CBC Graduation service

The grad ceremony was awesome, in my opinion. The worship (however little there was) was great. The speakers (Pastor George, Stephen Boss, Jenny Brown, Peter Youngren, Age Aleskjaer) were all great too. Our valedictorian (Jenny) delivered a message that was straight out of Jeremiah 5:14. Absolutely amazing. I should get the video for it posted tomorrow morning. All in all, it was a good evening. Peter Youngren even took time out of his busy schedule to pose for a picture with Josh Squared (see above).

So now the excuses are over. I went out for coffee with Kyle and Jenny afterwards and we got to talking about the future. I said that now there are no more excuses. Even in the atmosphere of Bible School we can use that security as an excuse not to pursue God with 100% of our devotion. We can say, "This is my preparation time. After two years, then I'll be ready to do great things!" Well, now Bible School is over, and it's time to put up or shut up. What will we do with the deposit that God has entrusted to us? There are no more excuses. We have been trained. We are never gonna be more ready than we are now. Jesus alone is enough. And we have Him without measure...................

CBC Grad Banquet

Tonight was the Celebration Bible College graduation banquet. It was a pretty decent time, nothing too amazing, but alright. Peter Karl delivered a decent message, and the food was great, etc. It really was a pretty good year, filled with some great people. I may have been a wee bit hard on some of them, but hey, I am what I am. There is a fine line between wanting the best for someone, and seeming like a harsh guy. The Vine had a bunch of us over afterwards for a get together. More good people. I pray that each one of them will walk in the fulness of God's calling for their lives. No compromise. No retreat, no surrender. An army, drafted by God for this very season, for this very purpose: to advance the Kingdom, with power. Tomorrow is graduation. CBC is closed. Next?

a funny thing happened on the way to..........buy pizza

After this evenings Grace Conference session with Age Aleskjaer, Heymans and I went to Sobey's to get a late snack or sumthin. Before we went in, Heymans challenged us to give out at least one salvation booklet to a random person. We were in the frozen food isle and Josh goes up to this guy and tries to give him the booklet. Turns out the guy is a believer and he starts prophesying over Josh right there. At first we thought he was kinda crazy, but the longer he went the more accurate and relevant he became. It ended up being a pretty hardcore word; one that is not necessarily the easiest to accept. God does some funny things sometimes.

Here's an interesting thought that I read on the back of a book I just received called 'Lilies Amongst Thorns', it says, "Our Chinese brothers and sisters in Christ understand that there is no crown of glory without a cross of suffering." I know this goes against pretty much all of our western theology, but it forces you to look at the statistics for church growth worldwide. These Chinese Christians are daily giving their lives for something they deem is worthy enough for. We here in the west are hard pressed to give our brother a dollar or two for a bite to eat. We here in the west dread the upcoming(?) tribulation and persecution, but those in China and like places have thought the great tribulation has been going on for 20 years!!! Security breeds complacency; I can't stress it enough. We worry about things that are absolutely minimal in eternal perspective. All the problems and horrors in the world are but questions that we, as Christians, have the answer to. Yet, does the world come to us for those answers? Hardly. Why would they? What do they see when they look at us? What do we see when we truly examine ourselves? We pray for more blessing, more prosperity, more material possessions. We have literally no idea that those prayers have been answered already. 1/3 of the world has not eaten today. Have you? If you have, you are blessed, and that in just a physical way. I pray that the Lord would wreck our hearts for the things that wreck His. God does not want whats not ours, but He does want what is ours.......all of it. He doesn't want it to keep things from us, He wants it so that we can totally devote and dedicate ourselves to Him, free of idols. Do we think He's worth it? Actions speak louder than words.

final week

So, yeah; it's the final week of CBC. School is officially over. We finished up exams today. Overall, they were all fairly easy. The grad banquet is saturday evening, and the grad service will take part during the sunday evening service. Everyone can watch this service by going to www.mycelebrationministries.com at 6:30 EST on sunday evening. It should be quite the event. Heymans and I have been preparing our own little project, independent from the student body, and it should be quite the event in itself!!

I'm sure I'll be posting some introspective views on the past 8 mths shortly, so stay tuned, it may get uglier before it gets prettier.

day of street outreach in TO

Today was pretty sweet. Josh Heymans, Jenny (Hinn) Brown, and myself, cruised to Toronto at about 9am for a day of street ministry. It was an absolutely beautiful day, at about 20 degrees or so. We had 20 bags of assorted food with us and approached random people who were obviously staying on the street, and asked them if they wanted some food, and if they knew Jesus, etc. We were quite surprised at the amount of food these people received on a daily basis, and that they had obviously received this food from Christians, seeing that they all knew about Jesus. We gave out around 14 or 15 bags of food and had some decent ministry time. The highlight (or un-highlight) of the day was when Jenny and I stopped to talk to some Muslims who were giving out some free Qurans. We were talking to them for a few minutes, but neither of us were making much headway, so we took our Qurans and started walking away when we ran into a couple of Christian fanatics all dressed in white robes passing out gospel tracts. They seen the Quran in my hand and started proclaiming that Jesus was the only one who died and rose again (which is not even scripturally accurate; see 1Kings 17:17-23, 2Kings 4:32-37, 2Kings 13:20-21, Luke 7:12-15, John 11:39-44) and that all other's beliefs were wrong. Jenny and I got into a bit of an argument with them about the kind of people Jesus tried to reach while He was on earth. They thought that you should scorn unbelievers, while we thought you should love them. The last thing I (loudly) said as we walked away was, "I'd rather talk to the Muslims!" It was one of the most disgusting displays of Christianity I ever was personally involved with. It made me sick. The Muslims were so kind and open to talk, and were giving away free literature, etc etc, while the "christians" were proclaiming judgement, while they stood in their "white" robes. What a sight. Man oh man, it made us so mad. Even Jenny was gettin into the thick of the argument. It was awesome. After that we gave out some more food and had to rush back to St Catharines for 4 o'clock. My word was on the line!! Thank You Jesus, so much, for getting us back in time!

Then Heymans, Johanna and I watched Let's Go To Prison. It wasn't anything to write home about. What an awesome day though.

gettin ready!!!

Tomorrow, Josh Heymans, Melody Wallace, Jenny Brown, and myself cruise to Toronto to do some street outreach. We are leaving around 9am and plan on just cruisin down to Younge St and giving out food to whoever looks like they are need of some. Tonight, Josh, Melody and myself made bags of food (with Bibles) to distribute tomorrow. Good times. We don't know how this is gonna look, but it should be pretty sweet (in theory). Each bag has a sub sandwich, a bottle of water, an apple, two juice drinks, two cookies, two bags of chips, two granola bars, a New Testament or a Gospel of John, and another booklet on Salvation. Thats one sweet bag of goodies! It's also supposed to be an amazing day tomorrow; might get up to 20 degrees! Nice. And a special shout out to Kyle, who hooked us up with most of this food. What an enormous blessing that was. God is pretty cool.

In other news: final exams have started. New Testament Survey was super hard. Ministry Gifts wasn't that hard at all. Thinking Biblically and Healing Of The Soul were both jokes. We are in exam mode till next wednesday. Then there is our Grad Banquet on saturday the 29th, and our actual graduation on the 30th.

Paul Adams in Sudan

I was talkin to my buddy Paul today. He is in Sudan and is in need of prayer. He desperately needs an interpreter, money, and bodies to help share in the responsibility of running Iris Sudan. Things aren't as easy in Sudan; everything seems to be a hassel. Paul and I tore it up in Pemba, Mozambique during the Holy Given 1 missions school. I fully intend to be back ministering with him in the near future, most likely in Sudan. Since Sudan is under international sanctions, it is hard for him to receive money through any kind of banking, etc, so prayer is needed that God will bless him in ways that goes beyond our imagination. Also, pray for the churches and kids he is helping with there; THAT is not easy either. And pray that he would be able to learn arabic quickly. Being in Sudan without being able to speak the language, and without an interpreter is "no bom"!! Here is his blog, check it out: www.goandpreach.blogspot.com.

monday

Yesterday evening, Melody Wallace and I led Kid's Church at NCC. The kid's were fairly bad, as usual. We got them to do paintings (#1, #2) and Spencer painted this goalie. We were having them get up and explain to everyone what their paintings meant but Spencer wouldn't do it, so I grabbed his painting and explained it. Here is my "Jesus Revealed in Spencer's Goalie":
The weird oversized greenish puck is actually a portal which leads directly into a third Heaven experience. The red goal posts symbolize the blood the Israelites painted on their doors at the first Passover, preventing the Angel of Death from killing their firstborns. The goalie pads represent sheilds which can block all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And you can see that he is clearly decked out in the full armor of God. (Ok, I know, it's a stretch...........but so is the real 'Jesus Revealed......' course!!).

Today for our 2nd Yr course "Practical Ministry 2" we went to Henley House for a day at a nursing home. It was pretty sweet. We got to sing at a church service. Fabio got to open in prayer , and Jenny Brown and I got to read scriptures from Luke for the seniors. Good stuff.

But it's almost time to go to bed. I get up at 4am, start work at 5:30am, school between 8am-12pm, them work till 5pm. After that is ministry, or relaxin time. Later everyone.

a new day

So, I just spent the morning re-editing my blog. I kinda like it. What do you think? Yes, I admit it. I like orange. I just do, so what. I gotta tell you about the Pen Center evangelism Josh Heymans, Jessica Brown, Humphrey Onzere, and I did last night; it was sweet. I'm gonna tell it in 4 sections.
Heymans: Josh wasn't gettin into the flow well untill the close of the evening. He had not much success until a we sat down with guy and wanted to pray for his broken hand. The ladies with him got extremely offended and took off so we sat down and had a great conversation with him and got to pray for his hand. We're believing for a great testimony when the doctor takes his cast off. Then Josh literally got called over by a group of 6 or 7 to preach to them. I don't know what was said cause I was talking to another fellow, but he was witnessing up a storm.
Humphrey:............is hardcore. This was Humphrey's first time out with "Josh Squared", and he tore it up. He just liked to go sit beside someone on a bench and use his African residency as a door opener. He got to talk openly about Christ with at least 4 people. Humphrey just took some bold initiative and didn't wait for us to point him in a direction, he just went for it, and had awesome results. People were almost crying as he shared with them about how much God loved them and how He showed that love for them by sending Jesus to die on their behalf. Nice job God, and Humphrey.
Jessica and I: We pretty much teamed up. But as I was getting my quad band cell phone unlocked so I can use it in Africa, Jessica went up to this guy who was pushing around a little girl in a wheelchair and asked if she could pray for the girl. He was a Bible believing Christian and let her. It was a big step of boldness. We had been asking God to send some sick people to us so we could pray for them, and God answered. Be careful what you pray for. Then we walked up to 2 girls and I bluntly asked them, "Do you girls know Jesus?" They answered, "No............ do you want to tell us about him?" So we got to share about the love of God, and what Easter had been all about, etc etc. Good stuff. Then we got to lay hands on this guy and pray for him. The I seen a girl who looked like I did a few years ago (extremely sad and lonely) so I sent Jessica over to her and she got to dramatically speak into her life in a way that she might never had before. It was awesome.

All this, and I was under constant threat of being permanently banned from that Mall for doing the very thing we were doing! These 3 people braved the threat as well, cause they too would undoubtedly have been banned for being with me. Book of Acts anointing?.............not really, but I'll take it. It was another awesome evangelical experience anyway.

New Poll
Last poll results:

Think Jesus is coming back in your lifetime?

Selection		Votes
yes	56%	9
no	44%	7

The majority says that "YES", Jesus will come back before I die. I voted "no" myself; unless believers get off their *** and get the Gospel to the nations who have not heard yet, we're not going anywhere. So lets go!!! C'mon generation who have been prophesied about. Let's get'er done.

New poll is, do you believe the signs and wonders like Gold Dust, gold teeth, feathers, oil, etc etc are from God, man, or the devil? It's a controvesial subject, and one that has been discussed at length in my bible school the last little while. Blessings all. Enjoy the weekend.

a busy week

It has been indeed a busy week. Time is flying by. Are we making the most of our time? I could rave on and on about all the exploits and busyness of the past week, but when all is said and done, the question remains. Are we making the most of our time? What consumes our thoughts, what do we choose to do with the time we possess? These questions can be hard to ask ourselves. They gauge the level of Christ we let flow through us. We are uncomfortable with knowing how much Jesus we are giving out. It is truly not the same amount that He poured (and still pours out) to us. That can be quite convicting. What do we do with that conviction? Do we let it pile up and harden our hearts, or do we give freely, as we have been given?

CBC is two weeks till done. Graduation is fast approaching. To say I'll miss the high school atmosphere would be a mockery. I will indeed be glad to leave. I came to St Catharines with a purpose. That purpose stands tall, waiting still, impatiently. Excitement grows. Stepping into purpose, unsure of the details; I love it. There's a freedom that lies theirin.

Am I good.....or what?!

OK, check this out. Tonight was one of the busiest shifts I ever put in at Wal-Mart. This section of the store was a complete disaster area when I arrived at 9:30pm. So one of the managers asked if I would devote my 4hr shift to cleaning it up. There was empty boxes, trash, disorder, etc etc all over this before I got to it. Now look at it. Beautiful!! And it appears I've been scheduled in for shifts next weekend, so this was not my last shift. Suits me; $50 bucks is $50 bucks. I can definitely use it. Anyways, it's gettin late, and I gotta help teach the children at NCC tomorrow. G'nite.

Niagara Falls evangelism

I just got back not long ago from evangelizing in a mall in Niagara Falls. It wasn't the best day of witnessing, but it's always good. It's an addictive habit to start. Colin and Jessica picked up Kyle, Jenny, and I at the Fairview Mall and we booked it to Niagara Falls. Since it was cold and windy, we stuck to indoors. Like I said, people were not too excited to hear about the love of Jesus today, but a couple of people were at least willing to talk to us for a few minutes.

On the way there, we stopped at this Catholic church and went inside. It was an awesome church. I love the old churches with the stained glass and stuff. I'm not much for the idols, but hey, the charismatics aren't perfect either; far from it. It was a good day though, at the Falls.

In about an hour I head to Wal-Mart for my last shift. Time in St Catharines is drawing to a close. I will indeed miss some of the people I've met here. I won't likely admit it to them, but I will. Anyways, if I never see them again, "I'll see them by the River", so it's all good. Keep evangelizing everyone. Let's get this "Christ-business" done!

"I saw Jesus eating a snake"

Tonight NCC was having a communion service, so I chose to help out with Kid's Church downstairs with Peter & Julie. We had a time of asking God to give visions or impressions to the kids, and then we got some of them to share what picture (or whatever) God had given them. One little guy said, "I saw Jesus eating a snake." WHOAAAAA!!!! That's crazy!! Later we had the kids sit in groups of 2 or 3 and write skits for a puppet show performance. I sat with the same little boy and got him to dictate the fuller story behind the snake eating. He explained, I wrote. Here it is:

Jesus eating a snake

Jesus sat on a chair. And He flew a kite. And He got hungry. And He started getting a snake. The snake had been fighting someone. It was beating them up. Then Jesus ate the snake. Then Jesus said, "I will watch TreeHouse."

Pretty sweet stuff. I'm believing for a 'Visions Beyond The Veil' type of anointing to hit Kid's Church. Oh yeah!

Hallelujah!

Today was one of great joy. I booked my ticket back to Mozambique. I graduate from Celebration Bible college on April 28th, then head to Redding, California for May 2nd-9th, then head back to PEI from May 12th-27th, then head out from the Island on May 27th to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. From Dar I get a flight to Pemba, and hopefully arrive there by the 30th of May. Hallelujah all right! It's been a journey back to Africa 2 years in the making, and now it's one step closer; one BIG step. I plan on working as a staff member for Iris Ministries Holy Given 5 Missions School for 3 months, then heading up into Sudan for the rest of the trip. We'll see what God has in store. Anyways, I'm pretty stoked. It's like I've come alive again since the invite was offered. More in a couple of days when more details become available.........

Fairview Mall evangelism

After work today, I cruised over to the Vine Towers and picked up Jenny Brown, Mark Enos, and Sheri Smith for monday evangelism. We cruised to the Fairview Mall (cause we didn't have a car, and I didn't want to get them banned from the Pen Center) to talk to some people about Jesus. Mark talked to a couple of guys but had NO luck. Jenny and I approached a girl reading on a bench and were able to talk to her for a few moments, but she didn't seem to recieve it too well; not bad, but not great. Then as Jenny and I were headed back to find Mark and Sheri, I notice this guy sitting on a bench just sort of staring off into space. We approach him and I ask the infamous, "Hey man, do you know Jesus?" question. He turns out to be from Japan, and we rave to him for like 10-15 min and totally speak into his life as none have ever before. It was pretty sweet. I ended up giving him my Amplified New Testament, and inviting him to see Eight Days at NCC this sunday. On our way home I asked Mark and Sheri if they had 'earned' their evangelism credit and Sheri was hesitant to say, so we told her there would be an opportunity as we walked back. Then she tears across the highway and into the parking lot of Dairy Queen and starts totally gospelizing this guy. It was HARDCORENESS! Way to go Sheri. On top of that, this was her first time out evangelizing ever! I smell a reformer in the making. Anyways, we had some good times. Everyone who reads this.............GO EVANGELIZING!!!!

an evening in Hamilton

Last night 3 carloads of NCC'ers piled into some cars and cruised down to Hamilton to Eagle Worldwide Ministries for a Joshua Mills meeting. Pastor George & Marilyn took a Wendy, Josh, and Melody; Colin took Humphrey & Sara, and Johanna; and Peter & Julie took Andrea, and myself. It was a powerful event. Not only was it good to get out of St Catharines and the same ole same ole atmosphere I experience here everyday, but the meeting itself was a reawakening (of sorts) of powerful expectation. Joshua Mills had a word that ranks among the best I've heard (personally). He's not really a 'good' preacher, but he stirs up a hunger for the supernatural better than anyone I've heard (maybe, Patricia King is good at that too, and Todd Bentley, and Rolland Baker, and David Hogan; ok lets just say that Mills is good at it too).

Something that really struck me that was said at the meeting last night was that God doesn't want you to give Him anything that you DON'T have, but He does want everything you DO have. There is a powerful truth in those words. It sobers you up and makes you realize some of the heart of God. He doesn't want or expect things you don't have, but He does want and expect what you do have. Wow, chew on that for a few moments.

Anyways, it was a great time and anyone who I had invited but excused themselves from coming, missed out..............BIG TIME. Here is a video from the worship time before Joshua Mills took over: