The Gathering @ the COREL Centre

Real happy to see so many of you there! Especially faces I haven't seen in a while. :)


Pics of Celebration Church friends @ Jack Astor's afterwards

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

*NOW PLAYING:*
Song: Waiting for the World to Fall
Artist: Jars of Clay
Album: Music Inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia
Quote: "I'm waiting for the world to fall. I'm waiting for the scene to change. I'm waiting when the colours come. I'm waiting to let my world come undone."
* * *

Ah... a weekend of ups and downs... literally and metaphorically... heheh.

*THE GOOD*

Wednesday, I had a surprise run-in with Joyce on campus. We met up at a coffee shop for studying and later, she was very nice and invited me to dinner at her place (where, incidentally, I was able to see Lil for the first time in a while). After not seeing Joyce all summer, twas nice to just catch up, discuss christianity-related issues, and just pray for each other. A pleasant surprise on an otherwise rainy Wednesday.

Friday night, had a H2O fellowship committee meeting that went quite well. We planned the Saturday Gatineau hike and the events of the next couple of weeks.

Saturday, had a meager worship team practise in the morning (more on that later) and then it was off to CCCO to meet up with the H2O'ers for the Gatineau Hike! Worried that it would rain Saturday afternoon, we were blessed with great (if a little cold) weather! The hike was great... good friends, good scenery, and it was nice to be outside breathing in fresh air and getting some exercise. Rumour had it that we hiked a total of about 5 km. It was also nice to get the chance to talk to some people... getting to know them better. We swung by Steph's house in Orleans afterwards for pizza... for which everyone was quite hungry for after the hike. Being one of the 3 drivers to Gatineau, I was lucky to have not made a driving error throughout the whole Gatineau drive... but that changed drastically as soon as I entered the city of Orleans! :P Wrong turns, missed houses, trips into construction lanes, and sudden drops from pavement onto gravel... grrrr... I don't think Orleans likes me very much, eh Steph? Heheh. :P Fortunately, I escaped alive long enough to take Bonnie home afterwards. I orignally made plans with Serena to do some studying and watch the MWS Worship DVD with her but by the time I got back to Kanata, I was quite tired and it was getting late. Ended up trying to stay up late to study but without getting much done, ended up falling asleep.

***

ah, comfy chair 

the girls 

+ some boys 

+ family 

= friends 
***

*THE BAD*

Sunday, my small team was up for worship... I dunno what it is, but I am just not passionate or excited about leading worship at EACO anymore... I already wasn't in the best of moods getting to church (I was frantically running late and knocked over my cd tower by accident on my way out), but then when I started leading worship, stuff just started to go wrong... which usually doesn't happen to me that often when leading. For one, my throat felt raspy and dry... leading to me croacking quite a few times while leading and unable to hit certain notes... my voice just didn't sound good at all... uuuuggghhh... and then my guitar string broke. :P So ok... try to be calm and smooth, Tim... we'll just fade out this song.... but wait, I still got offeratory song coming up and the whole second set to lead... with no operable guitar. Think fast, Tim. Ok no choice but for me to switch to piano... but that would mean I'd be leading from the side, leaving poor Ruby to sing alone at the pulpit... and I'd need to make a second copy of the music... luckily Jerry was able to play piano for the offeratory, allowing me to hectically find music and think of a solution. Ok, so second set starts with me trying to lead from the piano... but of course the wrong overhead is up with the wrong song... perhaps a misplace on my part?... arrghh... didn't play too well on the piano either since, of course, I didn't go over the songs. :P Maybe, overall, it wasn't that big of a deal... aftewards, Steve mentioned he didn't even notice anything went wrong... but it just really frustrated me... and leading worship should not be frustrating to me since I thought it was something I enjoyed doing. I guess I've just been frustrated with worship at EACO for a while now... Now, it isn't even just about the perenial frustration of the congregation not responding... Take my team, for instance... with the new reshuffle of teams, I'm stuck with two new people who have little experience leading worship...and I'm not quite sure where to put them. In big churches, usually qualified people would join worship teams, but in little ones, everyone who wants to can get up there. Meh. I'm at my best when I've got a solid, reliable, mature worship team that forms a full band. I like being creative with my sets, trying different transitions, styles, and tones to keep things fresh, and to keep challenging myself so I can improve. I like using dynamics, medley'ing songs, and making smooth transitions and an overall smooth set. With this new team, I will be taking a step backwards since now I'll have to simplify things so the new members can learn. I don't have much patience for underskilled members... mostly because of the limited time we have to prepare a worship set and I have a certain quality of worship music that I want to reach and strive for... Arthur, my old electric guitar player had to move out of town abruptly, leaving me a void on my team... although he can be disruptive at times, his enthusiasm was encouraging and his abilities made things interesting for me to manage and allowed me to try different things, a more modern worship twist. Now, I feel like I am really constrained and can't do what I want with this team or reach the quality of worship that I want and demand of myself... bah. Also, it just doesn't seem like people are really devoted to the worship teams or entusiastic about worship. My team on Sunday, for instance, consisted of just 3 people... two were out of town, one didn't reply and was MIA at practise... and I've led worship by myself quite a few times in the past because my team was MIA... It's totally different when I help lead worship at Celebration Church. I know we're not supposed to compare... but for me, EACO is taking the enjoyment out of leading worship. With the Celebration Church worship teams, people are enthusiastic and we all work together well because we're all united by a common goal: we're passionate about bringing a good sense of worship to the congregation. The congregation itself, as I've mentioned countless times before, is much more mature, responsive, and more tailored to my style of modern worship. I enjoy helping with worship there... I feel appreciated there... I feel like my efforts and abilities are put to good use there... I can't say say the same for EACO any more. The hard work and the effort are just not providing any fruit, and it's been many years now that things have been stagnant, and now I feel like I'm sliding backward in my progress. I was recently offered the worship deacon position at my church, but I just could not bring myself to do it. I turned it down... something I couldn't imagine doing a couple of years ago. Also, I've been considering switching churches for some time now but dunno... will have to give it some more thought. It's just frustrating.... and I know I'm rambling... sorry. heheh.

*THE UGLY*

And now, back to school... more mid-terms coming up... busy week ahead... lotsa material to cover, so little time... group projects/cases/presentations also coming up... constant stream of due dates... eeek, and my Industrial Relations mid-term that was a disaster... but at least everyone else seemed to struggle with it. But if I didn't pass it (and I doubt I did), I might hafta drop that course since the midterm's worth 35% and it's an elective!... which is gonna be a b*tch because then I'd need to take a summer course elective before I can graduate. :P grrr.... School is just not my thing... I learn best from experience... I can't wait to enter the workforce... the only question is when that will happen. Ah well, back to studying.

I AGREE WITH PERCY!

Here's a call out to all Carleton University students and christians! Celebration Church (among other christian organizations) is supporting an evangelical ministry on campus called I Agree With Percy that's going on this month at Carleton University.

To find out more, go here:

www.iagreewithpercy.com

If you are a christian, please pray for Percy since he will obviously be facing tough questions and even tougher challenges of faith throughout this ministry. There will most certainly be people who will argue against this ministry (and not all will be in the most polite of ways...) and there will surely be spiritual battles to fight... so please pray for the ministry and for Percy as he courageously witnesses to non-christians on campus. He will be giving his testimony on October 20th on CU campus. Again, details are on the website so go check it out!

Busy busy busy...

*NOW PLAYING:*
Song: Lonely Nation
Artist: Switchfoot
Album: Nothing Is Sound
Quote: "Singing without tongues, screaming without lungs, I want more than my lonely nation, I want more than my lonely nation. Desperate we are young, seperate we are one, I want more than my desperation, I want more than my lonely nation"
* * *

Phew! A busy weekend is over and now I'm back to school reality... a place where I'm way behind and need to get cracking on my assignments and studying. :P booo...
Although it was a busy, tiring weekend where I got little sleep and was constantly on the go, it was a rather rewarding weekend knowing that my hard work and labour helped others. For that reason alone, I'd do it all again without thinking twice. :)

Saturday, running on only 3 hours of sleep, I had to wake up early in the morning to head over to CCCO in order to set up the tables for the Katrina Relief Sidewalk Sale that the H2O fellowship is organizing. The previous night, we stuck around late to sort and price all the items that we'll be selling and organize how the tables will be setup and displayed. Signs and a schematic of the table layout had to be made, as well as price sheets. We ran the sidewalk sale till about 1pm and I thought it was quite successful. It was fun working alongside fellow christians all united and working hard towards a common goal for a good cause. We ended up raising $1000+ for Red Cross! Well worth the time and work. :) At around 1pm, I had to leave in order to make my worship team practise at 1:30pm. Grabbed a quick lunch (mmm... chicken shawarma... and with a discount too!) and then had practise with the worship committee. After that, popped over to Serena's place to work on songs for Sunday's worship set at Celebration Church... the guitarist couldn't make it (I was on piano/keys+vocals). Went home for dinner and then went to take a nap... five minutes into my nap, got a call from Andrew letting me know the Zoo Crew is heading over to Lauren's place. Back from Lauren's, I konked out immediately in preparation for a busy Sunday...

Sunday, got to church for worship team run-through (trying my hand at playing keys/synth this time) and Sunday worship. A few technical difficulties getting my keyboard setup (we need a real monitor speaker system!) I think we had a decent set but people just weren't into it and there was hardly anyone singing... kinda frustrating but oh well. After church, went to Joey's for lunch with my parents and stopped by Zavida's to fill up on coffee. I find it's always nice to have lunch with my parents on Sundays... With a caffeine boost, headed over to Celebration Church for setup, prayer, and run-through. The worship team this week at Celebration was just Serena and I... which actually turned out quite well because the two of us kinda gel musically. Our voices mesh well on harmonies and in unison and with me on piano, we were able to do a more acoustic, quieter, more intimate set. I think it worked out quite well... it was a pleasure to see people worshipping and singing. It was especially rewarding, as a worship leader, to take a peek out in the middle of our set to notice one guy with his arms outstretched worshipping whole-heartedly... and from a stripped-down worship team that only consisted of a sole instrument and two vocalists. It just shows that it doesn't take a full worship band with electric guitars, drums, and the whole nine yards to spark people to enter into a place of worship... just willing worshippers... very humbling and rewarding experience. Praise God for that... it was definitely His spirit working through us that allowed that to happen. After the worship service at Celebration, I quickly headed over to Pastor Wood's house in Bayshore for our university fellowship. Luckily, I was not too late for dinner and was able to try out Pastor Wood's famous dish... bacon-grease fried potatoes and onions... which, despite the initial reaction, were quite delicious!... so much so, I had two plates of it (plus bacon, eggs, and toast)! ... I knew I'd regret it later... heheh. The meeting went well and it was nice to talk to Pastor Wood and Beth about how they're doing in their new surroundings in Ottawa and just chat with them. After taking Becky home and topping up gas (eeeek... drove so much this weekend!)... got home and again, just konked out.

This week, it's gonna be busy... mid-terms and assignments are all due these next two weeks and I'm still behind in a few of my courses with regards to the readings and studying the prof's notes... :P ...time to get at it!... so where's my good friend, Mr. Coffee?