Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Saul has posted his thousands, David has posted his tens of thousands!


Well folks the discussion forum is set to go over the 10,000 post mark in the next few days! Thanks to everyone who has made the forum such a success! Currently it's sitting at 9972 posts and, like every other good thing here on the athensBlog, we're going to celebrate with a contest! Whoever registers post nubmer 10,000 gets a special rank of their choosing. Ranks are those little titles next to your name that change as your total posts increase. If you're the lucky winner you get to choose a custom rank like "Grand-daddy", "Master & Commander", or just plain "Emporer", whatever you want!

The contest is open to everyone who is registered on the forum...so, if you haven't registered, just go to the discussion forum - here - register and start posting! Good luck everyone! We'll let you know who the winner is soon!

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Thank you to John Doe


Just wanted to say thank you to the person who gave us an anonymous donation through MSC
during the month of July. We really appreciate your generosity :) If you're reading this we wanted you to know that your donation covered all our expenses for the trip to PEI, for the Seed Sowers campaign! You enabled us to do more for the Lord, by your obedience to him. So God bless you..whoever you are...for your cheerful giving! God knows and will reward you :)

Monday, August 29, 2005

God's judgement weather service reporting

Thanks to Black Domina for the link to the US National Weather Service - here - warning for Hurrican Katrina.

Here is the text of the New Orleans warning
URGENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
413 PM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005

...EXTREMELY DANGEROUS HURRICANE KATRINA CONTINUES TO APPROACH THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER DELTA......

DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED...

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL. PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED.

DO NOT VENTURE OUTDOORS!
Reading over this warning of certain destruction made me think of the judgement in Noah's day, and the judgement still to come. Unavoidable. "Certain death". "Will be destroyed". Imagine the warnings Noah would have given before the flood came, or if they had forecasts back then what the weatherman would have said if he knew the flood was coming! "Do not venture outdoors. Leave all your belongings behind. Go inside the ark or certain death awaits you"

It's also sobering reminder that God will judge this world eventually. Final judgement is coming, and it will be alot worse than this hurricane. The Bible states that Jesus will return with "in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don't know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus. 9They will be punished with everlasting destruction, forever separated from the Lord". That's alot of people. That's some serious destruction. If you're reading this and you aren't a Christian, it's time to listen to God's warning. All of us have sinned. Judgement is coming. Trusting Jesus is the only way to be saved from God's everlasting wrath. More info here

Friday, August 26, 2005

Another day, another shooting


Driving home tonight and heard those familiar words on the radio..."a man has been shot in the Victoria Park & Morecambe area" - click here. Seems a 19 year old was shot, but his injuries aren't life threatening. We drove by and saw that familiar scene. Police tape, police cars, CTV news. Now we'll just wait to find out from our youth group kids who it was that was shot. Please pray for this area. Since the last shooting (3 weeks ago) CityTV has posted a good video about the incident with a clip of the area - here

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Back in the swamp

We're back. Lots to catch up on. Pray for the new "season" of ministry. Lots of exciting things and great helpers so pray and let's watch God do his thing (as David Fisher says :) More tomorrow

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Jabe Nicholson's "Good News on the move" initiative

For a few weeks now there's been some chatter on the discussion forum - here about a new initiative by Jabe Nicholson. I'm not sure if it's called "Good news now" or "Christian field training" but whatever it's called, it's about time! Jabe has proposed a travelling team of about 12 men, starting in September. This team will rome around North America doing evangelism and helping struggling assemblies! Sounds good to me. The article isn't online on the Uplook site yet, but when it is I'll let you know.

But I'm wondering how this will go over in most assemblies? Will elders be open to "help"? Would yours? Would your assemby admit it's "struggling"? What would this travelling team accomplish? Is this what the assemblies need? More on the discussion forum - here

Monday, August 22, 2005

Quick update from PEI

Well folks we're just back here in Charlottetown. First a picture of Matt's head:Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us. Things are healing well. Thanks for the prayer.
As for the Seed-sowers we're all done! Over 50,000 texts! It's been loads of work, but it was good to know that the seed has been sown. Pray now for the assemblies here, and for labourers on the island to "water" this seed! We wouldn't want the mormons to "get the increase" of our sowing :) As for us, we're here at MacLeods fixing the brakes on our van. More soon.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Pray for Matt

Just on a dial-up connection here. Hayley's brother Matthew had a serious accident at the camp here in PEI yesterday. He went down the water slide and hit his head on a concrete block. They rushed him to the hospital but pray that he'll have no long-term damage. More soon.

*Update* We saw Matt today and he is doing better. We took this picture, but it ain't prettyFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Very quick update from summerside

Hi everyone, I found a wireless connection so I have a very little update.
Everyone is doing great, thanks for your prayers. We've completed the city of summerside, so pray that people would come out to the "bible expo" in the city's main market. Yesterday we covered Tignish, had a great chat with a lady named Carmen, who's dad used to run the lighthouse on North Cape. We went up and saw the very western point of PEI. More soon! :) Thanks again for your prayers

Saturday, August 13, 2005

Hi from PEI

Well it's Saturday morning and we're here on "the island". No major issues with the drive so we thank God for keeping us safe! Here's how the trip went:

- Thursday night we picked up Linda Peric (athensblog team member) from the aiport. She's in town for "Upward bound", the Sandy Macheachern camping/bible trip in Waterloo. We had a great time catching up with her about the past year where she was teaching in Cyprus.
- Veronica got dropped of as well for the trip and so the three girls chatted till the wee hours while I tried to get some sleep
- We got up at 3AM and loaded up the car. To my shagrin, gas had gone up to 99.1 and we filled up before we left. The highest we got gas for on the trip was 107.9. I was hoping to see *this* meteor shower, but the sky was overcast.
- The trip was pretty uneventful, we had the laptop set up for the kids to watch Dora and Bob the builder so they were pretty good.
- We stopped for lunch in Rimouski, where Sidney Crosby played Jr hockey. It was seriously french and we had a burger at a "poulet frit" chip stand by some beautiful scenery. Hopefully I'll get a picture or video up but don't hold your breath.
- The rest of the trip through New Brunswick was good and when we got to the PEI confederation bridge we let Veronica drive over, since she has her G1. We figured that it was a bridge, and not a major highway so she'd be OK if the cops pulled her over. Well, the funny thing was that right on the other side was a police check!! :) But they were just checking for seat-belts & registration and let us keep going :) So Veronica can now say she has driven across the bridge!

All for now, we're at Hayley's parents in Charlottetown and we should get into Emmanuel Bible Camp tonight where everyone is staying (and where I doubt they'll have internet access). Thanks for your prayers! We'll try to keep you updated.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Fulfilling the great commission on PEI

Tomorrow we leave for PEI to take part in the "Seed Sowers" campaign. Seed Sowers is a group that prints 8.5 x 11 John 3:16 texts in little packets. These packets can be distributed personally or by a group. The assemblies in PEI got together and decided that every single person on the island should get one of these and so next week we will attempt to put one packet in every home in all of PEI! Over 50,000 packets! Pray for this effort and everyone who will be helping!

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Clayon's mom in the paper

If you remember a few days ago, there was a shooting on the street where Clayon lives. Today on the front page of our local Scarborough paper there was an article about the shooting along with an interview from Clayon's mom, Glenda! She was the one who came to church for the first time on Sunday.

Click here for the entire article from the Scarborough Mirror
Local resident Glenda Seymour suggested many youths in the neighbourhood are afraid of the police.

"As they see the police come, they start to run away," she said. "This is a senseless killing...the police have to work with the community so that we all can work together to bring justice."

Monday, August 08, 2005

OK Blue Jays, let's pray ball

Hayley and I had the privilege of hearing David Fisher - click here speak on Sunday night at Bridlewood Presbyterian Church. David attends Auburn Bible Chapel in Peterborough, and is the chaplain for the Toronto Blue Jays and Peterborough Petes! It was great hearing about all the Christians in the Jays organization, like Corey Koskie, and how even the coach and GM will call Dave into their office and ask him to pray about decisions they have to make. God has people in all kinds of places!

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Another fatal shooting down the road


It seems this is developing into a disturbing new feature on my blog, reports on shootings in the area. Last weekend it was a fatal shooting at our local CIBC, this week it was another shooting on the street where most of our youth group kids live. This one was the closest yet, in many ways.

On Friday night we were driving back from the "Taste of the Danforth" festival when we heard on the radio about a fatal shooting on Morecambe gate, near Victoria Park & Finch. If you remember in March I had written about a shooting at a dry cleaners on Morecambe, next to where one of our main youth group kids Clayon lives. He lives at one end of Morecambe gate. Friday night the man was shot and killed at the other end of Morecambe gate.

We drove by, saw the police tape, the CTV truck, the crime scene, but none of our guys were out on the street so we headed home, put the kids to bed, then went on MSN to see if everyone was OK. At this point all we knew was that someone was shot and we were worried. Clayon wasn't online, neither was Kevin, Jamoy, Kellz, Cookie or the others who live on the street. Jermal, who lives on another street, was online but didn't know about the incident, then finally Novella came online - she lives next door to Clayon on Morecambe gate.

Here's how the conversation went:

Date: 8/5/2005 Time: 23:30:02
Shawn: hey hey!!!
Shawn: u there?
Novella: hey
Shawn: what happened
Shawn: we just drove by your street
Novella: some guy got shot
Shawn: who, anyone we know?
Novella: no
Shawn: was he from chester?
Novella: ye
Novella: he used to live here but he moved
Shawn: ahhh...i was worried cause i saw the police tape around Jamoy's house
Shawn: so is he related to anyone that we know? like kellz? or jamoy?
Novella: he was in my backyard today playing playing dominoes with my mother and some others...

(As the Toronto Sun article puts it:
Whittick knocked off work early that day, stopped by the barber shop to have his beard trimmed, and then crossed the street to a friend's, where he enjoyed a barbecue and played dominoes. He was heading home when he was gunned down....
Whittick was shot in the stomach during an altercation at a Scarborough bus stop on Victoria Park Ave., just north of Finch Ave. E., after leaving a friend's townhouse at 51 Morecambe Gt. around 7 p.m. He stumbled back to the Metro Housing complex and bled to death on the grass.

Novella: then he walked down the streeth and some people tried robbing him for his necklace so he fought back and thats when they shot him
Shawn: are kevin and clayon ok?
Novella: yes everyones fine
Shawn: k good, we're praying for you guys
Shawn: do you know who shot him?
Novella: nah
Shawn: craZEE!!
Novella: i know
Shawn: where did this guy live?
Novella: i dont know where he lives now but he used to live in chester
Novella: yo it was scary
Novella: a bunch of cops, everything, ctv
Novella: he got shot where the parkinglot after my house is
Novella: i was at my friends house when i heard
Novella: my friends mom was terrified
Novella: there were more than 20 police cars
Novella: i'm leaving now but i'll tell you all about it
Novella: on sunday ok

Shawn: k see you then! we'll keep praying
Novella: so good night
Shawn: say hi to kevin/clayon for me
Novella: ok
Shawn: night
Novella: night
Date: 8/6/2005 Time: 00:22:59

Here is an article with some brief details, as well as the Toronto Sun article - here

It's sad because the local paper just did a big front page article ->here<- on how the area was getting better, and then this

Please pray for this area and the teens we minister to. Clayon brought his mom and brother to church on Sunday for the first time. Pray that this incident wouldn't just be forgotten, but it would motivate some of our guys to get their lives right with God.

Friday, August 05, 2005

Quick go to www.google.com and do a search for Jabe Nicholson...or if you're too lazy, click here. Lemme know what you find. Thanks to Keith for the tip.

Is church discipline dead?

My man Matt Wilks sent me *this* great article from Christianity Today about church discipline. It goes along with my post ->here<- about the recent events in the NHL as a lesson on church discipline. Here's a clip from the article:
The Protestant reformers named three "marks by which the true church is known": the preaching of the pure doctrine of the gospel, the pure administration of the sacraments, and the exercise of church discipline to correct faults...
In fact, every society on the face of the earth, past and present, has its codes of conduct, identifying behaviors it will not tolerate. The only questions are: first, who or what defines that code of conduct; and, second, how are violators of that code dealt with....
Very intersting stuff. I can't help but think about one of my pentecostal friend who talks about a church he used to attend. If a church member fell into sin, they had a ceremony where the member would be "handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh". This was done via a group cursing ceremony where they would actually pronounce death upon the individual, "destruction of the flesh", and then boot the offender who was never to return. That's the most intense I've heard. But what about you? Have you ever seen church discipline in action? What's your take on church discipline? When should it be done? How public should it be? Comment below, or on the discussion forum topic "Church discipline stories" ->here<-

Thursday, August 04, 2005

The sayings of Lukas v8

In the middle of the night Lukas ran into our room.

Lukas: Mommy, I had a bad dream about a king who was trying to eat me
Mommy: Ok Lukas...it's OK...it's all over now
Lukas: I'm going to send my bad dream back to God
Mommy: Ok, do you want to pray to God
Lukas: Here God, here is my bad dream back

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

One year ago tonight....

Can't help but think back to one year ago. Twas the night before Athens. We had already seen God provide, but it had barely hit us that we would embarking the next day. We were in fear and trembling and looking back on all the amazing things that happened on the trip ->here<- all we can say is thank you to Jesus, and all of you who prayed!

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Todd's back

Todd Anderson returned today, hopefully with the rest of the Pakistan team. Soon he'll be over the jet-lag and will be posting his adventures ->here<-
Matt the Cook, Ruth the wife, and Joseph the son are still over there, where Ruth will begin her teaching job soon. Let's pray for them as they adjust

August loggin in

31Aug05-Wed - meeting @ Hopedale, Shauna-lee stays over
30Aug05-Tues -
29Aug05-Mon- Jason & Joy for dinner, Paperwork, catch up, Crux, B-unit, september
28Aug05-Sun- BofB, FBH, MIC meeting, evening service, open house meeting
27Aug05-Sat- Crux plan, Jones wedding
26Aug05-Fri-
25Aug05-Thurs - drive
24Aug05-Wed - 3AM leave PEI, arrive 5PM at Dallaire's in Chicoutimi
23Aug05-Tues - Wheel alignment, dinner with grandparents
22Aug05-Mon - Ger fix brakes, dinner with Amanda & Joel
21Aug05-Sun - BofB, FBH, lunch at Matt & Leah's, Victoria Rowe, ET, stay over at Matt & Leah's
12Aug-21Aug - Seed sowers, our team + veronica gave out around 2000 texts
12Aug05-Fri - 3AM leave for PEI, arrive 9PM
11Aug05-Thurs-Bridlegrove leaders meeting, pick up linda from airport (Linda, Veronica, Mike & Jeanette, Saju & Andrea stay over)
10Aug05-Wed - prayer meeting

Plymouth Brethren