Luke Friesen

I was the poet at Satisfied, Feb 25th.

I seriously enjoyed that evening, and I particularly remember Mark smacking the drums and Peter improvising on the keys while I read my last, Valentines Day, poem.

Here are the three poems that I read:


Sleep
Turn off and ignore.
Whatever happens for the next eight hours can happen
I'll let it all happen without me
I'll see eyelids

How could you let this happen?
I was asleep!
Why were you sleeping!?
I was tired!

Sleep
I'll pretend I don't care
Because I want rest
I want to ignore you
I'll to find out about it when I get up

I'll forget you now
To help you later
Help me get this time in
Ignore me

Sleep
Pretend everything's inside your head
Its all worthwhile in there
And calm down
Chill out

What's so great about reality anyway?
Lie to yourself about it
You want this more than work
Fun is found inside a good dream

Sleep

Sopstop srop spop stoppstop stop stop stop stop stop
Stop sleeping
Lie to yourself again
You want to get up and work
Sleeping-in isn't enough fun
Fun is found at the end of a hard days work
Rest is found at the end of a hard days work



Street-Cornered
*Coughing*
Here I stand street-cornered with a hat and a hankerchief.
A hanky to cover the cough and the hat to cover the cost of living-
or dying, whichever I've been doing lately.



You're Worth Holding

Intro:
I dedicate this to every woman who's liked me or that I thought at one time or another, like me. I suppose that if I value myself too highly this could potentially be about no one in particular. Still! Anyone--take what you can from it.

You're worth holding at night
You're good enough to be there for
You're much
Too precious to be rushed
Hurried—spoiled

You're good for loving and waiting for
Don't settle for a guy less than
one who sees clearly
It's the blind ones who'll try to have you now
Blinded to your brightness
Shimmer shammer
that tells us,
"Curses if we don't make you wait!"




I really look forward to contributing again next year.

Let's go!

We are getting more and more excited about the next satisfied event. We've got jazz and we know how to use it! There were a lot of people at the last event and thanks to the performers Jacob and Lily and we're hoping to ride the momentum to another great event. The next event is Monday, Feb 25th. Hope to see you there!

Hurry up and wait!

By Mark Silvestro


To whom may be readings this:

I don't fully understand what a blog is but heck, here goes. God the creator of the know universe and beyond has, in a way not been speaking to me.

What!? Well yes and no. Let me explain.

It has been a time recently of seeking God for direction for the new year, and explanation for all that is going on in my heart and spirit. So many things have been stirring inside of me. I have been praying a lot, and finding it really hard to pray at the same time. I keep asking God things and all I get is a silent "wait" and "rest".

Hey! Wait a second, God has been speaking to me. I just don't like the way, or the things He is saying. At the same time I am so excited because God has promised so much to me and He is a God who keeps His word. Also I have been doing this "read the Bible in a year" thing which could easily smack of "religiousness". But for some reason I have been absolutely loving it. The old testament rocks!

*Nerd!*

Hey who said that!?

The challenging truth, and encouragement I have been finding in God's word is amazing. I have also been reading this book call "Hinds Feet on High Places". The main character in this story is wanting to go to the high places, but first has to go through a seemingly never ending dessert. Hey that sounds kind of familiar, oh snap! looks like God just spoke to me again. Then just recently I was doing a first ever outing with my friend Ralph as "Onxunited". we were ministering to a church called the "People's full Gospel" and what does the guy preaching drop on us. Yep! you guessed in the "end times sermon"...What!? No! His message was about "When God is Silent".

....Wow, God is so good, thanks Lord. I love you so much. One last thought, for a God who has seemingly been silent, He sure is talking a lot. I am constantly amazed at Gods love and faithfulness. If your reading this and you don't know God, well, I'm not here to give you the "turn or burn" sermon. I just want to tell you, as well as those who are in a relationship with God... He loves you, oh how He loves you! The more you know that the more your life will change.

Blessings

Movie Night

This Monday we're going to have a movie night. It's going to be a great time. We're going to have popcorn, pop and you're invited! Unfortunately we couldn't get Godzilla to come personally, but we're going to have a good time nonetheless. Monday at 8:30. Be there.

Hmmmm...

So where are we headed?

I think that's a really good question. We are in the middle of watching an election next door to us. I really don't know who's going to win. I love watching the Republican side because it seems that they are willing to give up everything for power. If you look at all their candidates, the only one who suits the Republican mold is Ron Paul. Ron Paul may have one or two good ideas, but Ron Paul is too extreme. For the republicans, it's not a question of voting for the person that they like most it's a question of voting for the person they hate least. Mitt Romney is so slippery he doesn't have to open doors, he just slides underneath. John Mccain is theoretically the ideal Democratic candidate. I have no idea why he's a Republican. Mike Huccabee is a Baptist minister, and I think they want to seperate themselves from that image. Rudy Guliani supports abortion. And they need to keep thier religious ties strong. So as you can see they've got quite the dilemma. Should they completely sell out their core beliefs as a party in order to get what appears to be an upper hand.

I deal with this constantly. Should I agree with the crowd when I know what the answer is in my heart? I have things that I believe that we need to speak up on. But I think that I don't do it out of fear of man. Or fear of looking dumb. Did you know that some people out there think that a fear of God or belief in God shows lack of mental development. I think that in Manitoba we have a stronger bible presence, but in a place like Vancouver or Montreal it would be a different story. I think that what people are looking for is someone who believes what they are talking about. I have a friend named Andy who likes to go out a preach the gospel wherever he goes. To the point that when I am with him I tend to move away from him. But the thing is that wherever he goes, he lives what he preaches. And whether or not people agree with him or not they respect what he has to say because he has the guts to not only say it but live it.

That's the kind of guy I want to be, not man-fearing, but God-fearing.

Luke 12:4 (The Message)

4-5"I'm speaking to you as dear friends. Don't be bluffed into silence or insincerity by the threats of religious bullies. True, they can kill you, but then what can they do? There's nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands.

Give me relevance or give me something else!

So I constantly am in a struggle as to whether I want to be hip and cool vs being evangelistic. I think that one has to come at the cost of another. There was a scene in the new movie Shrek the third where Shrek is trying to convince Artie to be king by doing this terrible homeboy routine. Artie runs off and Shrek chases after him. Artie yells "Help, I'm being chased by a monster and he's trying to relate to me!" I think that we can come across the same way to people. I heard once that there's a church that plays Stairway to Heaven and Hotel California before every service. Now I'm not going to be "Those songs are from the devil and Rock and roll is evil" blah blah blah. I think that trying really hard to be relevant in today's culture makes....well remember that person who tried really hard to be cool in high school? Did they succeed? I think that instead of trying to fit into other people's culture, we should be making our own culture. I think that's more appealing to people than the guy who's trying to be relevant and failing miserably. Think about this: for the coffee house, what would you like people to say when they leave?

a) "wow, that was great....it was so adorable. It was just like a Starbucks. We got our coffee, had a seat and enjoyed ourselves. It was a nice atmosphere. "

or

b) "Man, forget Starbucks. I want to be a part of this."


I think by trying to fit into a culture that's not our own we're trying to fit into a suit that doesn't fit. Soon we're doing things like playing Led Zeppelin on full blast thinking we're being relevant.


We need to find a suit that fits us.

Come one, Come all...Quietly

So some people have the blue screen of death. We apparently have the blue poster of death. We're going to be spreading this poster around. Only it will be orange and not blue. We're doing a study night for exam people. So if you want a break or a different atmosphere c'mon down. We'll still have the coffee machines going full blast so you can have a coffee and a few people are going to bring some baked goods. We're going to resume the full party in January.