simple things that you can do to change the world...

believe it or not... but there's only 4 more days of my internship!
i'm done friday night.

so after a summer of hanging out with kids and mentoring and discipling them,

and doing York university outreaches and bible studies,

ministering and hanging out with homeless folks, goin to Paris Ontario and doing a week long camp with inner city kids from all over ontario,

taking kids to field trips,

playing in a basketball tournament with some high school youth, visiting seniors and ministering to them, and all that was inbetween.... i'm really gonna miss it.

i'm really gonna miss the community, the multiculturalism and diversity, the passion for change in some of the leaders here, the church, the kids, and the people...



so one more week left, and we'll be doing basketball camp for the youth this week, should be lots of fun. last week, i coached a team of youth and we came into the championship game of the camp as underdogs, and left as champions. it was awesome just seeing how far the kids came in a week. they went from yelling at each other and being mad at each other, and giving up, to listening and learning, and playing hard and playing together, passing and distributing the ball, and even setting picks and screens for each other. it was just amazing how far they came in just a week.


anyway, this summer has taught me so much...
i've learned about all the not-so-emphasized things in the bible, like caring for the poor, the widows and orphans, and loving the least among us... from Matthew 24:40... Jesus says at the end of times, the King will say 'whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine (or the least among us), you did unto God as well...

i learned that at the end of times, (Matt 25:33) we will be separated... sheep and goat. (Matt 25:2) wise virgins(bridesmaids) or foolish ones. there's no middle ground, and there's no compromise. when Jesus returns... we're either on one side or the other...

i learned that (Matt 8:18-22) there is an extreme cost to following Jesus and a cost to discipleship, and it is our life. our whole life. no compromising. we must deny ourselves and leave everything behind. Jesus is more important than any earthly, materialistic, worldy thing. it should be like this in a way that we are not attached to anything. we should be able to detach and sacrifice anything in our life at any given time, to truly be a follower of God that denies its flesh and human desires.

i've learned that Jesus brings freedom. He frees us from bondage and footholds in our life. there is nothing we can't do when our full trust and reliance is in God

anyway... to wrap this up... im posting a list of things that John Knight compiled that can change the world... and though a lot of them may seem insignificant or very small and meaningless, they can go a long way... especially if we stay true to them and keep our integrity with it, it is part of our life-testimony, that people see us as examples and followers of Christ...

SUGGESTIONS FOR YOU, THAT WILL CHANGE THE WORLD
from John Knight.

Community & Fellowship

1. designate 1 night per week to gather ppl of maturity and integrity for community potlucks/dinners (since our culture is often very individualistic)
2. find the 'outcasts' in your school, workplace, church, fellowship, and be their friends (for real, not just superficially)
3. make friends with at least one poor or homeless person
4. make friends with a recent immigrant of a different cultural background

Fashion

1. refrain from buying clothes that use sweatshop and child labour, as they oppress people around the world and drive poverty deeper (another option is 2nd hand clothes)
2. refrain from wearing brand names from big corporations that oppress people (Nike, Wal-Mart, etc...) however don't waste existing clothes, if possible cut off the tags or cover the logos, so you don't promote these oppresive corporations

Entertainment

1. delete stolen music/movies from your computer and/or iPod. downloading is theft/stealing
2. refrain from watching movies and TV shows (most of the ones out there) with nudity, greed, excessive profanity, violence, and just things that aren't Godly)
3. refrain from eating out at restaurants and fast food joints... that money spent could be used to feed starving kids around the world... (it also promotes selflessness, and self control, denying the spending of money on yourself)
4. refrain from spending money on entertainment or nights out (i.e. Laser Quest, Bubble Tea, bowling, D&B, going to the movies) as a lot of the over priced activities could be used to feed orphans and to provide shelter for them

Environment

1. get rid of, or reduce the use of your Dryer, as it uses extreme amounts of electricity which then leads to pollution and chemicals in the air, which can further lead to global warming and things like asthma and cancer...
2. unplug your stereo, TV, DVD player when not in use. they use electricity even if turned off
3. drive less, walk, bus, or bike more. pollution and use of oil/gasoline isn't helping the world
4. cover the top of your house with greenery (plants and such) it can cut down on heating and A/C

Money

1. do not aim to be rich (1 Tim 6:9), though you still should work hard, and still try to succeed, however don't make it your goal to be rich or to acquire material things, if you do have a lot of money, wealth, riches, thank God, and share with the poor and oppressed
2. generosity is not measured by how much you give, but by how much you have left over. sell what you don't need and give to the poor, or even to (trustworthy, reliable) organizations that distribute to the needy (Outreach International, Compassion, World Vision)

Sabbath

1. take one day out of the week to rest, it's biblical, and is much needed to enjoy all of God's blessings, and without it, we may wear ourselves down, burn out, or even become workaholics

Spiritual Life

1. pray 20 or more minutes a day in solitude (it will take 15 minutes just to clear your mind)
2. fast or skip meals and pray consistently for issues of great importance (i.e. Peace in Sudan)
3. read the bible everyday for 20 or more minutes - it will change your life
4. share with everyone you meet that Jesus is the only way to heaven

if there are any misunderstandings or misinterpretations from anything listed above, please ask me, or email me, or you can even email John himself, who said to email him if you have any questions or comments or misunderstandings about any of these.. and remember, these are only suggestions, and we shouldn't make them into religious rules.

these are just some suggestions, and there are some that i do, and some that i haven't come to yet, but it is my life goal to be able to do all of these... so i will try to mark these off and be able to get to all of them! some are a lot harder than others, but they are all very do-able, and when you see it as doing it for God, it's worth it. His love makes it worth it all.

maranatha (...till the Lord comes)
and
peace to the least (peace to the 'least among us')

jono.
unlimited in Christ.

what if it all ended tomorrow?

i was just reading something, and a thought came into my mind....

if the kingdom of God was going to come tomorrow, would we be living differently?

im sure we would, so why aren't we living like that.... why aren't we living with a sense of urgency? are we living the ways a modern Jesus would be living here in Canada? are we living the way we would if we only had a bit of time left on this earth? if we knew Jesus would be coming soon... what would we be doing instead? what should we be doing instead?

=======================================================

anyway, i recently came back from a weeks' worth of kids camp in Paris, Ontario, at a place called Braeside, where it's like a little village of cottages and trailers, and cabins, with like a small community consisting of a tabernacle, a tuck shop, a dining hall, a ministry center, some first aid stations, a pool, a skatepark, a basketball court, a big field with baseball, and a zip line, and much more.

it was a fun camp... with a bunch of kids from windsor, etobicoke, brampton, and from the jane and finch area. i was one of many camp counselors, each looking after 4 or 5 kids, totalling up to 200 kids, and though at times it was chaotic, and tiring, it was still fun.

i met some really cool kids from the different inner cities, just so intrigued and curious about many things. over the summer, im learning how to just bust out scripture and bible stories with kids randomly, in a relevant way, and it's a pretty cool thing, when the kids are so curious about it.

one day i was sitting by the pool, reading Shane Claiborne's Irresistable Revolution, and they were intrigued by the unique-looking book cover, and that turned into questions about the book, then questions about the bible, then questions about how we should sell our possessions and give to the poor, then to questions about the story of the widow's offering, who puts in only two small copper coins, which was all she had.... and how these kids actually listened and understood it, gave real life examples and stuff, it was truly encouraging.

overall, the camp was a different but cool experience, and at the end of the day, it was pretty fun.

now back at the jane and finch internship program, we've been working in a different cycle. In May and June, the ministry comprised more of the after school program, and stuff like that, but now that school's out, we're in a more flexible, unstructured phase, where pretty much each day we meet up with people and use these small group/1 on 1 settings to minister or disciple. every morning, we, the intern team, come and have some quiet time and prayer time, then we schedule and arrange to meet up with seniors, located at the seniors home next to the church. after lunch and time to read the bible, we arrange times to meet up with kids in very small settings, whether it be a couple kids, or just 1 on 1 mentoring, and with this framework, it allows for more flexibility, and enables a deeper connection between us and these kids, because they can see us on a more equal, and personal level, and hanging out just brings about a more casual atmosphere, a lot easier to disciple and teach these kids and for them to see us living the ways of the bible, and as role models. i, personally, find that this works... and sometimes the structures of a day camp or a VBS, can sometimes have its limits and inefficiencies, where the kids would see you as a camp leader or counselor, and that creates different levels, and creates an authority figure, rather than a friend. it also may limit the ability to connect with kids on a deeper level and give them attention, because at a camp, one leader may have to look after a bunch of kids and have to lead activities and whatnot, and the right amount of attention may not be given.

of course, there are the pros and cons, and im not trying to hate on camps or those structures or anything like that at all, there are lots of good things about camps and all those fun activities. i'm simply just trying to explain what we're doing now in the summer months in relation to mentoring and discipling kids without programs and camps, though we have a weekly basketball houseleague program on thursday nights which includes an awesome devotion, and we'll be starting basketball camps in August, which i'm looking forward to.

we're still doing tuesday York University outreach and bible studies, every tuesday at York at about 1:30pm, we still do community bbq's on friday afternoons, we still take a bunch of kids on trips on saturdays, and we still do DEEDZ every friday night, where we go downtown and just hang out with the homeless and the broken, and those dealing with addictions, and the lost and the hurting, however many of the people we encounter are those that are on their turning point.

so that's the update. im excited for the fall, and going back to university, though im really loving it here in this community, and starting to feel a bit sad that this internship program is slowly coming to its end.

keep praying for these kids, that they may just have a breakthrough in their lives, a deep conviction and an ultimate realization, that life isn't about makin' money, or becoming rich and having it all, or the life involved with gangs, trying to find your identity and loyalty in that, but it's about denying all of that and living in the ways of Jesus and being a peacemaker and loving others as yourself.

peace and love.

in our world, Be Lifted High...

convictions...

just after a really long conversation with sarah today, and several other conversations with john and others, there are so many convictions and so many truths and so much there is to this world that we are just so unaware of, and the devil just tells us so many lies, and just always tells us 'it's okay, the world is doing it', and like honestly, you just become so desensitized in this world through the way the world is, the way society is, and the way the media is...

i've never been someone that cares about the environment, world issues, social injustices, economic injustices, social oppression, stuff like sweat shop labour, fair trade coffee... stuff like that. i've never cared about that stuff, but like i've just (and starting to...) come to this realization, that pretty much every aspect of our lives, everything we do, everything has to do with our spirituality, our walk with God, our connection with God, our obedience to Him, and how much we follow God.

seriously, everything... leads back to God, and we've been told so many lies by the devil that everything is ok, that if it doesn't hurt anyone physically, it's okay, or if no one finds out, or if no one sees, it's alright.

(i'm in no way, perfect, or saying that i've come to this realization, or that im righteous or judging anyone or anything, but i'm just trying to make known that there are these truths that we need to reveal for ourselves, and be convicted of)

things like...
- sweat shop labour (unfair wages/mistreatment of workers)
- fair trade coffee (same as above)
- environmental issues (global warming/pollution...etc)
- appearance/brand name clothing/make-up (the need to impress/look good/appear a certain way...etc)
- downloading music/movies (sharing/distributing/stealing?)
- consumerism (the need to buy that coffee/pop/bubble tea... i.e. the morning Timmy's coffee...i.e. eating out at restaurants)


stuff like that... like im wrestling with some of that stuff, actually all of that stuff.... but like you may think it has nothing to do with christianity or spirituality...but the fact of the matter is... IT DOES. it all relates and all ties back in...
if you have questions or comments, i'd love to talk about any of this stuff, i definitely dont know all the answers, but i'd still love to talk about any of it, though im still learning each day bout more of this stuff.

but what i'm trying to say about all of this, is that... so many of these things become so 'idle' or 'irrelevant' or 'insignificant' but that's exactly how we've been told lies by the devil. the fact that it's 'okay' to support some of these things... the lies that dwell in your mind that tell you (and me) that it's part of our culture and society to partake in some of these... i'm guilty of buying brand name clothing, going out to eat at restaurants more way more than necessary... downloading... not caring about our environment, but we really shouldn't be giving ourselves excuses and trying to justify it, because at the end of the day... some of these things are just separating us from living like Jesus, and living Christ-like... and it's not what God wants for us, or what He has for us in His plan....... i don't think God WANTS us to pollute, i don't think God WANTS us to be spending money on unnecessary things...etc.... i dont think God WANTS us to be downloading and watching or listening to media that we've 'taken' for free (a.k.a. stealing/theft)

so it's a struggle, but a conviction that i'm coming to (more so in the past hour), and i've tried to justify it to myself, i've avoided these situations, and been ignorant, brushing it under the carpet, but really (for me) these issues have surfaced and they can't keep being swept under the rug... as the Vintage21 Jesus-Parody-Videos portray Jesus saying, "and don't try to hide, I am Jesus, I WILL find you" LOL. that was just a parody, but there is a hint of truth in it... that you can't take these issues and run away from God, cause... I don't know how to say this... but, you JUST can't run away from God, you can't be ignorant and you just can't avoid these types of issues (and others). I have in my past, because I didn't want to be convicted of them... because following through with convictions involves being uncomfortable, it involves sacrifice... it involves changing yourself, maybe even your lifestyle... being convicted and then doing something about it is definitely not easy, but then again following God is never easy.

Broad path and the narrow path. The broad path leads to destruction, and the narrow path, very few find it. (paraphrased from Matthew 7:13-14)

The Believer's Freedom
23"Everything is permissible"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is constructive. 24Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. (1 Corinthians 10:23-24)

so i'll leave you with that.... i hope you guys could pray for me... i'm wrestling with all of this stuff, myself... and it is hard to let go of some of this stuff, or even to change it for the better, it's very difficult, but like this truth that i feel that i've unveiled is that, living in a Godly way, and striving to be like Christ has a cost and requires sacrifice and it's for God, so you can't go wrong there.

it is my hope and prayer that other christians can become aware of some of these important issues, hopefully are convicted by God, and want to have a desire to strive to live like Jesus, and not conform to the way our culture is, not conform to the consumerism and individualism in our North American world, and uncover some truth that has been buried under the media, our culture, and our society, and see God behind,and in the center of all of these aspects involving our lives and the world around us, and then help others and join in a movement to bring awareness and mobilize change to the rest of our world (both the physical planet, and the people)

so what are you waiting for? in the words of Britney Spears, "Why don't you DO something?"
peace out, and God bless.

adventures in D.C.

WILL FINISH ADDING PICTURES TO BLOG... PLEASE CHECK FREQUENTLY




so i just got back from Washington D.C. last night at about 10pm, and boy are there many stories to share...


ok, so the original Washington Trip plan failed, because of some setbacks and whatnot, so we weren't able to help out doing a VBS, but we DID attend the Sojourner's 'VOTE OUT POVERTY' campaign, which is an American campaign to mobilize the Christian population to advocate for social justice, more specifically, Poverty, through spreading the awareness to christians and their home churches, to get everyone on board to contact their local congress or whatever local political leader, and also like voter registration and whatnot, mailing the president/presidential candidates...

and what not, basically to make poverty an extremely important issue in terms of presidential leadership, and getting these leaders to hold them accountable to actually do something, follow their "Millenial Goals" to reduce poverty by at LEAST 50% in the next year or so... somethin like that.... that was the campaign in a nutshell...

so on our drive down... we take a pit stop at the Cranberry Township, located in Southern Pennsylvania, and we're looking for somethin to eat.. so we stop at this mall/plaza, we find this place called CiCi's Pizza, and we walk in and look at the menu, and they have All-You-Can-Eat buffet (all you can eat Pizza, Pasta, Soup, Salad, Dessert) for ONLY 4.99.. and we were all like... no wayyy, that MUST be the kid's menu or something, we ask, and he's like "NOPE! it's really just 4.99!" and i swear we were asking each other 'IS THIS FOR REAL?" for like 5 minutes... then we finally accepted that this was just the best deal ever.... the food was pretty good for a pizza parlour like that... but it was such a sweet deal.... it was such a good deal, that we insisted that we would come back on our way back to Toronto. The service was also amazing, the people working there were just very nice, friendly people. I HIGHLY recommend anyone to go there and eat if anyone ever passes through pennsylvania passing by Cranberry Township.


we drove by the area for a bit, to get back on the highway, and John was like...'man some places have such lame names...such as.."Hollywood Tans" some tanning salon, and then "Smokey Bones" which was some bar and grill kinda place (like Montana's) and that was like the root of like MANY MANY MANY inside jokes for the whole trip.... countless laughs and jokes about those 2 random places, alone. hahahaha. you'll hear more about this later down in the post.... (but pretty much, we promised ourselves, we HAVE to make a pit stop to both of these places, and joke around there...)

anyway, so we drove down for about a total of 9hrs, and it was already like 11:00pm, and Sarah couldn't drive anymore cause she was tired, so we stopped by this small town in Maryland, about an hour or so away from Washington, and it was like a small quiet town, and we passed by a church, so we thought, hey how bout we sleep on their lawn (since we didnt have ANY accomodations whatsoever... no where to sleep for the next 5 nights..) so we went to a gas station first to get any supplies, use the washroom and wahtnot, then we went to the church.. some RANDOM church, mind you, and then we saw some guy still awake and on his balcony (some house located on the church property) so we asked him if we could sleep on their lawn, since we didn't have anywhere to sleep, and he was like "yeah sure, but you should probably sleep on the other side of the church where you could have more privacy!"

lol, so that was like the first blessing we had on our trip, permission and somewhere to sleep. the weather was nice, so it was pretty warm, and their lawn was pretty decent. we literally slept on the grass with just blankets.


the sleep was alright... decent for a sleep outdoors... but there was some dew on the grass which left things a little damp, and there was actually a slug on my bag, and a random slug INSIDE my camera case... (yeah, how is that possible?) but anyway, so we left the church before they had mass at 8am.. and we finished the rest of our drive down to washington.... and we joined the conference in the morning. we actually saw the head hancho, Jim Wallis, author of a couple books, more recent was The Great Awakening, and he's the founder of the Sojourners organization, who publish a christian social justice magazine, and he's like the main leader in trying to mobilize christians in America for social justice... so he's a pretty big dude, and we saw him and Calford went to him and said "Hey Jim, we're from Canada, and we don't have a place to stay, but we were wondering if you know any churches or church lawns in the area that we could stay at, even a backyard or something..." and he's like "hold on, lemme talk to a few people" 5 minutes later, we get a message saying to go to the desk and they give us 2 resident rooms on the campus for free, worth about $228 in total, and jimmy dub just hooked us up for free! he even mentioned us in a short speech during dinner, saying "we christians, need to help each other, today i mnet somne canadians that said they slept on a church lawn and needed a place to stay..." hahaha and we were all laughing how he mentioned that infront of everyone. MAJOR BLESSING (#2)

anyway, so the whole conference was pretty inspiring... honestly, i've grown up, not caring about all the world issues there are... ignoring and sometimes even avoiding all the social injustices worldwide... the global poverty, the economic injustice, oppression, racism, but like... i feel like im beginning to have a new set of eyes... so me and John were talking, and he was teaching me a little bit about Micro Finances, it was just a brief thing... but here's the WIKI definition...

"Microfinance refers to the provision of financial services to poor and low-income clients, including consumers and the self-employed.^[1] The term also refers to the practice of sustainably delivering those services. More broadly, it refers to a movement that envisions “a world in which as many poor and near-poor households as possible have permanent access to an appropriate range of high quality financial services, including not just credit but also savings, insurance, and fund transfers.”^[2]"

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfinance}

^{so John was suggesting it would be cool to help out in this, especially cause it's sort of Business related and at the same time helping in overcoming social injustice, and since Laurier has such a huge BUSINESS dept. and lots of biz kids, why not start a campaign at Laurier to advocate for economic justice and fundraise and help those people with very little opportunity, so that was a big idea and something God inspired me with during the conference.... but just a heart that cares more about what's going on in the world... being more environmentally friendly to help slow down global warming... being more aware of the poverty and injustices in the world.... not spending money on unnecessary things, and things that aren't essential, and even just having compassion for the broken and people considered social outcasts and stuff like that... (well just to let you know.. all of this stuff, im still working on, i am by no means, an expert in any of these things)} i was able to learn some tips and tricks on video advocacy and campaigning with media, and also a bit on campus advocating/campaigning with some of the workshops so that was helpful too... that's kinda what i got out of it...briefly...

ummmm, after the conference we went to Capitol Hill, and checked out some of the tourists-type things in Washington. we were lucky enough to find some free parking since it was a sunday (another blessing) so we checked out the US Capitol/US Congress, the big tall Washington monument, the Abraham Lincoln Memorial or 'temple shrine', that was a little weird, since it was like total idolatry, the White House, the Museum of History, and the Korean and Vietnam War Memorials... it was cool checking out how historic Washington was, and everything


for lunch calford and john wanted chinese food, so we found CHINATOWN, and we went to some little restaurant, the food was alright... not pure authentic tho, but decent. it was pretty cool/fun walking around washington and just exploring the city. in the evening, we got a call from one of the people we met at the Sojourners Conference, and she said we could stay at their community house, so it was pretty sweet (blessing #4). we first went to a grocery store and we bought dinner, 2 packs of wings (like 12-15 wings each pack) for $1.75 EACH pack and we bought some wedges and some vegetables and some pop (we had to be really really efficient and economic with our money, if you haven't noticed) and we parked by the side of some street near Capitol Hill, and we just sat on some random apartment's lawn and ate dinner there, and we didnt wanna pay for parking at a parking meter, so we sat sorta on the lawn by the car, so if we could move it at any given time... soooooo ghetto.. but it was fun.

at night we went to the house we were supposed to stay at, which was at 7th and G st. but little did we know, there are 4 different quadrants! we went to 3 different "7th and G" intersections. and we pretty much travelled through all of washington to find this... lol apparently, washington was designed like that to confuse their enemies during times of invasion. they definitely did their job in confusing us....... there's like a million sets of A,B,C,D....H streets, and a million 1st, 2nd, 3rd.....8th streets.... GEEEEZ. but we finally found the house, and it was pretty sweet. it was like one of those really narrow houses connected with the ones beside like on TV. the house was actually comprised of like 10+ residents, all from different parts of the states, but they heard about this organization, Brethren Volunteer Services, that allows you to do some volunteering stuff/social justice work but gives you a place you can live at, covering your rent, utilities, and essential things... so there's always people moving in and moving out with different volunteering placements, and they let us stay at their lovely community basement and they were such great hosts, esp. for people who didnt have a place to stay... we watched the Lakers/Celtics Game 5 with them, and then headed to bed.

the next day, we headed to the zoo which was ALSO free (more blessings) and checked out some of the cool stuff they had there.... there was this crazy cool spider exhibit with no glass, so we were all wondering, couldn't the spiders escape, and crawl around everywhere, but apparently the spiders they had (which looked like the one that bit peter parker) couldnt crawl on those walls, and only stayed on its web. One of the zookeepers showed us how spiders ate... so they fed some crickets, throwing them onto their webs. The spider literally ZIPPED down the web in a flash and just bit the cricket, injecting venom to slowly kill its prey and also turn the insides into mush for easier eating. it brings back the prey to the middle of the web, and slowly starts to wrap it up in its web, but it's cool how it uses its 6 legs to stay on the web, and 2 legs to just wrap the cricket up... then it slowly eats it and leaves the corpse. CRAZY!

anyway, after the zoo, we were going all around town to find a good deal, we ended up driving everywhere but then just going back near the community house, parking at this local gym, through one of the community house residents for free (super blessing #6) so we walked to a Subway, and got this pretty sweet $5 Deal, and it was soooo goood.. we then walked around this inner city community and found this park with a huge playground, tennis courts, beach volleyball area, and this part under the highway with a full basketball court and even some skateboarding ramps and rails. it was such a sweet area. we saw some gangster/skater kids who came afterward and they were doin some cool tricks and stuff off the ramps. i wish i could grow up with a park like that, and a basketball court under a highway like that.. it was sooo sickk

we walked back to that local gym, to ask where the Salvation Army and thrift store was, and it was like 16 blocks west from there, but at that point there was such a huge thunderstorm outside, the streets were like flooding with rivers flowing down the sides of the streets, it was pouring rain and it was just crazy, so we first ran back to the house which was nearby, BUT it was locked and nobody was home, so we were locked out and soaking... we checked some of the local churches in the area, but all were locked... so we decided... to walk to the Salvation army, 16 blocks away and hopefully buy some dry clothes there... so we walked down 16 blocks in the pouring rain... passing by 4 different A streets. it took about an hour, then when we got there, we asked somebody where the salvation army was, and they said it was closed, cause everything closes at 4pm because of the crime rate in the area, and it was like 5:00pm, so we decided how bout we take the bus back, but we only had $3US, and not enough for 4 ppl to take the bus, so we decided to walk back 16 blocks back to the house... still in the pouring rain..... but it was alright, we made the most of it, singing every single pop song we all knew. good times. when we finally got back, someone was home so we were able to get in, but John's shoes did NOT survive as they were already in terrible condition.... with a sole that was so mangled and a big hole in the heel of the shoe. 2 hours walking almost aimlessly in the pouring rain...... good times...haha and that was the end of that chapter...

back at the house, the main host, a girl we met at the conference made us all taco's for dinner, for us and the other like 9 or so residents that were present... it was pretty cool meeting all these different people from different parts, with different backgrounds, doing different things, but all living there to do their different respective jobs in some sort thing for social justice.... cool stuff!

anyway the next morning we left at like 9am to head back to Toronto, driving for almost 4 hours, we finally reached our first destination, CiCi's Pizza, and delighted the staff that we met from the first time we met them. enjoyed the 4.99 all you can eat deal, then as we discussed during the whole trip, we had to stop at Hollywood Tans and Smokey Bones, just for jokes. so we took some pictures outside of both, but the funniest moment was at smokey bones.... we went inside and talked to the hostess and then also asked WHO was smokey bones, and if they were there. it was so hilarious, except the response was "i'm not sure, i just started working here 3 days ago..." but the manager came out and he was like it's the name of the ribs we have or whatever. lol it was hilarious. you had to be there...

after about 7 hours of driving, we finally arrived back in the heart of Jane and Finch, back at John's house... but it was a fun trip, eye-opening and inspiring conference, and just a great time away from Canada, learning and experiencing the American lifestyle....

anyway just to let everyone know, THIS SATURDAY, we're having an Intern Party...
so for us students interning at Christian Centre Church, me, asha, bronson, calford, and john and jessie, we're holding a party at john's house to fundraise for some of their intern funds, and we wanna invite everyone. $5 donation at the door with hot dogs and some pasta included...
EVERYONE IS WELCOME TO COME!!!!
for more details like location/parking just let me know... but i'd love to see everyone there, show you the community we have here and just celebrate the summer!

81-2 Gosford Blvd.
7:00pm
$5 donation
hot dogs and pasta included.
ALL are welcome!

thanks for reading, peace out.

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington

(an old movie... but i'm not mr. smith....)

tomorrow, me, calford, john and jessie are going to washington for a conference...
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=get_connected.pentecost08&item=pentecost08_main
and there's gonna be some like empowering people, and starting a movement in America (North America) to overcome poverty... and i think there's also gonna be some stuff about campus outreach and evangelism and stuff...

so we're gonna be driving there tomorrow, again we almost had no ride, but God provided once again at the nick of time, so we have a car... though it's a manual, and only sarah knows how to drive... maybe i might have to learn how to drive manual before we go tomorrow morning :P

please pray for us, as we have nowhere to stay in washington... we're hoping to meet some people who will open their home for us....otherwise we might either stay overnight at an airport, or set up tents outside, or sleep on the grass or in our car :P... i have no idea... but please pray for us, that'd be soooo great!

also after the conference, we're gonna just walk around and hang out with the homeless people there, and just chill with whoever we meet on the streets... it should be fun!

man, i love the kids in the community... i love em so much. there's some highschool guys taht are cool dudes, this one guy who's sick at ball, and he looks like Dwayne Wade, but he's a really cool guy, and he's going to sheridan college in sept. and there's this other guy Dwayne, we call him 'king' cause he asked Laura to spray paint "King" on his t-shirt for king of basketball.. lol. but he's RIPPED. lol he's only in gr.11, plays football and basketball, the man is a beast, the kids call him a beast too.. jacked and everything. then there's a lotta kids from like kindergarten to gr.8 that just come and chill, and i guess they dont get any attention at home, but they just love being around john's backyard and chillin with all of us, and playin games, and talkin and hangin out. the kids are awesome...

anyway, more to come after the D.C. trip... stay tuned

come.unity

i dont know why i made that title... but the past 24 hours was just soo much community... and it was just random community, like just joining with random people, or people we didn't know, and just hung out with them and stuff....

so the past few days, we've started doing a BBQ at lunch time to raise money, aiming the jr. high kids at Brookview Middle School, next door to the church (literally next door, 10 feet away)

so at lunchtime, we bbq hot dogs, and sell pop outside and we play outdoor ball with the kids... usually i just get to interact with the same bunch of kids that come to the after school program, but these bbqs are really bringing out all these new kids, that usually dont come out, and it's great.

it;s really great to be connecting with these kids that we never usually see, that don't go to any of our programs... and we're starting to see some non-black kids come out... cause it's usually just the black kids that come hang out with us, but we;re starting to see some other cultures, which is great, and even a couple of adults walking by came and supported our bbq fundraiser. (since today was soooo scorching hot, i have a pretty distinct tan line on my neck....:P)

after that, us interns had lunch together, then we had some time to read the Word...
later today, instead of going downtown to hang out with the homeless, we went to the Seniors Home next door to the church (another 15 feet away, on the other side) to just hang out with some of the seniors. it was a great, very different experience... but still cool. the first guy we met was a guy from Jamaica, and he was 66 years old, and he was telling us he works a night shift... somewhere, it was a bit tough to understand his english, cause it was kind of broken, kind of lost in his accent, and me and one of the other interns Laura (the one that does graffiti) were trying to follow along, but it was really difficult. He's apparently divorced, has 2 kids, believes in God, goes to church, and has a lot of opinions about people and the world and stuff, though im not entirely sure what he was saying, but he seemed pretty content with life and how God is so good in his life. so taht was good. nice man, tho, lives a very nice, simple life.

the second guy we met up was this guy from guyana, and his house was... very... decorated.... lol. christmas lights in his apartment, smelled strongly of curry, and just, his apartment was just sooo full of....stuff! but he was a very interesting guy, he apparently has been going to our church for a long time, sits in the same spot every week. he attends the weekly bible studies held at the church and he loves the discussion and stuff, and this man just seemed very very knowledgeable about christianity and the bible, it was great, he was also very hospitable. though he's divorced, he seemed to have a lot of love for the bible and for continuing to study it, and he just seems to love to dig deep into the Word.

last guy we met up was with this guy i met at a luncheon we had with the seniors a couple weeks ago. i met this guy and he actually remembered me, so that was cool. this guy is from guyana, as well, and is such a great guy. he lives with his wife, and their place was very very well kept, very clean, very nice guy. he was showing us this wall covered in awards/certificates and stuff of all the stuff he volunteers at, and all the community and other organizational things he's involved in, and like leadership awards, citizenship awards, and stuff, this guy is sick. he also had an amazing view of the jane and shoreham area, he lived on the 10th floor, and you could see out of 2 sides, and you can really see everything. he has a couple kids and a couple grand kids, and i think he goes to another church, i think he said his brother was a minister or something. i dont remember, but it was really cool hanging out with him and the other guys we met up with. they really really appreciated the bit of time we were able to hang out with them, and they really enjoyed it. i intend to meet up with them soon!

after that, we went back to john knight's house/the intern house, since 3 interns + john and jessie live there + 2 other girls. and there was a basketball net moved near their backyard, so me and my roommate ian (john's brother), and laura, played ball with some of the kids there, and some kids also slowly started to make their way into the backyard to hang out. it was sooo hot, sarah and asha went to go get a big bog of ice cream, and so we just had some ice cream and offered all of the kids around some ice cream too, then they were all so interested in laura's graffiti, and they were all waiting for her to graffiti their t-shirts, and then before you know it, there;s all these kids just hangin out in the backyard, singin songs, dancing, and just chilling... this one black girl came up to me and made up a hand shake between me and her, she's hilarious. there's some lebron-ish high five elements in there, mixed with some dwight howard's souljaboy 'yoouuuuuu' in there too. hahahaa, this girl is soo jokes, she made up a hand shake with ian and sarah too. when really young black kids are talk so ghetto, it;s hilarious. i love it.

the thing that was soo good, was that we didnt know most of the kids there... we just kinda met them and invited them to hang out, have some ice cream, chill, and then community just started to happen, and they didnt even wanna leave either when it got dark. so we told them to come back and chill some more another day. so it really is...like neighbourhood-community, getting to know your neighbours and stuff.

anyway, tomorrow, i'll be taking 2 boys downtown to harbourfront, to play ball with them there, and get some opportunities to mentor them and just keep building relationships with these kids, so hopefully today goes well.

thanks for reading, loyal readers!
PLEASE LEAVE ME A COMMENT! :(

to the ends of the earth...

hey guys,
how's everyone doing?

i randomly saw chris jong today. Him and his urban promise team are just having meetings at the church im interning at, here at jane and finch. it was nice to see a fellow asian here at j&f. lol, he;'s gonna be doing some urban promise work- outreach during the summer

im hearing that so many people are going out there and doing stuff... doing missions or outreach, or just doing SOMETHING out of the ordinary, or just something for God, it's so great to hear...

my friend Lorraine is planning to go to Costa Rica for 2 weeks and doing some outreach there, building relationships and the works!

jen, marie, and gary from my church, TCCC, are doing a day camp/VBS sort of deal at bridletowne and the old SCBC community... so at warden and finch, and birchmount and huntingwood, working with some different inner-city kids in Scarborough

i hear yvonne, jordan, melody, and jonny angka are gonna be doing some yonge street missions!

i heard my friend Janine and her friend Mike will be going to the Phillipines, and one to Africa

my friends, Phila and Nat are workin with Toronto City Missions, and the kids in different communities downtown, like St. James town

my GOOD (and single) friend ryan is gonna be doin some missions with a team from my church at the Longlac area... up north, working with some native-heritage people

and my friends from Laurier, Howie and Laura, are gonna be goin to China, and doin some mission work in East Asia


...and just stuff like that
like it's really really great to hear that our generation is beginning to be bold, and doing something for God, even if it may be somewhere really far, or somewhere local... another country, or even in your own community. it's great to hear... if you're doing missions too or doing something, let me know, and i'll keep you in my prayers, if you have any prayer requests or anything... or if you wanted to know more about any of the missions trips/outreach projects that my friends listed above are doing, or if you'd like to support them thru prayer, or thru finances, just let me know...

AND, i'd really relaly really really love it, if you could just leave me comments! even if it's just a HI, just let me know who you are, who's reading this, and where are you from! i'd love to hear from you!

knowing God's will...

from last week's sermon...
(applied to me when i was trying to figure out what my calling was for this summer, and if this Jane & Finch missions trip was part of God's will, and His calling for me...)


knowing/discovering God's will in 6 steps...

1. the Instruction step

2. the Confirmation step

3. the Application step

4. the Confrontation

5. the Inspiration

6. the Realization





1. the instruction step:
getting instructions and direction from God through His word...from the bible,
'Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.' Psalm 119:105,

2. confirmation through people and signs... God's will for you.... or a calling for you, can be confirmed to you through Godly people, or signs from God... guiding you... opening or closing doors for you.... for me, it was some people from my Laurier fellowship that would pray for me, and give me encouragement, in discerning His will for me this summer, and for the opportunity for me to spend my summer as an intern at Jane and Finch.

3. application...stepping up in faith, applying, and doing, implementing.... talking/emailing John Knight, asking him more details about this summer ministry, how i can help, what i'd be doing... and taking an initiative to see what this is all about, and then actually applying for it, and going thru all the admin stuff...

4. challenges and obstacles... definitely not easy, and not a walk in the park...but God will make a way... there will be detours to teach you something, to show you something.... these detours have a purpose... it will not be easy, but is necessary... for me... a BIG obstacle in the beginning was summer ministry VS. summer job.... do i get a job to help pay for my tuition and rent? do i get my first summer job, that i've been trying to get for years? or do i just do something crazy and go live at jane and finch and do local missions?
ALSO, another huge obstacle was funding.... BECAUSE i wasn't going to have a summer job.... funding was a huge worry for me... how and where could i get $2000+?! i honestly started to freak out.... but my youth pastor told me, "If He's really callign you to do this, and dedicate your summer for Him... He's gonna make a way for you, and provide.... don't worry..." and He was right... God inspired me to hold 2 fundraising events, and it was ONLY by the grace of God, that i was able to create 'Streetlights' and the 'Streetlights Softball Tourney', and really use those 2 events as His way of providing for me.... and telling me to just Trust Him! not only does He provide... but He goes above and beyond your imagination and just amazes you and leaves you in awe, because what He does and what He is capable of, is simply....unfathomable.

i really would like to share with you, that if God is calling you to do something... lead somewhere, be this or that, go here or there.... if challenges or obstacles get in your way, or it becomes really difficult or challenging.... don't give up. use it as a test to make you stronger, and use it as a trial of your faith... where your faith will be stretched, and you need to be able trust Him.... if it really IS His will.... it will work out... have faith! just trust!

5. inspiration... encouragement and inspiration through words, works, worship... God will do things to reassure you... and He surrounded me with people to reassure me that this is an opportunity from Him for me to really go after, and this is a great thing for me to be doign this summer, to really go out of my comfort zone, and be challenged and stretched

6. realizing.. and praising God, and sharing your testimony..etc i dont exactly remember this last step clearly... but i think it's when you realize all of the previous steps, that you share it, and share the testimony of all the steps, how your story came to be... and the whole process, and how far God has brought you from.

there will be ups and downs in discerning God's will... in trying to figure out His calling and what He has planned for you... but someone told me that if it's really what God has in store for you... you won't be able to run from it.... if it fades, it might just be your emotions... but if it's God's calling... it will catch up to you, and there is no escaping it.... (not in a bad way of course), but that's sort of what happened to me.... the opportunity of serving, and doing missions, interning at Jane & Finch, was just more and more clear in my mind, it was such a big thing planted in my heart, and all signs just pointed in that direction.... oh and of course.... it all starts with prayer... continual prayer...

it is my hope and prayer that maybe God can show you something, speak to you, and call you to do something bold...and do something really out there, for His glory and to be a light in this world, to take up your cross and follow Him!



another story...

so today, we bumped into this woman, she's about 24-30 yrs of age, and she isnt married, but has 5 kids, most of them are with different fathers who have all left her... she is pregnant with a 6th kid, but she is contemplating abortion, and today she just kinda broke down as she was talking to sarah (one of the other interns) who's met her before....
she was saying how she knows how terrible abortion is, and she's so full of guilt, but she thinks she needs to do it, cause she doesnt think she could handle a 6th kid....and she said she might not be able to survive another pregnancy.. but im not sure.... we walked her and her 2 kids to a local child care, and then we walked with her to the church for some counselling...
i hope everything with her works out....
keep her in your prayers if you could.
thanks, God bless.

the little things...

i feel so bad for this kid....

a bunch of the gr.7/8 kids went on a trip to Detroit this morning, and come back tomorrow. i heard that the trip costs about $880.

one kid wanted to go. he has a sister from a different mother, i think, and he's like:

"my sister's going, cause her mom's paying for her... i can't go, cause my dad's cheap!"


poor kid... no pun intended!!!.. i swear!!!!
i did NOT mean to do that intentionally....

Finch Ave....from McCowan Rd. to Jane St

week 2...

sooo last friday we went downtown to one of the salvation army locations... located on Queen St. east of Eaton's Centre... and there we hung out with some homeless people, bringing with us juice, and friendliness. there we met some of the homeless people that stayed at the Salvation Army shelter, some of the guys we met weren't actually homeless, but were staying at the shelter cause they were on different addiction programs... where they would stay at the shelter for however long the program was, and would go thru different activities and whatnot, helping them deal with drug, or alcohol addictions and such.

one of the guy's i met was from guyana, and he was separated from his family and didnt keep in touch. he was about 30-40, and lived by himself at yonge and st.clair or something, and was attending this program to help him get rid of his former drug addictions. he attended the program, and he actually learned about christianity, and accepted Christ about a month ago
... it was interesting, cause he was really passionate about serving God, and he was actually telling me he was thinking about going to bible college to become a pastor.. so i told him to look up tyndale and such...

we were able to bring one of the jr. high youth to join us downtown, so it was a good experience, bringing one of the boys, Enoch, downtown with us to just hang out and kinda mentor him, while reaching out to the homeless.

on saturday, we brought a couple other of the boys downtown to play ball. we took Godwin, Jerome, Jevaughn, and Rashawn down to an outdoor court at harbourfront, and we were also able to play ball inside at the waterfront community centre, which was really cool. it was a good time mentoring them and just building relationships with these jr. high kids, and letting them experience the world outside of jane and finch. we also met these 2 asian kids, recently from taiwan, who live in scarborough. this one guy who goes to Birchmount, was only in gr.10 but he was a pretty tall guard, who was doing all these Hot Sauce/AND1 moves, who actually did the moves pretty well, he actually asked me to play 1 on 1, and i learned later that he did that to record his moves for his mixtape that he was making... unfortunately for him, he didnt trick me, and he didnt win either :P LOL. but he apparently went to TCCC (my church) a couple times, and he asked me for my email address, so i dunno, he might contact me. john knight was able to talk to the other guy, named jason who goes to sir john a. macdonald, and was able to minister to him, as he was a church goer, who didnt really believe in Jesus, but had a lot of questions. so that was a cool trip downtown. those kids are hilarious.... "APPLES SUCK!" lol

on sunday, we had church service... again the worship is amazing. wow. i heard the sr. pastor for the first time, and he was pretty good. they had communion, and it was interesting how they did it, it was a bit different then how i've done it at my church, but interesting... after service, us young adults we hosted a community lunch at the senior's home next door, so we opened it up to any of the seniors to come join us for lunch. it was a really good time of just getting to know some of the seniors, talking to them, loving them, getting to know them, eating and fellowshiping with them, and just hearing all the things they have to share. the turn out was pretty good, and most of them had a good time. i got some contacts of some of them, so im gonna try to visit them every now and then during the summer, and see how things are goin with them.


after lunch and clean up, i relaxed for a bit at my j&f home, before going back to Scarborough, and eating dinner with my family. i was able to join campus challenge for a bit of the night, joining their worship service and hearing Jesse share, and able to join the rest of the Laurier family at university time. the rest of the night was just filled with chilling and seeing some old friends, and fireworks, hide and seek, i spy, and the rest of em.


anyway, tuesday... the first day back for this week, i just woke up more sick than before... just coughing a lot more, and just a constant runny nose. very annoying.... today we held a bible study at the York University campus, at one of the residences there. we were joined by 4 other york students, 3 of them from campus for christ, and we just had a good discussion/bible study about non-violence, and the passage about 'an eye for an eye' and how our culture and society is all about revenge, or the whole 'if you scratch my back, i'll scratch yours' mentality....


later that afternoon, during afterschool program, i was working with terrence again. this time, he was a bit more patient, and accepted my help. we got thru a lot of fraction addition and subtraction questions, and i even taught him how to make the multiplication table, as he didnt know how before, and im not even joking, but after the session, he said 'i love math... it's one of my favourite subjects' tho i doubt he'll be saying that for long.. hahaha. but it was awesome and encouraging to hear that he learned a lot today, and it helped him in understanding math, and how he said adding fractions is easy now, after saying he hated them with a passion on thursday.

random note: there's this girl ashley in the afterschool program, and i thot she was one of the helpers, cause she's about my height, 5'8, and i thot she was in gr.10 or 11 or something, helping out with the kids, and today she told me that she was in gr.6. dang she towers over all the kids. all the gr.6 and 7 boys are tiny. hahahaha kids these days....
oh and maybe it's cause im not used to hearing this, but im learning from so many of these kids, that they have multiple homes... because of separated parents.... step parents here and there, siblings with different parents..... and this is with so many of these kids... what a culture difference. i learned that marlon has a home in the building next to mine, and also one in brampton with his real father, and the court recently told him he has to go there every weekend. and i also learned that jevaughn has never seen his father, ever... wow. how do these kids do it?


anyway if you could, please pray for me...

• i am officially sick. coughing like crazy, and my nose will not stop running. (i am wiping my nose as i am typing this...)
• continue to be able to reflect Jesus and be able to show Godliness as we interact with the kids, seniors, people in the community
• ..that i truly dedicate my summer to God and this ministry
• that i keep up with my devotions and spend a good significant time with God
• that i can keep up with my online course that im taking for university, over the summer

i think that;'s about it, keep commenting please! pictures are soon to come... when somebody gets me a memory card reader!

God bless

it's the hardknock life...

soooo it's been about a week now since i first came here...
i'm already starting to feel at home here, again, the young adults group, the interns, the church staff, and all the people inbetween, are sooo welcoming, and have all been so amazing to me.

i went to the Christian Centre Church service on sunday, and it was pretty awesome.
the worship team is amazing... it's like gospel Hillsong with some like kinda carribean/exotic flavour.... haha there was just a drummer, keyboard, and bongo's, and singers.... like kinda soulful women singers, and the lead singer was awesome too.... good worship leader... and she'd always say Hallelujah! hahahaha, but it was awesome, and the children's pastor was preaching that sunday about mother's day, but overall it was a really good service. Very charismatic, very lively... really positive, cultural, spirited vibe in the congregation. it was really different from the chinese christian churches.... automatically, you can compare kinda how conservative we usually are, well at my church at least.

after church, they always have 'soulfood' which is just a lunch at john knight's house for anyone after service... so it's really good fellowship, really good conversations and stuff, i've met so many people it;'s so hard to keep track. and again everyone is from different parts of the world! one guy i met was from stratford, there are some girls from ghana, asha's from bermuda, chris the sick drummer is from the bahamas, audrey is from vancouver, jessie is from perry sound, john;s from oshawa, yohan is from bombay, pastor olu is from new york, sarah's from st. catherines... i dont know.. everyone's from everywhere, but then we';re all brought together... it's a pretty cool thing.

anyway, these past few days, we've been really really working with the kids... like the jr. high kids. so my schedule for the past week has been....
in the morning....
- we meet together, but have some individual time of prayer and meditation
- then come together and pray together and share prayer requests
- then we do some admin stuff, do random stuff that needs to be done... like some planning, errands, etc...
- then we all eat lunch together
- afterward, we do a bible study with just us interns, we've been doing 1 Samuel so far....
- then we prepare for afterschool program, and on tuesday we went to go hang out with some of the low income senior people that live next door.
- then we run the afterschool program that consists of some basketball, and like a homework club, so like a chunk of time where the kids do their homework... but it's not as easy as this... i'll share more about an interesting story that happened to me today
- afterschool program ends at around 6, then we usually walk some of them home, or cook dinner, then dinner, then on tuesday i had a night off, wednesday i tutored a highschool kid in gr.11 math (lol, me of all people, tutoring...MATH?!?!?! ...yeah i know...)
- on thursdays we run a basketball houseleague program for the youth at the jr. high next door.


but ok, so here's some stories....
so there's this cool kid named marlin. he kinda looks like yung joc. hahaa but he's a cool kid. he's in gr.7, and i walked him home yesterday, he lives in the building next to me. i think there's a really good mentoring opportunity right there.... he just had a rough incident yesterday where he beat up a kid cause another kid said something really offensive... anyway, i was just talking to him, and he just randomly asks me...
m: can you fight?
j: ...ummmm... why do you ask?
m: you have to be able to fight! if you're black, you have to, to survive here....

he asked me where i'm from, and i said scarborough, and he's like...'yo, they're all soft there...." and he's right. it's true... scarborough is soooo soft compared to the people here. i never really feel scared in scarborough... but it's different here... it really is...

another story.... today pastor olu asked me to do something with him,.... so we went to mississauga this afternoon to pick up some mattresses/boxsprings from some warehouse that provides free mattresses (with government policies, permission) to some government subsidized homes, so we were getting some for some lady in the community that doesnt go to church, but i think one of her kids goes to the afterschool program... but anyway, after bringing the mattresses to her home, like, it was such a huge contrast. it was honestly the worst conditioned house i've ever been inside. (i'm not trying to make fun of, or complain, but im just tryna give a description of it, and give you a better understanding of it, and how people really live there) the front door was broken first of all, and when you go in, there's a big stench... the walls have no distinct colour, as everything is soo worn down, and there are rips in the wallpaper, or the paint on the walls is coming off, and there's some writing on the walls, i went upstairs to move a mattress, and the railing on the stairs isn't even secure on the wall, so the railing is completely uesless, the floors were pretty gross, the rooms were pretty filthy and just the flooring and walls were in terrible condition... and there was a family with 2 little kids living there, and i just felt sooo bad. like we are sooo blessed and so fortunate.... we live in luxury, but there are people that live in such terrible conditions. when we removed one of the mattresses, i noticed how badly worn down the previous mattress was.... there were rips everywhere, it wasnt really a solid piece.... and it reeked of urine. it was terrible. it was definitely an eye opener, to some of the terrible conditioned homes there really are in toronto, and in this jane and finch community...

another story, today during homework club, i was helping a bunch of guys do their homework, and one guy, terrence, just would NOT do it, he said he hated math so much, and he didnt do anything, so i kept telling him to do some homework and he wouldnt... after asking him more times then he would say, OK FINE, but then just start copying down the answers from the back of the textbook... it was very difficult, but like after trying many many more times to get him to do homework, he like blew up at me, and like threw a chair.... and he got really mad at me, saying that i wouldn;t leave him alone, and i couldn't tell him to do homework, and i couldn't keep him there and stuff... all i was doing was just being there to help him with his homework and to get him to try and do some homework..... it was really difficult...

anyway, i'm really tired, long day... so i will probably end it here, but...
prayer requests:
- continual health and safety... i think im getting sick or something... i'm coughing here and there
- the kids/youth, that God remove the callices of their heart, and be more sensitive and receptive to hear God
- that me, and the rest of the team of interns, be transparent, and that God's glory, and love can be shown through us, and we can be reflections of Him.
- for God to remove social barriers whenever we interact with people.... it's socially unnatural for us humans to just approach people we don't know, and just love them... so for God to work in us to be able to do that and have compassion for people, and just approach people...

i think that's it. thanks for reading! please feel free to leave me a comment, or anything... i'd love to know who's reading this!

God bless

my jane & finch citizenship

my first day was pretty goood...
i got to jane and finch at 11am, and my summer mission began...
so i first met up with john knight and met 2 of the interns... asha and laura..

(asha's from bermuda, and she's graduating from York for bio in june, she's really cool, i just chilled with her, and learned a lot bout her background and that she just came to toronto for university and found a home here at jane and finch and the christian centre church, she's cool)
(laura's a cool girl from burlington, and she does graffiti, so she jsut started graffiti'ing some of the jr-high kids' tshirts for $2 each.. and all the kids all line up for her to graffiti stuff... she's also a skater girl, and she loves kids. im gonna get her to graffiti a tshirt for me :P)

then i moved into my apartment, which is at the corner of jane and shoreham, and the apartment has a sick view. it looks over the jane and finch corridor, and it opens up right there, so out the balcony, you can see the whole plaza infront of my building, the intersection of jane and shoreham, jane st, you can see apartments all around, you can see a bit of York housing, you can see Christian Centre Church, and brookview jr high next door, and the community center, you can even see the CN tower! like the view is amazing, and i love the apartment.. it's not as ghetto as i imagined. im rooming with Ian knight, john's brother, and andre who is this black guy who's from kitchener, goes to York, and plays bass for CCC. they're both awesome, friendly guys.

afterward, i went to the church and met some of the jr. high kids. (brookeview is a jr. high LITERALLY next door to the church, like 2 ft away from the church, with about 600-800 kids)
and we had like a basketball program during their lunch, just for whoever wanted to play...
when i did the bridletowne project a couple summers ago, workign with the inner city kids of scarborough, at warden and finch, i thought those kids were different in culture and attitude from what i've grown accustomed to seeing, but THESE kids are even more different.... kids interacting in a way i've never seen. the kids seemed a little selfish at times... like when playing basketball, the kids wouldn't pass the ball too often, and would usually try and do things by themselves. sometimes they would even steal the ball from their own teammates, often not trusting their abilities. and also another thing i noticed was how much the kids talk, and kinda talk at each other, putting each other down... it just seemed like i haven't seen kids act like that towards one another before.... (just the kids i saw yesterday)

after the basketball program, we had a staff meeting, went over some leadership stuff, the whole internship thing...etc.... and honestly, i feel that God has blessed me so much, because He's given me so much through fundraising already, and it didn't come as easily for the other interns and stuff. anyway, we filled out some forms and stuff, then me and asha headed over to john's house. john's house consists of himself, his wife, jessie, sarah, laura, asha, and soon there will be another girl living there too... hahah and the house isnt big either.... but it's like a 2 min walk from the church and like 3 houses down from the young adult's pastor. i talked with asha, and just learned about her, and the community, and the people and it was really cool hearing another side of seeing the people and community here.

by the way, this whole day they were fasting, so i didnt eat either, so we were all starving, so at 7pm we went over to the young adult's pastor, Pastor Olu, who lives 5 sec. away from john, and they had a young adults group there. mannn it's very diverse there... very multicultural, but people were still extremely warm and welcoming to me. There were some former hindu's there, some girls frm ghana, a guy from the carribean (i think), an asian woman, 2 brown girls, and me and the interns. it was extremely multicultural and diverse, and i never experience the act of worshipping and praising God with people of different skin colour and praying with them too, the prayer just seemed so powerful, cause it just seems like it's one of the groups' strengths... and the focus on prayer seems so intimate and so tremendous. after meeting so many nice, friendly people, we had a feast at the pastor's house and it was really cool meeting all the different people, learning about them, and how they all know each other...etc. it was really cool, esp. since a couple of them welcomed me to jane and finch several times... it was really nice. plus, a lot of the people seem so intellectual and a lot of them seem very insightful, and always wanting to discuss things to have a better understanding of things, or they will discuss small things that have 2 sides to it, but would try and exchange opinions to see different perspectives and stuff like that, it's really cool, and the people are great, and very spiritually mature.

yep, so after dinner, and after walking a new friend home, me and ian walked back to our place and chilled, and i had some cupcakes which was really nice. i couldnt really sleep till like 2am, and we had to wake up at 6:30am for a basketball tournament the next day...
so at 7am we all meet together at the church and get on a bus to go to trenton, which is like 2 hours away, near kingston... sorta..... and there was a basketball tournament at some air force/military base. it was cool. i felt soo minority... first of all, all the teams there were mostly white people, from trenton, pickton....etc... then we brought 2 teams from jane and finch, so our teams were all black, except for me, john, and ian. and i was the only asian guy in the whole tournament. our team consisted of me, john, ian, and 4 gr.10 kids who are actually pretty good, and the other team consisted of a bunch of gr.11s who all play together in highschool. our team lost the first game by 18 (against the championship team of really old/jacked black guys from toronto), won the second game by 13 (against one of the trenton teams), then went into overtime in the third game AT THE BUZZER, after being down by 14 pts, with 3 mins left... we came back, made a huge run and tied it at the buzzer to send it into OT, but then i pulled my calf muscle, and we kinda didnt really play well and we lost by 4 in the last game. we ended up in 6th place. the other team won their first game by 33 pts, lost their second game (aganst the championship team) by 6 pts, and lost their last game by 4 pts, and they ended up 3rd place overall. after the tourney... we went to the local trenton church for the afterparty...

at the church, they have this upstairs part with like this old brick wall, and they have a traffic light, and a whole bunch of street signs, and it looks like a cafe, and there's 2 pool tables, and a stage for like a youth group service, it was a pretty cool place, and they hosted the tournament, so there was hot dogs, sandwiches, chips, popcorn, pizza, and pop and stuff....for free.. and then they gave out awards and medals. this one guy from the championship team, shared his testimony bout how he used to sell weed and rob people and stuff, then he came to know Christ... and it was new, hearing the urban language in his testimony about giving his life to God... "but like yooo, God's there for you, still... and like yoooo God does big tings, yo, trust." hahah stuff like that, no but it was cool, i have nothing against it, i just thought it was.... something i dont hear too often.

then after this, we all got on the bus, and went back home... dropping some of the kids home and then going back to the church. honestly, this was a crazy experience in just this one day, hanging out with these inner city highschool kids, they're all black, and they'd all be listening to lil wayne and other rap music, and so deeply consumed in the rap culture and stuff like that, and some involved in gangs and stuff, like they would be talking about bloods and crips and stuff, and they make fun of each other a LOT, and they yell a lot, they're very rowdy, very agressive, but also sometimes very funny, but 99% of them would be talking non-stop... hahaha, most of them have a lot to say. HONESTLY, im not even joking... it's like the kids in the movie 'Hardball" with keanu reaves, or from "coach carter" or from "grid iron gang"... like the youth are just like that... some of them even look like those guys.... honestly, i felt like i was in those movies today, especially when we all got to trenton, being in a completely new and foreign environment, playing in a dominantly white place, beign the minority and playing basketball, kinda like we have somethign to prove, then going to that trenton church, where it seemed like those kids were just so amazed at all the new stuff.... it's exactly like the kids in 'Hardball' when they got new uniforms and made it to the final game and stuff and had pizza... just like something new and exciting for them, that they can enjoy, a break from some of the troubling, and hard lives that some of them have to live everyday... it was kinda bittersweet in that way..

in the late afternoon, we came back to jane and finch, and me, ian, and john walked down jane street to block buster to rent a movie, and we got some christian movie about a used car salesman.... it was a low budget film produced by some church in georgia.... the acting was TERRRIBLE, but for a whole production made by a church, it was not bad, but the whole thing was really cheesy, lol. but yeah anyway the walk down jane street was cool, it really shows you had small and close the community can be, we bumped into like 6 or 7 people that john knew, and it was cool meeting some of them.... it was cool just walking down the street and just really living out the community and experiencing it first hand.

the people here, especially most of the people i see, are dominantly black, but there are still a lot of other cultures... very multicultural and diverse, like muslims, mandarin people )though, i've only seen maybe 4 or 5 chinese people), spanish people, and a lot of people from islands like bermuda, carribean, and stuff like that. most of the housing complexes and apartments are either government subsidized housing, or some market rent apartment buildings.

but yeah, tomorrow i'll be going to their sunday service, for my first time, and i hear it's very..... NOT-CONSERVATIVE... and i hear it's very diverse and very powerful... i guess we'l see.
if you have any questions or comments or anything... DEFINTELY feel free to leave me a comment, and i'll try to get back to you asap.

im exhausted right now from 4.5 hours of sleep, and a whole exhausting day of traveling and basketball, so im dead tired, and i mustve made a lot of spelling and grammar errors. sorry.
anyway, thanks for reading... God bless

nts: survival kit, cupcakes, andrea volcheck, cardboard box, walk-home-...

one more day...

actually in less than 24 hours... the summer missions begin...

tomorrow morning, i'll be moving into john knight's old apartment and i'm gonna start this jane and finch summer internship.
excited? yes
nervous? yes
scared? a little bit
sad? a little bit
worried? actually, not so much

but i really think God is gonna challenge me in ways i would have never known, and be stretched to my limits as His servant.

anyway... i shall blog more another time.
i really should start packing... like NOW.

God bless

GOD IS SO AMAZING... it's unfathomable

tonight was the Streetlights' event to fundraise for my missions trip.....
and i just have to say....
GOD NEVER FAILS TO AMAZE ME.

Never doubt Him. Ever. When you think it can't be done, when you think it's not possible,
when you think it won't work, He will blow you away.

Thank you to everyone that came, and for everyone that's been so extremely supportive
You are all blessings from God. Thank you. It's crazy... all of it.
The way He works behind the scenes and makes things happen....
The way He always provides, when you're full of doubt and worry...

GOD IS SO AMAZING AND INCREDIBLE.
this experience, of just this one fundraising night, just goes to show you, how POWERFUL He is.
When He has something for you, when He's calling you to do something, or go somewhere....
there WILL be challenges, it won't be easy, but you cannot run away from Him, and He will make a way, no matter what. He's not gonna leave you out to dry, He WILL carry you through.
do not worry, and do not doubt.

i really hope that God was able to speak to all of you, and really start something in your heart, to change and transform you from the inside to not be satisfied with living comfortably, and being in this comfort zone, and bubble, but i hope instead, that He places an urgency in you to break away from this, to really GO out there, do something BOLD for Him, that you follow Him, no matter where He calls you!

God bless you all!

Thank you so much, God. I love you. You are so incredible, Your love is unfathomable.

the crazyness behind the scenes

i can't believe streetlights is today.... in like.... 16 hours.
so far God has been so gracious and has blessed me tremendously... it's really crazy!

a lot of people are soooo supportive and helping me with so many things....
and a lot of people have such big hearts and have blessed me with some donations!
PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!

i didn't think it was possible, but God again, never fails....

it's crazy how much God has done in the past 3 and a half weeks, He's created something from nothing.....
God, You never cease to amaze me. You're incredible.


STREETLIGHTS'08 tomorrow!!! be there!!!
6:30pm at FBCM (Kennedy & Denison)

the first step...

so it was only 3 weeks ago, that i came up with the idea of holding a fundraising event to support my missions trip to jane and finch, and God has blessed me with so many people so willing to help me out in planning, organizing, and everything else. it hasn't been very long, but God works in so many ways behind the scenes, through people, making all of this possible. God has made a mere idea into something big, blossoming into an event that will hopefully cause a change in people's hearts, and a revolution beginning in our city.

today, some of the worship teams and some of the volunteers came together for the first time and just had some worship practice, and a time of prayer, and it was really good, it's starting to really click in, that this event is really happening, and that God has provided so much and has done so much.

for those of you that don't know already...

---

streetlights'08

happening: sat. may 3rd @ 7pm
goin down at: FBCM
what's it all about: a fundraising night of worship, praise, and empowerment for us christians, where there will be a speaker and some testimonies and sharing, challenging us to take up the cross and follow Him.... whether it be the inner city and to the streets, or outside of canada....even at our schools and on campus... we are called to be lights in this world.... so let's start by being that light on our own street corner...

BE BOLD AND BREAK THE MOULD
let the youth revolution begin....

snacks & refreshments to follow.

$2 admission with free-will offering and doors open at 6:30pm.
All guests arriving before 7:00pm are automatically entered into a draw.
**$30 GIFT CERTIFICATE TO BEST BUY AND MUCH MORE!

FBCM [ Kennedy & Denison ]
up the street from Pacific Mall and near MIX2


EVERYONE IS INVITED, PLEASE COME, AND FEEL FREE TO BRING YOUR FRIENDS, YOUR FELLOWSHIP, AND EVEN YOUR CHURCH!