ThatGuyLam is the Communications Director guy at Alpha Ministries Canada, just outside of Vancouver. He likes to play with words: 1) in writing & planning communications 2) by frequently obsessing over kerning and leading; 3) by spending remaining free time on Scrabble®. This is a private blog and is in no way authorised or endorsed by Alpha International, its affiliate organisations or National Alpha Offices. Reference to or use of any Alpha International trademarks or copyrighted material does not constitute or imply its endorsement or recommendation. Any opinions expressed on this blog are those of the relevant contributors only. Alpha International does not necessarily share those opinions.
Serves us a wee reminder for Alpha at our church: if you were thinking of attending, this coming Monday (Jan 30) is your last chance to "board the bus" otherwise we will be strongly advising you to take the next one in Sept. http://www.firstbc.org/alpha
Sasha started walking on New Year's Eve. Technically these were her second and third steps, she surprised us all and none of us had our cameras ready the first time she walked. To Mommy.
That's our Sasha: saving it for a dramatic occasion to get us choked up even more, just like being born on Chinese New Years Eve.
A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING We had a baby. Anyone seeing my Facebook must know that. And yes, I know I'm probly overdoing it with the baby pics. Our lives have never been the same. Some of those ways are really hard, and I still come to grips with how hard. Some of those ways are a daily blast of radiant joy, of a quality that surprises me even tho just about everyone told me to be prepared. This too I'm still coming to grips with.A BABY CHANGED EVERYTHING The Christmas story is, in one sense, a baby story of such world-changing magnitude that it need a virgin birth. Life itself was never the same. The road for the parents was really hard. The baby's grown-up life was no cakewalk either. The purpose for the hardness was a constant blast of radiant joy, of a quality I (and many others,like Sam and Charlie here) are still coming to grips with.I'd thought of writing more, but I think I'm happy with leaving this short, and letting you get on this with this day.
Interesting context for this slogan to creep up again, with the Occupy hubbub in London. I think u can click a link above for the article, which is quite BBC.
NOTE: This ultrasound is of SASHA! (A few friends are "working on" their second now that their first hasn't soured them on the experience. While we're pretty open to it, we don't have one of these for a 2nd round. Yet). Advent is the fancy name many church people use for the month leading up to Christmas, the four Sundays before Christmas.This year, I plan to write a short series matching up my experiences with a fresh new daughter with a certain other baby that lots of us celebrate in the coming month. At this point I'm not sure how many I'll do. Probably three or four. I've been anticipating writing this first one, about anticipation. Probably thinking about it most when I'm rocking to sleep the flesh-in-blood manifestation of this ultrasound, which is much cuter and drier and I never knew anything could be so soft or fun to hold. The spirit of anticipation is one of many things that I believe unites us in this season when we celebrate the season once universally known as Christmas. Apparently in some church traditions, I'm not supposed to hit on anticipation till three or four weeks down the road. But I seriously couldn't wait. To me, it helped me put my Advent series into chronological order. just before this picture was taken... It was summer 2010. About a month before we knew for sure, we suspected Dana might be pregnant. At every other point in my life, this prospect was almost pure fear for me. However, at some point in that month before, it dawned on me that a child on the way didn't have to be just fear, that as much as there would be inevitable sacrifices and lifestyle change, I felt released & free to hope for this child and what the potential is for this human being. It was a gentle epiphany, a feeling that washed over me and assured me without connection to a big memorable event or anything. I just felt like things would be taken care of, that we'd be okay, and that now, and not a moment sooner, I was ready to be a Dad. our life now vs. previous anticipations One irony (of many) in my life: although "dreaming things up" is often part of my work responsibilities, I've never found myself to be a very specific dreamer. Having a baby was always a possibility but it wasn't the same make-or-break dream for Dana & me that I know it is for others. With that, the whole getting married-buying a home-having a baby set of somewhat universal human dreams... we got 'em, and it often feels like we lucked into them. In recent rock-to-sleep sessions with Sasha, I've been taking a little mental stock of things I anticipated in the past, and how they measure up to the life I have now. At one point, I'd had hopes for an award-winning career in advertising. Secondary to this, but still strong, was a heart cry to not be alone. I got the first. Technically. I haven't won huge awards or a huge amount of them. But early on in that life, the awards themselves became not such a big deal to me. Quite early on: at the award show with the biggest audience, I won the student award and missed the speech because I was in a great conversation! I'll get to the secondary anticipation in a paragraph or two...anticipations circa Jesus: holdin' out for a hero Back in Jesus' day, Israel was under the Roman Empire's rule. This was after generations of being under the rule of a few other big-time empires of their day. They were a people itching for freedom, anticipating the promise from their sacred writings: Messiah, which we understand to be "saviour" and had the added connotation of a fighting liberator, probably like their new Moses freeing them from their new Egypt. And they got... a baby? One born from a virgin? And then this guy who walked around healing people? Their Moses, their Bruce Willis action hero, didn't come as they anticipated.However, Mary's anticipation gets more positive airtime than those of her people, recorded in what's known as the Magnificat in Luke 1:46-56, a song that seems a direct result of fetal Jesus meeting fetal John The Baptist, who gives a big kick for his mother. The song includes these verses that expressly hint at the sweeping, upside-down reality this Messiah will usher in: He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.
I'll get more into the nature of this saviour baby in later posts. anticipation fulfilled My life's secondary anticipation was much more fulfilled, ironically while I've just about always put more energy into career than family. I don't wax poetic about my love life too much, period. Even in private. And yes, Dana has noticed... This seems like a great place to start putting my heart out there, as I start this Christmas writing: Dana, or more exactly, the life I've been blessed with which could not happen without Dana, that's been the biggest blessing in my life, more than sufficient for all my anticipations past. Again, I'll flesh things out in future posts, but as tough as some days are right now, Dana is at the crux of at least one moment of pure joy every day. I feel truly blessed.
Interesting sidenote: the company I now work for is award-winning, not for creativity per se but for being a quality workplace.let's anticipate So my takeaway in all this is to feel empowered to anticipate... and keep eyes & ears open to how our anticipation is fulfilled... often not as we anticipate. Occasionally, better. What are you anticipating? Time off? Time with family? Someone to share life with? A child? For your child(ren) to turn out okay? For the 99% to get a bigger piece of the 1%'s pie?an interesting albeit church-y summary thought Bob Swann is one of Dana & my favourite pastors at our church, Vancouver's First Baptist. I like him so much that I "cheated" on our denomination's Advent devotionals for this year, skipping to Bob's that happens to be about Anticipation . For those in town, Bob's one of the instrumental figures in setting up the Tuesday night Shelter lineup outside our church. He encourages "expectancy of a blessed interruption", and to "hold on tight. It will be a great ride." Our ride's been full of big & little surprises so far, and we're seeing why it's important to hold on... Next post: a brand new new.
My colleague @BillBonikowsky was telling me about these American Girl® dolls. Apparently it's a new part of his grandparently obligations. Should probably save up, it's quite likely that when Sasha starts asking for stuff, this is what she'll ask for and they're $119 a pop (for doll plus storybook and/or DVD).
I feel long long overdue for posting this story.
Basically, my boss had malaria.
Now, she doesn't have malaria.
And as much as I've mulled over different ways to write it, to me it comes down to that.
I've told a few of my friends what happened this Spring. My boss, Alpha Canada National Director Shaila Visser, was getting these killer headaches. Turned out she had malaria. Was a rare fungal malaria, cryptococcus gattii.
So she checked into a hospital.
And a bunch of people worldwide prayed for her. Lots prayed for a miraculous healing (among many other things).
In the middle of her treatment (about wk 5 of 8 I think), an MRI revealed nothing.
This isn't really supposed to happen.
This meningitis is a ball of fungus near the base of the brain and even after 8 weeks in hospital, there's still fungus for 2 years of drug treatment to work at.
But there was no fungus visible.
None.
The doctor was amazed, and though he doesn't tend to use that language, he had no natural explanation for this accelerated recovery.
So she's better now (still has to really watch her diet and has a bit of trouble remembering and putting in a full day at the office).
Part of it, a big big part, is the amazing quality healthcare we have in our country and in our neck of the woods in our country. That alone is a really good pre-emptive answer to prayer for lots of what ails us.
At the same time, people prayed, and she got better.
...I like how Shaila frames those expectations in the 5min vid we shot here in the office. There was a chance we'd be telling Shai's story more like Rachel's, which would have been very very different, but still, I'd hope, one where we could say that God is faithful.
