Bonjour

Hello from Montreal! It is with great pleasure that I briefly resurface to greet you all from this wonderful city. I am in fact leaving on friday to return to Victoria, but I shall return in the not too distant future... just over two months to be somewhat vague.

As some of you may know, I will be working as an intern for Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship at the campus of Concordia University this coming school year. This week I got to meet some of the other people that I will be working with. Ruth Lewis will be our supervisor/mentor. Jason (standing beside Ruth) is from Lethbridge/Chillowack, and Patrick (far right) is from New Brunswick. We will be living in this awesome house, which is as amazing on the inside as it is on the outside. It has a huge kitchen,

huge living room, huge basement, and huge dinning room. The living quarters themselves aren't so big, as me and the guys will be sharing a room for sleeping, but there are enough other rooms that I think we will be ok when we need space to be alone.
Patrick and I will be working at Concordia, while Jason will be working at McGill. We will be working under staff workers, and doing things like meeting one on one with students, helping organize student activities, running student dinners, organizing bible studies, and just trying to build community in whatever way we can. Inter-Varsity was huge in my life as a student in helping me with my relationship with God, and want to help inspire the next generation of students to look at their time in school as more than just the 4 or 5 years in which you give up sleep and money to get your degree.
The last couple of years have very much been a balancing act between school, extracurricular activities, and church. I am really looking forward to being able to concentrate on working with students alone. Well, I will have one other job, and that is fundraising. As interns we are required to raise $1000 a month each, for a total of $8000 each for the year. This means that I will be doing a lot of meeting with people, letting them know what I will be doing in the coming year, and asking for support. Not something that little old self sufficient me is comfortable doing, but necessary nonetheless. One thing that I am learning more and more is that in God's economy, there are no hermits. We are meant to depend on eachother and on God, and try and make it on our own is not a biblical concept, though this flies in the face of our North-American culture. And so, while my pride may take a hit, I will be in fact gaining many partners in this work to build relationships with students, and to expose God's love to the academic world of Quebec. Time and time again I have heard stories of people recieving funding from the people they least expect, and I have no doubt that God will use many suprising ways to provide for my financial needs.
My parents have been behind me from the beggining, and this has been so encouraging. I could write probably an entry in itself in how they have supported me over the years, and I know that without them it would have been difficult if not impossible to get through school.
Anyways, I am hoping to start doing more blog entries in the near future, especially once I move to Montreal in a couple of months. In the mean time, hopefully this will keep you read-a-holics satisfied. Peace out.