Update Tuesday 01/05/12

How can God use a movie shoot, a cancelled bus and a cup of coffee for the kingdom?  We have an idea.  Last week, I wrote about our outreach to the city's homeless that we did at Gore Park in the downtown core.  I mentioned that there were a number of great conversations and I would like to share about one in a bit more detail. 
As we gathered in Gore park to hand out sandwiches, toiletries and free coffee, we brought along some signs that read free coffee, that a few members of our group were able to use to bring some attention to what we were doing.  The signs caught the attention of one young girl named Alicia.  Alicia lives in an apartment downtown, on the same street as the park we were in, but quite a few blocks away.   As it turns out, there was a movie shoot happening in the downtown core resulting in the closure of one of the main arteries running through the city and thus the interruption of one of the main bus lines.  Whereas Alicia would have ordinarily been on the bus, traveling right past our location on another parallel street, on Sunday she was walking home through Gore Park.   She stopped for a coffee and while she was enjoying her beverage, we struck up a conversation with her.  When it came out that we were a part of a church, she shared that she had actually been thinking about going to a church but that she didn't want to have to go by herself to a church where she didn't know anyone, especially when she did not know what she was getting into.  We were able to talk with her for a while, share about our group, how we do things a bit differently and suggest that since she now knew us she could join us at any time and that she would already know everyone!  She took our contact info before heading home.  To be honest, I have given out information before, invited people to join us and even had some positive responses.  I have learned however, that Canadians have a way of being polite and not outright rejecting you without outright committing either.  Very rarely do we have someone join us after only having met us for a few minutes.  In fact, when the next Tuesday rolled around and the phone rang, we were not expecting a call.  When Alicia introduced herself and said that we had met in the park, we thought she had a wrong number, after all we had not had our kids at the park that day.  It took a few seconds to realize who she was and that she had meant the park downtown on Sunday.  We made arrangements to go and pick her up and Alicia joined us last Tuesday.  Alica is a young lady, just 19 years old, who has moved around a lot and is now living on her own in an apartment in a fairly rough part of town.  It was a pleasure to have her with us, to share a good home cooked meal with her, fellowship and community as well as worship and the Word.  We are praying that when we meet again this week that she will once again feel welcomed and encouraged to join us.
Well, this is a really busy week for us again.  I have a meeting with someone from the North American Mission Board (OK he is taking us out to dinner - not really a "meeting") tonight, so we have moved our Fellowship meeting until Thursday.
I have a gig with my band Before the Flood at the Horseshoe in Toronto on Wednesday night.  If you are in the area let me know and I would love to see you there!
We also have the Spring Sprint 5K this Saturday, so we have been busy making final arrangements and making Liam's final fundraising push.  As of today we are about 74% of Liam's goal.  Thanks to everyone who has chipped in!
I may also have an opportunity for an acoustic gig on Sunday afternoon here in Hamilton at the studio of my photographer friend George Qua-Enoo as he hosts an open house as a part of Open Doors Hamilton.  Keep an eye out on Facebook over the next few days, and if we can pull the details together I will share all the specs there.  
I also want to thank everyone for all the prayers over the past few weeks.  We have definitely been feeling the effects and are starting to feel like we have some forward movement on a number of the things we shared last week.  Thanks again for all the prayer and support.