headin out

In a couple of hours I hit the Charlottetown bus station for a 26 hr trip back to St Catharines. I tried to secure a trip to Rochester through Greyhound in the States but it wouldn;t work, so I get back to St Catharines tomorrow afternoon, stay the night, and head out early in the morn and hope to get into Rochester around noon or nearly after on the 31st. Gonna be pretty sweet. But the Holidays went well, I got most of my visiting to people, at least once I seen the majority of them, so thats good. I figure 4 mths goes by pretty quickly anyway so I'll be back soon.

Last night Ryan & Tonya had me out for supper and a movie. A few from the church came out (Jim, Carinne, Amy, Dave & Lindsey with their kids, Kristina). I had picked up a movie on my way (Find Me Guilty), but all it was, was f*** this, and f*** that, and f*** you, and f*** him, so we took it out after 15 min! Ryan & Tonya had recently gotten Black Sheep, so we watched that instead. After that it was gettin late so I cruised back to Milltown Cross and played around with me new cell phone a bit before I crashed. The Sony Ericsson W810i is one sweeeeet phone/camera/mp3 device.

I want to say thanks to all who blessed my time here on the Island the last week. I don't want to start naming people cause I'm bound to leave out someone important, but you all know who you are and what you did. And I know it too. Thanks everyone.

Xmas/06

After a 32 hour trek by train, I land home on PEI for the Holidays. I have a brief 1st meeting with my new nephew Brennan D'arcy Duffy, which he slept through, then I did a bit more visiting. The last couple of days I have been busy catching up with how things have been the last 4 mths. Christmas day I spent the 1st half with my immediate family, then in the evening I went out to Jack & Shirley Ferguson's for another meal. It'was a good day. No snow for Christmas, but today it is snowing. All in all, it's great to see my family and my church family, but I really am cravin to get to St Catharines and get school finished and head overseas. Not a lot has changed on the Island; pretty much same ole, same ole. There has been loads and loads of food. Turkey and sugar galore!!! Everyone is good though. Not a whole lot to report on. T'is been quite relaxed.

In other news, check out this pic of a sign just inside Montague at a drive-in restaurant. I had to stop the car and snap this. In all the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, we would do well to remember the Believers who are in hostile areas around the world. Doesn't the apostle Paul exhort us to do this very thing.......as if we were in jail with them, etc etc etc?

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! Jesus truly is the reason for the season. Hope you all have a blessed holiday season. Me, I'm home on PEI with family for the next week. I'll post on my first ever meeting with my nephew Brennan later in a couple of days. Till then, have fun enjoying what Jesus came into the world for.

WIBI 3rd Quarter report

Well, well, well. 1/2 of my school year is over, and 3/4 of my WIBI term is done. To say I've learned a lot would be an understatement. It has definitely been a stretching; but what isn't, in this 'christian' life? There are many doctrines that I agree not with, that I've run head on into, here in St Catharines. It gives me a bigger picture, as a whole, of ministry, and the 'christian' world in general. I really didn't expect to disagree with as much as I do here, but it's a growing process and I'm thankful for it. I do know that the Gospel is being deeply embedded in all of us though. It is a beautiful thing. To see some many young 'christians' being able to confidently minister the love of Christ to a lost and broken world. All the little doctrinal differences that are outside that don't really mean that much in the end. It's Jesus, and Him alone, that transforms lives and brings change. The ministry of reconciliation; a calling crucial to understand. How can you minister reconciliation when you don't know what was reconciled? Many christians don't; hence the present situation in the church.

Regardless, I've 4 mths to go in my 2 yr Bible School endeavor. I may have said this before, but "I can't wait to graduate so I can take the next step in getting back to Africa." What that next step is? I can't even really begin to guess. There are many many different scenarios that could manifest in that time, so I will keep my thoughts silent and let God do as He wills. My plans are just that........'my' plans. God has His own plans that often take different paths to get to the same destination.

Back to WIBI though. I don't know if it's an 'age' thing, or a 'priority' thing, but I'm still having a major hard time connecting to and relating to almost all of the student body. I see a lot of carnality; maybe it's just me, but I see it nonetheless. I look back to Holy Given #1 and see the friendships I made in under a month. I look at WIBI and see the friendships I've made over the past 4 months. It's just different. Here is not my home; I know it, and the students definitely know it! The couple friends I've made here are truly awesome people, great servants of God; you know who you are! Alas, my heart is in the 3rd World, literally......it's still over there. And only untill I go back will I really know the depth of my feelings towards the poor, lost, broken, dying, starving, desperate people living there. There isn't a real witness for the poor here at WIBI. Maybe thats why I'm here? Shock and awe baby!!! I guess. Pushing buttons is easy, imparting passion is another thing alogether.

Anyways, I'm off to PEI for the Season. What awaits me there?

exam week

It is indeed exam week. It's not on my mind a whole lot though. I have moved past the point of fretting over marks on exams, and such. It's good to do good, don't get me wrong, but I'm just over it. Things are good though. The cockroach situation has diminished, I think. I havent seen too many since that night anyway. And I leave on friday morning to head back to the Island for a week for the Holidays, and to see all my peeps and family and newborn nephew! Pretty sweet!

The WIBI aspect has been good, ministry wise. I'm still finding it hard to connect with 95% of the students, but things are good. Street ministry has been awesome the last week. I have devised a system of going up to people on the street and asking them if they want to participate in a 'one question survey'; the question being "What does Christmas mean to you?" Its a great opportunity to throw the Gospel in there in a quick and easy way. A lot of people don't want to hear it, but Josh Heymans, Amwy Wallace, and I got into a 1.5 hour talk with this guy in a park a few days ago that was just awesome. We pretty much convinced him in about 10 minutes that he wasnt an athiest! Then we took it from there. Holy Ghost is good. Prison ministry has slowed a little; it being the Holidays and all. But we are believing for great things in the New Year.

To end this update, I'm including a recent video of the SOS Ministry here at NCC. It's aspect is giving away a bag of groceries to everyone who attends a service and doesnt have a lot of money for such things. It's a good ministry with greta people in charge of it. Good times. And remember: JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!!

the Cockroach Chronicles

35 Elma St has cockroaches, it's a fact. I was gonna call this post "We spray, we sleep................they die!!!", but I couldn't get connected to the net last night. That was a quote from Julie Karanfilis, after we returned home from a late night Home Depot run to get cockroach poison. There are quite a few we've seen already; some we've killed, some who've tried to kill us!! Cockroaches are disgusting, no doubt about it! So we doused the areas we thought they were hiding out in with cockroach spray and now we wait and evaluate how it worked. Hopefully we won't have to get the 'terminators' in for a more thorough job. That would kinda suck. It was an eventful .........event, anyway. The cockroaches here are in NO COMPARISON to some I've seen in my accomodations in Mozambique though.


And today is Colin Jackson's birthday; Happy Birthday man. To celebrate, we unloaded boxes of food at the SOS Ministry at NCC, then went out for an overpriced buffet style meal. Who said the Kingdom life was boring? And by the way, all these cases of Meatballs & Gravy that were donated; supposedly they are so bad for you! They don't even put the nutrional content anywhere on the cans! Sketchy? I guess.

35 Elma St

So, I have moved out of the Residence (booo) into a place with a few other WIBI's (Peter, Julie, and Johanna). Good times, great roomates. I'm likin it so far.

Today Josh Heymans and I went to Central Gospel Temple on Scott St not far away from NCC. It was fairly good, no real complaints. Entertaining, for sure. Then in the afternoon, I went with the Faith Circle Group to Niagara Detention Center for a service we conducted. T'was pretty sweet indeed. I shared a little about my past during our second service, and all the prisoners were blessed with song, and cookies, and most importantly, Jesus!

Things are well. School is challenging me in ways I didn't really expect, but at the same time, ways I'm not really surprised either. Half this year is almost over, and there is only 4mths left. T'will be good to get back to the Island for a week or so for the Holidays. So, there it is. Not a whole lot of theological discussion, but t'is good nonetheless.

new look w Holiday colors!!

All right, it took me some time and some headache, but I have changed my blog around a bit. Let me know if you like, or if you no like. I kinda like it; the template is much easier to work with.

Jesus was wealthy (?)

A few weeks ago in Biblical Economics class we were taught on the subject of "Jesus was wealthy". Lets examine this, if we shall.

• An Old Testament sign of the blessing of God was a person's wealth and possessions. And since Jesus walked in the days of the Old Covenant (the New hadn't been instigated yet) it is logical to assume that these blessings would've rested upon Him.
• Jesus' parents had money. They had money for the tax. (Luke 2:4-5) What tax, I don't know. The Bible says nothing of a tax, but maybe history proves otherwise, I don't know.
• They had money for the hotel. Luke 2:7. I'll buy this one. They indeed must've been able to afford a room at the Inn, there was just no room for them.
• They had money to buy a house in Jerusalem. (Matthew 2:10-11) If it was their house, or Elizabeth's house, or someone else's house is up for debate as well; it just says "the" house.
• They had money to travel to another country and live there. (Matthew 2:13-14). I'm not sure. Maybe, I guess. I know I haven't had money for my last trip to Africa, or for Bible School, yet God provided.
• They had money to buy another house in Nazareth. (Luke 2:39-40). Wow, now this is getting to be that Mary and Joesph were not only 'not poor', but they were 'loaded!!!' Once again this is extreme conjecture, in my opinion.
• They had money to start a business. (Mark 6:3) Hmmmm.................sure, if thats what you think.
• They could afford a large family. (Matthew 13:55-56). There certainly was brothers and sisters.
• Jesus was well educated. (Luke 4:17-18). Argument here is that if Jesus could read then His family must've had money to send Him to school cause not a lot of people could read in those days. This is plausible, but can be explained in many other ways. Ok though, not bad.
• He was well dressed. (John 19:23-24). Um, He did have some nice clothes, or, at least, one nice shirt. I recently acquied a nice dress jacket, not even throwing a dollar away to achieve it. Thanks Sam. I wonder if Jesus knew anyone like Sam............likely.
• His ministry needed a treasurer. (John 12:4-6) Indeed it did. There must've been some funds going through the ministry for sure.
• They travelled extensively (food, etc). Yeah, you can argue they needed loads of cash to get around. It's not in the Bible though.
• They financed their own crusades and meetings. Do I need to keep commentating on these?
• He provided for His family because no brother of Joesph came to marry Mary. If in fact Joesph died. I've a couple of ideas regarding Joesph, but nowhere in the Bible or history does it reveal what happened to him.
• He had the funds to buy bread for the multitude. (John 6:5). I'll buy this one. It indeed appears that they could have afforded the bread.
• He supported His disciples and followers. Wow, what scripture did this one come from?

Now, I don't really mean to be critical :), or do I? Nah, not really. Seriously. It makes me wonder where the scriptures like Luke 14:33, Luke 12:33-34, Matthew 13:44, Matthew 13:45-46, Hebrews 13:5, James 4:1-3, James 5:2-3, 1Timothy 6:6-11, Proverbs 23:4, etc etc etc, fit into the picture. Is there a better way? I see much emphasis on wealth in the 1st World Church. The phrase "It's ok to have things as long as those things don't have you" is quoted often. There is a fine line between having things and those things having you! I'll tell you something though. To do all that I believe God wants me to do takes money, and a whole lot of it. Thats the thing though, I need money to bless others, not to accumulate things for myself here on earth, where they will be useless to me in Heaven. Know what I mean? All I give up here on earth for the sake of others will be far and above abundantely supplied to me in the next life, so why bother storing things up here. When you get a taste of heavenly things, your interest in these second rate earthly things is not so great anymore. It's a Kingdom fact. Anyways, I'm sure many, many people will disagree with me, and I'm sure I haven't communicated my thoughts on the subject as accurately as I would have like to, but that's what it is, and that's what I wrote.