So apparently when I said that I was hoping to blog with blog worthy material I didn’t consider time. Time right now is my enemy, it seems I don’t have enough time or at least my life is ruled by the amount of time I currently have.

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been working for the last 3.5 months at Shaw Cable. (and in case you are wondering, when I’m off work, my rate is $60/hr as an independant contractor). I’m doing Television Support over the phone. It’s quite a change of pace and has stretched me in areas that I  haven’t been stretched for a while.

When I’m not at work, I’m either in Nanaimo helping with a new Church Plant; or in Duncan with my parents.  The church is in the process of starting a Dream Centre Naniamo, which, is very exciting.

I keep on reminding myself that ‘this is my calling’, I try not to look at my life at Shaw Cable as being against my life as a Pastor. Rather it is an expression of it. That God has called me to be a Pastor, and right now, that means I work at Shaw cable.

Anyways, since I’m on my break. I should go as the phone will be ringing soon.

Well, I realize that I haven’t been exactly what some might call a ‘regular’ blogger. But I often find that the challenge I face is how I run everything through my filter of “Blog-Worthiness”.
This filter goes something like this:
I think through my week, when I remember (this is the almost weekly report after all), and evaluate what I did that last week and see if anything interesting pops out. Often, I find that there doesn’t seem to be anything specific. For me, sometimes my life seems quite rhythmic so that I fall not into routine, but into what could be called the usual.
There are often things that do stick out about what life has been like, but then I filter those through the next step. I decipher, categorize these events and discard anything that falls into the category of too personal, too confidential, and there’s no way that I can share that. After all, I can’t write only about those deep personal experiences or insight that come from conversations with God. People think I’m crazy and weird enough because I actually DO talk to God, although the issue might be more that He seems to talk back.
Every now and again something eventful seems to jut out from the rhythm of my life like a sharp staccato, of a triplet in the bar of my own personal soundtrack. Those tend to be the things that I write about.
Lately it seems as if more are coming to mind. So, I’m hoping that I can get back to a rhythm of life where Blogging becomes a regular occurrence that records the happenstance of my mind and life. So enjoy. And if there happens to be something that you think “Caleb should blog about that”, let me know!
Thanks for reading weekly… well almost weekly.

Well, it’s been a month since I last posted, and I’m back in Chicago. I understand why they call it the windy city, the wind is crazy. But even more crazy is the parking.
I’m currently staying at the Chicago Getaway Hostel, and I didn’t make a reservation at any hostel because I wasn’t sure what would be best. Plus I like to wing it.
So I punched hostel into my trusty GPS and the first attempt was the HI-Youth Hostel. Epic Fail. It’s right downtown, which is really cool, but the parking was going to cost more than the night. CRAZY! So I got to see chicago and the city. It truly is a beautiful place, the water, the buildings, the roads. And fortunately the traffic wasn’t too bad.
Well, since the Youth Hosteling International was a no go, I went back to the GPS, the next one was under renovations. Now here was where I had to get creative. You see, my cell phone doesn’t exactly work in the states (CA-CHING $$$), so I found a starbucks (with free parking), and looked up the other hostels that I had checked out online.
Then I used my GPS to guide me to the Getaway Hostel (www.getawayhostel.com). It cost me $50 w/tax, and lucked out to get the last guys dorm bed (Note the $50). And then I went in search of parking. I managed to SQUEEZE my car into a space with in inched. Emphasis on the INCHES!
Then I made my way back, found my bed, and sat down at the neglected, but playable piano (Yes they have a grand piano).
Last, I found myself a wifi signal and a couch, and blogged away.

Well I’m up at thc cottage enjoying all the sunshine that the sky can muster. It is wonderful. We have some friends here with us and the place is full, which always makes for a more enjoyable holiday. But let me tell you about my adventures since I’ve been here.

Apparently, it is becoming known in my family that I’m a bit of a nomad and wanderer (which I see no major issues with). So I found myself running from here to there all the way on my trip.

I left Vancouver Island last week on tuesday (july 26th) after stopping by my sister’s work to get a quick haircut and say hi. She’s a hairdresser so I enjoy the added benefit that this provides to my fashion. And I couldn’t hand a trip to ontario with my hair being annoyingly long in the heat. From there I hopped on the ferry to the mainland and managed to catch an hour earlier ferry. This meant that I wasn’t showing up at my friend’s in Abbotsford at 11pm. So I actually got to do more than just crash their place.

My plan was to leave Abby by 7:30am, but it seems like there are always little things that delay me. Like breakfast, good conversation, etc. And what I’ve begun to notice is that in my life I am either REALLY early, or running late. I finally got thru the Abbotsford border at 8:30 and headed south towards seattle. I had been running around and hadn’t had any time to get my car’s oil changed so I decided to do that in bellingham at the walmart since my car was screaming “CHANGE OIL SOON” at me.

That took 2 hours and then I was on the road again. Fortunately my walmart detour wasn’t a complete waste as I was able to get some supplies and food to last me my three day adventure across the continent. On a side note: Canada’s prices for food are way higher than the US.

Now what you need to know, is that I usually travel with someone and with the sole purpose of getting to my destination as quickly as possible. In this case, I had a tight schedule but I was alone, so I had more freedom within the boundaries of time.

Well, my first day I made fairly good time. But I decided that instead of stopping for the night, I would drive as far as I could, pull over and sleep and then keep on going. This was for 2 reasons, 1) I was budget travelling and wanted to reduce the costs of the trip and 2) I wanted to make some time up.

So I drove, I drove and I drove and I drove. I made it through Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota. I had just crossed into Minnesota when I passed a state trooper and realized that I was going too fast and that He had caught me. No arguing, I just took the ticket and continued on my journey.

Thursday night, I made it out of minnesota and into wisconsin. I had planned on making it all the way to madison, but that just wasn’t going to happen. So about 2 hours outside of St. Paul I stopped at a hotel for which I had a coupon.

The next morning, bright and early I headed on my way. Fortunately for my caffeine addiction I was able to find a starbucks every day. Before Long I was in Illinois. And I was getting frustrated by the toll highways and the amount of construction. So, when I reached chicago, I pulled into an “oasis” and looked at a map.

I said to myself, “It won’t be that much longer if I take the non-toll route, and besides I’ve always wanted a closer look at chicago.”

Lesson #1: Stick to the plan and go with the GPS. The GPS knows Best.

About 2 min’s onto the non-toll route (I94?) I hit traffic.

But what was I to do now? I was stuck in it, so I continued on. Stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. Now, this is where I started to get annoyed. Why? Because people weren’t driving nicely. They were literally bumper to bumper and not letting people in. Which means that traffic slows to a stand still. So I was getting fed up. Then I started to pray. I asked God for patience, because it’s a fruit of the spirit. And that helped for about 4.5 seconds. Then I started to pray for Favour. I said to God, “God, you’ve called me to walk in favour, well in this case drive, and this isn’t favour. Waiting in traffic isn’t favour!”

Apparently God listened, because traffic moved. And That was ok for about 30 seconds. Then I prayed again, “God I need more favour, in fact I don’t just want favour for me. I want favour for all of them. Because when I walk (or drive) in your favour those around me get blessed to. So God, give all these other people stuck in traffic your spirit and your favour too.”

Well one thing led to another, and my time in traffic became a time or prayer and intercession for the city of chicago. At first it was selfish, but then it became more than that. And as I continued to drive, I felt like God was revealing to me his heart for the city of Chicago. There was lots that I prayed, mostly that God’s spirit of repentance would be poured out, because the Father’s heart is for his kids to come home.

But as I continued I found myself finally out of traffic and it was like the Holy Spirit whispered, “Get off the Highway” So i kept on driving.

Then I heard the nudge “Caleb, take the next exit”, really??? “CALEB… TAKE THE NEXT EXIT”. So I did. I came to a stop light and thought I should turn right. But I felt the need to turn left, so I did. I saw in my mind a picture of a church on the corner of an intersection on the right hand side, and there on my right hand side was a church.

So I found parking and went to look for the pastor.

When I got in, i found three people inside the building. One turns and looks at me and says “Can I help you?”. My response is: “I’m looking for the pastor.” The Lady says, “that’s me.”

I start explaining why I’m there, and she’s got the look of: Great another whack job. One thing leads to another, and I start sharing with her my adventure into traffic and to Her church’s door. I find out that the things that I’m praying were accurate and that I’ve landed in the worst area of Chicago, and probably the United States (for murders that is).

I end up praying with her, and find it hard to leave. But in the end, Because I followed the leading of the Holy Spirit, listened to God. I got stuck in traffic and got to meet an incredible person with a heart for Jesus.

And I finally ended up at my destination in ontario at 2:30 am.

Today I feel inspired. I don’t tremendously know why; all I know is that I do.

I found myself today doing something other than that which I should have been doing: wandering the Internet. I really should be doing ‘proper’ work. Planning for Sunday, packing boxes, filing, you know all those “Pastoral” things. But instead I found myself stumbling across my brother’s blog.

Now to many of you this will seem a natural occurrence, but you must realize something very vital: although I am a member and contributor of the Blog-o-sphere, I very rarely actually peruse it. Today however, this was not the case.

Today, after stumbling across a long-ago college friend’s blog, my fingers seemingly typed “martyzylstra.com” into the navigation bar of my browser. When I hit enter, I seemingly, like Alice, fell down the rabbit hole into my brother’s world.

My brother, the ever-artist, never ceases to amaze me.  A while ago, my common critique about his song-writing was that it was shallow, that it needed more meaning. IE: was U2 popular because Bono was outspoken or was Bono outspoken because U2 was popular?

Over the last year, I have watched my brother as he has been on a journey. This journey has spoken to me and I have seen things that I never saw before.

Personally, I quite frequently question inspiration. I’m very big on inspiration, as there are unique moments that create some of the most elusive masterpieces. Today, as I pondered Marty’s blog, I was inspired; to write again. But mostly to ask the question: what inspires you?

Here are the videos of Sharon’s back being healed. What a week. We are continuing the meetings in Port Hardy, because we want to remain open to what God wants to do. He is willing to reveal himself as much as we are willing to let Him.

Sharon’s back was only the beginning, there has been much more. More backs restored, someone’s hearing healed. See some of the stories @ http://www.porthardychurch.com/

Part One of the Experience:

Part Two of the experience: