Summer Bliss: Oliver, Penticton

I spent the last 5 days away from Vancouver, and good thing I did, because it's been raining here way too much for the month of August.

Parts of the Okanagan Valley are technically a desert, but I think a more appropriate name for the region should be oasis, for the simple reason that it's not that hot there, but it is dry. Compared to the bloody rain we see on the west coast, the OV is an oasis of sun and warmth. I'm ready to pack my bags and move....

Anyways, I'll share a little more about the excursion in days to come, but for now, here's an appetizer. I spent the first few days days in Oliver with friends.

From left to right: Cub, Nataliya, Saranjit, Alfonso, Sanjit, Jen, Benja, Juan, Erwin, Vero.

Then, I spent the last few days with family in Penticton.

From left to right: Mom, dad, Tanis, Terence, Melanie, Heinz, Cub, Derek, Ralph, Neal, Dylan, Karin, Natasha, Ted, Priscilla.

Weekend's Here!

Another week of work's done. I'm exhausted.

Horrible

Three days ago Paraguay beat Brasil: 2-0.

So everyone's happy, of course. "Historic win", said the newspapers.

Today, Bolivia beat Paraguay: 4-2.

Horrible.

A New Job?

My boss Andreas today said that someone in the Supply Chain Management (SCM) department was impressed with my work and asked if I was available for permanent employment.

I agreed to an interview, but have yet to be officially asked by the SCM Manager.

How ironic. When I went looking for work, I couldn't find it. When I stopped looking, it found me. I think there's a sermon illustration here somewhere.

Visiting Parents

After my massage therapy today at noon, I went to see my parents.

I had lunch there: Spätzle and salmon, and for dessert, my favourite: Blitz Torte.

Usually I take very little food home with me after visiting parents, but today I took a lot. I'll take it for lunch at work next week.

After the meal and a nap, I hung around a bit and caught up with my parents before taking off to Melanie's place to pick up Ralph. He's going to California tomorrow morning and is staying the night at my place tonight.

In the evening Ralph and I went to see the new Indiana Jones movie. Waste of time.

Tomorrow morning I will go and watch the Spain - Sweden game (EURO Cup), and after that I'll drop Ralph off at the airport. In the afternoon I'm playing soccer, and in the evening I'm attending a Volunteer Appreciation Dinner for the OOC volunteers.

Damn I'm Sore

But oddly enough, it's not my back muscles: I'm tiger-balming the hell out of those....

It's my legs. Lifting with your legs sure helps protect your back, but it gives your legs a helluva workout.....

Tomorrow I'm going to see my massage therapist, who's been working on my back since January. He's done great work, and I'm glad I went to a "therapist" for it.

It's Parmesan Cheese!!!

A few days ago I was miffed because I'd tried to make alfredo sauce for the pasta I was cooking up, and the sauce I'd made just would not thicken!

Well yesterday I tried it again, and made one small change: I added parmesan cheese to the cream and butter as it was cooking up in the pot, not afterwards when serving the plate. And voila, the sauce thickened. It was an epiphanic moment.

So, there it is. Parmesan cheese is the thickening agent.

Aching Muscles

I've worked 3 days now, here.

I like my job, actually. It's physical work, which is something that I'm not used to, but which is something very good, especially for me, since my idea of physical work until this week was moving a pen from left to right on a sheet of paper.

My muscles are sore, especially my back muscles. Because my job entails a lot of lifting, I have to be very careful and make sure that I use my legs, and not my back, when I lift stuff.

My job is to detect defective solar panels, produced by the assembly line process. After I check for panel quality, I move it to a specific "pile", usually located in another part of the building. Each panel is 14kgs, and I estimate that so far I've lifted at least 500 of them. Marty, my working partner and fellow soccerino, has been very gracious and taken the brunt end of lifting duties. Thanks be to God for friends like him.

My boss is from Germany, Freiburg. Actually, there are many Germans at this company, maybe because the company has a subsidiary there.

Anyways, it's good to be working again. It's "brainless" work, so I'm not sure I could do this "long term", but for now, I'm very content to be working again.

Solar Panels

I got a job today. Starting tomorrow morning I will be working in the quality control department at a company that makes solar panels.

It's a factory job. Physical labour: inspecting flawed panels, determining the cause of defect. Not my dream job, for sure, but a necessary measure nonetheless. It's a 6 week job that will prevent my work-ethic from rotting while vocationally-undecided. There's only so much internet surfing I can handle.....

I have a very negative impression of factory jobs, because very often the dignity of people is taken away in these contexts for the sake of efficiency and profits, but anyways, that's not the topic I'm on about tonight. And even though I wont be working in an assembly line per se, it will be an industrial context, a world I'm very unfamiliar with. My point is that working in a factory context will be good for me, as it will either confirm my preconceived notions, or challenge them. My guess is the latter, because as is so often the case, our preconceived notions and ideas are simplistic.

In the meantime, I've emailed the bishop of Jerusalem to see if there's any work in the Anglican Church in North Africa or the Middle East. Let's see what he says....

I'm A Horrible Cook

I've been fighting acid reflux lately: stomach acids coming up my throat at night while I sleep. I wake up in the morning with horrendous throat pain, to such degree that I can't really enjoy any foods, because swallowing hurts so much.

So I did some research on what to eat, and one of the foods recommended for this condition is pasta. Great, my favourite!

Problem is, I'm a horrible cook. I followed a recipe today to the letter of the law, and what I got was penne with buttery milk, rather than penne alfredo. I didn't get a creamy sauce. Rather, I got runny milk that I could've drank out of a glass. Pathetic. I managed to down half of it, but my guess is tomorrow morning I'll wake up not only with a sore throat, but a sore stomach too, from all the grease I injested.

So, add a weight-loss program to the reflux. Nice...

5 Homilies in July

I attended a meeting tonight, with the Evensong group from church. I've been attending Evensong services at my church on Tuesday nights since January, and for the past few weeks I've been talking with one of the leaders about getting more involved.

So at this meeting tonight I offered to provide the homily - a short, 5 minute sermon on a biblical text - every so often. They asked me to do all the homilies in the month of July.

I'm excited about this opportunity. One of the things I miss most since leaving Regent is the lack of intellectual exercise. I do a lot of reading everyday, but somehow, it's not the same, without the discussions, lectures, research, papers, etc.....

So, this is good. There will be 5 Evensong services at my church in the month of July. So, 5 services = 5 homilies. Exciting.

I'm An Addict

Last year I heard someone say that everyone has unhealthy addictions.

She was right.

I have some horrible addictions, among which is the internet. Surely it's one of the most unhealthiest and damaging addictions around.

Arriva!

I went for an Italian dinner tonight on Commercial Drive with Sandra, Irene, and Dan. I don't know if I was just super hungry or if the food was that good, but I pretty much sucked up the food like a vacuum cleaner.

I had the Veal Parmigiana with penne in a cream sauce. It went down very nicely with a glass of (dry) white wine.

The atmosphere was nice, but I'd say it has more of a "family restaurant" feel than anything else, because the lights inside are so bright.

Below's a picture I'd taken on a previous occasion.

"Mole" Mexicano

This afternoon I went over to Ruben and Tati's. I've been editing her thesis over the past few weeks, and as a thank you, she invited me for a Mexican dinner at their place.

I arrived around 3pm, a little earlier than originally planned, because Tati's uncle (also her godfather) in Mexico, died very suddenly, and she was in quite a bit of distress about it and suggested I come early to help her think through whether she should postpone her thesis work in order to fly home for the funeral.

After a lengthy discussion on the pros and cons of staying or going, we also proceeded to talk about some other very important issues: the nature of faith, and the meaning of our own death, in light of the death and resurrection of Jesus. One of the blessings of this afternoon was the privilege I had of speaking words of encouragement into their life, and pray with them.

After our discussion, we ate a wonderful spicy Mexican specialty called "mole" (literally "concoction"), a dark, rich, smooth, cooked blend of onion, garlic, several varieties of chiles, ground seeds such as sesame seeds or pumpkin seeds — known as pepitas, and a small amount of Mexican Chocolate, its best-known ingredient (the chocolate contributes richness to the sauce without adding overt sweetness). It was very a very yummy dinner, totally authentic.

After dinner, Tati and I went over the editing work I'd done on her thesis.

All in all, a very nice afternoon and evening. I arrived at home at around 9:30pm.

Lord, bless these dear friends of mine.
Strengthen Tati especially at this time, as she mourns the loss of her godfather, and as she attempts to finish her thesis.
Most importantly, imprint the meaning of the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus on both Ruben and Tati's heart, mind, and body, and enable them to attribute this meaning to their own lives, through Christ our Lord. Let it be so.

I Hate This

I'm sick of vocational confusion. I lack motivation. Don't feel like doing anything at all. It's life-draining.

Breakfast, Airport, Dinner

One of the benefits of being unemployed (or as a friend recently suggested I term it, job-free), is that I get to be present to my friends. I get to serve them in ways that seem insignificant to me, but mean a lot to them, because of their busy schedules. Serving is indeed a true Christian privilege.

Breakfast: I made In Young a pancake breakfast. He came over around 8:3oam. I baked fresh bread, made pancakes, and of course, served coffee and orange juice. We had a great time of fellowship, which ended in a time of prayer and mutual edification.

Airport: My dear friend Clau departed for Kenya this morning on a Missions trip. She'll be there for one month, doing development work/training with Somali refugees. I had the privilege of being a small part of this, by driving her to the airport, and praying for/with her for safety and spiritual growth. May Clau and her group "witness" the work that God already is doing in Kenya, and "participate", even if in a small way, in building the Kingdom to come.

Dinner: In the evening I went out for dinner with Jen. It was a great evening, on all accounts. We went to a Moroccan restaurant, my first such experience. The food was good (dessert was average), the atmosphere great, and of course, the company was also grand. After dinner we went for a walk, before heading home.

Soccerino "Albirrojo"

This past weekend, Joseph took some pictures of the soccerinos playing soccer. I'm posting a few here. I'm wearing the albirroja jersey which my bro and sis in law brought back for me from Asuncion.

Mother's Day In Abbotsford

Yesterday was mother's day. After the usual 7:30am service at church, I drove to Abbotsford around noon, arriving there at 1pm for a family lunch.

We had a very delicious Paraguayan lunch: asado, sopa, and some other goodies.

I meant to write here a prayer that I gave to her (on the back of a foto I printed out for her), but I mistakenly threw away the sheet I got the prayer from.





















I feel awkward at family gatherings lately, for two reasons. One, I feel self-conscious because I am not yet working, and everyone wants to ask me about it, but no one does because they're trying to being sensitive. The end result, however, is the elephant in the room syndrome. Two, I'm lightyears away from my family theologically, and that seems to come up again and again. It's going to take hard work on both sides to speak graciously into each other's lives.

Pentecost

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 2:1-4

The Lord be with you: and also with you
The Spirit has come: another Counsellor to be with us forever
The Spirit has come: the Spirit of Truth
The Spirit has come: He is with us to the end of the age

Flowers

Here are some more pics I took yesterday during my walk to Granville Island:

































































































































































































Every flower stands in astonishing opposition to the sentiment that "Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder." It does not. Beauty is objective, but it does require openness.