Friday, June 30, 2006

Florida finale

Day 6 pics

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!

Here is an index of the trip:

Day1 - Church x 4
Day2 & 3 - Sanctuary homeless minitries
Day4 - Muslim day
Day5 - Hindu, Sikh, Street evangelism
Day6 - Bridlegrove, Door-to-door, Jays
Day7 - Niagra Falls, home

Videos - http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?user=shawncuthilldotcom

**UPDATE**Here is an awesome video of the trip by Kristy


**Update 2** Here are links to some of the folks who came on the trip:

Tyler - click here
Becca - click here
Melissa - click here
Morgan - click here
Ashia - click here
Kristi

Neptune Baptist Church, Neptune, Florida

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Hindu's, Sikhs, Freaks & Greeks

Day 5 pics - here

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.

Wednesday prayer requests....on Thursday

Y'all pray for us, k? Today we will be at a Hindu Temple, Sikh Temple as well as doing some street preaching in the evening. Yesterday went quite well...actually it was probably the best day of any trip I've ever done so thank you for your prayers! Please pray for the team today as we continue to tour and testify!

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Islam-a-like-em

Today was Muslim day, and Oh what a day it was. Click here for pictures of the day. We started at 9AM at Leaside Bible Chapel with an overview of the muslim world. After that my friend Abu Bakr came in to challenge us about the differences between Christianity and Islam. Things got a bit heated as folks began to challenge him on some of the differences between our faiths:

Thankfully, things ended well with Abu and we departed for lunch. I had promised the team that they would enjoy the glory of the Falafel, a food they had never eaten. After driving around for over an hour and almost killing Stacie with my "u-turn of death", we pulled in to the all-you-can-eat Halal buffet near McCowan & Nugget for some eastern quisine. Even though there was more bone than chicken the crew loved the goodness of multicultural food. We had to hurry out of there though because we were booked for a tour of the Islamic foundation mosque (Markham & Nugget).


The tour was good, and we got free Quaran's, which the team found helpful later when we talked to a guy named Rashid...but Ashia can tell you all about that one :)

Finally we toured through Thornclifffe and to end the night were doused with a heavy downpour as we retreated to our cars! More tomorrow!

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Monday's hot topics...on Tuesday

Well the team is still down at Sanctuary helping out. Since there is so much fun and excitement from the first days of the Florida trip, the "hot topics" got put on pause. Since the World Cup of Soccer is "hot" these days, we want to know who you think will win it all?? - click here. There's also a cool little survey you can try, which will tell you which world cup team you are most like :) Forum member "Keepinitreal" successfully predicted that the Hurricane's would win the Stanley Cup, so try and see if you can predict who will win the World Cup on the forum!!

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Sunday - Church, church and more church!

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!

Day 1 pics - here
Day 1 video:

Saturday, June 24, 2006

At the 100th Floridian

Well the group from Florida is here! We will be hosting a team from Neptune Baptist Church (near Jacksonville Florida) for the next week. They will be taking in many aspects of our multicultural city and helping those of us who live here to reach out. Tonight Dave S. gave an overview of the City of Toronto, the most multicultural city in the world. After that we chatted for a while before the team went to their billets for the night.

If anyone would like to join us at any time over the next week, our schedule looks like this:

Monday, Tuesday - Helping at Sanctuary
Wednesday - Muslim day, mosque visit, Thorncliffe
Thursday - Hindu Temple, Sikh Temple, Street Preaching
Friday - Door to Door evangelism around Bridlegrove

If you're near Toronto why not come down for a day, or if you have time you can tag along for the whole week! I'll try to post pictures and reports each day but no garauntees. Also don't forget to pray for God to impress on people's hearts the needs in this city and around the world. Buckle your seat belts for a "crazy" week:

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Need a title V16


This is a picture of Lukas. Can anyone think of a good title?

Plymouth Brethren, not up to standard...

Saw this message on wikipedia this morning:



If anyone can help with the wikipedia article, click here. Also if you are familiar with wiki editing, you can help by entering info on BrethrenPedia - here

Wednesday prayer requests -

"Prayer requests" are published every Wednesday and provide us with up-to-the-minute requests to help us cry out to God on behalf of others
__________________

I was chatting with friends from the local highschool who asked for prayer as they share their faith with someone at their school today! Here's a quote:
We are going to share our testimonies with our friend that God has brought into our lives
Please pray for these students as they talk to their classmates about Jesus

Monday, June 19, 2006

Monday's hot topics - Oilers vs. Hurricanes

That's right hockey fans, it's game 7 tonight and we want to know who you think will take home the cup!!!!???? Many on the forum have made predictions - here, including yours truly who picked Buffalo to win it all :) Who do you think will win tonight? Will the Oilers take home Stanley or will the Hartford Walers-turned-Hurricanes hoist their first hockey holy grail. I'm predicting another sad same 7 loss for the underdog Canadian team (sorry everyone, I'm still bitter from the Flames loss 2 years ago), but you can log on to the forum and have your say - click here

Sunday, June 18, 2006

An open letter to "anonymous"

To: anonymous
From: Shawn and Hayley Cuthill

Dear Anonymous

We were thrilled to receive your recent gift via MSC for the month of May. What a surprise it was to be on the receiving end of such generosity. We plan to use the funds to print magnetic prayer cards and to fix our squeeky brakes on our van! Your sacrificial gift, Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous, is a great encouragement to us!

Yours in Christ,
Shawn & Hayley

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Whatdyaknow

Quick, do a google search for Plymouth Brethren headcoverings. Whodathunkit!

Need a title - v15

Here is a picture of my mom on the day Olivia was born. Can anyone think of a good title?

Monday, June 12, 2006

Monday's hot topics - The USA and the end of the world

Recently on the forum there have been a few light discussions about the USA and it's foreign policy. Recently a topic was started asking the question "What role will the US play in eschatology (end of the world)". How about it? Do you think George Bush will bring about the end of the world? :) Have your say on the forum - here

CRUX video

There will be more videos, but for now here is a video I took with my digital camera while Gyasi was speaking (7MB quicktime)

Also, here are some more CRUX pics, thanks to Dave Kalmbach - here

Saturday, June 10, 2006

CRUX pics


It's late, so I'm just going to put up a few pictures and post the videos later. As you can see from the picture it was an absolute packed house. Lots of goodness - click here for more pics. Videos tomorrow

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Angels beat the Devil Rays on 666 day
My new favorite song - Everone knows I'm in over my head

Wednesday prayer requests

"Prayer requests" are published every Wednesday and provide us with up-to-the-minute requests to help us cry out to God on behalf of others
__________________

As some of you know, blogger.com was down for some time today. Right before it went down it ate my post on prayer. Perhaps that's what kyboshed the system..who knows. So here are a few items for prayer.

First there is a huge outreach in Sioux Falls, South Dakota - detail here

Also, my friend Steve Bremner is going on a missions trip to Holland!

Pray for Cookie & Kellz who I mentioned previously, as well as the CRUX youth rally this Saturday!

That's it for today. The other post I had was much better :)

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Parenting 101 v7 - Anatomy

Last night in the bath I was putting soap on Lukas' back when he asked me:

Daddy, why do we need a back?

Any good answers out there?

Thursday, June 01, 2006

"Only by the grace of whatever..."

Today I read this article from the Toronto Star
Jun. 1, 2006 THESTAR.COM

A man has been charged with impaired driving after he and three passengers escaped unhurt this morning when their car turned under a tractor-trailer as it exited the Don Valley Parkway...

Staff Sgt. Keith Haines said he found the incident bizarre and shocking.

"Only by the grace of whatever, they walked away from this. I couldn't believe they went under the trailer," he said.
Ummm...Mr. Sargeant...the whatever part...that's God

June loggin in

01June06 - Thurs
02June06 - Fri - youth @ house
03June06 - Sat -
04June06 - Sun - BofB(share), FBH with 21, ladies lunch with youth
05June05 - Mon - admin, paperwork, correspondence
06June06 - Tues-
07June06 - Wed - 100 flyers at MAC
08June06 - Thur- Geoff Ryan, Alan Beattie, Nigel, 50 flyers @ Bethune with Michelle
09June06 - Fri - youth - 21
10June06 - Sat - CRUX
11June06 - Sun - BofB, FBH, pick up boys, picnic, lunch @SC with TW
12June06 - Mon - admin, paperwork, correspondence
13June06 - Tues-
14June06 - Wed -
15June06 - Thur-
16June06 - Fri - LAM christian fellowship, youth@house
17June06 - Sat - Fish's
18June06 - Sun - BofB, FBH with (Raphael, Clayon, Jamoy, Kevin, Cookie, Tatyana, Kelsey, BBQ@Daley's
19June06 - Mon - admin catch-up, St. Catherines
20June06 - Tues- St. Catherines, HP@ladies meeting
21June06 - Wed - no elders meeting, lunch with Jamoy, prayer meeting
22June06 - Thurs-office
23June06 - Fri - office
24June06 - Sat - MAP picnic, Florida group arrives
25June06 - Sun - BofB, FBH, 614, Daycamp sunday
27July06 - Tues - Kelsey Gittens graduation, Florida over for dinner
June 24-July 1st - Florida group

Stats:

14 avg for Sunday
200 tracts
21 avg @ youth
CRUX
spoke once
Florida trip - 13 over to eat