Looking for an excuse to blog...

SO! Last week was March Break camp, and now half the leaders have some form of cold or flu virus. Yay us. Including me - I've been coughing up a lung for over a week now. Should really get some replacement lungs...

ANYWAY!!!
We have the Project 1:17 guys visiting us from New York! Yay! So they get to hang with us, and do a heap of our community and church things for a week. I think they go home on Monday or something... We will be reciprocating their visit when we head down their way for a week later in the year :) Did that sentence make sense?

We FINALLY got our Ignite hoodies made up :) The first order is in, and they look okay, so yeah! We've only been trying to get THAT all sorted since November or so... If anyone wants to order one, I think they'll be putting pics up on a website somewhere, and they are $45 plus postage I think... BUY ONE!! They're cool :)

And we are all madly doing our saints assignment... or at least, I am... We got "two months" to do it in, but they also happened to be the busiest two months of the year, so really we got about a week total to do a 10-15 page assignment... WHY did I pick Luther, WHY??? I'm trying to get a sound understanding of the mechanics behind the protestant reformation AND find out about Luther's life, but the reformation is complicated, and noone seems to want to write books about Luther!!! Convenient!
MOVING ON...

OH! And it apparently reached 13 degrees today which is a full miracle - normal Brisbane (Australia) winter weather! Holy mackerel! I was walking around without my huge bulky jacket AND I wasn't freezing!!! But it rained and all the snow melted. Meh. Wasn't really any snow left anyway, just grotty looking ice...

And for me, it's just the usual - trying to figure out God's will for my life after Ignite. Yay. :)

So on that note, having appeased Fiona's hinting that I should blog, I shall continue my assignment...

Stephanie

The ultimate t-shirt

Grace was supposed to blog the first half of this, but seeing as she piked, you get my awesome version of events :)

So, me Grace and Kingsley went to Kensington Market last...Monday I think, on our day off anyway, and we came across this t-shirt place with all these awesome t-shirts saying such random things as "Better life through Jesus" and "It's Jesus Time!" So, naturally, our thoughts sprang instantly to our exalted corps officers - we thought they'd love such witty and humorous slogans across their shirts... **insert choked laughter here...**

ANYWAY... Grace thought of it first :)

So after a long and involved search through various t-shirt shops, and dollar stores looking for shirts and fabric paint, I was on my way to relieve Grace from a kettle, when I walked past a place offering cheap prints on t-shirts. AND they sold t-shirts too. So I told Grace about it and on her way home she got the first shirt printed. (this one was Geoff's)

(this is the bit she should be telling)
So Grace goes into the store with the t-shirt, and tells the guy what she wants. Basically "I WORK FOR JESUS" in bold capitals. So the guy sets it up, gets all the letters and everything, and irons them onto the t-shirt with his fancy-schmancy iron on thingo.

Then he takes the shirt off said iron thingo to show to Grace. She looks at it:

"I WORK FOR JEJUS"

Grace: um...you spelt "Jesus" wrong
Dude at shop: I did?
**dude stares at shirt for a good 20 seconds**
Dude: oh yeah. That says "Jejus"

So the guy tells Grace to get another shirt and this time (with Grace watching his every move, lol) he prints it right. And keeps the Jejus shirt.

So the next day, I (Stephanie) go in to get Sandra's shirt printed, and having heard Grace's story about the illiterate print guy...watch his every move like a hawk, cos we got this t-shirt from another place, and can't go back to get another one. While I'm waiting for him to get organised, I look around the shop... and see the muffed up shirt from yesterday. The guy sees me looking (looking whilst suspiciously silent I might add...but he didn't know that...) and says, "Oh yeah, your friend probably told you about the shirt yesterday. I fixed it up though - we do stuff like that."
The guy is fully proud of his fix job, like, it's hanging in an aisle of the store and everything. Only now he got a patch with an "S" on it to fix up the "JEJUS" stuff-up of yesterday.

Now the shirt reads:

"I WORK FOR JSJUS"

**Grace and Steph are currently rolling on the floor laughing...**

No joke.

Grace comes in and whispers: "Does that shirt say "JSJUS"?"
Stephanie (whispers): "shutup shutup say it later..." (desperately trying not to look like I'm trying not to laugh)
Grace (whispers): "Did you tell him?"
Stephanie: "No WAY! He was fully proud of his fix job - he just finished showing it off!!!"
Grace then reiterates the need to double check Sandra's shirt. Because of my blatant perfectionism the guy then offers me a job, which I reluctantly decline... :)

This is a true story. It DIDN'T happen to a friend of a friend of ours, it happened to us!

And the t-shirt remains there to this day.

group blog numero 1

grace: hi fiona.
steph: look, we're blogging.
grace: together!
**kingsley stares blankly at computer screen as if to say, "you guys are freaks."**
grace: anyway. we're blogging from our kitchen today because we have found very kind neighbours to share their internet connection with us. i love the christmas season.
steph: is this illegal?
grace: no, don't worry about it.
steph: we found some mouldy bread this morning. it was disgusting. yeah. i threw it out suprisingly...
grace: we're having a hard time finishing our groceries without our three other lovely roommates around.
steph: we have three tonnes of capsicum.
grace: and by that she means PEPPERS... ugh, australians.
steph: don't diss my culture? ancestry? country!
grace: too late.
**kingsley sings along to random boyband song**
kingsley: that's NOT a boyband song! that's babyface's brother, kevin edmunds.
grace: so... anyway... we're waiting for tara to come and do bible study with us. we're happy we're meeting at home because we don't have to change and look decent.
kingsley: i'm cleaning the kitchen cuz the girls aren't doing it.
steph: that's a load of garbage. and he only cleaned his saucepan from last night this morning. harrumph.
grace: ooh! tara's here! by the way, fiona, i broke curfew last night. i went to a party. sandra made me do it. steph passed out from exhaustion.

**intermission for bible study and team meeting with tara**

steph: that's because i was awake at quarter to five in the morning and didn't get to sleep till 10:45.
grace: i compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey.
steph: we're listening to kiss from a rose by seal...
grace: and other quality 90s hits...
steph: like gangsta's paradise. which i had in my head for some reason. woot.
grace: well tara has come and gone. what a lovely lady.
kingsley: guys... guess what. i went to the movies last night. don't tell fiona.
steph: we know.
grace: we already know. you saw "rocky."
kingsley (perplexed): how'd you know? who told you??
grace: don't worry about it. we know everything. go back to cleaning the stove. :)
kingsley: "quit playing games with my heart... my heart... my heart... baby..."
steph: he didn't sing that, you big fat liar! quit editing our words grace!!
grace: :D so as you can tell now that fiona's gone everybody here has been trying to make us break curfew. we're going to eat now. this has been a taste of daily life in the ignite house. bye now!

darling darling, christmas is coming

waiting for the computer in our office to load so i thought i'd fit in a bonus blog. yesterday God was totally speaking to me through songs on the radio, and he actually spoke to me through this one avril lavigne song, no kidding!! i'm no avril fan--actually i used to be an anti-fan (back when i used to be a hater, lol)-- so it immediately made me think of a Bible study we had a while ago wherein we learned that Jesus often used taboo symbols (for Jewish culture) to make the point that good can come from what apparently seems "evil," and to do away with our tendency to see the world in distinct categories of good and evil. so yes, God spoke to me through an avril lavigne song, proving once again that all things can be redeemed for kingdom purposes, even trite pop songs.

better make it home for curfew, later!
grace

finally

So are you guuys satisfy now that i started to blogg well i am the jamaican who is here to freeze in the winter cause in ja we dont have snow and geoff is making fun at me for that i dont know why

The best word in the English language...

I bet you all think it's something all holy like, grace or emmanuel...or chocolate...

But NO! It's "UNDISPLACED"!!!
I had x-rays on Tuesday to see what was wrong with my thumb which I had hurt three and a half weeks ago. It was all swollen and immobile for a couple of weeks, but I thought I just jarred it until it took forever to stop hurting... So THEN I decided to get it checked out...

So I went to the emergency ward of the hospital to avoid having to wait forever... and they said it would cost me $400 for the privilege. Instead I went to a walk in clinic to get a refereral to an x-ray place. I went last Friday, and they said that the x-ray place wouldn't be open again till Monday. So I went back Monday, paid $65 and waited three hours to see the doctor for 5 mins and get a proper x-ray request ($65 for a piece of paper...). By then the x-ray place was shut AGAIN. So I went back on Tuesday to get my x-ray, and after the x-ray they said call your doctor back in 3 days. So I called at 12:10pm today, and they said the doctor wasn't in yet, call back at 1pm. Then I called back at 1:15pm, and they left me on hold for 20 mins till I had to hang up on them to go do kettles by 2pm.
FINALLY I called AGAIN at 6:30pm tonight...stayed on hold for 15 mins... and FINALLY got in touch with the doctor!!!!

And he says... I have fractured the bottom part of the lower bone in my right thumb (the metacarpal) BUT it's an UNDISPLACED fracture!!!!! Which means it hasn't moved out of alignment, and if I keep it splinted I don't need to come back in for a cast or whatever, it will heal okay by itself. Yay! Hence UNDISPLACED is the best word ever because it means I am finished with the doctors and I don't have to pay more to get my thumb fixed!!!!

Meanwhile, I should write something about Ignite... We are currently being urged to do a million kettle shifts each (at least 4 per week really) to try and fill up all the shifts that are currently NOT being filled... There are now outdoors ones too; honestly, some of the indoors ones are pretty cold as it is, now we get to freeze outside too :) But generally it's not too bad, if I'm not falling asleep on my feet...

Also there are the christmas party things that we need to attend or help out with - one this Saturday, one next Wednesday, and one next Saturday. Hmm. We're finishing up alot of our placements for the year (which gives us more time for kettles) and organising our weeks off at the start of January. At least, Grace is...

I think I'll buy some track pants. Jeans are cold by themselves...

Stephanie :)

emma

emma - also known as 'the kiwi' - left us today. she had graced us with her presence over the last two weeks or so. we really loved having her around. she jumped straight into the life of a 614-er and an igniter - she is the 5th official person to call themselves the 4th igniter for the year. but definitely one of the most genuine.
anyway, we love her and will miss her happy face around the place, though she'll be back in may and then (hopefully) an igniter next year.

Fee

Stephanie says - Hang on, wasn't Joe saying she was from Austria...?

two australians, a jamaican, a canadian, a mexican and a tibetan monk went skating one night...

... the start of a bad joke, or a night in the life of an igniter?? :)

As a long-time Torontonian, I sometimes take for granted the glorious diversity in my city. I forget that it's not like this everywhere; in fact, there are probably few other places in the world where so many diverse peoples coexist in relative peace. When I was in university we spent much time in my Canadian studies classes debating the pros and cons of Canada's policy of official multiculturalism. Is the Canadian ideal of the "cultural mosiac" (as opposed to America's "melting pot") realistic, does it actually exist, does it engender social cohesion or only perpetuate old tribal/ national antagonisms that immigrants bring with them? Does multiculturalism encourage meaningful cross-cultural engagement, or simply foster a consumeristic appreciation of "food and dance" aspects of culture without addressing the "heavy stuff"--politics, religion, etc.?

So yea, school got me cynical about multiculturalism policy. That's not to say I'm not, like many Torontonians, a cultural consumer. I love that I can eat cuisine from all over the world in this city: wicked papusas and empanadas in Kensington market, spicy tofu stew in Koreatown, pho and dim sum in Chinatown, great Indian food and sushi everywhere, and even Somali, Persian and Ethiopian. I don't think it's necessarily bad to be cultural consumers--it can lead to deeper levels of engagement and understanding, and opportunities to make new friends who don't look or think like me. But building a genuine, active peace across colours and cultures requires hard work and effort, something that "food and dance" notions of culture neglect. I don't know whether an official policy of multiculturalism is an aid or a hindrance to this peace, but I do know that the image of Canada as a multicultural utopia is more myth than reality. As far as racial reconciliation goes, the Church in this city have our work cut out for us.

"You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Gal. 3:26-28) To borrow Cpt. Geoff Ryan's terminology... I see this passage as prescriptive for the Church, for the simply fact that it is as yet definitely not descriptive.

Well that was a bit of a digression.
But I hope you enjoyed.
It's kettle season in Army land and life is good.
later!
grace

*for the record, our Tibetan friend couldn't make it to skating last night, but we did make two more Mexican friends :)

patience is a virtue

wait, steph, you mean you didn't appreciate getting woken up at 9am?? i had no idea! ;) for the record, i had tons of fun shopping with steph, especially the 10 full minutes we spent at the meat cooler, deliberating whether to buy chicken on the bone because it was cheaper (of course we did, hello, it was cheaper!) and then deliberating how much bone we could handle. oy. hilarious.

so those who are at 614 will know this, but for our far-away readers (who are also far-OUT for checking our blog! yikes, i've picked up the awful art of punnery from our leadership development teacher:P): the technology here isn't exactly top-of-the-line. the internet connection is often hit-and-miss, computers are old, and most of the TVs, VCRs, computers and stereos lying around don't work. i suppose it's proof that at 614 we really do prioritize relationships over less important things, like fixing machinery. :) now, i'm no techno-nut, and i never thought bad technology would bring out my anger management issues, but i must confess that in the past couple of weeks dealing with the slow computers has pushed me close to my breaking point more than once. things that i think i could get done in x amount of time always take considerably longer because the connection is slower than what i've been used to from my university days. (interestingly enough, my university kept up to speed when it came to technology, but was not exactly a people-friendly institution....) as another example, today tim was helping me hook up a DVD player to a TV, but all the TV cables are nowhere to be found. needless to say all this has been patience-building, or at the very least, has shown me that the fruit of patience still needs to take root and grow in me.

now i have to drive to the supermarket for an errand. i'm usually a pretty contained driver and not given to road rage, but then again i haven't done too much downtown driving. we'll see how this goes :)

look fee, i'm blogging!
grace :)