steady

Well our introduction to Executive Arrow Seminar 3 is now over and we have begun the third period of our Arrow Journey.  It is great to see everyone again!

We are in Carefree Arizona, just 45 min north of Phoenix, home of the Superbowl in just two weeks.  It is superbowl crazy here.  I took this photo with my blackberry on the bus ride from the air port. Not too exciting, but I really wanted my  boys to see a picture of a cactus.

We are told that we should watch for Rattle Snakes and Scorpions in the day and some times wild bores run through at night.  I just heard a whole bunch of Coyotes making a BIG fuss outside my room.  We’re in the desert!!  Its pretty cool.

We have wireless here for suer, so I will update as often as I can.  The purpose of my updates is two fold.  I want my boys and Christine to see where Daddy is and what I am doing, but also I want my friends and supporters to get a taste of the Arrow Experience and the fun of my journey.

Tonight was a light one.  It started with the question that is asked at the beginning of each module, “What word or phrase would best describe your past 6 months?”  My word was “Steady”.  That is what I think Arrow has done for me.  In june my answer was “Confident”, and I think that the confidence that I gained from my first two modules of Arrow have helped me to be a more steady leader and person and hopefully husband and Dad too.

We met and prayed with our Leadership Clusters (Group of 4 for me) and now I am in my room, ready for a rest.  I got up at 4:15 this morning and it is now 11:34 (Eastern Standard) . . . ready for bed.

I look forward to putting up a video and photos tomorrow, as well as some thoughts of the day.

See ya!

tim

arrow updates

Thanks for checking in so quick!  Please check back again for my arrow updates beginning Sunday January 20.  In the mean time, feel free to look around at my blog.  My past arrow entries are filed under “arrow” on the right hand side.

Check back soon and often!

Tim

fifty bucks and a junior referee

Tonight Clay and Elijah came to the Peterborough Pete’s game with me.  Eli has been coming out a bit more often lately and he seems to be really enjoying it.  Last week when the Pete’s beat rival Oshawa 8-4, Elijah was cheering his heart out.  One time he even yelled out “Start the bus!” to the Oshawa bench . . . all on his own, as loud and as clear as can be.  He got a lot of laughs.

Tonight the game was delayed by 45 minutes due to a power outage.  I knew it would be touch and go to get Elijah through to the third period if the game had started on time, but tonight it was running 45 min late.  Then the rink announcer came over to me just before the puck dropped and asked if I would like to compete in the $100 shoot out at the end of the second period.  I thought for a min . . . how will I get these kids through that much game! and said YES!!

The Pete’s were up 5-1 by the end of the second, so Clay, Elijah and I took up our positions just off the ice ready to head out for the shootout.  Once the teams came off the ice we headed out, all three of us.  The boys stayed against the boards while I headed down the ice to shoot my first puck, which went solidly into the net.  I then missed the next one and the fans in our section started jeering me (it was all planned and a lot of fun!)  I didn’t realize how many people I knew at Pete’s games, a lot of people were calling out my name.  This is when Elijah got impatient with watching me from the sidelines and headed out to where I was shooting.

Elijah, Clay and I play a lot of hockey in the basement.  After a few minutes Eli gets a little bored of scoring and gets out a whistle to be the referee.  When he headed out onto the ice to where I was standing he said, “Dad, I want to be Refeeree!”  He then proceeded to pick up all the remaining pucks and drop them at the face off circles where I had to shoot them from.  This gained huge laughs from the crowd!  The announcer said it made for a very funny and entertaining intermission.

I ended up with $50 out of the possible $100 and Clay and Elijah got to share in a fun and memorable experience with their Dad!  The only bummer was that Christine wasn’t there to see it and I didn’t have a camera there to get a photo of it either.

Another great night, fifty bucks and a junior referee.

Clay with team mates and friends Tristian and Taylor Walsh with Pete’s Captain John Armstrong at a New Year’s “Skate with the Petes”  Had the camera that night.  sigh.

thanks for ottawa

 Ennismore Novice A - Won the Cup!

God called us to Ennismore as much as He called us to YFC.  Over the past four years we have gotten to know dozens of families in our area through minor hockey.  We have spent countless  hours at area rinks and have taken dozens of team mates and parents to Peterborough Pete’s games - all this is an intimate part of living in community and living out our missional calling to this area.

When the opportunity came about to attend a three day tournament in Ottawa with Clay’s hockey team we didn’t want to miss it!  Not for all the fun and not for the potential community and relationship building that could deepen as a result.  Thanks to those who helped make this trip possible!

We did deepen relationships, the kids had a blast and I even had a few doors open to conversations about God.  I really want to present Christ as He is, not as people perceive him to be.  What a great Lord we have!

Have fun viewing our Ottawa trip!

Big Ice!  Olympic Ice Surface for game 1.  (Eagles 11 - 0)

Just arrived at the Tournament, got a shot at our hockey boys in front of their favourite NHL team banner.

Faces painted, rink side, ready to go!

The team at 2nd intermission.

Elijah couldn’t play in the tournament, but he did fit right in!

Long Drive home!

Tim Coles

you’re being too loud

Yesterday was Elijah’s 3rd birthday. Eli is our youngest son or two and Clay is the oldest, he just turned 8.

To celebrate this grand occasion, Clay and I took Elijah to the Peterborough Petes game.  The Pete’s were palying the defending OHL Champs Plymouth Whalers and it was a high blood pressure event . . . we loved it!

We have a guy named Steve ____ who sits behind us.  Steve is the loudest voice in the rink bar none!  He is a heckler and a clean one at that.  We have really enjoyed our interaction with him.  He really loves Clay, and shows it by getting input from Clay as to what he should be saying to the opposing team’s bench, which is about 8 rows in front of us.  When he looses the 50/50 draw, he showers Clay with his torn up tickets.  We have a great time with Steve.

About half way through the second period, Elijah had enough of Steve and turned around and said, “You’re being too loud!”  Everybody laughed!  (see photo) Steve laughed and replied, “Maybe for the dinner table, but not for a hockey game.”  Then the two of them exchanged a friendly bantering of words back and forth . . . well actually, since Steve  had engaged Elijah he had it coming.  Elijah doesn’t know how to stop once he starts, so Steve gained a new friend in Eli as they talked for a good part of the rest of the second.

Great memories as a family.  Thanks for being a part of it Steve!!

Tim Coles

facebook

I have always heard people talking about Facebook and how wonderful it is and how addictive it is etc. Ya, Ya, Ya I have always said, I’ll never join Facebook! Well, last week I joined Facebook . . .

Have you ever tried Facebook? It is wonderful and addictive! I can’t believe how many old friends I have found in just one week. People as far back as grade 3 and as late as some of my staff at YFC. There is one guy, I don’t know why, but for YEARS he has been on my mind . . . what ever happened to Tariq Hassan? Well, one of my first “friends” on Facebook is non other than Tariq Hassan!!

Tariq was one of those cool guys in school who could somehow bridge between the “in” crowd and the “loosers” like me. Ya, I know I’m not a looser . . . but I was by school standards back then, I’m over it now. (Thanks Glenn) Tariq was a friend, though we never hung out. He was interested in what I thought and where I was going after high school, we even made plans of meeting in Peterborough (from our high school in London) to go fishing, as he was planning on attending Trent and I had moved to Bancroft. It never happened, we didn’t have Facebook back then to keep us connected and Tariq never ended up attending Trent.

So, I must say, I am really glad I signed up on Facebook. Who knows what will happen with all these connections from here - maybe I will even sit down with Tariq in Chicago where he now lives for a coffee some day. I sure have been getting to know my old camp friend Ken Arnou. He created some great edits of some family photos . . . but to see them you will have to join Facebook and sign me up as one of your friends!!

See you on Facebook, I’m hooked!

Tim Coles - the look of a man finding old friends through the eyes of his web cam.

middle of the night and too much coffee

Well, it is the middle of the night and I had too much coffee . . . therefore I am still very much awake. I was up (late) preparing for preaching this sunday at Lakes Community Church in Bobcaygeon, and now I find myself surfing people’s blogs, which got me to thinking about my own.

My message on Sunday is called “So What?” and the text is John 13:1-17, Jesus washing his disciple’s feet. I am so taken by that account of the life of Jesus and what it says to us. I think I have blogged about it before so I won’t go into it now. But, read it and dig into it for yourself.

I have had a great bunch of weeks lately.  Home is wonderful, I have a new sense of wonder and appreciation for my boys and Christine.  It is good to break out of the mundane in this area: mundane is never a good place to be with our families.

Clay continues to amaze me with his hockey skills, he has more moves to break through the defence at 7 than I do now!  He is playing Novice “A” this year, he made the “Rep” team for Ennismore.  “Real Hockey” the president of the league called it.  Whatever it is, Clay is playing with kids at a higher skill level and he still pulled off a Hatrick in his first game and one goal and one assist in his second.  Still blows me away that he wasn’t supposed to walk.  Thank you Lord - we give you the praise for this!

Elijah is growing so much.  He will be three later this fall.  All he wants to do is play hockey in the basement, then after playing for a few minutes he wants to be the referee.  He holds his are up in the air signifying where the faceoff will be, blows his pretend whistle and drops the puck.  As soon as that puck drops he follows the play with great enthusiasm and check with the video goal judge after every goal; then indicates if it was a goal by pointing to centre or if it wasn’t a goal by waiving his arms.  Where do these kids pick this stuff up!?

We are heading to the Peterborough Pete’s game tomorrow night as a family.  We have had to miss a few this season so far due to my travel schedule and Clay’s power skating that happens to fall on the same time as the first period.  Oh, well, we’ll miss a few skates for some Petes over the fall.  There is still a whole lot of season after Dec. 6 (last power skate).

Finally my wife, Christine amazes me more each day.  Ever think, man I made a good choice in marrying her!?  Well that’s the way I feel.  I am on a theme this month (I’m a theme guy in my marriage), the theme this month is, “Do you know what I like about you . . .?”  You should try it some time.  When you see your spouse doing something that you like about them - tell them.  It really makes them feel great about themselves and about being married to you.  It’s a great feeling.

Well, I’m still not really tired, but I should go to bed and try to sleep anyway.  I don’t normally ANY trouble sleeping, so this is new.

Goodnight.

Tim Coles

seriously now

I do want to write a post that captures the reason for my trip to Vancouver, the reason is two fold really.  1. to attend the Executive Director Conference for YFC Canada and to visit Life Teams in Abbotsford (a program we are looking at brining to Kawartha).

The E.D. conference is going very well.  We spend a lot of time learning from each other.  Big affirmation here was on the board development material presented: material was from my Executive Arrow Module and our YFC chapter has already implemented much of the material that was presented today - nice to feel ahead of things.

I always appreciate spending time with some of the older E.D.s, learning from their years of wisdom.  John Courtney and John Wilkinson always a huge help in this department.  As I get older, I am finding that I too have a lot to offer to some of the newer E.D.s coming up and that too is exciting and encouraging.

I had the privilege of  leading the E.D. conference with a devotional and prayer time.  I was encouraged that it was a meaningful time for everyone.  Tomorrow I will be taking the lead in the Church partnerships/relationship session.  I am looking forward to that.

We wrap up in Vancouver tomorrow morning and then I am off to Abbotsford for a Life Teams visit.  Will report after that.

Still feeling like I’m on Ontario time.  I will probably adjust when I get back to Ontario and then be on Vancouver time.

Tired.

Tim Coles

more grandviews from grandville

Well Clay and Elijah, I am sorry Daddy’s pictures don’t talk this time . . . didn’t bring the video camera this time.  But hopefully these shots will show you that I am doing fine and having fun.  I haven’t been able to catch any crabs yet.  If I can get a shell I will bring it home, but time is running out.  Here are some photos for you guys.  Thanks Hon for hanging in there!

grandview at grandville island

I am back in Vancouver and this post is really in response to my kids request for some pictures of Dad’s trip.  So here you go Clay and Elijah, this is the view I have walking out my hotel in Grandville Island in Downtown Vancouver.  More pics and comments to come.

Love you guys!!