23.7.06

church picnic 2006

today (well, yesterday, technically!) ccco held the annual church picnic at Rideau River Park. it was a great time of games, food, and just hanging out with friends for most of the day! it was overcast the entire time, but thankfully it didn't rain on us. the mosquitoes were extremely friendly! a bunch of people topped the day off by going canoeing...... i opted out, but managed to capture some great shots of everyone having a good time!



"which one's mine??"......... "eew, there're spiderwebs all over this lock!"


nathan and ivan trying to balance on their paddles.......


just about ready!


ben & sol.... first ones out


don't the girls look cheerful? ^-^


josh & crew


off they go!


just because......

20.7.06

A Week Later.....


Hooey it's early (for me)! Went over to watch the Fong girls this morning while Michelle trained for her triathalon (go Michelle!!), so it was an early start..... got home at 8, but I'm not quite sure what to do since everyone else at home is still sleeping. :)

So..... it's been just about a week since I've arrived back from Belize. It's been comparatively uneventful; in Belize, I was always up to something, never just lying around, watching the boob-tube. It's really apalling how much time we spend watching TV -- even if the programs are good. I really need to learn to walk away from it. It would free up so much more time! Other than TV, I've been kinda mossying around, tidying up my things. Lots that needs to be done, but I never seem to be as productive as I wish to be. I need to be quicker..... but that's the mantra of my life. :p

It's kinda strange.... coming home, it was so easy to slip back into life as it was before, minus many of the obligations I had before I left (for the time being, anyway). How do I be more productive? (I don't necessarily mean finding a job....) Not that I've ever been one to complain about having time to relax. I think that I am perhaps a lazy person my nature. :p Maybe all people are at some level.

Anyway, I digress. As I was begininng to say before, coming home has been odd. Not because it's been difficult getting used to things again, but precisely because it seems all too easy. It's as if nothing has changed. I suppose that is my greatest fear: is it possible -- in all the time I've been away, after seeing all I've seen and hearing all I've heard -- that I haven't been changed at all? What a perplexing thought. That I have been through this whole process and have been given such a great oppurtunity, and nothing worthwhile has come out of the experience, scares me. Coming home has been too easy. Was Belize all just a dream? A slight, inconsequential hiccup in the monotonous rhythm of my comfortable life?? God forbid!

And yet................ I cannot forget the amazing individuals I've met, the amazing stories I've heard. I see things differently, if even just by a margin. I've seen God's provision and faithfulness at work in my life, if not yet His greater purpose for me. It is my hope that these are whisperings of a greater understanding to come -- that this trip has had a more profound impact on me than I have yet been able to realize.

I'm still trying to figure out a good way to post a whole host of pictures from the trip...... Flickr only allows three albums (and I need alot more!) for organizing photos, and I don't think Yahoo lets you label each picutre with a caption. I may just end up posting batches here, eventhough it'll be a loooong process. That way I can post pictures, captions, and possibly short blurbs about each batch. Hmmm...... Has anyone got any good ideas?