be.love.serve.

I just discovered that channel 67 on Rogers, “the reality channel,” offers Big Brother After Dark. Anyone who hates Big Brother, stop reading now.

But for anyone who loves people watching… this is the show for you. Its horribly boring because of lack of video editting. Its literally a live feed from the house. Personally, I sadly love this show. I can picture how I would edit it. Also, its the kind of show you can easily multi-task while watching. It is truly the Truman Show nightmare. However, it makes me laugh alot. While watching I came up with a hilarious Blog post idea. Who would I pick if I was casting Big Brother. I am not picking based on who I would win with, or who would get along with each other best, but who would make the best entertaining show. So here is my list. Im guessing most people dont know the majority. Additionally, I really dont mean any offense for making or not making the list. For example, if I was casting Amazing Race, I would pick Ryan Weatherbee. If I was picking Next Top Model, I would pick my wife. If I was picking Hell’s Kitchen, I would cast my mom. However, I think this is my best attempt at casting Big Brother: Daryl edition (disclaimer – i picked 16 people instead of the traditional 12-14. Because my show would be that hardcore!).

(1) Daryl Andrews

(2) Tim Bailey

(3) Lawrence Bowlby

(4) Julian Freeman

(5) Paul Hicken

(6) Mark Myles

(7) Anthony Orona

(8) Brian Pengelly

(9) Andrea Baber

(10) Melissa Borgh

(11) Laura Giberson

(12) Michelle Hewer

(13) Susan Jensen

(14) Katrinna Moonias

(15) Katie Riewald

(16) Jodee Snell

Sunday morning at Ecclesia we sang a couple of my favourite songs. They are speaking into me. I need them to be true. Watch the video below and understand where the song is coming from.

How He Loves : A Song Story from john mark mcmillan on Vimeo.

The morning I spent sleeping in. Glorious. Early afternoon I was at The Gallery. I think its the 4th biggest mall in North America. It was pretty huge. I really only had one store missing. Surprisingly it had no good board game stores. However, it had everything else including a hotel, Cheesecake Factory, and Ice Rink.The original plan was for me to kill about an hour here. Benny & Anthony went to play some basketball at St. Martins. I would have loved to join them but I didnt pack any running shoes. Also, I needed to pick up some khakis for the main event today (wedding rehersal). Suprisingly, even in the state of Texas, where they like things big, I struggled to find pants big enough. Most places only had 38 or lower sized waists. Blame it on the fancy mall factor. However, in the end I found some pants for $20. WooHoo! However, after grabbing some lunch at Chick-fil-a I was alittle bored. Malls are great but when you dont have money it gets old quick. What added to the boredom was that my cell phone was almost dead. After a few quick txts, my iPhone was completely out of charge (my bad – should have charged it one of the last 3 days). I was assuming I was getting picked up at 2pm. I stood around waiting until 3pm. Finally I got the brainwave to go to the apple store and charge my phone and try them. The problem is, thats exactly when they showed up. They didnt see me and decided I might have taken the bus home.  Long story short, we eventually got ahold of each other and they came back to get me.

To be honest, I spent most of the time thinking and praying for Sarah & Eric. As you can tell from my post yesterday, its been an emotional rollercoaster. Its weird because its such a low time but also such an exciting time right now. Tomorrow we celebrate the wedding of Anthony & Kate. I forget who said it, but I think it was quite wise. Someone said, there will be times to grieve and be low, but the best thing we can do this weekend is celebrate!

This evening we visited the church Anthony & Kate are to be wed in. Such a beautiful church. Maybe the most beautiful church I have seen in the USA. Its called Trinity Episcopal Church. When I get some wedding photos I will post them. It is gorgeous. Also, we had a great rehersal dinner at Brasil. The food was yummy, and it just kept coming. The evening was full of heart felt speeches, lots of laughs, and an open bar (need I say more?). The after party drifted to Poison Girl. And a few of us ended up hitting Vintage for some after after party drinks. Overall a great evening, setting the stage for a wonderful wedding. Looking forward to a great day tomorrow. Also, Eric & Sarah decided to get married on Sunday. WooHoo! So excited for them. I wish I wasnt going to miss it. I think they are still going to keep their wedding in November, but they want to marry now so they can battle this struggle together. I hope this weekend is full of amazing weddings that show God’s love and beauty! Is there any better party then a wedding with Christians that know how to party?!

I will start this post with some of the smaller random details of this day. Today we had some more amazing food. The highlight being Chuy’s, probably my favourite restaurant in the world (Freebirds wins for best fastfood). Its slightly annoying to know that a couple of my favourite food joints are located on the wrong side of the continent. Also did alot of cleaning & furniture moving today. Made a quick visit to a FANCY storage facility that Eric (Anthony’s other awesome roomate) had a couch and TV that needed picking up. I have never seen a storage facility so nice. AC and free drinks. Private elevator with codes to limit access. It was stupid. Houston is the 2nd most spread out city in the USA and yet there is need for fancy storage facilities. Go figure. Also, today we sold Anthony’s junker of a car. It was pretty amazing. We listed it on Craigslist (no one in Texas has heard of kijiji). First 10 minutes we heard nothing. The next 20 minutes we received 22 calls. CRAZY! We had people begging to get his car. Within 30 minutes of taking pictures of the car, Anthony had $600 cash in his pocket. I had three favourite moments of the sale. In the first 10 minutes Anthony & I drove to a barber shop. By the time Anthony was in his chair, I was busy being his secretary, answering calls. Second highlight was when a person arrived to buy the car, I pretended the person on the phone was offering $700. HAHAHA. Third highlight (if I can call it that) was when I decided to go in the car with the guy when he did the test drive. The guy put the peddle to the metal and made the car fly! He was going 80mph on a little local street. Picture Wortley village. I held on for dear life.

However, all of these highlights seem pretty trivial. Earlier this week we learned that Sarah, Eric’s fiancee was waiting for some results from a concerning CT scan. Sarah had a serious scare alittle over 4 months ago. She had a battle with skin cancer. However, she conquered it. But today, we learned the results of her recent CT scan. No one was ready for the news. We learned that Sarah had lung cancer and it is in stage 4. I had heard stories of Sarah & Eric before, but personally had only known them for less than a week. However, from my minuscule exposure to them, I fell in love with them. They are amazing. Eric is a strong young man of God. Sarah a bright shining light. Honestly, every time I saw them together, I missed Tanya. Their love is so obvious, and contagious. This news was so devastating. Most of the day I felt numb. I couldnt even imagine the pain that Anthony & Jeremy were feeling (Eric’s roomates), let alone the fear Eric was having, let alone the struggle Sarah was having. I cried alot today. I dont want to imagine a world without Sarah. I dont want to think about the idea of losing the person you love. I am angry that our world includes words like chemo, stage 4, and cancer. If you read my blog, I ask you one thing. I beg you. PLEASE PRAY. Pray for Sarah and her family. Pray for a miracle. You can follow her story at Sarah blog.

I recently heard that the second largest density of Mexican citizens in the world, beyond Mexico herself, is Houston. No wonder this city has such amazing food. Understandably, there isn’t a huge Mexican population in London, Ontario, Canada. You see, my favourite kind of food in the world is Mexican. I will blame my mom for that. You see, she worked at a restaurant called Chi-Chi’s when I was a young kid – I found everything on the menu delicious! As a young kid, I was even bribed with Mexican food. My aunt Lynda, would promise to take me to Chi-Chi’s with every book I read. I hated reading. Too slow. Rather just watch the movie. However, my caring aunt knew I would respond to a good bribe. Sadly, it still works today.

Today, Anthony decided we needed to taste some better Mexican food. So we started off by doing lunch at Freebirds. The place was originally started in California but quickly made its way to College Station (home of Texas A&M). The place is basically an amazing version of Chipotle (my previous favourite fastfood joint in the world, before I had experienced Freebirds). It is amazing. Had a HUGE burrito. It was so fresh, and delicious. Honestly, amazing. One thing I thought was ironic was all the decorations were like John Lennon and other ‘free thinkers’; however, the place was full of republicans (Texas A&M is a very conservative school). Anyway, just a random aside.

For dinner we hit up a small little restaurant called La Gaudalupana Bakery in the Montrose neighbourhood. It was located in a rather sketchy strip mall, but this place was authentic delicious mexican food. Loved it! I highly recommend this place, if your looking for something like you would find in the heart of Mexico. Beyond some good eating, the majority of our day we spent on cleaning and packing. Anthony is not only getting married this weekend, but he and his roommates are all moving this week too. So it was another day of slave labour for me.

Today I spent a majority of my daytime hanging on the St.Martin’s campus, at The Island youth centre. I led my favourite soccer team, Leeds United, to a championship on xbox360. Its been a rough stretch the last 6 years being a Leeds United fan. Sadly, most North American’s are so ignorant, they only know teams like ManU, Liverpool, Arsenal, & Chelsea. But I will be loyal to The Whites. Everytime I play soccer in video games, they are my team. Its difficult in Canada to be able to watch matches (never on). However, I do have a few pieces of memorabilia from my visit to Leeds during the 2005-2006 season. I attended a semi-final match with my uncle Nigel, at Elland Rd on May 5, 2006 (one source said the crowd was atleast a constant 128.3 decibels. Best sporting atmosphere of my life!). However, my first piece from Leeds United, I have had my whole life. One of the only things I still have, that originally was owned by my dad was the scarf below (a Leeds Scarf).

Later today, Anthony & I went for dinner with his small group. Went for Mexican food. Forget the name of the place. It was okay, but I was promised I will have better mexican food later this week. The $2 Mojito was great! And the Chips & Salsa were good (after we complained the first batch was stale). However, the company was amazing. Got to see Jonathan & Taryn again (originally met them when Anthony’s youth group was in Toronto, earlier this summer), and got to meet Jonathan’s brother, and Charlie’s wife Bonnie (I met Charlie at the bachelor party). All of them are amazing. Anyone with the opportunity to spend time with them, should feel honoured.

We ended our evening with a journey for dessert. We went to a place called Candylicious (picture below). They had everything! Including lollipops with real dead scorpians in them. NASTY! After everyone got some candy, we went next door. Charlie & I caved and got dessert next door at The Chocolate Bar. It was great to end the evening snacking on a delicious walnut brownie and listening to some live jazz music. Cant complain about a day full of soccer, salsa, and sweets.

Today I spent the majority of the day hanging at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church. You can see it below. Interesting sidenote: it might be the last church to be built of Cathedral stature. It was truly an awe inspiring architectural marvel. But beyond a quick tour, and lunch in Bagby hall, I spent my time at The Island, the teen drop-in centre. It’s a renovated club that has been converted into a space for students to hang out, share life, and grow closer to Jesus.

After hanging here most of the day, I was ready for some baseball! We headed to the Astro’s vs. Braves baseball game at Minute Maid Park. Anthony dropped me off, and I took a tour of the ballpark as he went to pre-marital counseling. It is a gorgeous ball diamond. A few highlights from my visit.

First, I acquired my wedding gift for Anthony. Because of my God given gift of the talking skills, and some dumb luck, I managed to acquire a personalized autograph from the legend Bobby Cox (Manager of the Atlanta Braves). He is the 4th most winning manager ever in baseball! Only guys I would put infront of him as best ever are: Tony LaRussa, John McGraw, & Connie Mack, who are the only managers ahead of him in wins. I love Sparky Anderson but you cant really argue he was better. Joe Torre is the only manager I will see in the next 10 years that will pass Bobby Cox in wins. But I would pick Cox over Torre for better manager (Cox has a better win percentage. Actually only McGraw has a better win percentage with 2200+ wins). And I was really tempted to get the autograph for myself as Bobby Cox was manager of the Blue Jays.

Second highlight was getting the crowd riled up. Anthony & I successfully snuck up to the 1st baseline/Right Field corner front row. And the crowd was pretty lame, so I started to smack talk the crowd hard and cheer for the braves. Lets just say within a few innings, I had whole sections engaging me in smack talk and multiple times I got into smack with the ball boy! HAHAHA. The kid was like 75 pounds. It was awesome. At the end of the game the Astro’s won and I got ‘BB’ (ballboy) to sign my hat.

Third highlight I didnt even learn about until after the game. Some of you might of heard about this but check out the video below. This happened at the game.

How hilarious is that?! The guy totally screened his girlfriend and then got scared and jumped out of the way. Someone told me the girl dumped him on some talk show a few days later. I havent seen the clip but if you find it, let me know. We were on the opposite side, so we missed the humorous episode. But atleast I was at the game.

After a great night  with some of Anthony’s closest friends, and solid sleep-in at the Tremont Hotel (SUPER FANCY!), we decided to hit up Whataburger. Solid texas fastfood joint. Definetly recommend the burgers and milkshakes. During the car ride back to Houston, I got to reflecting about friends. Last night I got to hang and get to know some really amazing guys. Friends are amazing. They are loyal. They call you on your junk. They encourage you when your up and when your down. Its funny but the time made me envious of Anthony’s scenario of so many great friends, but also made me miss my local friends. It made me appreciate how blessed I am for the men and women in my life. Sadly, life circumstances or issues can get in the way, but friends are worth the work. I hope my friends know, I love them and have their backs. Also, I hope to get to know and keep in touch with some of these awesome guys.

When we returned to Houston, Rob (aka. BJ), Anthony’s best man (best friend/ basically blood brother), showed us around his house. Great place. My favourite was his amazing sports room. He had tons of autographs and memorabilia. Mostly Nolan Ryan and Texas A&M stuff. Before we left, BJ gave his wedding gift to Anthony. It was a signed baseball from Prince Fielder & a signed soccer ball from Thierry Henry. The guy waited in a hotel lobby for over 10 hours, trying to get his best friend a gift he knew Anthony would love. Thats loyality.

After leaving BJ’s place, Anthony, Jeremy (one of his amazing roommates), & I, went for some BBQ. I was promised it would be the best BBQ I have ever tasted. Thats some big shoes to fill. AND…. IT WAS! Goode Company BBQ Company is Amazing. I splurged and got 3 meats. Smoked Turkey, Brisket, and suasage. Also had my favourite Texas brand beer, St. Arnold’s here. It was a class up from LoneStar & Shiner beers. After, the three of us hit up the movie, The Other Guys, at a local mega movie theatre. Personally, I found the movie hilarious. Lots of rewatchability. Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls! And the movie reiterated my thoughts, that we need loyal friends to help us get thru life. Overall, another great day of food & fun with friends.

Nothing like traveling across the continent and being put to work the minute you wake up. With only a few hours of sleep, I was put to the work of tear down. You see, this was the last day of teen camp and EVERYTHING needed to be packed up. We are talking sound systems, gauntlets made of sandbags/kiddie pools, staff rooms cleaned, and other random camp tarps, etc. When you wake up at 9AM and people say – we might be done in 3 or 4 hours… and you are working in 35C temperature, I began to question my arrival dates. However, we successfully did it all in about 2 hours and hit up some gas station BBQ for lunch. It was decent. I expected better. But I am promised I will get better.

After a quick unloading of everything at The Island (youth centre of St.Martin’s Episcopal Church), we all met up at Anthony’s house. With 2 packed cars, and a couple guys meeting us there, the 10 of us men embarked on Galveston, TX for Anthony’s bachelor party. The plan was to do New Orleans, but practically it made more sense to do Galveston, an hour drive south of Houston, straight towards the gulf. I would love to tell you more about the experience; however, like every good bachelor party – there is a guy code. Guess you should have been there!

I ran around like a mad man this morning, trying to get ready for the big trip. Took a quick breakfast break with Mark Myles & Brian Lockhart at the Hi-Fi Diner. These two amazing young men, I had the pleasure of being church together, in Parkhill Ontario, when I was youth pastor there. Always a pleasure to spend time with them. After the breakfast break, I took care of travel insurance, currency exchange, paying bills, and packing. Then I departed from London Airport to Houston Texas, with a quick connection in Detroit. Actually, it was suppose to be quick, but after running thru customs as fast as possible, I reached the right spot to find the airplane door closed. However, I didnt need to run, because the flight was delayed. Delta Airlines were changing the front tire of the plane. I was glad they decided to do that before the flight, so I didn’t complain. I just enjoyed time to grab some dinner.

When I finally arrived in Texas it was close to 11pm. Most people know I am a wimp when it comes to heat. I keep my house at a stupid cold temperature (thank you AC). It scared me to discover that even at 11pm at night it was 87F (30.5C). I am going to be in trouble all week. But it is so amazing to be here. Finally here hanging with my bro Anthony. He is seriously a soul brother. After being picked up by pickup truck from the airport, we headed to Camp Allen (Anthony’s camp growing up) and hung out with staff, ate some oreo’s and milk, played some stick ball, and crashed hard. Thankfully the cabins had AC.