And so it begins

Well, Montreal is now my home. I arrived on Wednesday, August 30, and life has been a whirlwind ever since. We had about a day and a half to unpack, and then we were off to the first retreat of the year. Student leaders from a number of different schools including Concordia and McGill Universities traveled by bus to a little town called Dunham where we stayed at a YWAM base there. All the speaker sessions were translated into French and English, so it was an interesting experience. On the bus ride there I got one student to help me read the French version of the waiver form. I would like to learn as much French as I can while I'm here, but unfortunately Montreal is a very bilingual city, and almost everyone speaks English. Some people have lived here for 50 years and never really learned French. I will just have to make the most of the opportunities I get I guess.

I just got my UVic email account up and running yesterday afternoon, only to find out that a coop coordinator had sent me an email saying that my final coop report was due today. So with the help of copious amounts of Jasmine green tea that I found in the kitchen downstairs, I managed to finish it by 4:00am last night. Needless to say I am looking forward to a good sleep tonight.

My to do list is still ridiculously long, but I am slowly chipping away at it, and now that my coop report is done, I feel like a lot of weight is off my shoulders. I still have a few forms that I'll probably need to fax to Victoria, but the hard part is done. It feels strange not having to organize myself for classes after having done school for so long.

Support seems to be coming along, although I'm not entirely sure where I'm at right now because I'm still waiting for a lot of stuff to get mailed and processed. God is good though, and I have no doubt that He will provide what I need. It has been very humbling to see all the people that have donated so far, and it continues to amaze me how God provides in ways that we don't expect.

Things are in a bit of a lull right now as all the students get their classes organized, but we will be meeting with the Concordia IVCF exec tomorrow to do some initial planning. It looks like I will be helping lead some small groups, and perhaps start up some stuff at one of the satellite campuses for Concordia, called Loyola.

We got to meet most of the exec group at the retreat on the weekend, and they're a really fun group. Definitely a lot smaller than UVic's group of 30+ however. It will be a big switch from working with such a large group. There is also a lot more cultural diversity in the group. It will be an interesting year. I am looking forward to the challenge though.

Anyway, I've covered a whole lot of topics here, but hopefully you've gotten a taste of what my week has been like. Please pray for me, even if only right now as you read this. Pray that God will give us wisdom in how to develop a strategy for reaching the campus, and that we will be able to develop lots of good relationships with the students. Also pray that God would go before us on the campus and open up doors. There is a lot of mistrust towards the church in general here.

PS
I will be getting a digital camera soon, so hopefully I will have some pictures for you shortly. If anyone has suggestions for what to get, my budget is roughly $300.