Greetings from the east
Heres my latest update letter. If for some reason I missed you from the email list, I'm very sorry. Just let me know, and I will include you on the next one.
Dear Friends and Family,
51 days have now passed since I boarded a plane for the exotic jungles of Montreal. Our mosquito nets did not arrive until the 2nd week, and so unfortunately we have lost a couple of people to malaria. The mail plane broke down and is not expected to arrive for another 5 weeks, but spirits remain high, especially with the monsoon season almost over...
Ok, so maybe things aren't so bad here. While there are some distinct cultural differences here in Montreal, the transition has been a relatively smooth one. (there does seem to be a lot of idol worship here though, mainly centered around a certain hockey team with... ahem... red jerseys... it's quite appalling). Despite repeated warnings from various people about winter, I have actually been forced to take off my jacket a number of times due to the heat and humidity so far. And I have actually had very little chance to pick up french, due to the fact that virtually everyone, at least in this side of the city, speaks english. As a matter of fact, I have only run into one person that could only speak french.
We live in a house called the Friendly Home, a part-time counseling center that rents out apartments. It is a very large, and has multiple living rooms and offices. I share a bedroom with two other interns, Jason Dresler from Chillowack, BC, and Patrick Maloney from St. John, New Brunswick. Returning from last year's internship program is Christina Singh from Toronto, ON, and our supervisor Ruth Lewis, who has been working with IVCF for 26 years (and raising her own salary for most of that time). Jason has been assigned to McGill university as an assistant to Peter Benjamin, the McGill staff worker, while Patrick and I are working with Christina at Concordia University.
McGill is largely comprised of students from outside of the province, while Concordia is made up almost entirely of commuters. An interesting result of this is that our student suppers on Saturday nights that we run tend to bring in mostly Concordia students, due to the fact that many Mcgill students hardly every step outside a 5km radius of McGill.
Concordia has an incredible mix of different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. One can hear an amazing amount of languages just by walking down the streets of downtown montreal. At our first student dinner of the semester, we had people from China, India, Pakistan, Africa and the Middle East.
I also know of at least one muslim student who has come out to almost every event that we've had so far. It has been great to see God bringing people together in a place that on the outside does not seem to foster any sort of community.
My schedule involves prep. time on Monday and Thursday mornings, and leadership training sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. In the afternoons I either man the Concordia Christian Fellowship office, or help with various bible studies. Concordia has a satellite campus called Loyola, and we are currently in the process of organizing a small group to meet there. Concordia has very few Christian groups or activies at its main campus, and even less at Loyola, so pray that we would be able to start something there.
Mondays evenings we go to the local toastmaster's club meetings, where we get to practice our public speaking. Wednesday nights Patrick and I have joined the indoor soccer intramurals in hopes of connecting with more students (and getting a little exercise in the process). Thursday night is reserved for family night, so that we have at least one night a week where everybody is home for supper together. We usually do something as a group, like play a game. Friday nights is when both McGill Christian Fellowship and Concordia Christian Fellowship get together at their respective campuses, and usually have a speaker, some music, maybe some snacks, etc.
As most of you probably know, a terrible tragedy occurred on September 13 at Dawson College here in Montreal. A lone gunman entered the school and shot at students, killing one girl and wounding numerous others before finally shooting himself. I was only a couple of blocks away at the time at Concordia. I didn't hear any shots or sirens, but I saw a helicopter flying around above us, and people holding signs telling Dawson students to go to Concordia, where they set up an emergency shelter and counseling center. In the week that followed the IVCF staff team from Montreal came and helped out at the college, providing counseling and any other help that we could provide. I was put in charge of manning a table with books for the students to sign in support of the Dawson student community. I also made a large number of pink ribbons which students wore to show support the family if the girl that was killed. It was quite a week, but I'm glad that we were able to help, even if just in a small way. Things have returned mostly to normal now, but as a result of the whole ordeal I managed to make friends with the director of student affairs, who has actually called us back to help with other school activities. Pray that this connection will make the school more open to having Christian groups and activities on campus.
We had a training/planning this past weekend for the Concordia student executive committee, and had a great time getting to know the students better through bible studies, games, worship, and other random activities such as elastic band shooting competitions. We also had a thanksgiving dinner for 20+ people a couple of weeks ago. We were expecting 30+ people, and ended up having a lot of leftovers (we cooked 2 turkeys and two hams!). One can never have too many turkey sandwiches though...
As for how I'm doing personally, I would have to say that I am really enjoying Montreal. I did not know anybody when I moved here, and I already feel like I've known the staff team for a long time. We have been studying a book called A Resilient Life by Gordon MacDonald. I would highly recommend it. One thing that has stuck out to me is the idea of being in a leadership position because its where I need to be to grow right now, and not so much because other people need me to lead them.
Fundraising has been going pretty well so far, I'm currently up to about $8000. This was the original target, however we found out that we had to incorporate air-fare's as well, and so the total cost now is $9400. God has been incredibly faithful so far though, and I have been so blessed by all the people who have made donations and said they would pray for me. I know that God will provide the rest.
Some things to pray for:
-the concordia christian fellowship students and exec., that they would grow as a group and as individuals in their relationship with God
-me that I would continue to be stretched and challenged in many areas, and that God would use this time both to bring me closer to Him as well as to give me a sense of where my calling/future lies
-the students and staff of Dawson college where the shootings occurred, that they would continue to heal and find comfort in the source of all comfort, Jesus
-the city of montreal, and the many students that live here. For many people, possibly even the majority, religion is considered a thing of the past, and merely a tool that was used to control people. People need to see Jesus for who he really is, and not what certain people or leaders have tried to present him as in the past.
Please pray for these things at least as you read them, that way even if you forget they get prayed for at least once. : )
Thanks again so much for your prayer and support. It means a lot to have my friends and family behind me. Please let me know if there are things that I can pray for you as well.
Dear Friends and Family,
51 days have now passed since I boarded a plane for the exotic jungles of Montreal. Our mosquito nets did not arrive until the 2nd week, and so unfortunately we have lost a couple of people to malaria. The mail plane broke down and is not expected to arrive for another 5 weeks, but spirits remain high, especially with the monsoon season almost over...
Ok, so maybe things aren't so bad here. While there are some distinct cultural differences here in Montreal, the transition has been a relatively smooth one. (there does seem to be a lot of idol worship here though, mainly centered around a certain hockey team with... ahem... red jerseys... it's quite appalling). Despite repeated warnings from various people about winter, I have actually been forced to take off my jacket a number of times due to the heat and humidity so far. And I have actually had very little chance to pick up french, due to the fact that virtually everyone, at least in this side of the city, speaks english. As a matter of fact, I have only run into one person that could only speak french.
We live in a house called the Friendly Home, a part-time counseling center that rents out apartments. It is a very large, and has multiple living rooms and offices. I share a bedroom with two other interns, Jason Dresler from Chillowack, BC, and Patrick Maloney from St. John, New Brunswick. Returning from last year's internship program is Christina Singh from Toronto, ON, and our supervisor Ruth Lewis, who has been working with IVCF for 26 years (and raising her own salary for most of that time). Jason has been assigned to McGill university as an assistant to Peter Benjamin, the McGill staff worker, while Patrick and I are working with Christina at Concordia University.
McGill is largely comprised of students from outside of the province, while Concordia is made up almost entirely of commuters. An interesting result of this is that our student suppers on Saturday nights that we run tend to bring in mostly Concordia students, due to the fact that many Mcgill students hardly every step outside a 5km radius of McGill.
Concordia has an incredible mix of different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. One can hear an amazing amount of languages just by walking down the streets of downtown montreal. At our first student dinner of the semester, we had people from China, India, Pakistan, Africa and the Middle East.
I also know of at least one muslim student who has come out to almost every event that we've had so far. It has been great to see God bringing people together in a place that on the outside does not seem to foster any sort of community.
My schedule involves prep. time on Monday and Thursday mornings, and leadership training sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. In the afternoons I either man the Concordia Christian Fellowship office, or help with various bible studies. Concordia has a satellite campus called Loyola, and we are currently in the process of organizing a small group to meet there. Concordia has very few Christian groups or activies at its main campus, and even less at Loyola, so pray that we would be able to start something there.
Mondays evenings we go to the local toastmaster's club meetings, where we get to practice our public speaking. Wednesday nights Patrick and I have joined the indoor soccer intramurals in hopes of connecting with more students (and getting a little exercise in the process). Thursday night is reserved for family night, so that we have at least one night a week where everybody is home for supper together. We usually do something as a group, like play a game. Friday nights is when both McGill Christian Fellowship and Concordia Christian Fellowship get together at their respective campuses, and usually have a speaker, some music, maybe some snacks, etc.
As most of you probably know, a terrible tragedy occurred on September 13 at Dawson College here in Montreal. A lone gunman entered the school and shot at students, killing one girl and wounding numerous others before finally shooting himself. I was only a couple of blocks away at the time at Concordia. I didn't hear any shots or sirens, but I saw a helicopter flying around above us, and people holding signs telling Dawson students to go to Concordia, where they set up an emergency shelter and counseling center. In the week that followed the IVCF staff team from Montreal came and helped out at the college, providing counseling and any other help that we could provide. I was put in charge of manning a table with books for the students to sign in support of the Dawson student community. I also made a large number of pink ribbons which students wore to show support the family if the girl that was killed. It was quite a week, but I'm glad that we were able to help, even if just in a small way. Things have returned mostly to normal now, but as a result of the whole ordeal I managed to make friends with the director of student affairs, who has actually called us back to help with other school activities. Pray that this connection will make the school more open to having Christian groups and activities on campus.
We had a training/planning this past weekend for the Concordia student executive committee, and had a great time getting to know the students better through bible studies, games, worship, and other random activities such as elastic band shooting competitions. We also had a thanksgiving dinner for 20+ people a couple of weeks ago. We were expecting 30+ people, and ended up having a lot of leftovers (we cooked 2 turkeys and two hams!). One can never have too many turkey sandwiches though...
As for how I'm doing personally, I would have to say that I am really enjoying Montreal. I did not know anybody when I moved here, and I already feel like I've known the staff team for a long time. We have been studying a book called A Resilient Life by Gordon MacDonald. I would highly recommend it. One thing that has stuck out to me is the idea of being in a leadership position because its where I need to be to grow right now, and not so much because other people need me to lead them.
Fundraising has been going pretty well so far, I'm currently up to about $8000. This was the original target, however we found out that we had to incorporate air-fare's as well, and so the total cost now is $9400. God has been incredibly faithful so far though, and I have been so blessed by all the people who have made donations and said they would pray for me. I know that God will provide the rest.
Some things to pray for:
-the concordia christian fellowship students and exec., that they would grow as a group and as individuals in their relationship with God
-me that I would continue to be stretched and challenged in many areas, and that God would use this time both to bring me closer to Him as well as to give me a sense of where my calling/future lies
-the students and staff of Dawson college where the shootings occurred, that they would continue to heal and find comfort in the source of all comfort, Jesus
-the city of montreal, and the many students that live here. For many people, possibly even the majority, religion is considered a thing of the past, and merely a tool that was used to control people. People need to see Jesus for who he really is, and not what certain people or leaders have tried to present him as in the past.
Please pray for these things at least as you read them, that way even if you forget they get prayed for at least once. : )
Thanks again so much for your prayer and support. It means a lot to have my friends and family behind me. Please let me know if there are things that I can pray for you as well.
posted by Tim at 2:58 AM
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