New bike smell

April 26, 2002 by

Ah that new bike smell, I went to Canadian Tire and got a new mountain bike. Cheapest one I could find, because with my luck it will fall apart right when I’m trying to impress a girl.

A group of friends and I have been riding our bikes along the Trans Canada Trail which is this super amazing trail that goes across Canada. There’s a website for it also. We meet a lot of people and take photos and bring our cameras and snacks to feed wild animals. We’ve fed deer and bunny rabbits and saw a fox.

The ritual is as follows: work hard during the day, eat dinner, clean up after the kids, tune up our bikes, wave goodbye to the kids, and then leave for a 20km+ bike ride. Along the creek at night time do you know that tens of thousands of animals come out to play? Including baby snakes. It’s almost frightening because hundreds of them try to cross the sidewalk while we are riding and we don’t want to smash any of them, but there are so many!

When we get back closer to home we get snacks like a medium pizza for $5 or ice cream from Licks or Mcdonalds. We got invited to play baseball with some strangers we met and so this is a really cool thing to do plus it’s helping me get into shape and relieve some stress.

What I learned from the movies this month: always check your car before you get in, there could be a monster hiding in the back!

I like spring time because of all the rain. The downside to this all the mud that gets tracked into the house.

Filed Under: children, Friends, travel Tagged With: , , ,

Beer store blues

March 28, 2002 by

My neighbor was having a garage sale and I purchased his bike for $30, it’s a 50’s styled bike being held by rust. I’ve been putting a lot of miles on it. While riding my bike home from the westwood mall around closing time, I rode past the beer store on the way home and my bike simply fell apart. I mean it literally just fell apart completely. The seat, the wheels, the handlebars. Everything, almost every part of it simply failed. I did an almost 360 flip on the pavement, leaving me dizzy on the ground.

Now, did the beautiful wonderful people trying to get into the Beer Store parking lot run to my rescue? Or did they honk their horns at me while yelling out nasty curses at me like “get out of the way you dirty (insert racist word here)!” Well you take a wild guess. To be fair to them, the store was about to close and I guess I would also be upset with someone blocking up traffic.

Anyway I walked the rest of the way home with my cuts and bruises and the only salvageable parts of the bike – the seat and the handlebar. When I got home I was welcomed with laughter upon laughter (about my appearance upon arrival) and it was nice because I laughed to. Think of yourself coming home holding only your steering wheel and seat belt but no car in site.

Any way I’ll go get another bike at Canadian Tire as soon as possible. It won’t be super duper soon, after all I have kids to feed! Seriously though just about 4 months ago I wasn’t doing terribly well financially but now I’m doing okay. I’m doing well in fact. I’ve been investing in some new businesses that I’m interested in, including a nifty camera and accessory shop, and a grocery delivery service. Of course I’m still consulting, which is how I bring in a major portion of my income. Everything’s really changing with the internet. I have high speed now instead of dialup, and I think most people will have high speed soon. It’s expensive but probably worth it. I chat and meet with people and watch tutorials on anything I’m interested in. I still go to the library very often but with the internet you can get bits of information quickly.

Now I have had a negative experience though – I posted an important piece of my work online FOR SALE and sold several hundred copies. 1 person however, from Russia I think purchased a copy and made a few modifications to his liking and is now reselling my work on his own without my permission. To shame me even further, I suspect he’s making more money selling my materials than I did, lol. I’m such a loser. There’s no way for me to stop this and this is going to be a big problem with the internet.

Also it seems like everyone is downloading music and even movies, and I don’t like that, especially after what happened to me.

Filed Under: Friends Tagged With: , ,

Broken wieners

February 27, 2002 by

When I was 15 I worked a construction job that was way outside of my skill set. I was a skinny weakling barely able to lift the tools we used on the job site. But I gave it my all and did a great job, however I was eventually fired for messing up an important project. If you ever go over to 255 Queen Street East in Brampton, you’ll see a building with various stores (as of the time of this writing). I used a machine called a Flaky Jake to pull up the old floors, I mixed the flooring solution for the new cement floors, and I helped to pour and level the new floors. On the outside, I held up the exterior wall material while another person attached it. At the factory in Etobicoke I built hundreds of the high quality wall materials. And I built (by hand) the crown molding that sits atop the exterior walls. Actually that’s why I got fired, I forgot to add sand into the mixture for the molding, and when the guy went to attach it, it crumbled. This happened on a Friday night and we all had to stay late and do it all over. It was for the best, I couldn’t pull my weight at this job consistently enough and this held everyone else back.

As far as I can remember this was about 12 hours per day, Monday through Friday and I was earning around $9 an hour which was a fortune to me at the time.

Any way during lunch at this job I would sit on the steps outside with my small cooler, eating my boiled eggs, peanut butter sandwiches, etc, and there was a hot dog vendor who worked nearby, who would talk to me when there was no lineup. Once in a while if I had enough money I would buy a hotdog but that was rare, because by this time in life most or all of my money would go into family expenses. He (the vendor) told me I should marry as soon as possible, because – as he said it, wieners don’t work forever, and if you wait till your old to get married then your wiener might not work by that time and you won’t have a happy marriage. He made it very clear to me that my own wiener will one day not work. He made this point every time I saw him. I’m not kidding! Now at the time I couldn’t imagine this ever happening since I was a teen and suffered the opposite problem.

Fast forward to today in 2002, close to Valentine Day I woke in a cold sweat thinking about this very early in the morning, and figured I need to get married soon just in case my wiener really does stop working one day. My friend Nathan and I listed the different girls at church I could marry and finally decided on one. It wasn’t easy because initially we had some differing opinions. I ordered the nicest bouquet of flowers I could afford and sent them off to her to break the ice. She teaches a children Sunday school class and we are both heavily involved in the lives of children and missions work so it should be a good match. And now to play the waiting game :)

And in other news, I’m watching a movie on video tape or dvd almost every day after work, this is a nice new thing for me, as usually I work until it’s time to sleep. What with all the children I don’t have a choice but to rest. Hopefully I can get some time to watch one of my favorites soon: Planet of the Apes.

Filed Under: children, Friends, girls, memories Tagged With: , , ,

New year new beard

January 27, 2002 by

So I started off the new year in the best way I couldn’t possibly think of, I got a couple of trusted friends, filled several very large bags with presents, including a microwave, lots of brand new clothing, electronics, etc and took them to people door to door on Christmas morning who will enjoy them. It honestly made me super happy to give so much away, especially seeing so many happy, surprised faces on Christmas. What did I keep for myself? I kept one thing – a pet fish! It took a few trips and several helpers to give everything away. For new years eve I went to sleep early. I believe in starting the year off right and I definitely pulled it off this time around.

I’m helping to care for several children, something that I’m very well used to because of 8 years of babysitting and over 3 years of Sunday school and being a kids pastor. I know how to change diapers, calm crying babies, tend to minor cuts and bruises, settle kids disputes and have super fun plus get the kids to sleep on time (almost). So this is nothing new to me, but it is super cool. The hardest part is crying babies at 2am, but I’m a bit of a night owl anyway. . I thanked one of the parents for trusting me with his children, he responded that he trusts me with his life and theirs. I don’t take that lightly.

Also because of this I haven’t had time to get a haircut or shave in a couple weeks, causing me to look like a bum. Add that to the way I dress (like a bum) and I really do look like a bum. On top of all this, I’m constantly covered in baby spit-up and sticky food and messes caused by children. I like it. It forces me to slow down and keep my priorities in order.

This is going to be a good year.

Filed Under: children, Friends Tagged With: , ,

Ottawa Adventures 1

August 25, 2001 by

I’ve never done anything like this before, or maybe my whole life has been like this, I’m not sure – On August 17 on a whim, I picked up and moved. I left most of my furniture (which has been given away to different families who need it). The truth is I’m burned out. I’ve pushed myself very hard for a number of years. Working more than full time, at church every day, and in school full time. This wasn’t sustainable and I knew it. Or at least I know it now.

I’ve tried talking to everyone in my life and telling people to back off and give me some rest, but it’s not possible. Friends and family show up at my house at all hours wanting to hang out, wanting me to help them, and I’m hoping for someone to help me. I go to the Westwood Mall to get my groceries and 2, 3, 4 people who know me want to stop and chat for an hour meanwhile I have 3 assignments due the same night and I’m due to volunteer at the foodbank for a few hours as well.

So I’m living in Ottawa for a while, just a few months while I rest and get refreshed. I’m going through a really tough financial time right now as well so this is poor timing on my part, giving way too much money away, and not saving enough for myself. This fact has caused a lot of stress for my family as well. When you give $X to someone in need, as quietly as you do it, someone else finds out, then someone else, then someone else. Eventually the people who aren’t in need find out, and that’s where the trouble really starts. Money has the power to change peoples minds, to control it. Money can make a person think one thing or the other. Enough money, can even change the human heart (always for the worst). And so I’ve given away a fortune.

There is a food place on Carling Avenue that doesn’t have a name, just a sign on the window that says “Eat for a dollar”. It’s very popular and I’m there often, eating for $1 (tax included).

Filed Under: travel Tagged With: , , ,

Can I ramble on?

July 9, 2001 by

“The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” – John 3:8 (Jesus speaking)

The above scripture is one of my favorites, right out of the mouth of Jesus, in front of witnesses. I used to doodle this everywhere. This scripture has caused me to have many problems and wild adventures.

Today I am thinking about a girl named Sarah who was born 4 years ago. She was born premature and when she was 2 weeks old she was sooo tiny. I don’t remember if I mentioned this before before but her grandma brought her to church (she simply couldn’t wait to show everyone her beautiful new granddaughter). On that day she asked me to hold her in the sanctuary and I was soo afraid. I had plenty of experience with babies but never held a baby so small. I held her in both palms of my hands as if I had just scooped up some water. I was so nervous, but happy. Sarah fit perfectly in my hands.

Nowadays shes 4 years old, and when I talk to her she smiles and buries her face in her cute little hands. Once in a while when she’s not feeling shy she’ll jump on me and smother me in kisses. :o)

Remembering what it felt like to hold a miracle in my hands, makes me want to press on, to see new miracles. I am desperate for them. Desperate.

The first half of 2001 has been tumultuous. (First time I’ve ever
used the word tumultuous). January-Feb started with gigantic momentum,
I mean every day was a non stop amazing rollercoaster ride.

I work during the day, do a full course load, and then try to pack in a few hours of hard ministry work. At the end of the day I would just curl up on my sofa (which I purchased in Jan from Ikea after 6 months of saving) and watch tv.

Before Jan, I really lived in my bedroom. Infact, since I became a teen I started doing everything in my bedroom. I would eat there, and hang out there. I had
a small tv and radio so it was cool. I finally moved my stuff out to the rest of the apartment and got furniture this year. It was a fun transition. Still growing up.

I got a candle a few days ago, and while it was burning I thought how nice it would be to have some incense. So I took some montreal steak seasoning and poured
it into the ditch at the top of the fat candle. Ummm, I figured it would fill the house with the gentle smell of steak.

Instead the spices caught on fire and really messed up the candle. The candle looks like it went through serious torture (dont worry, this candle contains no animal products). So much for my bright ideas.

As I was saying, Jan and Feb were months in which I took on a lot of things, too much in fact. Anyway, March came around and things began to slow down to the point where I could breath again. Not for long though. I was satisfied with Jan and Feb. It was, a legacy. People from all over still call asking about it. I’d rather close that chapter, and begin writing a new one.

I am left drained. March was the beginning of trouble that I could not handle.
I knew it. God warned me so many times earlier. I still cant handle it.
Its not that I took the warnings as a joke, and I’ve learned never to consider
a joke, what so many warn about. Especially what God warns about.
I guess maybe it was just something that I thought could never happen.

I’ve always wondered about people who said they prayed for ‘hours at a time’.
Now I’m one of them, and its not so hard to believe. May started off very well and went well until the middle of the month and crashed. In June my spiritual growth
took a huge upswing.

Sometimes I think about moving somewhere quiet. Like Prince Edward Island. Maybe I’ve watched too much Road to Avonlea?

A few nights ago, I was logging into scribble and saw someones scribble entitled “looking for a sign” so I checked it out, and messaged the guy on AOL. Anyway it turns out hes a christian and he loves this girl at his church but is kinda having trouble with his relationship with her. He got his sign. I was his sign. Brian, keep me updated ok?

I was praying about if I should move or not, and that same minute my landlord slipped a letter under my door. It said that his inlaws, who recently moved upstairs are cramping his style, and with his 3rd baby on the way he needs the basement apartment for the inlaws, and that if possible, he would like me to move by the end of July. I’ll miss all the fun I’ve had here. The time my glasses fell in the toilet, the time I had 3 mice here and I had to tuck my pants into my socks till I got them, and of course, all the other fun stuff. I really grew here, but now I need new soil for a while.

I’m not poetic..and I don’t make the best first impressions, but you’ll find that I am completely genuine. I hate when nobody is at my disposal when I’m usually at every ones disposal. I am disappointed in the lack of availability of everyone who I used to help. To many people I associate with on a regular basis know me as some sort of super-guy. I go out of my way for my friends and when I need help with something, I can’t get a return call.

It’s not all bad though. I remember when Stephenie beat the crap out of me (figuratively) in 1999 because I told her I won’t go to college. She wouldn’t let it drop, she forced me to go. You know that feeling when you have a lump in your throat that feels it can weigh down your whole body? That’s the kind of lecture she gave me. I signed up the same day. I haven’t even graduated high school yet and the college has no clue. I’ll have to get my GED soon.

Although I’m too old, I often think about going back to high school. How long would it take for me to lead everyone to Jesus? How many lives could be saved in one school year? I wish Christian teens would think this way, but I don’t think they can, they already have too much on their plate.

A few months ago I went to the museum with a local school (they asked me to come help supervise) and Amber says to me ‘Asif, everyone want to be in your group’. I told her, “why didn’t this happen to me when I was in high school?”

Filed Under: children, memories Tagged With: , , ,

Which girl do you think I love?

June 29, 2001 by

Lydia told my sis that I love her best friend. My sis told my mom. My mom told the church. Now everyone is snooping for pictures and information.

So I gave into the pressure somewhat – I handed over a couple dozen really good pics, that contain a lot of different girls in them. If you didn’t know anyone, you would never know who is who. In fact, I only sent the pics that were very evasive…no poses, no clues, you’d never guess. At the office everyone was looking at the pics and decided that the girl with the long blond slightly crimply hair…deep in the background was the one. To my amazement they were right. They were even planning out my wedding. A bit premature but amazing nonetheless.

Filed Under: girls Tagged With: , , , ,

Lydia’s Lunch

June 28, 2001 by

Lydia’s lunch:
– cauliflower garden soup
– apple juice
– crackers
– lemon cranberry muffin

Why did she eat such a great lunch? Because I asked her to :) Otherwise she would have had some yucky sugar thing.

Filed Under: Friends Tagged With: , ,

Just Hi?

June 19, 2001 by

I was at the gym today to add some muscles to my skinny frame…and a guy seemed to be sleeping on one of the machines :) It was kinda humerus but I needed to use the machine. Anyway after a while he did get up and go to another machine (shoulder press). He took the bench for the bench press to sit on.
I walked over to the bench to do bench presses .. but no bench of course. Where is the seat for the shoulder press machine? Hmmm…some married guy was hitting on a girl..and sitting on the shoulder machine chair he took. (I had been hearing him flirt with her) Anyway I went over and asked him for the seat so the other guy could take it and gimme back the bench :) And he left: ) hehe. Stop trying
to pickup women! Be happy with ur wife and treat her well…u wont need even need to look at another woman.

When I eat I do not like to wear fancy clothes. I like to wear sweatpants when I eat. I like to sit on the floor at a coffee table when I eat. When I come home, I change my clothes and wear ‘home clothes’. So if I have to go somewhere I have to change.

I just got back from the coffee store again (I’ve been frequently going there when I’m up so late) and once again;

me: Do u have any sandwiches
girl: no
me: Do you have any soup
girl: no
me: ok I’ll have a large milk
girl: anything else?
me: YOU DON’T HAVE ANYTHING ELSE!
girl: starts laughing
me: starts laughing
I drove through. It was the same girl who works the late night shift.
She says ‘ohhhh im so tired’. I asked her what shift she works and she said the 11 pm-6am shift. OUCH. I’ve done that shift many times. She leaned over the window and said ‘I’m really tired and I want to go home, before i came here I got really high on “E”‘. (I figured “E” to mean the drug called extasy, even though I dont know anything about the drug). I said “oh, I dont know much about extasy but be careful ok?” She said “dont worry I know what I’m doing (typical response from someone who probably does not know what they are doing) I said “And, what are you doing?”

This week will be the last time I shave off my hair for a long while. I’ll let it grow again.

Interacting with someone is the best way to know them.
Interacting with God is the best way to know Him.

Filed Under: Workout Tagged With: , ,

Black and White

June 16, 2001 by

“Dragon Whips his Tail”

His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth… – Holy Bible, Revelation 12:4

Woke up. Lounged around. Found out that the wedding was at 1 instead of 2. I did a mad rush to shower and get to church on time. The ceremony was great. It was so nice to see my best friends S and R get married. After a very sweet and long courtship. They are just 2 lovebirds and it was nice seeing them take vows. Its so cool to see my Christian friends court. Because everything is so pure and sweet and without DRAMA. I remember the many times S said she ‘slept over’ at R’s and I’d say “WHAT??”. And she’d explain how she slept downstairs and R slept upstairs and PARENTS supervised.

After the ceremony I met a lot of people I haven’t seen in a while. I go my pics taken with the
bride and groom, my mom and sis. And a bunch of other people. My personal highlight of the day? I even got a kiss from a female friend I haven’t seen in a while, on the cheek of course, thanks L. What is it about a kiss from a beautiful girl, makes your whole day better :)

I took a taxi downtown Toronto. Anyway I go there right when the bus was about to leave at 9pm.
Halfway through the trip to Ottawa we stopped so people could get food and use restrooms.
I went into the restroom (the bus had a bathroom as well but I wouldn’t dare use it) and the stalls were filled, and so I figured I’d use a urinal for the second time in my life (other than when I was a kid
and used the kiddy urinals). The urinals were spaced to closely together, like 16 inches
apart, and this trucker guy to my right was looking over at me excessively. And he was not looking at my face!

Afterward I got a tuna sandwich and twix and fruit punch for the rest of the ride and arrived around 130am. Got up at 7am. It’s nice to wake up with gentle sunlight splashing on my face. Its harshness weekend by the drapes. I ordered breakfast for $25 and it was very very disappointing :( I did try some ‘yogurt’ though, something I haven’t really honestly done.

Showered, and left for church. Pastor G preached about really knowing God. He talked about evaluating yourself and then coming to God in sincerity to repent and follow Him. About how some people know God, but get stuck in a rut and then begin to wonder, especially if Satan gets into their lives. Some ‘evaluate’ their current relationship with God and go back, while others dig deeper and deeper into troubles. He is using the book of 1 Corinthians and says he has one more sermon left
in that book. He preached that sermon because he was ordaining 2 deacons that day and there were some unsaved people in the service. Good stuff pastor! Kinda funny cause its the same kind of sermons we get at any other church. Except our pastors do not do much chronological teachings, it could be one topic this week and another next week, from one end of the bible to another.

After service so many people came up to talk to me, and to make things even more awesome, this was my first time in this church, and everyone was white and I was the only brown person, which I personally love. The people I sat beside when I arrived moved right away when I sat beside them. No big deal, another family invited me to a BBQ. This is what I love about church. You walk in. You’re family. Okay okay there are rotten churches to, but you know what I mean.

Another couple was moving to Nova Scotia for good and it was their last week there. Sorry to see u go!
They were serving lunch downstairs but I had to leave, I had other things on my schedule.

Hopped on the #85 back to the Hotel. I decided to do something I rarely do – to stop and smell the roses. So I got to the hotel, but then decided to walk around Ottawa, enjoying the downtown, Rideau Canal and all the great sights. And I figured my manly direction skills would get me there. Instead I ended up going west back towards the church instead of east to the canal, and felt so silly after I asked for directions. I was walking which made it worst.

So I saw beautiful Parliment, Rideau canal, which is s dirty, I mean there is lots of green stuff growing in it. I was thinking it would be like fresh spring water. Whilst walking down Rideau lots of those white flower things were blowing all in my eyes and annoying me. I had my camera to snap pics and I ended up at a park. Ok walking down the park holding a camera, during a hot day. well there were a lot of people bathing in the sun. Girls wearing skimpy bathing suits, some wearing thongs for some reason. I learned that there were 2 large colleges nearby, and then I clearly understood. I was wearing my long pants, t-shirt and favorite shirt which happens to be a very furry sweater type shirt.

So anyway I felt awkward there with my camera, cause I was the only one not nude. Well, I decided to just get out of that park, cause I was just pretty much walking through anyway. On my way out, some girl strips down to some sort of invisible thong type bikini, and my right hand unconsciously slapped me in the face so hard that it stung. I just turned around another way and laughed and laughed cause I couldn’t believe my own hand would slap me.

I stopped at a bench to let my aching feet rest, I had been praying and walking for 5hrs straight.

Walked back to the hotel, got my bag, went to the via rail station, ate some burger king, got on the train.
Train pulled in the Toronto station at like 10:30 pm. Took the subway to the bus station, got there at 11pm.

Ran up to get the 11:03 bus home, missed it. I didn’t actually miss it, the bus didn’t stop
at its usual place but stopped at a new place across the parking lot because of construction or something. Doh! There was another girl waiting there named Angela. She was a young single mom. (I never met her before). We had to wait for the midnight bus so we started chatting. She told me about her weekend and I told her about my weekend. It started raining so I insisted that she take my favorite shirt and wear it till we get in the bus (I found out we live a few streets down from each other in Malton).

Anyway I had crouched down on the ground next to her and her son, age 11 comes and says “hey mom ask him for his phone number, hes the nicest guy, not like the others.

I’m not really good at exchanging / asking for phone numbers. Back in grade 3 I liked this girl named Kaitlin, and I hid in the corner of my school while my friend Ronald asked her for her number for me :) I got her number but now I’m used to having my friends hook me up. I still remember that number to this day.

Anyway the boy really wanted to be friends. He was sticking around me and asking me questions and stuff while we waited. I even left for 5 minutes to make a phone call and he came looking for me in the station.

But anyway I got on the bus, enjoyed the drive home with my new friends, walked home, went to bed.
I’ll remember this trip for the rest of my life.

I was riding my bike yesterday and a little girl with very nice crimply strawberry blonde hair
jumps out from behind a short bush I tree type thing and says ‘BANG.’ And I stop (I wasn’t going very fast) and she says ‘what are u doing here’. And I said ‘I’m riding my bike is that ok?”
She said ‘yup’ and continues to play.

I purchased a bunch of good plants because all of mine have died because of lack of sunlight (Although I have a gorgeous one on my desk which has flourished) I purchased them and left them in the car, the next day the sun was out and it got very hot in the car, because when I went outside the plant was dry and withered, almost cooked. I wont be coming to Ottawa this weekend, I have so much work to do here. But I thought of something, wouldn’t it be interesting to live there for a while?

Contemplate: to view or consider with continued attention: meditate on

– Asif Zamir

Filed Under: children, fasting, Friends, girls, memories, travel Tagged With: , , ,

Mrs. Latezel

June 14, 2001 by

Had a 12:15 apointment. A friendly lunch, something I rarely do. When I left the house I decided to pickup a soft pinkish colored tulip, because I heard she liked those. I got onto the HWY only to find that there was a lot of trafic, more than I expected, but I got there maybe 2-4 minutes late. Finally, after over a year online, I meed a good friend. Yes, a friend, this isn’t a romantic thing, for all my friends and family who are reading this! How cool either way! I picked her up from her internship and we went to Williams which is a coffee house and restauarant. I explained to her I dont like eating in public, particularly in formal settings. (I usually sit on the floor in my living room so I can watch tv while I eat.) It was a really good time, and then we both had to get back to work.

I didnt do groceries so I drove over to Tim Hortons to get a snack (i’ve been doing this too often lately). The same nice dopesmoking girl is there and I ask:
“do u have any sanwiches” – no
“do u have any soups” – no
“what do u have?” – a couple donuts and a couple muffins
“Okay I’ll have a fruit punch and a boston cream donut”

Ok so I drove through and the girl told me that I shouldnt worry cause shes just as hungry as me. And she told me about how they are now paying the bakers by the hour so they take their time to bake, and it means they run low on stuff to sell. I told her “I would make my own sandwich if I wasnt so lazy” She says “yeah yeah you should have gone grocery shopping instead of looking at so many girls” laugh laugh laugh.

Filed Under: Friends Tagged With: , ,

A Crazy Love

June 4, 2001 by

At 1 am there was an errand I promised to do, so I went to the drive through at Tim Hortons to get some milk and a dipped chocolate donut. That would be my final snack for today. At the drive through speaker:

Tim: Can I help you
Me: I’d like a large milk
Tim: We don’t have milk
Me: You don’t have milk?
Tim: Heheheheh just kidding

Then I see this guy…standing in the corner outside with the headset!

The girl came outside and took it from him and apologized :) It was pretty funny. So then the girl asked what I wanted.

Me: I’d like a large milk and dipped chocolate donut
Tim: We don’t have any dipped chocolate donuts, only glazed chocolate
Me: glazed is too sweet
Tim: Oh we do have dipped chocolate I spoke too soon
Me: Ok great

On the mainpage of scribble I noticed an interesting title and I went to the scribble. (Edit: A scribble is what these blogs used to be called back in 2001, scribble has now shut down).

A Crazy Love (Aug 29, 2000)
I have been spending so much time dreaming. I’m in love with the idea of love: falling asleep in his arms, having long conversations over cups of coffee, his fingers running through my hair. We’d talk about pretty things and I’d write poetry for him later. I want a crazy love. I want to feel the fire between us. I want to see his face when I close my eyes. I want to feel his skin against mine. I am setting myself up for failure, I think. (but it’s only a dream!)

Meredith, age 13

Wow, a 13 year old wrote that? The only poetry I can write is “roses are red and violets are blue.”

Its nice going through some of the scribbles of other people to see what they write.

I guess I’ve always had a pastors heart. That’s what people tell me. I like caring for people
and know what they are thinking and knowing that they are alright, and doing well.

It’s interesting how strength turns into weakness so fast.

Filed Under: Poetry Tagged With: ,

Little Sleep

May 29, 2001 by

For the past while I haven’t been sleeping well. Yesterday I woke up at 2:30am and couldn’t fall back asleep so I lounged around…ate some snacks and then at 5am went for a bike ride and prayer time.

This morning I went to a different park to pray and enjoyed the outdoor gardens. I wanted to visit the greenhouse but it didn’t open until noon.

I’ve just finished another round of fasting.

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This Is My Desire

May 27, 2001 by

This is my desire,
to honor you.

Lord with all my heart
I worship you

All have within me,
I give you praise

And all that I adore,
is in you

Lord I give you my heart
I give you my soul
I live for you alone,
every breath that I take
every moment I’m awake,
have your way in me.

This is my desire,
to honor you

Lord with all my heart,
I worship you

All have within me
I give you praise

All that I adore
is in you

Lord I give you my heart
I give you my soul
I live for you alone
Every breath that I take
Every moment I’m awake
have your way in me.

Lord I give you my heart
I give you my soul
I live for you alone
Every breath that I take
every moment I’m awake
have your way in me.

Lord I give you my heart
I give you my soul
I live for you alone
every breath that I take
every moment I’m awake
have your way in me.

Lord I give you my heart
I give you my soul
I live for you alone
every breath that I take
every moment I’m awake
have your way in me.

Lord I give you my heart
I give you my soul
I live for you alone
every breath that I take every moment I’m awake
have your way in me.

One of my favorite worship songs. Umm…I guess I have a couple favorite worship songs.

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Good memories

May 24, 2001 by

I was remembering some of the fun times I had over the past few months…not just 2001 but also in the last part of 2000.

I remember the time I was walking to my moms house and a van started speeding towards me with its tires screeching…making me go ahhhhhhh. Only to find out it was 5 of my very good friends who have fostered over 130 (yeah, one hundred and thirty) children and currently have 9. They were playing a joke on me. And when you’ve raised that many children’ you do need an outlet, I’m glad they had good brakes :)

We had a good laugh about my ‘near death’ experience and they gave me a ride to my moms house in their mini van. I was also thinking about this large prayer assembly I went to a good while back, in which churches of all denominations were invited to pray for each other and different important issues. I sat beside 2 young girls from our church (sisters). (i forget their names only because there are so many children I can’t remember all of their names no matter how hard I try.

We had a full 2.x hrs to pray and I asked one of the girls if she wanted to come with me to walk around the ultra massive Toronto church building and pray for people with me.
She was nervous and asked me to teach her how to pray. This is something you NEED to teach your children to do. It seems like these days the kids now how to bully, beat up, steal, lie, and so other bad things but they lack good skills like reading, math and praying.

She took my hand and we went around the church praying for dozens of peoples needs.

Oh she was so happy and she didnt want to let me go, I think she held my hand most of the night. I’m soft hearted for stuff like that.

I was so happy to know I had helped to plant the seed of prayer in her life. I never did see her again though, her family moved far away :(

I’m wondering how shes doing.

I wonder about all of the children of my life. Most seem to remember me even when I don’t remember them, and some do not remember me even though I remember them so well. But
I love them all so, so much. Sometimes I’ll be at Westwood Mall or Woodbine Centre or Square One and the parents will say “Hey Asif, do you remember my son / daughter so and so?” It’s amazing to see them growing and doing well. It’s a bit embarrassing when I don’t recognize the child or the parent :)

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I’m so busy I can’t keep up with anything anymore

June 9, 2000 by

I’m so busy I can’t keep up with life. Wake up, push food down my throat so I can get some nutrition, hurry off to work for 9, get off at 430, hurry to school, get off at 8, hurry over to church, get home by 10pm, and this 6 days a week.

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Prayer Rally

April 8, 2000 by

Friday we had a cool time at a large Toronto church. The drive was a bit long but about 1,000 of us gathered from different churches and denominations to pray for causes such as pastors, children, youth, marriages, family, unsaved love ones, healing, political leaders, revival and more. It was excellent and I think we should do it more often. Even though these kinds of events are usually one time, I had 2 young proteges (aged 6 and 8 approx) who I was teaching to pray. The only downside was that it was only for 2.5 hours. A bit short for such a fun event. The time flew by because it was so much fun and it’s nice to spend time with people who we only see when we are doing community events together like handing out food and supplies to Toronto’s homeless or working in soup kitchens or food banks together, and the power of God was working in our hearts as usual. Time for sleep!

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Baptisms and April and being the first

April 5, 2000 by

Mom and sis were born again in late 1999 several weeks apart. And on March 26 2000 they were baptized with about 250+ people there. Pretty cool! It was good to see those prayers come to pass. I set aside every Sunday for about 2 years to fast and pray for them. Sunday is probably the worst day for that because most of my friends want to hang out on Sunday. Now I can focus on praying for others!

Actually, family members of mine are giving their life to Christ every couple of months. Which makes me both a hero and scumbag in my family, depending on who you talk to. When you’re the first person in your family to do something different, something generally frowned upon, it’s going to kick up a lot of crap. Being the second is nothing.

I’m talking to a lot of people about Jesus, and I’ve helped lead a few people to Christ already this year, and last year, and the year before. I’ve already been beaten up and threatened with death several times. This thing (following Jesus) will eventually cost me my life. And I’m okay with that.

My friend Lucy says that the proper way to sneeze is through your mouth. You say achoo and cover your mouth with your hand. Then you wash your hand. I’ve been trying this technique for about 2 weeks and I have to give it mixed reviews. Most of the time it makes my mouth hurt. Achoo. Ouch.

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Garbage pile, blah blah

March 22, 2000 by

I like things very neat and clean. Organized, uncluttered. I like to think of myself as a progressive minimalist. Always striving to have the least amount of “things” as possible. There is one annoying part of my house. Its annoying but funny at the same time. A giant pile of garbage in my kitchen. Yuck. Friday is garbage day. So Thursday night I take out all the garbage. But by Monday there is a pile of garbage in the kitchen. The garbage can is filled with garbage and its piled up on the floor. Its not usually like this, it’s rarely ever like this. Only recently because of work and school. It’s gross because it’s a pile of garbage in my kitchen. Animals can live in there. There are boxes and bottles and packages and wrappers and just so many of them. I think “where does it all come from?

On a different note, I was invited to a business breakfast Saturday at 6am, and because I’m a moron, I went. I dressed up in a suit and drove to downtown Toronto from Malton to pay $12 for a cold breakfast covered in eggshells, string and hair. I then listened to what seemed to be a 2 hour speech about nothing and then drove home. I’ve learned my lesson and will NEVER do that again. I will never accept random business invites, and if you want to have breakfast with me – I have to be in charge of the time and place. 6am on a Saturday morning. Stupid stupid Mr. Asif Zamir.

On the plus side (sometimes there’s a plus side) I met a cool band and former Toronto Argonaut football player Bruce “Bearman” Smith. He has an amazing story about how God saved his life. That made the whole thing worth it but I’d still never do it again.

Something weird – my friend Katie, (nickname Katoo) claims that last night her alarm woke her up at midnight, so she woke up, prepped for her day including showering and breakfast, before checking the time! She went back to sleep, and the alarm rang around 3am, and she did the whole routine all over again.

One last thing – regarding business meetings, please, keep them short and to the point. No eating or drinking during business meetings. It’s a meeting, not a dinner party. Give everyone a specific amount of time to chat, and hold them to it. I’m tired of people chatting for 30 minutes about non essentials because they feel they are important and have something to say. There are exceptions, and I know I’m the youngest in the room and everyone is twice my age and I’m just starting out and blah blah blah but you people aren’t getting any younger, stop wasting so much time.

I’ll clean up that garbage pile now. – Asif Zamir

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March…already?

March 4, 2000 by

Every time I write these it’s always late. Why? Because I wait until my day is done first. And my days seem to finish later and later. So it’s March, and I don’t think there will be a Y2K problem. The media went insane and I know several people who prepared for the worst including having emergency shelters in their basement, backup power, months of food and water etc.

My main concern in life is that I don’t become another nobody who does nothing for God and waste my life away, a sentiment that my superiors don’t agree with. Yes, I do a lot of ‘stuff’ but what am I achieving? I’ve been told that it’s not about achieving, but that’s a hard concept to grasp right now.

“We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies.” – 2 Thessalonians 3:11

Usually I try to cut out ‘busybody’ type activities in my schedule so that I can get real work done, but that’s usually not even possible anymore because so many other people control most of my schedule. And when my work depends on someone else work to get done that makes everything worse, at least in my mind.

Recently God has lit a fire in me for missions work. I’ve been doing a lot here in Mississauga and I’ve participated in some really neat projects in the Sudan, Brazil, Ukraine but I want to do more. I think every single person who says they are a Christian needs to get involved in missions in one way or another. It doesn’t have to be “full time or part time” or anything like that. Even an hour a week adds up to big things. That’s all for tonight. – Asif Zamir

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Predestination, Election

February 21, 2000 by

I know I shouldn’t be up so late, but just wanted to give you a couple thoughts!

This is about an argument I keep having with a friend who is much smarter than me about predestination and election. Basically some people believe in predestination: That God has already chosen who goes to heaven and who goes to hell and there isn’t much we can do about it, other people believe in election, in which God has not chosen but leaves the choice to us. The fights can get rather vicious. (Have you seen church people fight? It’s better than UFC)

Studying the characteristics of God leads one to the conclusion that God is Eternal, He never had a beginning nor will He have an end. He lives outside the ‘realm’ of creation called ‘time’. Time, is a part of creation. Created by God. God Himself, is not bound by time like we are.

Lets stop and talk about one of my favorite movies. I like Michael J Fox movies. In “Back to the Future” he drove a car which could be set to any time he wanted. And the car would take him to that whatever time he selected. For instance he was living in 1985 and he typed in 1950, and he ended up at that date. The professor explained that it broke the ‘time barrier’. The explanation behind the idea (this is widely excepted by scientists) is that any date in time, actually happens simultaneously if the time barrier was broken. Experts conclude that if we can break the time barrier and enter into another realm (which the Bible calls ‘eternity’) we can be in any time period we want. Its the year 2000 right now, but also 1900, and also the year 4000 in eternity. Theoretically speaking.

Now there are theories on how we can break the time barrier (theories more realistic than the Back to the Future movie) but we cannot test those theories as yet, because they involve traveling at the speed of light. And I’d rather have scientists solve the rush our problem on the highway than waste money trying to break the time barrier. :)

So God, who sits in eternity, sees us in the year 2000. But also 2010 at the same time. Where as we see it as “now its the year 2000, and in 10 years it will be the year 2010”

This is where ‘Predestination’ comes in and why I don’t agree with it.

Eph 1 :4-5 ‘For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he PREDESTINED us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will– ‘

So you were chosen by God before the creation of the world. This is a contradiction right? How then can the world be saved? Well relax, leave your denominations at home. Because God transcends time. He sees everything at once. He doesn’t see you now, and then wait for 10 years to see you in 10 years. He sees all of your life from the BEGINNING to the end, all at one time. YOU’RE the one that does the waiting. Not God.

Therefore He can choose you, and at the same time you have free choice. Everyone has the opportunity to be saved! (Heb 2:9, IN 3:16).

Sorry I cant articulate this better, but it is 2:45am!

Now you think for yourself about these things – We are sinful people. The wages (or payment) of sin is death. Not just bodily death but eternal death, or Hell. If you die in your sins, or without Jesus you will be in Hell forever. Eternity. No time. Ten thousand years, ten billion years, ten trillion years. You’ll be there. Eternity is the key word.

Now consider the cross. Jesus hung on the cross (for our sins). He is God though, who is not bound by time. Could it be that those 6 hours of earthly time were an eternity on His ‘time clock?’. Did Jesus, actually suffer an eternity worth of God’s wrath and punishment for our sins?

I need to sleep right now, so I’ll form a conclusion when I get to heaven! I’m going there because of what Jesus did for me. He paid for my sins. My punishment would have been eternity in hel1. But Christ for my redemption, and His blood washes me whiter than snow. I was ‘chosen’, but I had to accept. And I do accept. Thank God!

What about you? Listen to this:

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for EVERYONE. HEB 1:9

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3: 16

He died for you, that you may have eternal life. Will you take it or leave it?

When you walk UP TO the gates of salvation you’ll see a sign written “whosoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life” And IF you walk THROUGH those gates (accept Christ) you’ll see a sign written “chosen in Him from the foundation of the world.”

Another scripture – ‘Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself, we are all here!” The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved–you and your household.”

God has made a way for everyone and anyone to be saved. He loves you! His desire, would be that everyone would turn to Him and be saved. However He is all knowing, and knows, even knew from the foundation of the earth who would and wouldn’t tum to Him. We have free will, and we can choose. I’ve made made my choice. Will you? – Asif Zamir

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Apple Juice & Other Stuff

February 12, 2000 by

I was given a laptop to do a fresh install of win98 (yeah, you wear glasses and everyone thinks you can fix their computer). Well, the person who owned laptop wanted to use a mouse with it, so I went to his house to help install one. That took about 2 minutes, but as I was prepping to leave, I was asked to do some work on his desktop computer. Blah. I hate that. This wasn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last unless I make some changes. It’s been a long week, and now I have to install a modem as well. With work, school, and church ministry, I’m doing at least 15 hours a day 7 days a week. This isn’t how it was supposed to be.

While driving to the bank on Friday night, as soon as I turned on Airport Road off Morning Star, BAM! An accident. I always stick around to see if I can be of any help, but they didn’t need me this time.

Anyway, I stopped for gas, and after, my car wouldn’t start. Some guys helpd me jump start it, and I was off again. I made a few wrong turns here and there and ended up on this old street with really nice houses. I saw this amazing stone house. Every time I see a certain kind of house, a house that’s completely abnormal, it reminds me of old TV shows I used to watch from the 80s and when life was somewhat simpler because I was too young to know any better.

I like apple juice. But I don’t like cold apple juice, I think it’s nasty. I heat it up in the microwave because it’s so delicious that way. When I was around 6, I attended a really nice school called Yorkview Public in Willowdale Ontario (near Bathurst and Finch). I could barely afford to go on any field trips (a common theme in my life), but there was one to an apple orchard that I was able to go to, and on the permission form, parents were asked to give a bit of spending money because the orchard had all kinds of neat products. Well, my parents gave me $1, which they thought was a whole lot of money, and to my family, it really was!

I was the only kid who couldn’t buy anything at all, and my teacher blamed me, like I was 6 and in charge of my finances. I hate when teachers ask stupid questions like, “why didn’t you bring more money?” Umm, well, because I’m 6. “Why didn’t you tell your parents to give you more?” (I don’t know how it works with white people, but with us brown people, if you ‘tell’ your parents to give you more money, you get your skull cracked open plus grounded for a month). Anyway, I really wanted to buy a small jug of apple cider, which all my friends were buying.

Shortly after this incident I started my own business at Yorkview. I would go to a convenience store and purchase gum and other popular candy, and sell it at school, usually at recesses, lunch, and after school. This worked out so well for me, and I was always able to go on field trips and buy stuff. That carried on for a good while, until my mom found more than $40 in my piggy bank (yeah I wasn’t just spending, I was saving, too!), and wondered how a 6 year old got that kind of money. Well, gee mom, I didn’t rob a bank, I’m 6, so I’m not dealing dope, and printers haven’t really been invented yet, so I’m not printing money. I told her I had been buying and re-selling candies for a profit. In return, I got a good hard beating, and for some reason I still don’t understand, my money confiscated. After this, I was back to square one, missing most field trips because we couldn’t afford it and I wasn’t allowed to have control over my own finances. I made excuses to my teachers about why I couldn’t go – standard stuff us poor people say. “I’m sick,” “I forgot to get my permission slip signed,” “I lost the money,” etc.

Fast forward to today, I’m a Christian, many of my family members are converting one by one. Mom comes to visit often and brings me a jug of apple juice, apple cider, and fresh apples to make up for everything.

All of a sudden I don’t care about missed field trips or the insults of well meaning teachers.

– Asif Zamir

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Help Wanted

February 3, 2000 by

This month I’m scheduled to volunteer 100 hours, which will be the most in one month that I’ve ever done. I get to work with some amazing people, who are all way older than me (except when I’m working with children). My supervisors say that I’m learning faster than anyone when it comes to pastoral ministry, church, etc., and that is very exciting.

Work is going pretty well, and the people I work with are generally happy, which is always a good thing. The one thing I don’t like is driving to Scarborough or Markham so much, especially since my car falls apart often. The window doesn’t even go down unless you grip it and push it down. My family complains that I give too much money away to others and don’t take care of myself enough, which is kind of true, but these amazing opportunities keep coming at me.

My car is giving me some major trouble, it won’t start in the rain or even on a misty day, and my friends at church were laughing when some parts fell off my car when I was driving away. To be fair, the car is 18, lol it’s almost as old as I am.

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Too Many Children!

January 26, 2000 by

2:42am? Yikes, I’m not supposed to be up this late, but it seems like there is never enough time in the day, and always more to do. Even when I rush, prioritize my schedule, and work hard all day long, it sometimes seems as if I haven’t accomplished anything. Well, today was one of those days so I’m still up, but after I write this, I’ll be satisfied with my day.

Because of some special events happening in Mississauga, I’ve been taking care of children’s church not just Sunday morning and evening, but also Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evening this week. The crowd gets bigger and bigger, and I’m in desperate need of more helpers. One of the small children (3 years old) is way to young to be in my class. She should be in the nursery, but the nursery is overcrowded, and she wants to be in my class anyway. The hardest part is when the smaller children want me to pick them up but I can’t because then all of them will want me to pick them up. This is okay when I’m taking care of 5, but when it’s 30, 48, 100+, it doesn’t matter how many helpers I have, I just can’t do it.

Anyway, back to the 3 year old. She is full of energy, and always on the move. We were all sitting quietly drawing pictures and playing with legos, and she was running around and making noise. I told her repeatedly “sweetie, come and sit down.” She didn’t listen, but instead she ran into a storage room, knocking down its contents in the process. She ran under a table, knocking down the items piled on top. I cleaned up the messes, and reached under the table, exhausted, “I am your friend, come out of there.” Well, she got so excited and happy that she tried to leap into the air with joy, forgetting that she was under the table. She hit her head, but being so young, she was resilient, and it didn’t even make her whimper. It did shut her up for a few minutes though, lol. She came out from hiding with a smile on her face (rubbing her head a bit), and she gave me a tight hug (don’t worry, her parents knew about the bump on her head). A few minutes later she was causing more trouble for me again.

Thank God for kids. When I think of the way that child acted, I think of us adults. We disobey God, then we go into a sort of hiding where we stray further away from God. In the midst of this, we get hurt. God saves us, then we start the whole thing all over again. Sometimes we have to be stopped in our tracks to find out how much God loves us, but we might have caused so much damage in our lives that God has to spend much time mending our hearts and helping us to clean up the mess. Jesus said that life brings enough trouble on its own, there is no need to make more for ourselves.

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El Shaddai

January 18, 2000 by

“El Shaddai” by Amy Grant

[Chorus:]
El-Shaddai, El-Shaddai [means “God Almighty, God Almighty”]
El-Elyon na Adonai [means “God in the highest, Oh, Lord”]
Age to age, You’re still the same
By the power of the name.
El-Shaddai, El-Shaddai
Erkamka na Adonai [means “We will love You, Oh, Lord”]
We will praise and lift You high
El-Shaddai

Through Your love
And through the ram,
You saved the son
Of Abraham.
Through the power
Of Your hand,
Turned the sea
Into dry land.
To the outcast
On her knees,
You were the God
Who really sees.
And by Your might,
You set Your children free.

[Chorus]
Through the years,
You made it clear,
That the time of Christ
Was near,
Though the people
Couldn’t see
What Messiah ought to be.
Though Your Word
Contained the plan,
They just could not understand,
Your most awesome work was done
Though the frailty of Your son.

[Chorus]

I was introduced to this song in 1999 while driving to a bookstore around midnight (yes, I’m that kind of book fanatic). The song was made famous by Amy Grant. Read the words carefully and meditate on them. God is awesome, and worthy of your praise and respect. The atheists will learn this the hard way one day — they spend all of their waking time trying to prove that God doesn’t exist. As an example, I don’t believe in the Easter Bunny, and guess how much time I spend arguing against him? Zero. An Atheist claims they don’t believe in God, yet can’t keep quiet about Him.

It seems like time flies by so fast during my leisure time. I really need to get good night’s sleep tonight so I can operate at full energy tomorrow. Last night I tossed and turned in bed, and I couldn’t sleep properly so I’ve been tired all day long.

Yesterday a man walked into my food bank after closing. He had his little son with him. Tears were frozen on his face because he had walked a good 40 minutes in the blistering -36c cold, and would have to walk back home with his son and heavy food. I will always remember his face like it was a stunning National Geographic photo. His son was very small, maybe 7 years old, and I can only imagine the hardened man he will become because of his circumstances as a youth. He reminded me of myself when I was young. Never enough food, never enough money, and always a problem. Teachers yelling at me because my homework wasn’t done, and I could barely hear the lecture because my stomach was growling so loudly.

He tried several times to wipe his tears away with his scarf, but they were completely frozen. His voice was cracked and obviously very sad. I gave him the best box of food I could, stuffing it with as many extras as possible, and invited him and his son to church.

I’ll work harder towards building up the food bank supplies so we have more to give. We run out almost every week these days, especially in the winter, and people are complaining that I give out too much spaghetti — believe me, I agree.

It breaks my heart to see these situations. Running a food bank is more than giving out food, it’s about caring for people, and giving out hope. But listen, most of the time their worst problem isn’t a lack of food; these people are telling me that their biggest problem is a broken spirit. If you have to walk an hour to get food, walk an hour back home, when you don’t have money for even a bus fare, what do you do? I’ve been there so many times.

I have to stop reading the news. Today at the office I read on Yahoo News about the Christians that are fleeing Indonesia right now because people of another religion have executed war against them. They have already burned down 10 churches today. I read articles about the young girls that are raped and then thrown into fires because they converted to Christianity, yet this other religion claims they are a religion of peace – when do we get to see some of that peace?

I read articles about torment and great persecution and great atrocities against our missionaries, our own brothers and sisters in Christ. I know so many missionaries personally in Indonesia that this scares the crap out of me. All of them are completely peaceful and harmless people who are there building schools and hospitals, not for other Christians, but for same religion that are killing us off! These people hate us but they love our money. Even myself personally, since I converted to Jesus in 1997, have been endlessly harassed here in Mississauga so many times. I’ve been punched, mocked, threatened with death. Yes, in the great city of Mississauga by random “peaceful” you-know-who’s, who demand I convert back or suffer. Sorry sir, but you are in Canada now, and I’ll gladly buy you a ticket back to the Middle East where you belong.

When I became a Christian in 1997, my own family kicked me out, and I didn’t get to visit with them or see them for about 2 full years. I took every Sunday to fast and pray, and one by one, they’ve been giving their life to Christ since then. I’m still known as Asif Zamir the trouble maker because of what I’ve done. Leading people to Jesus is a crime where I’m from.

At the same time, churches and Christians need to stop being so annoying and petty and stupid and start working together and stop competing against each other. Stop all the nonsense, and start doing what Jesus commanded us to do. Ugh, I’m stressed. I’m going to sleep.

-Asif Zamir

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