Don't you just love being challenged?

well equally as much as everyone else on here being challenged sometimes isnt that comfort... well usually never is that comfortable. I have been listening to an mp3 audio book called "One thing you cant do in heaven" and it is about witnessing. Well this guy that wrote it, mark cahill, is unbelievable, he witnesses to anyone, anywhere, anytime.. needless to say i have been challenged to at least start by talking to a person on the bus instead of reading or fancy that listening to mark cahill.. :-)
anyway i was coming home the other day and this older gentleman got on the bus and he was having a hard time doing so, but he got settled down in his seat and away the bus went. i could see from this man that he had some kind of leg pain and it was a larger man as well. the immediate thought that came to my head was to go over and talk to him, find out what was wrong and pray for him if he would let me, it was Christmas day after all. but i told myself if he gets off at my stop then I will, and low and behold he did.
as he got off the bus I came beside him and asked do you mind if i ask what i wrong with your leg?
and he told me that he was overweight and had flat feet in a matter of fact tone. then he exclaimed that he was losing weight though.
i talked to him a bit more and he said that he is ok when he is moving but when he sits it takes time to get back up.
his name was ernest and so i asked him if he would let me pray for him. to which he replied, you pray for people too!" well knock me off my feet and call my dolly i thought to myself. he turned out to be a believer and had seen many healings in his day, but not so much anymore he said, to which i replied probably because people like us aren't being obedient, and thats why we need to be. he told me he went to a church downtown that benny hinn's brother pastors so we talked a bit about our "church plant" as well. it was a little chilly so i prayed for him and we went our separate ways.
I wish i could bottle up the feeling after I actually do something I feel the Lord telling me to do, it feels so good to obey, but more often than not, i ignore the person, turn up mark cahill(or anything else for the matter) in my earphones, or open my book and continue to be in my own world. Just a little bit of my journey lately.

merry christmas from MISSIONBURNABY!

this is us all, minus nicole, unfortunately who was working..and minus our newest addition, tanya, who was sleeping! giggle..but plus naomi, from australia, who was visiting us all here for two weeks!

merry christmas to you all!
we love you, and thank god for you.
and covet your prayers!

all the best in 2008!

ps - yes, and minus hayley who was asleep.. :)

Love Letters from God

I was thinking yesterday about the letters that my Dad gives me on my birthday some years. The ones that I cherish, that I’ve tucked away in my journals over the years. They are so encouraging and kind. He tells me how much he loves me and all the great things he sees in me. How valuable and I am.

I started to think about how would my dad feel if when I read his letter my response was, “You know, he has no clue what he is talking about. This is all a bunch of garbage. I’m a mess, a piece of work, a pile of broken pieces who can never get anything right.” If I crumpled up the paper and threw it in the general direction of the garbage can. I think he would be sad, he might even cry. Desperate to convince me of what he thinks about me, how much he values me, it would break his heart that I didn’t hear a single word of the beautiful things he was telling me about me.

I was thinking about the beautiful things God says about us in His ‘letter” to us...

You are loved (John 3:16)
You cannot be separated from My love (Rom 8:31-39)
You have been redeemed and forgiven (Col 1:13-14)
You are a child of Mine (John 1:12; Rom 8:14,15; Gal 3:26)
You are a friend of Jesus Christ (John 15:15)
You are a member of Christ’s body, our family (1 Cor 12:27)
You are chosen by Me; adopted as My Children (Eph 1:3-8)
You are heirs with Me and joint heirs with Christ (Gal 4:6,7; Rom 8:17)
You are hidden with Christ in Me (Col 3:3)
You have been bought with a price (1 Cor 6:19-20)
You are saved by grace (Eph 2:8)
You are a new creation (2 Cor 5:17)
You are righteous and holy (Eph 4:24)
You are justified (Rom. 5:1)
You are free from condemnation (Rom 8:1)
You may approach Me with freedom and confidence (Eph 3:12)
You are reconciled to Me (2 Cor 5:18)
You are a minister of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:17-21)
You are the light of the world (Matt 5:14)
You are complete in Me (Col 2:9-10)
You are My workmanship (Eph. 2:10)
You are My temple (1 Cor 3:16)
You are seated with Jesus Christ in the heavenly realm (Eph 2:6)
You can do all things through Christ, in His strength (Phil 4:13)
You are chosen by Me, holy and dearly loved (Col 3:12; 1 Thess 1:4)
You are more than a conqueror through Christ (Rom 8:37)
You are part of a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation (1 Pet 2:9)

Yet how many times do I read the ‘letter’ He has written me and doubt its truth? I can only imagine how He weeps when we refuse, when we can’t believe what He says about us. Much more than my earthly father, God would give anything for me to understand how much He loves me. In fact, He did. He gave His son. Knowing I would have a hard time and would need to be reminded over and over how much truly loves and cares for me, He set up ways for me the understand His love over and over.

He sent His son to die for me. He sent His word to convince me. He sends people and angels into my path to protect me and to love me. And sometimes he even wraps His arms around me, not physically, but in a way that feels so real I should be able to see Him.

Lord, in this season of giving help me to hear your voice – your message of love to me… to know your arms wrapped around me – through friends and family around me… and most importantly, help me to accept and believe that your love is true and real so I can share it with others. Help me to believe what you say about me is true so I can help others believe it about themselves.

Thank you so much for your many gifts…
xo

the NICU nurse's dinner

we've been doing some incredible tangible jesus stuff through our supper's we've been doing in "the house"...we had our bbq in june, then a supper in sept for our wonderful neighbors and some close friends. and then on the 1st of dec we had darlene's team from her floor at NICU - neonatal intensive care unit - at the bc children's hospital in vancouver.

it was a great time! the food was great, of course..jonathan and chris and jong, both friends of jonathan's from school, put together a wonderful menu!

the nurse's had a really relaxing time and even said they wanted to book us for next year! :) so cute. as a token and gift, we gave them each a bottle of hard-to-find wine that we said was somewhat a representation of them - hard to find, valuable women who give so much of themselves to their community through their job.

they were an awesome bunch of ladies!

here's a couple photos to capture the evening.
it dumped snow that day too! woo woo!!
























thank you for your prayers, as we love and serve thru these opportunities.
to look at the slideshow of the evening go to this link:

nurse's dinner

An update of the Reesor's

Well family and friends. It has been about 2 months since the last official update and there have been something’s to update indeed.

I have been working at the group home with at risk youth the last 2 months. I average about 2 shifts a week and depending sometimes more. I am working quite a bit over Christmas because I told them I was available.

As for the line painting job, it has been quite a time since I worked there given the rainy weather. I hope to be able to get some shifts there if this weather would cooperate.

All and all God is good and providing what we need each month in terms of rent and bills and everyday living, including some fun things. It has been an interesting season just sometimes not knowing how much work I will have and where that work will be.

Some of you have known Meryl has been looking at trying to move on from her job at Zookaz café and of recently she is moving on to be working with the YMCA and working in a before and after school program with young aged kids. She will go from 700-9 and then again from 230-6. It is about a 30 min. commute from our place so she will be able to come home in between shifts. She is hoping this will be an opportunity to work with kids and the other staff and to be a positive addition to the environment as well adding some great experience and opportunities to her resume. She will officially kick off on the 9^th of January so we will trust God will provide in our sporadic work schedules.

Regarding Mission Burnaby we have had some opportunities this month to be a part of hosting dinner parties for 2 different groups of people. The first group was the nurses that Darlene Wall works with at the BC Childrens Hospital. There were about 15 ladies that came out for an evening of fun and a wonderful meal just for them.

From what I saw they were amazed that we would do this, invite them over to the house, prepare a gourmet 5 course meal for them and simply bless and appreciate them for what they do day in and day out.

Jonathan had the opportunity to share some of the reason we believe God brought us out to Burnaby. That God has called us to be in relationship and to serve people and often we get some caught up in the busyness of life that relationship gets lost and forgotten about. As he shared this passionately some of the ladies had tears in their eyes.

The next group we got to share with was a handful of Church of God pastors from the Vancouver area. We were able to share with them in the same way with an amazing meal and fellowship and showing them we appreciate what they do as well, and often not seen. It was great to meet some new people and reconnect with some people again.

As for our Christmas plans it will definitely be a different experience in many ways.

I will be working at the home from the 22-26^th the 4pm-midnight shift. So we will try to spend the morning of the 24 and 25 together and maybe one day go help serve in a shelter downtown. The next weekend we will go to a Beauty and the Beast musicale which should be great too. The thing that keeps us going is knowing that we will see most of you in February in Estevan.

Bless you all in this Christmas season and we will be thinking of you guys.

Love Brian and Meryl

Brian's renga poem

Waiting, anxious, curious is where I find myself today.
Watching, listening, dreaming of what the future holds.
Secure, expectant, excited because I know who holds the future.

Observant, attentive, absorbing all my new surroundings
reflective, repentant, recommited because His work in others begins in me.

Finding, anticipated, wondering what life will show me next.
Glad, passionate, awakened because I find my place.
Peaceful, joyful, inspired because I am standing where I am now looking on the horizon of destiny . . adventure

Renewed sense of energy, of the calling that awaits.
Knowing my life is held in profound grace.

Jonathans

I exist in a paradox.
I am tired but more alive than I have ever been, confused by more clear, lonely yet more loved, afraid yet more bold, hurting yet more whole, longing and so aware of my emptiness but more full than I have ever been.
This journey has taken me away from all that is sure and into a land of fragility…this is the land of my dreams.

A land where my weakness is the answer to the cry of my generation; that they might know they are not alone and that the road they travel has companions, friends…family.
A land where my heart thirsts for more of this world’s inhabitants – a mosaic of broken pieces making up something beautiful, something authentic, something priceless.

And so I push.
I push for more for me; I push for more for them; I push for more for us.
Despite the fragility, I run, I fall, I trip, I crawl, I stand, I leap, I soar.

And find again this paradox.
Knowledge…and experience, faith…and action, fear…and release, dream…and reality.

Megan's Renga poem

I find myself in an unknown abyss
feeling nothing,knowing I was meant to fly.
Seeing hope, but I don't know how to grasp.

My creator has set me apart from the others
He has told me to jmp off the cliff

I wonder at these wings that I see, will they carry me?
Can I soar?
It is as though the very wind calls to me, joining with the voice of my saviour...."fly eagle fly"!

So I look at the reflection of myself in this dark abyss,
and I see who God has made me,
I smile for a moment...hands up high and I step forward, off this cliff knowing He carries me when my wings feel as though they can't...and then my heart feels.

my renga poem

I have to run quickly to help set up for the next supper at the MB house... but i'll share how my poem went.. great exercise er... and yes, no jokes, we need to do this once a month ;)


I'm searching and longing for a hope that resounds all around me
For a hope that I know is there as we dream of living
For a hope that will one day pour freely for others to see

I have found pain that echoes all around me
The pain is pouring freely for others to find hope

I am longing for new healing that will speak to those around me
For then I know I will be able to live and love freely
For then my dreams of truly living will be a reality others can see

I seek for a true heart beat, that will lead me beyond.
Not only does this beat breathe life, but it breathes a song that others will know they are not alone.

renga

so i hope someone else will update y'all on the nurses supper - ahem.. hint hint! i was in the kitchen with my hands in the sink most of the night so i didn't see reactions first hand for the most part. but from what i did hear second hand, everyone had a great time and felt very loved and honoured (which was our intent - hooray!) they even asked outright why we had chosen to host their party giving opportunity for the vision of mission burnaby to be spelled out briefly, so cool!

tonight we met and i led the group in the exercise i blogged about on Nov 16/07 called Renga.

Renga is Japanese writing where one person starts by writing 3 lines, then the next person adds 2 more lines, the next 3 lines and the last person 2 more, creating a 10 line poem... the challenge of the exercise is to listen and hear the writing of the first person and to continue in the rhythm and style that they are using.

In our case, my goal was for us to not only write cool poems but to give us a chance to express a bit of where we are at and allow the rest of the team to hear our hearts and kind of speak to where we are at indirectly... i'll share the poem I started... hopefully others will share theirs too because some pretty amazing stuff was written... thanks for sharing the journey with us!

Quietly she gathers, quietly she waits.
Waits for the lights to be turned on,
Waits for the dark night to turn day light.

Through the fog a glimmer, but she can't be sure...
So she sits still, silent, alone to wait out the passing night.

Slowly and peacefully a light breaks thru and falls upon her face.
A new dawn, a new day!
Cautiously, but with excitement rising, and eyes adjusting
she begins to finally see after so many dark days.

The dark days have taught her how much she needs the light.
This is where she wants to be: free, alive, full of purpose.

today

well, as of yesterday, all my course work is done. the past couple weeks have been fully crazy, and i've somehow managed to do significant research/writing on job, paul, and 5th century Athens with limited sleep. i'm so happy to be done. will post something about the journey i'm on with schooling in the next few weeks. it's hard to believe the term's done already...december is here.
today it's snowing...in fact the weathernetwork has a 'snowfall warning' for Greater Vancouver. not 'heavy' snowfall or 'winter storm warning'...just a warning that it's supposed to snow. in a city of steep hills, tight streets, and inexperienced drivers, snow is a big deal. but just a second ago i stuck my head outside, and snow was quietly falling. i realized that there's something in my DNA that loves snow [not the shoveling], especially when it falls in complete calm. i like the crispness and cleanness in the air...the refreshing renewal that settles as snow blankets everything. the snow leads to thoughts of loved ones and homes far away, of friends and family out on the frozen tundra of the prairies; on days like today that feels like the 'homeland'. thinking of you guys today.
the house is a buzz this morning. hayley's getting into stuff, caleb and his buddies [harry and stanley] are careening around upstairs, rosie's in the kitchen with her dad, and the rest of us are preparing for the dinner we are hosting tonight. yesterday, jonathan cooked up a storm...and i've gotta say that the soup we're serving is MAGNIFICENT!! still gotta decorate and get the table settings on...and of course the kitchen will be humming all day as j's chef friends arrive and we slowly transform into a high-end restaurant.
it's a beautiful day. we'll let you know how it goes.
thanks for thinking of us and praying for us.
sw