Vancouver - day 5

Kayaking in the ocean...This is "Deep Cove" where we spent most of our day...
We took two double kayaks into Deep Cove this morning, which is just East of the English Bay. It was probably the most beautiful thing we've seen since we've been up here. This first pic is from the back of our kayak.There are seals and sea lions in the ocean bay that we were kayaking in, we saw a couple in the water with us but they were too fast to get a good picture of. These four bay seals were just hanging out soaking up the sun. They didn't mind us at all and actually allowed us to get really close, it was great.

peace,
glo

Vancouver - Day 4

We started the day by going to Tara and Caleb's church here in Vancouver and then we were off to Queen Elizabeth park to have a picnic with their Canadian grandma. There is a botanical garden there in what used to be a rock quarry, it was gorgeous. This is a picture we took in the botanical garden with Tara and Caleb. It was a great afternoon.
After the picnic in the park we went to the Vancouver Aquarium. It's famous for the otters that hold hands while they're floating in the water. We saw the famous otters, they weren't holding hands, but were very playful. The aquarium was amazing, it was just as good as the one in Chicago, if not better. This is a picture I took of some of the jellyfish from one of many of the displays they had. The most entertaining part was definitely the feeding of the sea lion. He was huge and we just happened to be waking by when they were getting ready to feed them, it was great.OH YEAH! Here's what we're having for dessert tonight. They have a place that only sells gourmet cupcakes and they are supposed to be amazing, we haven't had them yet. They actually sell cupcakes in that little shop that are big enough to feed three people.

peace,
glo

Vancouver - Day 3

Today was a great day! We started the morning off by having breakfast with some friends of Tara and Caleb's in their apartment in downtown Vancouver, there was a golf course right across the street, so the view was beautiful. If you look at the picture below you'll notice all the electrical lines in the intersection. Almost all the buses for mass transit in Vancouver are electric, it's a very clean city.
After breakfast we went to Lighthouse park in West Vancouver. It's a wonderful natural park that is on the side of a mountain in an "old growth" forest the meets right up against the ocean. We took picnic stuff with us on our hike and below is the view we were able to enjoy while eating our lunch together. Caleb and I got to climb out on the rocks and I saw a seal swimming in the ocean right underneath us when we were eating. It's been absolutely beautiful all day today, mid 70's and partly cloudy.
After lunch we headed to Lynn Cove. It's a old forest in East Vancouver that has one of the most beautiful waterfalls I've ever seen. That wasn't the most exciting part of the afternoon though. In order to get back to the waterfall you have to walk across this crazy suspension bridge that is over 150 feet up in the air over a ravine with a creek running through the middle of it. I don't like heights, so it wasn't the most pleasant experience for me, especially when a mother in front of me had the wonderful idea to jump up and down on the bridge to make it swing back and forth. It was pretty much the closest I've come to vomiting in about two years. Below is a picture I took while panicking on the suspension bridge...Tonight we are headed off to see a fireworks show put on by Canada, yeah the country. They have an international competition every year and it's supposed to be amazing, tonight is Canada's turn to represent so we're going to go check them out.

peace,
glo

Vancouver - Day 2

Here's the update from our adventures today...

This is Commercial Street, it's an awesome little part of Vancouver that has some great unique shops that my wife loved and some awesome ethnic restaurants that I loved, we had Cuban food for lunch today from a place called "The Havana", it was great.





Vancouver has the second largest "China Town" in North America, so we went there. Actually over 50% of the population in Vancouver is Asian, pretty cool!
We finished up the day playing the greatest game on Earth. Ultimate Frisbee! I quickly came to the realization that I am no longer young and fast. Ultimate Frisbee + Me + Seminary students = Me breathing really hard and not running very much. We had a great game of 5 on 5 going with students from Regent Seminary. There were two players from Australia, one from England, two from Japan, two native Vancouver residents and three of us Americans, it was great!

I think we're going to finish up tonight after dinner by walking along the Frasier River...

peace,
glo

Vancouver - Day 1

So Vancouver is absolutely one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Here's a few images from our first 24 hours here...

This is the cottage we are staying in. We are literally surrounded by a botanical garden, the temperature was in the 70's all day, we were able to sleep with the windows open, wake up to the birds chirping and horses walking down the road beside our cottage...it was simply amazing.
















My friend Caleb and I walking in the ocean, it was low tide so we were able to walk really far out into the ocean without it getting above our knees.


Here's the forest we walked through, there are over 30 miles of trails for walking, running or riding your bike through this amazing forest. Some of the trees are over 100 feet tall, it was one of the most amazing places I've ever been to.








Check back tomorrow for more pictures from our adventures north of the border...

caio,
glo

The Big Announcement!

So we went in today to see if we're having a baby boy or baby girl...

and







we're




having


a


baby













girl!!!!!!!

prayerfully consider? Whatever.

The New Testament writers tell us that God never "leaves or forsakes" us, no matter what life circumstance we may be going through. I know I've been through a few storms that have made that difficult to believe and I know others who have had the same experience or are having a similar experience right now spiritually speaking. So I've been thinking about it for a while and I keep thinking about the people that didn't recognize Jesus after His resurrection, more specifically three instances that have stuck in my mind. I wanted to share my thoughts on the first instance today...I'll post about the other two in the days to come.

1. Peter went back to fishing. (John 21:1-11) To be fair, none of the other disciples recognized Jesus either. I don't believe that it was because Jesus had put on some spiritual mask or something that prevented them from recognizing Him. I think it's just as simple as they were out on the water and He was standing at the sea shore and they just couldn't recognize Him from how far out they were. These guys had all seen amazing things while they were with Jesus for 3 years and here they were just hanging out, fishing because they really didn't have anything better to do. I can't help but think they were probably just apathetic because they didn't have any specific direction. I think too many of us don't realize that God is right here with us, wanting to speak into our lives, to give us purpose and direction...but we're too apathetic to do anything about it, so we just go back to doing whatever it was we were doing before.

I'm probably coming at this from this perspective because of a book I've been reading by Erwin McMannus. In it, he talks about a friend of his who graduated from seminary and was prayerfully considering which option to take of all the job opportunities that his education had afforded him. His friend was talking about how he kept waiting for God to give him the "green light" so he wouldn't fall out of the will of God and offend His sovereignty. McMannus makes a great counter to his friends position. He simply asks him why he thinks he would offend the sovereignty of God? Did Hitler or Stalin affect the sovereignty of God with any of the choices they made? Of course not. God is still God. So, if someone with such evil motivations as that couldn't hurt God's sovereignty why do we think that we might do that by simply following our hearts if we have a genuine and living relationship with God?

A more simple way to put it is this. We already have the green light, just go. Augustine said it best when he said "Love, then do what you please." How often have we missed opportunities because we were sitting on our butts "prayerfully considering" something. What does that even mean? If we have a relationship with God through Christ then we shouldn't have to have a prayer meeting every time something comes up that we want to do. If God doesn't want us to do it, He'll stop us. I can't help but think when someone tells me they'll have to prayerfully consider something for two weeks that they probably need to learn how to pray first. I understand using wisdom and not rushing into things, but if we have failed it hasn't been on that side of the fence...

Jesus
simply
said
GO.

peace,
glo