Los Angeles Dream Center

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Dream Center. I knew it was one of the fastest growing churches in America. Browsing their webpage, after seeing a picture of their pastor, Matthew Barnett, I found myself still wondering who the real pastor was. He looked younger than me!

It is in fact a father son duo leading the church, but it’s astonishing what God can do through what those we may at a glance view as inadequate. I attended the Thursday night service, in the Angeles Temple site. Angeles Temple was built in 1923, where Aimee Semple McPherson would preach to a full capacity of 5,300 people, three times a day, seven days a week. Today they reach the physical and spiritual needs of over 30,000 every week, feeding and housing people. They have a highly community oriented approach to ministry, they call adopt-a-block, and from what I’ve read over 80% of their congregation live within two miles of the church unlike most scattered metropolitan churches today.

How was the experience? Walking towards the church in it’s fairly ghetto neighborhood, you could hear the church / stadium rocking out. It was like rumblings of hope in a place where the poverty was obvious. The spirit and energy of the people there were amazing. Its Pentecostal flavor reminded me of an amped-up version of a church I attended while I lived in Hamilton, Living Hope. The message was powerful, and there was a time of healing / repentance after. Yvz and I left blown away.

This was my first time taking a picture during a church service. I felt a bit odd, butI tried to take solace in the fact that I was a tourist.

Random Updates...

Life has been a bit erratic the last while. I’ve fallen ill again. All the usual cold/flu symptoms and worst of all, fatigue, and an inability to fall sleep. The apartment is a complete mess. After a trip around world to Tel Aviv, Hong Kong, and Montreal, El Al airlines just returned my palm 13 days later. It’s completely dead, dented and missing its memory card. My car stereo’s locked me out, the speaker’s busted, and the windows chipped. The to-do lists are piling up. Lying in my bed, I’ve started informally composing a poem that I’ll finish up later. It’s called… I want to change the world, but I need to wash dishes. I’ve hacked at least two glasses of phlegm today. I’ve vowed to start taking care of myself and start exercising. My wife’s in Ottawa this week, and I miss her.

On top of all that, I’ve learned today that I’m currently taking up excessive ecological footprint. If everyone on earth lived the way I do, we would need 5 planets. How about you?

Happy Birthday to me!

My Birthday BBQ Bash that Yvonne organized

God? Marriage? What?...

A friend of mine asked me last night out of the leftfield, ‘why does the Bible refer to God as a male?” I was a bit startled at first, and then I couldn’t get over the fact that I didn’t have a thought out answer for such a simple question. I decided to just open my mouth and let the words roll off my lips.

I told him that we were all made, both man and women, in the image of God. That the characteristics and traits of both men and women were both intended to reflect who God was. I told him that I think that the Bible refers to God as male because of the relationship He intended for us to have with Him. The Bible calls the church the bride of Christ, and our relationship with Him is so very similar to that of marriage between a man and a woman. God, as the great giver and the great initiator pursues us and sacrifices for us – that we might know of His unfailing love. We receive from Him and are blessed by Him. In return we spend all our lives in a spiral of joy exchanging love and thanks until the giver and the receiver become indistinguishable.

God longs to be in relationship with us, to transform us, that we might have his heart for people and his passion for life.

Speaking of marriage, here’s our latest wedding newsletter, and some links to pics.

Back from California...

I'm backlogged in thoughts and pictures. The travelling was a nightmare, but everything in between was most excellent. We travelled via El AL (Air Israel) since they offered the only direct flights. There's too much to say about our experience, but I just looked up a few descriptions of typical EL AL security like this and this, and you can get a taste of what we got. Yvonne and I must have been prime suspects going both ways...

Otherwise, the trip was an incredible blessing for our marriage... we're both looking forward to sharing and acting out on so much of what we've learned. Here's a few quick pics below, more to come...

Sweet California, I miss you already..

A mosaic of ... Mosaic at the night club site. We finally met Erwin McManus. Check out the sweat stains on him after the intense message!

Us at Monterey for our first year anniversary

I'm Off!!

Wish I had time to post more... I'm off to L.A. and San Francisco...