VANCOUVER - Monkies and Spreadable Lunchmeats

Ah, yes, blogging. In between bouts of Extreme Youthwork (like a real job, only longer) and trundling to hang out with new crowds of exciting people who don't live on the North Shore of vancouver, it's beeen a bit of a quiet period for me and the blog. Not a quiet time for communication, though, since recently I have been discovering the many varied wonders of Facebook. You see, it turns out that those of us who previously conducted our lives via the media of beautifully laid out and structured e-mails might as well have been ripping feathers off geese and trying to scrape away on parchment. E-mail is dead and instant messaging is king. And, for those of us who hate the latter and long for the former, Facebook is a happy medium between them. So join up now and come be my friend, you have a much better chance of being aqaunited with the intricacies of my life if you do.


Probably a future Church homepage picture. That whole realism thing is so passe

Easter is, of course, a marvellous time for the Church. If you're not working at one, I hearily recommend visiting around the time. If you are; you're in for a fast and furious few weeks where every concievable activity the church is involved in has to have some sort of big statement; whether it be producing a newsletter or wheeling out some bizarre decoration which nobody remembers the point of anymore for an annual airing. Between the madness we dragged dozens of eldery folk down to the local rocks for a rain fuelled sunrise service. It all rather sounds like an attempt at a mass culling, I know, but actually was one of the spiritual highpoints of the year. Big grey clouds make a good service... Of course, the day doesn't end there for your church employees who then have to drag themselves back to Church and dry off for the next service at which they might be involved in setting up, singing, managing the worship group and putting things away. Or, indeed, all of the above. At least there's Easter Monday. Unless you're a youth leader, in which case your day off comes somewhere around Thursday.

That said, the twelve hours or so of Easter dinner / egg hunting and poker with the Galvanis as a followup certainly didn't hurt (especially as gas prices rose again this month and I managed to win enough not to have to worry about them)


The West Vancouver Boys in Black. We made car rallying look *good*

Other exciting distractions have followed. The St. Francis Car Rally (which is now less of a car rally and more a version of the Amazing Race with less exoic locales) took place last weekend and was a blast. Obviously the youth groups were well represented; and the youth leader's car was looking suitably smart for the occassion. Unfortunatley, the vicar was also competing and nobody can compete with a man of God decorated with flowers... That said; there's no church bonding experience like seeing photos of members aged 8-80 gathered in grocery stores with strangers doing the YMCA dance. Or climbing into a random ice box at a local gas station... just because it's there.

And then there were confirmations, which was terribly exciting for me as I'd never led a confirmation class before let alone a whole series of preperation. Whether or not those where a success is for beings more ethereal than me to judge but everyone managed to kneel before the Bishop and have the confirmation magic happen and nothing burst into flames or showed obvious signs of Satantic interference. So a job pretty well done. T'was one of those weekends where, despite exhausation abounding, I could expereince the full scope and wonder of what youth ministry is all about and get to feel all pleased with myself about how things have been going. And then on Monday we played Kabaddi! Ah yes.

Just enough time before today's crucial Canuck/Ducks playoff (don't worry if you don't understand) to give you your film recommendation of the month: Everything's Gone Green is a good example of Canadian filmmaking and storytelling. Written, as it is, by Vancouver's foremost social commentator, Douglas Coupland. Fans of Coupland will know what to expect (and I mean that literally as great chunks of the thing have been lifted from a number of his works, especially JPod), with a whimsical tale of thirty-something angst in the offices of the British Columbia Provincial Lottery. Worth seeing for the droll dialogue and general understatement but especially for the glorious location shooting in Vancouver. You too can become familliar with my daily wonder which is driving the Lions Gate Bridge between Downtown and the North Shore, or understand why a joke about picking up West Vancouver girls on the Grouse Grind is so very funny. There's also plenty of canny Coupland observation about the social makeup of the city and the fact that greater immigration and cultural mixing does not necessarily a melting pot make. Go see it; then book your visit.