Pronunciation!

I don't know why it's a pet peeve of mine when people mispronounce words.  It's probably not fair of me to get annoyed because I'm likely mispronouncing the same word in their ears.  Also a lot of times it's just a dialect thing - Canadians and Americans pronounce certain words differently.  Nonetheless, here are some words that I commonly hear mispronounced, or that my wife and I argue over how to pronounce:

Syrup - I pronounce the 'y'.  Many don't.  Clearly there is a y in the word, it should be pronounced.

Sudbury - Similar to my issue with the pronunciation of syrup, Sudbury is spelled with a 'u', not an e.  It's Sudbury, not 'Sudberry'

Mature - this is a dialect thing I think, but it's probably the one I get most irritated with.  It drives me crazy when people give it the hard 't' sound, instead of a 'ch'.

Schedule - I pronounce it 'skedule'...which happens to be the right way (in my opinion).  It's not shed-ule'.  Again, probably a dialect thing, but still gets under my skin.

Athlete - notice how there is no 'e' between the h and l?  Hence, an 'e' should not be inserted when saying the word.

Lieutenant - 'leuiftenant?  Seriously, is there an 'f' in the spelling?

Garage - it's not a 'Gare-aj', it's a garage.

Thunk - that's not even a word!  'Thought' is the past tense.


There's a lot more, but those are the ones off the top of my head.  Whew...I feel better now.

Sunset

I had aspirations of kayaking a ton this summer, but due to some unforeseen circumstances I haven't been able to get out nearly as often as I was hoping.  However, I did get out last night.  The plan was to do some hard kayaking and get some energy out.  Instead I was captured by nature, and just sat and watched.

Unfortunately this video is really pixilated.  It shows up wonderfully on my computer, but won't upload in better quality.  You might have to use your imagination a bit.

I was out for about an hour and a half.  This is a bit of a succession of how the sunset took place.  Unfortunately it was just my cell phone camera, so it doesn't appear that stunning.  In real life though, much of the sky was red...it was beautiful.

Death Penalty

This is a pretty weighty subject...

My wife and I have been watching Prison Break on Netflix, the first time I've seen the show.  It's very well done, very entertaining, but I'm having personal difficulty watching it because it touches on a subject I have strong feels on...the death penalty.

What do you think of it?  I have always been against it, and still am.  I understand why it exists and why some feel that it's the proper course of action for justice, especially when it is a particularly heinous crime.  I also understand that putting someone in prison for life is a drain on taxpayer dollars.

However, in my opinion, who are we to decide when a human life should end?  A human life is a human life, and no matter what a person has done with that life, none of us has the right to make that decision - even if it's in the name of 'justice'.

It also seems like a rather large contradiction that we condemn the killing of one person by killing another.  Some would call that justice, but I'm not so sure I see it that way.  Yes, the bible says an eye for an eye, but what about grace in the new testament?

On the spiritual aspect of it, does not Christ forgive us over and over and over...and over?  We all deserve the death penalty if we put our lives at God's standards.  And yet, here we are still alive - and with life forevermore for those who believe.  We deserve the death penalty, and yet we're not getting it.

Another issue is wrongful convictions.  It does happen, despite our justice system's best efforts and intentions.  How many cases have we seen of people being wrongfully imprisoned for decades?  How terrible would it be to put an innocent man to death?

Finally, there comes the issue of remorse, of second chances.  I can't understand putting someone to death in general, but especially not when that person is remorseful and has turned their life around.  Think of the good that newly changed person could do, and how they could stop so many others from making bad decisions.

I realize that I have never been (and hope I never will be) a victim to the point that the perpetrator deserves the death penalty.  Perhaps it's easy for me to say all this when I've never been wronged like that.  That being said, I'd like to think that my stance wouldn't change.  I'd like to think that I would have God's strength to love and forgive.  The stories that stand out to us are not those of a a death row inmate being put to death. They're the ones when the families who are wronged plead for the life of the person who harmed them, instead calling for their head.  That's grace. That's forgiveness.  That's what Christ has shown us.

Some cool stuff happening

One of my jobs at LIFE is the Ministry Relations Coordinator.  Essentially that means building, maintaining, and growing relationships with churches.  Part of that sees me travelling around central Ontario and visiting pastors.  I love this part of my job.  Pastors are great people, and their passion to spread Chris is obvious. What I really love though, is seeing how churches are making a difference.  Yesterday I travelled to 89.3 and visited with 4 pastors.

I started at Victory Christian Centre in Port Perry and met with Pastor John Benschop.  He told about the amazing doors that have opened in Cuba.  He has been invited back several times by church leaders and country officials to teach them.  They've seen healings, miracles, amazing works of God.  In fact, he's going back later this year where he'll be meeting with the country's Minister of Religion.  He's asking for two stadiums to hold two MASSIVE outreaches.  Very cool.

I then went to Selwyn Outreach Centre in Peterborough.  Wow.  Like, wow.  They've given away over         $5 million in missions in the last decade or so.  They find a need and they fill it.  They've built ministry schools in South Sudan, churches and buildings in Kenya, Brazil, India...the list goes on.  On top of that, they invest locally - tens of thousands of dollars into reaching the lost in Peterborough every year.  Pastor Brian Mahood is a really passionate guy.  Really cool stuff.

On to Calvary Pentecostal in Lindsay.  Pastor Joel is new at the church within the past 4 months.  He's excited for what God has in store.  He's excited about local missions and reaching his community.  He's excited to move the church forward and do unique outreaches that sweep the city off its feet.  We talked about a few of them, but I don't want to let the cat out of the bag too early.  I'll just say, it's some seriously cool stuff.

I rounded out my day over coffee with Pastor Anthony Does at Bethel Lindsay.  Such cool stuff in the works at Bethel, some really big plans.  They have an awesome piece of property, and what they're hoping to do with it is really impressive and could be a great outreach.  Again, I have to stay cryptic because it's not my place to say what's in the plans, especially when it's not set yet.  But again I'll say, very cool stuff.

It was an encouraging day visiting all these pastors and seeing what's happening.  Some neat stuff is going on in Port Perry, Lindsay, and Peterborough - and around the world through 89.3 churches!  Stay awesome 89.3.