Best Costume Ever, Honest
A few years ago I bought a Halloween mask, in the hopes that I could use that for the rest of my Halloween celebrating days. This year, my festivities went beyond the normal college age party, so I needed to step it up. Some of you may have seen that I am now sporting an Amish beard (basically I shave my neck and around my mouth), and I wanted to incorporate the new facial hair into my costume. That really left me with only a few options, either dress up as an Amish farmer, or be Abraham Lincoln. I considered getting/making a top-hat, but then I remembered that Honest Abe is also on the US penny, so my creative juices got flowing.

Not all of the youth understood who I was, or why I was wearing cardboard on my head, but I was quite impressed with the cleverness of it all. Even though most of the kids thought I looked like a loser (that's the essence of our relationship, I embrace my loserishness, and they respect me for it), I won an award for the "Most Original Costume", as voted by a committee of youth. The chocolate bar I got as a prize was much appreciated. All my creative efforts paid off.

   [ posted by William @ 11:12 PM ]

Relevance, never forget
Over lunch today, I was flipping through our local community newspaper, and I saw an ad inviting people to take part in a community Bible study. I was interested, as I generally support this kind of idea. I looked closer to see who was organizing it, and to see if it was on a night that would work for me to drop in. It turns out that it was a Bible Study that I was already aware of, and it didn't fit my schedule. I won't say who was hosting it, but their description caught my eye. The ad led in with these questions:
"Is the Bible still relevant today? Does God still matter?"
I think these are good questions to be asking in church circles, but the questions were followed up with this:
"Join us to see what the Bible says about these questions."
Sure the Bible has stuff to say about those questions, and maybe I'm being too pragmatic about this, but you can't say that the Bible is relevant because it says so about itself. Of course I believe that it is, I'm a pastor afterall, but it's bad logic to defend the Bible using the Bible. Nobody believes that I'm the world's most prominent expert on comparitive sports analysis just because I say I am. George Bush isn't running on the platform, "I'm the best man for the job, take my word for it."
When discussing the relevance of the Bible, or faith, or God, etc., you are better served to look at what the Bible says about the rest of the world and life in general, not about it's own relevance.

   [ posted by William @ 3:53 PM ]

NaNoBlogMo
I have free time and I don't. I can have it if I make it, and if I use it well and responsibly. If I don't make sure that I get some, I don't get any. One good way of making sure that I get free time, and don't waste away the time that I do get, is to give myself a project. Since my course load has dropped from three courses to two, I need to ensure that I use the equivalent amount of time "studying" or doing academic stuff, and this project idea helps to ensure that. What I was going to do, was finish my play that I have mentioned before. However, I'm kinda stuck in the play-writing. I think that part of the problem is that the idea was that the play would sort of be about me, but with a different ending, so the beginning would be more like my actual life than the end. I've written the beginning, and now I have to create new things, and wind together the themes and all that.

Blogger, the company hosting this website, is encouraging people, for the month of November, to write a novel in their blogs. November is NaNoBlogMo, National Novel Blogging Month. 50,000 words in a month, writing every day. It's a novel idea (pun intended). While I am writing something, I won't go for a full length novel, but what I'll do is, write out the story behind the play, and maybe seeing it in a different way will make telling the story in dramatic form easier, because I'll see it coming together in a different way. I will write every other day. I won't be posting it in here, but I will have a link to where it can be read.

This project is for my own benefit, and writing is not my profession or my education, so I don't claim that it will be publishable. While I do appreciate feedback, I am quite aware that people read blogs as a short time diversion, and not part of their regular novel reading. Also, having a huge novel entry would make it tougher to find previous entries that you're looking for. Disclaimers aside, I invite you to read the story as it develops, and I welcome your feedback. Part of deciding to do it, is telling people about it, so that they can keep be partners in accountability, spoken or assumed. It starts November 1.

   [ posted by William @ 5:22 PM ]

He Who Hesitates ...
Okay, so less than a week after I posted about my two domain options, I find that neither is currently available. Loewen.ca hasn't been available for quite a while, which means that I must have been getting some funny information from somewhere. Mennonite.ca was bought up yesterday. I can't think of any other domain that would be as easily to brand with me, so I'll hold off on the domain purchase for a little while. Maybe now I'll just have to put more work into writing that script I've been throwing around.

   [ posted by William @ 10:48 AM ]

Don't Call It a Comeback
I've always idolized the comback as a form of humour. Maybe I am stuck in a victim complex, where I have to indentify with the victims of jokes here, and celebrate with them in the victory of a good comeback. I didn't always have the guts to make comebacks, and sometimes a good comeback only makes you more of a victim in the long run.

Quick witty remarks are also similar form of humour, not in the "What are you up to? Oh about 5'11." kind of way, but more in the sense of wit in response to wit. Almost like a who's funnier contest, or a response to the challenge to be funny. I have developped a bit of repuation in my new town and church, as a bit of a funny-man (I know, it's a surprise to me too). Here are a few of my latest quick witted humour moments, with my words in bold, the context in italics, and the words of others in normal font.

At a backyard party with various friends and family, gathering under shelter because of a persistent rain.
"Hey Will, I invited two pastors to this party, I thought this kind of thing would be taken care of."
"Oh, my deal with God was that everyone would have a good time. I'm more about giving out inter-personal social blessings, not controlling the weather."

In the middle of the song before the sermon on Thanksgiving Sunday, the lights over the pews somehow went out. The lights over the pulpit were fine, as was the sound equipment, so our 'electrical guy' ran out to fix it. My comment came as I got to the pulpit before I began my sermon.
"You can always tell how serious the problem is by who runs off to fix it. You'll notice our electrician went to fix the problem, which is good, because if our treasurer ran off, then you would know it was a deeper problem."

I was standing in line for photo development, after having been told once that I was waiting in the wrong place. A man approached not sure if I was waiting or shopping.
"Are you in line here?"
"I hope so."
I didn't think it was all that funny, but the woman in front of me in line, almost exploded with laughter.

I know those aren't side splittingly funny, but they each got a good response. Sometimes people just think you're funny and want to laugh at whatever you say. That's both how I justify much of my popularity and how I explain the career of Chris Kattan. Feel free to add some of your own witty rejoinders in the comments.

   [ posted by William @ 1:28 AM ]

Help Me Decide
I would like to start by thanking those of you who are regular visitors to my site. I have thought for a while about extending my web presence (this blog was a step in that direction), and the final step was to have my own domain name.

As of the last time I checked, the two domains that I'm looking at are both available, and both have their respective benefits. I've switched back and forth between which one I want.

mennonite.ca - Given my passion for Mennonite history, theology and culture, I would have quite a few ideas as to what would go on this site. It would likely attract more attention than something with just my name or nickname in it. To do the website justice however, I would probably want to work with others who would be able to contribute ideas, energy, writings, and potentially costs. This would allow me to make a different in a certain niche market, but would also prevent me from venturing off on tangents.
Email addresses: - prime incentive to owning a domain name is the luxury of customizing an email address. will@mennonite.ca isn't too attractive, but I could sell/host email addresses for churches/pastors/businesses etc. like tavistock@mennonite.ca or swiftcurrent@mennonite.ca. Or maybe you could be the representative for a whole group of Mennonites, like mexican@mennonite.ca or blackbumper@mennonite.ca. There are quite a few possibilities.

loewen.ca - Generally when people host a name based website, they keep their writings, research and photos there. Those are all things I want to do, and it would make me easier to find.
Email addresses: - will@loewen.ca is of course the best available email address, not to mention being able to sell/host email addresses for family and Loewens across Canada.

Personalization or broad appeal, that's the choice here. Of course if I wait too long, I could be out of both options. Branding myself either way wouldn't be easy. There are no distinctly Loewen images, and the Mennonite theology hasn't really allowed for a specific logo to be developed. Thoughts, suggestions?

   [ posted by William @ 11:55 PM ]

Golden Homes, Wooden Hearts
I preached the Thanksgiving sermon on Sunday, and while much of the prep work was done before I left for BC, like naming the sermon and organizing the worship service, the actual sermon was written in the few days before it was preached. The sermon began with this story from my trip.

Some of you may know that I spent most of this past week in British Columbia. When I travel, I like to think of myself as a visitor to the local people and to the land as well. So instead of living in luxurious hotels and visiting all the touristy stops, I like to live amongst the locals, eating what they eat, walking where they walk.

I don't like to be the typical tourist that is constantly pointing, staring and taking pictures. However, this was my first tip to the west coast, and I couldn't help but marvel at the beauty of the mountains on the horizon, the tall trees in the parks and forests, the gentle waves of the Pacific Ocean flowing on the many beaches and the colours of the setting sun that brought life to the sky.

I attended a wedding in Victoria on the Saturday, and while I was there, I talked to different guests from various parts of the country. Of all the people that I talked to, the ones that were the least impressed with the Victoria scenery, were the ones from Victoria.

The next day, I was walking along a beach in Victoria’s Beacon Hill Park with some people that I met at the wedding who were themselves visiting from Camrose, Alberta. As we were enjoying the beauty of it all, one of them commented, "It's funny how people from around here don’t appreciate the beauty of all this." So I asked her, "Do you appreciate the beauty of Alberta?" She laughed and said, "What beauty?"

Now, I’ve never been to Alberta, but it looked nice at 3000 feet as I flew over. My friends who have visited Alberta tell me it’s beautiful, and friends of mine who visit Ontario for the first time tell me it’s beautiful here too, believe it or not.

Are we incapable of appreciating the beauty around us? As fall descends on us, our trees and forests bring new colour to our landscape. In winter, there may be nothing more peaceful than a freshly fallen snow. Can we, the locals appreciate this beauty? Or can we look no farther than the leaves that need to be raked and the driveway that needs to be shoveled?

This is thanksgiving weekend, and it reminds us that we are supposed to give thanks for what we have. If we were perfect, we wouldn't need a reminder, but we do.

   [ posted by William @ 1:15 PM ]

Back to Life, Back to Reality
After my plane landed last night, and I settled into my familiar surroundings, the reality hit me that I have a tonne of crap to do upon my arrival. I have tests and quizzes in my classes, a sermon to prepare for Sunday, family to contact, and other social things to deal with. I'm not very good at using vacation time to relax. I like to go out and do stuff, doing and learning as much as I can while I'm gone. It's not that I'm overworked, it's just that my life is stuck in middle gear, I relax too much at home, and not enough on vacation.

Anyway, I am in the middle of processing some photos that I will be posting here. I am quite pleased with the quality of the pics I took, and will definitely develop some and keep some as computer backgrounds. Almost every picture has a story. I like it that way.

Some things are going through my mind that I have to figure out, some of which I discussed and debated while I was with friends in BC. Some of it has to do with the nature of my job, what I need to be doing, what can be expected of me, etc. The other has to do with the separation of fact and reality. Facts like the things that I need, the things are good for me, that which I can realistically attain, those facts don't always jive, and recently it seems like they jive less and less, with the reality of what I want, what I go out and try to get, and where I set my sights. Maybe this unsureness is a sign, but maybe I'm just messed up, who knows?

   [ posted by William @ 4:25 PM ]

Trip log - the whirlwind nears completion
So now my four cities in three days is over. I have a day and a half left in Vancouver to unwind before I wind up to catch up on my missed homework and chose-a-faire at the office. Beautiful sunny days all week until now. My ferry ride from Nanaimo to Van city was foggy, as was my time in Abbotsford, but it's been great nonetheless. I didn't bring my USB cable, otherwise I'd be showing off some of my pics already.
Today I'm biking the path around Stanley Park, and then hiking up Grouse Mountain, and then maybe having coffee with a friend etc. I have a day left here, and I'll try to get in what I can. More details to follow, like when I'm putting off doing real work, not when I'm putting off biking.

   [ posted by William @ 1:52 PM ]

Trip Log - Entry #2
It's Sunday morning in Victoria, City #2 of my trip, and I have 3 minutes to make this entry on my hotel computer. The wedding was last night, and it was a lot of fun. He was from Edmonton and she was from various parts of Ontario, so the wedding was small, but those who came enjoyed themselves. I was pleasantly surprised by how cool Les is, and I know that he and Bec will be happy. More to say about the wedding later.

The wedding started at 4, so we had some extra time to walk around Victoria. We visited Bastion square, and I showed everyone the haunted tunnel. As I was showing a few friends, another guy walked by and said, "Be careful, it's haunted." We were quite amused, but we didn't see any ghosts.

I am busy filling up my camera. I am over half full, so I'll hopefully get all the pictures in that I wanted to take. Tonight to Nanaimo, tomorrow to Abbotsford and some Vancouver area hiking/biking on Wednesday, should be fun.

   [ posted by William @ 10:56 AM ]

Trip log - day one
So I'm in Vancouver, and all is well. I had a fun flight with WestJet, well it was supposed to be fun with all the yucking it up that the flight attendants were doing, but really, how much fun could it be. I got a middle seat, so I couldn't move readily like I wanted, and the guy behind me talked loudly and incessantly about how much he knew about airplanes.
Otherwise, the trip has been great. I got off the plane, and navigated myself to my friend's workplace, and then using her bike, rolled my sorry self around this strange city. Today we are planning to bike around Stanley Park and take the ferry over to the island. I lucked out as far as weather goes, and now that the bathroom is free, I'm going to do that and go outside and enjoy the outdoors, instead of sitting here telling you guys about.

   [ posted by William @ 1:32 PM ]