Update Tueseday 06/09/11

It was four years ago that they sat in a prayer meeting on the campus of McMaster University.  As the prayers of the students were being lifted up, a distinctive theme began to emerge.  Students,  many of the Asian,  began to pray specifically that God would send missionaries with overseas experience in Muslin regions of the world to the campus and to the area to help reach Muslim background people.  Little did they know that Mike and Patty had such experience, serving almost 18 years in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world, and that as they sat in on this prayer time, they were considering coming to Ontario to help reach out to Muslim background residents.
This was the story that my good friend Mike shared with me this past week.  As it turns out, it has just not worked out for him to get back to the McMaster campus as of yet, but he was calling to see if we had thought about doing some work there and if I could show him around the campus.  Seeing as McMaster is my Alma matter I am very much open to showing him around, despite the fact that it has changed considerably since my days there!  When we first considered coming to Hamilton, there was someone working on campus and that general area.  He was, in fact, one of my first calls as we began to work through our call to Hamilton.  Since that time, however, he has moved on to other work in another part of the world which opens up the possibility to work in that area, and on campus.  Mike and I will be heading to the campus on Thursday for an initial walk around.  I am interested to see what God may do with this connection with Mike and with my connection to the campus.  As I have shared before, when we first started feeling the restlessness in our ministry that would lead to our work in Hamilton, it was Mike with whom I spent much time learning and thinking about missions and church planting as I tried to get some new perspectives and ideas from other parts of the world.  It seems a very natural connection now, as my new ministry is very much shaped by our time together, that we might consider working together on the campus.  I have no idea what God may have in store, if anything at all, for us on the campus but it is definitely worth exploring.
This past week really has been about making connections as we managed to also visit Ridgecrest Baptist Church, the only long established SBC work here in Hamilton.  They meet over on the East end of town where they still host an Sunday evening service.  This made it a perfect opportunity for us to visit.  Serving mostly recovering addicts and those with mental and physical special needs, to say that this congregation is made up of mostly outcasts and misfits would be quite fitting, and just the way that pastor Tim likes it.  He loves this community and does a great job serving them.  Worshipping with them was a beautiful experience that my family and I truly found enriching.  Although perhaps the polar opposite to slick and sophisticated, the singing was louder, more enthusiastic and heartfelt than some congregations of thousands with whom I have worshipped.  Spending some time getting to know Tim, his wife and his girls afterwards made a perfect ending to a great evening.
I also had the chance to meet Ken this past week who is pastoring another newer work here in the city.  His work is affiliated with Toronto Church Planting and NAMB and is a biker church.  He is reaching out primarily to bikers and their families.  I look forward to being able to join them in worship in the upcoming weeks.
 I was also able to host my uncle Brad and his wife Lisa as well, as they were visiting from Austin Texas.  While they were here we were able to walk over and visit one of his friends that he used to play in a band with about 20 years ago.  It was the last band that he played in before leaving Canada to head to Austin where he has continued his music career ever since.  We walked the two or three blocks to visit with Lori Yates, an established singer songwriter who has lived in Hamilton for the past ten years.  Not only was she amoung the first to make the transition from the Queen Street West scene to Hamilton, which is an ever increasing phenomena fueling the growing arts scene here in the city, she is the one through whom God worked to confirm our call to this particular neighbourhood.  It was exactly a week ago this weekend that I heard a familiar voice from my past singing out from a stage at the Locke Street Festival.  That voice was Lori's and it was that encounter that helped us narrow down the area in which we are now living.  It was great to see here again.  I hope that she might be able to help me get to know the music scene here a bit better.
Well, as I mentioned this weekend is the Locke Street Festival and we are piggy-backing on that fact and hosting an open house.  We would ask for your prayers as we plan and work to get the house ready.  We are hoping for an opportunity to introduce many of our friends from our sending church in Milton to our new neighbours and neighbourhood.   We are also hoping to solidify a number of the relationships that we have made here in the community before we start our fist house church meeting this month.
Thanks again for all the continued prayers and support!