Of course, life does not slow down just because we are trying to get our house on the market.  We’re also trying to sell our minivan which is all that is standing in the way of initiating construction on our new house in Medicine Hat.  We need to sell it to get the downpayment for the land.  The mortgage on the home will be set up with a “completion mortgage” which does not require full downpayment or initiating payments until the home is complete.

God has moved and I have lined up a speaking engagement at a local nursing home.  I will be going weekly by the end of this month into the home and giving a short devotional message, leading a hymn sing and beginning a Thursdays pastoral ministry.  We plan to transition another leader in when I move but in the meantime it will give valuable speaking and message experience, to say nothing of the pastoral care aspects which I am looking forward to.  God is good!

At the same time, Philip is heading out of town to the men’s retreat at Ripon, CA Grace Brethren Church and has asked me to speak this weekend.  So on top of my usual lesson preparation for my Church History class I am teaching Sunday nights, I will be preaching two messages this weekend.  And I only have one office day left this week!  Yeesh!

Please pray that the van sells, the home is prepared, and that I am able to hear from God on the message I am to deliver.  Pray also for the people I will be ministering to at the care home.

But the most interesting news and the most God-filled is we are now taking registrations for the Great Canadian Adventure – Medicine Hat!  I already have 10 people from our church saying they are 100% on board for June 13-19, as well as another 7 people from places like Lethbridge AB, Washington DC, Mississauga ON, Ashland OH, and Long Beach CA!  If you would like to register to come, we have an early bird discount of $25 against conference and rooming costs if you register before April 1!

Download the form for individual registration. You will need this even if you are coming with a group!

Download the form for group registration.

If you would like to download an insert for your church bulletin, hop on over to the Great Canadian Adventure website!  You might be surprised who in your church may be interested in joining you in building the foundation for a brand new church in Medicine Hat, Alberta!

Last week I found myself thinking about some of the details of what we need to do and one of them was the question of employment.  I have talked on here before about tentmaking in real estate, but I hadn’t taken any steps towards it.  I decided to make a list of brokers and make some phone calls – at least to introduce myself and get a feel for where the offices are at in terms of need.  As I made the calls it occurred to me I might be able to meet one or two when I go out there.

The day before I left, I found out my road trip partner would not be able to come.  At first I was a little disappointed because I was really looking forward to hearing his story and heart, and showing him personally the city that was calling us.  But now I knew why God stirred me up to call some brokers – to have a contingency plan.

I got to town a little after lunch, and made two calls – one to GMAC and one to Century 21.   I had a short meeting with Lorne, manager at Century 21, then had to rush off for a meeting with Glen at GMAC.  Both companies have a lot to offer and are supportive of helping me get a start.

But what blew me away was Lorne.  I met with him again in the evening, and I was amazed by his heart – he is an elder at his church, he has an identical philosophy to me with respect to work and its priority, and is very excited about my ideas with regards to church planting and tentmaking and supporting the development of church planting interns.

Oh, I haven’t mentioned this on here before.  Basically, what I mean by that is part of Grace Brethren Canada’s vision is to create missional businesses to support further church planting.  Partly to fund the church plants, but also to employ church planting interns in roles that can support themselves while dedicating themselves to ministry – potentially working 1/2 to 3/4 time but getting paid for full time, so that they can dedicate the other part of their work week to church work and gaining experience to plant on their own.  My idea is that if my real estate business takes off it will require more administration – a simple desk job that does not require large amounts of training to do.  But also, if I am deliberate about it, I can even work on a property management side, which has two benefits.  First, it is a more consistent income than sales so it can support people with certainty.  Second, it will require people with general handyman skills – again, a role that is lower time and skill demand so almost tailor-made for a church planter-in-training!

But back to the meetings.  Coming away from my time, I am so amazed at how God orchestrates all things for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).  He has used this trip that I was even questioning on the way out – I was thinking why am I spending $350 in food, hotel and gas expenses when kennelling might have been only a little more?  It’s because God wanted me here to make some significant connections that will move everything forward.  I have been affirmed in the wisdom of my plans, encouraged in seeking God, and blessed with someone who knows the city and its people and has connections that can help with all kinds of aspects – from potential support to arranging mortgages to creating a career.  What a mighty God we serve!

We are working hard at getting out house ready to put on the market. We need to have it listed so that it can be sold for a move in May. It seems unbelievable that we will be leaving in just a few months! The other day, Shane started the task of clearing out our garage. He borrowed a trailer from a friend at church and piled it full, and our van full. There is still more that has to go out. I went through our clothes and our children’s clothes and managed to put together 9 garbage bags full of items to donate. I didn’t even get all the laundry caught up or go through out 5 year old’s dresser (which has the most clothes out of anyone in the house). We’ve minimized toys in the house by getting rid of the Happy Meal toys, broken toys and those that they have lost interest in. There is much less to manage and keep clean now.

I love to paint and there is plenty of that still needing to be done. What I love more than painting, is having someone to paint with. I’ve been so happy and thankful to have someone come over the past few days to paint with. We almost have the upstairs hallway finished. I risked my life earlier painting along the edge of the wall over the stairwell but I never finished. I have to rig a board between two ladders to reach the remaining parts of the wall. It will be very nice to have it finished! We are also working on painting all the baseboards and door frames. I don’t think they have been painted in 20 years and they have been scuffed and chipped. It will be very nice to give them a fresh coat.

Our dog will be leaving to visit family in Alberta soon. We will miss her but she will have a blast out there. We haven’t figured out what to do with the cats yet. They will need to find a place to stay while we sell…

It is amazing how people have volunteered to help either financially or by physical labor. If it wasn’t for them, I don’t think we could get this done in the time frame that we need it done in. I am so thankful!

I hope to post pictures as we go along so you can see what we are up to at our house. We’re not going to want to leave it when it is all done.

On Sunday we made a public appeal to our church for help – we are 2 weeks away from our self-imposed deadline for listing our house for sale.  Yes, it’s that close already!  We have lots to do to prepare our home, and because of the financial step back we took to give ourselves opportunity to do fulltime ministry, we do not have the cash to do all the repairs we need to, to maximize the value in the home.

So we asked for help in terms of labour, and also in terms of supporting specific needs financially.  We had several people step forward that morning offering their hands and that was a blessing.  We rejoice for the people of Community of Hope who love to give of their hands with gladness.

But we didn’t hear any expressions of help in terms of money.  That was a little discouraging at first, but having come this far, I can’t not trust God to come through.

So a few weeks ago God began to disturb me to pray more – more timewise and also more energywise.  It was that word, fervency that was lacking, the Lord seemed to be telling me.  So that day I got down on my knees and prayed.  It was good – that day was really blessed – I spent so much time in prayer that day (even apart from that time on my knees) and God encouraged my heart – ever just have that feeling that you are “filled with the Spirit”?  That was how I felt that day – like I was in sync with God.  It was very cool.

That brings us to today.  I felt God prompting me to return to my knees again, but I kind of put it off for a bit. Then, as I was doing my usual routines on the internets, I stumbled into sin.  I could pretend it was an accident, but choices were necessary to get there.  After that happened, I knew I needed to get back where he wanted me in the first place.  I prayed and asked for forgiveness for that sin, and asked him to separate me from that sin – as far as the east is from the west.  Then I began to bring our needs to him, and as I was praying for more people to rise up to help, I was prompted to pray for two people in particular, by name.  I did so – not normally praying that way it seemed weird.

As I stood up from the floor the phone rang.  It was one of the men I had prayed for!  What’s more, he was calling to say that he would take care of two of the items that needed financial support to complete!  I praised God on the phone with him and told him he was a direct, immediate answer to prayer.  So I am sitting here a little in awe of my God who loves me so much that he has leaped to my aid even as I prayed.

Be encouraged.  Prayer works, but take a lesson from me.  You need to do your part -

1.  Seek to do God’s will,

2.  Listen for His voice and obey it when you hear it,

3.  Confess your sins that you may be righteous before Him,

4.  And most importantly, PRAY and ASK!

Last month I wrote an 8 hour exam with around 80 questions, all short answer.  They were all based upon theological concepts with one five question set of historical questions.  The only resource  I was permitted to use during the exam was an unmarked Bible.  I did not finish  - three questions were not even answered.

Yesterday was the second part.  I had to sit in front of a panel of 5 pastors who then asked me questions based upon my answers, to expand on answers they deemed incomplete and demonstrate my ability to communicate both orally and in written form my theology.

They told me before they began that 50% of those who sit the exam are asked to retake it later after further study.

I passed.

This gives me a license to practice as a minister of the Grace Brethren Fellowship.  Once my church signs off on it, anyway.  It is a huge step.  They do have one further step – Ordination happens after practicing as a pastor for 3 years.  So I’ll come back to this in 3 years.  I am told that Ordination is less about what you know and more about “what would you do if…”

So, now I have passed church planter’s assessment, and now I have passed licensure.  I have formally met the standards that were asked of me to become a church planter for the Grace Brethren.  Its funny, but I don’t feel much relief.  I think that actually being a pastor is much more spiritually, intellectually, and emotionally demanding than the tests I have passed.  God holds me to a much higher standard than any exam.  I don’t feel worthy of the calling He has given me, but lucky for me, He will accomplish His will no matter how inadequate I am.  And that gives me a great deal of comfort, more than meeting human standards.

Cheers.

Before Cheryl and I embarked on this journey towards church planting, we were just a nice couple with three kids attending a church of 1200-1500 people.  A typical churchgoing family in many ways – looking to be spiritually fed, moderately involved, comfortable where we were on the path of the typical Canadian family.   We could look to the future and see our children growing up in the church, attending youth group, going to Bible College maybe, taking the odd vacation to Disneyland, doing our 20th wedding anniversary on Kauai’i where we were married.  Dreaming of a boat and a cabin, maybe near Jasper or Banff was not out of reach.  We led a small group and Cheryl served on the worship team with joy.

Two things changed all that.   The first was after returning from a trip to a Mexican all-inclusive, we both felt burdened by the poverty we saw there, in a place where we were supposed to be just relaxing.  We decided the next time we were able to go on a trip like this, we would try to combine it with a mission trip of some type.  That opportunity came in the winter of 2005.  Pastor Kevin Cavanaugh had just returned from a vision trip to Rwanda and was planning to send 12 people on what was hoped to be the first of many trips to Rwanda to aid in the many needs that are present in this rebuilding nation.  It was at this time that we felt ready to go on a trip and were looking around for an opportunity.  The Missions Pastor, Paul Kostamo, suggested we apply to go on the 3 week trip they had planned for June 2006.  We did, and were amazed that we were one of only two couples selected.  We threw ourselves into preparations for this trip.

June came and went, and we returned at the beginning of July, trying to digest all that had happened.  After a couple of weeks we began to sense that God wanted more from us than just attending church.  At the same time, another factor entered into the picture: a couple of church planters named Philip and Beth Bryant.

They had journeyed all the way from Ontario on a dream of seeing churches start all across Canada.  They were part of a team that had been commissioned in 1997 to start a church planting movement.  They had begun two works in the Toronto area, but felt led to move to the West Coast and initiate a church here.  But first, they had to get settled, and Pastor Kevin had invited them to sojourn here, at Cedar Grove for a year.  When we first connected with them, we didn’t even know what church planting was.  We were comfortable here – Cedar Grove was home.  God didn’t want us to leave a place where we were seeing God work through us and others, did he?

God’s ways are not our ways, lucky for us!  His ways are better, always.  By November, God brought us to a place of open hearts, and we had dinner with the Bryants to find out more about their vision for a new church.  That night we joined the nascent core of Community of Hope.  That night we began a journey that would take us beyond comfort zones (we didn’t just get out of ours, we lost ours!  Is it possible to even get comfortable when there is always another challenge ahead?)  At first we thought we would be just helping out, then it became clear that God wanted to grow us as leaders… then we reached a place where risk entered in.  What if WE were to be the next church planters?  We already had a dream to move to Alberta where I grew up.  What if WE were to plant that church?

Now, we come to this annual general meeting.  It is funny because we still recall the AGM we attended in 2006, when we sat down at a table, and I glanced around, to look at the familiar people, and noticed Philip, looking at us and grinning and waving, and we didn’t even know him!  I turned to Cheryl and said, “Oh no.  You’ll never guess who’s staring at us again!”  She glanced and he was still there. Philip doesn’t remember that moment, but it was then that I determined to find out what the heck a church plant was, and why it seemed that the Holy Spirit was causing us to notice this church planting couple over and over again.

Now, we come back, to thank Cedar Grove for the love and support and opportunity to grow and thrive they gave us.  They provided the fertile garden we began to blossom in and prepared us for replanting in the wilds, where we could bear fruit for God.  We come back to also invite others to continue this journey with us, by praying with us, loving us and supporting us in any way they feel led.

Thank you, Cedar Grove!

One thing I have come to realize that the more seriously you take your life in ministry the more prayer is needed.  And not just that you need more people praying for you, but you have more things to pray about.  Reliance on God grows, or it needs to grow with every step of spiritual maturity you take.  This is because with every step you take in spiritual maturity, the weight of responsibility grows and the greater will be the accounting for what you have done, or not done.  I think of Jesus’ story about the stewards, and the ones who were faithful were given more, but the ones who were not as faithful, even what they had was taken from them (Luke 19:11-27).

We have been working on developing a more consistent time to pray together, Cheryl and I.  It seems there is always something that gets in the way.  This morning, it was our 2 year old, Dannan, with the runs, tramping it all over the house.  We did manage to get through a bit of prayer time, but that sure was cause to be interrupted!

Then, once I got to work, I just felt the weight of that reality land on me.  We need protection from distractions to be consistent coming to God in prayer.  I need to be praying about praying!  How strange is that?  I determined to take time this morning and get on my knees.  My flesh was telling me I was wasting precious office time that I could use for my class I am teaching or a myriad of other things, but God is trustworthy and he wants more of me.   I prayed for my wife, and our unity; I prayed for my kids; I prayed for the core team we are trusting God for (that is beginning to form, by the way!  Keep praying!); I prayed for diligence in what I need to do; to be a better father; to be a better husband; it went on and on and in some cases seemed circular.  But it was healthy.

Then, today being Wednesday, Pastor Philip, Jason and I headed over to Cedar Grove for the Surrey Pastor’s Network prayer meeting.  The worship time was very special, I think in large part because when you spend good amounts of time in prayer, God can’t help but bring you onto his wavelength, as it were.  And when you are in alignment with God, worship becomes a truly awe-inspiring experience.  I just became overwhelmed with His majesty, to the point that as worship was ending, all I could do was repent of my own sinfulness, echoing the words of the prophet Isaiah,

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.  Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.  And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

I was just made aware of how much of what pained me was my own doing in one way or another.  I knew it but I didn’t… own it if you know what I mean.  And as we entered into prayer for each other, I found myself praying for things that I had forgotten in the morning, which nonetheless desperately needed prayer.

I cannot complain.  It has been good for my soul.  But I just thought I would share about another phase of God working on the project called Oliver Shane Edwards.

It certainly is inspiring but for some reason it was another verse that God drew me to this morning.  In verse 13, Joshua writes, “So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.”

It feels to me like what we’re being called to in Medicine Hat is like this.  We are going to a city we did not build and a land on which we did not toil, and we will live there and reap a harvest that we did not plant.

That kind of sounds like a negative, but in reality it is a testimony of the plan of God.  We are following his lead to a land we are certain he wants us in.  It is a land which he has already prepared before us.  It is a land where he has been working for years in people’s hearts, building a thirst and a hunger for himself in them, and we are coming to reap that harvest.  It is a testimony that God is going to build this church, just like he built the nation of Israel.

That is a very comforting thought.

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.

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.

We had just returned from our Christmas trip to Alberta a few days prior and I returned 2 days before from another trip which took me to the youth’s Snocamp as a camp counselor. I was exhausted but life goes on and Shane was at the church offices for the day and I was home with the kids. It was the same routine as always. The only thing different was that it was also the first day of the newest Masters course I am taking this semester. My courses are online so I have the luxury of sitting on my living room couch with my laptop while I correspond with my classmates.

It was around noon and I had just hit send after finishing my introduction for the course and submitted it to the website when I heard a knock at my door. Our dog was excited that we had a visitor and I had to wrestle her into her kennel and while doing so there was a second knock that was louder than the first. Outside my door was a woman on her cellphone obviously, distraught. When I answered it she quickly informed me that she was the daughter of our elderly neighbor next door and she had just come to check on him and found him collapsed on the hallway floor and she was unable to turn him over after being directed by the 911 operator to do so.

Whenever someone comes to the door, the kids like to come and see who it is and so I turned and saw Dylan, our oldest, standing in our stairwell and Ivery quickly told him he was incharge of his brothers and that I was going next door. While running next door, his daughter told me he was blue and I call to her asking where he was found so I didn’t waste time running to the wrong part of the house. As I swung open the front door I could clearly see him laying on the hallway floor about 15 feet from the front door.

What happened next is still a blur. My nursing training kicking in before my brain did. I remember calling his name as I rushed beside him, while getting down on the floor beside him. I can remember my attempts to turn him over and then realizing that he was already gone and had been gone for several hours. I also remember hearing his daughter as she was desperate for help for her father. I determined that there as nothing I could do and that CPR would be of no use in this situation. I was then faced with the delimma of communicating this information to the 911 operator and calmly asked his daughter to pass me the cellphone so I could speak with the operator directly. As I type this, I still feel the weight of that moment. I knew that me telling that as I was telling the operator that he has been “gone for some time” that the daughter was standing right there listening to every word I was saying and that every time I spoke, I took away whatever hope she had of seeing her dad alive again.

When the 911 operator and I ended the call I felt terrible.  In that moment, his daughter knew it was over. I stood up and walked over to her. I just held her while she cried and cried. I helped her into the living room and had her sit on the couch and continued to comfort her while she began phoning her family. I had never met my neighbor’s family before and here I was sitting with his daughter while she went through one of the most difficult moments of her life – walking in on her father laying dead on the floor.

In a very short amount of time, I could hear the sirens as the ambulances came down the street. I left the daughter on the couch while I went out and flagged down the ambulance to the correct house and then informed the paramedics about the situation before they entered the home. They agreed with me that there was nothing that could have been done and came over to his daughter to inform her that he had been gone for several hours and that the police would have to come to the home as part of a sudden death investigation, even though it was clear it was death by natural causes.

And so began a series of interviews for his daughter as they found out about his medical history and when he was last seen. I quickly went back and forth to my home a couple of times to check on the boys and at one point decided I should probably get some shoes on as my socks were getting very wet from running across the soaking went lawn. The adrenaline had kept me from thinking about myself for a bit. It wasn’t until her brother arrived that I decided it was time for me to leave. I knew my role was over and it was time to let them grieve as a family. I gave her my contact information before I left and made sure she knew we would keep an eye on the house for them as they all live a distance away.

As you can imagine, I have been in a daze from it. I’ve questioned my actions and reactions, even though they were spot on. I have worried about every elderly man I see in the store and wonder if I will have to respond to another emergency. I have beaten myself up over this situation, but for what? I did everything right and when I disect how I did, I did brilliantly. I was thanked by every police officer and paramedic that responded to the scene. I was told that most first responders leave right away when the paramedics arrive but I stayed behind with the daughter and they were impressed with that. I’ve had good days and bad days. I feel like I’m finally on the other side and I’m able to move forward, although my mind does automatically go back to that day whenever I pick up my textbook for my course.

Today, I had an ah ha moment! I had been, up to this point, thinking about what I did in that moment of crisis rather than at the big picture. I was disappointed/frustrated/angry that I wasn’t able to do anything to help my neighbor but what was the lasting impact of my actions that day?

1. My children were able to see me go and help someone. Although they remained at home, they know now that the man next door died and that I had gone over to help.

2. The emergency workers were able to see a Christian respond to an emergency. I didn’t leave until she had family with her. We even talked about her father being a Christian infront of the paramedics and officers. What a great opportunity to share with them and for his daughter to reflect on where her father is now.

3. While going to check on my kids, I ended up having to do a little crowd control with the neighbors. They shared with me their memories of him and requested I pass on their contact information to the family, which I did. I was thankful for the opportunity to speak with our otherwise private neighbors. They will remember I was there for the family and I pray that this will open up more opportunities to talk with them.

4. We were invited to his funeral, which we attended. While there, I reconnected with a pastor I hadn’t seen in 18 years – and he remembered me! We learned more about our neighbor and his family. He was an amazing man of God. I know his family appreciated us coming and helping them celebrate the life of their father. They can see that we continue to care even after the crisis is over.

5. I surprised myself. I can remember that as I ran next door I was telling myself that it is time to use all the CPR training I have done over the years. When I actually got in there and discovered it wasn’t necessary, I was surprised how quickly I came to that conclusion when I don’t work in an area of nursing where you see people after they have passed away. “Somehow” I knew what I was facing and made the right judgment calls. I was also given the calm that I needed in order to be in the right state of mind to calm his daughter and give her the comfort that she needed. I remember talking slowly and calmly the entire time rather than being rushed and excited as a response.

6. I learned that I wasn’t alone in that moment and after. Like I said before, I wrestled with this day for a bit but one thing I know for certain is I’ve been carried this whole time. My world felt very dark since this happened but no matter how heavy or dark everything felt, I always saw a hope and a light. I can’t imagine having to process all of this without Him helping me through.

And so, the big picture for me is seeing how God had this all play out. It was time for my 86 year old neighbor to go home. He led the daughter to my house so a Christian could be in the home with his daughter during this time. He knew the neighbors would come by at the exact moment I would check on the children. I obeyed when I felt prompted to talk to my neighbor’s daughter about her father’s face and watched as her eyes lit up talking about him and his walk. He knew the emergency workers would be listening. There was much more happening than my neighbor dying. It was an opportunity to bless people and show Christ’s love.

Our boys have been running next door to gather the newspaper from the neighbor’s doorstep. What a great way for them to get involved and another way for the neighbors to see us continuing to care as they watch our boys run across the lawn collecting the paper.

Anyways, that’s been my world. It may seem crazy but when you really look at it, God has been in control the whole time.