We're back

Had some troubles connecting to internet over the last couple days abroad, so I update from home.  Thursday, we sent a few poeple to Chotebor to go Bowling with the gypsies.  That was good times had by all.  We did some ESL classes in the evening and wound up our hockey week by beating the Skulls 7-5. 

 

Friday featured a trip to Pardubice for some souvenir shopping, and then to the baby orphanage for the afternoon.  Lots of time to play with babies and pray for them.  We headed back to Dlouhy for the hockey dinner in the evening.  There were about 25 players and their wives at the dinner, which was great!  We had soft tacos and spent the evening hanging out and getting to know people better.  The evening also featured a draw for door prizes, where we had enough prizes for everyone to take one home!  Amanda broke out her wig collection for some great photo op's and a great time was had by all.

 

Saturday took us to Prague to enjoy our last day in style and Fly home Sunday.  What a beautiful city with so much history. 

 

The trip wound up quite well, with a lot of good things coming out of it.  Many relationships were furthered and a lot of people heard testimonies of God's work in our lives.  We've appreciated your prayers through this trip and will have some pics up soon.

Ciao

Dan

Wednesday

Aho, from CZ.  Things are rolling along here.  Today the English camp wound up with a worship service, some baking and ultimate frisbee and a floorball game.  Chris shared his testimony and it was great. Things were pretty emotional at the end. 

 

We played the Panthers tonight and lost 12-5.  I had another 2 goals, but the secondary scoring was lacking. 

 

After the game on one of the shuttle rides back to Dlouhy, the van hit a patch of ice and wound up in the ditch on it's side.  Thankfully, no one was hurt at all!  It looked like quite a gentle landing, considering.  There goes the security deposit.  Ah well.  We will have to go on without a van for the rest of the week... a bit of a bummer. 

 

Please pray for continued safety on the roads as it hasn't really stopped snowing since we got here.  About 1.5 ft of snow has fallen since Sunday.  Pray also for the team as we get run down a bit and people get sick.  Thanks again for your prayers.

Dan

Tuesday Update

Tuesday was a great day here in Dlouhy, CZ.  We had Ryan give a talk on drugs and alcohol addiction with the kids.  he shared about his experience as a worker at a treatment facility and a personal testimony on how God can fulfill better than drugs or alcohol.

 

We went skating with a group of kids and had a ball playing hockey with the orphan boys and just clowning around. 

 

In the afternoon, we headed to Pardubice, about 45min away and watched a Czech Professional Hockey Game.  It was fun to see a different style of hockey (far less aggressive, but fast) and hang out with the kids.  We also experienced a czech mall food court for supper after the game.  New foods.  I had a Tex Burger which was a pita with a deep fried piece of cheese( syr) and coleslaw... very yummy, probably not healthy. 

 

Thanks for your prayers.  I'm battling a bit of a cold, so any more prayers you can float my way would be appreciated.

Ciao

Dan

Update

Hey all, did church this morning.  Were all blown away by the Hlinsko Church youth group band... they really get it!  We put together a band an played a few songs.  Jerrauld from SOS US preached as he was here setting up his intern in town.  We had a great time at Church and everyone was blessed in a different way.

 

After church, all of us got to experience the Czech grocery store...  fun with conversion of money and trying new strange things. 

 

We went by bus to Skutec to play hockey.  By we, I mean the Hockey team, Chris and the van keys in my pocket.  Unfortunately the rest of the group was forced to stay back and get to know each other better. We lost the game 8-6, featuring a goal by myself.  Schmidtke shared his testimony and we gave the hockey players an invitation to dinner on friday and a Christian sports DVD. 

 

Things are going well, despite the little brain fart with the keys. Thankyou for your prayers

ciao

Dan

We made it...

Here we are in CZ. It's quite snowy here. Our flights went smoothe as butter and all our bags made it through. We are settling in tonight, Church Tomorrow and a hockey game tomorrow night.

Keep us in your prayers this week as people will be stretched and challenged in their faith. Thanks for all your prayers thus far.

That's all for now. Czech Big Mac was a success, though the Swiss King is no longer on the menu... sigh.

The beard stays, you go...

I had some fun growing my Christmas beard this year and I kept it a bit longer than usual due to it being so cold out for most of january.  I remembered watching this Kids in the Hall sketch years ago and I can identify with the part where he says "my beard is too tight"... There is definately a stretch of a few days where it's unbelievably itchy, and that's where I usually draw the line and shave it off.  Though I've enjoyed and even got used to the combination chin scruff and handlebar moustache as per my mii, I think I'll be paring down to just the handlebar for Church League hockey and then all the way down for Sunday morning...  Funny, though... hardly anyone says anything in reaction.  I usually expect a few comments or laughs, but people seemed to be oddly polite this time around, or maybe they are just not enabling me by ignoring the undesired behaviour... 

The clip below is about 5 min, but it's got a few laughs. 8 days...

Mii myself and I

I <3 Shih-tzus

LOST is back.  

de Motivation

Here's a few twisted motivational posters... I've got the skydiving one at work modified to say "IDIOCY: Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups"

You ever wonder what to do with an old trampoline cover? I did... til this.

I went to college with this guy... he's hillarious.

Slurpee Conditions

For Jan 10, 2009:

Location: University and Bridge

Pepsi was in a great state this evening, quite thick, but kept up to the pace of consumption without drying out.  Dr. Pepper was a joke, pure liquid.  Watch out for the Crush Cactus one, as I got a brain freeze whilst sampling it... dangerous stuff.

Polar Express

We made it safely back from the North country today.  After a gruelling 12 hour journey, we came home to a furnace turned off due to dead batteries in the thermostat... Once I got the batteries installed, I noticed the current temperature sitting at a brisk 8.5 degrees celsius.  I don't know how long it had been since the furnace had kicked in, but all the plates and furniture were quite cold to the touch.  We are up to 17.1 now, so it's a bit more bearable. 

We spent the past week in Cochrane in sub zero farenheit temperatures, so it was a bit surprising to come home to a cold house.  Usually a trip like this takes 10 hours, but we needed a few unscheduled stops to calm irate children.  We're getting to be quite familiar with Walmart's stock and prices now.  We've been to the ones in Milton, Huntsville, New Liskeard, Cambridge and Kitchener in the last week.  They're good with kids because of the golden arches inside and lots of room to stretch legs.

anyways, I survived the cold, only got the jeep stuck once, and drove a tractor for the second time in my life.. 

not a bad week.  I won't mention how much weight I gained, because It'll likely be traumatic to look at a scale right now... 

Lets Paws to Remember our Veteran(arians).

What's the Deal?

Tonight is the second Saturday Night this month which doesn't feature a Toronto Maple Leafs game... since when do the schedule makers think of themselves as gods and try this kind of crap?!? I can harldy remember a saturday night without a leaf game for years, and they decide this month to do it twice! What am I supposed to do with my time? Pay attention to my family... ? spose so.

Slurpee Conditions: Christmas Day Edition

As of 10:01pm on Dec 25th, 2008, The Slurpee conditions are:

Wonderful, but only because it's Christmas... I'll overlook the fact that the cola based offerings were dead watery...  Orange cream was a good choice despite the less than favourable selection.  As always, Slurpucinno is untouched and in perfect shape for whatever unsuspecting victim that may stumble upon it.  

Have a Merry Christmas and remember to check back often for your Official Slurpee Condition Reports, spanning the province since 1994!  Jooje is a Cat.

Season's Greetings...

Yesterday morning on the way to work, they were playing Christmas music on Faith FM... no big deal, until I hear the old standard - The Christmas Song.  "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..."A rendition by some chick from Stratford was the one they chose.  It was ok, nothing special -- piano and vocal.  Then I hear something a little different from usual, changing one word.... that just irritated me.  They found it to be to offensive or whatever to say "so I'm offering this simple prayer"... it was changed to "simple wish".  Not only did it not rhyme, or really mean anything in particular... Since when is it ok to alter an old standard song, one word at a time... I suppose we change some hymns to more modern language to be relevant... Is wishing the modern version of prayer?  It didn't even rhyme!  What irks me most is that this is not a 'religious' song... that was the only word remotely religious in there.  Apparently it's not politically correct anymore.  And for the Christian radio station to play it on their morning show and miss that is sad...  Not that I expect a very high level of quality from their morning show, but honestly... 

I wish that you all have a happy holiday dinner and open festive presents and enjoy your holiday eve services the night before you see all the yule gifts under the celebration tree on Dec 25th.

bah humbug.

Happy Holidays

We did Christmas morning for Silas today.  He'll get enough stuff tomorrow morning at grandma's anyway.  It was fun, sitting around listening to Christmas music and opeing gifts. 

Last night,we experienced the first installment of the annual "Fumble to put together presents the night before Christmas" party.  I was up and down the stairs getting different screwdrivers and my drill, trying to get the stupid ride on tractor together... 

When Faith opens her christmas gift from me...

She'll be so happy... this might just happen.  Men be warned, this may hit too close to home.

Trick question... it was a trap!

Ever get a chill and need to stay fashionable?

Lucky for you, there's the SNUGGIE. Now you can stay warm and look like the member of a religious cult... at the same time!

Honestly, i've seen this ad a couple times on TV tonight. Who in their right mind would dress themselves and their loved ones in this thing and go out to watch a baseball game? Who am I to judge.. they look so happy. Maybe that's what I'm missing...Doesn't she look happy?

Being Direct or something...

So somehow I've found myself in the position of Director of a missions organization. I've been involved with Sons of Salvation doing the hockey mission trips to Czech republic for a number of years now. The former director, Jody is moving to CZ to be youth pastor there. That left the opportunity to take the reins and long story short, Faith and I are running the ship now. Weird.

It's been moving pretty fast, but I think we'll manage to keep it afloat. So, if anyone's interested in being involved, i'm your man now.