Final Month In The Homeland + Financial Ponderings.

Welcome to May, the last month I'll spend in my homeland of Scotland for as far as I can see, God Willing. That's quite the call there, take a step back, read it over, appreciate the magnitude. And continue...

The above room has become home. I've lived with the lads for 2 years now, and it's been a real pleasure. Granted, our antics have calmed down considerably, but this is mostly due to our growing comfort with nakedness. It's not so fun when you burst in on someone in the shower with a group of people when their only reaction is, 'Hey Guys, how you doing?' Where's the fun in that? Flat 32 has been known for quality banter for 3 years now, and it shall continue next year, without me. This would make me sad, if I'd forgetten where I will be.

The past few days have been strange. Yesterday I blitzed a few issues in my dissertation and I'm over half way now. Which is crazy, I basically did a quarter of my dissertation in a day. I also got an email from my supervising professor asking me to attend a debate on the topic of women in ministry. I've grudgingly accepted. I hope to have my paper done by then, the 9th of May. Wow, that's like... 10 days away?! And I never ever want to read the nonsense 'egalitarians' write ever again. Roll on graduation.

My observation today is that it's ironic that much of the practical teaching on 'Biblical Manhood' from Driscoll appears almost impossible for a young man starting out in ministry. Here are the things I'm getting sick of hearing.

'You should be buying a home for the security of your family and good stewardship of your finances'... Excuse me? Even if I was on a salary where I could get a mortgage I'd still be very catious of gambling on the Vancouver housing market right now. For a start, it's not possible, even for a getting a mortgage on a condo you're looking at a 5-10% downpayment, and a minimum income of $60,000 (yes SIXTY THOUSDAND DOLLARS) to even be given a mortgage. This would be to buy a property that there is no guarentee on making a profit on.

'You should start a college fund for your kids now'... with what? I have no money and my wallet's not going to be bursting anytime soon by the looks of things. A college fund for my kids? I'm struggling to get the money together to even buy an engagement ring, to marry a wonderful Christian girl, to have babies with in MANY years. It's not like I wouldn't like to start a college fund.

'The car you drive, is it a beater that you're constantly having to fix yourself? That time could be better spent. Get a car that won't break down all the time'... I mean, where is this money supposed to come from?

I could go on and on with this kind of practical financial practises that Biblical Man are supposed to practise but it wouldn't get me anywhere. I just find it incredibly ironic how difficult it is for me to even dream of any of these expressions of Biblical Manhood currently. Don't get me wrong, some of his teaching on this stuff is great. Mostly because he uses a lot of Piper, Grudem and Moo's work on it. But the financial stuff?

Who knows, maybe it's just another manifestation at my frustration of being 20 years old with life spread out in front of me. Often I just think, 'how do Pastors do it?'. I mean, honestly, how do they do it? Surely I'm not supposed to be up to my neck in debt 'for the Lord', that's simply poor stewardship and would kill my ministry and relationships. Add into the equation ongoing education, downsizing to one income when kids come along, that added expense a child brings... I mean, is it just me... or do you wonder 'how on earth do they do it?!' too?

I'm not doubting God will bring everything together. I know He will. He's not going to stop now. I suppose my ponderings of the day have been,

1. How on earth are there so many Pastors? How do they support their often large families? Are all pastors supposed to have high earning jobs before going into the ministry? How do I, a young, poor, soon to be married man move to the other side of the world (expensive); begin full-time ministry (very expensive); get married and prepare for a family life (very very expensive)?

2. Should this practical teaching be incorporated into the general teaching of what is essentially a Spiritual matter? Surely the importance lies with what you do with what God has provided. God has not provided such wealth and comfort to the vast majority of men, why is this being taught as a practical outworking of Biblical Manhood?

To be honest, I've had to look at the teaching and think to myself, what impact is this having on me? I've anxiously looked at hundreds of properties all over Vancouver, when as painful as it is to admit, buying a place in Vancouver currrently, in a lot of cases, is equal to going to Vegas and putting my money in a slot machine; hardly good stewardship. I've looked at investment funds for putting my kids through college, when I can't pay for a ring, nevermind the appliances and furniture we'll need for a home to live in, for my future wife. This kind of thinking is absurd.

Really, I'll leave this teaching to the Christian suits that work in the city. It's good teaching, if it's being taught to men with sizable incomes that are able to afford such luxuries. I've resolved myself to being content with the fact that I'm trusting God for every cent, and I will contiue to do the same. I'm blessed to have someone beside me that's content scraping by for a few years as we get our feet on the ground, this is normal for any newly weds. There have been lots of questions floating around today. I'll finish with these ones...

Is Driscoll in a dream world when it comes to finances? Has he forgotten that there are young men striving to be Biblical too?

Actually, I'll finish with this...

"Do Not Be Anxious

25"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.


34"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." - Jesus, Matthew 6:25-34.

The Life and Times Of Dave Smith's Groin...

Hello All. I'd just like to take a moment to pay my respects to the greatest football team in the world, Inter Bread FC. We've had many a good game together, and it's been a pleasure playing alongside this crop of fine young footballers. It looks like we have qualified from our league into the knockout stages; with an excellent record of 5 wins, 2 draws and 2 loses.

As many of you already know, my right groin has been torn since november. However I always intended to soldier on until we were knocked out or won the trophy. I played 90 minutes for the 'Buckfast Monks' today, against the crudely named 'Albion Yer Maw'. Things seemed to be alright, my fitness is on it's way back, which is always nice. The game was a non-event, with the monks having a non-existant midfield it didn't make my job any easier. But I had fun. Anyways, my groin is still torn, but a new revelation I can reveal exclusively on 'Blogheart' is that I may have broken my 4th metatarsal in my right foot.

A challenge almost as crude as their name seems to have severely damaged my chances of playing again this season. I will try to soldier on though. I'll see how it goes, but it may be time to listen to my body and slowly build up my fitness again and only then get back on the field. As long as Inter Bread are playing, I shall play, if I can. But after that, the season is over.

Now to get more philosophical, it really is quite a strange thing getting old. I mean, for the first time in my life I realised the other day... 'I'm unfit'. That's a bit of a tough one to take?! So once I'm recovered, I'm totally going to have to get fit again! It's very strange! I don't like it.

Anyways, I'm going to go and work on my dissertation again. I'm sick of it. The Bible supports a complimentarian view of women in ministry, accept it. I don't want to have to read another person who's like, 'but that's not ethical!'... who are you to tell God what is 'ethical'?! I also hate that there are 'Biblical Scholars' out there who openly tell us they're not Christians?! They can't know the Bible that well then can they?!

I haven't forgotten about that Piper review incidentally, it's still on the way. Anyways, enjoy your evening/morning/afternoon where ever you are.

-Dave

It's Monday!

Hey All. It's been nice to hear from some of the people reading my blog. Feel free to drop comments as always. So, today's monday. Let's start with yesterday though. Well, I spent most of the day reading a John Piper book. A book review will follow in the next couple of days. I read three books this weekend, and I didn't want to review them all immediately and make you think my blog is simply a book review blog. It was a good book, as is expected from big JP, and spoke to me.

Then it was off to church last night. Which was good, I appreciate Matthew's preaching usually and I have a great deal of respect for him in sticking with his congregation. It's beautiful to see the impact God's had there, a lot of it through Matthew. Students really being involved in the elderly folk's lives, and vice versa. If my church is as well integrated at Gerrard Street Baptist, I'll be pleased. Obviously it's not perfect, but it is certainly a good church.

So this morning it's back to reality. As opposed to the dream world I lived in for much of last week in which I denied I had a 10,000 word dissertation and an exam. I was just sick of it. But this week I have to hit it head on, and this morning I've breached the 2,000 word mark and have a decent introduction. I had a class today, the picture above is where I have had most of my classes. It's a shame that in my final semester I'm in the chemistry building, which is significantly uglier. This week's class is on the development of cities in the Middle Ages and how they mirror the Mendicant orders. I know it doesn't sound riviting, but it's interesting to see how evangelism to urbanites developed, as before there wasn't really evangelism to one's own people, and certainly not to city dwellers. They don't teach it like that, but it's the way I'm looking at it.

I should get going. Maybe I'll do that book review this evening. Where ever you are, whatever you're doing, be joyful.

-Dave

Book Review 2: "Confessions Of A Reformission Rev" - Mark Driscoll

I know, I know. Mark Driscoll again?! I thought as I highlighted some of the authorship background on him in my review of his first book The Radical Reformission in my first review that I could maybe capitalise on that by focusing on the material the book contains; rather than getting tied up in the usual furore over Driscoll.

But as is tradition, I shall give you a couple of quick details. Mark Driscoll is the founding pastor of Mars Hill in Seattle; 'the least-churched city in the United States' as he is constantly reminding us. He's seen the Church grow massively from the humble beginnings as a Bible study he organised. It's actually this Church and her story that Driscoll casts in the female lead role of Confessions; giving ultimate Glory to her Groom, Jesus.

Driscoll attempts to record Mars Hill's growth, and give good Godly advice on each stage of growth. His humerous deployment of Biblical truth is refreshing, and I would suspect offends less people than his first publication. I don't mean the good 'offense' that the Gospel causes; I mean the bad offense that our lack of Grace can cause. Pride is an issue that all male leaders deal with and, like alcoholism, is a continuing struggle that only Glory will cure us of. Driscoll openly admits to this, and has a habit of humbly coming before his congregation (and readership) admitting his failings. I respect this, and in the areas where I'm tempted to get all puffed up about his lack of humility I remind myself I'm just as guilty of it as he is. That's one of the things I do love about Mark Driscoll, his very public struggle with 'the mother of all sins' and his ability to repent publically. Such an aversion to pride (and sin in general) is smattered throughout the text.

Confessions contains a far better structure than The Radical Reformission; which was, in all honesty, diabolical. 'Chapter Zero' contains the facts we need to know before he goes on to lead us through subsequent chapters. These chapters are cleverly structured around the number in the congregation; and are attatched to witty and amusing chapter titles. The title for the chapter focusing on an early plant of 0-45 people is a comedic reflection of many of Driscoll's characteristics; 'Jesus, our offering was $137 and I want to use it to buy bullets'. At first you might want to laugh and agree (it's nice to know pastors are reading this) or maybe just frown (God loves you too, even although you're not a pastor, it's alright friend).

As with The Radical Reformission the first word is therefore... 'Jesus'. Everything Driscoll preaches and writes starts, begins and ends with a desire to Glorify Jesus Christ. If it's not for Jesus' Glory, we may as well all go home and stop playing Church.

The above chapter title also lets us know that he's not scared to speak about money. It's recorded pretty early on in the book that the subject of money used to be avoided in Mars Hill, with the idea that money was 'dirty'. I would agree with Driscoll that this simply cannot be the case. His methods of members pledging and phonecalls may appear brutal, but applied with the Grace the team of elders show it is actually often the beginning of prayer and support. Money is essential for Church. Now, I'm just as sick as you are of 'prosperity gospel' churches, that 'gospel' is a false one and is straight from the pit of Hell, this is not remotely similar. There is no money grabbing techniques going on here either. We simply have to recognise that the Church requires money to continue reaching the lost and equipping the saved to do so.

As for 'buying bullets', well... Driscoll's refering to arms is something I've grown to overlook as a 'cultural' difference. The idea of a pastor with a gun to me is absurd, but then I live in Scotland, where we're not as stupid as to allow such free access to guns. The idea revolves (ok, no more gun puns, I promise) around 'shooting your dogs'. These 'dogs' are the people in your plant that simply have to go. As grusome as it sounds, I agree that there are people that need to be removed from congregations because they are hindering the growth of God's Kingdom among the community of those people. Of course sensitivity and Grace are required, and removal from a congregation is a last resort.

Anyways, he moves on to go through 45-75 people ('Jesus, if anyone else calls my house, I may be seeing you real soon'); 75-150 people ('Jesus, Satan showed up and I can't find my cup'); 150-350 people ('Jesus, could you please rapture the charismatic lady who brings her tambourine to Church?'; 350-1000 people ('Jesus, why am I getting fatter and meaner?'; 1000-4000 people ('Jesus, today we voted to take a jackhammer to your big Church'); and 4000-10,000 people ('Jesus, we're loading our squirt guns to charge Hell again').

It should be made clear that this book recounts the story of a church growing in Seattle, to Seattelites. We are on mission to our own people, some issues will be different. But there are issues covered in here that can be expected at all churches, and in all church plants.

The humble tone of the book is reflected in the title 'confessions', with Driscoll once again hinting at his respect for Augustine. It would be hard to attribute Glory to anyone but Jesus for the growth of Mars Hill. Driscoll himself would readily confess his mistakes, as many around have been only too happy to do for him.

The fact is, this book is incredibly useful for any pastor or planter. Infact, I would recommend it to anyone interested in Church. The Church needs to be made more aware of what a pastor does. It's not just a 'Sunday job' and the wider body of Christ needs to understand that. Weekly we hear stories of pastors who fall into the precise traps outlaid in this book; with more congregational support and volunteering I believe pastors would be better equipped to fulfil their callings. As you'll see below, I really was quite impressed by this book!

Enjoyability: 4/5
Theology: 5/5
Structure: 5/5
Relevance: 5/5
Overall: 5/5

I thought I'd share Driscoll's final page; as it left me weeping tears of agony for him and in realisation that, God Willing, I have the same destination. It serves as a good conclusion to this review.

"I wish I did not have to suffer demonic attacks that include seeing raw and real footage of the times my people were raped and molested that plays in my mind like a film even though I was not present. I wish I did not have to sometimes struggle so mightily to be intimate with my wife. I wish I did not feel so completely alone, especially when I am in a crowd. I wish I was not a target for critics who seem to put me on a pedestal only to get a better aim. I wish I did not have the responsibility of standing before God to give an account for the church that I lead. I wish I did not have to continually weep while watching people I dearly love shipwreck their faith and lives through folly, rebellion, sin, hard-heartedness, and deception. I wish I never had to climb on another airplane to go preach the gospel, because the picture of my children crying as I drive away haunts me while I am away from them. I wish I knew the future and how Jesus will prune me next so that I would wince to lessen the sting before the blow lands. But Jesus has called me to trust him by faith and to endure more pruning so that more fruit can be harvested for his kingdom. And for this reason, it is my deepest wish that Jesus keep pruning me, because Ilove him, want to be with him, want to be like him, and enjoy being on mission with him more than anything.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
Amen."

Blog Title

A Blog Title is nearly as important as, well, a book having a great front cover. And as we all know that books should certainly be judged by their front covers I am appealing to you for your blog title suggestions. Please feel free to comment with your suggestions.

-Dave

Book Review 1: 'The Radical Reformission' - Mark Driscoll

To many of you the author will need no introduction. As one of the most influencial pastors in North America, Driscoll has been at the fore of many a debate recently. At the 2006 Desiring God conference (Best Site on the Internet - Desiring God ) Driscoll did his usual preaching of Contextualisation whilst sticking to a Calvinistic Reformed Theology. Piper later in the conference stood up and said something many found confusing along the lines of "What I care about is Doctrine. And Driscoll has sound Doctrine. But I do acknowledge that to many of you the way he presents this may be a 'stumbling block'". Driscoll and his Church, Mars Hill in Seattle have been at the centre of many controversies, debates and even protests. I won't focus on this however, what I will say is that I agree with John Piper (no suprises there). I love Driscoll's Theology, and I greatly appreciate his teaching on the Church. As with any other author everything he writes has to be weighed against Scripture.

The Radical Reformission is Driscoll's first book. His writing style resembles that of his preaching style. When he says his Theology comes from dead guys and his homiletical deployment comes from present-day stand-ups he's not kidding. Using interesting cultural (one of his favourite words) observation Driscoll speaks of his desire to see 'Reformission' sweep over his city of Seattle, and to see other leaders bring 'Reformission' to their localities. What is 'Reformission' I hear you ask?

The name itself gives a couple of major hints. 'Reform' is obviously at the root of the Theology Driscoll expounds week in and week out at Mars Hill. Not just 'Reform', but 'Reformed Theology'. With his favourite authors being Calvin (so much so he's named a son after him), Luther, Wesley, Spurgeon, and other Puritans he would certainly describe himself as a Calvinist. Reformed Theology lies at the heart of a huge movement at the moment, and I'm happy to jump on the bandwagon in the vast majority of cases. The other side of 'Reformission' is of course 'missional Theology'. This is mission to our own culture. This is one of my favourite elements of Driscoll's teaching. Time after time as I listen to him preach to pastors at pastors' conferences he speaks passionately about building a 'City within a City', rekindling some 'City of God' material from Augustine, but mostly reflecting upon Nehemiah and Pauline epistles. For Driscoll, and me, mission does not start with an expensive flight to the third world; mission begins in our homes, our neighbourhoods, our circle of friends, our sports clubs, and our cities.

He stresses how important having a relationship with Jesus that transforms every single element of our lives is to 'Reformission'. Of course he has a raging desire to see people spend time every day in the Word, spend hours a day conversing with our Creator, reading good Theology, allowing the Spirit to minister to us, etc... but that is HOW we get to know Jesus more! He has high expectations of Christians to be disciplined. I say, 'Good!'. This is what allows us to be transformed. He speaks of Jesus impacting the way we do employment, parenting, marriage, food, alcohol, sex, sport, sleeping... you get the idea. Jesus plays a role in everything we do.

This transforming of our lives to Glorify Jesus is attractive to people, and as they're involved in our lives they are often so attracted that they decide to let Christ transform their own lives.

The main debate within the book is how not to fall into the traps of syncretism and sectarianism. 'Syncretism' would be the straying too far into culture and thus compromising Scriptural Truth for the sake of 'relevancy'. 'Sectarianism' would be the seperation of ourselves from culture, to make absolutely sure that our Salvation is not risked by the sin of the world. Of course both are sinful and Driscoll's advice for the Church in these areas is very useful.

This is of course just the tip of the iceberg, and of course Driscoll pushes the limits in some chapters, but this is to be expected. I am also encouraged personally by his desire to see the Pacific North West come to Christ. The past few days have seen him preach alongside Piper, Packer, Ware, Neufeld and others at Willingdon in the Tri-Cities area of Vancouver - a city I have a great deal of passion and hope for. His second book Confessions of a Reformission Rev goes into far more detail over Church structure and growth. I will be reviewing this in the near future.

I would recommend The Radical Reformission to any believer, especially those in leadership or called to leadership. It is a short and readable piece, packed with wisdom, comedy, emotion, passion, and a desire to see people won to Christ. The structure is lacking in places, but this is to be expected from his first book. Especially as scholarly training is something Driscoll has only picked up recently. He does not intend for this to be a scholarly text, and it should not be read this way. It is the writings of a pastor, who is contantly reminding himself to try to remain humble. This makes it a lot more enjoyable to read than 'scholars' holed up in their Ivory Towers. There is no doubt that Driscoll is at the fore of discussion over how to best reflect Christ to this generation, and I am pleased he is.

Enjoyability: 4/5
Theology: 5/5
Structure: 2/5
Relevance: 5/5
Overall: 4/5

The First Of Many Todays

Well, here we are, April 21st. What you don't know yet is that April 21st is a rather big day in my life. Not only is it the day I shall post my third blog, it is also the day that I finish an 18 month cell phone contract. I shall miss you phone. We've had some interesting times together.

The day's two major events will not be further integrated however, and herein ends any discussion of my phone contract.

Hello! Once again, welcome to my life. You join me today at 3:40pm, eating a breakfast of red bull and chocolate. I'm sitting here at my desk in Aberdeen. On my left is aforementioned red bull and chocolate, next to a pile of notes that say the word 'GAY' on them. These notes will be hidden around my respective flat mates' rooms for them to find today, tomorrow, and far off into the distant future. On my right, 18 books and multiple articles on my dissertation subject; 'Women And The Teaching Ministry In The Pastoral Epistles'. My life currently is torn between these left and right sides.

My flat mates, Graeme and Ben, are suprisingly not in the 'game chairs' seen in the picture at the top of today's post. They must be at the pub watching a game. When they return those game chairs will soon find us on them. So, yes, I'm in Aberdeen. Up on the North-East coast of Scotland. No doubt it is a beautiful place. Take a look at my pictures taken up here during my time of study in Aberdeen here.

I'm studying Divinity. More on that will come in future posts. I play for the mighty Inter Bread FC, the self-proclaimed 'hotty tipped favourites for the Champions League 2012'. Unfortunately I doubt we will even win the top competition in Europe, but we do have a lot of fun together. I should really devote a future post to the team; infact, I commit right here and right now to do so.

My time in Aberdeen has been tough. Having known for so many years I am to move to British Columbia has been difficult. Imagine always knowing that your future lies somewhere else? That to settle would be stupid. Relationships you build will not last long. All your free time is spent trying to cultivate relationships on the other side of the world. And among all of that you're trying not to have your Faith suffocated at the 'Best Divinity School in Scotland'. I haven't learned anything from my courses other than observing the damage done by a selfish desire for knowledge. I've watched as students that aren't even Christians are portrayed as great candidates for the ministry. It's terrified me, and made me despair at times. Thankfully I know God is bigger than their 'wisdom'.

What have I learned then? I've actually learned that Theology is incredibly important. If you have poor theology, don't be a Church Leader, go home and get Doctrinally Sound! And hey, Theology doesn't even matter if you've not got an intimate, loving and personal relationship with Jesus Christ that acknowledges our depravity and His Grace! So I've been swallowing good Theology whole, I'm going to do some book reviews on this blog too I think. I think I'm going to do a ranting post about God stuff soon. And topical blogs on different subjects. It's good to get it all down on paper (or blog) sometimes.

I've also learned first hand that building relationships is the best way to do 99% of evangelism. Of course I knew this from books, but from experience it was really cemented. I mean, I suppose a huge chunk of my Christian walk has been here, so I was always going to experience practically the things I was learning in my reading.

And the continuing lesson that I've been learning through my whole Christian walk is that I'm never alone. God's had me in some very lonely situations since becoming a Christian, and He's shown me that I never have to be alone. There has also been the continuing humbling and growing. Really, there's been too much. So I'm going to just pretend that's me covered the past 20 years and get on with living so I can write about that.

Ok! I need more red bull! That is the first of my todays.

Good Today.
Dave.

Blog Purpose & Groin Update #1

The manifesto for this blog is such...

"1. To record my moving from Scotland to British Columbia.
2. To take a joke with Jonny Mo way too far"

It's pretty simple. The idea of having a blog was inspired by a conversation with Jon this afternoon, after his blog 'It's Playoff Time' in which he crafts the quote,

"-Canuck players, Willie Mitchell, Sami Salo and Matt Cooke have all had groin injuries of recent and we can expect to hear frequent updates on the status of these players groins.

-You know you made it when the public is being regularly updated on the status of your groin. Though it won’t make headlines, mine is fine in case you were wondering."

My groin is currently in a state of disrepair. The injury being widely covered by Sports writer (and team goalkeeper) Joey Farnham of Inter Bread Football Club on the club's bebo and facebook pages. I have decided to blog my life, weeving through the tapestry of my existance a thin golden thread of groin injury updates.

As mentioned above, my right groin is currently torn. I cannot hit a football (soccer ball) with my good foot. I shall rest it and then make sure to do many stretches as show in the image above.

That is all for now. Good day.

-Dave

Welcome

Hey there. Now, the pressure of making the first 'post' on my new 'blog' is a rather overwhelming experience; similar to that of my first soccer tournament (I cried and left); my first day at school (I got sick and didn't go); or my first kiss (I nearly threw up and wondered 'is this it?'). I'm determined to make this a more enjoyable experience.

I should introduce myself. A good place to start is usually the beginning, but as that's an awful thought that I will never allow to infiltrate my mind, let's skip forward a few months. I decided I wasn't happy in my mother's womb, it was too warm in there and I'd heard there was a 'sick snowfall' outside. Being a skier I decided it would be a good idea to get out and enjoy the snow. Nobody had told me that 6 week premature babies can't breathe or eat without help, so skiing was out of the question supposedly. I quickly regreted my decision; which was as premature as my birth. Despairing of my life, I decided to try to end it a few times by pulling those tubes that the nurses liked to put in my nose out. This began my lifelong flirtation with death; not really, I just thought that would be dramatic and might make you want to read on?

Eventually I was allowed out into the snowstorm that was Glasgow in late 1986 / early 1987. Due to my 'early' entrance to the world much of my childhood was spent rather 'sickly'; but it also meant I began school early; and left early. From the age of four to sixteen I bluffed and joked my way through school until I could get out of there.

Around sixteen I let God really get a hold of my life; His plans seemed better than mine, which amounted to, 'get out of school... sleep?' This changed things, I moved to the Scottish Highlands to work as a slave, I mean 'kitchen and house helper', at a 'Christian Outdoor Centre'. This experience nearly killed my newfound Faith. I didn't understand why Christians didn't like it when I got excited about God. I didn't understand how they could treat each other with such a lack of love. A few months in and I was nearly broken. God said, 'get out while you still can'. I said, 'No, I'm scared, people will think I failed'. So God did what He does when we go against His Will and He's feeling generous, He broke me (the less generous alternative was to let me stay and have my seedling Faith uprooted). I found myself in hospital after a skiing accident, not able to work. So having been humbled and broken, it was on to University.

Somehow through those years of doing nothing except from joke, fool around and generally avoid work I'd been allowed grades that got me into every course I applied for. Stupidly I hadn't applied for anything I wanted. So I asked God what to do. He said, 'Do Divinity, why do you never listen?' He was right to think I was being stupid. When I was fifteen I'd had one of those weird moments I wasn't even sure were real. I was at a Christian camp, and was praying with some lads, anyways. So I had this vivid image all of a sudden appear in front of me. There was me, teaching a group of kids, in a town that I later found out was Nelson in British Columbia, Canada. God said, 'British Columbia is your mission'. I wet myself and pretended nothing had ever happened.

So! Off I go to study Divinity at 'The University of Aberdeen'. I thought my study would be about becoming a Christian minister, but really it's about learning how to be a post-modern, liberal, relativist that causes no offense to anyone. I was a Christian, so I was offensive to these people. I didn't really enjoy my time studying there. I certainly learnt a lot outside of the classes though. And I used the long summers to visit British Columbia; with God helping me lay some foundations there.

My summers were 'Camp Qwanoes', a Christian camp on Vancouver Island. I was a 'Senior Counsellor', trying to disciple a 'Junior/Co Counsellor' and nine or ten children, whilst building some great friends and surviving. These summers have been used by God to keep breaking and humbling me; with times of reconstruction going on in between.

As I'm coming to a close on my quick fly through of my life I feel there are some people that deserve a mention. Well, really, there are thousands. And this isn't an Oscar, so I won't be placing 'God' at the end, or the beginning, of any lists. He gets the credit throughout, every letter, character and symbol here should really just read 'God'. But then it would be very hard to read. "GodGodGodGodGodGodGodGodGodGodGodGodGodGodGod" could translate, 'My Name Is Dave', 'I Love Chicken!', '123456789......', or any other variation of numbers, letters and grammatical aids. So after that short aside.

My Family: The Smiths. Michael (Mikey), Christine (Smokey Joe), Catriona (Stink) and Abbie (Miss Terrorist Toddler 2007). They've always let me be different, even when it meant watching me get hurt, even when it meant I left home so young, even when it means I'll be moving to the other side of the world in June.

My Friends: Those who didn't believe; your lack of Faith in what God could do in my life has inspired me to have more. Those who did; your encouragement means the world to me and I can only pray to encourage you as you have encouraged me.

Well, there were fewer tears than my first soccer tournament; I haven't had to go home with chickenpox; and I'm not reminding myself to 'breath through my nose'. I have enjoyed writing this blog more than the three events listed in the introductory paragraph. Now that the history is over; I look forward to telling you of my todays.

-Scottish Dave Smith