anberlin

Believe it or not the following song, 'Ready Fuels', is Emily and Cameron's favourite at the moment. They always ask to play it in the car, but to them it is know as 'The Zappy Song'. If you have a copy of Tooth and Nail's 'the nail - Tooth and Nail Video Volume 8' then check out the bonus material and you'll find out why. Anyway, enjoy the song...

READY FUELS (Anberlin)

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Blackfly!

Summer is here, but so are the blackfly! Got some major bites in the last week. I can't stand the smell of the bug spray, but I gave in today and sprayed some on. It's a hot one today: 31C with a humidex of 37C. It's supposed to be only 28C tomorrow.

Here's a song you may know (especially if you are a fan of NFB animation):

Dream come true...

Growing up all I ever wanted to do was play football for Rangers. By the time I was ten I pretty much knew that would never happen. Well, today that dream came true, if only in name anyway:

Rangers recruit French youngsters

(From BBC Sports) Rangers have signed up promising French 20-year-olds William Stanger and Antoine Ponroy from Rennes. Midfielder Stanger and defender Ponroy have no first team experience in France but new Ibrox manager Paul Le Guen believes they can blossom in Scotland. "I believe we can improve their level and we will try to help them do that," Le Guen told the club website. "Now they have the chance to develop at Rangers and I'm sure they will progress by working hard every day." Le Guen had a spell at Rennes before moving to Lyon and is currently in Portugal with assistant Yves Colleu watching the Uefa U-21 Championship. The French signings follow the recruitment of South African teenager Dean Furman and experienced Czech midfielder Libor Sionko.

Quote...

(Frederick Buechner in Peculiar Treasures)

To see or not to see...that is the question

So, the Da Vinci Code finally opened this weekend (but not in Elliot Lake for another week or two). The question is will you see it or not? What do you think of it all? After all the build-up and controversy, it seems that there are mixed reactions to the movie:

"...a small, surprisingly ordinary movie." (Ty Burr, Boston Globe)
"How can a film contain so many clues yet remain utterly clueless?" (Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune)
"...an unwieldy, bloated melodrama." (Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter)
"...a dreary, droning, dull-witted adaptation..." (Pete Travers, Rolling Stone)
"Dan Brown's novel is utterly preposterous; Ron Howard's movie is preposterously entertaining." (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)
"The film is faithful enough, but it's hard to imagine it making many converts." (Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly)
"The most startling revelation in the movie version of The Da Vinci Code is the way it soft-pedals its provocative premise and borders on tedium." (Claudia Puig, USA Today)

A Vatican cardinal has called for a boycott of the picture, and the Indian government said it would show the movie to Christian groups before clearing its release. In the mainly Catholic Philippines censors gave it an "adult only" rating. Such action probably guarantesds that more people will want to see it (was nothing learned from similar things happening around the release of The Last Temptation of Christ, The Life of Brian, etc., etc...).

In France, the Catholic Church was trying to stay above the fray. "It's only a film. There are more serious things happening in the world," said Bishop Jean-Michel di Falco, head of the communication council of the Conference of French Bishops. He added that the church was against any violent protest action against the film and declined to admonish or approve the feature. "I'm not going to talk about the film before I see it," he told AFP.

Ron Howard and Tom Hanks defended the film at a news conference, saying it was a piece of fiction. British actor Alfred Molina, who plays a Machiavellian bishop in the movie, blamed the media for creating controversy where there was little or none.

I don't think, as Christians, that we should ignore the movie or just dismiss it out of hand. It is a great opportunity for conversation and discussion. If we believe it is fiction then we should be ready to share what we see as the truth, not in a confrontational way, but by joining in the discussion. It also gives us the opportunity to re-examine our own beliefs, which is never a bad thing.

Cup Fever!

Yesterday in the UK was Cup Final Day. There's nothing quite like it. When I try to explain it to people here they just don't get it. Both games were decided on penalty kicks after extra time, and it seems that both games were very exciting. I managed to listen to the Scottish Final on Radio Scotland on the internet, as there were no tv channels covering it here. I could've paid $20.00 to watch the English final on pay-per-view, but I chose not to.

West Ham figured they had done enough to win the English final being 3-2 up with little time to go before Liverpool equalised in the last minute. After a goal-less extra time Liverpool took the cup in a penalty shoot-out.

The Scottish final was a David vs Goliath affair, but many were predicting that Goliath (Hearts) would hammer David (Gretna). The game turned out to be a nailbiter with it finishing at 1-1 after extra time. Hearts did go on to win on penalties, but Gretna can hold their heads high for making a real game of it. At least my Dad, who is a long-suffering Hearts fan, is very happy!

(Click on the winning pictures above for match reports from both games)

New coach

As most people expected, the Leafs announced that Paul Maurice will be their new coach. For the past season he has been coaching the Toronto Marlies and took them to the first round of the play-offs. In the past he coached the Carolina Hurricanes, taking them to the Stanley Cup final in 2002, losing out to Detroit.

Next season will be interesting and it would be good to see the cup back in Toronto after a 40 year absence.

Well, wouldn't you know it!

I was checking the underoath website last night to find out if their latest tour was coming any where near Elliot Lake (I don't think they have a large enough fanbase in EL!). I discovered that they will be in Barrie and Montreal in the middle of August, but we'll be in Scotland then! Oh well, there's always next year (hopefully)!

Anyway, here's a clip of what I'll be missing. Enjoy...

A BOY BRUSHED RED LIVING IN BLACK AND WHITE (LIVE) (UnderOath)

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6744

If you live in Canada then you will have heard about the Windsor police officer, John Atkinson, who was gunned down and killed in the line of duty last Friday. Today was his funeral service in Windsor.

The service was shown live on CBC and I caught some of it at lunchtime. There were literally thousands of police officers there from all over North America. The whole of the Windsor police force was able to attend as 200 police officers from London volunteered to stand in for them. The fellowship and camaraderie between police from all over never ceases to amaze me. This is only matched by firefighters.

The funeral service was very moving. As I watched I was humbled and reminded of the many men and women who daily put their lives on the line so we can enjoy the freedom that we have. Police officers often are criticised, but we should remind ourselves that there are not many of us who when we leave for work are uncertain about whether we will return home safely at the end of our time there. We should be thankful that there are people who are willing to do this every day.

6744 was John Atkinson's number and many of the officers at the funeral wore black armbands with this number on it as a mark of respect.

The Bible - an easy read?

How often do you read the Bible? Do you find it easy to read and understand? Some of it seems pretty straightforward, but if we are honest there are parts of it that just seem to be baffling.

I got the May/June issue of Relevant in the mail today. It has a great article in it about reading the Bible, called Swords, Science & Steps to Success: How Not to Read the Bible. Jason Boyett, who wrote the article, has just written a book called Pocket Guide to the Bible.

Here's a quote from the article:

The Bible contains powerful moral authority, but it's not just a weapon. The Bible points to a fulfilled life, but it's not just an advice manual. The Bible tells us where we came from, but it's not a history or biology textbook. The Bible addresses many of life's biggest questions, but it's by no means an easy read. To reduce the Bible to these ways of understanding is to spotlight little truths at the expense of the big Truth.

The big Truth of the Bible is Jesus...The purpose of its thousands of words is to point us to God's final Word: Jesus Christ...Jesus is the pointof the Bible, and to read it in any way that distracts from that message is to miss the point.

There's no online link to the article yet, but there is an excerpt from the book at the Relevant website. If you are struggling with your reading and understanding it might be a good place to start.

Outstretched hands?

(Johann Christoph Arnold - Why Forgive?)

Spring is here!

Just a few pictures to show that spring has finally arrived. I knew for sure it was here when the chip van was parked at Canadian Tire last week.