update from Meryl

Hey Everyone! Meryl here... figured it was time to get my blog on!
Here's a little update...
We had an unbelievable time doing Street Invaders in Estevan, we had the opportunity to learn a lot that we probably wouldn't have just working all summer. We were both really excited to come back to Burnaby and kinda pick up where we left off. I went back to working at the YMCA doing childcare... (I'll let Brian blog himself and share what all he's doing and been doing... so for now I'll just speak for myself.) It's not exactly my most favorite thing in the world... but I must say the walking to and from 4 times a day is great for my calves lol. Gotta look at the positive when you're not crazy about your job!
Hmmm... well Trace and I have agreed to give the BMO Vancouver 1/2 Marathon a go, which is on May 3rd or something like that.... so we got plenty of time to train our butts off - literally. Last year we trained and it was soooooooo good, unfortunately we didn't get to run it together, but this year for sure!
My big exciting thing for October is of course Brian and I will be celebrating our 3 year anniversary! wow... married for 3 whole years - crazy eh... but as great as that is... I have been waiting my WHOLE life... well not my whole life, but close like 15 years for this moment - On October 20th we will be sitting in GM Place at the CELINE DION CONCERT!!!! I'm not even joking, I hope I can stay concious for the whole thing, but I just might pass out! I'm a freak i know. But I seriously heart her... so so much! Brian got me the tickets last Christmas, so it's been a long time coming!
I'm waiting to hear back from an organization that I will be volunteering with that is a group of people who are raising money and support to build an Eating Disorder Treatment Center in Vancouver. The organization is called The Looking Glass www.lookingglassbc.com check it out. I'm really excited to see what will come of this, cuz it's totally my heart to help girls with this issue that plagues so many.

Just so those of you read this know, I have a little personal blog that I update once in a while if you wanna check it out www.heartisonfire.blogspot.com

I know this was kinda random and all over the place, but take what you can get i guess!
Hope all who is reading this is doing well and is living in the reality of who Jesus has called you to be!
Blessings!
Meryl

7 days and counting..!!!!!!!!

so a week tomoro erin, my BFF, and i will driving at 430 am to seattle and jet off to cinncinati and thru to paris, france, and our final flight to zurich, switzerland..

i'm a litte excited now.. WE LEAVE IN A WEEK! and then brought tons of stress - I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE WE ARE STAYING, WHERE WE ARE GOING AND WE LEAVE IN A WEEK! chuckle...so it was wonderful to have tea with our neighbor, iolla, who is from italy. :) she let me borrow a great book on venice and told me places i "must see"..

then i got home and full on stressed - erin, do we drive from germany to italy or train it? after much discussion, we decided we'd buy our eurorail passes and leave out mondo stress! great! we now have transpo from zurich to munich (travel day 1 of 5 with our pass!)















(zurich, switzerland)

we are staying in zurich one night with my friends, who are getting married, at a 4 star hotel - their treat! this will be cool to explore a bit there..from there we will use the eurorail pass and go to munich.






















(munich glockenspiel)

when we get to munich, that is the only part we are still uncertain about.. where we will be staying. will we be staying in munich or outside of munich? the thing is, it's oktoberfest - and that brings in 6 million visitors! that's what i said, what!?!? :) so i asked j if he met/knew anyone from germany, namely munich area from his week long leadership thingy he had in malaysia last year. he said he did! so he will email and we'll see what we can do! :)















(garmisch-partenkirchen)

from munich we'll spend 3 days south in a place called Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a market town, not too far from the border of austria. this is the area in which my friend's wedding will take place..we've talked about the castle in lindorf.. that would be a FABULOUS place to shoot! :)
















(city of venice)

from Garmisch-Partenkirchen we will train to venice.. :) we're actually going to take the train late at night and sleep thru the night - no need for another room for the night - sleep on the train! and will stay almost 4 days there. we are staying in a hostel there.. very cute place with great reviews.. woot! this is where my tea with iolla comes in! our hostel is right in venice, and we plan to go to burano and murano islands too...the colored glass and the lace apparently is really cool..and san marco square and the bridges and the canals..as iolla said, "get lost in venice..cuz you can always find your way by following the flow of people".. so i'm thinking getting lost is in order!






















(canals in venice)

















(burano, 7km from venice)

then we will head back to munich and probably crash at the airport that night - our flight leaves munich at 7am! we then fly to paris, have a 3 hr wait and onwards west to cinncinati and back to seattle.

doesn't that sound crazy?? i actually can't believe we're really doing it.. altho after buying the eurorail pass, i was like, "ya i just bought an EXPENSE train ticket!" so it kinda sunk it! but sooo much fun!

i'm packing light - a small suitcase or large backpack for my stuff, and my small laptop backpack. i know! i can't believe it! whether or not that ACTUALLY happens or not is another, but thinking that is the way to go when we're going from place to place.

so ya.. :) if you have any packing tips, ideas for things we should see, etc, email me.. i'd love to hear them, as we're keeping everything pretty open!

and i will do a daily blog, when possible..how many photos i'll post is another thing - it may NOT be as extensive as our philippines trip..but then again, who knows! :)

i'm going to bed..my brain is mush and i'm going to dream of venice.. :)

anybody else in this boat?

God...
I have no idea where i am going. i do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. nor do i really know myself, and the fact that i think that i am following your will does not mean that i am actually doing so. but i believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. and i hope i have that desire in all that i am doing. i hope that i will never do anything apart from that desire. and i know that if i do this you will lead me by the right road though i may know nothing about it. therefore will i trust you always though i may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. i will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Thomas Merton
-- Thoughts in Solitude

look at this picture

so...for everyone who doesn't live in vancouver, you should know that one of the things we're doing here at missionburnaby is exploring/thinking/reading together, most recently through a book called 'Exiles' by Michael Frost. for those of you here, you know that i'm posting because i said i would. ;)
this past week, we were talking about how Jesus is 'pictured' or portrayed in the xian tradition. and frost made this interesting statement; he said that if we choose 'pictures' of Jesus that are 'tame', we are betraying our own avoidance of what Jesus really said and stood for.
so i started thinking about my 'pictures' of Jesus. I realized that while i've 'imagined' some alternative pictures, i usually conceptualize him as serene, confident, calm, confidently affectionate, articulate, well-groomed, good with kids. more often than not, my pictured Jesus resembles a placid performer...a guy who always gets his lines right. i suppose michael frost would ask how i deal with such passages as Mark 3:21, where the gospel writer records that Jesus' family thought he was nuts. or how about John 2 where Jesus throws a rather conspicuous temper tantrum, violently 'disturbing the peace' in the name of religious purity?
the point isn't that we don't sometimes imagine Jesus doing these things; the problem is that we NEVER portray him this way. none of the pictures/plays/dramas/movies i've seen show this kind of Jesus (unless you count Life of Brian, but that's a different conversation). and i agree with frost...if we sanitize our pictures of Jesus, it's totally implicit that we would sanitize our rehashing of his teaching.
have you read through some of Jesus' teaching on justice lately? what about his railing against religion in Mt. 25? and how about his 'attacks' on materialism in Luke 10?
what Jesus do you see?