Last night was soooo refreshing and needed! These past couple weeks have been really tough. I think God has been really teaching me certain things and He's not afraid to let me be pushed and pressed. . . like a tube of toothpaste... when I'm squeezed what's gonna come out? I tried to push through. I've been praying and fighting to hold things together. . . on the outside I think it's been ok (no one else seemed to notice). But on the inside, it's been a challenging fight. Bitterness had definitely crept in and I felt very dry and running on empty. I think most of my team has been feeling the same way, so we've kind of been fueling each other on in our frustrations . . . nice to have support but probably not the best to move forward. We all recognized it and we tried to encourage better attitudes in each other and we prayed every morning together to be free from this and to bless those whom we felt we had frustration toward... yet we just could not kick it. Saturday I was asking God a lot of questions and went to bed feeling defeated and joyless. Sunday night God responded and I went to bed having tasted freedom, a release of so many burdens and had joy and passion restored and increasing. Thank you Jesus!
Having finished working over fifty hours again this week. . . early morning music practice, another church service, setting up and cleaning and sanitizing the whole church for the summer camp-- I was exhausted Sunday evening and DID NOT want to go to another church service that night. . . especially one that was in another language!
But I had to. . . and I'm so thankful that Leanne and I went. The Brazilian Foursquare Church had a visiting youth missions team from Brocton, Massachusetts ministering tonight. They had come up for a few days to do street evangelism in their community. Again because they all spoke Portuguese in the service, Leanne and I did not understand anything. But, wow the Holy Spirit sure speaks the same language! We couldn't join in on much of the singing (first led by the church team (adults)), but we could in the dancing (there's always so much freedom in dance!) The pastor spoke and then he invited his youth band to come and lead in worship. There was such an anointing on these kids. God's presence was tangibly felt in that room. They were so sincere worshiping (beautiful hearts). Again, I did not know what they were singing, but I felt compelled to pray. I then began to pray for cleansing and sanctification of Canada. Seconds after that, I overheard a lady beside me translate to Leanne that they were now praying for that very thing! So yes, the Holy Spirit speaks a beautiful language understood by all tongues. But this is what really got me: they brought out a large Canada flag and the congregation flooded to the front. They reached out to touch the flag and began interceding for Canada! I was so moved because here are mostly people native from Brazil praying for their new home country and a group of youth from the US who had never visited Canada before, now weeping for our nation before the Lord! I feel alive whenever I intercede for Canada. Freedom came at this point.
Joy came as we talked for hours with these youth. They are awesome! It's so inspiring to see kids so pure and passionate about Jesus and missions. This ministered so much to my dry and worn-out spirit. Thank you Jesus that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom and the Joy of the Lord is our strength!
Monday, July 12, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Team's arrival, Hottest day of the year, Birthday Celebration, Gay Hairdressers, Power Outage, Car Breaking down-- interesting weekend!
The entire team is here!!! Christy and Kaylyn arrived tonight! :-) Anneli (our local intern) came back from her trip to Estonia. We are now complete! The first camp begins on Monday. . . we are inundated with things to do but excited to get going.
We worked all day Saturday. Sonia & the interns surprised me with an exquisite German chocolate cake and candles. . . soooo good! We were all so exhausted, but they convinced me to go out to celebrate. So the interns + Liz & Merilene (from the Church) went bowling and out for dinner at East Side Marios'. Leanne is amazing at bowling!! She whooped us all!
It was so fun going to eat at East Side. Both Mark and I worked there in BC. We critiqued everything secretly! The food was about the same. The bathrooms were horribly kept. The layout was similar but I liked this one a lot better. Haha, we tried to figure out the "board" and name the table numbers--when we got the bills we were right (cuz it says what table you are at)! Lol, it was all silly fun but very amusing for us. Also interesting was that all the staff here reminded us of someone we worked with back home. Oh! I had already had 3 pieces of cake that day so I told them I DID NOT want any from there. However, of course I jump 3 feet when the entire restaurant staff comes out and belts their ridiculous birthday jingle to me and presents me with (another) absolutely amazing chocolate delicacy (we shared. . . )
Sunday, Mark went to his Jamaican church. They love him there! I went to help decorate the church with him last week and I noticed that they were dotting all over him and feeding him like crazy! I'm glad. . . because it is quite a challenge for him to be there, but at least he is well liked. He is preaching back to back for the next two weeks, running (well building) the youth program and helping to evangelize for their upcoming camps. We both tried the equivalent of a Jamaican Pop-Tart--- it was excellent... a bit spicy though.
Leanne, Tyler and I went to Hope 4 Tomorrow in the morning. Then Tyler went to the launch of the Everlasting Life Church Plant in their new building.
Leanne and I went to the Brazilian Church at night (IEQ). It was a very interesting experience. . . everything was in Portuguese!! It helped to have the words up during worship. We stood there and tried to translate as much as we could together by using our bits of knowledge of Spanish, Latin and French mixed together-- we actually understood the main concepts and key words! It's a beautiful language, but they speak much too fast. Thankfully we had a translator during the preaching. It was looonnng and looouuud! I think that's cultural. This will be Leanne's "home" church where she will be working with the youth and doing outreach. It's a VERY culturally Brazilian church. It was a very neat experience and they are lovely people (friendly) but it will be extremely challenging to work with. Presently they only have one youth girl and a few children. It's not reaching the young generation. If they continue in this same manner, it will be very difficult (if not impossible) to bring in and bring up the next generation-- how do you say that without offending them? Their hearts for serving Jesus are beautiful. We are hoping to see Leanne begin a summer youth program on a separate night and focus on building that for now, as well as look for leaders to invest in for follow up in the fall. I admire these interns. They are stepping into very scary and unchartered waters! They are nervous but they are faithfully stepping out and working as hard as they can. God sees their willing hearts and hands and is able to do the impossible.
We had Monday off and were planning on visiting Canada's Wonderland. . . but decided not to because it was 45 degrees with humidity! It was unbelievably hot! And I, silly me, decided to drive downtown with no air conditioning in the car to get my hair done and came back in rush-hour traffic!
It was a very interesting conversation with this Torontonian hairstylist. First of all, he's amazing... he's practiced in Vancouver, London, NY, Milan, France etc-- all the top places for the past 43 years. He's a big 'man's man'-- bit intimidating but friendly. Anyways, right away he asks me if I'm married-- "no" boyfriend? "no"-- silence... then we get into why I'm here- so I tell him about the interns and the church plant etc.-- "hmmm he says". "Do you have a faith?" I ask-- "Yes, I worship Mother Earth-- I'm aboriginal. Grew up Catholic, but what Aboriginal hasn't grown up Catholic?" he chuckles. He had heard about the "Forgiven Summit" last month, but didn't offer to share his opinion on it. So then I ask him where he enjoyed working best-- "I liked New York best, but I met my husband here in Toronto 25 years ago and am happy here now." "Oh!" There was a bit of a pause-- I knew he was checking to see if I'd judge him or get awkward so I maintained composure and kept making little jokes and small talk. He seemed to like that. We got along really well after that. I wanted to show acceptance, share a bit of my own testimony and pray for him. I could sense the Holy Spirit--hopefully he could too! Later the conversation gets a bit odd but funny. He boldly asks "so what kind of guy are you interested in?" (do ALL hairdressers ask this? I was rather surprised!) I looked a bit shocked, laughed and checked to see if he was serious... he was. So ok, I shared a bit. He nodded and agreed. Then he began giving me advice on how to meet someone with those qualities and then when I was married-- here's some advice... I was totally flabbergasted and laughing on the inside (this was hilarious!). He was actually giving really good advice (I guess he's knows what it's like to be with a man!). He was telling me stuff about commitment and sticking it through and loving through the ups and downs-- but don't rush into it, you need to know who you are first before you can share a life with someone else, etc. Anyways- he obviously was missing a lot because he doesn't know Jesus personally (yet) but I respected most of what he said (and his hairstyling abilities). I will continue to pray for him... you never know why certain people walk across your path and I believe that God uses His people to pray for others before they get saved.
More interesting things happened that day. I rushed back to Mississauga to pick up the boys and Leanne. We went to meet Pastor Barry and Susan Buzza for dinner. However when we got there all the power was out! NOTHING was opened. All the restaurants in the
city were closed. A transformer had blown up like a bomb... it was caused by an overuse of air-conditioners that day! So we were blistering hot, hungry and watching traffic at a standstill as people tried to figure out the 4-way stop procedures (seriously where did these people learn to drive??). Anyways, so we walked to a nearby mall to wait out the traffic. There was some salvaged air conditioning trapped inside the mall (lasted for about 20 min then got hot like everywhere else). It was so nice to sit and talk though! I love my pastors! They are so amazing! They are encouraging and wise and caring. We were so honoured that they would take the time to spend with us. We left so encouraged (yet rather hungry and sweaty).
THEN (oh there's more to this day!)-- on the way home my car starts smoking (A LOT!). People are yelling at us telling us that are car is smoking (Obvi we know! haha!). So we have to pull over and call Pastor Ron. He comes and says "well this doesn't look right"... as he pulls the radiator off the ground! I guess his son (who owned the car before) tried to put it on himself to save a few bucks (never worth it).
OH! i have not introduced you to my new car! God is so amazing in the delivery of cars. This is my 5th free car. I never ask for them, people just give them to me! I was not expecting to have a car here, but one day Pastor Ron pulls up in this cute little red hyundai and hands me the keys. He said she's insured under my name and I can pick everyone up for work now (I was ok with that! This means I can finally stop by Sbucks and get a real coffee on my way there!). Leanne and I named her. Every car deserves a good name. . . which they don't seem to do here. Everyone we tell in Toronto thinks we're mental. I don't understand-- i thought everyone named their cars and computers and GPS'? Her name is Teia Dottholomew (short form is T-Dot). My GPS is Bridget Jenkins (she's British). Teia should be ok-- she's in the shop but should be ready again soon. Pastor Ron was very nice and picked us up today and then gave me his car to drive until Teia is ready-- he's challenging to communicate with, but he's got a soft inside there! I really appreciated that.
Ok, I think I'm caught up with the blog. . . gotta get to bed. Christy said she'll wake me up at 6:30 cuz she's never done tae-bo and wants to try that with me! Haha, that should be fun!
Busy, busy week ahead of us as we prepare for all the summer camps and get all our curriculum ready for the different youth clubs we're running. Soccer club on Thursday! :-)
Good night!
We worked all day Saturday. Sonia & the interns surprised me with an exquisite German chocolate cake and candles. . . soooo good! We were all so exhausted, but they convinced me to go out to celebrate. So the interns + Liz & Merilene (from the Church) went bowling and out for dinner at East Side Marios'. Leanne is amazing at bowling!! She whooped us all!
It was so fun going to eat at East Side. Both Mark and I worked there in BC. We critiqued everything secretly! The food was about the same. The bathrooms were horribly kept. The layout was similar but I liked this one a lot better. Haha, we tried to figure out the "board" and name the table numbers--when we got the bills we were right (cuz it says what table you are at)! Lol, it was all silly fun but very amusing for us. Also interesting was that all the staff here reminded us of someone we worked with back home. Oh! I had already had 3 pieces of cake that day so I told them I DID NOT want any from there. However, of course I jump 3 feet when the entire restaurant staff comes out and belts their ridiculous birthday jingle to me and presents me with (another) absolutely amazing chocolate delicacy (we shared. . . )
Sunday, Mark went to his Jamaican church. They love him there! I went to help decorate the church with him last week and I noticed that they were dotting all over him and feeding him like crazy! I'm glad. . . because it is quite a challenge for him to be there, but at least he is well liked. He is preaching back to back for the next two weeks, running (well building) the youth program and helping to evangelize for their upcoming camps. We both tried the equivalent of a Jamaican Pop-Tart--- it was excellent... a bit spicy though.
Leanne, Tyler and I went to Hope 4 Tomorrow in the morning. Then Tyler went to the launch of the Everlasting Life Church Plant in their new building.
Leanne and I went to the Brazilian Church at night (IEQ). It was a very interesting experience. . . everything was in Portuguese!! It helped to have the words up during worship. We stood there and tried to translate as much as we could together by using our bits of knowledge of Spanish, Latin and French mixed together-- we actually understood the main concepts and key words! It's a beautiful language, but they speak much too fast. Thankfully we had a translator during the preaching. It was looonnng and looouuud! I think that's cultural. This will be Leanne's "home" church where she will be working with the youth and doing outreach. It's a VERY culturally Brazilian church. It was a very neat experience and they are lovely people (friendly) but it will be extremely challenging to work with. Presently they only have one youth girl and a few children. It's not reaching the young generation. If they continue in this same manner, it will be very difficult (if not impossible) to bring in and bring up the next generation-- how do you say that without offending them? Their hearts for serving Jesus are beautiful. We are hoping to see Leanne begin a summer youth program on a separate night and focus on building that for now, as well as look for leaders to invest in for follow up in the fall. I admire these interns. They are stepping into very scary and unchartered waters! They are nervous but they are faithfully stepping out and working as hard as they can. God sees their willing hearts and hands and is able to do the impossible.
We had Monday off and were planning on visiting Canada's Wonderland. . . but decided not to because it was 45 degrees with humidity! It was unbelievably hot! And I, silly me, decided to drive downtown with no air conditioning in the car to get my hair done and came back in rush-hour traffic!
It was a very interesting conversation with this Torontonian hairstylist. First of all, he's amazing... he's practiced in Vancouver, London, NY, Milan, France etc-- all the top places for the past 43 years. He's a big 'man's man'-- bit intimidating but friendly. Anyways, right away he asks me if I'm married-- "no" boyfriend? "no"-- silence... then we get into why I'm here- so I tell him about the interns and the church plant etc.-- "hmmm he says". "Do you have a faith?" I ask-- "Yes, I worship Mother Earth-- I'm aboriginal. Grew up Catholic, but what Aboriginal hasn't grown up Catholic?" he chuckles. He had heard about the "Forgiven Summit" last month, but didn't offer to share his opinion on it. So then I ask him where he enjoyed working best-- "I liked New York best, but I met my husband here in Toronto 25 years ago and am happy here now." "Oh!" There was a bit of a pause-- I knew he was checking to see if I'd judge him or get awkward so I maintained composure and kept making little jokes and small talk. He seemed to like that. We got along really well after that. I wanted to show acceptance, share a bit of my own testimony and pray for him. I could sense the Holy Spirit--hopefully he could too! Later the conversation gets a bit odd but funny. He boldly asks "so what kind of guy are you interested in?" (do ALL hairdressers ask this? I was rather surprised!) I looked a bit shocked, laughed and checked to see if he was serious... he was. So ok, I shared a bit. He nodded and agreed. Then he began giving me advice on how to meet someone with those qualities and then when I was married-- here's some advice... I was totally flabbergasted and laughing on the inside (this was hilarious!). He was actually giving really good advice (I guess he's knows what it's like to be with a man!). He was telling me stuff about commitment and sticking it through and loving through the ups and downs-- but don't rush into it, you need to know who you are first before you can share a life with someone else, etc. Anyways- he obviously was missing a lot because he doesn't know Jesus personally (yet) but I respected most of what he said (and his hairstyling abilities). I will continue to pray for him... you never know why certain people walk across your path and I believe that God uses His people to pray for others before they get saved.
More interesting things happened that day. I rushed back to Mississauga to pick up the boys and Leanne. We went to meet Pastor Barry and Susan Buzza for dinner. However when we got there all the power was out! NOTHING was opened. All the restaurants in the
city were closed. A transformer had blown up like a bomb... it was caused by an overuse of air-conditioners that day! So we were blistering hot, hungry and watching traffic at a standstill as people tried to figure out the 4-way stop procedures (seriously where did these people learn to drive??). Anyways, so we walked to a nearby mall to wait out the traffic. There was some salvaged air conditioning trapped inside the mall (lasted for about 20 min then got hot like everywhere else). It was so nice to sit and talk though! I love my pastors! They are so amazing! They are encouraging and wise and caring. We were so honoured that they would take the time to spend with us. We left so encouraged (yet rather hungry and sweaty).THEN (oh there's more to this day!)-- on the way home my car starts smoking (A LOT!). People are yelling at us telling us that are car is smoking (Obvi we know! haha!). So we have to pull over and call Pastor Ron. He comes and says "well this doesn't look right"... as he pulls the radiator off the ground! I guess his son (who owned the car before) tried to put it on himself to save a few bucks (never worth it).
OH! i have not introduced you to my new car! God is so amazing in the delivery of cars. This is my 5th free car. I never ask for them, people just give them to me! I was not expecting to have a car here, but one day Pastor Ron pulls up in this cute little red hyundai and hands me the keys. He said she's insured under my name and I can pick everyone up for work now (I was ok with that! This means I can finally stop by Sbucks and get a real coffee on my way there!). Leanne and I named her. Every car deserves a good name. . . which they don't seem to do here. Everyone we tell in Toronto thinks we're mental. I don't understand-- i thought everyone named their cars and computers and GPS'? Her name is Teia Dottholomew (short form is T-Dot). My GPS is Bridget Jenkins (she's British). Teia should be ok-- she's in the shop but should be ready again soon. Pastor Ron was very nice and picked us up today and then gave me his car to drive until Teia is ready-- he's challenging to communicate with, but he's got a soft inside there! I really appreciated that.
Ok, I think I'm caught up with the blog. . . gotta get to bed. Christy said she'll wake me up at 6:30 cuz she's never done tae-bo and wants to try that with me! Haha, that should be fun!
Busy, busy week ahead of us as we prepare for all the summer camps and get all our curriculum ready for the different youth clubs we're running. Soccer club on Thursday! :-)
Good night!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Happy Canada Day!!! I love this day because it's the birthday of the country which I love! AND... it's also a much needed day off :-) Everyone is out BBQuing or at the beach... I was gonna go but then thought it was much more appealing to sleep in past 7am, exercise, enjoy my breakfast and coffee with no rush and then just relax at home! glorious, glorious day... :-)
It's been really busy, but a wonderful week. I really appreciate these two Vir
ginian teams being here. They are here on a missions trip and making really good use of their time. They are out talking to people and inviting them out to their events during the day. Any spare minute they have, they always ask me if they can help in any way (which of course I took full advantage of!) Then every night, they've put on a fun youth rally. They do lots of games, and music, and give out prizes & food and then one of their youth shares their testimony. One girl got saved last night! They had parents come by the next day wanting to meet this group because their kids came home so peaceful, yet full of life! Isn't that an amazing testimony?! One of the teams has been living at Sonia's with us and although getting into the bathroom has been a challenge it has been such a blessing to have them and get to know them and eat breakfast together etc. :-)
It's really neat how God brings people across your path. I have two beds in my large room, so I was rooming with one of their leaders this week. A lovely lady named Vicky. We got along so well and had some phenomenal conversations. She has an incredible testimony that I hope she is able to share with many people. Something funny that came up, was that we discovered her son's birthday is the exact same day and year as me! I've never met anyone else like that-- we thought that was neat. She's going to visit him in London, Eng in a few weeks. She has 7 children!! Also interesting was just as she was telling me about her experiences running marathons, my dear friend Carly texts me that there's a half-marathon in October and I should start training for it. Lol, so Vicky was able to share her experiences and tips in running. It was cooler this week so we've both been able to run every morning outside. This morning we went together... and wow I was challenged! Haha, it's funny what your pride can make you do.... there was no way I was gonna stop or slow down. . . just kept on going at her pace with a smile... but wow I felt it later!
Mark, Tyler and I have been working well as a team so far. I'm so glad they're here. I'm excited for Leanne to arrive tomorrow! They could tell you better, but I can sense they are enjoying it, yet being quite challenged in certain areas (as am I). To be honest, after my first week here, I was really nervous about the rest of the summer. I hadn't figured out how to communicate and thus work well with some of the Toronto team and would go home really frustrated and need to just fall in Jesus' arms and pray for grace and strength. However, prayer sure changes things (especially my own perspective). I did not want to pray for God to take the challenge away, but for Him to teach me how to discern others better and communicate & listen effectively to others and work with grace. It seems like the other person has been doing the same thing. I've noticed this week that both of our communication and understanding of the other has been much more positive and effective. I think we will work really well together the rest of the summer, but the challenge will always be there. I'm really glad to learn new interpersonal skills and again to be reliant on the work of the Holy Spirit.
I am learning a lot here. There is so much wisdom behind this 2010 Toronto Challenge and plans beyond this. It's phenomenal to be a part of this and hopefully to glean wisdom, out-of-the-box ideas and what the behind the scenes looks like in such a large project.
We need to take time to prayer for out nation especially today
"And He shall have dominion from sea to sea and to the rivers end. . . " Psalm 72:8
It's been really busy, but a wonderful week. I really appreciate these two Vir
ginian teams being here. They are here on a missions trip and making really good use of their time. They are out talking to people and inviting them out to their events during the day. Any spare minute they have, they always ask me if they can help in any way (which of course I took full advantage of!) Then every night, they've put on a fun youth rally. They do lots of games, and music, and give out prizes & food and then one of their youth shares their testimony. One girl got saved last night! They had parents come by the next day wanting to meet this group because their kids came home so peaceful, yet full of life! Isn't that an amazing testimony?! One of the teams has been living at Sonia's with us and although getting into the bathroom has been a challenge it has been such a blessing to have them and get to know them and eat breakfast together etc. :-)It's really neat how God brings people across your path. I have two beds in my large room, so I was rooming with one of their leaders this week. A lovely lady named Vicky. We got along so well and had some phenomenal conversations. She has an incredible testimony that I hope she is able to share with many people. Something funny that came up, was that we discovered her son's birthday is the exact same day and year as me! I've never met anyone else like that-- we thought that was neat. She's going to visit him in London, Eng in a few weeks. She has 7 children!! Also interesting was just as she was telling me about her experiences running marathons, my dear friend Carly texts me that there's a half-marathon in October and I should start training for it. Lol, so Vicky was able to share her experiences and tips in running. It was cooler this week so we've both been able to run every morning outside. This morning we went together... and wow I was challenged! Haha, it's funny what your pride can make you do.... there was no way I was gonna stop or slow down. . . just kept on going at her pace with a smile... but wow I felt it later!
Mark, Tyler and I have been working well as a team so far. I'm so glad they're here. I'm excited for Leanne to arrive tomorrow! They could tell you better, but I can sense they are enjoying it, yet being quite challenged in certain areas (as am I). To be honest, after my first week here, I was really nervous about the rest of the summer. I hadn't figured out how to communicate and thus work well with some of the Toronto team and would go home really frustrated and need to just fall in Jesus' arms and pray for grace and strength. However, prayer sure changes things (especially my own perspective). I did not want to pray for God to take the challenge away, but for Him to teach me how to discern others better and communicate & listen effectively to others and work with grace. It seems like the other person has been doing the same thing. I've noticed this week that both of our communication and understanding of the other has been much more positive and effective. I think we will work really well together the rest of the summer, but the challenge will always be there. I'm really glad to learn new interpersonal skills and again to be reliant on the work of the Holy Spirit.
I am learning a lot here. There is so much wisdom behind this 2010 Toronto Challenge and plans beyond this. It's phenomenal to be a part of this and hopefully to glean wisdom, out-of-the-box ideas and what the behind the scenes looks like in such a large project.
We need to take time to prayer for out nation especially today
"And He shall have dominion from sea to sea and to the rivers end. . . " Psalm 72:8
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