Ottawa and Rough Days

It's been a while since I last blogged, some determining factors included the fact that I was working and that I went to Ottawa!!

Work's been pretty hectic (like always) and as much as I enjoy it I think it might be catching up to me. I had four days off work so I could travel to Ottawa with the rest of my family, but it wasn't necessarily a vacation.

I was in Ottawa for my older sister's convocation. She graduated magna cum laude (with great honour) with a BA; majoring in international development and globalization and a minor in anthropology. It was fantastic! But the lack of sleep definitely wasn't the greatest. Social sciences was the first ceremony on Saturday which meant that the convocation started at 9:30 AM, eastern time! So after a flight that left on Friday at 6:30 in the morning and a consecutive morning which had me waking up around 5 AM mountain time; it wasn't splendid to say the least. The whole family went to church on Sunday in and then we flew home, back to Calgary later that evening; creating a not so stellar late evening/morning. Then before I knew it, I was back at Camp Evergreen working Tuesday morning. So those are some of the minor time details about my "4 days off."

The rest of the trip though was awesome. The ceremony was actually half entertaining as Michälle Jean and Paul Martin both spoke at the uOttawa convocation. We got to walk down to the ByWard market as well as walk around Parliament and the Supreme Court to top off the rest of the evening. Needless to say, Ottawa was amazing, the amount of sleep I got? Not so amazing.

That leads me to the reason why I've been having a bad day. I had a bad dream about a stupid little problem that I thought would never happen in real life. But it turns out that I had deja vu and it made me so angry when I saw it happen. It definitely made my day even worse on top of all the other stress and lack of energy that I had throughout the day. I still have to do Yodel n' Hum tonight and I'm not prepared to act happy and excited in front of all those kids.

Sometimes it's difficult to show true happiness. But from what I know, true happiness and everlasting joy can only come through Christ. No person, object, toy, form of technology or anything else can make me truly, and purely 100% happy. Only through Christ can I experience that joy. So I guess my prayer is that while I write this blog post, God would reveal to me the joy and the happiness that is currently surrounding me and that I would be able to see Christ working in that. If that means encouragement from a fellow staff member or simply just the reassurance that God is present in my weakness, then I will be overjoyed and filled full with his everlasting peace and joy. But I don't want to set expectations on what he can and can not do. I just pray that I would be able to sing and dance to crazy songs around a campfire and that the kids singing along with me would see that joy also. Because if they don't see my happiness in what I do, then would I really be living out my mission at camp? I wouldn't think so, and that's why I have to come to realize while I write this post that God is sufficient, he is enough and he is present despite my biggest or smallest struggles, all I have to do is have faith and trust in his plan. I hope that by the end of the day I can say that I did trust in him and that I did have faith and that I experienced his joy.

Just my thoughts on the days events. See you guys soon!

Bradley "Aflac" Jones

VFB Stuttgart vs. FC Bayern München

It's another Saturday and the busy work is finally over. I have today off so what else is their to do then watch VFB Stuttgart play Bayern München in the DFB Pokal Finale which is pretty much a knockout tournament between the majority of all German soccer teams within the country.

I am watching with Nate again, as he's the Bayern fan. I also watching the game today with Fritzi (one of our German staff members) who actually lives about a half hour outside of Stuttgart.

I will be live blogging the event.

Tomas Müller scored on a penalty in the 36th minute after Stuttgart commited a penalty in their box, drawing a yellow card from the referee.

Mario Gomez former striker for VFB Stuttgart scored an easy goal in the 48th minute and another in the 61st to give Bayern the 3-0 lead in the DFB Pokal Finale.

Stuttgart finally got on the board as Martin Harnik landed a header from the Japanese Sakai that made its way past Manuel Neuer

Stuttgart struck again the the 80th minute as Martin Harnik took two cracks at the München goal. Manuel Neuer stopped the first but no the second. FC Bayern München is still up on Stuttgart 3-2 with 9 minutes until full time.

And a last minute save from Manuel Neuer in injury time seals the deal for Bayern as they win the DFB Pokal Finale and become one of the greatest teams that Germany has ever seen after winning the Bundesliga, the Champions League and the DFB Pokal Tournament.

What a great game! Stuttgart definitely put pressure on Bayern in the final minutes to make it a very entertaining match to watch, especially with Fritzi and Nate.

That wraps us me blogging about soccer for a while. Thanks for reading.