Category Archives: faith

Remembrance Day

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Before the day is over I just wanted to post and give my respect to all those who have served. I know no better, or more Canadian, way to do this…

Image by Alana Elliott

Image by Alana Elliott

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

- Lt. Col. John McCrae (1872 – 1918)

hittting close to home

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We’d appreciate your prayers for our friend and John’s co-worker who was involved in a bizarre event this weekend:

Press Release

Power To Change Staff Member Survives Bomb Blast

Langley, British Columbia
November 9, 2008

Gary Stevenson, a staff member with the Campus for Christ ministry of Power To Change, has survived a bombing at his home in Langley, BC. The attack occurred at approximately 11:30 am Saturday morning as the Stevenson family was loading a van to move out of their townhouse. Mr. Stevenson picked up a package delivered anonymously to his door, thinking it was a gift, but it exploded when he attempted to open it.

Mr. Stevenson was taken immediately to the hospital where he was treated for lacerations and burns. Surgeons removed shrapnel from his abdomen. No other members of the Stevenson family were injured. He is expected to make a full recovery.

The townhouse complex was sealed off by police who swept the area to ensure there were no other explosive devices. Investigators gathered evidence until late Saturday evening at which time residents were allowed to return to their homes. Police investigators say that they have no suspects or information about movtives and caution against premature speculations.

Mr. Stevenson serves with Campus for Christ on the campus of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia where he works with students. Mike Woodard, National Director of Campus for Christ, expressed shock at the attack. “Gary is just a great guy,” Woodard said, “one of our most innovative staff who really enjoys engaging with university students on life’s most significant issues.” The director of Campus for Christ at Simon Fraser, Derek Hill, added that “Gary really loves people. He spends time getting to know students, and is always ready to help someone with a problem.”

Stevenson is married with two children. In addition to his work at Simon Fraser, Mr. Stevenson has also served internationally. A brief assignment took him to North Africa. He has worked most extensively in Nicaragua, where he served for two years.

Power To Change President, Leonard Buhler, expressed relief that Mr. Stevenson had survived the attack. “Our hearts are saddened by this terrible event,” Buhler said, “but our staff and others in the community have rallied strongly to support Gary and his family.” Buhler is asking people to pray for the family during the weeks of recovery ahead.

Power To Change is a Canadian Christian ministry with more than 500 staff serving across Canada and around the world. The ministry seeks to assist people in a spiritual journey where they discover the relevance of Jesus Christ to issues of life today.

For more information contact: Dr. Guy S. Saffold
guy.saffold@powertochange.org
604-514-2000
Power To Change
20385 64th Ave
Langley, BC

For more information on Power To Change, visit www.powertochange.org

staff Con and such

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2.jpg We’re back from Staff Conference 2008 in Whistler. We got home last night after an 8 hour drive that should have been 3. Don’t know if you heard but there was a landslide on the Sea to Sky Highway so the road down from Whistler to Vancouver was shut down until at least Monday.

Once the panic subsided we realized the only other way down was a twisty, turny road through Pemberton (too bad the festival was over and Jay-Z and Coldplay were long gone) that takes more than twice as long.

staffcon2.jpg In fact, the road was so rediculous that poor little Boo threw up her blueberry breakfast all over herself halfway down the mountain. We had to pull over while Angie redressed Boo and John and Kim cleaned out her car seat. I couldn’t blame her though, I felt sick most of the trip myself.

Besides the adventure of getting home we had a great time. It was alot more laid back than last year- I think the 40th anniversary celebration and the unveiling of the organization’s new name was more than most of us could handle. This year the only thing that got people’s knickers in a twist was the speaker, Erwin McManus. Despite the anxiety hanging in the air that, as Kirsten pointed out, could have been cut with a knife, I think it’s awesome when speakers come and challenge us. I personally loved listening to Erwin and both John and I have put a visit to Mosaic in LA on our list of things to do before we die.

1.jpg A few of our friends from out East crashed at our place between Campus Staff Days and Staff Conference. It was fun to tour around Vancouver; it had been awhile since we had been down to Granville Island or the 218 Flavours ice cream place.

3.jpg Of course now I’m sad that I got to know Emily, Brad, Joe and Kolten better and then had to say goodbye for another year.

It’s late and I should be heading to bed so I’ll just end this here. Another Staff Conference over and the best news of all: they decided we’re don’t have to join with the American Staff Conference next year after all! Whistler 2009 baby!

one thing after another

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The past couple weeks have really been, challenging. It just seems to be one thing after another. A snowball effect. One day you wake up and you’re snowed in.

It just seems like in the last couple weeks so much has happened around us and involving us that John and I keep looking at and each other and wondering what is going on.

It started last Friday when I came down with a bad cold. No wait, back up. It started months ago when for various reasons my job almost got the best of me. It’s such an insane time of change, new things, unknowns, being short-staffed, still getting used to my role… I was taking a lot on and it was showing physically, emotionally, relationally. Stack on top of that John’s role that seems to expand daily and we were a thinly stretched couple. Oh and we’ve been married less than two years, moved twice and going to do it again this summer. Good times.

Back to last Friday. I got this cold that still plagues me as I write this post a week later. I really did not need this because I have to be at 110% if I expected to get everything done before we leave on our trip next week.

At home sick on Saturday morning, the bomb dropped. One email and a couple phone calls later it was clear that our church was in crisis. I have blogged about our church before and what an amazing, welcoming community we have found there. John is very close with some of the leadership guys, I have found friendships with some amazing women and we both look forward to worshiping with them every Sunday. But now some vital members of the community have left the church and everyone involved is hurting. I don’t know if we will ever know the full story but I suspect the truth is somewhere in between what both sides sincerely believe happened.

Church on Sunday was hard. Almost everyone attempted to show love and grace and come together as a church but the hole left by those who were missing was obvious. They are our friends, we love them, no one knows quite what to do but we do know things won’t ever be the same.

On Wednesday the wife of the Director of Church Relation, Glen Driedger, passed away. She died in her sleep and was found by her teenage twin daughters, who will graduate high school in a month. She was a friend to many in my office and the reaction to her death was palpable.

We have staff chapel on Thursday mornings and this week we took time to talk about Irene’s death, as well as what turned out to be three other deaths, and a baby born that will not live, among staff families. It was so much to take in at once and everyone felt the weight of loss.

I picked John up at lunch time yesterday and hugged him so tightly he had to put the car back in park and let me finish. I told him I don’t want to take him for granted. Glen said he didn’t know the night before it would be his last time with Irene. I tried to imagine what I would do if I said good night and in the morning her was gone.

happy belated st. patrick’s day

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Yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day. I forgot all about it until I got to work and Lynnette was wearing green. I was disappointed too because St. Patrick’s Day is one of the cooler holidays… low key but festive. Like you don’t really have to decorate your house or make a big meal or anything, as celebrating pretty much involves parades, pub food and lots of green beer.

John and I had been invited to Earl and Rhonda’s house for supper. Earl is an elder at our church (which for us is like one of the pastoral staff because we don’t really have pastors) and they have 3 of the coolest little boys, Owen, Hadden and Phoenix. We brought Guinness and Kilkenny so the meal could official be a St. Patrick’s Day party and everyone enjoyed the rare treat when more people from the church arrived after supper.

I brought my camera and got some candid shots of all of us hanging out, but most of photo shoot time was taken up by the 3 boys who enjoyed trying to dodge the camera or make the funniest possible faces and then laughing at themselves in the pictures. I didn’t end up with anything suitable for framing but then again, if I framed pictures of other people’s kids that would just be creepy.

I love hanging out with people from church and getting to know them better. Vintage is the first church that John and I have ever picked together. And it is probably the first time in my life, maybe his as well, that we have been able to choose a church without any external factors- family, school, obligations- coming into play. I found the church through the Acts 29 church planting network site because John and I listen to podcasts from Mars Hill Church in Seattle and Village Church in Dallas and we knew they were a part of that network. I thought that would be our best shot at finding a church like theirs in our area. It’s a 30 minute drive every Sunday morning but despite that I look forward to being there every week.

It’s a small church plant, about 3 years old, and it’s full of young people. There’s only one Sunday school class so the older ones come to the service, and we meet in a movie theatre, but it is the most sincere, real church I’ve ever been to. I’ve seen door greeters before and I can tell who volunteered to help me find a seat, but this was the first time I had been invited to lunch after church on my first visit. After 2 visits I didn’t feel like visiting any more churches. For the first time in my life I can be the same person with the same tastes, clothes, sense of humor, friends, hobbies, passions and yes, even music, on Sunday as I am every other day of the week. Plus they take the verse about “eating together” literally so we have alot of potlucks. : )

I am a bit worried now, as we look at the future and consider moving closer to Vancouver for John’s commute, that we will be moving even further away from the church. I don’t want to even think about leaving after building these relationships over the last several months and for me that isn’t really an option. But driving 45 mins every Sunday morning, Wednesdays for home group and Thursdays for women’s group, isn’t a pleasant thought either. Oh well, as John and I have become very good at saying, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

If you live in the Abbotsford area you should come check out Vintage!

eco

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As Conservation International says living green is not a trend, it’s an ethic. Being conscious of the impact my choices have on the health of the earth and taking responsibility for my actions is something that has become very important in my life.

For me, caring about the impact I make goes hand in hand with my faith in God. He gave us this earth and the plants and animals who inhabit it with the responsibility of caring for all of it. He values disciplined habits, wise use of the material provisions He has given us and generosity towards those in need.

I know it’s hard. You don’t know where to start. Going 100% organic would break your grocery budget. You have to use the dryer or your towels will be like sandpaper. I get it. So I want to start collecting realistic resources, practical tips and economic ideas to encourage even the least earth-friendly person to start somewhere.

To quote CI again, don’t wait. Do something differently today.

Educate yourself
Do you know your eco-footprint? (take a look around this site, it’s a good one)
Calculate your personal carbon emissions

Do one thing differently from today on

1. Purchase compact fluorescent lightbulbs. They cost more initially but will save you an average of $30 each in electrical costs and 2000 times their weight in greenhouse gases over their lifetime. It’s win-win.

2. Switch laundry detergent and start washing in cold water. 80-90% of the energy used in washing clothes goes to heating the water.

3. Say no to the plastic bags! Most grocery stores offer reusable bags for about $1 and you can take them everywhere and use them for anything. According to reusablebags.com, “Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year”.

4. Take the stairs. We don’t get enough exercise as it is so every step helps, and you won’t be using all that electricity to lift you up a floor or two.

Bible Backup:

  • Look around you: Everything you see is God‘s—the heavens above and beyond, the Earth, and everything on it. (Deuteronomy 10:14)
  • O Lord, what a variety of things you have made!
    In wisdom you have made them all.
    The earth is full of your creatures.
    Here is the ocean, vast and wide,
    teeming with life of every kind,
    both large and small.
    See the ships sailing along,
    and Leviathan, which you made to play in the sea.They all depend on you
    to give them food as they need it.
    When you supply it, they gather it.
    You open your hand to feed them,
    and they are richly satisfied.
    But if you turn away from them, they panic.
    When you take away their breath,
    they die and turn again to dust.
    When you give them your breath, life is created,
    and you renew the face of the earth. (Psalm 104:24-30 NLT)
  • Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. (Ecclesiastes 1:4 NIV)
  • What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. (Matthew 10:29 NLT)

“We are care-takers. ‘The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till and keep it,’ Genesis 2:15. The Hebrew words shamar and abad, usually translated as ’till and keep’ in this verse, could be just as accurately translated as ‘serve and preserve.’ The word shamar is also used in Numbers 6:24: ‘The Lord bless you and keep you.’ God desires that we treat the creation in the same way that God treats us.” (Target Earth International)