Endure Fort» canada

Writers block?

Chris — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 19:54:08 +0000

so,

I’ve been very, very inactive on here over the last wee while, something I”m not happy at all about!

I’m not sure why I have been inactive, I’m certainly not short of things to write about – CLAN Gathering, Tearfund, World Mission Council, Canada, Cyprus, Hoskins Gallery, Starting a business, Pakistan…..if these things don’t make sense, that’s because I’ve not been keeping this up-to-date!

I’m hoping to remedy this over the next while, if I am fighting against writers block then the only way to deal with that is to write!!

Anytime I write on here, I’m a wee bit nervous about how it will be recieved, so it’s definitely not fear of how I write or what I say being the issue! Although, at some point, I do want to have the courage/ strength to blog about my experiences over the last few years!

I’ll leave it there just now, other than to say, one of the things that’s been keeping my so busy recently is that my wife, Linda, and I have started our own photography and art business, Hoskins Gallery, you can check it out at www.hoskinsgallery.com

Suffice to say, we’re very excited about it!!!

Peace Out

Why World Mission?

Chris — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 07:19:06 +0000

When I attended the World Mission Council meeting a few weeks ago, we were set a challenge by the convenor to get us thinking about why World Mission exists. I thought it would be good to share some of our responses:

Challenging statement: “The World Mission Council is a waste of the Church’s time & money. We have more than enough to do in Scotland.”

Responses:
- The Gospel is Global, being insular is not an option.

- Being Involved in the world Church helps us keep things in perspective.

- It is right to utilise our gifts and experience for the benefit of the Worldwide Church.

- It emphasises the relational nature of God and hence the relational nature of the Church.

- It shows obediance to Matthew 28: 19 &20 – The Great Commission.

- Scotland is part of the World….

- God is a God of compassion and justice, we should mirror Him to the whole World.

- It helps the Church to support minority Christians around the World.

- We are a part of the one holy catholic Church (as in the universality and wholeness of the World Church, not necesarily the Roman Catholic Church).

- One God is Worshipped by One Church, which has One Mission to One World.

Peace Out

New look

Chris — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 19:04:36 +0000

I’ve decided to go for a new look to my blog, I wanted something that was a bit simpler and not quite as busy as the last theme I used. I also wanted something with a custom header so that I could show some of my photos as part of the header. So the image at the top of the blog may change from week to week, at the moment its a panorama stitched together from 4 photos, taken at Cascade Ponds near Banff.

Travel Photography

Chris — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 11:21:28 +0000

As I mentioned last week, I have had the opportunity to do a lot of travelling this year – I’ve been to Nepal, Canada and France. On these trips I’ve travelled a total of 25121 miles and visited 26 different towns and cities. It’s been a great year – I’m still processing things that I saw and learned on all the trips! As I said, I’ll be blogging about these trips over the coming weeks and sharing some of our experiences and adventures. Blog posts from the Nepal trip can be found here.

One thing that I’ve learned a lot about throughout the course of the year and especially through these trips is photography. Photography is one of my big passions and I got my first DSLR, a Canon 50D, last November. It’ been a very educational year photography wise. I’ve learned a lot in general about photography, and these 3 trips have all acted as catalysts for learning new techniques, better techniques, improving my eye, improving my vision and especially forcing me to ask myself why I love photography and what I want to convey through it.

That question cannot be answered in this post! What I want to share with you just now is 3 collections on my flickr page – the photos from Nepal, Canada and France. I want to share with you all a part of me – and every photo I take is very much a part of me. Some of them are just photos of things/ people that I though to be worth capturing, some of the photos are me trying to say something with my craft/ art. If you have any comments/ criticism/ praise about my photos I would love for you to leave comments, either here or on flickr. I want o get better and can only do that if people offer honest opinions about my photos.

so here are the links to the collections:

Nepal
Canada
France

Peace Out

Travels….

Chris — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:35:38 +0000

Wow,
I haven’t been on here for ages! Far too long….

I’ve got so much to blog about too. Most of my blogging over the next wee while will be focusing on Linda and I’s recent travels. In September we had an awesome trip to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary – we went to Canada for 3 weeks. We spent a week in Toronto, then flew to Calgary to start a 5 day road trip to Vancouver (stopping at places such as Banff and Whistler en route) then finished with a few days in Vancouver. We saw a lot of awesome stuff – Niagara falls, Bears, the Rockies, but the best part was catching up with friends that I hadn’t seen in 7 years and that Linda had never met! But I’ll save all the details for more focused blog posts about the trip.

we also recently went to Paris for a long weekend with Linda’s folks – it was their 30th wedding anniversary. We all had a great time there and, thanks to the striking French public and Ryanair canceling flights through fuel shortages, we ended up with an extra day in Beauvais and a day in Dublin!

Anyhoo, it’s good to be back on here, I’ve been really frustrated at not finding the time to dedicate to this blog. Ah well, I’m here now!

Peace Out

NYA2010 – To Boldly Go…..why?

Chris — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:14:35 +0000

September 3rd – 6th sees the 11th annual Church of Scotland National Youth Assembly. For more details check out the cosyblog. This will be the first Youth assembly since 2000 that I am not in the age bracket for (the years before 2000, I was too young and the assemblies were every three years). I won’t be there this year – not because I am too old, but because Linda and I will be in Canada celebrating our 5th Wedding Anniversary with the holiday of a lifetime!

I will miss not being at the assembly, the 7 Youth Assemblies I have attended, as delegate or staff, over the last 10 years have been very important to me. I’ve made many good friends, been challenged, been inspired, at the assembly in 2000 I gave my life to Christ. Through my involvement in the Youth Assemblies, I’ve been opened to many other opportunitites – the ecumenical assembly in 2001, being a General Assembly youth rep in 2001,2002,2003,2005,2008,2009 (2003/2005 as a youth assembly rep – I’m quite proud to have been a part of the first group voted by the Youth Assembly to represent the Youth Assembly at General Assembly in 2003, voted by the NYA of 2002), going to Toronto in 2002 as part of the CofS group that visited the Roman Catholic World Youth Day celebrations, being involved in the Wadi adult network, the upcoming trip to Nepal and countless other weekends, evening and events that I was able to attend/ be part of through the people I’d met. I know this list seems a bit narcissistic, but I’m just realising how blessed I’ve been to be a part of all these things.

If you’ve never been to the Youth assembly and you are eligible to go, I would recommend that you do, if you’ve been before, why do you share some memories with us? Those who are going this year – relish it, enjoy it, participate. Its the kind of event that is only as good as you make it, if you don’t put yourself into it and take part, it will never be as good as it could be – for you and for those around you.

Peace Out

NYA2009 so far

Chris Hoskins — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:39:40 +0000

NYA has been pretty awesome so far.
It’s slightly bizarre thatm after being hosted by the Apex hotel in Dundee for 6 years, we’re in a sprawling University campus in Stirling. Usually everyone would be on top of one another, everything would happen within 2 minutes walk of each other. Instead, there is a good 10 minute walk from Accomodation to many of the places we are using, not much, but it gives you an idea of how much bigger the space we have is.
Usually, where I would sit during NYA to relax and reflect would be filled with 300 other NYA delegates and staff trying to catch up with friends, make new ones or refelcet on happenings as well. Instead, I find myself just now reflecting in a huge lobby, that is silent apart from the A.C. It’s wierd. But I quite like the silence.
I’m posting a wee bit on the NYA2009 blog aboutgeneral happenings etc, but on here I wanted to be selfish and reflect on the parts of the weekend that I’ve been directly involved with so far, specifically the social media aspects, sport, a worship session and relationships.
As I previously blogged, i’m delighted this year to serve the NYA through 3 mediums I’m passionate about: Sport, photography and social media.
I’ve really enjoyed being a part of the social media side of things, wandering around talking to people about their impressions of the weekend and what they have enjoyed so far, we’re hoping to put together a blog post and a video of such thoughts before the end of the weekend.
Sport, I love sport, today we had 3 hours of sport: Ultimate Frisbee, Badminton and Golf. Everyone seemed to have a good time and there was some good banter going around, i’ve always maintained that sports are great for people getting to know one another…a great tool for Youth Ministry.
Photography. Today I led a worship session exploring the idea of worshipping or praying, using a camera as a medium. It’s been interesting preparing that slot, exlporing within myslef what worship is, how I worship, what prayer is, how I pray, does photojournalism inform this idea of worshipping through a lens? Later I’ll write a blog post about that session, would be good to get some feedback on my thoughts!
Tonight we’re having a bit of a fancy meal and a fun presentation ceremony, will be a good night, I’m sure I heard mention of a ceildih and a Jazz band!!!
I’m loving being a part of NYA2009, its one of those events where I can’t wait for it to happen, but at the same time I don’t want it to end!!!
I had some good chat last night as a part of my role as a ‘Houseparent’. Chatting to some folks about what NYA means to them and how it has influenced their lives. The number of young people, myself included, who have been so positively influenced by this event is astounding. Without doubt, the long lasting legacy of NYA will be a long list of lives changed for the better, people inspired and enabled to serve God.

Peace Out

Canada!

Chris Hoskins — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:39:08 +0000

Having missed Canada day yesterday (but thanks to my dodgy computer calendar only realizing that after making ‘Happy Canada Day’ my facebook status I thought this would be a good time to write a post I’ve been meaning to write for ages!.

Those of you who know me, know that I have something of a love affair going on with Canada! I can’t get enough of the country. Before I start rambling, let me start at the beginning of it all!

I first visited Canada in July 2002 for the 17th Roman Catholic World Youth Day. This was an awesome 2 weeks. On the one hand, it marked the first major trip I’d ever taken outside the UK (apart form a day trip to Paris with my parents), it also marked my first time flying. I was there with a group from the Church of Scotland, 27 (I think) Protestant Pilgrims amongst 800,000 RC pilgrims. The CofS group was fantastic, unfortunately I don’t keep in touch with that many of the folks who were on the trip as often as I’d like to, but at the time of the trip some of the folk there were my closest friends: Yin Lee and Colin Hyslop.
Here’s a picture of the whole (I think) CofS group in RHPC:

CofS Pilgrims in RHPC

Those 2 weeks were spent exploring Toronto and greater Toronto: highlights being Niagara Falls, Canada’s Wonderland, meeting and staying with Vivian, Kevin, Olivia and Ceilea, meeting the Nigra family, the final mass at Downsview and my falling in love with Canada!

Colin, Rachel and I in Downsiew

Part of the crowd at Downsview

I could write for ages about the WYD trip, but I’ll need to come back another time to do that, I want to talk about Canada and my experiences as a whole just now.
After this first trip to Canada, I had an incredible urge to go back, I really wanted to go back and spend more time with the awesome people I met the first time, but there was also something about the country that made me (and still makes me) well up with passion from my gut. I know that probably sounds crazy to a lot of you, but there’s no other way to describe it. When I first felt it, I just assumed it was down to the great time I had when I was there for WYD.
As time went on after the trip, I spent more and more time chatting to my new friends and emailing them. I knew I was going to go back, I just had to figure out arrangements. As it happened, I went back the following April (2003) with my good friend Calum Wilson. Everyone knew I was coming, but only the parents of the families we were staying with knew Calum was coming, which was a nice surprise for them all! I managed to embarrass myself immediately by calling ‘shotgun’ at the same time as forgetting about Canadians driving on the other side of the road and so ran to the drivers seat, whoops! As well as being a trip to visit our friends, we were in Canada to celebrate Olivia Shins 16th birthday with her and Lindsey Nigra’s 19th brthday with her. Both celebrations were great fun (apart from some Scottish idiocy from us!). The first week (the last week in March) was glorious sunshine, whereas the 2nd week was cold and very snowy! Particular highlights of that trip were: getting my tattoo, Olivia’s 16th party, Lindsey’s 19th party, RHPC’s spaghetti dinner.
Again, I could write for ages about that trip, but I’ll revisit it another day.
When I came back from this trip, I had such a strong longing to be back in Canada. Such a strong passion whenever I thought of the country. It was at this point I started thinking that perhaps God was calling me to Canada. For a few weeks this played on my mind daily. Was it God? Was it me imagining things? Was it just that I’d had 4 great weeks in Canada with great people?
A few weeks after getting home I was at Spring Harvest with some friends. During one of the evening sessions the speaker, Tré Sheppard was speaking about calling, specifically where has God called you to minister. He was quite good in that he made the point that not every Christian is called to go on mission in Africa, as he saw many do. He didn’t see this as a bad thing to do, but he also didn’t see it as a bad thing to be called to a ‘developed’ country on missions. As he was speaking, I was prying constantly in my head: ‘God, am I called to Canada? Is that where I’m meant to go? I’m so confused, make it clear for me!’. For 30 minutes I prayed and listened, and heard nothing. i wasn’t that frustrated though, you often hear of people praying for years without answer! How Tré ended his talk truly shocked, scared and excited me though. His last line was this: ‘It doesn’t matter if you are called to Africa, or to….(long pause as he thought) ..Canada, what is important is that you follow Gods call’. What was I supposed to do with that!? What could I assume except that God had given me a timely answer? I approached Tré the next day and asked him why he had chosen to say Canada at that moment? His only answer was that it was the first developed nation that popped into his head as he thought. He wasn’t really sure why, and as he comes from one of the southern states in the US it wasn’t because he was thinking of home!
Ever since then, I’ve been of no doubt that I’m called to, one day, move to Canada and be involved in some form of ministry there. It’s quite exciting! What makes it even more exciting is the fact that Linda, my wife, is open to the idea too!
Since that evening at Spring Harvest, I have returned to Canada only the once, in the August of 2003. There were 2 reasons for originally going, and one bonus reason! The 2 original reason was for my friend Crystals wedding and to attend Canada Youth 2003, the bonus event was going to a Toronto Argonauts Canadian Football game.
Crystals wedding was great, her and Joe looked great and looked so happy! It was a gorgeous, sunny day out in the more ‘rural’ part of Ontario (to the west of Toronto, I think). Everyone seemed to have a great time and were all really happy for them both!
The football game was awesome, Canadian football is slightly different to Amercian Football, if you’re really interested you’ll read up on it yourself! Toronto, who I was supporting, were narrowly beaten by Edmonton. But that didn’t lessen my enjoyment of the game!
Canada Youth was an awesome event, I’ll share some highlight, but again I’ll need to return to do it justice! I met so many more awesome people there. The great thing about everyone I’ve ever met in Canada is how welcoming and accepting they have been of me. At CY03, the folks i hung around with most of the time were already a pretty tight group, yet the accepted me straight in and treated me as part of the group. I’ve never felt so welcome in my life! Moments of note from CY03: random girl realizing i was ACTUALLY from Scotland and screaming scarily loud, the thunderstorm (awesome!), the Seiché, mealtimes, there are to many just to blandly list them!!!!!
Here are a couple of videos about Canada Youth, the first is a teaser promo video for this years event (if you watch closely, you’ll spot me, albeit a very young looking me!) the second is a worship version of the proclaimers song ’500 miles’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVhpSZV_3OA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfrz_hW3C8s

Thats enough of a wee ramble from me, except for this: I won’t ever try and convince anyone how awesome Canada is (apart from Linda!). I don’t expect everyone to feel what I feel for Canada. It’s hard to describe what I feel for Canada. An intense passion, a strong love. Whenever I’ve been there, including the very first time, I’ve felt at home. Canada is, to some extent, is home for me. I can’t really explain why, or expect people to understand. Thats ok, tey just have to accept that’s how I feel about it!
Peace out
Chris