Video of the week: Stand up desks

Not sure how to embed this video from CTV National but the Cuthill's were in the news again recently! This time it was Lukas' class and their stand up desk experiment! That's Luke in the red shirt. Click on him to watch the video of his class, or on CTV National News facebook page here:

It's not just beneficial for office workers ...

Posted by CTV News on Monday, March 23, 2015

Video of the week - Sylas in Pixels Movie!

So proud of our special little guy Sylas who was recently cast as a gamer in Adam Sandler's new movie "Pixels" which was filmed right here in Toronto! We're so excited and you can see a glimpse of him in the trailer here at 0:48 seconds. Check it out! Great job Sylas!

Video of the week - Turn down for what baby Sylas style

One of the exciting parts of your kids growing up and getting a bit older is they start to experiment and develop their own interests. Recently our special little guy Sylas started making and posting his own YouTube videos on his own channel (here) . Here's his latest:

Video of the week - Amazing girl. Amazing trip.

Recently we had the privilege of spending time at Arkaios in Jolly Harbour, Antigua. It's a villa for folks in ministry that need a break. As you can see from this short video we got a much needed break and so much more. Here's our trip in 3 minutes:

Video of the week - Hoverboards are REAL!!!

Why did no one tell me this before??? Over Christmas I decided to upgrade my VHS copy of "Back to the Future 2" to DVD to see what 2015 had in store. Aside from the lack of flying cars, the movie did get several things right like a proliferation of gadgets, google glass like things, huge flat screens everywhere and Skype style calling. But the most interesting futuristic tidbit was this gem I found in the special features! Prepare to have your minds blown...

Director Robert Zemeckis: "Hoverboards...they've been around for years. It's just that parents groups have not let toy manufacturers make 'em. And we got our hands on some, and we put 'em in the movie"

It's a (not so) wonderful life

We all know that classic Christmas movie: “It’s a Wonderful Life”.

A man ready to jump to his death is given a second chance when an angel visits him.

He then happily rushes home to hold his family, singing as community members pour out love and support.

For many newcomers we work with, this is not what Christmas is like.

They suffer in silence, loneliness and often succumb to abuse and violence as despair sets in.

Crying tears of sadness and depression, rather than tears of joy as “an angel gets his wings”.

That’s one of the reasons we give so many gifts each Christmas.

Trying to reach out and bring hope, love, friendship and Jesus to them.

Each day from mid-November we pack Christmas baskets and gifts for lonely new immigrant families.

Last Saturday was just like any other day. We were packing baskets until the unthinkable happened.

The entire Don Valley Parkway was suddenly closed.

Traffic became unbearable. Ambulances started to fly past us. What was going on?

Sadly what was going on was one of the worst murder/suicides in this country in recent memory.

As we were packing baskets a man living across the street allegedly murdered his wife and kids,

then jumped from a bridge onto Toronto’s busiest highway. The investigation is still underway.

As details emerged, The Toronto Star featured the story on it's front page each day for the next week: "A man killed in a Don Valley Pkwy. collision Saturday is the husband and father of the woman and two children found dead in an East York apartment the same day."

This tragedy is a reminder of how much each of us need to reach out this Christmas!

Thousands of families just like them need to hear of Jesus and his love!

Lonely desperate women in abusive situations need to be comforted.

Children hoping for a better tomorrow need a chance to follow Jesus.

Men must be asked to repent as they are confronted by the claims of Christ!

Sadly it was too late for this family.

Pray that God would lead you to those that need help this Christmas!
As you plan feasts and gatherings with family over the next few weeks,
Remember Jesus' words to all of us :

Luke 14:12: "When you put on a (Christmas) banquet,” he said, “don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. 13 Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you.”

Is this what your Christmas party will look like this year?
Will the poor, crippled, lame and blind be at your table? At your banquet?
This Christmas, as you watch that classic movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”,
pray for many who are outcasts, immigrants, poor,
and be that angel who visits and rescues them in time!

Wanted: A minister for a growing church...

A great friend & mentor sent this to me recently after it was quoted in one of their sermons. If you can relate please share it with others who may be struggling with the overwhelming burden God has given them to be Jesus' ambassador to the world:

Wanted: A minister for a growing church - a real challenge for the right man. Opportunity to become better acquainted with people. Applicant must offer experience as shop worker, office manager, educator (all levels, including college), artist, salesman, diplomat, writer, theologian, politician, Boy Scout leader, children's worker, minor league athlete, psychologist, vocational counselor, psychiatrist, funeral director, wedding consultant, master of ceremonies, circus clown, missionary, and social worker. Must know all about the problems of birth, marriage, and death; must also be conversant with latest theories and practices in areas like pediatrics, economics, and nuclear science. Right man will hold firm views on every topic, but is careful not to upset people who disagree. Must be forthright but flexible. Returns criticism and backbiting with Christian love and forgiveness. Should have outgoing, friendly disposition at all times. Should be a captivating speaker and intent listener. Directly responsible for views and conduct to all church members and visitors; not confined to direction or support from any one person. Salary not commensurate with experience or need. No overtime pay. All replies kept confidential. Anyone applying will undergo full investigation to determine his sanity.

10 years of ShawnCuthill.com! Happy Anniversary everyone!

It's a historic day for the athensBLOG!! 10 years ago today I fired up this online journal to keep track of the Cuthills adventures as we started in full-time ministry, specifically taking a team to the Olympics in Athens. This explains the name athensBLOG and along the way someone showed me how to register a domain name and www.shawncuthill.com was also used as an easy to remember URL for those who prayed & supported us along the way.


It was a great way to fire off a blog post once a day or so, in the pre-facebook era, and have friends and family updated on everything that was going on.

After a while the athensBLOG got quite a following and comments on my posts piled up along with regular readers. After one contentious debate that went on and on and on, I asked the great people at Quist consulting (ie: Russ) about using server space to host an online forum as an outlet for these discussions. And so after about a year SimpleGathering.com was born. Many of you participated in the early discussions debates and diatribes as the pre-facebook internet lurched toward more social interaction.

The SimpleGathering discussion forum was fascinating and drew many from brethren churches around the world to discuss a myriad of topics. From this collaboration of brethren voices came BrethrenPedia.com, a wiki to help record the history of brethren assemblies. These sites still continue today although I was not able to spend as much time on them as transitioned from Bridlegrove to start our own ministry in Thorncliffe Park.

Our new ministry: www.jesusnetwork.ca

Other sites sprang up like YouTube, then eventually facebook and twitter and challenged blogs for relevance on the web. Posting on social media became the norm and while I bid farewell to regular daily blogging in 2008, I've continued to post on here every couple months. Hopefully some time in the near future all the different online pieces mentioned above can be woven together into one big ShawnCuthill.com experience.



But till then take a look at some of the features on this blog over the years:

The Sayings of Lukas - here        The Sayings of Sylas - here         The Sayings of Olivia - here
Mondays hot topics                     Wednedsay prayer requests        My Jesus years | Only the Injil
My new favorite song                  Greece trips                                Israel trip

So after 1500 odd posts and hundreds of thousands of visitors today I'm taking time to look back on that first blog post on July 21st, 2004 and thank each of you who have been with us along the way! Here's to another 10 years!

http://www.shawncuthill.com/2004/07/2-weeks-and-counting.html

Hello everyone, my name is Shawn and I created this blog for myself and my team who are going to the Olympics in Athens from August 4th to September 2nd. I figured a blog would be the best way to tell everyone what we are doing, and keep everyone updated whilie we are overseas. Be sure to check in OFTEN to get up-to-the-minute prayer requests.

A decision that changed his life - Orlando Franklin in the Superbowl

As my faithful athensBLOG readers will remember, we used to work at Bridlegrove Bible Chapel in Scarborough. We were responsible for youth and community outreach in the Finch/Pharmacy area and made many great connections in the community. We ran a Friday night basketball drop in at the church and hosted various events and retreats. That was 10 years ago. One of the connections we made was with a troubled youth named Orlando Franklin. He was referred to us by the folks at Guelph Bible Camp and had recently got into some trouble with the law. At that camp and one of our youth retreats he gave his life to Jesus and decided to turn his life around. The picture below is from 10 years ago when Orlando was at our place for our youth Superbowl party:

Orlando, center, with other youth from Bridlegrove Bible Chapel

As the New York Post article recalls, Orlando, after getting out of jail made a promise to his mom to turn his life around, and dedicate himself to football. Those who have been following his career know he did just that. Soon after he was involved with our youth, he moved with his mom to Florida, then played for the University of Miami Hurricanes and finally was drafted by the Denver Broncos! He's been a starting offensive lineman for the past 3 years. Today's Superbowl will be the culmination of his promise 10 years ago.

We're very proud of Orlando and what God has done in his life. We continue to track with many of the youth like him that we have known for over 10 years now. It's a good reminder that with any goal you set, it takes time. With discipleship, it takes time. If you want to reach out to others and invest your life in something it will take time. We can't expect that our church/ministry/life will be an overnight success. Don't believe that lie. Instead commit yourself, like Orlando did to getting your hands dirty loving what you do, loving people, making a goal that may take a long long time. 

God is waiting for you to hit rock bottom and make a decision that will change your life. Have the courage to call out to God and ask him to change you. You never know where you might end up.

ps. LET'S GO BRONCOS!!

Toronto: Amazing interactive map from 1998 to 2012

http://www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/before-after/toronto-condos/iframed.html

10 years ago today

This is a bit of a historic day for me! 10 years ago today I quit my job and went into full-time inner-city ministry!! Can you believe it!! For 10 years God has been faithfully providing for our family!

Here's a picture of what our family looked like way back then. Lukas was only 1.5 years old and Hayley was 5 months pregnant with Sylas. haha! We couldn't have imagined all the amazing ways God would lead us and the paths He would take us down, but we're very thankful for how it's all turned out.

Thank God with us for all the things he's done in the past 10 years! What are some things he's done in YOUR life that you couldn't have imagined if someone had told you? Take a minute to think about that and leave a comment with your biggest surprise.

Here's a current picture of our family to compare. I've covered my gray hairs!!

I figured this 10 year milestone would be a great time to reboot this blog and start posting again. We're past the baby stage so I've got a bit more free time. I also want to stay ahead of my kids who are rapidly passing me when it comes to technology! I'll be making a bunch of changes and upgrades to www.shawncuthill.com over the next few months but seeing as today is special I wanted to blog about it and say thank you to God and each of you who have supported us, prayed for us and donated to help us reach out in the city! Let's keep going together for another 10 years!

Keep an eye out for at www.shawncuthill.com for updates and if you've never been on here before cruise through the archives.

Happy 10th anniversary!
Shawn

Amazing Race Good news/bad news

The good news is the teams have been picked for Amazing Race Canada!!! The bad news is that we are not one of them.   

As you can imagine we're dissapointed but we'd like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank each and every one of you who liked, shared, tweeted, viewed our video and cheered us on this journey! It's been very encouraging to see all the support we have and the best way to console ourselves is to think of each of you and what you mean to us.

While we all wish it could have turned out differently, like the Leafs always say around this time of year - there's always next season! Seeing all the responses (70,000 applicants) CTV may have a season 2 in the near future.

As for our page, twitter & youtube channels, someone suggested we turn "The Pastor & The Policeman" into it's own show!  That probably won't happen but stay tuned for future development from this dynamic duo! Also stay tuned to CTV as The Amazing Race Canada kicks off on July 15th!

Thank you once again - The Pastor (Shawn) and The Policeman (Jesse)

Amazing Race Canada!

I'm applying to get on the Amazing Race Canada! Here's the audition video:



And here's a few easy steps to help get us on the race:
1. Like us at www.facebook.com/pastorpolice
2. Follow us on twitter at: www.twitter.com/pastorpolice and retweet us
3. Post our youtube videos on your facebook or twitter: http://www.youtube.com/user/PastorPolice
4. Visit the Amazing Race facebook page here: Amazing Race Canada and leave a comment saying you want the Pastor & the Policeman on the race:
5. Visit the CTV facebook page here: CTV Television and leave a comment saying you want the Pastor & the Policeman
6. Say a prayer :)

Thanks everyone!
Shawn

Lukas graduation speech at Thorncliffe Park

Lukas graduated from Grade 5 today. He was also asked to give a speech about life in a Thorncliffe portable:

The Sayings of Sylas - his first short story

Well we all know Sylas is the creative genius in the Cuthill family. While I usually post interesting sayings of his or one-liners, yesterday he discovered that typing out a story on the computer is much faster than writing by hand. He wrote out his very first short story that I'd like to share with all of you. Ejoy:

once there were 3 mice that lived in a shoe. one day a cat came to the shoe. 3 more came, the mice have backup. 8 more came, cats were outnumbered. 4 more cats came 11 for the mice and 7 for the cats. cats still were outnumbered by 4 so 4 more came 11 to 11. cats werent winning the mice werent winning either. no one knew who was going to win. then an ape came, the fight stopped.
the end.

Thorncliffe Public School Council notice to parents

As my faithful athensBLOG readers know (if there are any of you still left!), we love our neighbourhood - Thorncliffe Park. It's a fascinating neighbourhood that is full of people from so many backgrounds. 35 apartment buildings, 30,000 people, the largest elementary school in North America. There is never a dull moment.

As you may also know, according to Monday's National Post "Toronto (is) the city with the highest concentration of Muslims in North America". And Thorncliffe has the highest concentration of Muslims in Toronto - making Thorncliffe quite an Islamic zone.

Yesterday our kids came home from Thorncliffe Park Public School with a notice about a parenting seminar put on by the school council. This is a great step as many have challenges adjusting to the parenting styles of Canada. You may have seen Russell Peter's youtube video about this :)

What was unfortunate about this parenting seminar is that there was a component titled "Islamic Perspective of Parenting in a Muslim family". Now this is where I start to wonder. I didn't think they were allowed to promote a religious view in a public school?

Below you will see the poster that was handed out to every child in the school:

Thorncliffe Park is a public school. As such I'd like to outline my problems with this seminar. I'd be interested to hear from others in the public school system to see if I'm off base:

1. For me this is a school issue. Not a Muslim or Christian issue. We could be discussing the Baha'i faith or Druze.

2. The school board has to chose to have a "no religions" or "all religions" stance

3. My understanding is that their current stance is "no religions" as they cannot even mention "Christmas" or Easter. There are some variations of this when it comes to holidays like Ramadan.

4. The issue then with this particular incident is that the flyer was sent home *by the school* inviting *all* parents to something that favours one religion.

5. The issue is not even the school hosting the event, but for me sanctioning it and promoting an event which favours and promotes one religion.

This, to me, is unacceptable.

I'd be quite open for comments and will attend this seminar and report back on what it was all about

Blogging from my blackberry!

Well well athensBLOG readers. I have been away for quite some time but not even a new blackberry and twitter account can suppress my need for blogging!

I'm not sure how this will work but wanted to ask the community for tips about blogging from your phones? Or are the days of blogging over? Is there an app I can download? How do YOU blog from your phone?
___________________
ShawnCuthill.com

*Sent from my BlackBerry

The sayings of Olivia v5 - Michael Jackson

At breakfast this morning we were talking about Lions. Out of the blue Olivia looked at me and said:

'When Michael Jackson comes back to life he can teach us how to train Lions? Can we go to his house mommy?'

I think its time for a little talk with that girl

The Sayings of Olivia v4 - boys

Olivia was looking pensive after prayer time. She looked at mom and wondered:

"If God made me, does that mean Satan made the boys???"

I'm sure many sisters have wondered that about their brothers Olivia

The sayings of Sylas v28 - midgets

Sylas came to me the other day with a revelation!

Dad! I know how people became midgets! They drank too much coffee when they were kids!