One of my intents with this blog was to talk about the various activities and things we are experiencing as God prepares us to plant a church.  I have dropped the ball on more of those than I wished to.   But here is today’s update.

Part of the challenge Pastor Philip has laid on me back in September was to plan an outreach activity for the church to participate in every month.  It was difficult in the fall with so much going on but I led a yard team in September and a leaf-raking team at the beginning of November.  All through that time I was thinking about how great it would be to do a hot drink distribution at a soccer field once the rain and the cold set in.

I got my chance today.  It feels right now like the most successful outreach I have led so far.  First, we had a massive turnout – I had 13 people turn out at 8:30am on a Saturday.  That was tremendous.  Second, I was tipped by one of my team members about asking Starbucks for containers that we could use for drink distribution, but it turned out that they not only supplied the containers requested, but they also gave us coffee and a coffee backpack!

Two families stepped up and brewed the coffee and hot chocolate for us.   We picked up the supplies, set up a cover, and set to work!  We set up adjacent to an artificial turf field in North Delta, and the temperature was hovering around 7 or 8 degrees Celsius (40-45 Fahrenheit) with a misting rain.  Over 2 hours we served close to 160 cups of hot chocolate and coffee.  We had a lot of encouraging and positive feedback and several people stopped to ask us details on our church.

I was most blessed by the enthusiasm and the smoothness with which we operated.  They made it easy for me to feel comfortable in leadership.  What a blessing they were!

I learned a lot about what is possible when you step out in faith.  I learned that Starbucks has coffee backpacks that hardly ever get used!  We will be using them again!  I also learned that people are pretty open at such spaces when they can see we are serving them without asking anything in return.  All profitable things to know.

Isn’t it funny how you go through your day with a plan in your head, expecting your day to go one when and then you’re thrown a curveball and your day heads in a completely different direction? That was my life recently. Let me take you back to January 4th….

Just a warning – This post is about responding to an emergency and death is involved. I just want you to be prepared for what you’re about to read. I am not going to go into detail but still.

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January is very busy.  Multitasking is something else, but just to make it more interesting, God keeps tossing us an extra ball to juggle.

Riding the backburner is an outreach project at the end of the month – but it needs some loving, so I need to make some space to promote that.

Our community exercise, our “Carnival of Games” is fast approaching.  Next week will be all about prep for that.  We need to make a list of all the “booths” we are making and get status updates on where each of those are at.  At least the location is taken care of.

I wrote my licensure exam last Friday – that was intense!  8 hours, with only an unmarked Bible as reference.  I left a couple blank, but I can make up for those during the oral examination next month.  The district reviews my answers then orally quizzes me on the areas they want to see more strength in.  I’ll need prayer for that!

Another cold virus  has landed, and we’re working hard to not let that immobilize us.

Travelling to the Southwest District Focus Retreat will be an interesting opportunity.  We will hopefully have new business cards for our church plant and prayer cards to begin to raise awareness in the churches of Callifornia and area about what we are hoping to do in Medicine Hat.  We are praying that a church or two will see us as a mission they want to support.

I am teaching a course on church history and also another round on the Gospel of John with a couple of new believers.  These will be important challenges as I get to exercise my education in one area and gain more mastery over leading people through the Gospel.

We are also working on a regular opportunity to preach – perhaps at a senior’s home or even perhaps at the YVR chapel!  That would be an interesting venue.

Cheryl has picked up another course at Athabasca University to finish her Master’s in Nursing.  Only two more to go after this one!

Please continue to pray for us.  We would not be able to manage all these things without your support.  Thanks!

I thought I would throw on the blog an archive of all our e-newsletters.  They have been a little more detailed than the blog has in the last 6 months, so for those of you who would enjoy a retrospective of the last year of our journey in 10 instalments, read on!