In the past couple of week there were a few PPCF Youth events. The fist was the sleepover at the church on 27-28 March 2004, at which I only got two hours of sleep. The last movie they watched (Bowling For Columbine) ended at about 5:15am. I still don't know what dumb idea made me stay awake with the youth while the two ather youth sponsors went to bed at 3:00am. Though now I have verifiable proof that I need more sleep now then when I was in high school. :-) Pictures for the sleep over can be found here

The second event was the annual PPCF Easter Breakfast which the Youth plan and serve. A few weeks ago, one of the sponsors, Elgin Shantz, said that if the Youth can raise $200 dollars or more by the Easter Breakfast, the Youth could shave off his beard — which he has not been without for 25 years! Since Jacob Yantzi raised the most money, he was the one who go to do the deed. Pictures of the breakfast and shaving can be seen here.

Tonight was the finals for the Waterloo Regional Improv Games in which the top five teams from last week's qualifying rounds compete. Rockway's team was in round three last week, and after that they were in first place but dropped to second after the four teams in round four performed.

The winning team gets to go to Ottawa to compete in the Canadian Improv Games against fifteen or so teams from other high schools across Canada. And guess what? Rockway won the regionals! Woohoo! I'd love to go to Ottawa to see them compete, but I'll just have to settle for wishing them all the best.

Just like last week, I had my trusty digital camera with me and took a whole bunch of pictures. Again, thanks to the no flash photography rule, most of the pix are rather crappy, but here are some of the better ones:
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Yay Rockway!!! (I wish we had had things like this when I was in high school, way back when... :-) )

This week was the first round of the Waterloo Region tournament of the Canadian Improv Games, so I went last night to see how the team from my old high school (Rockway Mennonite Collegiate) would do. And you know what? Heading in to the finals they are in first place – woohoo!

I took a bunch of pictures with my digital camera (72, actually), but because flash photography wasn't allowed, most of them turned out rather crappy. :-( But there were a few good ones, and I'm in the process of uploading the whole batch to my website right now. (Oh how I do hate dial up!). Since so many of them are crappy, here's a list of some of the better ones featuring the RMC troupe:

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That isn't the entire list of the good pix, so go and look through the thumbnails to find the others.

Yes, it is true, I have had another letter to the editor printed in my local news paper. This time it is about photo–radar, which almost every seems to be complaining about. Personally, I don't see what the problem is, as I say in my letter.

Bring back photo radar — it's not a big deal

I don't see what the big hoopla over photo radar is all about.

The biggest reason I heard in the public outcry back in 1995 when the provincial government cancelled photo radar was the same one I hear today: "What if that is not me driving my car?"

Well, that is just an excuse, and a poor one at that. If it wasn't you then it was a family member or a friend to whom you lent your car. If your family member or friend gets a parking ticket with your car, then they hand it over the next time they see you along with a promise to pay it back.

If they are not honest, and you don't find out until several months later when the second notice arrives in your mail box, then you go to them and ask to be reimbursed. And perhaps you will be more responsible about whom you lend your car to in the future.

We can deal with photo-radar tickets in exactly the same way. I wonder if the people complaining are the same people who get angry when they get a ticket for parking in a space reserved for the disabled?

I have little (if any) sympathy for people complaining about photo–radar. Don't speed, keep to the posted limits, drive safe. Oh, and be responsible to whom you lend your vehicle.

On 9 January the PPCF Youth group went to the Canadian warehouse of Ten Thousand Villages in New Hamburg to learn a little bit about what Then Thousand Villages is for and to help pack some of the items which will be sent to outlets across Canada.

Ten Thousand Villages provides vital, fair income to Third World people by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America. The people make beautiful, high quality items from jewellery to flower pots to wicker room dividers and much, much more. Single craftspeople and cooperatives earn money to support themselves, their families and quite often to contribute to their community. Here in North America Ten Thousand Villages relies a lot on volunteers to do things like repackaging into single units the lots that have been shipped from the artisans as well as filling out orders as requested by the local stores. This helps to keep costs low to the consumer yet still provide the artisans with a decent return for their work.

We were repackaging flowerpots for shipment to local stores, and in my Pix blog you can see pictures of us at work.

#1 is Stephanie, Kathy (one of the other sponsors) and Jacob. #2 is Elgin (another sponsor), Jacob, Tyler, Steven and our supervisor for the evening. #3 is Steven showing off the mess on him from the styrofoam packing peanuts, and #4 is that mess on the floor.

Since I got a digital camera for Christmas — a Kodak EasyShare CX4230 — I have decided to display my amazing photographic talents to the world. :-) In the right hand column you will see a new sub-blog called Pix which will showcase the pictures I take with my new little toy.

The honour of the first picture goes to Nathniel Walker, born 22 December 2003 to my friends Ken and Heather. Isn't he cute?

I hope to add at least one new picture every week to this blog.

This September I became one of the sponsors for the youth group at my church (Pioneer Park Christian Fellowship in Kitchener, Ontario). This past summer, I had told one of the previous sponsors, my friend David Sararus, that I would like to become involved with the youth because David and his wife, Juanita Laverty (also a friend) were going to be moving to Indiana to attend Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary and they (obviously) wouldn't be able to continue being sponsors.

I'm not sure why I volunteered to do this, just that it felt like I should. Maybe it was God calling me to do this — I don't know.

There are three other sponsors so it's not like I'm flailing around on my own, not knowing what to do. And the kids are great — I like them and I'm hoping that they like me. :-)

This past weekend was the Mennonite Church of Eastern Canada youth exchange weekend and on the drive to our host church (Living Water Community Christian Fellowship, New Hamburg, Ontario), remembering what these weekends had been like when I had been in youth group fifteen(ack!)-plus years ago, In I started to wonder just what the heck I have gotten myself in for? But you know what? It was fun! Yes, I only got 5 hours of sleep Friday night and yes, I wasn't all that thrilled about not being able to have a shower Saturday morning because we slept at the church, but all in all the experience as a sponsor was not all that different from my long ago days as a teenager. Fun games, a thought provoking speaker and (even though I am not fully comfortable with the more charismatic style) great worship with the 8 teens from PPCF, the 30+ teens from Living Waters and the 15+ teens of the second visiting youth group from East Zorra Mennonite Church in Tavistock.

I can only hope that my being a sponsor will be as meaningful for these kids as I know it will be for me, and look forward to doing this for a good long while.