CBC's BC Today: Outdoor adventures with children.

CBC host Michelle Elliot and Outward Bound Canada wilderness instructor Jim Flom share ideas for outdoor adventures with children. (starts at about 25:00 minutes in).

BC Today: Outdoor Adventures with Children

Inside Out

I started this blog ten years ago to write, as well as to record my experience as a pastor in a small town in British Columbia. 

During that period, from 2010 to 2015, I did a series on assertiveness, using Randy Paterson’s The Assertiveness Workbook as a framework to guide both the reader and my own learning.  Interspersing blog posts with re-tread sermons, I did an Advent Series, leading up to Christmas, a series on my favourite Old Testament book, Ruth, as well as posts centering on Jesus, based on Luke’s gospel (my NT favourite).   I did a series on workplace bullying, with referenced sources, and with a focus on bullying in the church. Much of this was self-care. 

Then life got dark.  I was battling.  My capacity to manage the stress became overwhelmed.  I faced challenges at work. Through all this, health challenges consumed one of my children.  My marriage failed.  

At my limit, the turning point came on a mountaineering trip, when I tossed a profanity laced prayer heavenward, daring God to do something, if he was even there.  The next morning, my party and I were nearly killed in an avalanche.  I considered that God had done the something I dared him to do.  And somehow, I found hope again.  

Bit by bit, I began piecing together a new path.  I voraciously consumed dozens of self-help books.  I sought out a counselor.  I tapped into my creativity.  I immersed myself in nature.  I exercised. I retrained. I got a job in public education and applied to a local university.  I completed my Master's in Social Work.  I am repairing relationships.  I found love again. I continue to take care of myself.  

This has not been a retooling, a little fine tuning of a near finished product.  This has been one man, scraped clean to the bone, rebuilding from the ground up, from the inside out.  There is restored a feeling of purpose and of destiny. 

What follows is my accountability to that destiny. 

Pastor Jim - Religion vs Spirituality + The Great Outdoors!

My friend Andrew, "AC," used to go to my church in high-school and this week, Andrew invited me as his pastor to be his guest!  As AC writes,

"Jim Flom, originally from Philadelphia (Kobe was discussed), moved to Agassiz to lead Mountainview Church. They talked about both of their spiritual journeys, discussed organized religion, and Jim told some incredible, death-defying stories of his experiences in the great outdoors."  

This interview/podcast is about an hour and a half in length. 

Pastor Jim - Religion vs Spirituality + The Great Outdoors!