Surrender

Wow. What an awesome weekend. Anyone that was at YC Alberta this year knows what I'm talking about. That was absolutely amazing.

As I have for the past few years, I was volunteering at YC Alberta yet again this year. This has probably been my favourite YC ever. Anyone that knows me knows that I am a technical person (duh). I love pretty much anything that has to do with technology because that's who I am. I was working with the 'street team' as we were called this year, helping out with interviews of speakers/artists and recording video of the main sessions and a little bit of the side stages. And I got the opportunity to worship without boundaries on the Saturday night in the main session.

(just as a bit of a shout-out to Marty Berg for giving me the opportunity to volunteer and help out again, and the team I was working with was amazing, you guys rock!)

It started with Unhindered leading worship. Unreal. Literally the best worship I have ever experienced. I danced and sang my heart out. And then Tim Hughes - I'm going to be honest, I was very unsure of what to think of Tim Hughes getting a main stage spot on the Saturday night. But I walked out of there amazed and absolutely blown away. My legs were sore from dancing. I had lost my voice.

The speakers - Danielle Strickland from right here in Edmonton and David Nasser, both preached powerful messages about surrendering to God and changing the world. Absolutely spot on for what this generation needs to hear. I believe many people walked out of Rexall Place with something to think about every night and encouraged in their faith.

All in all, I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed this past weekend, no matter how sore it made me or how many energy drinks and advil it took me to get through it. I enjoyed every second and would do it every weekend if I had the chance.

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Just to add to the end of this post, I think this quote is fitting. This is from Trevor talking on the live DVD they recorded a few years back at YC.

"...We just want to thank you so very much, we love God with all of our hearts and we don't really care what anyone thinks about that. But I want to encourage you guys, real quick, I thank and I want you know this, and I believe this with all of my heart... that we have history makers in this room. And we have world changers in this room right here. Not always in some other city and not just on TV and in the movies, we got people right here in this room, you and me. And if we choose to not blend in and be liked 'I wanna make a difference in my school, in my life, in my family, wherever I am' and it's okay."

The chapter is complete

Houses have been looked at, an offer has been made and accepted. The condo docs have been looked at, the place has passed inspection, Ryan is a homeowner!

Front View

I have kept this under wraps until now because I just signed the paper to remove the conditions and will be sending it tomorrow, which is the deadline for the conditions to be removed. I take possession of this beauty of a property on May 16, 2012! I am super excited and have started looking at paint colours already. I am in full new homeowner mode, and I'm not even in the place yet! I settled on a townhouse style condo in the Casselman area of Edmonton, so I am close to the LRT and on the North side for easy access to church and able to get out of town quick and easy. I don't really know what else to say as I am super excited and almost giddy. 

Side View

There is some work to be done in the condo (I will be replacing the carpet upstairs almost immediately) but it is a clean and well taken care of place. Thanks to everyone that has given me support in this chapter of my life and while the chapter is not quite complete, I am close to writing the closing words. I am a homeowner. It feels good to say. It feels good to be accomplishing my goals for this year so early in the year and now am able to focus on working on making this townhouse my home!

Front/Side

PS - if anyone is thinking of getting me birthday gifts, Home Depot is really close and will probably be my best friend while I am doing the initial work on this place so gift cards are appreciated!

Stuff and things

Another new chapter in my life has started - on Saturday I meet with my mortgage adviser to sign the papers for my pre-approval and then I meet with my Realtor to look at properties here in Edmonton. I am very excited about this portion of my life coming up and look forward to what will happen in the future!

Mother nature is really having mood swings with Edmonton this winter, as we are getting snow dumped on us again today. I was going to take some clothes to a dry cleaner but now... not so much. Thanks Mother Nature. Nobody likes you right now. Go dump snow in Russia where it doesn't affect me.

As usual, this post isn't an update on my life. But that part up there was. Moving on from that. I've been learning the art of being patient lately. I have always been a fairly slack, understanding person, but patience has always been an issue for me. I think with my job, where I get to "hurry up and wait" a lot, I have gotten more comfortable with the whole patience aspect. Sure, I still like to get things done quickly, but I think I've become more patient with people in general. Although I am still my opinionated self. That probably will never change.

I have, however, have become less patient in a way. When people have absolutely no reason to complain and yet that's all they do, it has become incredibly frustrating for me. I'm about to make a big venture to buy my own place. Financially, my bills will increase majorly. As for stress, of course there is going to be stress. Now and in the future. People need to be more excited about their future and less concerned about what happened to them 5 minutes ago because you can't change anything that happened 5 minutes ago. You can choose how you let it affect you and how you make decisions in the future. Life goes on. Life always goes on.

Saying that you can't be worried about what happened in the past doesn't mean you can't reflect on it. The past is a learning tool. In fact, life experience is a much better learning tool than anything else. Sure, wisdom of elders is great, but it doesn't carry the same meaning as if you went through that experience yourself. If you learn from an elders wisdom - great! Good for you. I have learned some things from people older than me. I have learned a lot more going out and doing stuff on my own and making mistakes. People are so afraid of making mistakes nowadays that nobody wants to do anything anymore. That is also incredibly frustrating for me. When people sit and mope about knowing what to do and aren't willing to try anything new then I have no sympathy. Sometimes, you have to do stuff you don't like to get to where you want to be. Make goals and a plan to reach those goals. Try it. It just might work for you.

This is all the stuff I have to say for now. Hope you enjoyed.

Good time for everything

I've been thinking a lot about the statement 'There's a good time for everything'. Like, is there truly a good time for everything? That's a pretty bold statement. That's saying there's a good time for love, happiness, buying new things. All of these are great. But that also means there's a good time for bad things too, like death or breaking a limb or losing your job. Yeah you can spin it so you see the silver lining (which I usually try to do), but you can take it one step further. By saying there is a good time for anything, you are saying there is a good time for genocide. For hate crimes. For murdering someone in cold blood. I wouldn't say there's a good time for these. Never.

I understand the premise of the saying is to basically say "there's a silver lining in every situation" but at the same time I can't understand how these are the same. To me they are different sayings with different interpretations. One is an excuse, whereas the other is just simply looking for positive outlooks on every situation. We can't go through life making excuses for ourselves or for other people. People need to take responsibility for their actions while looking for the silver lining. Looking for the positives isn't making excuses - it's better problem solving. It's common sense. At least, that's this guys opinion on it.

That's all for now,
Ryan

Religion

I am a Christian. To say that I'm not would be lying. My religion peaches relationship over religion... Okay? This doesn't make sense to me. Call me old fashioned, but if you worship God you are a Christian. Yes there have been terrible things done under the name of God. Does that make God at fault for mans mistakes and misgivings? No. God is not at fault. And because we have a relationship with Him we can get grace and mercy for our sins. I'm tired of this BS people spout that they don't have a religion they have a relationship. I don't care about what negative thoughts cone to mind when someone says Christian. I am proud of the fact I can say to anyone that I'm a Christian. People around the world die every day because they proclaim Jesus' name. They die because they are Christians. To say you are not a Christian because you have a relationship with God makes no sense. An aspect of being a Christian is having this relationship. Get over it. Accept the fact you are a Christian. The world needs better examples of Christians in this world.

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3 Years of Change

My Compassion sponsor child,
Philip Acquah Addison, 9 years old

Today I received a card in the mail. A card that made me stop and think about the past 3 years of my life. The front had a small child on it saying 'Happy 3 Years with Compassion'. I have been sponsoring my child for over 3 years now... and he has changed my life. This isn't an advertisement for Compassion, this is just me expressing what's happened for me as a result of this.

I started sponsoring a child when I started working at the post office and had a steady income. I felt I wanted to start giving back with what I've been blessed with. I chose a child that was in need of immediate sponsorship and went from there. Philip Acquah Addison is probably the best thing to happen to me in the past 3 years.

In letters I sent pictures of myself and my family for Philip. I told him about my life, what I was going to go to school for (this was before I was at NAIT). When he saw it was relating to computers he drew me a computer in every letter he sent me. I've lost more letters than I would like to admit to, but thinking about it fills me with absolute joy. I try to write him regularly and really appreciate the updated pictures and updates on what's going on with his life and family.

Philip was 6 when I started sponsoring him. He obviously hasn't written the letters to me himself, but I can tell they're his writing. I can sense the appreciation he has for me and other sponsors by what his young mind tries to send to me. The thought that goes into these letters... it blows me away. The last letter I got I still have on my desk and the message is as follows:

Philip says that God Almighty is the only one who will look through everything, you and look through your work and heart desires. May you get anything you want in the name of God.

I understand he may be being coached by the person actually writing the letter for him... but this brings tears to my eyes. It makes me think about my relationship with God and how he does know our hearts desires. He put them there for a reason. Philip asks where I will spend my holidays. His prayer for me is that God Almight should give me wisdom and understanding. His drawing, right in the middle of the page, is a simple heart with the letter 'I' above it and 'U' below it. Thinking about Philip makes me think about how blessed I am. But that's why I sponsor a child. Because I am blessed and I am able. I want to make a difference in a world where there is growing apathy.

I posted a picture of Philip up above, sorry for the bad quality. I couldn't get any good lighting that didn't need a flash from my phone and I didn't feel like kicking my scanner in the teeth to get it to work. If anyone reading this is contemplating sponsoring a child, do it. It will be the most rewarding thing in your life when you get that first letter. And then the second. And the third. And each one after that. It puts your life into perspective when you read the words coming from the young mind you are helping to survive in a country where poverty is rampant. You are giving hope to the hopeless, peace of mind to the restless. This blog post may be scattered, but I don't care. Sponsoring a child was something I always saw at YC and BreakForth and wanted to do but never had the money to. Ever since I had a job, and in between when I was going to school, I made it a priority, and I believe I have been blessed head over heels for it.


Update: After checking the Compassion website, I started sponsoring Philip on October 08, 2008. This makes this year the 4th year I will have been sponsoring him and he turns 10 in June.

New Year, New Ambitions

Photo credit: yoesof.blogspot.com

2011 ended on high notes for me. Watching the Canadian junior team beat the American junior team here in Edmonton was awesome. After that I went to the church for an all-nighter (I didn't make it through the whole night though) and had a great time.

But the past isn't what I look forward to. The past is to be looked at and learned from. The future is what should be viewed with excitement. For me, the future contains a lot of exciting things that I know I can't even begin to comprehend yet. There will be challenging times in my future. There will be awesomely spectacular things. The first of these will be January 21 when I get to see the Jets play in Winnipeg during their inaugural season. When my brother and I heard the Jets were back and the schedule was released we started planning to go to a game, and we will be flying there the night of the 20th and flying back the afternoon of the 22nd.

Enough of that though. This year will be a big one for me. My biggest goal for this year is to own my place. Not a rented condo. Not an apartment. A place that I`ll have my own mortgage on. My own bills. My own expenses. I know most people are probably wondering why I'm looking forward to so many bills but remember that feeling of independence when you got your license, your first car, anything like that? That's what I'm feeling with being able to own a place to live. I'm also setting myself up for later in life as I already have a car and a career.

That's my big goal for the year, but I think one statement from a Switchfoot song sums up how I want to live this year: "I want to thrive, not just survive." Everything about my life I want to grow and become a better person through. When I reflect on the past year and think forward to 2012 the word growth is what first comes to my mind. Growth in my relationships, specifically God. Growth in my attitudes, in my personality, in my character. All of it.

This blog post was meant for the first day of January but to be honest I spent it recovering from the night before. Have a good year everyone, I know not many people read this but hey, growth in readers wouldn't be a bad thing either... I might actually post more if I had more readers. Just sayin'. :P