A Different Kind of Weekend
My typical weekend is spent at home by myself watching movies and playing games, except for time I'm out at the church service on Sunday mornings. Well this weekend I hardly spent any time at home at all.
Friday night was almost a normal Friday night for me. After supper I went and rented some movies - Napoleon Dynamite, Gossip, Meet Joe Black, and Star Wars Episode 1. However I didn't end up watching any of those movies like I normally would. I gamed with some friends online and then I started getting ready for my plans on Saturday.
On Saturday six of us hauled our computers into the church basement to have a LAN party (aka geek-fest if you ask the girls). Steve and I got to the church at around 9:30am to start setting up for the event and I didn't get home until after 10pm. We spent the day playing computer games, basically running around in virtual worlds shooting each other. I have heard many stories about how much work LAN parties are, but I had never been involved in one with more than 3 people. And it was kind of amazing how much a difference three more people can make. I pretty much spent half the event going from guy to guy, making sure everything was working okay. A couple of the guys left at around six so we stopped playing at that point, ordered some pizza and then watched "Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow" on the projector in the sanctuary. Over all it was a great day and everyone enjoyed themselves. I'm sure it won't be too much longer before we plan another one.
Yesterday, Sunday, I again was not home between the hours of 9:30am and 10:30pm. Everything seemed to be pretty normal until after the church service. Because it was SuperBowl Sunday, our college and careers Bible study was moved from Sunday evening to right after the morning service. During the last week we read the first too chapters of a book called Messy Spirituality. The discussion was pretty interesting as the book said some pretty radical things. Most of us Christians are pretty poor Christians. We don't pray 24/7 and we still mess up a lot. But for some stupid reason we try and act like we have everything together. I mean when was the last time I gave an honest answer when someone asked me how I was doing on a Sunday morning? Anyway, the first two chapters resonated with all of us because it told us that it was okay that we weren't perfect - as long as we are genuinely trying and desiring to become more like Christ and asking for forgiveness for all the times we do slip up it's okay.
Well it turned out that one of the guys (Ian) at the study was in bit of a mess with a girl he was seeing. Ian basically started dating a girl who was already living with another guy. Ian knew he had to break it off with her but he was scared. So a few of us prayed for him to finally have the courage to go through with the breakup. Well it didn't end with just prayer as Ian was quickly passed a phone so he could call her to arrange a meet. After arranging the meet he was afraid he still wouldn't be able to go through with it because he had tried a few times already. So Steve and I went with him to Tim Horton's and waited with him for her to arrive. Obviously the three of us didn't want her to know we were together so around when she was supposed to come Ian moved to another table. When she finally did come he got up and went and The Talk with her outside. When Ian came back in he had a big smile on his face and you could see the weight on his shoulders was a lot lighter now that he had finally broken it off with her. Apparently she took it really well. But he still has to deal with her original boyfriend since he was pretty furious when he found out they were seeing each other. Apparently the guy smashed up a pretty expensive electric guitar when he found out. So the consequences of Ian's actions aren't quite over for him yet.
After all that we went to Steve's place to help him clean up since he was having people over to watch the SuperBowl. The party went pretty well. Some old friends from out of town surprised Steve by showing up just at kick-off time. I would have preferred to do something other than watch football, but it was all good. We had about 12 people there at one point. Good thing Steve borrowed a projector from church cause watching the game on his 13" TV would have been brutal so say the least.
So yeah.... that was one busy and interesting weekend. Everything should be back to normal next weekend as some people will be away, but we, the band, will be doing the music for the evening service for the first time since we agreed to do it every Sunday night. Here's hoping that everyone will make it to practice on Thursday.
Matthew.
Friday night was almost a normal Friday night for me. After supper I went and rented some movies - Napoleon Dynamite, Gossip, Meet Joe Black, and Star Wars Episode 1. However I didn't end up watching any of those movies like I normally would. I gamed with some friends online and then I started getting ready for my plans on Saturday.
On Saturday six of us hauled our computers into the church basement to have a LAN party (aka geek-fest if you ask the girls). Steve and I got to the church at around 9:30am to start setting up for the event and I didn't get home until after 10pm. We spent the day playing computer games, basically running around in virtual worlds shooting each other. I have heard many stories about how much work LAN parties are, but I had never been involved in one with more than 3 people. And it was kind of amazing how much a difference three more people can make. I pretty much spent half the event going from guy to guy, making sure everything was working okay. A couple of the guys left at around six so we stopped playing at that point, ordered some pizza and then watched "Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow" on the projector in the sanctuary. Over all it was a great day and everyone enjoyed themselves. I'm sure it won't be too much longer before we plan another one.
Yesterday, Sunday, I again was not home between the hours of 9:30am and 10:30pm. Everything seemed to be pretty normal until after the church service. Because it was SuperBowl Sunday, our college and careers Bible study was moved from Sunday evening to right after the morning service. During the last week we read the first too chapters of a book called Messy Spirituality. The discussion was pretty interesting as the book said some pretty radical things. Most of us Christians are pretty poor Christians. We don't pray 24/7 and we still mess up a lot. But for some stupid reason we try and act like we have everything together. I mean when was the last time I gave an honest answer when someone asked me how I was doing on a Sunday morning? Anyway, the first two chapters resonated with all of us because it told us that it was okay that we weren't perfect - as long as we are genuinely trying and desiring to become more like Christ and asking for forgiveness for all the times we do slip up it's okay.
Well it turned out that one of the guys (Ian) at the study was in bit of a mess with a girl he was seeing. Ian basically started dating a girl who was already living with another guy. Ian knew he had to break it off with her but he was scared. So a few of us prayed for him to finally have the courage to go through with the breakup. Well it didn't end with just prayer as Ian was quickly passed a phone so he could call her to arrange a meet. After arranging the meet he was afraid he still wouldn't be able to go through with it because he had tried a few times already. So Steve and I went with him to Tim Horton's and waited with him for her to arrive. Obviously the three of us didn't want her to know we were together so around when she was supposed to come Ian moved to another table. When she finally did come he got up and went and The Talk with her outside. When Ian came back in he had a big smile on his face and you could see the weight on his shoulders was a lot lighter now that he had finally broken it off with her. Apparently she took it really well. But he still has to deal with her original boyfriend since he was pretty furious when he found out they were seeing each other. Apparently the guy smashed up a pretty expensive electric guitar when he found out. So the consequences of Ian's actions aren't quite over for him yet.
After all that we went to Steve's place to help him clean up since he was having people over to watch the SuperBowl. The party went pretty well. Some old friends from out of town surprised Steve by showing up just at kick-off time. I would have preferred to do something other than watch football, but it was all good. We had about 12 people there at one point. Good thing Steve borrowed a projector from church cause watching the game on his 13" TV would have been brutal so say the least.
So yeah.... that was one busy and interesting weekend. Everything should be back to normal next weekend as some people will be away, but we, the band, will be doing the music for the evening service for the first time since we agreed to do it every Sunday night. Here's hoping that everyone will make it to practice on Thursday.
Matthew.
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