Welcome to the Planet

October 31st, 2010

I (Kristin) have been wanting to make this post for some time now.

I know of two songs which have similar titles but which take totally different approaches to a similar subject matter. The songs are “Welcome to the Planet (Dare You to Move)” by Switchfoot and “Welcome to My Life” by Simple Plan.

A condensed version of the lyrics from “Welcome to the Planet” is as follows:

Welcome to the planet
Welcome to existence
Everyone’s here
Everybody’s watching you now
Everybody waits for you now
What happens next?

[Chorus:]
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
Like today never happened

Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be

Maybe redemption has stories to tell
maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here

Below is a sample of the lyrics from “Welcome to My Life” by Simple Plan:

Do you ever feel like breaking down?
Do you ever feel out of place?
Like somehow you just don’t belong
And no one understands you
Do you ever wanna run away?
Do you lock yourself in your room?
With the radio on turned up so loud
That no one hears you screaming

No you don’t know what it’s like
When nothing feels all right
You don’t know what it’s like
To be like me

[Chorus]
To be hurt
To feel lost
To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you’re down
To feel like you’ve been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one’s there to save you
No you don’t know what it’s like
Welcome to my life

Do you wanna be somebody else?
Are you sick of feeling so left out?
Are you desperate to find something more?
Before your life is over
Are you stuck inside a world you hate?
Are you sick of everyone around?
With their big fake smiles and stupid lies
While deep inside you’re bleeding

No one ever lied straight to your face
And no one ever stabbed you in the back
You might think I’m happy but I’m not gonna be okay
Everybody always gave you what you wanted
You never had to work it was always there
You don’t know what it’s like, what it’s like

Both songs appear to address difficult times in life, times when you’ve been ‘knocked down’, so to speak. But whereas Switchfoot challenges you to “pick yourself up”, Simple Plan nurses feelings of self-pity, anger, envy, and bitterness.

“Welcome to My Life”, as the title clearly suggests, takes a self-centered focus. This is all about me: my pain, my feelings of rejection, my struggles. “You”, on the other hand, are the object of the singer’s finger-pointing, as if you are to blame for all of his pain simply because you supposedly haven’t experienced a similar emotional crisis.

Switchfoot, on the other hand, goes deeper than reactionary feelings in response to difficult circumstances. Instead of offering a glorified pity party, the singer challenges us to move on as if “today never happened”.  True, the world is full of resistance and tension; it’s not how it should be. But at the same time, Switchfoot recognizes that we are not who we should be.  Part of the problem (and part of the solution) lies with us.

As these two songs illustrate, we all have a choice to make in response to the events and circumstances we face.  We can either become self-absorbed, dwelling on our own feelings of pain and bitterness and blaming others for all of our problems, or we can pick ourselves up, put the past behind us, and move on.

We have to recognize that we cannot escape from ourselves. Like all human beings, we have a sin nature, and no matter where we go we will bring that sin nature with us.  This sin nature will always bring us into conflict with others.  But we can forgive, and we can be forgiven.

Furthermore, we can ask God for help.  When faced with the pain and rejection Simple Plan talks about, we can pray for courage to face the trial, perseverance to make it through, and for the strength of character to forgive those who have inflicted pain.  And beyond that, we can ask for the Holy Spirit’s refining of our character such that we ourselves become the sort of people who pick others up instead of knocking them down.

Grace and peace,

Kristin

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Hanging by a Thread

October 22nd, 2010

4 “LORD, make me to know my end,
And what is the measure of my days,
That I may know how frail I am.
5 Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths,
And my age is as nothing before You;
Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.  Selah

Psalm 39:4-5

Life is truly a fragile thing. If ever there was a year to drive this message home to me, this year would be it.

In March, I experienced complications with my pregnancy, complications which put me in bedrest for three weeks and which could have resulted in the loss of my baby.

On May 3rd, a 21-year-old girl I knew from highschool was killed in a car accident. She was 7 months pregnant.

In late June, an old friend of the Kidd family passed away.

On July 25th, Ryan’s 64-year-old uncle died of a heart attack.

On September 10th, my 19-year-old sister was involved in a serious collision. The car was totalled, but — praise God — she only had bumps and bruises and whiplash. The police officer who analyzed the accident scene said that if a few factors had been different, she would have certainly been killed.

Then yesterday my 30-year-old brother-in-law was taken to the hospital with classic heart attack symptoms.  The episode was so alarming he called his wife and children to come, thinking this could be his last chance to see them.  The entire family feared the worst. Thankfully, the cause was not his heart, but the scare was enough to make us all stop and wonder who could be next, and what it would mean to lose someone so close.

This year provides a stark reminder of how death could be only minutes away, just around the corner. My sister was making a simple left turn on her way to work when she was caught off guard and struck by a vehicle illegally trying to pass her across a solid line. My brother-in-law was having just another normal day at the office when he was suddenly and unexpectedly gripped by violent pain in his chest.

Am I ready to meet my Maker? Sometimes the question scares me. Thank God that the eternal destination of my soul is not determined by what I have done or will do! I would be hopelessly lost. But Christ’s perfect record covers over my record of failures and wrongs; the work of salvation is already done.

May we never take for granted our time on this earth. When you are young and healthy it is easy to think you are invincible and that death is in the far distant future. Let us not be so deceived.

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth…

-Kristin

Post Script

Reading this again almost a year after writing it, I almost feel that I should have publicized it more widely, or perhaps taken it more to heart than I did.  On June 9, 2011, one of my closest cousins, Mike, scarcely twenty years old, was killed in a motorcycle accident.  The second last paragraph of my post above haunts me, because it rings so much of Mike — young and invincible.   If he had read it before the accident, would he have taken it to heart?  Would his death have been avoided?

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Patrick’s Corner

October 8th, 2010

View Patrick’s Picassa Web Album

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The New Kidd on the Block!

September 24th, 2010
Patrick, Sept 24, 2010

Patrick, Sept 24, 2010

With deepest joy and gratitude to God for the safe arrival

of our precious baby,

we would like to announce the birth of our second son,

Patrick Henry Kidd

born at 6:53pm on Friday, September 24th, 2010

weighing 6lb 9oz (3.0kg).

Patrick’s Baptism

Patrick will be baptized at

2:30pm, on Sunday, October 3, 2010

at the New Horizon Church in Scarborough.

See www.newhorizonchurch.ca/map for directions.

Everyone is welcome to attend.

There will be a time of refreshments after the service.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What are Patrick’s birth specifications? A: weight: 6 lb. 9 oz. (3.0kg);  length: 21inches (53cm), brown hair, brown eyes (for now), no major birth marks.  (Note: Justin had the same weight and length measurements)
  2. How long was Kristin’s labour? A: 16.5 hours.
  3. Were there any complications? A: initially Patrick’s head was facing forward which seems to be a factor in slowing labour, but he turned around at the end.  Kristin did great during the labour, though the final stage was more painful than Justin’s birth.  She came away with minor tearing only.
  4. Where was the birth? A: Patrick was born in 18 inches of warm water (birth pool) in our home attended by midwives.
  5. How is breastfeeding? A: Patrick latched on for about 20 minutes immediately after birth, and seems to be feeding pretty well.
  6. Why did you name him Patrick Henry?  A:  We wanted our son to be inspired by the courage, tenacity, statesmanship and Christian character of the American founding father, Patrick Henry.  See this list of Patrick Henry quotes for a glimpse of the historical man’s thought. (Sorry, the Wiki-pedia article is typical humanist bias.)  The names together literally mean Noble Home Ruler.
  7. What were Patrick’s first words when he was born?  A: “No taxation without representation.”
  8. What were Patrick’s last words while in the womb? A: “Give me liberty or give me death.”
  9. What’s Patrick’s theme verse? A:   Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. – Philippians 4:8 (New King James Version)
  10. Why are you choosing to baptize your baby? A: No, we do not believe baptism will make the baby go to heaven automatically.  But just as male babies received the covenant sign of circumcision in the Old Testament, we believe that God requires us to put His mark of ownership on our children, and in baptism He promises to save our children if they grow up to repent of their sins personally and to love and obey the Lord Jesus.
  11. Do you need meals or anything for the baby? A:  Ryan is off work for 2 weeks so we are abundantly supplied with great home cooked rice.  And of course we have all the baby things that Justin has passed on.   So at this point, we might suggest sending a gift to the Christian Blind Mission in honour of Patrick’s birth.   CBMI provides eye operations and life saving treatments to children in the third world who are truly in need.  Donate Online

Thank you all for your love and prayers for us at this precious time!

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1 Month Left!

August 27th, 2010

Only 4 1/2 weeks until my due date: September 26! My sister is hoping the baby comes 2 days early (on her birthday) and my uncle wants the baby to come 2 days late (on his birthday). My guess is that our little one will arrive on September 30th. We’ll have to wait and see! Stay posted for the announcement.    -K

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Equipping Maniacs

June 21st, 2010

In fact, Americans, taken as we find them, who do not get their moral restraints from the Bible, have none. If, in our moral training of the young, we give up the “Thus says the Lord,” we shall have no hold left. The training which does not base duty on Christianity, is, for us, practically immoral.

If testimony is needed, let us quote Dr. Griffin: “To educate the mind of a bad man without correcting his morals is to put a sword into the hands of a maniac.”

John Locke spoke to the same point. “It is virtue, then, direct virtue, which is the hard and valuable part to be aimed at in education. If virtue is not settled in the student, to the exclusion of all vicious habits, all the education in the world will do nothing but make the student worse or more dangerous.”

Taken from R. L. Dabney’s On Secular Education (updated version by Douglas Wilson)

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My Humanitarian Work

May 11th, 2010

Every day, I feed the hungry.

I nurse the sick.

I clothe the naked.

Every day, I serve and protect. I rescue people from dangerous situations. I identify new ways to keep people safe. I have not yet joined the peacekeeping force, but I expect to soon.

I teach English and help people with their Physics lessons. I also teach History, Ethics, Theology, Music, and the other Sciences.

I’ve donated my organs to the cause of giving people life and health.

Every day, I strive to improve the living environment of others.

I counsel and comfort those in pain. I give encouragement. I wipe tears away.

Every day, all day.

24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I’ll never get a paid vacation. I’ll never be offered a promotion or a raise. I’ll never be awarded the Nobel Prize or an honourary doctorate.

I’ll face the disapproving looks of many of my peers. They thought I should do something “useful” with my life.

As if raising the next generation of world-shapers wasn’t a good use of my life.

I’m a stay-at-home mom, and I am not ashamed.

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Words to the Winners of Souls

May 5th, 2010

I (Kristin) stumbled across a little book today by Horatius Bonar entitled Words to the Winners of Souls. I am only part way through it, but I would highly recommend it to pastors and laymen alike. We are all called to be “fishers of men”, and so the words apply equally to us as to our overseers.

I find the book to be convicting as well as inspiring. How easily we get distracted by the cares of this world and forget the real purpose of our lives on earth! How cold is our religion and how we lack zeal! Is it any wonder why our churches are dying?

Here are a couple excellent quotes from the book:

“And who can say how much of the overflowing infidelity of the present day is owing not only to the lack of spiritual instructors, nor to the existence of unfaithful and inconsistent ones, but to the coldness of many who are reputed sound and faithful? Men cannot but feel, that if religion is worth anything, it is worth everything; that if it calls for any measure of zeal and warmth, it will justify the utmost degrees of these; and that there is no consistent medium between reckless atheism and the intensest warmth of religious zeal. Men may dislike and persecute the latter, yet their consciences are all the while silently reminding them that, if there be a God and a Saviour, a heaven and a hell, anything short of such life and love is hypocrisy and perjury!”

**********************

“Thus one has written: ‘The language we have been accustomed to adopt is this: We must use the means, and leave the event to God; we can do no more than employ the means: this is our duty, and, having done this, we must leave the rest to Him who is the disposer of all things. Such language sounds well, for it seems to be an acknowledgment of our own nothingness, and to savour of submission to God’s sovereignty; but it is only sound: it has not really any substance in it; for though there is truth stamped on the face of it, there is falsehood at the root of it.

To talk of submission to God’s sovereignty is one thing, but really to submit to it is another, and quite a different thing. Really to submit to God’s sovereign disposal involves the deep renunciation of our own will in the matter concerned; and such a renunciation of the will can never be effected without a soul being brought through very severe and trying exercises of an inward and most humbling nature. Therefore, if, whilst we are quietly satisfied in using the means without obtaining the end, –and this costs us no such painful inward exercises and deep humbling as that alluded to,–we think that we are leaving the affair to God’s disposal, we deceive ourselves, and the truth (in this matter) is not in us.

No; really to give anything to God implies that the will, which is emphatically the heart, has been set on that thing; and if the heart has indeed been set on the salvation of sinners, as the end to be answered by the means we use, we cannot possibly give up that end, without, as was before observed, the heart being severely exercised and deeply pained by the renunciation of the will involved in it. When, therefore, we can be quietly content to use the measn for saving souls without seeing them saved thereby, it is because there is no renunciation of the will–that is, no real giving up to God in the affair. The fact is, the will, the heart, had never really been set upon this end: if it had, it could not possibly give up such an end without being broken by the sacrifice. When we can thus be satisfied to use the means without obtaining the end, and speak of it as though we were submitting to the Lord’s disposal, we use a truth to hide a falsehood…for our ability to leave the matter thus is not, as we imagine, the result of heart-submission to God, but of heart-indifference to the salvation of souls…‘”

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What the Government and the Medical Establishment are Admitting about Vaccination

January 26th, 2010

I was doing some research on vaccination and discovered the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC, as their website states, is “a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, [and] is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting public health activities in the United States.”

As I was browsing through their webpages, I came across information which I suspect most people are not aware of. I wanted to share this information, specifically with other parents who are faced with the same dilemma of “to vaccinate, or not to vaccinate.”

First of all, let’s discuss the ingredients of the common childhood vaccines.

According to a pdf list I found through CDC’s website, the vaccines doctors are giving your children include the following ingredients:

- Formaldehyde or Formalin

- Aluminum compounds

- Monkey Kidney Tissue

- Calf Serum Protein

- Bovine Albumin or Serum

- Chick Embryo Fibroblasts

- Thimerosal

In recent years, researchers have been labeling formaldehyde a carcinogen (cancer-causing agent). As for injecting children with foreign animal proteins, other researchers are speculating that this may possibly be interfering with or damaging their human genetic code.

But in regards to Thimerosal, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration admitted this:

“Thimerosal is a mercury-containing organic compound (an organomercurial). Since the 1930s, it has been widely used as a preservative in a number of biological and drug products, including many vaccines, to help prevent potentially life threatening contamination with harmful microbes. Over the past several years, because of an increasing awareness of the theoretical potential for neurotoxicity of even low levels of organomercurials and because of the increased number of thimerosal containing vaccines that had been added to the infant immunization schedule, concerns about the use of thimerosal in vaccines and other products have been raised. Indeed, because of these concerns, the Food and Drug Administration has worked with, and continues to work with, vaccine manufacturers to reduce or eliminate thimerosal from vaccines.” (Emphasis mine).

What does this mean? This means that Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative used in your baby’s vaccine, is toxic to your baby’s nervous system and brain.

What severe reactions can the ingredients in these vaccines cause in your child? The CDC website had an entire page devoted to the possible side effects of vaccines. Here are just two of the common childhood vaccines and the possible side effects:

DTaP (Dipheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis vaccine) – Moderate to Severe Reactions

  • Seizure (jerking or staring) (about 1 child out of 14,000)
  • Non-stop crying, for 3 hours or more (up to about 1 child out of 1,000)
  • High fever, 105 degrees Fahrenheit or higher (about 1 child out of 16,000)
  • Long-term seizures, coma, or lowered consciousness
  • Permanent brain damage.

MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccine) – Severe Reactions

  • Deafness
  • Long-term seizures, coma, or lowered consciousness
  • Permanent brain damage

The CDC website claims that severe reactions only occur in the case of one out of a million vaccinations. The Health Canada website claimed that severe reactions occurred in the case of less than one in a million vaccinations. However, one source I read revealed that reporting a severe reaction is NOT mandatory in Canada. If this is true, then the accuracy of the statistics given is seriously questionable.

Many doctors and parents would insist that the vital role of vaccines in preventing serious diseases outweighs the risks of vaccine injury.  However, studies published in medical journals reveal that vaccines are not 100% effective in preventing disease.

Here are extracts from the abstract of an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1987:

An outbreak of measles occurred among adolescents in Corpus Christi, Texas, in the spring of 1985, even though vaccination requirements for school attendance had been thoroughly enforced. Serum samples from 1806 students at two secondary schools were obtained eight days after the onset of the first case. Only 4.1 percent of these students (74 of 1806) lacked detectable antibody to measles according to enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and more than 99 percent had records of vaccination with live measles vaccine….We conclude that outbreaks of measles can occur in secondary schools, even when more than 99 percent of the students have been vaccinated and more than 95 percent are immune. (Emphasis mine).

More recently (1996) the Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Diseases reported this:

Since 1991, 6 years after the recommendation of universal childhood triple vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella (M + M + R), Switzerland has been confronted with an increasing number of mumps cases affecting both vaccinated and unvaccinated children. The M + M + R vaccine mainly used in the Swiss population after 1986 contains the highly attenuated Rubini strain of mumps virus….Mumps was confirmed by virus isolation in 88 patients, of whom 72 had previously received the Rubini vaccine strain….These data support other recent reports which indicate an insufficient protective efficacy of current mumps vaccines. (Emphasis mine).

Of course, science is always improving. But who can say whether vaccines have been perfected yet? Furthermore, even if a child is inoculated against one strain of a certain disease, how will that protect him against another strain?

So one must conclude that a vaccinated person bears the risk both of a vaccine injury and of contracting the disease, whereas the unvaccinated person risks only the disease.

I would greatly encourage parents to become informed and make responsible, knowledgeable decisions about their child’s health and wellbeing. Educate yourself about the disease, the vaccine, and the risks of both before you make your choice. Also, check out the history of the disease and whether vaccination played a significant role in bringing down the fatality rates.

- Kristin

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Christmas Newsletter 2009

December 17th, 2009

by Kristin

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

We hope this newsletter finds you all well.

We have been truly blessed by our gracious God again in 2009, having enjoyed health and strength, loving fellowship with one another, our daily provisions, and the coming of our precious son Justin.

In February, we celebrated our first Valentine’s day as a married couple. Being the unique couple that we are, we took a stroll through the aisles of Home Depot to mark the occasion. Memory fails me as to what we purchased, although Ryan could probably tell you.

The baby was due on March 6th, but by the end of February we were already impatient to see our little one. Thus you can understand our dismay when March 6th came and went. After a little over two weeks of anxious waiting, I went into labour early in the morning on Saturday, March 21st.  At approximately 5:30pm Justin Wilberforce Kidd was born, and we rejoiced to have been given a healthy baby boy.

Justin's Baptism


Justin was received into the Covenant Family of God through the sign and seal of baptism on March 29th. Ryan took two weeks paternity leave to help with running the house and caring for Justin while I recovered from the birth.

During the month of April, we were thrilled at the opportunity to get to know this new little person better and watch him grow. Determined to be good parents, we bundled Justin up and took him for his first bike ride in his baby bike trailer on April 13th.

In May, Justin helped with raising donations for the Pregnancy Care Centre Walk for Life, and was the youngest participant in the walk. He hitched a ride in his snuggly with Daddy. My graduation from the Philosophy B.A. Honours program at Tyndale University College took place the same weekend. Towards the end of the month, we celebrated our first wedding anniversary by going on a family bike ride and picnic in Sunnybrook Park followed by a stroll through Edwards Gardens.

First Anniversary


During the spring and summer, Ryan kept busy assembling and selling tandem bicycles. Justin spent many a happy hour watching his Daddy work on bicycles. I planted a variety of vegetables in my tiny plot of garden in the backyard and reaped a fairly good harvest.

On the Canada Day holiday, we went on a short bike tour of the Niagara region and saw the Brock Monument, the Arboretum, and the Niagara River and the Falls. We enjoyed dinner and a fireworks show with our friends, the Wells, and spent the night at their place.

In August we drove out to Ottawa to visit our friends the Zinks, and had a great time of fellowship. Our Justin and their little Heidi (who is only a few months older) enjoyed some happy playtime together.

In October we attended two different conferences. The first was the Deconstructing Darwin conference at Westminster Chapel, and the second was the Ignite the Culture conference organized by the ECP Centre. Both were excellent.

We enjoyed time with both families on Thanksgiving weekend, and went on a great hike on a section of the Bruce Trail.

Thanksgiving Weekend


At the end of October, we made the decision to upgrade our quarters, painting and renovating the main and second floors of our home on Shawnee Circle.   Most of November was spent cleaning out junk, painting the walls, re-finishing the floor, and doing other renovations to prepare the house for us to move in. We have now moved and are slowly settling in while we continue to finish the details.

As for Justin, he is a happy, content, and outgoing baby. He’s had a great year of growing and developing. Born weighing 6 lbs 9 oz. (3 kgs) and measuring 21 inches (53 cm), he now weighs over 20 lbs and measures almost 30 inches. He cut his first tooth when he was just four months old, and now boasts seven big chompers. He was sitting (with support) at about six and a half months, and in the past few weeks has started the combat crawl. He loves to play peek-a-boo and to kick his feet.   Justin’s favourite things include mommy’s milk, banana, tags, zippers, and paper.  With his Daddy’s help, Justin is well on his way to becoming a man’s man.

Justin's Saw

God is good and we continue to rest in His love toward us demonstrated in so many ways.

Blessings to you this Christmas from the Kidd Family,

Ryan, Kristin, & Justin

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