Monday's hot topics - Does the Bible contradict itself?

TheologyStudent recently posted a few seeming Bible contradictions on the forum. Here's a sample of one:

The author of Matthew contradicts the author of Mark on the number of animals Jesus is riding into Jerusalem.

(Mat 21:7 NRSV) they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on
*them*.

(Mark 11:7 NRSV) Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on
*it*.

Are there contradictions in the Bible? How would you answer this and other seeming contradictions? Post your thoughts on the forum - here

Also, the forum has registered it's first member from Malaysia! Alvin attends a brethren church in Malaysia that is currently expanding and has planted 4 other congregations in the last 10 years. We look forward to Alvin's contributions!

Matt & Ruth flooded

I posted last week about Matt & Ruth Cook and their decision to stay in Pakistan. A few days later I received another email from Matt describing flooding that has occured during the rainy season:

The biggest problem is the flooding that's been going on. Hard to imagine that an area with an average annual rainfall of about -2cm is now swimming. It's rough for the people here. Houses are collapsing, crops and animals are dying. Apparently the city we're in right now have been hit the worst. Hundreds of families here in Sanghar are homeless now. Pray for Sindh.

Please pray for Matt & Ruth. If God moves you to send them a financial gift to help the people there you can donate via MSC

Video of the week - my best paparazzi impersonation

As promised here is my paparrazi video of Global News anchor man Peter Kent, who was on our flight to Greece:

Wednesday prayer requests - OG2 on Greek TV nationwide!!

Got this email yesterday from the staff at Hellenic Ministries!Please pray that this would be a huge blessing, instead of a curse:

1. OG2 on TV nationwide - and the impact on those that saw the ALPHA TV channel last week. OG2, our beautiful color gift bags, and hardbound Bibles were splashed on the screen nationwide in a 'Good Morning Greece'- type program. A Cretan Orthodox Bishop took the opportunity to blast Hellenic Ministries and the Evangelical community in a slanted presentation against our work and us. We believe that their efforts to slam our alleged proselytism only worked in favor of advertising our Bible distribution as a noble cause! Even the Orthodox Theologian on the talk show refuted some of the angered Bishops points in our defense. The Orthodox Theologian went so far as to challenge the Orthodox Church to wake-up; he stated the following: "We must learn from them and get out where the people are and spread the light ourselves!" (plausible implication – we are in the dark!) He also corrected the Bishop reciting the Greek constitution when OG2 was under the hammer for proselytism. Sadly, the last words of the Theologan were a quote from St. Augustine – “There is no salvation outside the church!” We thank the Lord however for Dr. Katsarkas of Thessaloniki who spoke on defense of Hellenic Ministries and the Evangelical community in Greece via a telephone link. (Conveniently, the talk show organizers were careful not to stage any evangelicals in front of the camera.)

Keep praying for the follow up from the OG2 outreach!

Monday's hot topics - Foot Washing

A little practised command in scripture is the act of foot washing. What did Jesus mean when he said ""If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet." Jn 13:13??? If Jesus did it, shouldn't we? Comment on the forum - here

Video of the week - Kythnos singing in English!

As promised, here is the video of us singing "All in All" in English on the Island of Kythnos:

Cook's are staying put

Here is an update from Matt & Ruth Cook concerning their plans to return to Canada:

Ruth's visa application was rejected. The Canadian government is afraid that Ruth might try to stay in Canada past her allotted six months

Please pray for them.

Wednesday prayer requests - No more internet!

Alright folks, this is a biggie. After months of humming and hawing we have finally decided to cancel the internet at home. That's right no more high-speed, I'm quitting cold turkey. Since having Olivia we've hardly been getting any sleep let alone time to check email so we cancelled our high-speed account and now I'm going through withdrawl.

Pray for me that I don't turn into an internet warewolf that drives around with my laptop looking for wireless signals. AAawwwwoooooooooo

Monday's hot topics - The Dead Sea Scrolls

Last year when I was in Israel we went to the site of an amazing biblical archaeological find - Quamran - a series of caves close to the "Dead Sea". In these caves a young boy found some clay pots full of Biblical manuscripts, dating back to the first century, which became known as "the dead sea scrolls". They were in near perfect condition and have provided one of the best set of manuscripts and proof for the Bible in recent history.

On the discussion forum "InHimAlone" asks a good question about these scrolls and what impact they should have on Christians today - here:

What bearing should the Dead Sea Scrolls Hebrew Scriptures or the Greek Septuagint be given for the purposes of study, exegesis or teaching the word of God?

Can we be satisfied with our modern English translations or should we be striving to learn the biblical languages?

Back in town

Well we're back and exhausted. As if terrorist delays weren't enough, AirTransat decided to switch up their planes and so we were 2 hours late getting to Toronto. So we're here safe and sound and catching up. Hopefully I'll post a wrap up of the trip soon, including my brief stint as a paparazzi photographer, when I saw Peter Kent (Global News anchorman) sitting one row in front of us on the flight home!!). More soon but for now, here is a link to the pictures of the outreach:

OG2 team pictures - click here.

Leaving on a jet plane?

Hi everyone, hopefully this will be my last update before we get home. I'm just here at the Greek Bible Institute in Athens where we stayed last night. Many people who were part of the outreach had flights cancelled yesterday so please pray that our 2PM Toronto flight will not be affected. We do not go through the UK or US so hopefully things will go smoothly. More soon

The Chronicles of Kythnos V4 - Best night ever!

Again thank you all very much for your prayers! We really couldn't do it without you all. I want to share one story to show how God answered your prayers for us here, half way around the world! Upon arriving on our island it was clear that we needed to rent a car to travel between all the tiny villages. Villages like Merixax, Chora, Dryopida, Lefkes, Loutra and others with populations of 50-500 are scattered all over this Island of Kythnos. We got a great deal on a van and each day split up into our mini-teams of 4 (our team consists of 12 people plus Olivia - so 3 teams of 4). Each team would be dropped off in their respective village to hand out Bibles, and then we would meet up again at the end of the day to eat supper together at some location where we felt the Lord giving us the best opportunities. One such town was Dryopida. Noel, Deb, Danielle and Kelly had distributed bags there and got a good vibe, so the entire team went there Saturday night. That night there was a big Euro dance at the main ampi-theater so the place was packed with about 500 or 600 people from all over the island, some we recognized coming from other villages as this was the only thing going on on the entire island that night. We saw alot of people we had spoke to from other villages.

We weren't sure what the Euro dance was all about but we knew people would be there so we prayed, and asked you to pray, and God answered in a big way! We ate dinner there and prayed that we would get a chance to share. We had been practising singing some Greek songs and we asked the Lord to give us a chance to share, then headed to the ampitheater. We thought perhaps we would get a chance to sing our songs & talk to people after the show, hopefully if people would be mingling around after.

The ampitheater was packed and there were many performers. While we were waiting for the show to begin Hayley felt led to ask the people if we could actually perform during the show! We were very nervous and prayed as she asked the organizers. First she asked the sound guy who told her to ask the lady that was organizing it. Hayley asked the lady, who simply asked who we were and what we wanted to do and Hayley explained we were Christians from all over the world who had a few songs to sing. The lady wanted to see the songs and after she read the words she gave us the green light! Praise God, we were on the program, and not only that, we were the grand finale!! Now we were REALLY nervous...would we remember our Greek songs, would they boo and throw things at us?? We prayed more fervently now!

The program went on for about 2 hours and we were losing hope of actually getting to perform. There was Greek dancing, singing and lots of "Opa's" all around. After what appeared like the grand finale, the organizer lady went up to the microphone, motioned to Hayley and explained to the whole crowd that we were an international group of Christians that were visiting the Island and wanted to sing some Christian songs. Here is the video:

It was amazing!! We took the stage and sang praises to Jesus in front of people from the entire Island! Len played guitar, we had sheets in front of us with the Greek words and Olivia was sleeping the whole time! Looking at the crowd I figured there were over 600 people there, which was almost half the population of the entire island! Here is the video that Kelly took of us singing in Greek.


There is a video of us singing in English as well but I'll load it up some other time. First we sang "All in All" in English, then Greek, then we sang one other song only in Greek. The people loved it and were very appreciative. Debbie (our Greek speaking Irish superstar) took the microphone after we were finished and shared a bit in Greek about who we were and told everyone that we were the one who had been leaving the Bibles all over their Island!! Wow! And they all clapped!! Praise God

The best part though was after the performance. Hayley and i went up to thank the organizer lady and give her a Bible. We thanked her and asked her where she was from. She went on to tell us that she was the wife of the MAYOR!!!!! We weren't sure wether this meant the mayor of the town (I couldn't imagine a town of 500 having a mayor) so possibly it was the municipality of the entire Island!!! Wow! I've never experienced that before, where a government official has endorsed so openly the gospel or a group of Christians. It was like she had just given a "stamp of approval" to our work, and let all the people of the island know that they officially welcomed the bags!

So thanks for your prayers. We have lots more stories but I'll have to save them for another time. We leave Kythnos today on the ferry and spend the next three days at Porto Astro again, so I won't have internet access until we're back in Canada. Please pray for a safe trip home for everyone on the team! Thank you so much for standing with us in prayer through our time here!

The Chronicles of Kythnos V3 - Bible bags

Just a quick update here in Kythnos. Everyone must have been praying for us last night as we went to the little town of Dryopida. It was the most amazing night , and possibly the best opportunity we have ever had in our many visits to Greece. More a little later today. Please keep praying! Here is a video of me with the Kythnos Donkey after picking up our literature bags. The bags contain a copy of the New Testament in modern Greek, a Jesus DVD and other literature. When we went to pick up our literature we had to maneuvre around this friendly donkey, but thankfully he didn't bite. Please pray for those who we have shared Jesus with and have already received bags.

More soon about our amazing night last night

The Chronicles of Kythnos - V2 - Arrival and Porto Astro

Well I finally figured out the internet here on the Island of Kythnos! I bought an internet phone card and have been reduced to dial-up. For this entry I'm going to take it back a bit to last week when we arrived. Here is a picture of Olivia, she did great on the flight! We were greeted at the Athens airport by our friend Debbie and the HM bus, which picked us up and drove us to Hellenic Ministries seaside property, Porto Astro. For 3 days we had orientation, worship, seminars, workshops, swimming and enjoying the beautiful view. There were over 200 people attending from about 25 countries! On the final night there was a commissioning service where the guest speaker Peter Grant commissioned us all after we had shared communion. We then gathered in our teams and prayed before heading off to our islands! It's encouraging to think that while we are here on Kythnos there are other teams proclaiming the name of Jesus all over the Greek Islands!!
Here is a short video I took, which only took 45 minutes to upload on this sweet dial up connection :) Hopefully I'll be able to upload some more videos and pictures soon.


Please keep praying as we will be going out tonight to the town of Dyopidra to share the love of Jesus!

Some info on Kythnos while you're waiting for pictures :)

HEre is a website on Kythnos - http://www.thegreektravel.com/kythnos/

Kythnos or Thermia is an unspoiled and very Greek Island in every aspect. It mostly attracts Greek tourists, locals are very friendly and life is slow.

The Chronicles of Kythnos - V1

Well well folks, it's another update starting with an apology for not posting more! :) Internet cafe's here on the Greek Island of Kythnos (2 hours south from the port of Pireas) are as about as reliable as the Jehovah's Witness translation of the Bible :) The monitor at the internet cafe here went down and I wasn't able to connect my laptop to upload pictures and videos. Now it's fixed and tonight I hope to try to connect so you can all see and hear how things are going.

Currently we are into our 2nd day of full-out evangelism here on the island. We have been entrusted with 512 bible packs and have had a great time distributing them throughout the island. Towns to pray for include Merixas, Chora, Kanala, Dyopida and Loutra.

Tonight we will be all travelling via our rental car to the town of Loutra where Len and Sarah had a great discussion with the skipper who runs the marina. Pray that we will get a chance to boldly share with him and many others who park their boats there. Pray that we would be able to get the packs of Bibles into the hands of Kythnonians (if that is a word). Pray for safety on these brutal and windy mountain roads. Everyone is still doing great, nothing major to report, however we still have until Monday for something to go wrong so please pray for us, as well as the other 30 teams who have spread out over these Greek Island to distribute all 30,000 Bibles in modern Greek! Pray that God would lead us to the right people! Thank you so much for your prayers so far. On behalf of the team - Noel, Len, Ger, Kelly, Danielle, Claire, Sara, Amy, Deb, Ruth, Hayley, Olivia and myself thank you for standing with us in prayer. More soon :)

We're here!

HEy everyone, sorry for the lack of updates. This is my first time getting to an internet cafe on our little Island of Kythnos. I have lots of pictures and prayer requests on the laptop so hopefully I'll get to connect a little later. Everyone is doing great, Olivia is attracting a crowd as usual :) Thanks for praying, more soon

August loggin in

27July06-Aug1206 -> OG2 in Greece
12Aug06 - Sat - back in Toronto, catch up at chapel
13Aug06 - Sun - BofB, FBH
14Aug06 - Mon - daycamp
15Aug06 - Tues -
16Aug06 - Wed -
17Aug06 - Thurs-
18Aug06 - Fri -
19Aug06 - Sat -
20Aug06 - Sun - BofB (shared), FBH, HVDC by 6PM
21Aug06-25Aug06
24Aug06 - Thurs - Daycamp banquet
26Aug06 - Sat - At chapel 9-2PM, parents for evening
27Aug06 - Sun - BofB, FBH with 9 (Alpha, Frank, Moses, Maya, Mae, Clayon, Christoff, Hansel, Jamoy), afternoon youth practise, youth service till 10
28Aug06 - Mon - at chapel, catch-up
29Aug06 - Tues - zoo
30Aug06 - Wed -
31Aug06 - Thurs - meet Matt Craig @ DVBC

Made my day

Just here at the airport in Toronto where our flight is delayed 2 hours! Thankfully I discovered a wireless signal here and 2 things I read made my day...

1) Todd Anderson's blog entry - here

Quick thought: Jesus is the most offensive person alive. There is noone else who has scandalized and brought on the hatred of so many people.

2) New Canadian friends of ours who we spent alot of time with named Maggie & Derek sent an email to us and the signature underneath the email read:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John3:16

It's was encouraging to see them going on strong for the Lord even though we haven't talked with them in months.

That's all for now, we'll try to upload a video if we have enough time.

Olivia crawling!!

In other news, Olivia started crawling!! Here's a video for you to watch over and over again until our next update:

Wednesday prayer requests - Travel, Pack, Repeat

Well we are back home now...for just over a day, then tomorrow we fly out to Greece! That's right we got the passport! A little stress and 90 dollars was all it took. Thank you all so much for your prayers.

We got the passport late on Monday, and I think it was a bit easier because Olivia's passport was a child passport not an adult. Anyhow, after getting the passport we camped out at the Mayo's and left early Tuesday morning. We drove through a few torrential downpours, including one right at rush hour in Montreal, and landed at good old Brockville, Ontario in time to have dinner with our very own WikkidPerson!! Here we are in this picture doing our Wikkid handshake...well we just made it up on the spot so nothing official. It was a great time chatting and getting to know each other, and by the end of the visit even Olivia was smiling! :)

The picture is a bit blurry, but hey, you gotta be discreet when dealing with people who have been kicked out of closed brethren meetings. We got home about 1AM and are now packing like crazy to get ready for the next leg of the race. Tomorrow we fly to Athens, Greece so stay tuned for more updates from OG2!! Thank you so much for your prayers so far, please continue to remember us as we travel across the ocean. Basic info is available at the www.operationgideon.org website - here

Monday's hot topics - Church closure and a SimpleGathering in Fredricton

Hey everyone, we're just in Fredricton at Wayne & Valerie Mayo's place. I'll hopefully post an update on the passport situation some time tomorrow however I wanted to post a few pictures I took today. We were driving through Fredricton and I saw this church building, that had been bought by a marketing company. The name and mission statement are so classic for a business that set up shop in a place where people used to worship.

Real results

Seems like the church produced no results in people's lives, therefore the end result of that failure resulted in the church being turned over to a secular business. Careful before you laugh too hard, for we need to ask ourselves if our local church is producing results. Results in the way people live, results in reaching out to others, results in basic Christian stuff. If not, then we best examine why, so that this church's fate is not repeated. God asked the churches in The Bible(Book of Revelation) to deal with their problems. Not to ignore them but to "repent and do the first works". Also, at the side of the building was an interior design business that had purchased the church's parsonage! Another classic. Seems like the minister hadn't done his job of making any "interior" changes in human hearts. God must have a sense of humour! :)

In other Fredricton news, we were able to stop by and visit with our friend Paul Blackmore who is a friend of Wayne & Valerie and a legend on the discussion forum. Since we were in town waiting for the passport we stopped by his watch shop to say hi. It's an awesome store, openly displaying lots of scripture and creation magazines fromn Answers In Genesis for all to see. It was a great example of what can be done when a local business man takes his faith seriously. Not only did we get to meet him in person, but the guy graciously fixed hayley's broken walmart 9 dollar watch for free! Sweet Maritime goodness - thanks for the visit PMB.

So that's all for today, stay tuned for more soon on the continuing passport saga!

God cares about my mail?

Thank you everyone for praying about the passport situation! God is good. Here's an update of what went down today:

1) This morning we went to worship at Charlottetown Bible Chapel. I love that place. It's so down-home-how-ya-doin-friendly and very supportive and encouraging to us. Got to see lots of people, including Bud & Phyllis Anderson, the legendary Dan Frew tribe, and John McKim was the speaker! It was a really good church day. Very refreshing.

2) Jacques Boisvert mentioned our Greece trip after the Breaking of Bread, encouraging the folks to "McPray" for us each time they see a McDonalds :) A few people asked about the trip and so we asked them to pray about the passport situation.

3) After church we didn't have any plans, but Carson & Sarah Younker wanted to hang out so we invited them over for lunch.

4) During the conversation at lunch Hayley remembered that both Carson & Sarah used to work for Canada Post!! It was like an epiphany as we asked them every question we hadn't gotten an answer for. We asked about how we could find out where the package was without having our tracking number and they weren't sure but told us to call Andrew (their brother-in-law) who just happens to be a MANAGER at Canada Post!! Bonus!

5) We called Andrew, who told us that the sorting plant employees got started sorting the weekend's mail at 4PM, and actually gave us some contacts so we could go over and sort through the mail!! How sweet is that?

6) Hayley trucked it over to the sorting plant for 3:50PM just in time to see the first employee show up. She walked up and gave them the schpeel and they let her right in! Imagine that, getting let right in to the plant where they sort the mail.

7) Well the employee asked "What was the name" and Hayley said "Ger..." to which the employee said "Oh, Gerald MacLeod, it's right here". They didn't even check for ID or anything!! Hayley opened it up and indeed we now have Olivia's birth certificate and the plane tickets!! No more rage against Canada Post and their "gaurantees"

Now the next stage of the amazing passport race has us travelling to Fredriction, New Brunswick where we will need to be at the passport office at 8:30AM..yes AM..meaning we leave PEI at 5AM. There are still no gaurantees we will even get the passport, however we have renewed confidence seeing that God made some amazing connections for us today that we didn't even know about so we could get our documents. So please keep praying that we can pull off the next leg of the race in Fredricton, as well as get home in time to catch our flight on Thursday. Stay tuned!

The sayings of Lukas v26 - Superman

On the way to PEI we always stop in Quebec city at this amazing Burger King. It has the best play place I've ever seen and the kids love it. We picked up some happy meals and the toy was a pair of Superman glasses with a little story book as well. Lukas was looking ove the booklet yesterday when he said:

Daddy, why does Superman wear his underwear on the outside?

I honestly couldn't think of a real good answer. :) Any thoughts?

The passport saga continues...

Well it's Saturday afternoon and the plot is getting thick here in the Olivia passport saga. She doesn't seem to frazzled about it, but mom & dad sure are stressin over this one. Thankfully my good friend Matt Cook posted an exhortation about not worrying on his blog - here so that has been quite comforting. Let's see how God works this one out!

Here's the situation:

1) Olivia's birth certificate and our plane tickets were sent "priority" from Toronto to PEI on Thursday with the "gaurantee" that they would arrive on Friday by 5PM. Well it's Saturday at 5PM and there is no sign of the package and all Canada Post employees have the weekend off.

2) If we ever actually get this package on Monday we'll have to boot it over to Fredricton to the passport office to beg and plead for an emergency same-day passport. We'll also have to cough up about a hundred bucks along with the begging and pleading.

3) If the package doesn't come on Monday...well...we're in some serious trouble. The friend that mailed the stuff to us was leaving for San Diego that same day and, upon calling the hotel he's staying at, found out that he didn't have the tracking number with him. Joy. Has anyone ever been able to track a package without the tracking number?

4) If the package does come on Monday we might just be OK, but if nothing shows up then we have a serious dillema. One option we had thought of was me going to Greece and Hayley staying at home. That wouldn't be desireable but then at least we wouldn't lose out completely on our tickets. Oh ya, that's another thing, since the package has our plane tickets in them, we'd have to try to get replacement tickets. Does anyone have experience getting replacement tickets or switching tickets at the last minute?

We'll keep you posted! Please keep praying!

The PEI posse

Went out tonight with some folks I used to work with. I promised them I'd post up this video, in hopes that they would send me the picture of me licking the plate. I think tonight was the beginning of my plate-licking career. Perhaps I'll make a hobby of licking plates at famous restuarants or with famous people.

As for the passport issue, things may have gone from bad to worse. We spent way too much time on the phone today with several government people. We will need to go to Fredricton to get an emergency passport, however there is an error in Olivia's birth certificate so we may be in big trouble. A friend has express posted the birth certificate to us here in PEI, hopefully it arrives tomorrow and hopefully the mistake isn't going to keep us from getting a passport. If we can't go to Greece, does anybody else want to make use of the plane tickets?? :)

Wednesday prayer requests - Greece passport

Have you ever had one of those "OH NO" moments? Tonight we were hanging around with friends when they started asking about our Greece trip next week. We were mentioning how things have been so busy that we haven't had much time to think about the details of the trip, hence the PEI vacation to regroup a bit. In an instant I realized we hadn't gotten Olivia a passport for our trip!! Yikes. One week away and no passport for Olivia! Please pray as we need to make a few very important calls tomorrow to see if we can get her one before we leave.

Day 3 - The Lukas show v2 - PEI update

Well it seems Lukas has really taken to putting his thoughts on film. Here is the Lukas report this afternoon from PEI:


Earlier in the day we headed out to the beach. Here's a video of Lukas taking on the waves!

PEI trip - day 1 - driving, driving and more driving

Proof that McLobster lives! I didn't ask where it went, but ladies and gentlemen "it's back". I took this picture tonight while we were stopped in Moncton for gas. I haven't tried the McLobster yet, not sure if I ever will. Hayley tried it and said it was gross and overpriced. I'll take her word for it.

Today was a simple day. Drive.Stop.Gas.Drive.Stop.Eat.Gas.Drive.Stop.Gas and so on. There really wasn't anything eventful about the trip, other than the fact that we pulled it off in about 16.5 hours which is very good time for a family of 5.

For the last week or so we've been hyping Lukas & Sylas up about their "sleepover" with Grammy & Grampy (ie: Hayley's parents are taking the kids while we are in Greece). This strategy has worked pretty good and the guys were really excited as we approached the legendary Confederation Bridge. When I told Lukas that the bridge was the longest in the world he said "Like the CN tower is the tallest in the world". Here's a video of Lukas and Sylas' reaction as we went over the bridge! It's a bit dark so you might have to squint to see those cute faces illuminated by the infared light (Olivia was sleeping in the back):

More tomorrow from PEI McLobster headquarters!

On "the" Island

How come everyone who lives on an island calls their island "the" island? Well we have arrived here on good old PEI, wah! It's about 11PM, the kids went right to bed and so I wanted to just throw up one video and a few pics. However, Linda Peric, of the athensBLOG team, just walked in the door so I'll be back on in a few minutes. Just checkin in to let you know a) we are alive and b) we didn't get c) any speeding tickets or d) eat any McLobster's (yes they have McLobster out here, more about that soon)

Monday's Hot topics - Bill Gothard

Last week I attended the Bill Gothard Seminar here in Toronto. I like alot of what he had to say and there were loads of notes and applications I made. On the whole I think Gothard is right on with alot of conflict, character and....concilliation (I would have said recon-cilliation, but I needed that last C word).

Others however have taken stronger stances. Some worship him as a guru or prophet, believing everything he says, right down to his teaching about how many days after giving birth that parents can...err...try again let's say.

While that is one extreme of almost worshiping everything he says, the other extreme are those who throw out everything he says as too right-wing-ultra-conservative-authoritarian. Either that or they see those who worship him and think something must be up.

There has been a few pages of discussion - here - on the forum about our brother Bill and his teachings/seminar/institute. What are your thoughts? Does Mr. G go to far? Or is he right on and people just need to get with the program? Have you attended a seminar? Let us know your thoughts on the forum

ps. We are leaving at 5AM for PEI!! I will be posting a few videos of the glorious red sands so stay tuned.

Olivia doing push ups

The sayings of Lukasv25 - Hezbollah Geurillas

Two videos in one day! Sure, why not, it's Friday! Today we were driving home when the news came on the radio about war in Israel.

Lukas: Daddy! Did you hear about the battle in Israel
Daddy: What battle?
Lukas: The battle with the guerillas!! We need to tell grammy!

Video of the week - v1 Sylas sings!!

Well folks, when the Florida team was here I discovered YouTube.com! What a site! It's an online community of video sharing that rocks. You can upload loads of videos so I created an account and started uploading! So far I've got 33 online, and believe me, there will be many, many more! So as an outlet for my new addiction I wanted to start a new feature on the blog.

Ladies and gentleman...introducing the athensBLOG "Video of the week"! This feature may happen every Friday, I just haven't decided yet. This feature will allow me to post video updates of our ministry, our kids, our travels, and soon we will be posting videos of our time in Greece. Glory!

So each week I will select a video, upload it to YouTube and display it here to the glee of my faithful readers. To start off I thought I'd let you all hear how wonderfully musically talented Sylas is becoming. Here is our first installment of the athensBLOG "Video of the week" - Sylas sings!!

Need a title v17

Here's Lukas with his buddy Russ. Can anyone think of a good title?

Wednesday prayer request - Greece again!

The Greece mission trip is only 3 weeks away! We picked up our tickets last night so please pray for all the preparations for the trip. We'll be posting updates in the coming days. For now, more details as www.operationgideon.org

Q2 report online - here

Click here for our 2006 second quarter ministry report (890KB Microsoft Word Doc). It's hard to believe the year is already half over!! So click away and don't forget to McPray! :)

Monday's hot topics - What is an Apostle?

I wrote a post on the forum a while back and while there have been a few comments I am like U2 and still haven't found what I'm looking for. Here is the original post:

When my wife and I first went to Greece we realized that there are some words in Greek that we have substituted and changed or anglo-ized.

The Jehovah's Witnesses in Greece are called Martyrs (witnesses) of Jehovah. Martyr = witness but over time those two have been seperated mentally by those of us who live in the west.

The other one that caught my attention was that missionaries are simply called apostles in Greek. Seeing as the Greek word "apostolos" means "sent one" it made alot of sense to me.

It made me wonder why we don't pack in our english un-scriptural word "missionary" and trade it in for a bible word - apostle

If we used the term apostle in it's true sense how would everyone feel about bringing this back?

Another question I had then was "What are the qualifications of an apostle"?
Some say that an apostle has to have seen Jesus Christ, but I don't think that's what Paul is getting at in the verse we quote. He says "am I not an apostle, haven't I seen Jesus" and goes on to sort of build his case for his own legitimacy. I'm not so sure he's builing a list of "qualifications" for apostles.

Just wondering if anyone has had similar thoughts?

So, what exactly is an Apostle? Just a select group of individuals or anyone "sent" by a church? What do you think about bringing back the Bible word "apostle" instead of "missionary"?

Parenting 101 v8 - parking lot panic

When I am confronted with a difficult parenting situation, I'll put the issue out there to plumb the depths of the vast parenting knowledge of my beloved readers....Here is our eighth edition of Parenting 101.
__________________________

Hayley here with todays Parenting 101! Yesterday I was at the grocery store, on my way back to the van with a full cart - Sylas in the front, Olivia in her infant car seat balanced on the back, and a weeks worth of groceries wedged in between the two. Upon reaching the van, I picked up Sylas to throw him in his seat when I noticed Olivia was gagging on someting- she has a bit of a cold so i thought maybe it was just that. Then I remembered that I hadn't unlocked the van yet so with Sylas in one hand, I'm fumbling in my bag with the other to locate the keys. Olivia was still making gagging noises so i gave up looking for the keys and turned my attention to her. She was choking on something- but what? I hadn't seen her put anything into her mouth. So I made a decision to put Sylas down (in the parking lot next to the van) and start fishing arround in Olivia's mouth. She had pulled a peice of plastic off a grocery bag and it was stuck in her throat!! At that point, Sylas took one look at me and ran in the other direction across the parking lot!! The decision I was faced with was: A) help 7 month old daughter who is choking on a plastic bag or B) chace 2 1/2 year old son who is running into parking lot traffic.

What would you do?

Wednesday prayer requests - Cookie & Fam

Well it was with great sadness that our little friend Cookie went home to St. Catherines. The Florida team dropped him off on Saturday on their way back and we've been missing him, so take a minute and say a prayer for Cookie, Kellz, Kadeem and mom Michelle as they adjust to life in their new home.

The sayings of Lukas v24 - Wind

Last night we went down to Ontario place to see the "Festival of Fire" fireworks. We were down on the water and there was a nice breeze coming off the water. Lukas turned to me, rubbing his eyes and said:

Daddy, I have a piece of wind in my eye!

Monday's hot topics - "Suitable hymns"

Elizabeth is a forum member who is also a choir director. She is looking for some "suitable hymns" - here and posted on the forum to ask what our thoughts were. It made me wonder "Is there such a thing as suitable and unsuitable hymns? Are there categories? Who determines what is appropriate music?

Elizabeth goes on to say:

Personally, the worship team phenomena does not interest me at all and never has. Call me a dinosaur, but I think they get up there for their own entertainment, without consideration for their content, their sound, or their worship of God. I know the Lord hears the crows as well as the nightingales, but please, Lord, give me a break.

What are your thoughts on music in church?

I love YouTube

I just fell in love with YouTube.com, the website that allows you to upload videos. I've uploaded about 10 videos of the Florida trip so far - click here and enjoy!

July loggin in

27July06-Aug 11th - OG2 Greece
26July06 - Wed - pack for Greece, prayer meeting with Mike D
25July06 - Tues - Fredricton to Toronto drive, Mike D stays over
24July06 - Mon - Fredricton - passport
17July06-24July06 - PEI
16July06 - Sun - BofB, FBH
11July06 - Q2 report, send
10July06 - Mon - admin catch up, cell phone, Greece correspondence
09July06 - Sun - BofB, Chester-Le Sunday School!, Jamoy, Nathaniel resumes@Bridlewood, World Cup final, Evening service, F.O.M meeting
08July06 - Sat - speak at RBC retreat 2x
07July06 - Fri - Daycamp - speak at chapel, speak at RBC retreat 1x
06July06 - Thur- daycamp
05July06 - Wed - daycamp, PC lunch
04July06 - Tues- daycamp
03July05 - Daycamp starts
02July05 - BofB, FBH with 7 (Nathaniel, Tyrell, Kevin, Jamoy, Clayon, Mickey, Raphael)
01July05 - recover from Florida trip, fireworks

Stats:

Spoke 6 times
Chester Le Sunday School
Greece
FBH - 7

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

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!

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!

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 - 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:

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:

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'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

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

You know you're from the Maritimes when...

Saw this post on a link from a friends blog. Having lived in PEI, I thought it was hilarious. Here's a sample:

1. Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor on the highway.
2."Vacation" means going to Moncton for the weekend.
3. You measure distance in hours.
4. You know several people who have hit a deer.

Oh the hilarity!

More CRUX video

Thanks to our resident movie mogul Mark J, the latest CRUX videos are available online - here. (You'll need the new Quicktime player - here)
-Cheating Death
- Life after Death (Grim Reaper)
- DaVinci Code
- What does it mean to be Born again?
More videos of the actual night coming up soon

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'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

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

CRUX - Saturday (June 10th) - Be there!!

See you all this Saturday!!!

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 :)

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?

Monday's hot topics - Life changing confession

Have you ever had something happen to you that drastically changed your life? Something that made you "see the light" and change an area of your life you knew was keeping you down. How about kicking an old habit?

Mark P (moderator of the "hot topics" area on the forum) recently spilled the beans about an experience he had while he was a teenager, that helped him give up drugs for good:

Thinking it would be cool I decided to turn on the video camera and press record for the night to see what we all were up to. After the usual moment of fame that we all felt we began to act normal or at least as normal as you could given the amount of booze or weed you had. Any who, within a few minutes there I was, centre frame, just lying on the floor acting like a complete idiot. I was making no sense at all, just almost noises but not making any sensible words. It was soooo stupid to look at and something that I think was very beneficial for me to see. It was that experience that made me decided never to do a drug again.

How about you? Has anything happened in your life that caused a drastic change? Share it on the forum - here and maybe it could help others.

"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

Need a title v14

Here's grampy MacLeod with Lukas. Can anyone think of a good title for this picture?

Monday's hot topics - The depravity of man

De-prav-i-ty? Yes I said depravity, that non-bible word which calvinists use along with the first letter of their TULIP (T=Total Depravity). In two weeks this topic has generated 17 pages of intense discussion on the forum. To jump in to the miry clay of the depravity discussion click here!!

How much is your site worth?

Do you have a website? Ever wondered how much it's worth? Give Leapfish.com a try:

ShawnCuthill.com = 7,142.00
SimpleGathering.com = 10,584.00
Athensblog.ca = 11,094.00
bbc.quist.ca/bb = 32,414.00

How much is yours worth? Click here to find out

Need a title v13

Phew, it's late. We just got in from Shania-Twain-ville (aka Timmins, Ontario). Sorry we missed the hot topics and prayer requests this week, they will resume as normal next week. For now, here's a picture we took up north. Can anyone think of a good title?

Random ministry pics V6 - Leaving on a jet plane

Friday I took the boyz to Buttonville airport where we got a private lesson from our instructor GW. GW (not JW, that's his son) is a flight instructor at Senecca college and was gracious enough to give a few of us from Scarborough an inside look at the aviation course! Since the boyz are still in highschool they are still deciding what they are going to be when they grow up (aren't we all) so we wanted to whet their appetite for flight.

Unfortunately Jamoy (right) was a bit scared of the planes so instead he tried to flap his arms in order to gain altitude and avoid having to learn what those pesky dials and buttons did ->


GW took us through a number of areas of the flight training. From how to read the weather, to sitting in a number of plains (above), to even taking us in to do a real flight simulation on a massive flight simulator!

It was an amazing experience, and as you can see in the video below, Kevin and the boyz really enjoyed it! Thanks GW!

oh dear

Do a google search for "theology chat". If you're too lazy, just click here. Whodathunkit?

Is Jesus hiding something?

No I'm not talking about the DaVinci Code here, rather I had a thought this morning about why Jesus told parables.

Matthew 13:9-11:

9Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
10And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
11He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

The reason I thought of this was that yesterday I found myself giving someone advice in parable form. Afterwards I was reflecting on this and my immediate reaction was to think "Oh no, I didn't explicitly give them any advice, I didn't spell things out for them, I didn't tell them what to do". The next thought I had was that Jesus told stories so maybe it's ok to not give people advice. Maybe Jesus was hoping people would clue in without him having to spell things out? If people asked him to tell them the meaning of the parable he would but rarely does he treat people like we do and blurt out advice. Was he trying to hide things from people? Was he playing a spiritual game of cat and mouse? Why wouldn't he just tell them things plainly?

Wednesday prayer requests - New picture!

Last wednesday I posted a picture that a friend had designed for us. As some of you have mentioned, it is time for a new "prayer picture". Well thanks to Colleen MacFadyen here it is!!

We'll be printing up some prayer cards/magnets and sending them out soon to our wonderful supporters! If you'd like one just leave a comment below. Thanks for your prayers!

Monday's hot topics - Money

Well folks, this past week has been so hectic I haven't really checked in to see what's hot on the discussion forum. The BrethrenPedia continues to be hot though, gaining contributors worldwide who are adding bits of information about their local churches. Today instead of focusing on those two sites I wanted to touch on a pretty hot personal topic - money. Yikes, talk about a taboo! If you don't talk about it everyone thinks you're fine, but if you talk about it too much everyone thinks you're begging.

To avoid both of these extremes I've managed to load a few donation buttons on the left side of the blog under the "To support our ministry" section. Lots of ministries and ministers put little donations buttons like this on their sites, actually it was from one of those sites that I learned how to set it up! Naturally the first way you can support us is through prayer, but for those of you who just keep bugging us about how to send money here are the new shiny buttons:

Or if you don't have paypal, just send a donation our way via credit card and we'll make sure our 3 kids are full of food:

Hot stuff! Thanks for enduring that everyone. For the record, this post has absolutely no connection to the fact that I was watching The Apprentice when I posted it :)

A very special mothers day

I spent a lovely day with my mommy today. She's had a tough week. Just got out of hospital. Say a prayer for her. Here is a picture of her and my dad just a few years ago :) I love you mom! Happy Mothers Day!

Yearly haircut

Well folks it's that time again. The sun is out. The temperature is in the 20's. The long-johns are put away for another year (yes I wear long-johns well into May) and Hayley gives me my yearly haircut. Here's the evidence:

BEFORE:


AFTER:

Need a title v12

Can anyone think of a good title for this picture?

Wednesday prayer requests - McPray deluxe

Here's a sweet pic that a secret friend designed for us :)

Monday's hot topics - Why did God create men with nipples?

Well well well, seems nothing is sacred these days on the forum. As if discussing the creation of the world was not stimulating enough, recently there has been some pretty intersting discussion about "Why God created men with nipples?" Seriously. Have you ever wondered that? Why did He? Doesn't seem like they do much. Does it seem odd to anyone else? Really...what are your thoughts...if you've ever thought of it before. I'm not joking here! I want to know. And did God put nipples on Adam before he created Eve? If so, then they must have had a purpose? Right? Am I crazy here? Why Why Why? What are they for? Please...somebody...tell me!! Please...just click here and post your answer on the forum!!

Need a title - v11

This is a recent picture of our butter dish.

Can anyone think of a good title?

Wednesday prayer requests - 3 months till Greece!

Got this prayer update for the summer outreach in Greece. Lord willing we will be going and if anyone is interested in going, there is still room on the team :) The dates are July 28th to August 9th and it's about half the price of the OG1 Olympic trip. Sweet. We have about 10 on the team so far, but the more the merrier!! Join us for a Greek Island gospel adventure! Email me for more info or check the website at www.operationgideon.org Opa!!

PRAYING FOR GREECE - OPERATION GIDEON II - 12 weeks (3 MONTHS - 86 days) until OG II - Dates ~ July 28 - August 9, 2006

PRAY WITH US FOR:

1…$50,000 USD needed by the end of this month for the first payment towards the 30,000 Bibles (hardbound New Testaments) ordered for this summers island outreach. Our faith is once again challenged. Pray with us concerning this wonderful opportunity and need!

2…the protection of our team members. Lahela tore the ligament in her knee at the Athletic Conference in Leptokaria a few weeks ago, requiring surgery and weeks of bed rest.

3…Roy and Rosemary from South Africa who will be ministering on the Greek islands for three months. They will be praying and preparing the way spiritually for OG2 and sharing their faith on a personal one-on-one basis.

4…the OG2 team from Pittsburgh who have adopted the island of Kalymnos, as one of their team members is battling potentially serious health concerns.

5…Greece as it celebrates its 25-year membership in the European Union this year. Most Greeks view their membership in the EU as positive with benefits both political and economical. Pray that this year many more will put their trust in the Lord rather than in a growing materialistic reality that the EU status makes possible.

Monday's hot topics -Creation-7 days?168 hours?

Monday's hot topics -Creation-7 days?168 hours?
A new forum user named Shasta recently raised some questions about how God created the world.

The 7 days of creation in Genesis, when God created the earth, and everything on it, were those actual days as we know them (i.e. 0:00h-23:59h)? Or merely days in the sense of a greater period of time (i.e. era etc...)?

After a few responses she states her wonder with this "hot topic"

Some people don't believe Dinosaurs existed, some do.
Some people believe that if you don't take the Genesis account litterally, you are doubting God.
Some people believe that if you DO take Genesis 1 literally you are doubting God.
Some people are willing to just say "I don't know, but God does", and leave it at that.
Some people believe there is an answer that lies in the middle between both sides. Fascinating.

How about you? Where do you stand on these issues of origin? Post your thought on the discussion forum - here

May loggin in

May Stats:

Preached 3 times (Awana, Highschool, Youth)
11 average at Family Bible Hour (8+13+12)
33 average on Fridays (32+34)
12 youth help at chapel cleanup
4 youth to airport for tour/flight training
11 over to eat
3 stayed overnight

01May06 - Mon - Video with Mark J, Costa & Jenny over
02May06 - Tues-
03May06 - Wed -
04May06 - Thur-
05May06 - Fri - speak at Awana closing
06May06 - Sat - Chapel clean up (12 youth)
07May06 - Sun - BofB, FBH with 8 (Kevin, Jamoy, cookie, Kellz, Nathan, Kelsey, Dom, Keliah)
08May06 - Mon - office, catch-up
09May06 - Tues->Thurs-Workers & elders conference
12May06 - Fri - youth (32), jesse weeks (7 over after)
14May06 - Sun - at parents
17May06 - Wed - Melissa at airport (Shug overnight)
18May06 - Thurs - read to daycare
19May06 - Fri - flight practise, youth with Nigel (34) 2 over
20May06 - Sat - CRUX video with Mark J, Feast
21May06 - FBH with 13, Timmins till Wednesday 24th
25May06 - Thurs -
26May06 - Fri - Davinci code movie & talk
27May06 - Sat
28May06 - Sun - BofB, FBH with 12
29May06 - Mon -
30May06 - Tues- Josh & Colleen here
31May06 - Wed - elders meet, CRUX meet, prayer meeting