Merry Monday

Two busy weeks down and one more to go!  It's a fun and busy season at our Church and the Bible College.  We've wrapped up Easter and are now preparing for Spring and Summer.  Angela began her sixth round of chemo last Tuesday.  She is doing much better this round, even though scientifically it should be the worst.  Praise God!

I need to go into an 'Oscar' speech and thank many people who are so filled with God's love that it gushes out into loving others.  First, my two mothers are awesome... they have been on full-time duty, taking care of our kids and helping Angela.  Our Church family continues to make meals for us (it's been six months) and they (the meals and the people) are awesome!  On Friday, a bunch of energetic adults and youth set-up and ran the Lower Mainland Kid's Camp Rally... thank you for your investment into our kid's!  On Saturday, about 10-12 volunteers helped set-up and host Jim Moses' memorial... thank you for your love given to the Moses family.  On Sunday, as usual, we had a great number of gracious people serve in our Kid's program, main service, breakfast, and after-service coffee!  On Sunday night, we held an evening of prayer and worship.  It was awesome.  Around 40-50 folks came out to pray for the needs of our Church family and for one another.  We laid hands on the sick; interceded for others; shared words of encouragement; gave words of wisdom; and worshipped Jesus.  Thank you to those that came out, shared in faith what God laid on your heart, and gave of your time! Throw in a birthday lunch for my mom and the first mow of the year and it was a full, but great weekend.

This week will be busy getting ready for the College's graduation weekend.  We have a banquet on Saturday and a ceremony on Sunday night.  At the Church this week we have a family movie night on Friday, bake sale prep on Saturday, and then the actual bake sale on Sunday. Proceeds from the movie night and bake sale go to our summer camp bursary program.

I hope you have the best week of your life!   Wrap your heart around Jesus, surrender to His way of life, and you'll live a life without worry or regrets.

Friday Mashup

Haven't blogged in eleven days due to busyness and higher priorities, so get ready for a schwack of stuff.  

Ruby went to visit her Island Nana for a week.  That meant Charlie ruled the roost while the queen was away... a role he quite enjoyed.  I enjoyed spending more solo time with him.  We went to the park, walked to the goats, and rode his bike.

I'm also glad to announce that I still hold the record for Parkside's shortest sermon (14 minutes). Isaac tried to challenge the record last Sunday, but lost by six minutes!  I assigned him the "fun" and awkward passage on circumcision.  It reminds me of the time I stayed over at my grandparents and in the morning they asked me to read their morning Scripture aloud to them as they ate breakfast.  Their text that morning just so happened to be one of the juicy bits from Song of Solomon.

On Monday night we had our first hermeneutics club meeting.  Nine folks showed up and we had a great time.  We read the text that I will be preaching from this Sunday, asked questions arising from the text, and then began some more research into the text.  I also enjoyed getting to know everyone a bit more.  We found out that Vaughan W. was literally stoned when he and his family were missionaries in Brazil!  We went for almost two hours.  The club is open to any and all (sporadic attendance is allowed)!  We'll meet again this Monday at 7:00pm.

I've been enjoying our new delegation and empowering process with our Church council.  You may remember a while back me communicating that our Church council would be moving from serving solely in an advisory capacity to adding on an administrative capacity.  Our journey through Acts (specifically Acts 6:1-7) inspired this change and it will take about another six months or so to fully implement.

This change in Council has already been a blessing to me and our Church family.  Here's how.  Last week, Cindy (our Office Administrator) dropped a stack of papers on my desk that contained our 'chart of accounts' so that I could proof them (we are in the process of changing our accounting software and system). Without batting an eye, I gave them back to her and instructed her to give them to Nicole (our Treasurer). Nicole took them and is doing a better job than I ever did of proofing them.  The next day, I sent an email to Chad (our Council Secretary) to begin the process of planning his first Council meeting.  I gave him the agenda items that I needed to be there and instructions on the other components.  What usually takes one to two hours in prepping all the documents for the meeting is now off my plate.  I have no doubt that Chad will do a better job than I ever did.

What did I do with the spare time?  I was able to give more time to my role of 'prayer and the ministry of the word'.  I have been able to read and study more Scripture.  I was able to start the hermeneutics club which will teach others how to "feed" themselves and others.  I was also able to spend more time in prayer.  The overall result has been that I have drawn closer to Jesus.  Our Church and community will benefit from my drawing closer to Christ.  Our Church and community will benefit from more people studying and applying Scripture.  Our Church and community will benefit from Chad and Nicole using their gifts because they will do it better than me and they will grow closer to Jesus through their service to Him. 

This serving thing is starting to catch on around here too!  This week Cliff came in and replaced four old sink basins in our main washrooms.  Lynn volunteered to oversee our food service for the Easter brunch.  Dave is serving communion at our community Good Friday service. Monica and Aaron are going to town with Easter Brunch decor and set-up plans.  That's in addition to all the others who serve so generously week in, week out!

Last night, our Elders met to begin a series of meetings aimed at reflecting and seeking the Lord.  It is a process of discovering what our Church in Mission, BC and on planet Earth needs to look like, how we look now, and then what steps we need to take to get to there.  This process was initiated in a desire to see our baptism tank never dry.  We long to see more people meet and follow Jesus.  We know that the byproduct of this will be a community and world with less chaos, less selfishness, more love, and more justice.  We know that we are called to go and make disciples and that we need to become better at doing that!  Now, it's not too difficult to figure out the 'where we are' and 'where we need to go' part, it's the 'how do we get there' part that requires listening to the Spirit and following Him in faith.  I'm excited to begin this journey as I believe it will result in us becoming better followers of Jesus and therefore more people coming to know Him.

That brings us to today.  It's sunny and Spring is here!  I look forward to a season filled with power-raking my moss out, over-seeding, trimming, and mowing.  Our vacuum died this week so I'm on the hunt for a new one.  I am supervising a course tomorrow at the College.  I am looking forward to our gathering this Sunday. 

Angela's starting to feel a bit better so I'm happy for her.  She gets an extra week off this round for Easter!!

Have a great weekend!

Easter Brunch Recap

On Sunday we hosted a Easter Brunch and it was a lot of fun.  Just over 180 came out for a morning of good food, company, music, drama, and of course.... chocolate (well, the kids got that part).

I'd really like thank all our volunteers who worked very hard and gave of their time so that others could enjoy their time.  Half a dozen came out on Saturday to help set-up.  The George's did amazing at organizing the buffet.  Louie W. and Laura B. made amazing pancakes.  Casey and Charmaine worked their butts off serving in the kitchen.  Then Chris K. and Dave P. (even after acting in the drama) lead us in clean-up.  Dave vacuumed the auditorium and lobby in record time!  Mo, Diane, Seyong, Christina, and Nigel did an amazing job with the kids program.  Tony and Alison performed beautifully.  And Jack, Dave, Eugene, and Martin did a fantastic job with their dramatic presentation.  Thank you to everyone who helped make the morning a lot of fun and a great time to celebrate together the resurrection of our Saviour, Jesus!

Pictures should be coming soon!

A Great Work Bee

Today we had our annual Spring Work Bee and it was awesome!  Over 30 came out for to weed, clean, sort, build, and haul.  Thank you to everyone who worked so hard.

Youth Aren't Scary

Did you know that our youth ministry involves 15 volunteers and ministers to 60+ youth?  Did you know that our church supports our youth ministry to the tune of $5,000/month (mortgage, utilities, honorariums, and donations)?  Did you know that last year we had 8 youth give their lives to Jesus and are being discipled?  Our ministry to youth, especially the Wednesday night program, reaches some of our city's most broken youth.

The pain and history that many of our youth live with is more than many of us can even comprehend.  Our youth ministry really is a battleground and we have an opportunity as a church to get behind our youth and youth leaders in prayer, financial support, and service.

This last Sunday an opportunity to serve was communicated to our church family via Dave on behalf of our youth ministry.  The greatest need right now for our youth ministry in the area of service.  We need loving adults who are willing to be chaperons on Wednesday night.  This entails walking around the outside of the building from 6:30-7:30 and then again from 8:15-9:15pm.  If you are able to help, please talk to Calvin Williams (calvin@missionfoursquare.com).

Thanks again for your prayers, financial support (that's where a significant portion of our monthly expenses goes to), and now for considering volunteering.  Youth really aren't that scary.  At first most youth don't trust adults because they've been used and abused by them, but once they get to know that you're real, honest, and you actually love them, they will respect you.  This kind of ministry is on the frontlines... it is missions in our own back yard.

Bottle Drive for Haiti

Well, we didn't exactly give stellar attendance, but the few that showed up worked with great diligence.  Thank you to the Johnson's for spearheading this and to the others that gave of their time to help.  They collected $350 worth of bottles.  Here's what four adults in four hours can do!

Let the Kids Camp Fundraising Begin!

Thanks to all the parents who organized and helped with today's bottle drive!  All of these bottles plus a couple (stinky) vans full were collected and sorted.