This edition of "The sayings of Sylas" features another one of our Bridlegrove 'homeys'. "Cookie", as he is known to all of us, dropped in on Friday and stayed with us this weekend. You may remember he lived with us for a while last year and so it was lots of fun catching up, reminiscing and hearing about what he's been up to. Cookie is a favorite with our kids so when it was time for him to go tonight we figured our kids would be sad:
Daddy: Sylas, come say bye to Cookie, he's leaving Sylas: No thank you Daddy: Sylas, Cookie's going away don't you want to say goodbye? Sylas: No, i don't have to say goodbye...he's still right here in my brain!!
One such 'homey' is a young lad (at left) I met in 2004 named Orlando Franklin. Remember that name. When I met Orlando he was just 16 years old but already stood 6 foot 7 and weighed around 280 pounds.
Like most of the 'homeys' that live in Scarborough, Orlando moved away and I completely lost contact with him. That is until someone tagged him in one of my pictures on facebook and we got reacquainted. Much to my delight I discovered that Orlando is now the starting offensive lineman for the Miami Hurricanes and making headlines across the football world!! Way to go Orlando!! I believe he could go quite far in football, so say a prayer for this little 'homey' whenever you hear about the Miami Hurricanes.
Yesterday I had an amazing meeting with Silvia Ruegger and Brian Warren about their Running and Reading clubs through their organization Kidsfest. The program started in 2004 at Chester Le Junior Public School near Bridlegrove and we have worked with the same kids over the years. I had kept in touch with them, and was very impressed by their work helping inner-city kids in poverty get fit and literate! These clubs are rolling out all over the country and Silvia and Brian are a real inspiration so pray for them as they manage this huge task.
Also continue to remember the Bourgeois family in prayer. We still have no word on when Steve's funeral will be. It's also difficult for them as today would have been Steve's 28th birthday. On the Steve Bourgeois facebook group Mark Jenkinson offered this birthday prayer:
Steve, today we remember your birthday, because your life changed ours forever.
A birthday prayer, "Our heavenly father, we thank You for each and every day that you gave us with Steve. You blessed us so poignantly and profoundly with Steve's smiles, laughs, kind words and selfless acts. Each and every moment was a gift. We reflect on his life and the indescribable impact that he made on ours, and we can't help but offer up our thanks to You Lord, the one who works all things for good, and has ensured this outcome because of the death and resurrection of your One and Only son, Jesus. For it is in His name we pray, AMEN."
Lukas graduated from Bridlegrove's kindergarten on Thursday. I'll post some videos of the graduation soon. Friday was his very last day. He starts grade 1 at Thorncliffe Park school in September.
While I was driving to pick him up for the last time on Friday, this song came on the radio. I think it's about a relationship ending. I couldn't find the MP3 so here's the video. In many ways Friday was the end of our relationship with Bridlegrove. Sure there will be visits, but Friday felt like the end. Thinking over the time we spent there brought back many memories. So many people. So much time. Like any relationship, the end is sad even if there's something good to move on to. In many ways Luke's graduation felt like many other 'last days' I've experienced. Knowing it's time to move on. Not wanting to part with people and memories. Wishing it could last forever. Grieving the circumstances that brought it to an end. It's always hard to say goodbye. Why do all good things come to an end?
Well the hot topics will have to wait until we're all moved in. Things are going well but we don't have phone/internet at home so I'm blogging here from my parents. I wanted to add a story from MissionFest that I thought was pretty cool. Next to our booth was the Freedom Village booth. Freedom Village is home for troubled teens in the states - click here. Standing there I looked over and saw on the front of one of their brochures the face of one of our old Bridlegrove youth Andrew!!! Andrew is featured on the Freedom Village website - click here to read his story. He used to live down the street until he ran away from home. You can read about him in our Q2 2004 report. When he did run away/get kicked out, he left us his basketball net that some of you may have seen outside of the house at Bridlegrove. This is an encouragement to all of you who are working with kids who you're concerned about. God has a way of finding them. Just pour in loads of love and pray hard. You never know what God will do :)
Tonight we move to Thorncliffe Park. As I reported last week Thorncliffe is a neighbourhood in Toronto that is inhabited mainly by new Canadians from Pakistan and Afghanistan. 30,000 people. 34 high rise buildings. The biggest elementary school in North America. It's a different kind of 'ghetto' than the Steeles-Lamarouex/Chester Le area we lived in for the past 3 years working at Bridlegrove, but it's still a ghetto. I wanted to post a video that you can watch until we arrive in Thorncliffe. It's about ghettos in Toronto and those who grow up in them. It's strange to think that my kids qualify for that category.
The video was sent to me by Geoff Ryan, my Salvation Army officer friend who is doing an awesome work in the legendary Toronto ghetto - Regent Park. I'm excited to be working with Geoff, who will be helping and coaching me in Thorncliffe.
I love the 'hook' for the song..."I was born and raised in the ghetttoooo". I'd challenge you to watch the video at least 5 times until that little hook penetrates your soul and mind with empathy. It gives me shivers listening to it and thinking of all my homeys that we worked with at Bridlegrove. I miss those kids a whole lot. I made a photo album on facebook. Lord, be gracious to them.
While we are driving the 18 hours from PEI I'll be praying that more and more people will be like Jesus and move into the ghettos. These 'bad areas'...like the one Jesus grew up in. Jesus was a kid 'born and raised' in a ghetto called Nazareth, where 'no good thing' could possibly happen. Maybe that's why he loves these kids so much. As you watch this video, say a prayer for all the kids in the ghettos in Toronto.
A fairly heavy topic for us over the past month has been "What happened to you guys?". We have appreciated the prayers and support of many of you during our time at Bridlegrove, and many have been confused as to why things had to end. We have asked ourselves this question as well. Thanks for understanding that things aren't easy to process or explain. Part of the process for us is evaluating what went wrong and taking time to heal. Along with my first post about being "defrocked", I'll attempt to put together a sort of ongoing therapy session over the next few weeks and months to help me deal with some of the trauma. On the forum, someone even brought this up - click here - and I have gone into a little more detail about why we aren't at Bridlegrove anymore....well we are still members...but...well see for yourself.
In God's providence I was down in Atlanta at the Martin Luther King memorial just last week. It was quite a moving experience, similar to the holocaust museum in Israel. I was overcome with feelings and thoughts that I had never experienced. "How did this happen", "Why", "Who would do something like that". I had experienced these all before but one emotion came up that I hadn't felt before, "Lord forgive me and my ancestors for my our attitude of collonial domination". I'd never really thought of how we as white, euros EXPECT things we don't even realize. We think we are civilized. We think we are the best. We think others need to become "like us" instead of "like Jesus". We came to Canada and booted the natives cause they were "not like us", not "people". The land was "uninhabited". Disgraceful.
Same with slavery. While we here in Canada have abolished slavery a long time ago, I saw things at the MLK jr. memorial that happened in very recent memory. Walking through the memorial I saw a picture that i will never forget - click here for my pictures. It was a picture of a lynching in Atlanta. A black man hanging. Whites all around. Little children watching. The thought that struck me was that the little children in that picture would still be alive today. Racism exists and we need to ask God's forgiveness for how it has affected our lives.
I didn't think it existed till I started at Bridlegrove and moved to Scarborough. People would say to me "Oh that's the black church"....Huh? Pardon? I felt like saying on many occasions "Do you attend a 'white's only' church"? I'm not saying that people do this on purpose but examine your heart to see what's inside.
I was back at Bridlegrove today, missing all my little homies. Sadly I didn't see any of them there. Here's a picture from a much happier time in the summer of 2006. Also a video of the same day in church: I did have a great time with the young people who were there! They were asking about those funny guys with name tage called Mormons. What they believe, what they don't believe, who Joseph Smith was, how Mormonism is a cult and different from biblical Christianity. I left the young people with a challenge and so I thought I'd put it out there to you to - > Order a Mormom. To your house, to someone you love. Give a Mormon missionary a challenge. Show them that you know your stuff. Click here to visit the Mormon.org website and sign up to have two friendly folks with name tags arrive at your front door. I dare you. Lemme know if you take the challenge and how it turns out.
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:
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
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.
For those who don't know R.O.C.K. he's the homegrown Toronto christian rapper that we've had at Bridlegrove/CRUX 3 times now. We were hoping to have another CRUX next Saturday but things didn't work out. Luckily he's doin another youth rally on the Friday night if you want to check him out. You can get details on that youth rally and also sample some of his flava on his myspace page at :
Well today was the last day of our Toronto Mission trip adventure. It started out fairly relaxed. The team came up for a tour around Bridlegrove with our main man Wally Lee. After that we visited Arnie at MATE/FCC and heard about all the work they have done in over 40 countries in the world. For lunch we just grabbed Subway and headed back to the chapel, where we waited for Gary Weeks to give us the lowdown on going door-to-door in the area around Bridlegrove.
When he arrived, he gave us some pointers about personal evangelism, then we split up into teams of 2 with seed-sowers packets and chapel info. It was a really good time and a number of good contacts where made. By then it was about 5PM and we ate some McDonalds before heading down for a nice evening at a Blue Jays game.
While we were there (way up in the 500 section) our "Vampire" Cookie spotted one of the announcers. He jumped up and asked the guy if he could get on the JumboTron and as you can see below got his 15 seconds of fame:
It was a great way to end a great trip. Thanks to everyone who helped and for the team for spending some time serving God in our neck of the vineyard. Hopefully we'll see them, or other groups in the near future!
Today we started off with a tour of the Hindu Temple: It turned out that today there was some festival on and so inside the temple was a guy on a drum as well as a guy with a clarinet type flute thing so it was quite loud in there along with the usual smells and bells and yells!
After the temple we hiked it back down to Scarborough to eat some falafel...well some of us did..others chickened out and went for the chicken fingers. This time we actually got falafel, unlike yesterday. After lunch we headed to a Sikh Temple that Neil had arranged for us. A bit disapointing to be honest...it gave me the vibe that they are like the Jehovah's Witnesses of Hinduism...a sort of branch off that is not really recognized by the mainstream and not big enough to make any impact. But anyway, it was fun to put on our "holy do-rags"! Each of us had to don a head covering before entering the temple. Some of the team liked these so much that they "forgot" to take them off upon leaving.
After the Sikh temple we fought traffic all the way down the rainy DVP to Mark & Ben's place which is right on the water front. We were hoping for a rooftop barbecue but were rained out. Instead we stayed inside and Nigel did a great session on praying for the world. We prayed for over an hour and a half for each continent and all made promises to give 5 bucks to the next missionary we saw.
Gary Weeks came in next to lead us in some street evangelism. We ran into a number of different people and as you can see from the video we got to use all the skills with Muslims and Hindus that we had learned in the last few days. One muslim fellow took on 5 of us for a good 2 hours! I was praising God as we headed back to the cars that night. We all got in the elevator to take us down to the parking garage and all I could hear was everyone chattering about "well I told him the bible said..." and "then he said..." or "I showed him the verse about", like a swarm of bees ready to be unleahsed on the world! Please keep praying for the team as we wrap things up tomorrow with some good old door-knocking around Bridlegrove.
Today's agenda was simple. Church, church and more church! We went to 4 church services today and as you can see from Tyler's smiling face it was awesome baby! While some may have commented that they had "never gone to church this much in their life", I know deep down they loved it.
First, in the morning we split up the team. Half to Leaside Bible Chapel and half to Bridlegrove. After that we took the team to a place they had never been before....Swiss Chalet!!. In the afternoon we headed down to 614 Regent Park to see what an inner-city church-plant is like as well as experience the "incarnational" model that drives their ministry philosophy. We then bolted back to Bridlegrove for the evening service. At the end of the day one person was heard saying "it was like taking a drink from a fire-hose". All in all it was a good day and a good pace-setter for the rest of the week. Tomorrow and Tuesday, the team will be at Sanctuary so hopefully I'll get somebodies pictures of their adventures!
A while back I reported on one of our old Bridlegrove youth named Orlando Franklin - here. When we met Orlando he was 6 foot 7 and 250 pounds in Grade 10. Now he's playing college football for the Miami Hurricanes and I found this scouting report on him:
