OVER THE ICE AND THOUGH THE HOOD

MY LIFE (AND ALL THE OTHER FUN STUFF)

As of yesterday evening, we've finally arrived in said remote community that is still yet to be named- by me at least. I’m sure it was one, but as we all know, I’m not really much for details.

Ice road = driven across, no problems. I wasn’t half as scared as I thought I was going to be; mostly because the ice turned out to be literally 4 feet thick. No risk of sinking there, at least, unless you’re driving an obese motorized blue whale, which we weren’t (thankfully).

We weren’t sure where we were staying until literally the minute we started staying there. We’ve bunked up in a kind couple’s cabin. Again, I don’t know their names currently so, for now they shall be known as “Steve 0.5” and “Steve 0.5’s wife” (They would have gotten “Steve 2.0” and “Steve 2.0’s wife”, but nobody achieves a higher numeral than that guy without at least planting a few churches. Hey, the guy set the bar high, what do you expect me to do about it?). They foster a young girl named Angelina, who literally has no other facial expressions than “MASSIVELY CUTE SMILE MODE”. It’s impossible to look at her and not be happy.

MY SPIRITUAL LIFE (AND EVERYONE ELSE’S. WHY DO I HAVE TO GET ALL THE ATTENTION?)

Ok, now for the heavy stuff. I want to ask right now that you stop whatever you’re doing and get ready to pray, because you’re going to feel like it after reading the next few paragraphs.

This place is screwed up. Not just screwed like “Hey, this place is kinda’ messed up” screwed up. It’s more “Hey, This place makes Sodom and Gomorra look like a nursery run by the Brady Bunch” screwed up. Homosexuality is rampant, Young girls are mothers by the time they’re 12 or younger. The church is in total anarchy. The suicide rate is higher here than any other area of Canada. The government would be more just if it were run by my 3 year old sister. There are more illegal drugs being passed around here then a- ok I can’t think of a good metaphor that isn’t incredibly racist, but you get the idea.

This kind of crap happens all over the place, but even in the church, they’ve had to replace the pastors I don’t even remember how many times because they were sleeping around, or the people simply decide they don’t like the way they teach. The worst part is; there doesn’t seem to be an answer. There isn’t a simple fix for this place. Even if they had a whole team of missionaries come in, it would take years to straighten these people out.

I don’t say that to make you feel bad about where you live, and how great you have it. Scratch that, I do. Feel bad if it makes you pray more! Anyone and everyone that has two knees and is acquainted with our heavenly daddy would do well to get down on them for a god hour and pray for these people. My dad and I will do our part, but there’s going to be any real changes made here, there’s going to have to be some serious Divine intervention going on.

That’s it. I’m done. I dare you not to at least get on your knees just for a second to pray for these people before you read on. Go on. I’ll wait.

MY STUFF

Still working on a few things since I’ve been out here; nothing in the last two days, since we’ve been driving and stuff, but I did do a pretty cool cover of “All the Right Moves” by One Republic the other day. I’ll get back on the “production work” pony’s back when I get home. Now, I rest for a few days.

There are also two possibilities for this March, that’ll be pretty exciting.

POSSIBLE – I’ll be playing guitar, and singin’ a little bit with my buddies “Atmosphere’s End” on March 30^th.

ALSO POSSIBLE- I’ll be going somewhere else to do something I probably can’t tell you about as of the current moment. Trust me though, it’ll be huge. If this happens, I’ll probably also unfortunately have to skip out on the AE show, so sad face. That’s all I can really tell you until I find out more on Tuesday.

Last thing I should also mention that could also end up being pretty big. Not necessarily so much for me as my good friend “Tracy Lynn Holland”. The current plan is that within the next couple of weeks, we’ll meet up (In real life!) and do some acting (In real Technicolor!) of some scene (by a real writer who at this moment should also remain nameless). Sorry for all the secrets. Did I mention I’m a spy by the way? Yeah.

OR AM I?

Bye

BORED.... A LITTLE BIT

MY LIFE (AND I'M TO LAZY TO THINK OF SOMETHING ELSE TO WRITE HERE)

Wednesday, Feb 15th

It's been a few days since I last updated the world on what I'm doing. Main reason: I haven't been doing a whole lot. On Sunday, there was supposed to be 2 services, but people just didn't come to the first one, which was fun. The same thing happened on the Friday before as well. As far as the current plan (which may change at literally any second, I'll keep you posted) is concerned, we'll be heading out to a REALLY remote reserve on Friday, but until then we just get to hang out here.

We're still at the church, and I still have no blemishes in my perfect Foose-Ball winning streak. Though my dad is a fantastic Ping-Pong player, he's got nothing on me when it comes to this wonderful game.

The days are kind of long, and are beginning to fall into a sort of format. Two actually.

Format 1 - My dad finds some mechanical work to do for someone, and is gone before I get up. He doesn't arrive home until late evening, and I pretty much sit around all day either writing music, or listening to it (after completing my daily allotment of home-school of course). The day ends with us watching a movie on the wall without projector while devouring a plethora of unhealthy food items.

Format 2 - My dad doesn't find anyone to help, and stays at the church to make phone calls. All else remains the same as Formula 1.

Sounds great right? Sure, but even so I am getting a bit bored, and kind of lonely, especially on the days when my dad goes out all day.

Oh, I should also mention that Desmond has been hanging out with us nearly every day since his conversion. Usually we'll either play a game, watch a movie, or my dad will spend time teaching hime stuff from the Bible. It's great to see him growing.

MY SPIRITUAL LIFE (DITTO)

No massive changes, although me and my dad have been praying together more since we've been here, and that's nice.

I have been reading through this book for school called "what is truth". Seriously though, most well written textbook I've ever had the privilege of reading. It's not just like they sit there and tell you information. It's written in the form of a novel, or more, a debate room filled with people of different worldviews: a round table discussion about the flaws and strong points of various worldviews, which is literally right up my alley. (I used to spend a lot of time debating in online forums, especially about various worldviews, since obviously Christianity is something I feel strongly about.)

There are a set of 9 characters (and I haven't learned what all of their viewpoints are yet) but one is Hindu, another Buddhist, another Humanist, another Christian, and there are three kids in the room that basically just ask questions.

It's been awesome seeing them battle it out, all with very strong arguments. It's nice to be able to hear what both sides have to say when it comes to these types of things being taught in school. Obviously though, the writers are Christian, and it is written with a small bias, but not half as much as I would have expected. If you haven't read this book (and I'm almost positive you haven't) and are at all interested in this sort of thing, you simply must take the time to read through it. (If you live close by me, maybe I can lone it to you)

MY STUFF (...)

‘Still working on music, although not quite as much as the first few days. I've shifted from dubstep to trying to asquint myself better with dance and straight up electronic. I'll be sure to post something at some point again with the progress I've made.

I've also started trying to write a little bit of "real" music, (with words and stuff) but we'll see how that goes...

FAREWELL

UNTIL I'M BORED ENOUGH TO WRITE AGAIN.

No seriously, I'm done. No part two this time.

NEGATIVE FORTY

MY LIFE… (10:07AM 10/02/2012 LOCAL TIME)

It is officially cold out. -20° with enough of a wind chill factor to make it feel like -40° is just enough to make me scared out of my pants to even open the front door. Not running the risk of getting stuck with some incurable cold for the next week.

That’s another tidbit that should be mentioned: I’ve officially been out here for a week! It doesn’t seem like that long, but this marks the halfway point in my journey through Manitoba. I guess I can’t really say journey though, since we’ve generally been staying in the same place for most of the time here, and just making different trips out to the various places we’d minister.

We’re planning on going… somewhere else at…. some point today… There are very few details that are open to the public about our travels right now. Not because we aren’t allowed to know, but because nobody really knows until just about the last second. Plans change really fast with these people, which is fine because I just about never know what’s going on until the last second anyways. Now everyone else is on the same page as me.

MY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY (AND ALL ELSE THAT INSPIRES IT INTO A DEEPER EXISTENCE)

Robert Mclean has planted 34 churches. 34. That right there is a hack of a lot of church planting! Like, seriously, Oh my gosh. It’s been crazy just listening to him tell stories on the way to and back from the different meetings we’ve been doing. He’s like a super missionary or something. Here is just a tidbit of one of his astonishing adventures:

Robert and his colleagues had just finished building a church big enough to seat almost twice the population of the town it was built in. Some people weren’t too happy about this new church, or the way Robert was now teaching about God in this church. One man was particularly hateful towards Robert; so much that one day after church he threatened Robert outside the auditorium. He grabbed Robert by his shirt and said that if Robert didn’t get out of town right away, he would dismantle Roberts face to the extent that it would not be recognizable again. Robert just looked back kindly with a smile on his face and said

“God put me here to do his work, and I’m not going to go until God tells me to”

The man was furious. He tried to restrain himself, but his hatred was just too much. He let his fist fly into the side of Robert’s truck, nearly shattering one of the windows into Robert’s children’s faces.

Robert continued teaching after that, and a short time later was threatened a second time. This time the man said

“If I see you on the pulpit preaching next week, I’m going to pull you right off the stage and beat you limb from limb!”.

Robert had originally planned to have a guest speaker preaching next week, but after this confrontation, he decided to cancel it and preach himself. What a boss.

That next week, Robert did teach. I guess the guy who hated Robert so much had a “bark bigger than his bite” because he didn’t, in fact, pull Robert off the stage mid-sermon, but after the meeting the man happened to run into some of his own kind of “bite” when he decided to meet up with one of his friends.

That same night, another man got completely wasted and thought it might be a good idea to set up his hi-powered rifle against the door and shoot whoever decided to walk through it, because that’s just how drunk people have fun up here I guess. I guess I can see the entertainment value in that, but personally I prefer to get out my trigger finger attitude in a good ol’ fashioned game of Halo. It tends to be a little more safe… and legal.

Anyway, the man who just happened to be the lucky winner of “don’t-open-my-door-or-I’ll-shoot-you- roulette” was none other than Mr. “I-hate-Robert-Mclean” himself. Describing how gruesome it was would be a chore for Shakespeare, but I will use the same adjective to describe the remains of the man’s face as he had used to describe what he planned to do to Robert’s: “Unrecognizable”.

This story is kind of sad, yes, yet also poetic. It really makes you think about that verse in the Bible where God is talking to the Abram in Genesis and he says something like “Anyone blesses you, I’ll bless. Anyone who curses you, I’ll curse”. Trust me; you do not want to end up getting cursed by God.

MY STUFF THINGS

The montage as promised: http://www.truploader.com/uploads/2_10_2012/191988Montage1.mp3

If you liked the one with Whit (From Adventures in Odyssey) saying "Right!" You can download the whole thing here - http://www.truploader.com/uploads/2_6_2012/619988Whit%5c'sDrop.mp3

HOTEL LE CHURCH

MY LIFE (AND WHAT'S GOING ON- BLAH BLAH BLAH)

Day 3 of my fantastic new life in the North Pole. Yes, it has gotten colder than the other day, but I still haven't found need to wear two jackets at once.

There have been services every day since I get here except yesterday, in which me and my loving father took to watch the 6 hour epic: "The Tin Man" (one of my all-time favorites). Of course, no movie day is complete without getting totally junked up on 'pop, chips, and coke. I'm paying for it a bit today, but not unbearably so. It was definitely worth it.

Also, we're not staying a crampy motel anymore, or the camp ground that we had planned to go to yesterday, but the church fellowship hall: living quarters complete with a kitchen, 3 bathrooms, a storage room filled with boxes, a large auditorium, and a multipurpose room, which we set up camp in. By 'camp' I mean we put our suitcases on the tables and laid down 1 air-mattress, and 1 clump of chairs to be used as a makeshift bed (there was only one air-mattress). It wasn't actually that bad though. I'll admit my "chair bed" fell apart a few times in the night, but I think I've set it up now in a way it won't have that chance again. +15 chair building exp.

MY SPIRITUAL LIFE (AND ALL ELSE THAT MAY RELATE TO IT)

I had to change the title so I could blog about this, but for the last couple services, I've been leading worship. That's right! Little Garrett, who can barely hold a pitch is now not only singing louder than everyone else, but is required to do it! Fortunately there isn't a whole lot of "musical intimidation" here since the multiple people who sang when me and my dad weren't singing, were reeeeeaaaally (and I mean in the kindest way possible) awful. I'll try to post a video so you can hear at some point, but until I have enough internets to do that, you'll just have to imagine a seal doing it's mating call while playing an accordion.

I know this sound horribly mean, but let me try to redeem myself. Even though the pitch, timing, and playing were less than desirable, the people playing it were incredibly passionate. It was like they really meant the words they were saying, even to the point of breaking out into tears, or maybe that was just part of the song.

But seriously, I find I'm far more inspired when people who can't sing, sing loud and with all their hearts, then when people who are fantastic musician are at work. You aren't so much distracted by how much you enjoy the song, as you’re just pulled into a spirit of worship by watching and listening. It's hard not to join in when people put that much into it.

MY STUFF (AND STUFF)

Still working on producing that demo for AE (Atmosphere's End, not American Eagle. You laugh, but it gets old when people think you're playing an instrument for a clothing company all the time), but I've actually been spending a lot of time just working on music in general. Not writing new music with a guitar or piano so much as working on understanding the ropes of Protools' MIDI interface a bit better.

I've been specifically trying to master a style of music known as "Dubstep". I have an appreciation for every style of music, but recently I've really been interested, and have been listening to a lot in this genre. I've got to say though, it's more challenging than anything I've tried to produce before. There are so many specific elements that make up the style, and each are just as difficult to create. It's hard, because I'm not sure I have half of the software required for a lot of it, but I'm making due. I'll try to post a clip or two of what I've been coming up with, although I've ended up with a lot more dance than good beat-downs. Maybe I'll just throw together a montage of them all so you can hear for yourself how much of a hard time I'm having.

Anyway, 'driving down a road that's made of more ice than gravel, so I better go.

UNTIL NEXT TIME.

(3 hours later)

OR UNTIL I LEAVE AND COME BACK LIKE 3 HOURS LATER AND DECIDE I NEED TO BLOG AGAIN:

BISON. About 30 seconds after typing “UNTIL NEXT TIME” We had to slow the truck down to about 20 KPH. Not because of some stupid speed limit laws about school children or something, but because the road had become flooded with a small herd of buffalo/bison.

I felt like such a city kid, yelling and gawking at the simplest of wild life. Robert was super chill. Oh yeah, did I mention I found out “Steve’s” name is actually Robert? True say. Anyway, the real reason I needed to come back on here was to tell the story of Desmond. Not Desmond from Lost, but Desmond from Manitoba (the less well known show also by J.J. Abrams).

Desmond was a church going guy, but really screwed his life up a while ago, and hasn’t really been living the life of a Christian for a pretty long time. Last night, something hit him. I don’t know what, but the conviction was so strong, he just felt he needed to give his life back to God, and he needed to do so quick-like. He got in his car and drove off to the closest church. No one was there. I mean, what do you expect? People are just going to chill at the church all day on Mondays? Yeah, that’s what all the cool kids are doing… obviously not, because there weren’t any “cool kids” at the church either.

Desmond kept driving, looking around for someone else to ”show him the way”. This guy was just hungry for God. Finally, after searching the back shelf of his brain for any remaining memories of the location of just one more church, success: He spotted a large tabernacle with the lights on. It just happened to be the building that my dad and I were staying in. He pulled into the parking lot and knocked on the door. He was greeted but my ever attentive father, who let him in.

They talked for a while. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know everything they talked about, but I do know that it ended with Desmond giving his life back to Christ, and that’s the important part anyway. Great story, right? But see, that’s not even the funny part, and we all know funny parts are the best parts!

FUNNY PART: We were originally going to spend last night in a camp site (like I said earlier), but at the last second, some guy (he owned the camp I guess) said he actually wouldn’t have the space for us to set up. We only found this out after we had packed our bags and were driving down the road. Robert offered for us to just stay in the motel again, but my dad insisted we stay in the church since he didn’t like being so cramped up. Robert with cool with that, and I had no qualms, so we “set up camp” (see paragraph 3).

Just around the time Desmond decided to go soul searching, my mom called. Dad picked up, and since he wanted to be all personal and private and whatever, he decided to go into the auditorium. ‘You seeing this now? Had we not ended up having our plans to stay at this guy’s camp messed up, or had my mom not called at that exact time, or had my dad not wanted to be all private-y and stuff, the lights wouldn’t have been on in the auditorium, my dad and I wouldn’t have been there, and Desmond might not have ever gotten his life right with God again.

God is so boss…

WHINIE-PAG

MY BORING LIFE (AND WHAT'S GOING ON AROUND ME)

O'queso, (see what I did there?) we just arrived in Winnipeg, and contrary to my fathers exaduated warning about the weather, I currently need only one coat. That's not to say it's not "cold", it's just not "freeze your face off cold".
Oh look at that, I'm so adult right? Talking about the weather. Sheesh. Oh well, it`s beautiful here; just miles and miles of white- whiteness in any direction you look.
Anyway, shortly after almost stealing some other womans luggage, we met up with a really nice guy. I can't seem to remember his name, and I'm kind of scared to ask him again. If I'm going to be hanging out with these people for the next few weeks, I need to at least pretend I've been paying attention.
We're now on our way to... ok I don't know that either. You all know I'm not one for details. The important part is: we are on our way! I'm not sure if I'm looking foreward to the next few weeks, or just confused. I'm not suuper sure exactly what the housing conditions are going to me like, what the churches'll be like, what kind of stuff I'll have to do, or what the people will be like. Right now I'm just kind of winging it, and I hope that works out, since I have no other backup plans.

MY SPIRITUAL LIFE (AND THE THINGS GOING ON INSIDE ME)

I'm confident this trip is going to do wonders for my spiritual life, partially because of the fact that I've been told the ice roads we're supposed to drive on aren't actually fully completely- frozon... The ever growing possibillity of my likelyness to drown in just less than frozon watar is probably just God's hand at work trying to give me a little shove down the slide to a better prayer life- hopefully. There's is always the possibilty that I'm actually going to die, but let's try not to think about that.

MY THINGS (THAT I'M WORKING ON.... AND STUFF... OR WHATEVER)

Surprisingly, I actually have a few things going on in this respect right now. I'd really like to keep it that way and get like, totally famous and stuff. No, but really, The Ceiling Fan Podcast just released a new episode. That's always fun. Coolest part = I had literally 1 line in the whole thing. No I'm not being sarcastic, I'm actually totally ok with that. I'd much rather listen to something when I don't have to pick apart mistakes and know I was the one that made them.
I actually did make a few mistakes though with that one line. In the end, it ended up being so bad that we didn't even use it. Self esteam + 12pts.
I have been doing more music though. I even did some music in that episode, but it didn't actually work out as well as I wanted it to either. But also in the way of music; I just recently tracked a bunch of guitar, vocal, and bass tracks with my buddies Adamm, Connor, and Tyler for their band Atmosphere's End's demo. It's certainly been an aducational experience. I'm having fun, trying all kinds of new things in the program I've come to know and love (Protools). New EQ'ing stuff, and compression settings, oh such fun!
Sorry, I'll stop now. I'm sure very few people actually care about this boring audio and mixing crap as much as my actual life, which I'm sure there are already very few people care about enough to read this. So if you've made it this far, +15 friend points for you! You're awesome! You also probably have too much time on your hands! So -40 Productive points for you! Go do something productive! Gosh!

I shall blog again when I know more.




(About 20 minutes later)



Sorry, need to jump back on here again because there's something I just can't leave "ublogged".
Remember that guy that I told you about? The one I can't remember the name of? Yeah, I still don't know his name. But the point is: he's awesome.
You know how in tv shows and movies people always make fun of the charactor who starts sharing his life story. Not sure that charactor deserved it after hearing Hewhocannotcurrentlybenamesbyme's life story. He's a reverend, and he's been working hard for this community for years. This man has devoted his life to sharing the gospel with this place. You just tell how much he loves them by the way he talks.
A While ago, he ordained another man (A friend of his I think). He loved the guy and was obviosully really happy to see him taking on this new duty. The thing was, shortly after that the guy somehow got really peaved at the him for no real reason. (I will now be reffering to them as "Steve" (the guy I'm traveling with) and "Not-Steve" (not Steve) to avoid confusion)
Notsteve, decided that just being upset at steve wasn't enough for him, so he began to slander him like crazy. He attacked Steve's very Character. He went door to door speading total lies about him. But what did Steve do? Nothing. He couldn't. As a reverend, Steve was not allowed to argue thie word of another reverend. He didn't try to fight it, he didn't even freak out at Notsteve. Steve is a boss, and probably one of the most humble people I know right now.
After that, Notsteve set up a whole organization to attack Steve's charactor, and destroy all of the work in the community Steve had been devoting his life too. Notsteve is not a boss.. He's not one of my favorite people at all right now. Even after all of this, Steve still didn't even try to go up to the congregation and tell them Notsteve was Lying. After all of this, Steve still loved Notsteve like the brother.
The Lies got worse, and Steve (still wanting to be a bro about it) decided to go by the book for this situation. I don't have my Bible handy right now since I'm cramped up in the back seat of Steve's pickup, but from what I remember, he decided to follow the words of Paul for this problem. Do any of you remember that chapter where he talks about "If a brother has wronged you, you should first go talk to him personally to try to deal with the problem. If that doesn't work, get a friend and throw down some group intervention. Still doesn't work? Go to the Church and address the problem before the congregation. If your bro is still not bein' a bro, kick him out of the church."
Steve followed the Provided steps, but Notsteve didn't respond to anything. When Steve finally reached the final step: "Kick him out of the church" he was still totally cool and still didn't even try to throw him out of the church. Notsteve is still out there destroying Steve's career, but Steve still loves him, and is just trusting in God to do something.
So, quick recap: Steve is super humble, super patient, and such a bro it`s rediculous. I`m officially inspired, so I`m going to go now and be all inspired and stuff.


(I haven't read through this and I have very limited internet, so don't mind the spelling and grammar errors)