Monday, December 31, 2007

Best intersection ever!

What do you get when you mix the biggest school with the busiest intersection?? click here to find out

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Video of the week - Iowans, don't vote for Huckabee

This video of the week is from the infamous "Talking to Americans" program. I hadn't noticed before but watch carefully to see Rick Mercer interview Republican Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee. Someone this stupid does not deserve to be President (specifically 0:29-1:50):

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Bill MacDonald : January 7, 1917 - December 25, 2007

It's a sad day for those of us in brethren assemblies here in North America. One of the great men of God we have come to know and love over the past century has left us:
At 5PM on Christmas day Bill MacDonald went home to be with Jesus. A group of us gathered early in the morning just to hold his hand, to read the Christmas story and to softly sing and pray...At 3 p.m. I spoke with him to let him know some guests had arrived. There was no longer any facial response, but he squeezed my hand for the last time.
Please sign the guestbook - here - with your memories of this great man.

Bill chose to not marry so he could serve God with more of his time. He served as President of Emmaus Bible College for many years and I still have the copy of the book he sent me called "Singleness". While I didn't follow his life choice on the subject, I have always cherished his personal note to me and the email exchanges we've had over the years. He was always an encourager and many of us felt enthused to have known him. May his example encourage many of us to be sold out for God! We'll miss you Bill.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Happy Birthday Hayley!!

Each December 25th it's my yearly duty to make sure Hayley's birthday is not forgotten in all the busyness of Christmas. So again I'm posting up a sweet pic of my sweetheart so she knows that at least one person remembered. We recently learned that the founder of Pakistan was also born on December 25th so it's quite a special day. If you're reading this, please leave a comment below, or leave a message on Hayley's facebook - here wishing here a great big Happy Birthday!

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Need a title v39 - Away with the manger

Lukas has had some interesting experiences at school this Christmas season. Tonight he wanted to make a little manger scene to take to school for show and tell. Here is the finished product. Can anyone think of a good title for this creation?

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Video of the week - Merry Christmas!!

Like many of you we have found that this week before Christmas is turning out to be quite hectic! So instead of my regular blogging schedule I simply wanted to post this video from all of us to wish you all a Merry Christmas:

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Watching a rEVOLution - Ron Paul for President

A while ago I posted a video and proclaimed my new found love for US Presidential Candidate Ron Paul. Today I love him even more and hope to watch him make political history.

A group of Ron Paul supporters have organized a fundraising drive called "Tea Party 07" to commemorate the Boston Tea Party on December 16th, 1773. Their goal is to raise 10 million dollars for Ron Paul in one day. It's amazing to watch this grass-roots revolution. Click here to watch history and find out why Ron Paul is the phenomenon of the 2008 US election. He has more YouTube subscribers and video views than Barack Obama, more donations from war veterans than any other candidate and more donations in a single day than any other candidate. He is the only Republican that has consistently opposed the Iraq war from the beginning, he voluntarily opted out of a government pension and would completely eliminate income tax. If you're in the US I'd highly recommend voting for him.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Friday, December 07, 2007

Video of the week - Helpdesk

Someone sent this to me with the title "First Mennonite Helpdesk" :)

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

A Mennonite Vision Salvation Brethren Army Ministries Church??!! (Wednesday prayer requests)

This Sunday I was taking in the Lord's supper at Leaside Bible Chapel when the words of sweet old hymn #169 from the black book caught my attention:

We would remember we are one
with every saint that loves thy name
United to thee on the throne
our life, our hope, our Lord the same

What a great reminder of the unity we have with all Christians! I'm glad the founders of the brethren movement made one of their cornerstone doctrines unity. They would welcome anyone that was a Christian to simply break bread with them. Their attitude was that if Christ had received someone, so should they.

Recently I wrote an article for the Vision Ministries newsletter about our little church that's getting started. You'll notice by the title that our church is a blend of many flavours of Christian denominations. And I think that's a wonderful expression of the early brethren.

We really pray that our little church will be an amazing display of what can be accomplished when Christians come together in unity to help those in need. This is why we are partnering with various groups and denominations. Please pray for us, and consider how you could be part of what God is doing here!

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

The future of Canada: Immigration 4 times birth rate

Today Statisctics Canada released their data on Immigration, citizenship and language from the 2006 Census. As I've been saying for some time now, the future of Canada will be found in immigrant communities like Thorncliffe Park. Therefore I was not surprised to read the report, but I think if the church doesn't wake up fast we'll be in some serious danger of being lost in the multicultural shuffle. As CTV reports:
The latest census figures show that 19.8 per cent of the population in 2006 was foreign born, the highest proportion since 1931 and up 13.6 per cent from five years earlier. By contrast, the entire Canadian population grew only 3.3 per cent in the same period.
Did you catch that? The entire population grew 3%, immigration grew 13%. Immigration is 4 times the birth rate. And where are people coming from?
For the first time, the proportion of foreign-born immigrants from Asian and Middle Eastern countries (41 per cent) outstripped those of European heritage (37)...between 2001 and 2006, language groups from Asia and the Middle East recorded the largest gains
As a final note CTV makes a prediction we should all take to heart:
An aging population and the declining birth rate has Canada on track to becoming fully dependent on immigration for population growth by around 2030, Statistics Canada data suggests.
How will you process this data? What is the immigrant population of your church? If it's low, will your church make any adjustments to prepare for this? What will your church look like in 2030?

Monday, December 03, 2007

HV F8TH

**UPDATE** The Globe & Mail reportsMr. Henry will get his plates after all

Are you offended by this title? Seems the Ministry of Transportation thinks it's pretty offensive:

Russell Henry has had the (license) plate HV F8TH - have faith - for 20 years, and when he applied to replace his old, rusting plates, the Ministry of Transportation denied his request. "It does not meet the ministry's current criteria since this configuration could be considered by some members of the public to connotate religion," the ministry's letter indicated
Minister of Transportation = Jim Bradley - click here. Members of all faith groups (Christian/Jewish/Muslim/Hindu) should write and express their thoughts on this matter to the Minister.

Monday's hot topics - "The Golden Compass"

Not sure about you, but I've been getting alot of requests from Christians to *not* see a movie called the Golden Compass. This movie barely registered on my radar when I saw the previews. My only thought was "This looks like a cheap LOTR/Narnia knock off". I didn't actually want to see the movie until there was all the controversy. Now I'm quite interested!

On the forum, WikkidPerson raises a valuable question about this very issue - wether Christians should watch things that are produced by people who don't hold Christian values - click here

How do you feel about the Golden Compass? Should Christians avoid entertainment created by people whose religious views and world outlook we feel to be incorrect? Post your thoughts in the comments below or on the forum - here

Sunday, December 02, 2007

The sayings of Sylas v13 - Cookie

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!!