Things I miss about Canada

1) Dryer Sheets
2) Tumble dryers to go with the dryer sheets
3) Reese Peanutbutter Cups
4) Hot water from the tap
5) LOST
6) A freezer
7) The rockies
8) Hockey
(Please dont be offended that your name was not on this list. I decided to keep it to none living items)

Thats pretty much it. And evern those things I dont miss too much but if I could have them while I'm here it would be cool.

The reason I'm thinking about this stuff is because Beth Wheale just visited me for the weekend. It was pretty cool to be able to sit on a park bench in Belfast with a friend from back home. It's great to have her so close and I'm hoping to get over to Scotland to see her before my time here is up.

I'm on term break right now so I dont have any classes today and most activities at the church are cancled this week so for the most part I'm just hanging out. But I do have a few dinner dates and a girl from church is going to take me up north for the day. Then on monday we are going on our second retreat, this time to the interior where we'll be in the middle of no where surrounded by a forest and have at least one full day of silence (I think). So i'll let you know how that goes.
My neighbours dont like me already (which seems to be a trend for me). She came over and yelled at me because she thinks we were too loud. If we were then I truly appologize and will try to keep it down in the future, but we were just sitting there watching tv, and at a very reasonable volume might I add. She also made the comment that she thinks too many boys come over, so I think the real problem is that she is jealous that we have so many strapping young lads come visit us and she isnt invited.
Hmmm...what else has been going on? I bought some track pants to play football in. The kids I play with are so flipping good. And I havent really played in some time so I'm really bad right now. But its good fun and its pretty much the only excersize I get besides walking. I'm all sweaty and gross when I'm done and it feels so brilliant.
Everyone have a good week and I'll send some retreat pictures as soon as I can.

One month later...part 2

I can only post 5 pictures on one entry so this is a continuation of my last post.

After classes yesterday we went bowling. I was really terrible, but I did get a strike using my left hand.


This is Bronwen. She's pretty much my favorite Irish person. She is one of the most giving, loving, kind person you will ever meet. When I come home I'm going to steal her and bring her with me.

After bowling some of us went to the pub at the Park Avenue Hotel right across from the church. The other day we went to this bar called The Point, which apparently swings a little to the loyalist side of things. We try really hard to stear clear of anything that may show support to one side or the other. Oops.
Ya, so things are still going really well. I'll be speanding the next two nights watching Cambodian dancing then on friday Beth W. is flying over from Scotland to hang out for a few days. Then pretty soon my mom will be here.
One month down, nine more to go.

One monthe later...

Hard to believe that I've been here for over a month now. It seems so right and natural for me to be here, but at the same time so strange to think that I am in Europe living for a year being taught by some amazing men and women of God how to lead and serve and grow for His kingdom and glory. I have been so blessed, not just by the people over here, but also by everyone at home before I left and while I've been away. Thanks for your e-mails, phone calls, letters, and prayers. Kepp them coming!
I've been wanting to show everyone what I've actually been up to lately, but for some reason parents dont really like relative strangers taking pictures of their children then posting them on the internet, so all I can show you is some Crosslinks stuff. So here are some of the pictures that I have taken in conjunction with my photography course. Our homework was to take pictures of our families. This obviously poses a slight problem for me as my family is quite a ways away. So instead I took pictures of my friends.






I know the spider web isn't a friend, but I thought it was cool, even though the lighting isn't that great.

Biblical Meditation

We had a guest speaker today in our spiritial formation class becuase Adrian is in Dublin. He spoke on Biblical meditation and I was really impacted, so I thought I would share some of what he talked about. I'm not going to be able to capture everything that was discussed, but here are some thoughts for your consideration.

Dave started off by saying that hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life.

"For most of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim through our lives instead of actually living them."
I dont know who that quote was by, but I think it's brilliant.

What makes your life crowded? What are you rushing to get done?
Dave challenged us to intentionally slow down. Get in the longest line at the grocery store then let someone go infront of you. Drive in the slow lane the entire time and dont speed. Find ways to train yourself to wait. I thought this was really interesting because I love to be busy, always having something to do, someone to see, another e-mail to write. People often equate being busy with being important. I know I've done it. But to be still and really spend time with God one on one - that is a real challenge. I think most people (myself included) are scared that they might find out something about themselves or about Him that they dont like, or that makes them uncomfortable.

The next thing he asked us is how do we see the Bible. I've actually been thinking about this lately. We went to the source to see what the Bible says about itself.
As it turns out there are 7 points of interest:

The word is a...
1)Lamp (Ps 119:105)
- Guidance
- Reveals
2)Bread (Luke 4:4)
- Sustenance
- Staple food in our diet
- Leaves you full and satisfied
3)Mirror (James 1:22-25)
- Shows us who we are
- Reflects Christ
- Reveals both the good and the bad so we can improve what we see
4)Scalpel (4:12)
- Cut through sin
- Used to heal
5)Sword (Eph 6:17)
- Weapon
- Protection
6)Hammer (Jer 23:29)
- Tool for construction and destruction
7)Fire (Jer 23:29)
- Refines
- Consumes
- Spreads

So the question is, if the written word of God is all these things then why do so many Chritians no engage with the Bible besides on a sunday morning?

I was very impacted by that statement. I believe that everything on this list is true, yet I dont set apart time everyday to indulge in the word of God. I do once and a while, I read a few chapters, do a small study on a particular subject. But God gave us the book as a whole. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says All scripture is God breathed and is useful for the teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Gods word is given to us not to inform, but to transform us from the inside out. How can it do this if we dont rest in it? God desires to change the way we think, that our minds become in line with the Holy Spirit.

Ruminant animals, like sheep and cows, have several stomachs. To eat they will chew some grass, swallow it, regurgitate it, chew it some more, swallow it over and over again, until they have broken it down enough that the food is actually absorbed into their blood stream. In the same way we need to meditate on the word of God until it is completely absorbed into out being.

If you're anything like me you can get pretty distracted when you read the Bible, so here is a process that Dave Suggests to help you meditate. Of course this is not the only way to do it, but I tried it and I really like it. And remember, this type of meditation isnt about clearing your mind or achieving some sort of higher state, its about filling your mind and soul with the word of God.

1) Choose a verse or passage.
2) Read it slowly several times.
3) Underline key words and phrases.
4) Write out the text several times.
5) Use the scripture as a means to pray.
6) Understand the context of the passage.

After his talk was done we went off to put into practice this meditation. I studied John 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing" -Jesus
I didnt get any revelations or hear Gods voice in a distinct way, but it felt so amazing just to slow down for 15 mins of my day and concentrate on God. Just be with him. To let the word wash over you. I really loved this exercise and am going to challenge myself to continue to practice it over the year (you can ask me how its going to keep me on track).
The Bible is God breathed. It is the transforming, sustaining, refining, weapon it claims to be. Read it. Know it. Live it.

Love you all

Cool Pictures

So besides being an amazing guitar player Adam is also a brilliant photographer. He took these pictures and I think They're really cool so I thought I would share them with you.

Little children slobber everywhere

So I'm working in MOPs (Mothers of Preschoolers...I think) every second tuesday from 9am-11:15am. I've only done it once, and it went pretty well, although it does make for a long day since I have class from 11:30am-8pm on tuesdays as well. The kids are really cute though. They are all from about 12-18mths old. They do sry and scream tonnes though cause they're going through that 'You're not my Mom, so I hate the sight of you' phase. There is this one wee girl called Charlotte who looks exactly like a Cabbage Patch doll. But she cried the entire time. There is this kid called Finlay who was attached to me the entire time. He just walked up to me while I was sitting on the floor and put his arms out and jumped onto me and didn't let go the entire time. He is definatly my favorite. And I don't care if you're not supposed to have favorites with kids, I do and he's it.
On sunday James and I were in with the P1-P7 (which is like elementary) sunday school kids. We helped lead worship to a Hillsong kids DVD so it was all action songs, which you all know I am totally into. James on the other hand not so much. I felt bad for the guy. He said he's only been embarassed three times in his life and that was at the top of the list. The worship interns have to rotate through kids worship with me and they are so excited! But it is kinda cool that they would like the boys to lead live worship sometimes and I would love to be a part of that.
After church on sunday we went to Paul Reids house for lunch. He made the best lamb hamburgers I have ever had in my life. It was really nice to get to spend some time with our pastor and get to know him a bit more. Good craic!
Last friday the church held worship watch at the end of the week of prayer which is just worship from 8pm-12am. We wern't there the entire time, but it was so wonderful to just get to sit under that Spirit of worship for so long. I really enjoyed it and they do it every month.
Right now Adam is trying to get organized an intern trip to Prauge on one of our breaks. We can fly there for about £74 and once there its pretty cheap to live I understand. So that should be good.
Today I'm supposed to be painting walls so I should probably get back at it. So hey, thanks for taking the time to read this and have a great day!

There are two things you need to remember about the penguin of death...

Well here it is. The moment I know you've all been waiting for. I'm finally posting pictures of the people I'm haning out with.


This is James(In the hat) and Joey. James is from PEI and Joey is from Sydney Australia. Everytime I'm with him it takes me right back to Hillsong...so good!


Here Joey is kissing Nathan (also from PEI). Joey is rather affectionate with the boys.


The guy holding the guitar is Andy. He isnt an intern, he's actually Abbies host brother. He plays bass in a band called bluetree. Go to youtube and search for them to see the promo video. The guy in the black and grey is Adam (from good old Calgary). Adam is a phenominal guitar/bass player.



This is my house mate Abbie. She's great. We get along really well.



And finally this is me wearing Joeys hat. Some Irish girl said I looked like I was wearing a tea cozie on my head.

I do have more friends than this, but I dont have pictures of them yet. But these are the people I spend the bulk of my time with.

Classes have begun

Well things are finally getting off the groun here. On monday we took a tour of CFC, met the staff, and went to this really cool place called Oasis.
CFC is great. The sanctuary itself isnt nearly as large as I expected it to be, but the facilities include a gym, kitchen, tonnes of offices, a youth room/cafe, and lots of multi-purpose spaces. For all our classes we are stuck in the basement, which is a nice sized room, but it smells like something very strange.
The staff are really great people. You can really tell by speaking with them that they truely love God and the community and want to serve both. I'll be working under a lady named Penny who is the brand new childrens pastor. I have an official meeting with her on friday to discuss the year and to really get started with my placement.
Oasis is a community outreach programme that was started by a couple in the church. It is such an amazing story which I dont have time to relate here, but basically they wanted to practically demonstrate the love of God to the people around them. They offer classes in computers, life skills, day care, wood working, basically anything that can practically help people meet their basic needs. They dont shove the gospel down anyones throat, but are always willing to share when it is appropriate. It really is the type of place I can see myself getting involved with. I think I will be doing some work there with the Crosslinks programme which uses creative arts to bring together youth from the Catholic and Protestant communities and build bridges between them.
The classes so far have been very interseting. One is about life skills such as communication and stuff like that. Another is Spiritual formation and we are spending some time on the importanceof spiritual disciplines such as silence, meditation, and the like. This has been an area of my spiritual walk where I have struggled a bit so I'm really looking forward to going deeper here. Another class was about identity. We went into the whole who you are in Christ thing, which was review really but still a great reminder of what our self worth is based on. Nothing that we ourselves can achieve, but what Jesus has already done. And the last class was about conflict resolution. This one was a bit more interactive which is good because it comes at the end of a 9hr day.
On mondays the source kids have a full day of classes aswell and they need someone to cook dinner for them, so I have offered up my services and will be making dinner for 12 people once a week as long as I am avaliable. I also cook dinner for the boys about once a week, so I should be really good when I get home.
Tonight I am going to a cell group for ages 11-14 (I think) which I am going to be co-leading at some point. Then on sunday all us internationals are going over to Paul Reids house for lunch.
Beyond that nothing too much is going on. I've just been having some good craic with the people here. My house mate has arrived and we get along really well, and are planning Christmas already. A bunch of us are staying here, so we are all going to pile into our house and be a little family together.
Well I hope that lets you all know a wee bit of my life for the moment. My time is about up in the computer so I must be off. Love you all.
P.S. Abbie is teaching me to knit!