I don’t pretend to be fervent or righteous.  I am a sinful man like the next guy.  However, I have a story for you this morning.

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!

This is a big day.  Tonight Pastor Philip and I attend Cedar Grove Baptist’s Annual General Meeting.  This is a big deal for a few reasons, but I will explain.

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!

I have never spend so much of a day in prayer as I have today.  And that has been a very good thing.

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.

This weekend our church had to deal with its first incidence of church discipline.  As a part of the elder team, I have been in on the meetings and interviews and entreaties to change that have preceded it until there was no other choice.  It is heart-rending since I have been a good friend and accountability partner with the man for about 5 years.

I knew there was going to be an emotional cost to leadership but these last few days have really shown me how much that weighs.  On top of it all I also had to finish a ministry outreach on Saturday, then rush out to New Westminster for the funeral of a couple in my small group’s grandmother who had passed.  Again, more emotional weight.

I lost sleep over it, and that is bizarre for me, a guy who can usually turn off like a light switch.

I think it was doubly difficult because my wife left town to visit her family on that Saturday morning too, so I did not have her with me to lean on emotionally.

By Sunday night I felt so burdened that I couldn’t even think about going to bed.  I took the dog out for a walk in a miserable windy rainstorm.  I didn’t even want an umbrella.  I just wanted the water to soak my head and wash away the heaviness in my heart and mind.  At the end of the walk I was reciting Psalm 23 to myself, and when I got to the verse, “he anoints my head with oil;  my cup overflows,” A particularly cold drop of rain hit me right in the forehead, and it felt like that was God’s anointing… and it began to feel better.

The dog enjoyed the walk.  I enjoyed my little encounter with my compassionate shepherd.

If there is one thing that consistently happens when you step out in faith and begin to serve God, it’s divine appointments.

I think back on the Yard Teams I led in June, and how one of the last homes we approached was a couple’s home – they were renting and the landlord had just a couple days before advised them that if they didn’t immediately clean up the yard they would be evicted.

They had a lawnmower, but it was broken, and both of them were working so they had not had time to deal with the problem.

Then we showed up.

Flash forward to yesterday. I am going out by myself, to canvas about 8 square blocks of North Delta to line up some yards for my team, rained out last weekend, to serve. After getting a lot of no answers (whether they were home or not I may never know) and a few “no” answers, I was wondering if I would be able to line up enough homes for the teams. I had already caught myself trying to do this on my own strength – the first house I went up to I sounded (to my own ears) like a blithering idiot and was not at all surprised they turned me down. I then spent the next hundred feet or so walking to the next house praying about Moses. See, I remember from Phil’s Exodus series (check out gethope.ca to listen to it) that when God spoke to Moses out ofthe burning bush, he wanted Moses to go alone to Pharoah. Moses felt that he had a speech problem and couldn’t communicate effectively as God’s messenger – not realizing that when the Lord of the Universe says “do it” he is going to make sure it goes the way he wants it! When God allowed Aaron to accompany Moses, it was a concession, but God’s desire was that Moses would allow his God to be his strength.

So, my conclusion was that God wanted me to go in my own strength, and allow him to speak through me. So I prayed that God would give me the words even though I knew in my own words I would screw it up.

Of course the next house said yes.

Ok, done with that prayer digression.

Back on topic. Divine appointments. So I go up the block and go out to the main road, 112th. I find a house halfway down that looks a little shaggy so I knock. This time I have been praying. I was worried about how I would present, and how I would overcome objections – all the typical sales stuff. Then this older East Indian lady opens the door and just says yes. I am like, that was too easy.

We come back an hour later and her husband comes out, with a friend of his. His friend is a Christian, from Edmonton, who goes to a church called “New Hope Community Church” – almost the same name as ours. They tell me the story – the couple had just moved to this house a few weeks before. Their old house had a landlord who took care of the yard. They had no equipment at all, and had only been in Canada for 5 years so this whole yard thing was completely new to them. He asked me for advice on what kind of lawnmower to buy. We got to talking some more and he had been to church while in school in Bombay. He was very interested in why we were doing this. I shared with him that Jesus had done so much for me in my life, I felt it was important to show my love for him by serving and loving the people that Jesus loves. What an opportunity! They asked me for more information on where and when we met as a church and said they would be out to church on Sunday! What an amazing time!

You just gotta do it. God takes care of the rest.

• Speaking blessing to someone in prayer is immensely powerful.  My wife blew me away on Monday night with that one.
• Repentance works.  I laid my bad attitude at work before the Lord in prayer this morning as I drove.  I’ve been incredibly, illogically upbeat ever since.
• Sometimes, even when you think the worst of someone, they really do follow through.
• I can’t believe I am going to have six sons!  I mean, it really is beyond belief!
• I need to be more deliberate about connecting with all the men in my community group.
• I need to initiate the next step with my neighbours.

How about you?

• What have you learned from God this week so far?
• What blessing do you have, when you think about it, is unbelievable?
• What have you been letting slide?
• What do you need to initiate?

You can answer in the comments if you want, or not, but if you just take these questions and think about them, and act, you will be blessed.

I’ll just say this out loud: we’re under seige, leading up to our trip.

It’s becoming crystal clear that we are being attacked on multiple fronts, with discouragement and fear.  It seems like for the last week, all the way through this week, every day has brought a fresh load of discouraging news.  We don’t expect life to be wine and roses, but we could use some extra prayer if you read this.

The latest challenges have been financial.  Being in a sales job, this recessionary period had already caused us to batten down the hatches.  January was actually pretty good – by the grace of God I came in #1 in my department in sales.  However, after a good month always follows a bad month as larger sales equal larger cancellations.  With larger cancellations and less sales, it made February quite poor.  Still, we had hope because my manager had told us her was working on a new compensation structure that would be more stable for us.

Turns out management missed the deadline for our March paydays by a couple of days.  By the time they told us about the new plan, it was too late to see any benefit.  But that was okay, they said, because they were making it retroactive to January.

They had signed off on it, we signed off on it, it was done.

Then yesterday came.  Head office re-read what they already approved and retracted the retroactive bonus.

Now, we’re a week away, and we are very stretched.  Again, we’d covet your prayers right now.

UPDATE:

Thank you for your prayers!  God went to work almost immediately!   My managers managed to arrange for most of the original offer to happen, and they also made it possible that we could get that money immediately instead of waiting for the end of the month.  Then, on the same day, I was assured by the manager of Human Resources that I would be reimbursed for my last seminary course before we left for Alberta as well!  God is so good, and we are grateful for your prayers!

Sorry about the quiet spell. Came down with a bad flu last Friday, so that kind of chewed up a lot of time. Before that, I started a project at work which ate up 3 days, so that accounts for about a week of silence.

Not a lot of new to report on tangible developments. I have a meeting with Cam Roxburgh in early March, which is exciting. He is the director of Forge Canada, a church planting support network, and also in leadership with Southside Community Church, a multicampus church spanning a number of communities in Greater Vancouver. Hoping to pick his brain on a number of levels.

The whole family has been sick for about a week.  Cheryl is now down with bronchitis which has taken the wind out of her so much she is basically on bedrest.  We have a friend coming over to help her today, keep tabs on the boys.  So pray for her health to be restored.

Also, pray for my work.  We are still expecting some kind of new compensation plan, but I have been working on a side project on my own initiative, and should God bless it, it could result in a new direction for my career at my company – one that may even be portable!

Yesterday we sent out our first prayer network newsletter.  A very exciting moment for us.  I wanted to make sure we got it out the door to give our team a chance to get to know a little more about our vision for the future and begin to enlist their prayers before our scouting trip in March.  We will get a chance to write one more newsletter in early March, and talk a little more about plans before we go.

Prayer support is critical to any church planting enterprise.  We are very serious about having as large a group of Christians asking God on our behalf for his work to be done through us.  We will be needing all kinds of help, but if prayer warriors are behind us, we can be sure that God will provide the rest.  It is emboldening when you know that a legion of saints is behind you.

If you wish to join our prayer network, please fill out your email address in the little jobby on the right.  We also have a more interactive prayer tracker in Kindle – check out the little link on the right that says “Prayer 2.0″.

It’s getting to that time, where we need to start thinking about accumulating supporters.

So if you read this blog, you may well be one of them.

Heh.  Don’t worry.  We aren’t asking for money (yet!)  At this stage, we would like to build a base of prayer support.  If there is one thing to be learned from Philip and Beth’s experience with Community of Hope, it is that prayer support is one of your most important weapons.

Given the next big thing on our agenda will be a scouting trip to Alberta in March, now would be a great time to get prayer warriors interceding for us.  We will have a very significant decision to make in looking at a target community, culture, and people.  We will need wisdom and discernment, and we will also be begging God to make our sight clear and unclouded by our own selfish preferences.   We will also need prayer to direct us to those who we need to talk to locally, or even those who God wants to talk to us.  There are so many things that could come out of this trip, but we desire God’s handiwork to be all over it, and that takes prayer.

To that end, we are now compiling a list of people who would like to receive an emailed monthly newsletter updating them on our journey, and outlining our current prayer needs.  I have a number of people on a list now, but I haven’t actually asked them if they’d like to receive this prayer newsletter.  So, to that end, I want to ask all of our readers here if they would like to sign up to receive it.  If you come here and read this blog, then you already have some interest in our endeavours.  All we are asking for is that you consider committing to praying for us – daily, weekly, as often as you can, with a focus on our current needs.  If you would like to receive this newsletter, please sign up by dropping your email in this handy-dandy newsletter signup below.  Note, this is different from the email sign up on the right.  That one is to have the blog posts emailed to you instead of having to surf here on the internet.

Sign up for our Email Newsletter

Issue 1 will be emailed in early February, and every month after that.  Thanks again, and God bless you for your interest!