Oh yeah - I have a blog!

What's it been?!? Over 2 months! *sigh* I'm pathetic!

But seriously, I've felt recently that just blogging the day-in/day-out of my/our lives seems a bit self-indulgent.... so it hasn't been that appealing. So I'm not even sure why I'm posting today. LOL

So here's some highlights from the last 2 months:

1) I'm still crazy as ever about my girls! Enough said on that!

2) Things are moving along for our move to Africa. January was pretty intense as we worked on the Mennonite Central Committee application. It's very in-depth, with some pretty serious essay questions. We finally got them all done and off in the mail by the beginning of February. Then, a couple weeks ago, we had our 3 hour inteview with their HR person. It was like a 3 hour personality inventory test - YIKES! Very thorough. We just got word that we are officially approved for placement with MCC. From here, we wait to have more discussion with the Africa department. Those guys and the leadership at The Meeting House are still hashing out details of our placement. MCC has had a few delays.... which means we almost certainly won't be going in the summer as we had hoped. At this point, we are seriously hoping for sometime this fall!

The girls are getting more and more anxious to go, too.... which is very encouraging. I'm sure it will still be hard when it finally happens, but at least they are excited about it.

It seems premature to celebrate that we are ABSOLUTELY doing this - but it sure seems like it. A few more discussions with the MCC Africa Department and we'll consider it formal.

As soon as that happens, we'll start searching for my replacement at the church. That's going to be a difficult process, but we are planning to have a 3 month overlap between me and my replacement, which is incredible. I'm really humbled that the church values my position and my work so much that they will give me 3 months to hand off to that person.

We'll probably still try to sell the house this summer, as that's the hot time for real estate.... and then we'll just live in a cardboard box for a few months. ;)

We continue to do lots of reading about the various situations our African family are facing, and it's heartbreaking and encouraging all at the same time. The situation in Zimbabwe is out of control! In spite of the food shortages and outrageous inflation, part of me still really wants to live in Bulawayo, but it looks like MCC still plans to send us to Choma, Zambia.

Guess that's about all we know for now. This has been a process of much waiting. Good practice for living in Africa, I suppose. Everything takes longer over there, so we better get used to it. And we trust that God is at work in the details.

When we interviewed, the striking thing that came up over and over is how much Arja and I both like things to be within control, on schedule, according to plan, etc. I guess I never realized how similar we are in that regard. It's that attention to detail and in-control nature that has made us both very good at what we do. And yet, that will be the thing that we both need to relearn if we are going to survive there.
I think it will be a valuable learning experience!

3) I've been working on some really incredible stuff for work, and I'm really excited about it - more than I have been in a long time.

Good Friday is always my favourite holiday of the Christian calendar. Particularly since I've joined The Meeting House, I have enjoyed working at producing a unique, deeply moving and emotional experience in which people can contemplate the sacrifice of Christ.

I've been compeltely immersed in this year's preproduction all week.

Here's some highlights of what's to come....

"In Memoriam - Remembering the Christ"
A service set on the day after Christ's death. We have written monologues from the perspective of 6 different people who encountered Jesus at different points in his ministry. They are gathered at the cross in their grief, sharing their memories of Jesus.

We will hear from:

Mary, the Mother of Jesus, as she remembers Jesus at the wedding in Cana.

The paralytic man healed by Jesus at the pool.

Mary, the sister of Lazarus, as she remembers weeping with Jesus after her brother's death.

The adulterous woman whom the Pharisees brought before Jesus.

Peter, as he remembers the last supper, and his denial of Jesus.

And an unnamed disciple who shares their current confusion, and says there is nothing left for him to do except to go back to fishing.

The spoken memories will be interspersed with "flashbacks" of the memory on video (similar to LOST flasbacks), with countpoint flashbacks of Jesus' torture and crucifixion.

It will end as a complete and abrupt cliffhanger.... "To be continued".... blackout.... lights up.... end of service.

We can do that this year for the first time, because for the first time, we don't have to pretend it isn't Easter on Easter! In the past, we've been on a week-delay teaching schedule to our regional sites. But being broadcast to our sites live now allows us to actually aknowledge Easter on Sunday! YAY! What a novel concept.

So we'll pick it right back up again on Sunday with another monologue - Peter remembering Jesus' appearance on the shore as they were fishing, and him diving into the water to get to him. It's the beginning of a service of hope and celebration of the resurrection (duh - I guess that's what all Easter services are).

All the elements are coming together incredibly well. Good writing, good actors, incredible video clips and a musical score that is so powerful that it rocks my world.

And the visuals - they promise to be amazing. The stage will be bare and stark.... all except for the cross that we are erecting. I got two HUGE logs (each is about 18 ft long, and 14" diameter). We will suspend it on stage and light it very dramatically. It's going to be incredible. When I was hauling and moving the logs yesterday, I realized that I must be absolutely insane. At Christmas, the 18' trees were difficult and crazy enough. But now - a cross that will weight just under 1 ton and be suspended from the steel overhead! I'm friggin' NUTS! I'm just waiting for approval from the structural engineer before we suspend it - I'd hate to pull the building down or hurt someone. Good thing we are in an industrial building with steel structure and solid concrete floors!

I've dreamt of building a cross like this for years.... this is the right time for it!

I'll post pictures when it's done.

I'm also excited about the big spring teaching series we are preparing for. More to come on that soon, I promise. We are putting all our chips behind the branding and marketing of this one - it has the potential to be incredibly appealing to the non-churched public, and we really want to make them interested. I can't wait for it!!!!

Let's just say.... it's not about "Jesus, meek and mild" by any stretch. Think Jesus, the revolutionary!

4) Spring must be coming soon. The weather sucks here, but I know that spring will come, and I'm so looking forward to it. Remember that list of things I couldn't wait to do last spring.... ditto for this year. The girls are squirrely and can't wait to spend lots of time outside.... and I can already hear the kayak calling my name!

Okay.... enough update for now. If you've stuck around during the last 2 months, thanks for caring and thanks for reading. Sorry this is just an "update" and not more in-depth. I'll try to get back into this silly thing more often!

Peace and love to all of you!