Family Tradition

So this last week Niki and I have painted my office. I have to say it's pretty sweet. I'll post some pics later.
But as we were painting I thought it would be cool to paint my McCorkindale Family Crest on one of the walls. Which took me on a little search of the history of my name. And all I have to say is, SWEET! I have a pretty sweet last name... not that I want to rub it in, but being of a Scottish persuasion kicks butt!!!

Anyway this is my family Crest! The root is from the ancient Dalriadan-Scottish name McCorkindale is the Gaelic word Mac-Thorcaill which was created from the Old Norse personal name Thorketill, meaning "Thor's cauldron."
Spelling variations of this family name include: MacCorquodale, MacCorquindale, MacCorkindale, MacCorkill and many more.
First found in Argyllshire where they were seated from early times and their first records appeared on the early census rolls taken by the early Kings of Britain to determine the rate of taxation of their subjects.
Some of the first settlers of this family name or some of its variants were: Archibald McCorkadale, who arrived in Jamaica in 1685; Duncan McCorquadale, who came to Jamaica in 1758; Christian McCorquodale, who arrived in Virginia in 1792.
The McCorkindale Motto is Vivat Rex which is Translated: Long live the king.

Now all crests have their own meaning, and this is the meaning to this one is this
First is The Stag. It stands for Skillful, Politic, lover of harmony. In Ireland the Stag was one of the most ancient of charges and was regarded as the most handsome. The Stag represents the very ancestors of the Celtic race.

Next is the layout of the shield. This particular layout signifies the Military Belt and represents Honour.

Then comes the colors.
The Yellow stands for Generosity
The Red means Warrior, Martyr, Military Strength

Finally as far as I can tell the wavy lines mean ground, land, earth.

I thought this was pretty sweet. So cool to come from an awesome background with so much depth and history.

The Tshirt Contest and videos

So here it is, I really don't think there is any need for more designs, we have a winner right here!!! These were submitted by the One and Only Maggie Bergen... truly these are works of art!!!

I think My fav is the 2nd one!

Some other cool stuff, If you search for Rob Bell and Nooma on youtube you can watch a number of his videos. So if you have ten minutes and are looking for some inspiration, check that out. Also here is a video of Shane Claiborne speaking. A lot of what he said is what I heard in Charlotte. If you have an hour to burn it is totally worth the time.

The Pogo Stick

Skateboarding eat your heart out, here is a totally awesome new extreme sport... oh... you might want to turn off the volume, and just listen to your own tunes, the song in the background drops a lot of f-bombs.

Calling All Artists

So here's the deal, I'm looking for a sweet t-shirt design for our youth group. SO if you are interested in winning $30 than pull out your sketch pads, or open paint on your computer and begin drawing. I have a few ideas that I would like to see worked into the design, so take these poor artistic renderings and make them look sweet. You can email me your finished product at icorkytoo@hotmail.com.

Back Home

So here I am, back in the office. Our drive back was very uneventful. There werea few miles around 3 Am that we were worried. There was a terrible metal on metal sound coming from one of our back wheels. But whatever it was stopped after about a half hour of fervant prayer. We even made it across the border without any problems. It took us a total of four minutes. They didn't even pull us over to search or anything. So my record stands!! If I'm driving I don't get pulled over and searched!
It is good to be back, but there is a ton of stuff to do so... off I go.

NYWC Charlotte Day 3

So today we have now finished day three of NYWC, and I have to say the highlight of today was hearing Phil Vischer talk about how he failed, and how Big Ideas eventually went bankrupt. He had some many incredible things to say about vision (and how we shouldn't be planning 5 years ahead) and instead we must rest in God, and wait on Him. It was incredible. Also this morning I saw Shane Claiborne, as he shared about the Scandal of Grace. He is the next Tony Campolo for sure... I guess it makes sense since he was mentored by him. Anyway that also was super cool. His enthusiasm and passion are infectious.

This evening we went and caught an NBA game. That was pretty cool! So all in all this has been a great experience, but we are all tired and very ready to get home to our wives. We are planning on leaving around noon tomorrow and then hopefully the weather will be good. You can all pray for us, looking at the weather network it looks like we are going to be driving into a lot of storms. So yeah pray for a safe trip. Thanks

Cool Fact

So Charlotte is a pretty cool city, besides being pretty cool one thing we learnt is that Charlotte is:

1) The home of the first Krispy Kreme Doughnut shop


2) The birth Place of Pepsi




3) The place where the national food is anything fried.

Yup basically this is the healthiest city in the world...maybe... ok probably not... but it is a great place to go and eat out!!!

NYWC Charlotte Day 2

Alright here we are with day two done. And what a great day it was. This morning I caught Dan Kimball's session on pluralism and world religions. It was a great class and I was really stretched by what he had to say. I think that the things that he was talking about were especially relevant in Altona with the increase of refugee families who come from a totally different background than we are used to. Then we had a main session with Philip Yancey. He's so amazing. I have enjoyed some of his books in the past, but to see him in person was incredible. He is a very gifted story teller.

For lunch we took off to the Pita Pit and then went and bought tickets for the Charlotte Bobcats game. We are going to head over tomorrow and see some NBA. Not that it will be that good, but we figured for 15 bucks how can we go wrong...

So here's a funny story. As we were walking out of the main session this morning I found 13 bucks on the ground. I was pretty pumped since now I didn't have to pay for the game on Sunday. But this was just the beginning of the Canadian's cleaning up. This evening Dan and I went down to some of the draws we had entered. Dan started off with winning an Apple Shuffle, and a $7,000 youth ministry makeover. It is pretty sweet! Anyway I was feeling a little ticked since I was right there next to him the whole time and hadn't won anything. So I decided that I would just wander around and see what was up. I ended up by the Youth Walk booth and they did a draw and I WON!!! I have never won a draw in my life! But I won about $400 worth of stuff. A nooma video and some books, and 30 subscriptions to a daily devo book for a year. So that was pretty awesome. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens tomorrow :D

Tonight we decided to hang out and just relax so that we have energy for tomorrows sessions. So now we're just chilling and watching School of Rock.

NYWC Charlotte Day 1

What to say…. Well NYWC is rad!! So far it has been a super refreshing time of growing in Christ, and hanging out with some great new friends. This morning Dan and I headed over for the second half of our Critical Concerns Course, with Yaconelli, but since we had missed the first part of it yesterday we felt like we were missing a lot, so we skipped out and walked around collecting bags and bags of free stuff. It was great to see what is there, relax, and hey!! Did I mention free stuff? We even met a girl working at one of the booths who used to work at MCI and was born and raised in Morden… what a small world. So we talked about all the people we know and have in common, it seems you can’t go far enough away to escape the Mennonite game.

We also just had the first general session. It was incredible. Starfield is here… it seems weird to drive 30 hours and still see a band from Manitoba. Anyway, they led us in an awesome time of worship. It sent chills down my body to feel the presence of God, and to know that he is moving in the lives of everyone here. That no matter our denomination or context of ministry, we all have a passion for youth, and Jesus, and we are hear to learn so that we can know him more. Praise God!!! I am already starting to think how we can manipulate our coming youth budgets so we can come here again, but this time with some of our youth leaders.

Anyway so far the one thing that has REALLY stuck out to me was from that hour we spent at Mark’s course. He said that we have all the creativity, and knowledge and resources that we will ever need ALREADY in Jesus. And that if we don’t focus on that and realize that we will always come to these awesome conventions but never really get what we need. It was such a great word for us as we look around and are overwhelmed by all the options. We can go to these workshops and buy hundreds of dollars of stuff (which I’ve done) but at the end of the day, if I don’t have it together with me and Jesus, nothing is going to work.

Well anyway now it’s time to learn about why theology is important in YM. I’m looking forward to seeing what Dan Kimball has to say…….

…. Ok so now I’m back in the hotel. Another amazing time in Sessions and shops. I can’t say that I’ve learnt a whole lot of new stuff. But Both Kimball and Tony Campolo had amazing thing to say, and I found it very affirming, that I have been on the right track in our youth ministry. It has been encouraging to think about why we do stuff and how we can better incorporate what our youth is doing.

Watched Jared Hall late tonight, he is a great illusionist and it was a blast to sit on the floor right by his feet and watch him blow my mind. It was nice to take a break and laugh for a while.

Well time to get some sleep before it all starts again.