the newness of colors

Oh yeah. I just spent some time revamping me blog and now you all get to see. It's alrite, I s'pose. Totally newness thing happenin.

Things are still well. Keeping busy. Really trying to focus in on the plans God has for this summer. It has ENORMOUS potential to be an amazing summer, truly. It gets me excited thinkin about it.

Keepin busy...............like:
- meeting with kids from underprivledged neighborhood every odd tuesday
- doing a Pastoral Care course at the Welland General Hospital tuesday evenings
- midweek visitations at Scott St Manor on wednesdays
- drumming at the Hamilton Celebration Church (and helping Jenny with the kid's ministry sometimes) on saturdays
- putting on a sunday service at Scott St Manor
Pretty sweet stuff. God is fun to serve.

Today I was asked to fill in for Elly, who is in charge of a nursing home ministry here in St Catharines. She's going away for two weeks and asked me to take over; what a sweet opportunity. So thats it. Have fun, enjoy Jesus, and stuff.

the Blessing(?)

I'll admit it. Life can be frustrating. When I came back to St Catharines I thought I was starting work after two days; didn't work out. Then I thought I was starting work this monday, but SITEL has pushed that back two weeks till the 19th, so I am looking for work yet again. I remember when I first came to St Catharines in September of last year and it took me 4 mths to get work! Whatever! Things are well though. Jenny and I got to Welland this last tuesday (Thanks Colin!) for our Pastoral Care course; it is amazing stuff. I got to do some drumming in Hamilton last saturday at the Hamilton Celebration Church. Jenny and I did some visitations with some kids throughout the week applying the Gospel in a very practical way. Heymans, Jenny, and I started midweek visitations at Scott St Manor, trying to reach the residents who are more withdrawn and such. Stuff is good; we are blessed.

OK, lets get some controversy going. Much discussion among my peers lately has been around the "Blessing" of God on our lives. Some argue that the manifestation of God's blessing upon us consists of material wealth, while some laugh at the absurdity of such a notion. Am I blessed because of what I possess? Hardly, in fact the Bible clearly states the exact opposite in 2Cor6:3-10. The blessing of God upon our lives has nothing to do with what we possess externally. Simply put, I am blessed because God loves me and I have a Savior. That trumps "health, wealth, and self" anyday. The ammunition is endless and this post could go on and on and on.......but there is nowhere that Jesus promotes the accumulation of material goods. He seems to have more pressing priorities. Because someone is unhealthy or hungry or poor does not mean they are not blessed, in fact, Jesus seems to think the exact opposite (Luke6:20-21). This is all not to exalt poverty, which is totally demonic, but to get the focus back on Jesus and what He's done for us. Did He come and die for us so that we could live a fairytale life here on earth? Uh, no. The 50 or so scriptures I could rattle off would likely be a sufficient argument to that belief. Jesus came so that we would be empowered to be a witness (martyr). Wealth is not a manifestation of the blessing, unconditional love is. Is it a more accurate witness to give the shirt off your back to a naked person if you have 15 more shirts at home; or if you give your one and only shirt to someone in need without knowing if you'll have another to clothe yourself? This world will be won with this kind of self-sacrificial love. Name all the believers who have gone down in church history by propagating the Gospel with their millions of dollars................now name the believers who have gone down in church history by forsaking all for the sake of their King and the dying world. In my opinion, one list is much longer than the other.

Money is a tool and I'm gonna need lots of it. I don't want it so I can accumulate things like Rolls Royce's, or million dollar mansions, or $30,000 conference tables, etc etc. I want it to supply the hungry with food, children with places to live and study, prisoners with resources to better their life, the sick with medicine, and the world with the Gospel. Storing up treasure here on earth means little to me, in the end it amounts to trash.

To be a "blessing" to this world does not mean we make them as materialistic as we have become, it means we give them unconditional love as we have recieved that love from God.

entering into GLORY

Quite a bit is happening the last couple weeks here in St Catharines.

Weekly, Heymans, Colin, Jessica, Jenny and I conduct church services at Scott St Manor. Last week we had our largest attendance yet (16) and the Spirit of God was moving in awesome ways, (check it out -->HERE<--). Sadly though, a couple of days before that service, one of our closest friends at the Manor (James, pictured at right ) suddenly passed away. He was in his mid-forties, and we were lucky enough to have met and spend time with this man whom God was obviously transforming into the image of Jesus. James has now entered into Glory, and although we miss him, we celebrate the fact that he is now in the literal presence of his Savior!

I went for a job interview at SITEL the other day and it appears I will be starting work on Feb 4. So that is pretty cool. It is a call center; which should be fairly amusing.

Yesterday, Jenny and I rented a car and went to TACF to see Bill Johnson (left). It was pretty rockin. Heymans also took a couple people down for the day. On the way back to St Catharines (which is normally an hour long drive) the traffic was AWFUL and it took us a little over 3.5 hrs to get back!!! We totally missed the 2nd weekly session of a Pastoral Care course we're enrolled in in Welland. Anyways, it's all good. We'll get there next week, I hope. And if you are so inclined, pray about Laos with me. Something about it has dropped into my spirit and I want to see if the desire for it increases or not.

January

Already, this year has been most interesting. I have been forced to make choices based on what I feel is most important to me. Decisions, I feel, that are crucial to the development of future aspects of my character, integrity, devotion, etc. The last 2.5 weeks have been a dramatic 'high' and 'low'. It's been great what God has done, but the method in which it's happened has been incredibly hard to participate in. And it's not over yet.

Holy Spirit has been taking us through the New Testament lately, teaching us on the fruit of the Spirit manifested in hardship, trial, suffering, etc. Where has this teaching been? To the 1st World church, Acts 14:22 is as close to a 4-letter word as you can get. Yet there are many such passages in the writings of the New Testament. I have seen the fruit of such trial, and the result is beautiful. Romans 5:3-5, James 1:2-4, 1Peter 1:6-7, etc etc etc all spell it out quite convincingly. Jesus did not come to bring us out of the world, but so that we would overcome the world.

Other than all that, on tuesday I started an 8 week/session Pastoral Care course in Welland at the hospital there. Rev Bob Bond is leading it and if the 1st class was any indication of how this course will be, than it's gonna be pretty awesome. The course will help develop ministerial skills in the area of hospital/nursing home ministry. And it only costs $40! Sweet!

And everyone pray for a speedy recovery for Jenny. She's still far from being 100%. We both need to be working and saving up money for Africa this summer.