Mother's Day and other extras

I've gotten out of touch with writing this lately and have let Dave have a few turns which has been a great relief in a busy time (even if he didn't always do them in the timing that I thought they should be done).The week before last we had the opportunity to participate in the Church Planting Summit in Toronto. It was a great opportunity for learning that I am sure Dave mentioned in his blog. I thought that my interviews went well with the denomination and had some encouraging feed back.  Thanks to everyone who prayed for me, I know that it made a difference.

I don't know whether it was the business of the week before or the stress of sermon writing (not my forte), or maybe it was just allergy season, but last week I came down with a bad sinus infection that put me out of commission for a few days. Somehow by the grace of God I was able to pull together a Mother's Day sermon for Caistor Centre that fulfilled my annual (or once every five years?) speaking requirement for them. It is amazing how God puts pieces in place when we need them most. I received an article in my e-mail about Niger being the worst country to be a mother this year (according to an annual report by Save the Children) that linked the two topics that I was speaking on: Mother's Day and our plans to return to Niger. Please pray for the food crisis that is going on there and that we would be instruments of God's peace as we return.

One of the recommendations that came out of my interviews was that I take the next Wesleyan Theology course (at the end of May). I had previously looked into taking the course but decided that our speaking engagements and other obligations where too much of a conflict, so I had written it off. (Ironically, I had dinner with the teacher of the course and had told him that just the weekend before). So it was a bit of a surprise and a scramble this week as I tried to find text books and delve into the reading to hopefully get the precourse work done before the course starts. I guess I will get to practice what I have been learning about resting well (Sabbath) in order to work hard--maybe I'll even learn how to work smart in the process.

Praying that you are able to thoroughly enjoy your long weekend for those of us who are celebrating Victoria Day this weekend. Long live the Queen.

Church Planter's Summit

This week, Jenn and I went to the church planter’s summit organized by Church Planting Canada. We enjoyed the opportunity to wrestle with some of our questions and hear other people’s stories. Even though the summit was aimed at church planting in the Canadian context, we found it beneficial for thinking about our own context and helped us think about the next steps in our ministry in Niger. We were able to connect with other church planters, two of whom had overseas experience with another mission. I also gained some insight that I think will be useful for my thesis.

Saturday Jennifer is going for a check-in MEGaP (Ministerial Education, Guidance and Placement) the committee for the Free Methodist church. It will include three interviews and some conversations about the training she’s been doing for ministry. Please pray for good counsel as she meets with these people.

Time is winding down as we near the end of our speaking schedule. We’ll be visiting two churches this weekend just north of Toronto.

Too Many Extras (or just an absent minded husband)

Sorry to those who were looking for a post last week and didn’t find one. We have had a harried few weeks. We are about to embark on our third long drive weekend and seem to have run into a number of mishaps on each of them (and are hoping that the trend is broken).

We had a great time worshipping and visiting with the folks in Sudbury. There was a real spirit of excitement and anticipation about what the Lord was doing in their midst and we pray that God will richly bless their work there. But that was the start of the misfortune (or Dave’s forgetfulness). The weather was so beautiful when we left Sudbury that Dave forgot his leather jacket behind. Luckily we were able to make arrangements to meet with the pastor’s wife later in the week on the other side of Toronto to retrieve his jacket. This reduced our trip tremendously but ate up the better part of the day.

This past weekend, our drive was to Almonte, just the other side of Ottawa and we were blessed to meet one of Dave’s cousins that the boys and I had never met before. The church there was very welcoming as well and doing a great job managing without a pastor. The boys got to watch some British “football” on the “telly” with our gracious hosts and we took a little time out to visit the Canadian War Museum. But, there again we had a unfortunate connection with a pillar in the parking lot that cut our trip a little short so that we could get back home to deal with accident reports with insurance companies and the rental agency.

On returning home our own car was dead –the battery had died and needed to be replaced. We tried to return Dave’s library books to Tyndale only to have him leave behind his credit card in the book store (making for an additional trip to Toronto on another day this week). We went to the seminary library here at Brock University to confess that Dave had lost one of their books and to find out about replacing it—only to find it a day later.

One of the highlight of all the miles that we have put on our car this past couple of weeks was a trip yesterday to Boston, ON (yes there is a Boston in Ontario! It is a one intersection town). Where we did a presentation for a grade one/two class that is taught by the pastor’s wife in Brantford. Thankfully, the only trouble we had was missing our corner and having to double back to get there.

Thanks to all of you that have been praying for our safety on the roads. We really appreciate it and know that despite all of the difficulties we have had things could be a whole lot worse. Dave also wants to thank all of you that have been praying for his thesis proposal. He is happy to say that it was approved, so now the real work begins (he will have to produce a chapter a month starting in September and finishing in January). Unbeknownst to them, Jennifer is looking forward to celebrating her birthday with the people in Arlington Woods this weekend.

Thesis proposal

Yesterday I sent off a rough draft of my proposal. Now I am waiting to find out how much revision it needs before he'll send it on to the approval committee, (assuming he will). Essentially what I've proposed is putting together a ministry plan for our church planting work in Niger. Though it will require lots of writing (the thesis is supposed to be roughly 80 pages), it will be focused on what we are actually doing in Niger, and actually be a resource for our ministry.

I'm looking forward to allowing my brain and my reading stray a little further afield for the next few weeks though if all of this goes through, I'll be back to more focused reading in the near future to get the ball rolling on my research.

Last weekend we enjoyed a weekend off, visiting family.  Now that Jennifer's parents have returned from Florida the boys have decided to start taking more weekends off of travelling and spending time with Grandma and Grandpa. This is probably a good thing on a couple of fronts: the boys will not only get a day off everyweek but they will have a little more stability in their, get to make the most of their time with Grandma before heading back Niger and its probably better that they not listen to the same sermon from their father every week. It does put a little logistical snag in our program though since Cole has ben running the power point my message. The timing is good since we're looking at 12 hr travel time for each of the next three weekends.

Pain

Isn’t it amazing how small things can create unheard of amounts of pain! Think of the last time you really stubbed your toe, it was probably the last time that you gave any serious consideration to that part of your body. It is that way with the body of the church as long as things are going smoothly we may not even notice other parts of the body in operation, but as soon as something goes wrong every part can feel the pain.
This week I have been struggling with a boil. I have been amazed at how something so small can cause so much pain and distraction keeping me from being able to focus and do the things that I need to. (I suppose that it doesn’t help that I am trying to write a sermon outline on the Holy Spirit for my ministerial candidate interview—both a daunting subject and a form that is not my strength.) The boil had reached the stage that it had to be lanced yesterday to drain the infection. I will spare you all of the gory details and just say that it hurt despite the doctor’s gentle touch and my brave face. It made me think back to the presentations on conflict at the regional gathering and the importance of dealing with conflict well and early because the longer hurts have to fester the messier and more painful they are to fix.
My prayer for each of you is that as we think about the suffering of our Saviour this week (the kind of pain that puts my boil to shame in comparison) that we will find a new perspective for dealing with our hurts and be able to restore any relationships that may not be what they should. Peace friends!