Sunday, December 31, 2006

Remix - Year in review

(I had originally posted this on December 20th, but thought it would fit better on December 31st)

Here's our 2006 year end report:
Microsoft Word document - here
Adobe Acrobat PDF file - here

Seems a bit anticlimactic going on about all the great stuff that happened this past year seeing as our ministry is over, however when I sit back and think about all the opportunities God has given us it is encouraging. You could say this is a "year in review", like they have on TV this time of year. As you look over the various events of 2006 don't pray for us so much, pray for all the special people who we've come in contact with along the way. Here's an overview:

January report -> Mounting huge gospel sign at Bridlegrove - here
February -> Horrific tripple murder down the street - Shawn on the national news
March -> 4 Boys complete Christianity Explored course
April -> Q1 report
May -> My mother's stroke
June -> End of school CRUX youth rally, featuring Gyasi Ferdinand, Florida team visits for missions trip to Toronto
July -> Q2 report,
August -> Greece missions trip, Chester Le Sunday school
September -> Kevin moves, Cookie moves
October -> 5 youth from Bridlegrove baptised - videos here, Q3 report
November -> Year end report

It's 2007 already in the Phillipines!!

Here in PEI it's currently 9:25PM Atlantic Time, but my good friend Heidi Lane has already been celebrating the new year for hours now. She has been serving God in the Phillipines for the last few years and today I just discovered her blog - here. Click on over to see what she's been up to and don't forget to pray for her and other missionaries who are overseas for the holidays. And while you're thinking and praying why not get practical and send her some financial support via MSC. Happy Holidays Heidi!

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Happy 6th Anniversary!!

Today is our 6th wedding anniversary!! It's interesting because this will be the second year in a row that we wil be attending a wedding on our anniversary. Last year it was Matt & Starr Wilks who got married on Decmeber 30th. This year it's Bev Clarke getting married to Joseph Bondt in about 4 hours. Anyone else out there have an anniversary on December 30th?

Thursday, December 28, 2006

New counter - ClustrMaps

I found this awesome little counter called ClustrMaps and installed it on Christmas eve. You can find it at the very bottom of this blog. It shows a map and puts dots where people are who have visited your site! Click on the picture to see the full-sized map.

Need a title v25

This is a picture of my sweet in-laws. Can anyone think of a good title?

Gary Weeks' Myspace?

Some of you who read my blog may know Gary Weeks. What some of you might not know is that he put out a CD recently. I was on his son Jesse's website and came across this link to Gary's site, where you can sample songs from his album!! Check it out - http://www.sellaband.com/elwood/

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Merry Christmas in the muslim world

Joel Rosenberg has an amazing Christmas article on the record number of ex-muslims celebrating Christmas this year. Here is the amazing first sentence from his latest blog entry:
More Muslims converted to faith in Jesus Christ over the past decade than at any other time in human history. A spiritual revolution is underway throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. As a result, a record number of ex-Muslims are celebrating Christmas this year, despite intense persecution, arrests, assassinations, and widespread church bombings.
Let's continue to pray for these countries over the holidays:

Iraq: more than 5,000 new Muslim converts to Christianity
Egypt: some reports say 1 million Egyptians have trusted Christ over the past decade or so.
Afghanistan: only 17 Muslim converts to Christianity before 9/11/01, but now more than 10,000. Dozens of baptisms every week.

Monday, December 25, 2006

Happy 25th Birthday Hayley!!!

Every year it's a struggle to not forget Hayley's birthday, considering it's on December 25th. This year Olivia got her a special present, she took her first steps today!!! Here's a video we got of the historic event:
To show Hayley that the world has not forgotten (she's 25 today), please leave a little comment wishing Hayley a happy birthday!

Friday, December 22, 2006

Early Christmas present from the gospel halls

Looks like the gospel halls like me. Just click here

Milestones - Olivia's first steps!!

Olivia took her first steps today!! We were in the living room when she took 2 steps to Lukas. Sadly our digital camera is currently broken, but I ran over to future shop and scooped up the first one I saw. Hopefully I'll be able to record the moment some time today. The Future Shop visit was wierd. It's the only one in all of PEI. If you want electronics it's the place to go. When we got there I asked about a few cameras and the reply I got was "sorry, we're all out of those". I thought that was strange, but he went on to explain that they only have about 5 digital cameras in stock and they were completely SOLD OUT of memory cards. Sold out 3 days before Christmas? Good old PEI

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Messianic Muslims?

I just read this very intriguing blog post about Messianic muslims:
isa al-masih

This is how Messianic Muslims refer to Jesus.

It seems that they are very similar to the first Christ followers who maintained their Jewish identities, worshipped in the synagogues, observed Jewish cultural mores (dietary, etc.), but acknowledged Christ's saving work and followed his ways.
We've heard of Messianic Jews and accept their retention of their Jewish-ness, but what about Messianic Muslims? Can muslims believe in Jesus and still retain aspects of their Islamic culture? Read the PDF below and then decide.

http://www.ijfm.org/PDFs_IJFM/17_1_PDFs/Followers_of_Isa.pdf

Monday, December 18, 2006

Monday's hot topics - The Star of Bethlehem

Star of wonder,star of night...that was an interesting star alright! It's one week before Christmas and on the forum Jpursey raised a questions we've all thought about at some point:
Can anyone explain how to identify the place over which a star stops?
Now of course we know it was miraculous, but exactly what does it mean that the star "halted over the place where the child was"? Post your thought on this miracle on the forum - here

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Need a title v24

This morning before church I was reminiscing with Josh Harding about a time I took him and kyle along with me to speak at a chapel. Here is the picture below. Can anyone think of a good title??

Friday, December 15, 2006

Video of the week: 'Jay, have you found a bar to start your church in?"

I saw this poster on another blog and was intreagued to follow the link. I had assumed it was some new emergent churchy thing but what I discovered was a new TV show titled "One Punk Under God". It's on the 'Sundance Channel' - here and it's the story of Jay Bakker, the son of Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker!!! Watch this trailer for the series:

Jay has also written articles for CNN and is attempting to bring a new level of transparency to Christianity through the ashes of his parents scandal. His methods might be quite different but his message is grace and forgiveness to those who are broken and wounded from religion. Their motto is "a church for people who have given up on church". Let's see what Len thinks about this one :)

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Wednesday prayer requests - Refugees

Last month I attended a seminar where the speaker showed statistics on refugees worldwife. His statistics stated that Afghanistan has the highest number of refugees scattered throughout the world. I emailed him and asked for his source and he pointed me to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR). You can see all the statistics on their website at http://www.unhcr.org/. It's quite a fascinating read, but it made me wonder what the church is doing for these "aliens in the land" as the Bible calls them. Are you praying for refugees? Are you seeking to reach out to them?

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Touchdown in the C-town

Just arrived here in good ole PEI. I'm just downloading emails and thought I'd feature one sent to me by Salvation Army Officer Geoff Ryan. For those who don't know Geoff, a few years ago he set up shop to share the love of Jesus in the countries worst ghetto - Regent Park. This new church is called 614, named after Isaiah 61:4, and you can read all about it on his site - 614network.com. You may remember I took the Florida group down to visit this inner-city church - here. Geoff and I have developed a comaradary (spelling?) as we both live and work in the inner-city of Toronto. Geoff sent me this article today titled "Rap gets Religion":
Over the last year, regular hip-hop church services have been held at the FaithDome, attracting 7,000 to the mega-church in South-Central Los Angeles, and since February, (Kurtis) Blow, who became an early hip-hop star with his classic 1980 record "The Breaks," has led a hip-hop congregation at Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Inglewood that meets on the first Friday of each month...

With established hip-hop congregations in Harlem, Philadelphia and Inglewood, and two more begun last month in Dallas and New Jersey, (Kurtis) Blow balances hands-on ministry with projects like the television series and an upcoming European tour to promote his forthcoming album, "Kurtis Blow and the Trinity."
A hip-hop congregation?? Looks like rapping for Jesus is here to stay. Seems like Len and others were wrong back in March 2005 when I featured a post on the new hip hop church. Plz ppl dun be hatin on ya bredren ya dig!

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Plans

Here's what we know for sure:

1. We are still members of Bridlegrove Bible Chapel
2. We will still keep in touch with the youth at and around Bridlegrove
3. Our stuff is currently in storage while we go to PEI for Christmas
4. When we come back from PEI we will be relocating within Toronto
5. Lukas will finish kindergarten at Bridlegrove's daycare

More details in the near future.

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Marriage Do's & Dont's

Imran writes:
After 3 months of marriage, heres what Ive learned:

1. Pretend to listen when told tales about how x relative did y nice thing. Your head movement should be:
Shake-shake-break,
shake-shake-break....

5. Perfect answer for 'What did you say?' is 'I said what I shouldnt have said'...
Read the rest of Imran's do's & dont's of marriage - here :)

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Wednesday prayer requests - Defrocked!

Just a quick prayer request on a personal level. The picture to the left sums up how we're feeling. I'll talk about the picture at a later date but for those who don't know yet, my ministry as youth worker at Bridlegrove Bible Chapel has come to an end. This was a very painful experience. If anyone has questions just leave a comment or email and I'll try to answer. We have really appreciated the prayers and support of so many of you over the last 3 years. Please continue to pray for the youth in this area. The Lord has blessed us abundantly and no one can take those wonderful memories away. We look forward to keeping in touch with these youth in the future.

While this is a very difficult time we know that God is at work in a big way despite current circumstances. First though, we're going to PEI for Christmas to recover and relax. So, we may be in the tomb for 3 days, but the resurrection is coming soon!! Thank you so much for your prayers. Please pray specifically for Lukas who may have the most difficulty adjusting to a change like this.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Monday, December 04, 2006

Monday's hot topics - Commandments or Faith?

Forum member Pawn Raider recently posted this question on the forum:
Hopefully someone can help me with this. While the Bible states that we are no longer under the law but live by faith, how does one reconcile this with what Jesus Christ stated in John 14:15 where He said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments. How can we live by the commandments of Jesus if we are free from the law? Paul wrote in Galatians 3:21, Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. How does one explain this.
Good question. Can you explain it? Post your thoughts on the forum

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Left Behind....the video game???

By Grayson Kamm
First Coast News

JACKSONVILLE, FL –- The makers of a new video game say its Biblically themed action is designed to stir thinking and talking about matters of eternal importance. But opponents on the First Coast say it’s offensive to Christian beliefs.With flashy graphics and intense action, Left Behind: Eternal Forces has the hallmarks of a hit video game, but with a Biblical twist. Set just after the Rapture in the Book of Revelation, the game puts you in charge of civilians and soldiers with the Tribulation Force –- an armed group fighting against the army of the Antichrist. That fighting sometimes means killing. And some religious groups are furious.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Parenting 101 v9 - Ears

Tonight Lukas said to me:

Daddy, what would happen if people didn't have ears?

Video of the week - Autistic water boy saves the game

This video was sent to me by Quist a few months back. It is gauranteed to make you cry: