God continues to provide us with opportunity to grow, but in terms of direct preparation, not much is happening right now with all the other events swirling around us.

We are beginning the wrap-up of our Awana year and that has been an incredible experience.  I think I can safely say that both of us have grown to love the program itself and how it teaches our kids key spiritual disciplines alongside building a foundation for their faith and heart for evangelism.  I fully expect to see great things next year with all our leaders having a year under their belts and feeling comfortable, and kids returning understanding what is being asked of them, and even more intently reaching out to their friends and neighbours.  Shane Schneider’s leadership has grown so much in the last year, and we think he and his wife Laurie will take Awana to a whole other place next year.

Last Monday I had the opportunity to meet with a young man named Seth (follow the link to his Facebook group), who has been burdened with a heart for church planting.  He is currently touring Canada, connecting with churches and organizations who are seeing God move in this fashion, and seeking where God would have him serve.  We are praying for him to find his place (although it would be REALLY cool if he found his way back to us to join our team!)

Philip has had me organizing some things related to he Great Canadian Adventure here in Surrey.  We will be having fifty people from two churches in the USA come up in two short weeks from now, for a week of service and love on our community.  I have been working on arranging a couple of Senior’s Appreciation events at nursing homes, and I will also be organizing the service teams to do yardwork in a couple of target neighbourhoods.  There is much much more in store for that week.  But this is all run-up for me, because once that is over with, I will be working on plans for the 2010 Great Canadian Adventure, to Medicine Hat!  Stay tuned for more on that, and how you can join us for a week of foundation-building in Medicine Hat!

I’ve been truly blessed with my service in our Discovery class on Sunday mornings.  I am taking a family through a study of the Gospel of John and have been so excited to watch their excitement to learn about Jesus and the Bible and what it means to follow Christ.  We had them over for a barbeque on Thursday night, and found out that she is a fantastic singer and he play guitar!  They may have thought we were joking about guitar lessons but we’re pretty serious!  Last Sunday we were talking about what baptism looks like at our church, and I told them about the baptistry at Sunshine Ridge we have used the last couple of times.  They were thinking something much more literal, and told me they wanted to be baptized in the ocean!  Given our leanings toward practicing as closely to New Testament as possible, I think they will fit right in with us!

So now you are pretty close to up-to-date.  We will have our next newsletter out in a few days so stay tuned, and please keep us in your prayers!