Update Tuesday - on a personal note

I hope that it is OK with you, but I am going to share a few really neat things that have happened of late within our family to begin this week's update.  We just recently returned from a visit to my parents cottage for the May long weekend, Victoria Day here in Canada.  We were actually visiting my wife Kimberley and our son Liam.  Why were we visiting them?  This was the first interesting turn in our summer schedule.  There is a professional theater company that has a summer theater in the town where my parents have a cottage.  Liam auditioned for the musical Oliver, with the hopes of gaining some audition experience.  As it turns out, he got cast as a part of the orphan chorus, so, Kimberley and Liam have moved to the cottage for about six weeks while Liam rehearses every night until June when the show opens.  We are excited for Liam and proud of him as we watch him make the most of this opportunity.

Meanwhile, while visiting at the cottage, we were informed by a friend that the trailer for a new ABC program entitled Lucky 7 that will be premiering this fall, was available for viewing online.  Now, ordinarily we would pay no attention to a trailer especially since we don't even have TV here at home.  This one, however, was different as it is the trailer for a TV show in which our daughter T.J. will be appearing as a principle role!   T.J. got a role for a TV pilot that shot this past spring.  We just heard last week that the pilot was picked up and will be a part of the fall lineup.  You can view the trailer below or follow the link:

http://youtu.be/DwVUhQFZKnw




Now that we are back here in the city, life continues on and there is still also a lot going on with the church stuff.  We are getting closer to the arrival of our summer student interns as well as our first mission team.  I am also excited to announce that we are currently working on the details and content for a web site.  As we grow a somewhat decentralized network of fellowships this will serve as an important centralized point at which to engage with The Hamilton Fellowships.  As soon as it goes live I will be sure to let you know!

Lastly, for those who are interested in learning more about the city, I thought I would share the link below which is from our local newspaper.  You may remember that in the past I have linked to articles from the Hamilton Spectator that were a part of its Code Red series, which highlights different areas or issues facing the city.   They have recently begun another investigation in the Code Red Series focusing on Barton Street.  This one time thriving economic artery running right through the city, in many ways represents some of the impact of the recent hard times the city has gone through.  The link is below.  Feel free to check back online with the paper as there are a number of days worth or articles in the series.

http://m.thespec.com/news-story/2878775-barton-street-s-lost-promise/