Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!

What a great year it was, and what a great year it is going to be! I'm especially excited because January marks our new director's (Dave) first month officially on staff at Ranger. No more solo-office work for Gregie!

Anyhow, have some great holidays. Spend some time drinking Egg Nog, hang out with the fam', and get some rest. And finally, don't get too wrapped up in giving and getting, but rest in Christ, knowing that He is the greatest Gift.

See you in 2008!

Greg's Greatest Hits

It's a winter tradition. No, not egg nog (although that's delicious)! People hitting my vehicles! We just bought a van and someone "christened" it by performing a hit-and-run in front of our Saskatoon office. Thankfully we had a witness and the guy eventually turned himself in. This is the 3rd year in a row someone hit one of our vehicles...

So the moral of the story? Don't get worked up if someone hits your vehicle in the winter.
Just cool off.
Sorry, I slid right into that one.
Coincidence? These puns are no accident!
I better go before I crash this blog.

...have a smashing day? (insert sound of collective groaning and rolling of eyes)

Christmas Party

Well, it's that time of year again... and time for Ranger's annual Christmas Party! Naturally, because you are all staff, you are all invited.

It's on Thursday, Dec. 20th. Supper starts at 6:30pm, followed by some good times and visiting. We'll wrap it all up by 9:30pm. It's at the Youth for Christ building here in Saskatoon: 1338 Ave B N (just behind J.D. Peppercorn's on Idylwyld).

It doesn't cost anything to attend, but you must bring a $5 gift for our inaugural gift exchange.

You must email me (greg@rlbc.ca) by Dec. 17th to let me know if you're coming just so that we'll have enough food.

We can't wait to see you all again... Merry Christmas!

Pregnant Wife Quote of the Week #2

5:00pm I am just getting supper ready....

Jessica: Hmmm. I think I'm gonna have a piece of cake.

Youth Quake '08

I've gotta put a little plug in for my alma mater, Briercrest College. In February they're hosting one of the country's premiere Christian youth events: Youth Quake. It looks like it'll be a life changer, so check it out.

Speaking of which, Briercrest is a great place to meet God and to get to know His Word. For Christians, a Bible education is essential! I went to Bible College for 4 years and don't regret it; if you have any questions about Bible College, let me know.)

One last thing. One of the guests at Youth Quake is Family Force 5. I hadn't heard of them until last week, and I just checked out their music video "Love Addict" this morning. Man, I'm getting old; the Christian music scene has changed so much since I was in High School. Anyhow, this group has drawn a lot of accolades along with criticism, and I want to hear your impression of the band. Watch the video and let me know in the comments.



link disclaimer: RLBC is not associated/affiliated with any content on YouTube other than its own.

No "I" in Church

There is no “I” in “Church”

I love video games. When N64 just came out (you probably don’t remember this) one of the hottest games was Goldeneye. My friends and I would play it for hours... it was the most fun when you were maxed out with 4 people playing at the same time, but it wasn’t always easy to find 3 other people who knew how to play, so we’d recruit new people who weren’t any good. “Noobs” if you will.

One of our friends, Brad, was an uber-noob. He was bad. He really sucked. He got so frustrated because when we’d play, he’d be in last place every time. Poor Brad. And if that wasn’t enough, we’d tease him about how bad he was, and intentionally try to make him do terrible. Poor, poor Brad. Brad got sick of this abuse and quit playing with us.

Ever feel like you’re not needed? Like if you disappeared, nothing would change? Part of life is figuring out who you are and where you fit in, what your purpose in life is. The Bible talks about how all kinds of different people are needed in the church:

1Cor. 12:12-22

The body of Christ has many different parts, just as any other body does. Suppose a foot says, "I'm not a hand, and so I'm not part of the body." Wouldn't the foot still belong to the body? Or suppose an ear says, "I'm not an eye, and so I'm not part of the body." Wouldn't the ear still belong to the body? If our bodies were only an eye, we couldn't hear a thing. And if they were only an ear, we couldn't smell a thing. But God has put all parts of our body together in the way that he decided is best.

A body isn't really a body, unless there is more than one part. It takes many parts to make a single body. That's why the eyes cannot say they don't need the hands. That's also why the head cannot say it doesn't need the feet. In fact, we cannot get along without the parts of the body that seem to be the weakest.

I’ve often wished that I was more talented. How many times did I want to be the funniest guy in class or the best looking guy in school? Even though we can change our behaviour, we can’t change who we are. God gives us gifts that we need to use to honor him. If we don’t use these gifts, we feel useless. Part of belonging is being useful, and each of us can be useful if we follow God’s way, not our own.

Be useful. Get involved! The things you’re good at? They’re not just for you to solely enjoy or hide away because you’re embarrassed, unsure, selfish, etc. God gave them to you so you can give them back to Him. Find out what your spiritual gifts are and use them to glorify God and help others.

Pregnant Wife Quote of the Week

Jessica: "Greg, pass me that box of chocolate bars."

Where Do I Belong?

Have you ever been somewhere and not known anybody? My wife asked me to tag along to one of her work friends’ weddings. I didn’t know a soul, and she just bought a new camera and was taking oodles of pictures of the happy couple, while I just sat at my table alone. I tried striking up conversation with people around the table, but they were more interested in talking with each other than getting to know “Jessica’s husband.” There are a few things that can suck the life out of you, and feeling like you don’t fit in is definitely one of them.

Gen 2:18a The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.”

Now this isn’t just in the Bible, it’s a very important “first”. This is the first thing that God says is wrong with His creation. It’s not good for the man to be alone. Adam was created first, and he was by himself, and it wasn’t good, so God gave him someone to spend his life with. God said “It is not good for the man to be alone” way back then, and things haven’t changed. It still is not good for us to be alone.

Loneliness has different faces: You can be in a group full of people you don’t know, or at home by yourself, you can be alone because no one knows how tough your life is, or you can be alone because no one can relate to your good looks. No matter what it is, it isn’t good. So what do we do if we are lonely? Maybe a better question is “how do we help people who feel alone?”

First off, I don’t think there is any “quick cure” to this problem, and I don’t want to sound like I can make everything and solve this problem right now, but I do want to offer you my advice:

Jesus didn’t avoid these lonely people, the outcasts, the misfits, and we shouldn’t avoid these people either! Being a Christian means being part of the answer to the question, “Where do I belong?” I know not all Christians have it down, but we aim to be people who accept people for who they are and love them just like Jesus loved them. The Church is God’s answer for the loneliness problem, and that is why we are all here. The Church promises a place for everyone to belong, no matter who we are or what we’ve done. In the same way, camp is a place to belong, a place to figure things out and a place to serve. We’re here because we’ve found some good news and want to share it! This is our camp, our place to belong and anyone is welcome. Through this, we bring glory to God and honor Him.

Welcome Back!

So, I totally forgot to say that I was on vacation for the last week and a bit. Let me tell you, Mexico is awesome, and if you ever get the chance to go... do it.

Anyhow, I'll post some ridiculously deep thoughts tomorrow... I gotta get ready for our annual meeting tonight!

Video of the Week

Here's the "Best Of" Stymie video that we played at the Fall Banquet. Enjoy!

link disclaimer: RLBC is not associated/affiliated with any content on YouTube other than its own.