MDN Episode 3: Million Dollar Employment

Oh My Goodness! Here we are less than 2 hours away from Week 4's premier, and I haven't written about Week 3 yet! So here's the scoop...

This week was about finding employment and sharing skills. I remember that school bus. Actually, I think there were 3 school buses. They picked us all up at Aldergrove Senior Secondary School and bussed us all around town, and to the top-secret location - ACSS! We were herded into the gymnasium where we were presented with rows upon rows of desks, each with an apple placed on it. I sat with my whole family, but Carter (my three-year-old) decided that he wanted to run all around the gym and Caleb (4) wanted to eat the apple!

After our introduction to what the week was about, we were given the instruction to write our special skills on panes of glass, leaving room for people to sign up to receive that skill. THEN we were told to go around looking at each person's skill and sign up for what we wanted or needed. It was pretty incredible how some people's skills lined up perfectly with other people's needs. Some in our community needed automotive work done, and people offered those services. Others needed home repairs and those services were offered for free as well.

Taralyn offered to bake cupcakes, which a lot of people took her up on. Unfortunately, many of her younger keeners didn't realize that they would have to provide the ingredients, and what Taralyn was offering was the service and time to make them. Still, she did make a few batches for birthday parties and social gatherings for our neighbours. I offered two things; one was signed up for and the other got no interest at all. The thing that did get interest was hanging pictures. By doing this I got to know Thelma, who is an awesome member of our community. She and her husband have teenagers and have lived in Aldergrove for years but haven't really connected in the community beyond their kids' friends. They're a great family!

The other service I offered was a Bible Study - you pick the topic! I thought it might be interesting to see if anybody would take me up on it. Nobody did. In case anybody's reading this who wants to take me up on that, I'm still game!

After this, we were brought into the school courtyard, where we were presented with 12 (I think?) candidates who wanted to gain or upgrade their employment. By this point in the day, the boys had pretty much had it so Taralyn had taken them home. We were all broken into 12 different teams, each team assigned to one of the twelve. I was placed on Team Brenda. But there was another candidate who I thought I could help in a greater way so I asked if I could join his team instead. His name is Dalton, and he was a 15-year-old looking for his first job. Since I've worked with lots of youth gaining employment I thought I could be an asset to him. I decided to be his team leader, and I was intent on getting him employed that week. Other members of Team Dalton were Walter, Tara, and Steve and Janie Rae, all of whom really stepped up to help Dalton. Steve, who is a roofer, even offered Dalton a job on the spot, but it was difficult for him to commit since the job was on Saturdays, which is the day that most of our MDN events took place.

Through the MDN network, we were able to secure him an interview at Subway on Wednesday. I think it was Gary and Erin who have a friend who manages the restaurant. Or maybe it was Leah and Brent. Regardless, I got this email saying that his interview was at such a time and place. I spent some time with Dalton going over his resume (which Erin also did) and helping him pick out a wardrobe. I also got to meet Dalton's dad Scott, a successful salesman. He's a great guy. I found it funny, though, as we were talking Scott told me about some religious people and said he doesn't get along with religious people at all. I told him later that I'm a committed Christian, and I hope it doesn't affect our friendship. He said not at all!

I encouraged Dalton to spend all afternoon on Tuesday handing out his resume up and down Fraser Highway. Walter offered to drive him. But I found out later that Dalton figured, since he had an interview set up on Wednesday anyway, he wouldn't bother with handing out his resume. Luckily, it worked out. Dalton got the job! I think he found out on Saturday during the filming that he got it, but I wasn't there because I was driving the bus for Christian Life Assembly's Kid's Klub that morning.

I was disappointed that Dalton wasn't filmed at all, but it was great to see the others. Charlissa was great. So was Brenda, really. And I have to say this about Matt - he's a really great guy. I don't know him really well, but he was portrayed in a very negative light. I like Matt, and I fully support him and Crissy and their family as he seeks to improve his employment situation. I told him he should apply with Canada Post!

I'm looking forward to this week's MDN. It'll be great to see such an awesome event take place. Again.

MDN Episode 2: Million Dollar Garage Sale

Ah yes, the Million Dollar Garage Sale. What a great event! This was the first initiative that the community came together to achieve ourselves. With many strong personalities, and people with great skills and successful experiences of pulling events like this off in the past, we were bound to have some conflicts on the road to the event itself.
Yes, we only had a week to pull it off. No, we didn't know where it would be held until Thursday, I believe, and the garage sale happened on Saturday. Yes, there was conflict between the PR team, the Logistics team, and Force Four (the production company). We were still getting to know one another, and not always liking one another. Most of these people have become strong friends through these events.

I was on the Entertainment sub-committee. You hear on the episode Bruce Sellery saying, "Let's put entertainment with food and beverage". I still don't really understand the rationale behind that, but the Entertainment group rocked! I co-led this sub with Liane, who has coordinated entertainment for many events and had a number of contacts and leads. We discussed entertainment options like clowns and roving entertainers, but we settled on focusing on bands. I had leads on equipment, Liane had leads on bands, and other committee members (the Smart family) had other leads.
We had some great entertainers at the event, including Jared Fowler and The Joel Brown Band, and MDN's own Jacey Gillis. The entertainers had plenty of footage shot of them. Unfortunately, none of it, not one mention, showed up in the show. I was particularly upset about this, not because I was involved in the committee, but because if you were there you would know that the music and the stage was a MAJOR part of the garage sale. Everybody was talking about it - both the families involved and the guests/shoppers. They were awesome. I don't know why the whole thing was ignored. I heard people's interviews on the show with all mention of the bands and entertainment cut out.
Because I was so involved in the entertainment - setting up the stage and sound, and running the sound - and because my family had done our own garage sale a month earlier, we didn't have a lot to sell and we didn't sell a lot. We got rid of a stroller, and some clothes. I think we made about $50.

Jeanette was painted in a negative light in this episode. Many people who watched the episode wondered why on earth she won the money. More attention was placed on the Sperger family, and rightly so. But the reality at the time was that we didn't know much about the Sperger family at all. Many people, even this week as we watched the episode, were surprised to learn about their loss. The real story that week was bringing about a consensus on location and time between the various groups (and when a consensus was not possible, people taking leadership and making decisions) and getting the job done. Jeanette did an awesome job of both of those. The time constraints were put on us by the production company, not Jeanette, maybe to give us more drama. But Jeanette did an awesome job all week. She attended meetings every night, and worked all day Friday setting up, spent all night on security watching the stuff, and spent all day Saturday working. She was a warrior.

This was an amazing event that we put together in 4 days. It showed me that it can be done. It inspired me how everybody came together to get it done. I haven't seen that before, even in the church. I don't think I'll see much of that again. It was a great event, a great week, and a great community. It's a real blessing to live in Aldergrove with each one of these people!

MDN Episode 1: Hidden Money

Well, Episode 1 aired on Sunday. If you haven't seen it you can catch it here.

Finally, you get to meet some new friends of ours - Joel and Tanya, Mark and Kyle, Annette and Alyssa, Andrew and Cathi... all great Aldergrove people we met through this production and we'll remain friends with for a long, long time. Hopefully our friendship will deepen over the years!

Our new friends Kathryn and Stephanie

That's what we signed up for, with Million Dollar Neighbourhood - to get to know Aldergrove people. We'd lived here for almost two years and had found it incredibly difficult to meet people. So many others have found the same. We live such busy lives that we barely have the chance - or take the chance - to slow down and spend the time getting to know our neighbours. I know that's been true of myself even since the wrapping of MDN. Of course, I was able to blame some of that on the craziness of the Christmas season. But now that's over, and it's still tough to find the time to nurture these relationships. It was one thing when we had tasks and challenges to accomplish together every week. Actually, it was almost too much. But in normal, everyday life, things go back to, well... normal. It takes intentionality to keep up the relationships that MDN initiated among us.

Carter on the Pony

We enjoyed watching the show. It was kind of neat, actually, seeing the people and activities and what was going on, and remembering it, and now being able to match the person we now know with the experience we remember. The Hidden Money Market fair was great fun. They had bouncy castles and pony rides for the kids, and Caleb and Carter had a great time with those! The greatest financial benefit we experienced was from Kerry from Squawkfox who showed us how we can save money on everyday things. A little here, a little there, and it's amazing how it all adds up!

We're ecstatic about Joel and Tanya's winning! They've been through a tremendous amount. It's been great getting to know them through the show. What an awesome family and deserving couple! The MDN Bank was a bit of a surprise to us when we saw it in the show. It was a case of the "magic of TV" creating something that wasn't really there. A few people have commented "I haven't seen that building in Aldergrove before!"

From a Gospel perspective, this really was Day 1 of getting to know a lot of our neighbours really fast. There are a whole bunch of ways to share the Gospel, and some people might have taken the opportunity right at the get go to get on a bullhorn and start yelling that Jesus is the way. I think that maybe the production company was hoping I'd do a bit of that. I wasn't sorry to disappoint them. To be honest, there were a few people on bullhorns for different causes, and it never really went down well with the community. For us though, the idea was to take it easy - to build relationships with these people. I was more aggressive than Taralyn in letting people that we 'had been' there in Aldergrove to start a church; she believed that would already set a disposition in peoples' minds. I think we balanced each other out - we often do.

Caleb with his sweaty face painted at the Money Market

Aldergrove needs the Gospel. Yes, the challenge to raise our collective net worth by $1,000,000 is fun and also needed (Jeremiah 11), but real, lasting positive change can only come through the Gospel. A number of people we met through MDN are Christians living in Aldergrove. Many of them have no context for living intentionally as missionaries in our culture. A few of them are legalists (conforming to rules while ignoring culture), and a few are libertarians (conforming to culture while ignoring Gospel imperatives). There are a few that we could relate well with, and we thank God that they're also at work for the Gospel in this town.
Please pray for Aldergrove as you watch this show, and ask if He would send more of His harvesters into the fields of Aldergrove to join us in reaping the harvest He is preparing. Is He calling you to be one of those harvesters?