A snowman kind of day

A chinook is blowing through, so it is about 25C warmer than usual around here this week. Normally the snow is so cold and dry you can’t even make a snowball, but with temperatures hitting +10C today, the snow was quite workwithable. I took the girls outside to work on our tans and our first snowman of the year.

The temperature is supposed to drop soon, so Mr. Snowman will probably be around for awhile.

Lethbridge International Airshow

.. or, “How to get goosebumps on a very hot, sunny day.”

Until this past summer, I had never been to an airshow. I made up for that oversight in style by attending the Lethbridge International Airshow. The final clincher in my decision to make the 3.5 hour trip was learning that my favourite aircraft of all time, the A-10 Thunderbolt II, would be there.


A-10 Thunderbolt II flown by the A-10 West Demonstration Team

I had never seen one before in person and when it finally flew over, I had goosebumps despite the fact that it was a very hot day.

Unfortunately, the Canadian Forces CF-18 Hornet wasn’t at the airshow as scheduled… It was there as a burned out wreckage as it had crashed two days before. It must have been a bit unnerving for the other pilots performing that day as they all had to taxi right past the wreckage.

There were a number of historical aircraft, including a P-51 Mustang, and a FG-1D Corsair. It was a real treat to see these aircraft in action.

As a bonus, the TORA TORA TORA team was there, reenacting the Pearl Harbour attack with Japanese Zero fighters and Nakajima B5N “Kate” bombers. Their show was narrated and had lots of sound effects, plus many large explosions. After a bit, the smoke was so thick it was getting hard to see the aircraft as they kept buzzing the ground in simulated attacks.

We also saw lots of very entertaining stunt flying and tricks, and even the Canadian Army Skyhawks Parachute Team were on hand. I left the kids at home as it was a long drive and was forecasted to be hot (which it was) and figured the explosions would be too much for them right now. Instead, I had a real good time hanging out with my father-in-law and brother-in-law. It was a really great day and I’m looking forward to the 2011 show!

Ministry Update :: January 21, 2011

The first month of 2011 is coming to a close and, around GoodSeed, the pace of things is picking up again as our staff get settled into our office and projects start moving forward again.

  • A teachers guide for The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus is formatted and almost ready for print.
  • Many hours of work by some of our staff are paying huge dividends, with several foundations providing us with the funds for translations. For example, a project we have had with the Bible Society in Israel to fund a Hebrew translation of By This Name is now fully funded!
  • With a true audio studio, work can begin again on our Lamb VBS music.
  • Visual Aids for our upcoming Worldview Rethink curriculum are getting closer to production.
  • I am preparing to start filming Worldview Rethink training material in our new video studio in the next few months.

As for me, I’ve been burning through the video tapes lately, picking up projects from before our office construction and putting together a collection of short interviews that we have recorded about our GoodSeed evangelism resources and seminars. There are now plenty of them available at our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/goodseed. Here are a few short examples:

A video I shot a few years ago in Edinburgh with a Pastor and his wife sharing about how they used The Lamb with their children.

On the same trip to the UK, I helped teach an evangelism seminar in London. Here is a short testimony from a pastor who shared about what he learned from the seminar:

Andrew was another of the attendees at the seminar, and here is his take on it: