had on 25 Victoria Rd.

Despite the screams of power tools and a few drywall dust-covered building materials scattered in front of the stage, Camela Tang said she can feel the history within the walls of 25 Victoria, now called Nanaimo Centre Stage.

"It has a lively feel to the place," she said with a smile.

Tang, president of the Centre for the Arts Nanaimo, said the renovations are needed to ensure the structure meets building code requirements, is wheelchair accessible and also conforms to the layout required for a performing arts centre. A box office has already been constructed as well as a "green room" for actors.

Preserving the history of the building is a major part of the renovations, said Tang.

"Not only do we want to improve that, we want to enhance it," she said. "The people of Nanaimo invested a lot of time and had a lot of fun in this building, and we're definitely bringing that back."

The City of Nanaimo paid $460,000 to purchase the former church last spring. Since then, the centre has been undergoing modifications, at an estimated cost of $150,000.

The purchase made headlines when outgoing mayor Gary Korpan called the building "earthquake bait" that would cost the taxpayer a large amount of cash to repair and maintain. The comments drew the scorn of residents in the area and arts groups, which maintain that a small performing arts space is needed.

But such a centre might benefit more than Nanaimo's culture.

Russell Thomson has been done business in this neighbourhood since 1988.

Most homes around 25 Victoria Rd. no longer house longtime residents; they've moved out over the past five years, he said. Lower property values have drawn more transient residents.

Just up the street from the old church, a billboard advertises a house and adjacent empty lot for sale. It's been there for a while.

"It's cheap stuff to buy, so it gets bought and sold bought and sold," he said.

Thomson thinks the street really started to change when the methadone clinic opened on Nicol Street in 2003. But he doesn't blame that service for social problems facing the area. In fact, things are better than they once were.

Still, he can't wait until the theatre opens and draws a new crowd of people into the neighbourhood.

Pamela Shaw, geography instructor at Vancouver Island University, previously told the Daily News that putting performing arts centres in downtown areas that need revitalization has worked for other communities.

"This could add a new dimension to that neighbourhood, now you have people who will be in that neighbourhood during the day as office workers, in the evening as theatre patrons. That's what changes the whole dynamic of the street," she said.

Shaw references urban critic Jane Jacobs's "eyes on the street" theory, that crime can be reduced by having more people in a specific area.

Wayne Nelson wouldn't have it any other way. He said that if Eagle Mountain Church wasn't able to sell their church for what he sees as a positive community-building function, like a performing arts centre, the church wouldn't have sold it at all.

"That area needs more good things happening," he said.