MONTREAL, PART II

I love Montreal. I may relocate here. I have seen a bit of the city since the last post and it is fabulous. Here is the pictoral journey I have taken:

This is the Notre Dame Basilica

Inside the Basilica... absolutely breathtaking!

The Golden Santuary. The design is made of Bronze and weighs 22 tonnes: the heaviest bronze statue in the world!

Horses and Buggies waiting for customers on the streets of Old Montreal

One of the streets I meandered down.

Along the waterfront.

That ship behind me sails to Quebec City.

I also went to the "underground city" but I didn't have much time so I didn't stay very long. Apparently there are 19 miles of shopping and hallways connecting places and businesses underground. I didn't take any pictures there because I was trying to "fit in" and not look like a tourist.. haha.

MONTREAL PART I

Bonjour! haha.. no, I'm not going to pretend that I have soaked in enough francais to speak it fluently now. I just thought I should get back into chronicling my journeys out of a need to either brag and boast about my job or just to let you in on a little part of my life and what I am doing while I'm away from Hepburn.

Today I arrived in the lovely, never-visited-by-me Montreal. My first impressions of this city of art and culture was a lack of signage pointing me to the shuttle stop. I walked around in a little circle and, voila, found my way to the stop and about 50 or so other Gathering Attendees (okay.. 50 is exaggerating).

Actually, the trip was remarkably UNremarkable. Everything went well, I checked into my room and settled in a little before going to meet some of the conference youth and childrens program organizers. Since the meeting wasn't actually that long, I decided to check out the shopping in the area. Unfortunately, I was wearing THESE shoes:

Not the greatest for walking. Ikea I could see from my hotel window and I was sure there was a shopping mall around somewhere, but by the time I reached Ikea my feet needed to go to bed.

So, this evening is ending not by shopping in Montreal.. but by being served some delicious room service by a very friendly, very french little man. Somehow the food tastes better.

See you tomorrow.

WORSHIP NIGHT

Every summer, the recruitment department hosts the Bethany Worship Nights in Saskatoon. We had our first one of 2008 yesterday evening and, I have to say, it was very very good! Usually we have used the Faith River church as our venue and that has always been a very good location and atmosphere. Unfortunately this year they could not accomodate all the dates we had planned so we looked elsewhere. I remembered a conversation I had with Gil Klassen (director of YFC Saskatoon) in December where he had offered to work together with Bethany if we could find a use for their newly renovated YFC office building. At the time I had thought that although the space was great and looked very "coffee-house" like, what kind of Bethany event would fit? Enter Worship Nights... It worked perfectly!

The night was a great evening of singing praise to God, worshipping Him through our speakers' words (Lisa Moran) and celebrating through food (wonderful cookies) and fellowship. Here are just a couple pictures I took of the building and the worship team practicing. I wish I would have remembered to take some during the evening or after while people were standing around and visiting. (And they are blurry.. I forgot to change the setting on my camera.)

The next worship night is July 4 (YFC Building, on the corner of Ave. B and 35th). EVERYONE is welcome!!

ANNOUNCING....

I am the BEST at the horse and cemeteries game! We have stats to prove it... and one very long, very intense, nerve-wracking game on the way back from YC Alberta that was crazy enough to make us (the entire recruitment summer team) go insane.

(If you are not familiar with the game, you count the horses that you see along the road while driving - you have to say them first to get them - but if someone sees a cemetery before you, all your collected horses die. We added a few other variations to the game and that just made it worse.. or better.. depends if you won or not).

In lieu of the "game", we all claimed team jerseys and are going public with the story. If you receive the Bethany Sun, the story will be there in full colour. If you don't, you can (I think) get it off the Bethany website (but I don't think they are publishing it until next week so don't go looking yet).

Here are some preview pics of the recruitment team with their game faces on:

Amanda "the Annihilator" Heidebrecht

Randi "Razor Feet" Rempel

Sheryl "Captain" Epp

WHAT A SURPRISE

I just returned from a long tour of Ontario with some of Bethany's finest musicians. I was priviledged to be a part of the team for 2 weeks (and I think I accepted more thank you's and congratulations for a job well done than the actual singers...and I wasn't the one doing anything..and yes, that was sometimes a little awkward).

So, with being back from tour on Wednesday, spending one day in the office then taking both Friday and Monday off, you would think I would be relaxing or sleeping somewhere to recouperate. Surprisingly, I think I'm in the most unlikely place ever imaginable. I'm babysitting. All weekend. Not one, but 3 children.

It's actually not THAT bad.

HOME AGAIN?

It's true I'm gone a lot from my office and there have been a lot of changes in the Advancement Department this semester. One of the changes is that Cora Lynn has set up an office in the back corner of our department. I was going to feel sorry for her, having to sit back there all the time away from every one else.. but she really has made that space very warm and inviting. I notice the edge of her office everytime I walk out of my office door. Actually, when Cora Lynn just moved in, she put up a coat hook on the wall. Of course, this was a great idea... but everytime I walked out of my office, I was startled by the sight of her coat hanging on the wall. It looked like a person standing there!

When I came home from my last recruitment trip, I walked to my office and noticed, again, Cora Lynns jacket hanging on the coat hook.. but with a little added character:

My first view of the Jacket...

Yes.. that's my face.. on Cora Lynn's jacket!

So if any of you reading this work at Bethany, I just thought I'd remind you that Cora Lynn has access to ALL of your best AND worst pictures. You never know where your face might appear!!

TRAVEL POSTING

I'm on the road again. One thing I really like about this job is the road... until it gets really busy out here and plans don't work out and I realize that plans made haven't been confirmed and they mess everything else up and I end up staying up late at night and getting up in the early morning to make sure everything and everyone gets seen or phoned or has a chance to see me and Bethany College.. yikes. Still, though, it's enjoyable. One thing I really like about visiting youth groups is that I get to hear a lot of what is on the hearts of the youth pastors out there. I like hearing what they say to their youth and I like hearing what they say to me about their youth. It's incredible what kind of mission field is out there and how God really has brought a lot of passionate, creatively amazing people to work in it. I've been inspired numerous times after spending an evening in a church that I've never attended. God is good.

Recently, I was at a youth group in Wpg and ended the visit with a conversation with a great young woman who was seeking God's will in her life. She explained to me how she is waiting on God to lead her and, admittedly, her decision is pretty hard. She's not a Canadian resident, just on exchange and what she decides at the end of this school year could change a lot in her life. Does she stay in Canada or go home? I don't know if I would have been willing to make that decision as a 17 year old. But I can see God at the centre of her life and I could see that she was willing, though sometimes frustrated, to let God lead her. That made me happy! It also tied into a conversation I had with my brother in law this morning.

We have talked before about missions. My brother was asking the question "Why do we send missionaries overseas when there is such a need here in Canada?" Exactly something that has been on my heart for a long time. Exactly why I went into camping ministry for 4 years. Exactly why I support organizations like camps, YFC, inner city ministries... That's exactly why we need youth leaders like the ones I have met on my trips to be youth leaders. That's exactly why the girl I talked with was willing to wait on God.. she has a youth pastor that has a heart for serving Christ.

That's also exactly why I believe in Bethany's motto of "Nurturing Disciples and Training Leaders to Serve". We live in a country that is in need. We live in a place that needs Christ centred servants. If Bethany can help in the process of creating youth leaders that teach Canadian youth to trust Christ even when making the huge, impossible decisions in life, I'm there! If Bethany can help train people to be servants of Christ in whatever they do, where ever they go, in Canada OR overseas, I'm all for it! Maybe eventually we can just drench this country with people excited and passionate about serving God!