End of the Year for Seymour

mud puddle
Originally uploaded by iBjorn.

Today I decided to get some use from my Seymour pass. I left around one by myself and headed on up. I checked the internet before I left just to make sure it was open. And then on the way there I could not see any snow on the hill. I started to get a little worried, but I figured I could at least have a nice drive, even if I couldn't snowboard. When I got up there, I saw how bad it really was. The entire bottom of the run was basically mud. I rode up anyways. It was actually a beautiful day. I got a few runs in and then headed over to the small rail park. I spent the rest of my time there practicing the rails. I actually got quite a bit better. So hopefully I will be able to do better the next time I go, probably next year. Seymour also got some snow machines from Whistler today. That should help them out if it stays cold enough. On the way down I gave this guy a ride and then had to sit in rush hour traffic forever. Tonight a bunch of us also went to Costco for the opening. They had tons of samples and there were quite a few Trinity kids there. We also had MRD tonight and Matt and I played on our computers.

Dorm Ice Hockey

putting on a hospital dress
Originally uploaded by iBjorn.

Last night my whole wing of the building rented some ice space at the local rink so that we could play hockey. They dragged me along, but I was kind of excited. We started skating around, warming up. It was actually fun to have the whole thing to ourselves. Anyways, all of a sudden I looked over and Konrad was on his face bleeding out of his chin and mouth. We all quickly went over to him and checked to see if he was okay. I went with him to the bathroom, so he could get cleaned up. We realized the gash on his chin was really big and he needed stitches. So then we went back and started taking off his skates. All of sudden he didn't know where he was or what happened. He even forgot about going to get cleaned up. We decided he really needed to go to the hospital. I drove his car and we went to the emergency room in Langley. We got there about midnight and there were only a couple people in there, but it still took a while because there was only one triage nurse working. While we were working this really drunk bum came and was hanging out and they had to get the RCMP to get him out. Finally Konrad went in and they got him stitched up. The doctor started asking about how he fell and was pretty concerned because he fainted and they didn't know why. So, the doctor had them do a bunch of tests and moved him into another room. We were there for quite a while and I fell asleep in my chair. When I woke up it was almost five in the morning and my foot was asleep, worse than ever before. It hurt so badly and I had to wait a couple minutes before I could even stand up. They had gotten the results on the tests. It seems that Konrad might have this heart valve problem, one that his brother has too. So, the doctor gave him three specialists to go to and we left for school.

Weekend at Big White

pat w/ broken collar bone
Originally uploaded by iBjorn.

This weekend I went to Big White with my family. It was so sweet. The place we stayed at was the most ski-in, ski-out-able of all the places we have stayed there. I snowboarded for all three days. A bunch of my friends from back home just happened to be there too. They hung out with us and it was cool to see them again. The lifts also opened early this weekend because one of the major lifts was down. We went early both days and had some incredible runs. The weather was also incredible. The climax of the weekend was when my friend Pat broke his collarbone. He did pretty well with it, but he was bummed that he couldn’t say he hadn’t broken a bone anymore. He made me feel it. It was totally separated, but not poking through the skin. I drove him down to the hospital to see if we could get him any help, but we were doubtful because he is American. We did get him some painkillers and a sling at London Drug. They all decided to go home that night instead of the next day to get Pat to a hospital in Bellingham. So that is as much as I know. I hope you are okay Pat.

My Twentieth Birthday

birthday hat
Originally uploaded by iBjorn.

This weekend I went home for my birthday. I go there on Friday evening. Then I slept in on Saturday and when I got up I spent the afternoon reading. I know not the ideal way to spend a birthday, but I have a book review due Wednesday. In the evening I went with the family to El Sombrero. It was pretty good and I got a picture with the sombrero and stuff. Then we went back to our house and opened presents and had cake, well mud pie. From my brothers I got Good Will Hunting and The Mars Volta album. From my parents I got The Cult of Mac, a coffee table book about people's obsession with Apples. I also got an iSight web cam and have been having a lot of fun playing with that. So if you have a web cam, we should talk. I need some people to talk to. Sunday I went to church and then read for the rest of the afternoon and evening. I got through most of my book, which is good. Then Brett and I left pretty late and he talked to me about one of his books for a couple hours. It was pretty sweet. He was so much story up there in his head. It will be cool to see when it is out on paper. Good luck with that Brett. Have a good Valentines Day everyone.

Happy Birthday Flickr!!!

Happy Birthday Flickr!!!
Originally uploaded by caterina.

Today is Flickr's birthday. Wow, maybe that is why I like it so much. It was born two days before my birthday. Happy First Birthday Flickr.

Vintage.242

Vintage.242
Originally uploaded by iBjorn.

I just got back from church. What you ask? Isn't it night time? Well, yes, church started at five. This week I went to Vintage.242. It is this new church in Abbotsford. I heard about it from someone at school and decided to check it out because we are talking about those kinds of churches in my worship class. I thought it might be empty, being the SuperBowl and all, but I figured most of the people there would be like me and wouldn't care about it. I mean I don't even know the outcome of the game, or even who was playing. Well, actually, I saw Will Smith, so I know Philadelphia was playing, but I don't know what team that is, sorry. It took half an hour for Matt and I to drive there and we got there at five. The service didn't really start till like five thirty. Until then they had a fellowship time in the foyer. I thought it was pretty neat that they had that time to talk with each other, since one of their main focuses is relationships. Their name comes from Acts 2:42, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." € I just talked to Matt though during this time and he found it awkward and just wanted to go sit down. They use another churches building and it is pretty nice. The sanctuary is pretty nice and is decorated with lots of candles. They age group is definitely of the 18-30 age group, although some are not is this generalization. They service started with two songs, "Hungry"€ and "All Creatures of Our God and King."€ The music team was composed of two guys on guitar, a girl singing and one guy on the djembe. They all sat on stools. Right after this was the welcome from the pastor and the sermon began. It lasted for maybe a little longer than half an hour and was on a section in Romans. The church is going through the book of Romans passage by passage. Following this was an extended worship set and communion whenever you wanted during the back of the church. That is one thing I liked about this church. They do communion every week, although I wish they did it as a group instead of individually. Not like I am used to in the seats, but where everyone comes forward to the table. Maybe this wasn't the normal format, but just my feelings. Overall I liked the service. I enjoyed the style, even though I hate saying that, but I wish it could be more multigenerational. I did like it better than Parkside though, one because to the atmosphere, and two because everyone wasn't from Trinity. Although I think everyone there was from CBC. There was one person there from Trinity that I knew and it was her first time too. Afterwards one guy, Dallas, came up and introduced himself to us. I got to find out some more about the church from him, like that it started in November. This church has a lot of the things that I think a church should have and I think I might try going there a few more times.

The First Snowboard Club

the guys
Originally uploaded by iBjorn.

MRD (Mountain Riders Discipleship) is a club that I am apart of here at Trinity. We are different than most clubs though. Many just have BBQs and a couple of meetings every once and a while, but we are pretty active. Every Thursday we have Snake Pit. That is basically just our main meeting. Here we play games, hang out, have a bible study, worship, plan events and pray for each other. It is really a fun time we have gotten pretty close. Monday night Boone and some other guys runs Skate Club. They pick up some local kids that they know form the Murrayville park and drive them around to different skate parks. I wish I could do it more, but I always end up having class then. The kids are so crazy and rad. They also usually have a Club Talk (devotional, lesson thing). Besides that, sometimes we do other things in the community, like or annual Jib Jam and other skate competitions, usually geared towards the skater/snowboarder crowd. And of course we hang out together and go snowboarding (when there is snow). This year we decided we wanted to do more ministry with the snowboarding thing. We have been piecing a bunch of ideas together and came up with Snowboard Club. Through connections made with Street-E (a street evangelism ministry run by Trinity students in East Hastings, Vancouver) we decided to take young guys up to the mountain with our VIP passes and a bunch of gear that we have collected from everyone. The only problem is that we haven't had any snow. Well Seymour got 15 cm and Brian convinced me to go with him today and do it. We picked up two guys, Gabriel and Mike, at the Union Gospel Mission Youth Drop In Centre in Van and went up to Seymour. Unfortunately only the rope tow was open but it was still good. Mike was pretty crazy and didn't like to have us teach him. He just liked to go straight down the hill until he fell. It looked like he was getting pretty beat up, but he seemed to have fun. He will get it eventually. Gabriel had been six times before when he lived in Banff, so he was pretty good. I got him started on doing this little jump on the side of the run, and that is basically all we did the whole afternoon. We got to know each other and next time we will probably be able to have more conversation. It wasn't that awkward though. I even got to have a talk with Gabriel. In my worship class we are talking a lot about postmodernism and our post-Christian culture. I am starting to see it more and more. Our conversation was just like the examples in the book. I was talking to him about how I go to Trinity and how it is a Christian school. So he asked me if I was a Christian and I said yes and we talked about that and then I asked him if he was into any religious stuff. And like a typical postmodern he said, no I am not into any religious stuff, but I am spiritual. I asked him what kind of stuff and he said yoga and some other things like that. Textbook example. I don't know, I think I am starting to agree with a lot of this emerging church stuff. If you dont know anything about it you should read some. It is very interesting and if it is true, it is the future of any successful ministry. Brian also got to talk to Mike for a little bit over a hot dog. The whole thing went pretty well and I am excited to do it again. If you remember, please keep this ministry in your prayers as we try to get it off the ground.