Lego Bible Armageddon!!!!

The most amazing Lego Bible segment yet!! Revelation! What does the end of the world look like in Lego? Find out here

http://www.thebricktestament.com/revelation/index.html

Leafs came to Thorncliffe after all!

Check out this video I found of the Leafs at Thorncliffe school!

Dead Sea Scrolls coming to Toronto!!

When I was in Israel back in 2005, I had the privelege of swimming in the Dead Sea, visiting Quamran and viewing the Dead Sea Scrolls.

3 weeks from now the Scrolls are going to be right here in Toronto at the ROM - click here!! I would strongly encourage anyone who has doubts about the authenticity of the Bible to visit this exhibit. Often I hear people saying "The Bible has been copied so many times we can't trust it", but the Dead Sea Scrolls disprove that as they are the earliest manuscripts we have, and show that the Bible we have today is the same as this ancient text.

From the ROM website:

Dating from around 250 BC to 68 Common Era (CE), the Scrolls include some 207 biblical manuscripts representing nearly all of the books in the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament). Approximately 900 Scrolls were discovered; some almost entirely preserved and others in fragments. Together, they comprise one of the most important collections of writings ever discovered. The Scrolls are a collection of biblical writings, apocryphal manuscripts, prayers, biblical commentary and religious laws. Prior to the discovery of the Scrolls, the oldest known copies of biblical texts were written 1,000 years later.

The exhibit starts just 3 weeks from now on June 27th so get on down and check them out!

Thorncliffe Soccer League!! Volunteers needed

We need some volunteer coaches & referees for the Thorncliffe soccer league.
Send me a message if you can help!!

____________________________

http://www.thorncliffepark.ca

Summer Soccer League in Thorncliffe Park for boys and girls aged 7 to 16.

All skill levels welcome. Come out and have fun playing soccer this summer in Thorncliffe Park from mid-June to the end of August. Games will be played at Leaside Park (by the tennis courts & swimming pool),

Cost: Free
Ages: 7 years old to 16 years old (teams will be by age groups)

***Volunteer coaches and referees needed. Community service credit available for high school students. ***

Registration
In person at 38 Thorncliffe Park Drive on these days only:
Saturday May 30, 2009 10:00 am - 12:00 pm Tuesday June 2, 2009 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Online: www.toronto.ca/parks/torontofun/to_fun_regonline.htm
By touchtone phone: 416-338-0000

For more information, please contact:
email: soccer@thorncliffepark.ca
website: www.thorncliffepark.ca

Thorncliffe Park - crowded but easy to walk...

From yesterdays Globe & Mail:

When Indian-born Sabina Ali and her family arrived here 10 months ago, they chose to live in Thorncliffe Park, a thick cluster of 1950s-era high-rise apartments overlooking the Don River as it curves through the middle of the city.

What attracted the Ali family may surprise those familiar with the neighbourhood's stereotype as a dense, high-rise community of low-income immigrants with social needs.

"When I visited this place, I really liked it," said Ms. Ali, a married mother of four young daughters whose family has no car. "Everything is accessible - the grocery store, the mall, the school and the mosque - and you can just walk [to them]...

Thorncliffe Park, one of 10 inner suburbs being studied, is surprisingly easy to walk around because high-rises are near shopping, schools and play areas. But other areas are much more spread out, with wide arterial roads, no sidewalks and other impediments to pedestrians.

Preliminary findings from Thorncliffe Park show the power of small fixes.

Ms. Ali, a volunteer member of the Women's Committee of Thorncliffe Park, said her group successfully appealed to the city for additional benches and picnic tables for a small park beside the local elementary school. Over the winter, the city agreed to shovel snow from sidewalks and footpaths.

Now, she said, more residents come out to sit and talk, and walk around the park, adding to a sense of security.

Jane Farrow, executive director of the Centre for City Ecology, said the volume of pedestrian activity in Thorncliffe Park is significant."

Full article - click here

Pastor takes child killer into his home - what would you do?

Found this article on the Salvation Army 'Rubicon' Blog and thought I'd repost it here:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509585,00.html

CHICHESTER, N.H. — A pastor in this quiet, picturesque New England town opened his doors to a convicted child killer who had served his time but had nowhere to go.

What would you do? Read the entire article - click here

The sayings of Sylas v20 - Lightbulb

Tonight we were talking about what the kids would be when they grew up.

Sylas: When I grow up I want to be a lightbulb!!
Daddy: What do you mean Sylas?
Sylas: Well, when I close my eyes the lights go out and when I open them the lights come back on!

The end result of the "Religious Right"

Saw this article on CNN today titled "America becoming less Christian, survey finds". It details how less Americans call themselves 'Christian' than 20 years ago.

Why is that you ask? One reason given was the rise of the Religious Right!

"In the 1990s, it really sunk in on the American public generally that there was a long-lasting 'religious right' connected to a political party, and that turned a lot of people the other way," he said of the link between the Republican Party and groups such as the Moral Majority and Focus on the Family...The survey polled 54,461 Americans between February and November of last year.

So to all my politically motivated Christian friends - drop it! You may be doing more harm than good.

"To the dreamers" - The origins of Twitter

This post may just end up turning into a new 'feature' on the old rusty athensBLOG. I'm not promising anything but every once in a while I find myself stumbling upon a story that inspires the dreamer in me. A story of desperation and sheer will power in the face of insurmountable odds. A story of someone who pulled through when all they had was a dream.

Recently I was reading about Twitter and found an interesting trail of info leading back to it's origins. Twitter was started by the same folks who started Blogger. Now Blogger, which I'm typing this post from, you may remember made it big when it was bought by Google in 2003.

But before then it was just a small start-up company called "Pyra Labs". Pyra Labs entry on Wikipedia states:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyra_Labs

The co-founders were Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan, and the company's first product, also named 'Pyra'...the rudiments of Pyra were repurposed into an in-house tool which became Blogger.

Blogger was completely free and there was no revenue model. When the company's seed money dried up, the employees continued without pay for weeks or, in some cases, months; but this could not last, and eventually Williams faced a mass walk-out by everyone including co-founder Hourihan. Williams ran the company virtually alone until he was able to secure an investment by Trellix after its founder Dan Bricklin became aware of Pyra's situation. Eventually advertising-supported blogspot and Blogger Pro emerged.

As I read that I wondered what went through Williams mind when he was all alone, working on his dream. Today we have Blogger and Twitter but at that bitter moment all Williams had was a dream.

Here's to the dreamers!

90% of Thorncliffe not born in Canada

Another interesting article about Thorncliffe:

http://www.torontoobserver.ca/2008/12/07/i-vote-toronto-seeks-a-wider-voice-in-civic-elections/

Desmond Cole, project manager for the I Vote Toronto campaign at the Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office, says that a community grassroots movement is needed..

“There are literally hundreds of newcomers serving agencies in Toronto,” he said...(About) 90 per cent of the people who live in Thorncliffe were not born in Canada.”

Click here for the full article

Thorncliffe school now over 1900 students!

This National Post article from last week puts Thorncliffes public school population at 1,913!! Remember that is only k-5 and it's growing by 4 students per day!!

Pupils of the World.
Natalie Alcoba, National Post
Saturday, Feb 14, 2009

This is Thorncliffe Park Public School, population: 1,913, languages spoken: 54.

The east-end campus bears the same name as the Toronto community that surrounds it -- a first, and often final, stop for new immigrants. Most residents come from Pakistan, and that makeup is reflected in the school. But students also hail from places like Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and a host of Arabic-speaking countries.

Click here to read the full article

Video of the week - Breakfast!

Lukas teaches Olivia to say 'breakfast'

Thorncliffe gets some love from Mayor Miller

1.1 million in the budget is going towards childcare in Thorncliffe!

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/552036

$1.1M Open new child-care centre at Thorncliffe Park with 56 spots.

That's pretty handy considering Thorncliffe not only has the biggest elementary school in North America (1900 kids from K-5) but also the largest age demographic from the 2006 census is 0-4 year olds!!! click here for graph

The sayings of Lukas v44 - Obama

Ahhh welcome to 2009. The year of Obama. To start the year off right I thought I'd share an experience I had over Christmas. Lukas & I went to Swiss Chalet for some father-son bonding time. Football games were on the TV. Quarter chickens were warm and tasty. Then our discussion took an interesting turn:

Daddy: Look at that catch by the football player Lukas
Lukas: Daddy, (frowning) stop watching TV!
Daddy: but Luke did you see that catch? It was amazing, he dove and caught it in...
Lukas: Daddy! If you don't stop watching TV I'm going to tell Obama to destroy all computers and TVs in the world!!
Daddy: huh?
Lukas: Obama will listen to me!! So stop it!

"Afghan discourse" in Thorncliffe

Interesting article in the Globe & Mail about challenges facing afghan youth in Thorncliffe:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081230.AFGHANYOUTH30/TPStory/National

As an Afghan-born youth living in Toronto, Nadera Ahmadi leads a hectic life. The 22-year-old attends York University full time, works part time in a big grocery store, and lives with her parents and family members in a small apartment in Thorncliffe Park.

But on a recent evening, she still took time to join about 30 young people in the basement of a local community centre to hash out a touchy subject: Should young people correct their parents on cultural issues?

The debate, moderated by a new grassroots forum known as the Afghan Discourse, touched on typical intergenerational conflicts. But for Afghans struggling to find work and adapt here, sometimes tensions erupt between tradition-minded parents and children lured to the wrong crowd.

10 bears in the bed and the little one said...

10 people in this Thorncliffe apartment!

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2008/12/22/7823976-sun.html

Habitat for Humanity also provided new lodging next door for the Rabbani family, all 10 of them. The Pakistani family also got to tour their home yesterday, a welcome relief from the three-bedroom Thorncliffe apartment they've been crammed into for years.

"We're so happy to have this home now," said Mirza Sajid Rabbani, the father of eight. "God has made this easy." Rabbani has been driving a taxi to make ends meet since arriving from Pakistan in 1996. He and his son, Ukkashah, 16, laugh when they are asked if they will miss their tiny apartment.

"There are three boys in my room," Ukkashah said. "We won't miss how overcrowded it is, no."

Video of the week - Christmas baskets!

Here's a quick video of us unloading all the food for the Christmas baskets! Thanks to everyone who has donated so far to help us get all this stuff! Please pray as we give out the baskets over the next week:

Video of the week - Lukas & Cookie freestyle!

Citizenship ceremony in Thorncliffe

When I saw the article and video about Thursday's Thorncliffe Park citizenship ceremony I immediately recognized one of the boys from Lukas' class!

http://www.thestar.com/article/548846

Raza, a telecom worker, moved from Pakistan three years ago in search of a less volatile environment for his two sons.

Yesterday, he and dozens of others took the oath of citizenship in a ceremony at Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute in Thorncliffe Park. Family and friends proudly beamed from rows of benches, many waving miniature Canadian flags.

Thorncliffe Powerpoint!!

I found this awesome Powerpoint on the Thorncliffe school website:

http://schools.tdsb.on.ca/thorncliffepark/whats_happening.html

To go directly to the Powerpoint click here:

http://schools.tdsb.on.ca/thorncliffepark/resources/welcome07-08.pps