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.

Denver, Thunder Bay, Toronto

Well, currently I am still getting ready, finishing my packing and tomorrow I am flying from YYZ (Toronto) to Denver for a week of training with youthworks. Then on Friday I am heading out to Thunder Bay to lead mission trips for 8 weeks after 2 weeks of preperations which we will start with in Thunder Bay when we arrive there. And when the mission trips start is going to be 8 weeks of craziness, I can't wait. I am working with 4 other people in Thunder Bay. Steve Dijkstra will be roomie for the summer which is super cool because, it is somebody I know and I have lead the Hamilton mission trip with him before. The other people on our team our my site director Jen Troelstra, Rachel Dunn, and Shannon Kelly. I don't really have an idea who these people are yet, but I am sure I will know them a bit better by the end of this adventure.

During my Youthworks experiene I'll try to keep this blog updated. I'll try to tell you stories of what God is doing in my life and in the lives of those around me. At the end of the Thunder Bay adventure we are going back to Toronto for a debrief (exit-ramp).

This summer is going to be different again, I am quite positive that I will miss people, Rachel for example. But, I get to serve God in a way that excites every inch of my body (sounds like Kuyper, that's scary). So I am excited about this adventure.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace." - Numbers 6:24-26

11:35pm

It just feels like on of those times that updating my blog feels like the natural thing to do. Today, was a good day! I was mainly busying with studying for my midterm and finishing my essay in Sociology 241 Crime and Deviance. However, other events included buying a ticket for Tom and Sarah's stag and doe, having coffee in the morning with Rachel, reading a few blogs, and having the weekly prayer meeting with Church in the Box prayer team.

The weekend was a pleasant one, especially the saturday. In the morning my roommate Steve and I went fishing with Dean Schat, this was something I bought at the hobbies for hiltop auction last year. After an intense morning of wrestling with 30 pound fish (we didn't get even a nibble), we went back to Redeemer. I went to Toronto with Rachel for the rest of the day, she had no clue were we wer going I of course did. We had a great day, talking, walking, laughing and whatever else you do during a day like that.

Us in a small park within the Sheraton hotel.
Sunset as seen from the CN tower, I had not been up there since I was 8 or something like that. (those are not UFO's they are reflections of light bulbs inside the CN tower)

The weekend past and monday came into being. When I entered the school just after 11am in the morning, I was curious to see what the business was all about. It was the annual book give away, and I greatly expanded my collection. Among the books I got was the three part "common grace" series in Dutch (Gemeene gratie) bij Abraham Kuyper (in great condition, from 1988), three other Kuyper books, the autobiography of Malcolm X, the Democratization of American Christianity, and some other books. It was a very pleasant suprise.

Now it is time to do some reading, God bless, Willem