Hallelujah

I love love love love love this. Rufus Wainwright's version might top this one, but this one comes in pretty close. Phil is one of my favorite worship artists. I will admit that like most everyone else, I have kind of fallen away from Christian music (though definitely not entirely), but I guess I'm just a sucker for worship music. It's just so beautiful. So simple but beautiful. I've never stopped loving it. It changes something inside of me, you know?

anyways, that was my little ramble. goodnight my friends! :)

floor falls through at concert

More than 40 injured after floor collapses at church concert in B.C.
1,200 people pack sold-out Christian rock show in Abbotsford

Paramedics treat injured teenagers outside Central Heights Church in Abbotsford, B.C., Friday night.

(CBC)
More than 40 people were taken to hospital — three with serious injuries — after the floor caved in at a packed concert in an Abbotsford, B.C, church late Friday night.

"We were dancing in the front of the stage," Kyle Weber, a teenager who was at the Christian rock concert, told CBC News. "The floor just collapsed. All the speakers just fell down [and] crashed a lot of people.... A lot of people fell through the floor. "

At least 23 people were sent to MSA Hospital in Abbotsford, while 16 people were diverted to nearby hospitals in Mission, Chilliwack and Langley, local health officials told CBC News late Friday night. Two more were taken to Vancouver General Hospital.

Police in the Fraser Valley community said they didn't know how many people were actually hurt in the incident at Central Heights Church, but they confirmed that at least three people were hospitalized with serious injuries.

A teenager was taken away by a stretcher outside Central Heights Church after the church floor caved in late Friday night during a packed rock concert.

(CBC)
Karen Thiessen and her eight-year-old-son were at the concert when "the heavy lights above the auditorium started to fall towards the crowd" at around 9 p.m., she told CBC News.

A mosh pit in front of the stage was filled with teenagers, she said, and they were jumping and dancing. After the lighting fell, the floor beneath the mosh pit collapsed, she said, and the people on it fell through to the basement about three metres below.

About 1,200 people were watching the concert at the church, at 1661 McCallum Road, she said.

The sold-out event featured contemporary Christian rock band Starfield, and a couple of warm-up bands were playing their music when the accident happened, Thiessen said.

Several concert-goers — most of whom were teenagers — were cared for by paramedics at the scene, Thiessen said. She and her son, Isaac, were not hurt.

Ian Hern, a youth pastor at the concert, said there were hundreds of youth jumping and dancing at the time.

"All of a sudden, one of the light poles started to tilt and then the whole floor just caved," Hern said.

Some of the young members in his group suffered injuries such as a broken arm or a dislocated shoulder, Hern said.

"Obviously, the church floor wasn't built to handle that number of people," Hern said.
RCMP from the nearby communities of Langley and Mission were called in to assist the Abbotsford police.

Extra doctors and nurses were also brought in to help paramedics treat the injured, police said.

---

"The front of the sanctuary floor collapsed and dozens of people fell through to the floor below. Lights also fell on the audience. "

The accident happened during the third song by Christian rock band Starfield, just after 9 p.m.

Mark Maney told CTV News right before the collapse, Starfield frontman Tim Neufeld started screaming for everyone to get out.

"It was terrifying as everyone started screaming. Water started pouring out of the pipes that had been in the floor falling on the victims who fell," Maney said.

"There was also a faint dust that rose in the air, probably from the debris of the floor. The scaffolding which the speakers were on slowly started to fall, stage left first followed by the stage right speakers and landed in pews that still had people in them."

The church was built in the 1980s.

if you pray.. now would probably be a good time.

Why would you ever complain or whine..?

Why would you ever complain, O Jacob,
or, whine, Israel, saying,
"God has lost track of me.
He doesn't care what happens to me"?
Don't you know anything? Haven't you been listening?
God doesn't come and go. God lasts.
He's Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn't get tired out, doesn't pause to catch his breath.
And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired,
gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out,
young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don't get tired,
they walk and don't lag behind.


i love that.
Isaiah 40:37-31 - the message.

from the colors of fall.

to the Fragrance of Spring

and things like chemistry

Sometimes I wonder if all I am is my mind... if there's some guy behind the curtain feeding in these various things that would come from my senses... making me think this is real, but it's not.

Sometimes I wish it was 300 years ago... that i was a 15 year old girl... nearly a woman. That I worked and worked... that i stayed at home and learned how to keep a home and how to raise a family... and learn about life. School is just a bunch of memorizing anyways.

Sometimes I realize what a selfish, immature person I am. I often wish for change. I rarely do anything to change. I never put other people first enough... I forget to consider others and just do what seems best to me in that current moment.

I wish for change.
I want to be the change.
I need to change.
Change needs to be something I do and not just something I want.

He Gives and He Takes

So I am discussing death with my youth minister right now. He says death cannot be part of God's plan, he sees death as the opposite of life, etc., etc. I disagree. Here's my email so far. I just wanted to know what you all thought about it. It's not much but I don't have much time at the moment. I just wanted to make a quick post and get some more thoughts on this.

But I'm not defining death as the opposite of life. I'm talking about literal, physical death, which is not, in my opinion, the opposite of life. That's like saying love and hate are opposites. At first glance they might be, but upon closer inspection, you begin to realize they are more alike than you may think. Death does not go against life. Especially if you believe in an afterlife, and I know you do, so I don't understand why you are saying this. Under that belief, death is just an entrance to a new life. Don't so many 'Christian' songs talk about how they are so excited to meet God? To see him and be with him? So WHY is death such a horrible thing to you? Shouldn't it come as a joyful thing? I mean, Christians should be (and apparently are) excited for death! I mean, of course there are the people left behind, but like I said, much, much good comes from death. The good outweighs the bad, from my experience. Death is part of life. Life is about learning, about experience, about thinking and growing. Death plays a huge role in that.

I'm gonna stop there. That should be enough to get your brain rollin'. :)

Under the Banner of Heaven

So I just finished reading this book "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer. It's about Mormonism (mostly Mormon Fundamentalism), focusing on the Ron and Dan Lafferty and allowing us to understand where they were coming from when they decided to kill Brenda Lafferty and her little girl. I've never known much about Mormonism so I thought this book was really interesting. It's fascinating really, reading about these people's revelations from God. There was a part where this one guy gets a revelation from God and the people he's living with hears people talking in his room (he's the only one in there) and sees a light coming out. They said that in the morning, they couldn't look at him because he was like, radiating brightness. And there's countless stories like this. I'm not real sure what to think. I feel like just blowing it off is a cop-out, but I honestly don't know how to explain it. Some people I can tell are just frauds, but there's others who are sincere with their beliefs. I would never subscribe to Mormon beliefs, and I definitely wouldn't ever subscribe to Mormon fundamentalist beliefs, but some stuff, you just have to ask yourself, "what is true? what do I believe?" (by the way, I probably would never subscribe to Christian beliefs either, had I not grown up in the religion.)

How cool would it be to talk to God? How cool would it be to have an angel appear to you and instruct you to go dig up golden plates?? What would you do? What would you do if God appeared to you and told you to go kill someone?

also, perhaps if any Mormons are reading this, they can clarify for me, but it seems like a LOT of Mormonism is about the afterlife. You baptize dead people to get them into heaven (this seems to imply that no matter who you are, if you are baptized, you go to heaven). It seems like the ultimate threat is "if you don't do this, you're going to hell". Everything seems to be about keeping things pure and if a 'Gentile' touches you, you better go wash that dirt off your skin or you're going to hell! That might be an exaggeration but you get my point. Someone told me that the LDS temple place around where I live (I forgot what it was called) that only people at high 'levels' can enter once opened up for the public to come and see, and when it was over, they stripped everything down and redid everything, just cause it was 'contaminated'. I dunno. It seems like spending your whole entire life worrying about whether or not you are good enough to go to heaven is a sad way to live. But I don't know.

Comment & let me know what you think.

and I hope I didn't say anything offending, if I did, please let me know.

10 days late.

it's been a little while since i've gotten around to posting.. sorry.

Sunday i was baptized... and there were some other things that happened that day that i never imagined would have happened. i'm very thankful.

so then i lost my ipod on monday.. i think it's in my house.. i just don't know where. not too happy about that... my parents don't seem to want to help - which i understand.. it's just i know that at this rate i won't find it for at least a month.

Tuesday.. american idol was a let down. the only performances i really liked was michael johns.. followed by jason, kristy, and archy.

Wednesday.. mom has off.. we watch idol gives back.. i found it rather boring honestly.

Thursday - WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU AMERICA??? <3 michael johns. goodbye. come out with an album please.

Friday - today. report card = good.

i don't know what to think... but honestly i'm starting to miss music. :S a few days without it really makes a big difference.

For the talent show i plan on doing this song:

i just need to figure out some of the lead guitar...

and this = <3:

wake up, you're alive.

I don't have anything to say, but no one's updated this thing in a couple days, so I'm gonna say a bit.

I'm really happy right now. I've been really happy lately. I dunno why..I don't really even think it's happiness as much as it is joy, you know? It's crazy. I have some wonderful people in my life and I am just really happy to be alive. So what if I have a C in Bio right now? So what if I've pretty much failed my last 3 math quizzes? I'm happy! I'm alive! I'm readyyyyyyyyyy