Redeemer Gold, Raptors blow out, and March Madness

Lots of sports news...

25 years after its humble beginnings Redeemer University College wins their first golden medal within the OCAA. I love this school, and I love the fact that a school of about 850 people can beat a school with about 15000 students in the Indoor soccer finals! Redeemer wins gold! The OCAA website tells us, "No Redeemer men’s tournament or league team has ever won an OCAA gold medal…until today when the Royals dethroned the Humber Hawks 2-1 in the Championship final. "

Yesterday I was at the Raptors game. And I guess it was historic - 96-54 for the Raptors against the Heat. Biggest margin of victory for Toronto ever, lowest points against for Toronto ever, and third lowest points (54) in the NBA ever scored by the Heat. The icing on the cake was Jamario Moon's sick dunk > see Video.

And also March Madness started today! College basketball is awesome. North Carolina all the way!

Coffee

This year I have grown a great appreciation for coffee. I love a nice bold cup of coffee from *bucks, Second Cup, of the FRWY (freeway) especially. Even more so I have fallen in love with the smell and taste of a home brewed cup of coffee. Whether it means that Steve puls out one of his amazing espresso creations or it a home brewed cup of coffee from our beautifull blue coffee press - the taste is superior. As you walk into the room you can start anticipating the taste and the aroma of the coffee. Especially when we have fresh ground coffee, it makes me excited.

And although home made coffee is an art in itself and taste amazing, this looks pretty good as well.

Thank you

Thank you Jesus, for making life a bit less academically busy, while other things were crazy. Two Campus Visit Days, Banquet, and Church in the Box in four days, makes me quite tired! Imagine another load of papers or such on top of that.

Campus Visit Days for me have been something that I have and still absolutely love. For me it is quite easy to still resonate with young people coming in, wondering about Redeemer, University, and life in general. It is awesome to just stand by there side, show them around, answer questions from concerned parents, etc.

Dr. Wolters highlighted the passion of palm sunday. Christ the King does not come without a Christ who suffered. There the one and the same, and so our lives are going to be full of times where we confirm the kingship of Christ or where we suffer alongside with Christ.

Right now Matt VanderVecht, Ben Bouwman, Jared Dalton, and I are looking into places that we ould possible live for the summer. Pray with us that we will find a place where we can get a better understanding of what Hamilton is about.

Currently Reading: Cries of the Heart - Ravi Zacharias
Current most loved song: God of this City - Christ Tomlin
Current best food - Anything involving Rice!
Current time: 00:01 - time to go to bed

Earth Hour

I just checked some news items on Toronto, and in case you didn't know. Toronto is participating in Earth Hour 2008 big time. March the 29th all city buildings will power down a well as businesses, hotels, individuals, and whoever else. More than 50 cities, 1,000 businesses, and 20000 people in Canada have signed up, Toronto being the main partner in Canada. They will celebrate with a "carbon-neutral" unplugged concert that will feature Nelly Furtado and others. I think it would be cool listening to an unplugged concerts in a "dark" downtown Toronto.

While it could be seen as cities, businesses and people being trendy and being environmentally concerned, still it is happening. All are powering down for 1 hour. Hamilton signed up as well, however, I have not heard of any events or such here. Who knows, we are still 20 days away.

Maybe one day all those lights will be off at the same time and the world won't look like this at night.

Soon

Soon...
I will see the Raptors play
I will be an uncle
I will be done third year
I will see Hot Chip in concert
I will be moving downtown for the summer (anybody know of a place)
I should pick up my Dutch passport
I will have to go to bed > because there is church tomorrow morning

All within 2 blocks

I want to share with you a but about one area of downtown hamilton. Most people have probably been there at some point, it is the heart of the city. I want to share with you some thoughts about the blocks surrounding Gore Park.

In 1973 there was still a building in Hamilon Called the Birks Building. In fact, Oscar Wilde called it "the most beautiful building in all of North America," it was demolished in 1973 despite major protests. Below is a picture of the building, which is now replaced by a rather stale, concrete and glass version of the bank of Nova Scotia.


However, in recent decades right across from the location the Birks building was, the Piggott building has been saved, and is now deemed one of Hamilton's most beautiful if not the most beautiful buildings. The picture below, shows the upper levels, as well as part of the stale building that replaced the Birks building on the left.
Currently Hamilton is in another discussion, this time on the Lister block building, about 1,5 blocks North on James and King William St. In 2005 great plans for revitalizing this building were announced, the costs now seem a bit higher than anticipated and discussion about demolishing the building are back. Below, the Lister Block.
Last week the Hamilton Spectator reported on the Royal Connaught hotel to be revitalized. By Toronto developer Harry Stinson. All these buildings are within 1-2 blocks of Gore Park, the heart of the City of Hamilton that can be described as an intimate place full of opportunity. If Hamilton is going to become this great urban centre West of the GTA, I feel like redevelopment in this area is vital, revitalizing the Royal Connaught and the Lister Block are good first steps. Tackling the massive concrete square of the Farmer's market, Library, Jackson Square, and Copps should follow immediatley. Luckily there is much discussion on this, hopefully it will be fruitful. Look at this picture of Gore Park currently. What if we can make this entire neighbourhood like this? What if we can maintain and continue to give the heart of the city a distinct urban texture. A public place that is alive, active, and contagious to the communities around it. All within about 2 blocks of this park. I think it is an opportunity we should cease. I think the heart of the city of Hamilton can be a place where we can engage with culture, a place that community can be formed, a place that needs to reflect God's glory.

Fuzzy February / Februhairy

In the month of February we (some friends and myself decided not to shave. Here are the results, day 1 and after day 29. I think I was pretty cool with it at first, now I am kind of shocked. Well, hooray for the best that a man can get (Gillette), so we can do some trimmin'

The Dinos

I got to admit - ever since I moved to Canada I have had a renewed passion for the sport of basketball, especially the Toronto Raptors. Last year I was able to see 3 games! That was pretty amazing, the first game I saw was Toronto's win over LeBron James and Cleveland that many have described as a turn around for Toronto's season, the last game was in the playoffs vs. the Nets and Vince Carter. That crowd was booming! The Raps won as well, however, they got eliminated in game 6.

This year I have been following my team as well, and I have to so I am pretty satisfied, I am happy where they are, but there is room for improvement. Let's finish of the regular season strong. I can't wait for March 19th to see them against the Miami Heat. Anyway, now you know, I love basketball. It's nice.

New York City

St. Patricks Cathedral

The Brooklynn Bridge as seen from the Staten Island Ferry Terminal

The Museum Of Modern Art (MOMA)

Proof that I was in New York City

Where else would they wrap the construction barriers in wrapping paper?

A cool story

So, this is something worth blogging about. When I left for Canada about 2,5 years ago I met a few cool peopleat the Schiphol airport. One of them was wearing a Redeemer University College T-shirt. I ended up talking to them, and telling them I was going to be going there in September, however, they had just graduated, and so that was kind of it. I always saw this random meeting with a few random Redeemer people at Schiphol as a pretty cool confirmation of my move to Canada. At that time I was quite nervous about my move to Canada, and thus this was very encouraging for me.

About 2,3 years later I was thinking about this story, and thought that again about how cool it was that God had provided me with such a cool encouragement as I was about to move to Canada. So, I asked some of the people that I know have been around Redeemer for a bit and I found out that a couple of guys were travelling through Europe that summer. When asking one of those guys who happens to be my prof. for my International Relations class I found out that he was actually one of the people I met at Schiphol - I think that is pretty cool.

This might be a temporary revival

Well, it is reading break right now. And it has been a while since I was active on this blog. There are a few things I want to share that have happened since October.

Life at 49-20 Kitty Murray Lane has been really good. The guys I have been living with and myself have been thinking a lot about how to live our life, thinking about community, trying to be a group of people welcoming to others. Matt V, Steve, and I have been going to First CRC downtown Hamilton which has been awesome for us.

Last semester ended in a very good fashion, I was able to visit Jen, Rachel, and Cheryl in Vancouver, and went to Calgary to celbrate Christmas there.

This week (reading break) offically means that we are halfway through the second semester, and this means there was time for some relaxing. The last 4 days I went to New York, which was an amazing trip where I was very impressed with the city and that it has to offer. Today, I went home, and tomorrow I am going to my first Leafs game which is also something I am really excited about. To top it all of I am going to the True City conference on the weekend - which is something really exciting - since there are so many churches working together on the city of Hamilton.

Earlier this semester I was also able to enjoy my time at the Calvin Worship Symposium, the Faith and Social Justice Conference, the Marva Dawn lectures, and the winter retreat. There are so many stories behind all these events, that listing them really doesn't do them justice, but hey, I am making up for 4 months of not bloggin. Anyway, expect more posts soon.

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Facebook has killed my blog...


Perhaps there will be some random musings here... but, I would consider those more as after schocks or spur of the moment blog writing attempts.

My life, it is going great, for those who want to know more e-mail me or get ahold of me through facebook, it is now the quickest way I respond to most things. Peace and love, Willem