Just got back from Auckland, went up yesterday. Quick trip. Went with one of the youth kids to patch up his relationship with his pops. I didn't do anything, just along for the ride. It was fun. Their cat spewed on me. Disgusting. It wasn't bad though just kind of gross. I hate cats.

This guy moved in with me for a bit. His name is Sam.

We have our first actual youth meeting tonight. It's been a little slow getting things off the ground because of some communication snafues. But that's okay. We'll see how it goes. I think the kids all like me pretty well. Planning a weekend retreat in July. Just locked down the dates, hoping to find a place to go play in the snow. You know, maybe a cottage or something with a good woodstove so we can go without the proper snow gear, play in the snow and get all wet then go inside to drink tea and warm ourselves by the fire. Hoping. That would be rad. Also if it was free that would be rad.

The worship part of things is getting interesting. Singing songs is easy, working with dynamics of people not so much. I almost got in a fight with this big Maori chap over a stupid little technical detail. It was unbelievable. I didn't do anything but he blew up and said some things to get at me and I wasn't backing down. Fortunately the pastor walked in and diffussed things pretty well. I had a long talk with Barbara, one of the women who leads the second service and she reckons it was a bunch of frustrations he had that finally boiled over and I just happened to be in the path. I don't know though... we'll see. We've patched things up and we're all good but it's kind of crazy. There's other interpersonal dynamics going on also that are challenging. So... you can pray for that, that would be cool.

I haven't really looked into another job yet. I'm making enough right now to survive so the pressure's not on and I've been doing this that and the other thing. I went on a 20k walk the other day. My left hip hasn't been the same since certain "events" involving a "longboard." It doesn't usually bother me any but after about 10k it starts hurting like crazy. So I was limping for a full day afterwards. I'm going to start training, hopefully it will strengthen up and stop doing that. In summertime there's a backpacking DTS run on the south island and I think it would be cool to stop in there in January and go on a couple of backpacking trips. That's what the training is for. I'd like to get up to where I'm comfortable with a 50lb pack for 40k. I figure I should be pretty well set with that. The only thing is training for that takes so much time. My walk the other day was a 3 hour excursion. But if I start hiking up hills and in soft sand with a pack that should be pretty good. We'll see how that freaking left hip does.

Read this book, "the Barbarian Way." Erwin McManus I think was the guy's name. It was pretty good. Talked about how we "civilize" our faith. How Jesus is the ultimate example of "alternative lifestyle." We hide Christ in programs, orders of service, songs even. Church can be such a business. I get frustrated with all that crap. I certainly take it too far you know... I have a pretty unstructured personality so going where the wind blows is easy and fun for me. Some people need structure though. Like these guys who are playing with me... they want to know exactly how the song will go, exactly what we'll be singing next, to have an "arrangement" for the song. I appreciate the reason behind that but honestly it's been driving me nuts.

I've gone to this church across town for the last couple of Sunday nights. It's big and loud. I've met some friends there. Which is good. It's a little ways out but it's been cool to kind of get away, where I have no responsibility beyond myself. WBCC is an awesome church, but there's always something, you know? Always something I have to remember or plan for or call someone about. So it's cool to go on Sunday night and just be. I've come off the transition high pretty well I think. Recovering now. The first night at City Church was actually really good. They open up the altar at the end and this cat Logan prayed for me and I dropped quite a bit of stress. Good stuff. Refocusing on Christ is like a breath of fresh air you know?