return from city/script

i have just returned from two weeks of intense scripture study at our annual city/script event. this was my first year being present for 2 weeks (the first week i participated in a study of the second have of mark's gospel, the second week i co-taught a mark 1 study). as usual, it was an incredibly fruitful and refreshing time in community that has left me with a crazy mix of energy and exhaustion.
i felt challenged the first week as i went through mark 8.31-16.8 for my second time (the last time i studied it was 2005) as i was reminded of the humility, mercy, and grace that Jesus embodies. it is a story full of second chances, loving discipline, and acts of courage, faith, and failure. mark does a beautiful job of warning followers of Jesus to abandon the game of wordly greatness and choose the pursuit of real LIFE. at moments it felt like i was looking at the text for the first time but also with a knowledge of how good Jesus is to us as we lose life for his sake and the gospel, only to have it replaced with LIFE. it was also a reminder to continue letting go of the parts of the sub-par life i am still clinging to, knowing that there will be pain and suffering in the process.
the challenge of the second week was simply having the energy to engage deeply and lead students through the text. a week at city/script is draining enough and two weeks certainly required me to depend on God for strength and focus.
i am currently gathering stories from students about their experiences of the week to put together in a newsletter but for the time being, here are some of my personal highlights from the week (including a few pictures).

week 1 highlights:
- over 100 students and staff from across Ontario studying together in 5 studies (3 mark 1 studies, 1 mark 2 study, and 1 genesis study)
- 11 mcmaster students eagerly engaging in scripture study and developing deeper relationships with one another
- celebrating 2 birthdays (Danielle and Jen Han)
- fitting everyone from the conference on one city bus on our return from our night walk
- partnering with and being led by other staff from around Ontario.



week 2 highlights:
- joining with University of Toronto staff and students, and having 2 MAC students surprisingly join us for the week
- partnering with Nicky, my co-teacher for the week, for a second year of leading together (i think we get better at it each time...)
- watching the group build friendships with one another
- being recognized by the cafeteria staff and being able to have more conversation with them through the week

consider this a sign.

the ice cream truck drove down our street today.
spring is coming...

all good things must come to an end.

on wednesday this past week we had the last bible study with Korean Christian Fellowship for the year. i have really enjoyed being able to be with them every week, getting to know them better and seeing the trust build between us. they have so many fantastic leaders who just desire so greatly to follow Jesus and have their lives changed by them. i always feel very welcomed by their community and we are able to do some great studies because there is a huge openness in the room to learn.
over the month of march, we met weekly to study stories from Luke about encounters with Jesus during the early stages of his ministry. i always get blown away by the experience students have with Jesus as they study the encounters others have had with him. it impacts them in a way that they continue to find ways to encounter Jesus outside of the scriptures, as He acts on our campus.
i also enjoy how the group claps at the end of every study. makes me smile every time...

winter newsletter

to read my latest newsletter, please click on the image to enlarge it (** note that none of the links will work. for more info about the city/script scholarship fund, please look at the previous post)

city/script 08!

It is time again for the Ontario wide annual conference called city/script.

At city/script students will live together in Toronto, study the half of the gospel of Mark, and be exposed to issues of urban poverty. It is amazing to see what God does in the lives of students when they spend close to 8 hours a day studying the Bible and living in community. It is challenging to be exposed to the reality of urban poverty in Toronto by different ministries downtown. It is awesome to witness God transform the lives of students and staff by speaking into their lives, healing their brokenness, and challenging them to take risks for the gospel. It is hard to express how beautiful it was to see what God did last year at city/script.

Because of what God has done in the past we as staff have committed to getting as many of our students as we can to come to city/script this year. The conference is expensive, however, (it costs $460/student) and many students are not able to afford the full cost of the week. Hence, as staff, we have created a scholarship fund to help subsidize the cost for students who cannot afford to go.

How to partner with us

It is our hope that our supporters would join with us in sending students to city/script this year. We have been training students to fundraise for this event and have also set a goal to have 40 people give a gift of $25, $50, $100 or more in order to build a scholarship fund. We think this is a great opportunity for our partners in ministry, because it offers you the chance to invest directly in the life of a student. In addition, the McMaster community will also benefit tremendously because of the difference it makes in the lives of our students and the impact that will have on the campus.

If you are interested in being a part of this special opportunity, there are two ways you can give.

ONLINE:
You can make a donation online with your credit card

1. go to: www.ivcf.ca and choose the donor option. (or click here)
2. click on 'Make a Donation'
3. enter 'city script' in the search box
4. click on the result 'City/Script Bursaries'
5. follow the donation steps to the last step
6. on the last step there is a box for 'special instructions' - write in McMaster VCF

MAIL:

If you would rather mail in a donation, please e-mail me and I will happily send you information and a postage-paid gift envelope.

Thank you for your partnership and prayers for city/script 08!

february is short.

february is a hard month for campus ministry. its a short month full of the blahs, reading week sends us all different directions and stress levels are high. i know for myself, my weekly routine was majorly disrupted by sickness, training and being away and i am only now feeling back in the swing of things.
i can not wait for warm weather. hamilton, in particular, is known for its overcast winter and i am just longing for some sunny days again. this is bittersweet, however, because with the warmer weather of summer comes a break in direct student ministry as classes are on hold for most until the fall. the focus of the next two months in the university world is solely on ending the semester.
even in our community, we are starting to focus on selecting leaders for the 2008-2009 school year, planning for city/script during the first week of may and students are busy trying to figure out their summer plans. in all of this, however, i do not want to miss out on the opportunities of the moment. there are still two good months of ministry to do this year, lots of great things happening in our small groups, great partnerships building between MAC VCF and MAC KCF (Korean christian fellowship) and with many relationships with non-believers on campus.
please pray that we (and me in particular) will have the right balance between the present and the future, living in the moment but also planning for the future. please pray also as we select leaders for the coming year, for a bible study series happening with KCF through march, that many students will register for city/script (check out the trailer below) and for peace on our campus as some tensions are running high between a few student clubs at the moment.

McBrockster retreat

He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."
Again he said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade." mark 4.26-32

it has been a few days since we have returned from the retreat and for the first time this week, i do not have meetings all afternoon so i thought i would update the old blog.
this weekend was a great experience, especially for a first time event partnering with students from the inter-varsity group at brock university. we packed out the camp, had great food, and were challenged by two parables about the Kingdom of God from the gospel of Mark. the part which stood out to me so greatly was the phrase "though he does not know how." in my experience, it has become painfully obvious that i do not know how the Kingdom moves forward. sometimes this is reassuring because then the responsibility to make it grow does not lie on me. other times, however, there are places i want to see it grow but can't do a darn thing about it.

i have enjoyed over the past few days, connecting with students as they wrestle with this concept that despite their best efforts, Kingdom growth outside of themselves is not in their control. participating with God in it requires great patience and trust and when we see the growth happen we can experience the joy of the seeds becoming ripe.

one week summary.

we are now one week into the winter semester and there have been many great moments so far to share with you all. i am hoping to get a newsletter out this week, but here is something for you to read in the meantime.

we had a great welcome back party saturday night with a good turn out. it also served as a going away party for one of our students who is leaving in a week to study in Jerusalem for 6 months. it is a great opportunity for her but she will be greatly missed by our community.
yesterday we had a workshop for our student leaders about investing in others. we were blessed to have student leaders from Korean Christian Fellowship (KCF) join with us in a day of scripture study and discussion. i think being able to talk about how to invest in people will serve us well through this semester, as we have been building relationships with newer students that are just waiting to get deeper.

my favourite moment of the workshop came at the very end when students broke into groups to pray for one another and many groups prayed "Korean style," where everyone prays at the same time. since KCF has come under the care of Inter-Varsity, we have been trying to build a stronger connection with their students and that moment just served as a sign that it is moving forward.

this coming weekend is our retreat, which we are hosting along with Brock University. (partnership seems to be an ongoing theme this semester...) i am excited about the weekend because we have some great ideas for the teaching times and it is always just nice to get away for a while.

i also would like to witness to the fact that God is really good (and sneaky) about answering prayer. there have been many times (and will be many more times) so far this semester that i have just not felt able to do this ministry, either out of not understanding where to go next or not feeling capable of what is required for it but each time, in and through prayer, the Spirit has worked over-time to set things straight.
can i get an amen?

2008. year of the rat.

happy new year everyone.

there are still 3 days left before students return to classes and i have started to prepare for all that is coming up this semester. after our reflection times with students at the end of exams, there seems to be an excitement and energy for God to be on the move this semester. last semester, our bible studies were the place where all the action was happening and i am excited to see what will continue to happen as students gather around the Word and live it out on campus. our student leadership team has decided to join the different small groups to continue investing in their fellow students and motivate people into action. although this is a very new structure for our community, it seems to be a move of great wisdom and has potential for great transformation.

just a quick summary of some things coming up this semester...
in january we will be joining students from Brock University for a winter retreat and our staff team will be working together to teach about different aspects of the Kingdom of God. at MAC we will also be joining up with other Christian clubs on campus for Christ @ MAC week, a week of unity in worship, prayer, evangelism and fun.
february means reading week and a time to catch up on all the reading and studying that has piled up in the first half of the semester.
by march, we will have chosen our leaders for the coming school year. the end of the semester will involve a lot of transition and vision casting as we prepare for the next steps of this ministry.
april, of course, means exams but will also be a time of preparation for city/script, a week long intensive study of the gospel according to mark that will happen the first week of may. it is my hope that we will have at least 10 students join us this year, as it is always a time of significant transformation as the Spirit changes hearts through scripture study.

please be praying for us as we begin this semester. there are many things that our leaders desire to see happen this semester and i know it will require great courage and faith to participate in this mission. pray that God will help us believe in moments of unbelief and that the Spirit will just work powerfully on our campus.

reflections in a snowstorm.

it has been a week since i came home from national staff conference and i don't plan to head off to any other staff-related events for a while now. this semester i have been away quite frequently with fundraising, training and conferencing events so it is nice to look forward to be around for longer than a week, without being gone for a few days in between. all of the events were well worthwhile, but it is just nice to stay put, cook my own meals and sleep in my own bed.
staff conference overlapped with the first week of exams so it was a bit of a weird adjustment to come home and have everyone in full study mode. since the regular schedule has been put on hold until classes start again in january, this time has served greatly for some reflection on the past semester and where God is leading us next.
this semester boils down to one word: transition. we have been trying new things with our structure and our meetings together and every member of our staff team is serving in a new role, creating a lot of new situations for us to navigate our way through. at times this was difficult in being absent with staff events or in being afraid to be bold in the next steps we needed to take. in all of it, however, i have experienced a lot of joy as it is quite obvious that God is at work and drawing us into something that He himself is very active in. i feel that it is going to be costly, but anything worth doing always is.
there are now only 3 days of exams left and by thursday most students will have headed home for Christmas holidays. i am looking forward to having some down time so that i am physically and spiritually ready to step deeply into the places Jesus is taking us net semester.

a very dalewood christmas.

the house i am currently living in is a bit of an experiment, taking staff, alumni, and students and trying to live in intentional community. here are some photos from our house Christmas celebration. we cut down our own tree, decorated the house, enjoyed a huge meal and finished off the day with a Christmas movie marathon.


please pray for us as we continue in this experiment into the new year. pray for myself, melody, robyn, kalinda, and hamilton. pray that we will grow closer to one another, learn more about community and draw others in as we live this out.

learning to follow.

we're approaching the last of three weekends of Campus Tour (a major fundraising/educational event, check out www.campustour.ca if more info) and i am happy to see the end in sight. working on campus tour with the whole ontario staff team has been wonderful and it has been great to see many supporters enjoy the tour and get a better picture of what God is doing through this ministry but i am ready to focus my attention back to campus. for the past 2 months my time has been split between this and on-campus ministry and i feel like i haven't been able to do either one really well. i feel like i have just been doing just better than minimum for both.
campus life is thick with stress and tiredness from midterms, essays, sickness, and the growing reality of finals approaching quickly. without any classes in my own schedule this year, i must say i am enjoying this time of year much more than i have over the past 8 years. sometimes it makes me wonder how much the academic system actual impedes learning, but i don't want to open that discussion right at this moment.
what i've been learning of late is the balance between loving Jesus and loving his mission. as changes have been happening within our community, i think i have been struck by how there is actually a distinction between Jesus and the things we do to participate in his Kingdom. i have caught myself lately just focusing on the doing (or the lack there of) rather than the being. i have been doing many things for the Kingdom and in some of those things have not been with Jesus. this, of course, is not the way it is meant to be. Jesus has us participate in the Kingdom for the sake of being with him not because he is some glorified employer. the work serves as a way to learn more about him and our self. i want to be sure that i am loving Jesus first and that participating in his mission is a response to that love.
please continue praying for our community as we seek to be led by Jesus, loving him first as we participate in the work of his Kingdom.

thanks giving.

once thanksgiving weekend is over, the typical student is fully in the school mindset. the long weekend often serves as the first goal of the year, the first moment of stopping to get out of the bubble that quickly forms around campus life. if you can make it to thanksgiving, you can last the whole year. after thanksgiving, you are locked in until april.

i know that i personally was pushing myself through september with the voice in my head (the good kind of voice) repeating "just get to thanksgiving" over and over. i made it. i am thankful for every second of it.

so far this year has been quite different than others in my ministry life, but one that has been quite fruitful and worthwhile. as i wrote in my last post, we had big changes happening. we overhauled large group, bringing it back to the basics of praying for God's leading. the community has been on board and willing to take the risks involved. it has been a time of asking Jesus if we can be a part of what he is doing on this campus. it has confirmed that he has been at work in our community, transforming students as they have opened themselves up to him. it has brought an anticipation of the Kingdom, building off what we have already seen but being so much greater.

please pray with us as we desire to see Jesus do some great things in the lives of people on campus (ours included). pray that we will have courage to extend ourselves to new people. pray that we will be willing to make sacrifices and count costs for participating in the Kingdom. and pray that we will see the big picture in all of it.

series premiere.

with every intention to post more regularily on the blog, today is the day that i feel i have actually had the time and capacity to put some thoughts into words. it has been a real rush through the beginning of the school this year with many high and low points along the way and i sit here now writing with a heaping amount of mystery and vagueness about what will happen from this point forward.
having moved into a new house and a new role as of september 1, i was feeling quite unsettled and overwhelmed for the first 2 weeks. the learning curve was high but i knew i could manage. as we began our typical september activities, however, i was unsettled on a different level. i began to feel that as a community, we were settling for less, merely trying to recreate the way God worked last year. perhaps we felt that if we did the same things in the same way, God would follow suit.
my spirit told me no.
it is hard now to put into words, but the general sentiment was that we were trying to communicate the new thing in the old way. we were stuck in the rut of our structure. Jesus was at work on this campus and we needed to ask to be a part of it.
and so i came before our leadership team on friday and i explained to them all of my thoughts and interpretations on what i saw happening through our opening month and the fear i felt around us settling for less. i told them i thought we should cancel large group but had no idea what to do instead. the only answer i had was that we needed to gather and pray.
the weird thing is that i'm not that person. i pray and all but i have never felt so pushed to go to Jesus. i have never felt so unsure of the next step beyond asking Jesus to allow us to be a part of his harvest and take us to the field. it is very unsettling and extremely exciting.
i get nervous when i have to tell a student that i don't know what to do. i don't like that i am not sure which students will continue to stay with us as we enter into this time of significant (and spontaneous) transition. what i do know, however, is that it is worth the trouble. it is going to be costly, painful, mysterious, and unnerving, but it will probably be the best thing i will ever be a part of.
some of you will have written me off as crazy (believe me, i am right there with you), but please take this as a warning that you may hear some good stories over the next days, weeks, months about the Kingdom moving forward at MAC.
prayers are welcome. we'll be praying with you.

auld lang syne.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! ok. so it isn't actually a new year but i think for most teachers, parents, steudents and anyone in the student industry, the day after labour day feels more deserving of a countdown to midnight than dec. 31st. i personally have never really liked this time of year (i think because of old childhood memories of the end of summer and returning to what felt like prison) but now that i am much less of a student i do enjoy all the possibility that lies ahead. as a community, MAC IV is just waiting for new people to come and see who we are and if this is where they will find a new home.
there are so many details and meetings and events but all of it is about welcoming people, extending ourselves in relationship and seeing who responds. please pray for us through the next month, that we will have the energy and compassion for all these new faces and the stories they bring to our community. pray that we will see the Kingdom continue to develop and that our hearts will remain open to God doing great things in and through us.

on vacation.

whoever invented the vacation deserves to win a nobel peace prize. i don't think i have been on a real vacation since the ninth grade (which was the worst family vacation i have ever been on) and i must say, VACATIONS ARE AWESOME!

i am so blessed to have great friends who lent me their cottage for 5 days up in beautiful minden, on. a number of friends were able to come and stay part of the time while i was there and we enjoyed good food and fun times together. highlights included the people, the food, paddle boating, sunsets, the food, playing games (yes, even i had fun playing games...), campfires, good books to read, and the food. even getting completely lost in the woods with zeb for over an hour and a half was somewhat enjoyable, mostly when we found our way out though. i feel well rested and relaxed now as things slowly build up to september when everything will get very busy again.

i will definitely be taking vacation annually, now that i have a taste for them. hope these pictures make you feel like you were there with us (click on the images for a larger view).

yes, i actually got into a canoe on my own choosing...

did i mention we had awesome food?

laura and julia

zeb and i lost in the woods

zeb and t after the game

dave and hamilton stopped by on their day off

cheryl and i the last morning

the world is in hamilton...

i just got back from our annual NVEST conference and i'm exhausted. while the humidity sucked the life out of me, the conference was fortunately putting it right back in. our conference was put on the front end of the World Assembly conference for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), which is the meeting of student ministry workers from around the world. it is currently happening right here in hamilton at redeemer university, and it has been quite the experience so far.

we were privileged to hear from the regional directors of a number of different areas of the world, where student ministries are having a signifcant impact on campuses but also on cities, countries and continents. there has been a great deal of partnership between the canadian intervarsity movement and other student movements around the world and it is really inspiring to hear how we are all working together in building the Kingdom.

since coming home, i have been giving my full effort to fundraising and meeting my new budget goal. it is weird that after hearing this huge big picture vision for student ministry globally, i have suddenly gained a new energy for the local picture. i realized that the amazing stories that i have heard from around the world can happen at MAC too. i know that i need to put in this effort so i can continue to be involved in this ministry and finances won't pull me away from it again as they did in the fall.

stay tuned for the stories of how Jesus is going to pull this off...

100!

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...)

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.

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.