Sunday, November 20, 2011

What good datatechs do

Many of you are likely wondering "what is a datatech?" Simply put, the datatech is the person who runs the computer in church so everything that is supposed to show up on the monitors/projectors does at the right time in the right way and nothing that isn't supposed to appear does. I volunteered run the datatech position at my church once every few weeks. The great thing about this (as opposed to worship team) is you don't have to show up for the mid-week practice. You do still have to show up two hours early on Sunday though.  Thus, here I am, at church, with a computer... so what do I do in the spare time?  Blog!  [how's that for a long explanation of why I'm blogging Sunday morning?]

We got some real snow here recently... only about 3 inches... but man is it frigid out there! Last night it reached -30 celcius... whatever that is in fahrenheit. I realized awhile back that, while I'm more comfortable in F with the higher temperatures, I really only know Celcius for the low temperatures. I'm kinda hoping this cold spell doesn't last too long. It's far too early in the year to be stuck with cold weather.  =)

[Sidenote: this week's worship team is mostly highschool kids... and man are they fun to watch. The sound guy who works next to me is fussing about how stiff they are; but they're quite good for being in highschool.]

I feel like there's not been much noteworthy stuff going on. Last night Timo hosted a nacho/nacho party. We made nachos and watched Nacho Libre. As stupid as the movie is, I was doubled over laughing quite a bit.

Oh, here's an interesting thing I've been studying lately. In my current topics in missions class we were studying modern day slavery this week. Here's some crazy things I learned:
-- There are over 27 million people slaves in the world today (this doesn't include sweatshop workers or minimally paid employees)
-- The average cost to buy a slave is $47
-- The slave trade grosses 42 billion a year. If you think that's a lot, realize it's only 1/10 of what Walmart grossed last year. http://www.doughroller.net/personal-finance/10-largest-companies-in-the-world/.  If you're still concerned about losing that free labor, consider the possibilities if all 27,000,000 enslaved people were gainfully employed and had the money to buy from other businesses.
-- The average cost to sustainably free a slave is $400
--------> This includes buying them, counselling/therapy, and training so they can support themselves.
-- To free all the slaves in the world would take an estimated 11 billion dollars. That means that if half the people in the world gave $4, all the slaves could be freed.
Now, does the fact that slavery still exists today seem like a stupid thing? Consider some of the things you buy that are likely made/harvested by slaves:
-- chocolate
-- coffee
-- cotton t-shirts
-- electronics (certain metals that make electronics function are mined by slaves in Africa)

If you're still interested, take a look at this website: http://slaveryfootprint.org/. The state department put it together to help raise awareness of all the ways in which people support slavery. How many slaves are working for you?

Well, that's all for now. Leave a comment if you feel like it, letting me know how you're doing and what's going on in your life.  =)

Sunday, November 6, 2011

My life of late

 Ness and I went to Banff last weekend with another friend, Sarah. Good times were had by all.  =)  Here's a few pictures from our time.
Mountains!

The party of three, on our way up
Yes, we do like having fun

A random car we saw in Banff... Rebekah, remember Worldview Academy?

Sarah and I... and a little patch of snow!

I like heart-shaped cookies.  =)

What do good Bible College students do when they climb a mountain?  Read the Bible! Isaiah was the author of choice.

Yes, we did try on the hats and not buy them... excuse the red eye... obviously the camera did not flash twice.

French-pressed coffee and fudge! We visited a new coffee shop in Canmore, and brought some fudge from the Rocky Mountain Candy Company.  =)  Yum!
Sarah and Vanessa, the city girls.

Oh yeah, the day ended with us pushing the car home... woot.


So there ya go. We succeeded in having fun... whaddaya know?

I don't remember whether I mentioned what classes I was taking last term... and I'm too lazy to go back and check. But this term I'm taking Theology of Worship and Current Topics in Missions. I'm pretty stoked for those classes, 'cause I love studying theology, and missions is my "thing". As an interesting coincidence, the sermon this morning was on worship. Briefly summed up, Pastor Greg talked about how worship is the outflow of our relationship with God through Christ which is enabled by the Holy Spirit. Interesting quote that I wrote down: "You can worship in the midst of any circumstance except sin."  There were another few interesting quotes, but along non-serious lines... "When I grow up, I want to be a firetruck"... "you can come up here and hug a pumpkin"... "are you a pumpkin kicker?"... but those, like I said, were not so serious.  Gotta love a preacher with a sense of humor!

It snowed here on Friday... beautiful flaky white stuff. We only got about 1 1/2 inches, but it's still around. That tells you how cold it's been lately. Seems that winter has officially arrived. We'll see if I get around to putting up pictures of the snow. Maybe later when there's more of it.

Well, there ya go. I'm still alive, still doing school, loving life and the friends I have here, and reading good books. Until next time,

~A