this is my 100th post on cole's notes and i am so happy that it is one telling you all great news. this actually happened last week but due to technical problems (ie. computer viruses) i am only now able to post that i have found a house to move into for the fall. i wasn't looking very long but it seemed so drawn out because there were just so few places that fit what we were looking for in a house. patience paid off, however, because the house we got is a palace compared to all the other tiny, underground, caves that i saw (and lived in for the last 2 years). finding nice student housing is always tough because many landlords don't really hold the bar too high in terms of living standards. every room possible is turned into a bedroom, leaving no space for people to actually live in. i've seen 7 bedrooms in the tiniest of houses so to find a house with a big common room, nice kitchen and even an extra bedroom for a guest room/office, i knew that it was the right one. unfortunately, so did another group but after an intense day and a half, Jesus got us this house and the lease has been signed.
it feels really cheesy and somewhat shallow at times to just say Jesus provided us with this house but i know on the deepest level, that's really the only reason we have it. there is so much about this house that i can just see has the 'jesus stamp of approval' on. i could go into the whole story, which i think is very dramatic and covered with divine intervention but due to the number of blank and frankly disappointed faces i have seen after sharing it in person, i feel it won't have as great an impact as it did on me. we all have those stories and moments that we know we have felt Jesus intervene and no one else seems to get it. well, i'm not going to lose sleep over it but just know that God did something good last week.
i will be moving in September so be sure to stop by for a visit. the more the merrier (since we actually have the space to put them...)
Friday, June 29, 2007
Sunday, June 17, 2007
fallen trees and jesus candles...
i'm a little tardy on getting a post-planning weekend post up, but i figured better late than never. the short story is we had a great time. the long story isn't really much longer but to make this more interesting, i will give a little more info about the happenings of the weekend.
the weekend started off with a bit of a panicked phone call telling us that the power had gone out because of a huge storm and no one was sure when it would be coming back. after a quick stop to pick up some candles, like a bunch of troopers, the team was still game to head out to turkey point to make the best of it. when we arrived, there was a very large tree uprooted on the lawn of the cottage we were staying at (which turned out to be the newest tourist local for most weekend visitors) and we heard a wonderful testimony from the neighbour that God had saved both his car and his house from getting crushed. amen.
the first night we spent some good quality time by candle light. it was pretty relaxed as most people were very tired from a week at work. the following morning, some of us woke up to laura's dad cutting up the tree that had fallen the day before and cleaning up the whole mess in like 30 minutes. i was fully impressed. after admiring a job well done, we spent the rest of the day in scripture and forming a vision for our ministry this coming school year. we studied a passage from luke 10 and felt called to be a community of hospitality on campus, extending ourselves in relationship to others and waiting to see how Jesus would work through them.
we got power back around 5:30pm, which was great because the cooler wasn't going to last much longer and i certainly didn't want food poisoning (although it would be a great bonding moment) to be one of our lasting memories for the weekend.
day two was focussed on planning events and talking about what we would need to do to be more hospitable at large group, in small groups and in our homes. while we didn't get too much set in stone, we have some good brainstorming done and creative thoughts on how to welcome new comers in the fall. we were also able to take the afternoon off (for any old school mac IV leadership team people, you may be outraged at this thought because we always said it couldn't be done. well, turns out it can, but only because of all the sacrifices you made, and its awesome) and we headed to the beach.
sunburnt and bonded, we ended on the third day with a commissioning time after our brunch as the staff prayed for each student and the team as a whole, asking for them to be sent out just as Jesus sent out the 72 as we read luke 10. i am anticipating some big things happening in the fall as it seems tat Jesus is at work already in the lives of these students.
it was a great challenge for me to enter into this weekend in a new role, having to take on different responsibilities and really having no idea what the "right" thing to do is. i am continuing to pray that God will just work through it all and that we will consistently acknowledge that it is His ministry and always will be.
the weekend started off with a bit of a panicked phone call telling us that the power had gone out because of a huge storm and no one was sure when it would be coming back. after a quick stop to pick up some candles, like a bunch of troopers, the team was still game to head out to turkey point to make the best of it. when we arrived, there was a very large tree uprooted on the lawn of the cottage we were staying at (which turned out to be the newest tourist local for most weekend visitors) and we heard a wonderful testimony from the neighbour that God had saved both his car and his house from getting crushed. amen.
the first night we spent some good quality time by candle light. it was pretty relaxed as most people were very tired from a week at work. the following morning, some of us woke up to laura's dad cutting up the tree that had fallen the day before and cleaning up the whole mess in like 30 minutes. i was fully impressed. after admiring a job well done, we spent the rest of the day in scripture and forming a vision for our ministry this coming school year. we studied a passage from luke 10 and felt called to be a community of hospitality on campus, extending ourselves in relationship to others and waiting to see how Jesus would work through them.
we got power back around 5:30pm, which was great because the cooler wasn't going to last much longer and i certainly didn't want food poisoning (although it would be a great bonding moment) to be one of our lasting memories for the weekend.
day two was focussed on planning events and talking about what we would need to do to be more hospitable at large group, in small groups and in our homes. while we didn't get too much set in stone, we have some good brainstorming done and creative thoughts on how to welcome new comers in the fall. we were also able to take the afternoon off (for any old school mac IV leadership team people, you may be outraged at this thought because we always said it couldn't be done. well, turns out it can, but only because of all the sacrifices you made, and its awesome) and we headed to the beach.
sunburnt and bonded, we ended on the third day with a commissioning time after our brunch as the staff prayed for each student and the team as a whole, asking for them to be sent out just as Jesus sent out the 72 as we read luke 10. i am anticipating some big things happening in the fall as it seems tat Jesus is at work already in the lives of these students.
it was a great challenge for me to enter into this weekend in a new role, having to take on different responsibilities and really having no idea what the "right" thing to do is. i am continuing to pray that God will just work through it all and that we will consistently acknowledge that it is His ministry and always will be.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
time flies...
in just a few days we will be heading to turkey point for our planning weekend. it is so hard to believe that this time has already arrived but with the amount of prep i have to do this week, i am feeling it. may was much busier for me than in years past and we are already a week into june. so crazy.
to give you the quickest updates on what i did through may, i have been working on fundraising, leading a weekely bible study with students who are kicking around Hamilton for the summer, i took a one week intensive course on genesis and i have been helping friends fix-up their backyard. all of those things have been going well. the yard fix-up did a number on my old muscles but they are healing nicely and the yard is better for it.
now all my attention is focussed on this upcoming weekend. it has been exciting/strange planning for it because it seems like our time together will be so much more relaxed than i am used to. back in the days of being a student leader myself, the planning weekend meant 4 days of intense, non-stop discussion, and the only breaks we took were for meals (short ones) and sleeping. this year, we are getting together for 2 1/2 days and have planned to take a whole afternoon off together for a little beach excursion. the reason why this is possible, in my opinion, is because our leaders are coming into this weekend with such a strong sense of the vision of our ministry so we won't have to spend hours trying to figure it out. only one student has not studied the first half of the gospel of mark (a huge foundation for our vision) which starts us off at an amazing point that usually we don't reach until december. God has been so active in transforming students over the last 3 years that now we have to make some major changes to our visioning and planning process, which i don't mind doing at all but i really don't know what the new thing should be. this year's planning weekend will be experimental in some ways (hopefully without major explosions) but that seems to have been the theme for this ministry over the last couple of years and God has always showed up to pull us through...why would he stop now?
if you can remember, please pray for us as we are meeting this weekend. we will be planning for the first semester and need an openness to be creative and imaginative with events but not hold too tightly to them so that we forget about the people that they are for. also, pray that the team will continue to bond. it has been quite a while since we have all been together and we will have some catching up to do. lastly, please pray that we will be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and be open to the ways God wants to transform us during the year and not just focus on other's needs for growth.
to give you the quickest updates on what i did through may, i have been working on fundraising, leading a weekely bible study with students who are kicking around Hamilton for the summer, i took a one week intensive course on genesis and i have been helping friends fix-up their backyard. all of those things have been going well. the yard fix-up did a number on my old muscles but they are healing nicely and the yard is better for it.
now all my attention is focussed on this upcoming weekend. it has been exciting/strange planning for it because it seems like our time together will be so much more relaxed than i am used to. back in the days of being a student leader myself, the planning weekend meant 4 days of intense, non-stop discussion, and the only breaks we took were for meals (short ones) and sleeping. this year, we are getting together for 2 1/2 days and have planned to take a whole afternoon off together for a little beach excursion. the reason why this is possible, in my opinion, is because our leaders are coming into this weekend with such a strong sense of the vision of our ministry so we won't have to spend hours trying to figure it out. only one student has not studied the first half of the gospel of mark (a huge foundation for our vision) which starts us off at an amazing point that usually we don't reach until december. God has been so active in transforming students over the last 3 years that now we have to make some major changes to our visioning and planning process, which i don't mind doing at all but i really don't know what the new thing should be. this year's planning weekend will be experimental in some ways (hopefully without major explosions) but that seems to have been the theme for this ministry over the last couple of years and God has always showed up to pull us through...why would he stop now?
if you can remember, please pray for us as we are meeting this weekend. we will be planning for the first semester and need an openness to be creative and imaginative with events but not hold too tightly to them so that we forget about the people that they are for. also, pray that the team will continue to bond. it has been quite a while since we have all been together and we will have some catching up to do. lastly, please pray that we will be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and be open to the ways God wants to transform us during the year and not just focus on other's needs for growth.
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