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.

...

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

Songs telling a story

1. put your music player on shuffle
2. press forward for each question
3. use the song title as the answer to the question even if it doesn't make sense
no cheating!

how are you feeling today? Fu-Gee-La

how do your friends see you? Let it Rain

will you get married? Who am I?

what is your best friend's theme song? Sticks and Stones

what is the story of your life? Great is Thy faithfulness

what was highschool like? Numb Encore

how can you get ahead in life? Closure

what is the best thing about your friends? Papa

what is tonight going to be like? Is This Love

what is in store for the remainder of this weekend? Do you remember?

In between

YouthWorks is done, it has been for the last almost 2 weeks, but I am just slow with updating people on my life. Redeemer doesn't start for another 2 weeks for me, so right now I am in between. I like being in Barrie, I always have, but it somehow has become a place where I am always longing to go somewhere else. I used to go to Canada (on vacation) more specifically Barrie, and I would love it everytime. It was time to relax, spend time with family, enjoy nature, and be in Canada (all great things). Today when I visit Barrie, I often take the go up to Newmarket where my mom will pick me up, and after a couple of days of saying hi to family and some people in church that is about it. It is weird how the exact same place has become something completely different to me, Barrie does kind of feel like home, but it is not where I grew up and it is not where I want to be right now... Thus far for my thoughts about Barrie.

In the meantime, I am trying to keep myself busy. Finding a job in Barrie when I don't know that many people and have only limited time (about 3 weeks) is hard. And so I have been doing a lot of reading lately. I think 2007 is the year that the great secret of reading books has been revealed to me. This summer I was still able to read quite a few books, even though YW schedule didn't always allow that, but so far this is my summer reading list.

My summer of 2007 Reading list:
-Already Read
Irresisteble Revolution - Shane Claiborne
Amazing book, goes beyond an amazing story of God's love, and challenges us to be that love to others
The Cross and the Switchblade - Rev. David Wilkerson
Amazing story of How Teen Challenge came to be and how Rev. Wilkerson was lead from being a small town preacher to leading gang leaders to Christ in NYC
Three mini biographies on D.L. Moody, Billy Graham, and John Wesley
Fun to read, not very in depth, but a great overview of their lives
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
The series have ended, will there be a series in like 10 years about Albus Severus?
Under the Overpass - Mike Yankoski
Living on the streets, learning from Mike's experiences - is quite challenging

-Reading
Sidewalks in the Kingdom (New Urbanism and the Christian Faith) - Eric O. Jacobson
Something I am really interested in, basically a Christian framework for understanding Cities, Suburbs, and Urban life.

-Still to Read
Velvit Elvis - Rob Bell
Cries of the Heart - Ravi Zacharias
Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller (I got 2/3 durin Christmas break, then I lost the book)

Anyways I feel like I am all over the place, so I will end. Peace.

I am not in the groove

Well, I guess I might be in the groove. My back is feeling better after a week of pain and horrrer (my back was out due to sleeping on an air matress for 7 weeks, and it really really hurt). The unfortunate part about it is that I felt really disconnected from this group all week long. Besides monday and some part of tuesday I wasn't really able to interact with the youth all that much. I was going to sleep Wednesday evening, but then Jen didn't know I did not come to the evening actvity, which of course meant that the alarm went off... while I was trying to take it easy. But, luckily I decided to go to the chiropractor on Friday, and that really helped. One of the very positive things this week was that I was able to look in at kids club a bit more. I was able to kind of see what was going on and that was really encouraging.

There are a few really adorable kids and a few just crazy ones and together they make for an awesome bunch.

Logan is 3 years old, and he loves the attention, especially from young ladies like Saige

Alaska is a really quiet, but sweet girl her older sister Paris also comes to Kids Club and they live right across from our building, so often they are around the building looking for us.

Tamara is also a sweetie and a trouble maker, she is really sweet though.

As I was saying it was really cool to see Kids Club for a bit, it is encouraging to see all these kids have a fun time in the summer, and to see their mothers being so releaved to be able to drop of their kids for the afternoon. Cheryl is here for the weekend, which is always exciting news. Yesterday we went out for Indian and Thai food which was really good. Tonight we are going to be going to O'Conner church for a campfire. Just a time to relax and spent some time before tomorrow's youth come in again.

Next week is the first week we don't have any Minnesota natives, and in fact we have people coming from Winsconsin, Arkansas, and Alabama. The people from Alabama left yesterday morning already... wow what a long drive. The team and myself included in that would really appreciate prayer as this coming week feels like it is so much routine, and we are quite tired. Pray for God to do the stuff through us that we can not do ourselves anymore. That these from all over the states may have an awesome time.

I guess when I look at it, I am in the groove. This summer has been very exciting and challenging. A lot has happened in my personal life, within my family, while working at YouthWorks, and and so many different levels. I am learning that I don't know that much at all yet, that there is much, very much to learn. I have the feeling I am just on the edge of some of the things God is going to show me immeasurably more of.