Christmas Email
Here is a copy of My Christmas email I sent out this year. (It's kind of late now but I figured I'd post it anyways).
Hello all,
Merry Christmas everyone. Welcome to the second annual Joel Christmas/New Years email. I hope you're all having a good time this season. I figure I'd Let people know what I've been thinking about recently (Christmas) and what's been going on in my life this past year.
This years email is rather long, sorry about that. I'll try to keep it shorter next year. In the mean time if you would rather not receive this yearly email please let me know and I'll take your name of the list.
Christmas Message
As Christmas approaches I have begun to think a little about Christmas and what it means. Christmas seems to be a really crazy time of year with many social gatherings and general busyness. Sometimes it seems to me that I get so caught up in all the activities of the season that I feel I've missed something important. It seems there is a large build up to something and then when Christmas passes by I look back and think "Did I just miss something?"
If we look back at the first Christmas if you will things were equally crazy back then. As it says in Luke 2:1 "In those days Ceaser Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world." Because of this decree, everyone had to go to their own towns which meant huge crowds of people all in one place. (Kind of reminds of you of a shopping mall around Christmas doesn't it? ) In fact there were so many people coming back to their home towns, that some of them found it hard to find a place to stay.
During all this chaos, a baby is born in a manger. I guess the response back then was, as it is often to day for many people today, "So what, Babies are born all the time why should I care?". And you know something, this is an important question even if it is sometimes asked with the wrong motives. This is the kind of question I have been asking especially at the end of the year. Why should I care about celebrating
the birth of Jesus? At Christmas people will often go through the whole life of Jesus. However, I think we should slow down and celebrate the birth of Jesus without rushing into the rest of his life.
After a child is born, it doesn't seem to do much other then cry, sleep, eat, poo and pee. Are these "activities" the kinds of things we should be celebrating? No, I think one of the greatest things that a baby offers is hope for the future even when things look difficult now. There is hope that in the future, the child will have a positive affect on the world around it. And this is especially true of Jesus. In fact when he was born the angels said to the shepherds in the fields (Luke 2:10b-11) "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news and great joy that will be for all people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
And so we have a choice. Either we can let Christmas rush by us as it did to most people in the fist century and feel like we've been cheated in some way, or we can choose to remember that Jesus was born into this world so that [we] may have life and have it to the full. (John 10:10b)
My Life
This last year has been fairly busy. Recently I spent a week down in Florida for a double wedding and hung around with cousins. I've also recently moved out into Burnaby right across the street from the church I do my part time youth Pastoring work at. All this is on top of my regular busy schedule of ull-time work at UTStarcom in software development along with part time youth pastoring work along with the occasional swing dance here and there. The work at UTStarcom is going well. I really enjoy the people there and there is a lot to learn. One of our largest customers was happy with our product. This should make things easier for the next year. Things seem fairly stable so far but sometimes things seem a little slow. I'm hopping to be a bit more challenged in the new year in terms of the work I do.
The youth work at the church is going well. We've got a youth web forum up and I've started a Bible study for youth last October which is in addtion to the by-weekly activites and Sunday School. I'm getting to know the youth a lot more and they're getting to know me more.
Moving out has had it's own set of challenges. Now there are more things to do such as cleaning and cooking. I'm also not totally unpacked nor do I have everything quite where I want it. This will probably take a little time.
I've done a fair bit of swing dancing and some ballroom dancing in the summer but I've done far less in the fall since I've got youth activities and social activities often on Saturday evenings. Saturday also happens to be the regular night here for swing dancing. Here are some new years resolutions I've been thinking about
1. Get fully settled into my place in Burnaby (stuff organized,
unpacked and cleaned)
2. Work on a larger project at work and be more focused.
3. Find ways to connect with all the youth be they new to the christian
faith or long time church goers
4. Get more help with the youth
5. Find something fun to do and do it regularly
6. Find a group of people that I can lean on for support (probably a
bible study of some sort)
7. Get connected to the Burnaby community and my neighbours.
8. Grow in my Faith in God.
I should get some sleep now but I hope that you all have a Merry
Christmas and a Happy New year. Hopefully we'll run into each other
sometime in the new year.
Hello all,
Merry Christmas everyone. Welcome to the second annual Joel Christmas/New Years email. I hope you're all having a good time this season. I figure I'd Let people know what I've been thinking about recently (Christmas) and what's been going on in my life this past year.
This years email is rather long, sorry about that. I'll try to keep it shorter next year. In the mean time if you would rather not receive this yearly email please let me know and I'll take your name of the list.
Christmas Message
As Christmas approaches I have begun to think a little about Christmas and what it means. Christmas seems to be a really crazy time of year with many social gatherings and general busyness. Sometimes it seems to me that I get so caught up in all the activities of the season that I feel I've missed something important. It seems there is a large build up to something and then when Christmas passes by I look back and think "Did I just miss something?"
If we look back at the first Christmas if you will things were equally crazy back then. As it says in Luke 2:1 "In those days Ceaser Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world." Because of this decree, everyone had to go to their own towns which meant huge crowds of people all in one place. (Kind of reminds of you of a shopping mall around Christmas doesn't it? ) In fact there were so many people coming back to their home towns, that some of them found it hard to find a place to stay.
During all this chaos, a baby is born in a manger. I guess the response back then was, as it is often to day for many people today, "So what, Babies are born all the time why should I care?". And you know something, this is an important question even if it is sometimes asked with the wrong motives. This is the kind of question I have been asking especially at the end of the year. Why should I care about celebrating
the birth of Jesus? At Christmas people will often go through the whole life of Jesus. However, I think we should slow down and celebrate the birth of Jesus without rushing into the rest of his life.
After a child is born, it doesn't seem to do much other then cry, sleep, eat, poo and pee. Are these "activities" the kinds of things we should be celebrating? No, I think one of the greatest things that a baby offers is hope for the future even when things look difficult now. There is hope that in the future, the child will have a positive affect on the world around it. And this is especially true of Jesus. In fact when he was born the angels said to the shepherds in the fields (Luke 2:10b-11) "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news and great joy that will be for all people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
And so we have a choice. Either we can let Christmas rush by us as it did to most people in the fist century and feel like we've been cheated in some way, or we can choose to remember that Jesus was born into this world so that [we] may have life and have it to the full. (John 10:10b)
My Life
This last year has been fairly busy. Recently I spent a week down in Florida for a double wedding and hung around with cousins. I've also recently moved out into Burnaby right across the street from the church I do my part time youth Pastoring work at. All this is on top of my regular busy schedule of ull-time work at UTStarcom in software development along with part time youth pastoring work along with the occasional swing dance here and there. The work at UTStarcom is going well. I really enjoy the people there and there is a lot to learn. One of our largest customers was happy with our product. This should make things easier for the next year. Things seem fairly stable so far but sometimes things seem a little slow. I'm hopping to be a bit more challenged in the new year in terms of the work I do.
The youth work at the church is going well. We've got a youth web forum up and I've started a Bible study for youth last October which is in addtion to the by-weekly activites and Sunday School. I'm getting to know the youth a lot more and they're getting to know me more.
Moving out has had it's own set of challenges. Now there are more things to do such as cleaning and cooking. I'm also not totally unpacked nor do I have everything quite where I want it. This will probably take a little time.
I've done a fair bit of swing dancing and some ballroom dancing in the summer but I've done far less in the fall since I've got youth activities and social activities often on Saturday evenings. Saturday also happens to be the regular night here for swing dancing. Here are some new years resolutions I've been thinking about
1. Get fully settled into my place in Burnaby (stuff organized,
unpacked and cleaned)
2. Work on a larger project at work and be more focused.
3. Find ways to connect with all the youth be they new to the christian
faith or long time church goers
4. Get more help with the youth
5. Find something fun to do and do it regularly
6. Find a group of people that I can lean on for support (probably a
bible study of some sort)
7. Get connected to the Burnaby community and my neighbours.
8. Grow in my Faith in God.
I should get some sleep now but I hope that you all have a Merry
Christmas and a Happy New year. Hopefully we'll run into each other
sometime in the new year.
posted by gardion at
12:00 AM
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