Daniel MacLeod's 100th birthday!!! Sept 18, 1907-Sept 18, 2007

I'm at home with the kids while Hayley flies to PEI today. Her grandfather, Daniel MacLeod, turns 100 years old today!! It's quite an amazing feat to live to 100 and it takes someone like Grampy MacLeod to pull it off! When we got married 7 years ago he was a mere 93 years old, but was still walking about 5k each day. Can you imagine how much the world has changed since he was born?? This past Christmas we were talking about hangings (Saddam) and new fuel efficient cars when it came up in the conversation that hangings were still legal and cars hadn't been invented when Grampy was born!

The only good picture I have on me is this one, where he is holding baby Sylas in 2003. Hopefully Hayley will get some good shots of his century party tonight!

It's not everyday that someone turns 100 so to show Grampy how special he is please take a minute and LEAVE A BIRTHDAY GREETING in the comments below and we'll make sure Grampy gets to read them!! Have a great birthday Grampy!

Monday's hot topics - Running from God to sex, drugs and alcohol

Forum member Cole lamented recently that a friend of hers had turned to drugs and alcohol. She titled the topic "Running from God to sex, drugs and alcohol" and wants to know:

what happens when a Christian runs from God to sex drugs and alcohol to dim the pain of knowing they should be with God but think they aren't strong enough? how does that happen? any input at all would be appreciated...what do i do? what do i say? how does one deal with a Christian alcoholic and drug user?

A Christian alcoholic? Christian drug user? That's a tough one. Haven't heard a sermon at church on that one. Post your thoughts in the comments below, or on the forum - here

Nerds who shook the world v2 - Chester Donaldson

This is the second in a series I've called 'Nerds who shook the world'. Looking back on people who were very influential and how they got started. May this be an encouragement to all of us, wether young or nerdy, to trust God and do amazing things.
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Ever heard of Bowsman, Manitoba? Neither had I until I saw the 1945 Emmaus Bible College Yearbook. That year a young man from Bowsman named Chester Donaldson was just a young fresh-faced student. As you can see from the picture he wasn't even...let's say the most proficient in the hair brushing department.

But don't write Chester off just yet. After graduating from Emmaus, this 19 year old went on to start many of the brethren assemblies up north as well as Northland Bible Camp in Timmins! I'm not sure exactly how many churches he planted, but I have read his autobiography titled 'A Kernel of Wheat' where he talks about driving up Yonge Street to Timmins, back when it was a dirt road! Fresh faced Chester, a pioneer church-planter? Zits and all!? If God can do amazing things through Chester, imagine what he can do through you!! Our history has not yet been written. What can we do if we simply trust God and go for it!? Here's to you Chester!

The 5 Support Steps

We are really thankful for the many people who are asking us 'How can we support you guys'. Seems God is at work and we're happy to simply be involved and watch Him do it! For those interested in helping out practically we've developed a little system to help:

1. Visit - See for yourself what God is doing! You are always welcome to visit the neighbourhood.

2. Pray - Please pray for us at 6:14AM and 6:14PM

3. Donate - if you'd like to support us financially there is information on the left margin of this blog. These arrangements are temporary until we have our own charitable number and can issue receipts. Furniture, clothes and other practical items are also helpful as we encounter many new Canadians that have just moved in.

4. Partner - at this step you've seen, tasted, prayed and given. Now consider partnering with us. Examples would be helping teaching english once a week, helping at outreaches, kids clubs, delivering welcome packs, bibles, knitting, etc. Also if you're part of an organization that you think would be interested in helping out please let us know.

5. Move in - The highest level of support would be to actually move into the neighbourhood and love the people all around us. Some have already done this. It's our 'incarnational imperative' that drives us to actually model the style of ministry Jesus used and 'dwell among us'. It's a big step but it's worth it.

We're really thankful to God for how everything is working out and how all of you amazing people are being moved with the same heart of compassion as we are! May God bless you!

Imposter!!

We've spotted another Hayley Cuthill out there!! Watch your back little lady, this Hayley is not impressed.

Wednesday prayer requests - Ramadan

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the Muslim month of fasting known as Ramadan - click here. During this month Muslims fast from sun up to sundown and food is given to the poor. It is a great month, one which will hopefully spark more prayer among Christians. Think about taking at least one day during this month to fast all day and pray. Jesus said 'when you fast', not 'if you fast'.

At the same time, a group of young Muslim 'apostates' has launched a campaign to make it easier to renounce Islam.

The provocative move reflects a growing rift between traditionalists and a younger generation raised on a diet of...tolerance.

The Committee for Ex-Muslims promises to campaign for freedom of religion but has already upset the Islamic and political Establishments...“Sharia schools say that they will kill the ones who leave Islam. In the West people get threatened, thrown out of their family, beaten up,” Mr Jami said. “In Islam you are born Muslim. You do not even choose to be Muslim. We want that to change, so that people are free to choose who they want to be and what they want to believe in.”

As Ramadan starts please pray for our Muslim friends as they sort out the complexities their religion is facing here in the West. Complexities like freedom of religion, secularism and conversion to Christianity. Pray specifically that Muslims would have dreams and visions of Jesus during this month of Ramadan. Salam alaikum.

Need a title v33

Here's Sylas all ready for his first day of school! Can you think of a good title for this picture?

Remembering 9/11

Today we remember those who lost their lives on Tuesday, September 11th, 2001. One such person was Kevin Cosgrove.

"Thorncliffe Park - one of the most multicultural places pound for pound on the planet "

Considering the number of high rise apartments here in Thorncliffe Park, it's no wonder an upcoming movie about 'falling' was inspired by it's balconies. 'A short film about falling' is showing at the Toronto International Film Festival and a recent Globe & Mail article mentions the directors upbringing:

I grew up in high-rises," Lynch recalls, remembering the Thorncliffe Park tower where he spent his childhood. "I remember how seductive those high balconies were. The urge to jump."

Yikes, I hope nobody gets that urge any time soon. In another interview the director describes where he grew up:

PETER LYNCH & MAX DEAN, Directors,
A Short Film About Falling
1. Where do you come from?
Peter: Some where between Planet X and Bedrock- East York The son of British immigrants in Thorncliffe Park one of the most multicultural places pound for pound on the planet Mostly spent somewhere between hirise rooftops, TV-land and the mighty Don Valley

While I have not developed an urge to jump, I now have an urge to find out how Lynch got onto the 'hirise rooftops'

Monday's hot topics: Jabe/Uplook says - We need pastors??!!

GASP!! BIFF!! ACK!!BOOM!! ____ (insert other batman sounds)

I just finished reading the latest Uplook magazine. On page 13 Jabe Nicholson really shocked me with his article entitled We need more biblical pastors. MORE PASTORS in the assemblies? This is a first!! Wow.

Nicholson hits the nail on the head when he writes:

"So concerned that we not have the unbiblical version of pastors (which is what??), have we neglected training those obviously gifted to be the biblical kind? (absolutely!). Often in our minds we replace the 'pastors' in Ephesians 4 with assembly elders. But that is not the idea at all...Ephesians 4 pastors are men whose gift is to be utilized in extending the word of God beyond existing assemblies

Neglected? I'd say they've been down right chased out of town. Everywhere I go I meet people who 'grew up brethren' but ended up as pastors in denominational churches.

Although Nicholson puts 'quotations' around the word 'pastors' at times in the article, I couldn't agree more! Assemblies are dying from lack of leadership and vision and the best young people are heading out the door. I'm not completely sure if Jabe is advocating having pastors in 'existing' assemblies or simply having apostolic pastors who can start new ones? If the latter is the case I think the word 'apostole' is a better word, but I'll take pastor any day! I may be a bit biased, but I really feel that this is the biggest issue in assemblies today and I'm giving Jabe props for even bringing the topic up.

So what do you think about the big bad P word? I thought the P word was outlawed among the brethren because of one-man ministry and our anti-clergy stance. Maybe the tide is turning? Do you have a pastor at your assembly? What do you think about pastors? Post your thoughts below in the comments or on the forum - here

Race and poverty

A recent Toronto Star article gave details about the launching of a new project called 'Colour of Poverty'. The group chose Thorncliffe Park to kick off it's awareness campaign and a quote from a separate article, found in the East York Mirror, caught my attention:

The federally funded network, a coalition of grassroots agencies representing African, Chinese, South Asian, Southeast Asian and Spanish-speaking communities, deliberately selected the Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office to launch its Colour of Poverty Campaign.

"We have chosen this neighbourhood because it is one of the most diverse neighbourhoods in Toronto," Go said. "The needs in this neighbourhood are great."

Later on in the article the group showed statistics on immigrant poverty

At the same time, the traditional pattern of new immigrants initially struggling before finding success is collapsing. Poverty among people of colour now extends for generations after they settle in Canada, Shakir said...
- Thirty-seven per cent of Toronto families come from non-European backgrounds, but make up 59 per cent of the city's poor families;
- In Toronto, the number of immigrants who are poor grew by 125 per cent between 1981 and 2001;
- Thirty-two per cent of children in "racialized" families and 47 per cent of children of recent immigrants live in poverty

I wondered as I read this what churches are doing to help those who are new to our country. How about your church? Are there visible minorities represented? Is your church making an effort to reach out, help with English, settlement and simple friendship. Does your church have programs to help new immigrants? Or has your church ignored these people? Are people in your church moving farther and farther away from areas where new immigrants live? I pray that more and more people would move down into areas like Thorncliffe Park, Flemingdon Park, Scarborough, etc. As the article states "The needs in this neighbourhood are great."

Lego Bible updates

Click here for new Lego Bible stories, uploaded August 31st. This time - David & Saul! Includes David acting insane!

Bomber watch

Still more, as people try to figure out who this bomber was - click here. It's an interesting article, but quite long.

First pics from the first day!!

Today was Lukas' first day of Grade 1 so I did the typical parent thing and took a million pictures of my cute little boy!! Here are a few pictures of the chaos!:

Ready to go out the door!



The walk (video):


The crowd at 8:30 (half hour early)



The crowd at 8:45 (eek!)


Lukas finds his teacher (video):



Where's Waldo:


Lukas with his class & the crowd by 9AM!! Wow, lots of kids!! (video):


Off to school (Lukas got to be the line leader, which he was sooo proud of):


Thankfully we didn't loose him in the crowd and he had a good first day. There were quite a number of kids and parents from the neighbourhood which we knew, and that helped alot. It should be interesting when Sylas goes for his first day of JK on Thursday. You read that right, kindergarten has it's own first day of school. All the kids in these pictures where only grades 1 to 3!!!

First day of school in Thorncliffe park

With the massive influx of new immigrants to the Thorncliffe Park area it's no wonder a program like 'Newcomer Orientation Week' has been set up to help students adjust to our school system. You may remember that the below-mentioned-proud-papa Dave teaches at the local highschool Marc Garneau. Here's a clip from the Toronto Star article about 'Newcomer Orientation Week' at Marc Garneau:

At Marc Garneau, about one in four students has come to Canada within the past five years. Diego, who will be in Grade 9, took his turn to share his hobbies, favourite subjects and the excitement of a new life in Canada.

After mingling, the group toured the nearby Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office to learn about available youth programs and settlement services for their families.

Mariam Spanos, 18, who arrived from Iraq in March with sister Alis, 16, said being greeted by an Arabic-speaking peer immediately put them at ease.

"Now, I know some people in the school, so it won't be a total shock when I come on my first day. Hopefully, I won't get lost," she said with a chuckle.

Tomorrow Lukas and Sylas start at Thorncliffe Park public school, which was mentioned in a February Toronto Sun article - here as the largest elementary school in North America. Sylas is in one of 32 kindergarten classes. 93% of the kids do not claim English as their first language. This summer the soccer field was paved over to make way for 10 new portables to accommodate the continuing growth. When we registered our kids back in spring, we commented on how well they are doing at handling the 1500 children. The lady looked at Hayley and said 'oh those are old statistics, it's 1700 kids now'! Should be a fun first day of school here in Thorncliffe Park!!

The sayings of Lukas v37 - First loose tooth

Check this out!! On Sunday Lukas lost his first tooth!! Sadly it got stuck in his lunch and was swallowed :( We asked him what he was going to do and how the tooth fairy was going to find the tooth. Without skipping a beat Lukas looked at us and said:

Guys, the tooth fairy is not real!! You're grown ups you should know that!

Sutherland son!

Just got the good news that Dave & Amy Sutherland welcomed a brand new baby boy into the world tonight!! We got a call around 5PM that they were going to the hospital and then at 7PM we got a short message from Dave saying 'it's a boy!'. More details to follow!

**UPDATE** The 7lb 8oz baby boy was given the name Caleb Jonathan Sutherland

**UPDATE2** Pictures now online - click here

Praying for a bomber

There's alot of discussion in the blogsphere about this Lebanese bomber that caused all the commotion Friday and wether or not he's a terrorist. I haven't really thought much about this because...well who cares. People are evil by nature and will do bad things. Is this somehow news? Or is it just news because it's one of 'those people' (read: Muslims)

On Friday we continued with church as usual here in Thorncliffe Park. Every Friday we meet at our apartment for church, a communal meal, prayer and visiting friends in the neighbourhood. Every week people come to visit, share, eat and start to love this area that is filled with 'those people'. We prayed on Friday night for the bomber. I hope that is our reaction when we see things like this happening. I hope we don't find ourselves whining and complaining about 'these people'.

Let's not see this as a curse, but a blessing! God is bringing these people here so we and our super-wonderful western christianity (we think that way don't we?) can help them...right? We're not running away to the suburbs to make sure 'these people' don't get near us...right? How can we say we are following Jesus' example if we remove ourselves from danger, suffering and anything that looks like 'taking up our cross'?

Let me encourage all of you who are following Jesus to move closer to danger. Closer to a terrorist. Closer to suffering. Closer to a place where people will hurt you. That's what Jesus did. He was motivated by love for his enemies and that's why he uttered 'Father forgive them' as they were brutally murdering him. Jesus did not mutter 'Father could you please strike 'these people' down!', as some are muttering under their breaths about 'these people' that are flooding our country.

Lots of news stories popping up today about Thorncliffe Park. Hopefully there are just as many prayers going up!

Thorncliffe bomb scare

The past few mornings we've been doing practice runs with our kids, getting them ready for school. They brush their teeth, put on their shoes, get their backpacks and we try to get to the school by the 8:50AM starting time. This worked wonderfully this morning and we arrived at least 10 minutes early. Lukas had to use the washroom so we found an open door and the teachers let us in.

While inside an announcement came over the PA system : "PLEASE EXIT THE BUILDING. EVERYONE MUST LEAVE THE BUILDING"

We thought this was strange and wondered what the commotion was, only to find out the police were at the local Esso station trying to contain a bomb.

Right now I'm sitting here in Dave's apartment looking at 3 helicopters circling the neighbourhood. More details soon. I've seen CTV, CBC and City so perhaps all of you know more than us.

So if you're planning on coming tonight to break bread with us you might have to get past some police tape. Thorncliffe Park Drive and Overlea blvd are currently blocked off. We'll keep you posted!


**UPDATE** 12:21PM

Looks like this is the lead story on every news station. CTV, 680news etc. The police have removed the bomb from the Esso here in our area and are taking it downtown to detonate or defuse it. All southbound lanes of the Don Valley Parkway are closed as the bomb is transported to an area on the shore of Lake Ontario.

**UPDATE 2** 12:31PM

I've uploaded a picture from the CTV website of the robot that was sent in to grab the bombs out of the car

**UPDATE 3** 1:21PM

I think this is all over now, they have re-opened our street and the bomb is on down the DVP. The Toronto Star has a report, as well as The Globe and Mail, The National Post as well as the Terrosim Research Center?? and a local Canadian blogger who claims the accused letter-bomber is a Lebanese immigrant