Night the two...

28th September, 2006, 1:00am to 2:15am
Traveling the streets of Sydney
It was the second night we have traveled around the city looking for homeless people. Tonight however was much different from last night. Michael and I jumped in my Saturn and hit the road at 1ish tonight thinking we were going out looking for Homeless people; well that was our intentions anyway.
We traveled up and down George, Charlotte, and Esplenade looking around checking out nooks and crannies, any dark patch between the orange rays of light from the street lamps. Yet with all our searching we found no one. Although we were missing on the people front we did find the woods (for lack of a better term) between Charlotte and Esplenade which is supposed to be a gathering spot for homeless people in the winter.
After driving up Prince for a bit all the while shooting the breeze, I suggested we head to Whitney Pier or just the Pier as we have discovered it’s called here. Michael nodded thinking it would be good to scope out the area a bit. I don’t think, as I turned left at the Co-op, that I had any idea as to what God was planning for the rest of the night. In fact if I were to be totally honest, when I turned left at the Co-op the number one thought running around in my mind was the hope that we would finish up a little early so I could get some sleep before 2am. In hind sight which of course is always 20 20, I am glad that the thoughts running through my head at 1:30 in the morning aren’t the same as God’s.
We rolled into the Pier and as we did Michael shared with me that his oldest had come strolling into their room a bit earlier this evening and had simply began to cry for no apparent reason and without explanation. My mind began to wonder back to a weird dream I had had the other night about a person who appeared to me and told me that I wasn’t going to make it that I was going to fail. I had been weirded out by the dream the other night but as it came back to my mind tonight, driving through the dimly lit, run down streets of the Pier, most the shops boarded up or closed, the dream seemed to be a lot more then weird, so I shared it with Michael, and that’s when the feeling came. I use the word feeling here simply because I don’t really know how else to express, define or describe it. I also use this word because the feeling was different for Michael and I. As I began to share the dream I had had, driving down the main drag, Michael began to feel sick in his gut, his hair was standing on end and he was fighting his lunch down. Not to mention he had a pressing against his throat and chest. After sharing the dream Michael felt that this may have some connection to some things he has been experiencing and that he felt God might be showing him about the state of things here.
But no sooner had we turned onto the next street near the cemetery then my stomach began to twist into knots. I could feel fear trying to grip my and it was a nagging awful feeling of dread. I shared this with Michael and as we talked through it trying to figure out what was going down, God began to reveal some things to the both of us about what the deal really was. For me God seemed to be speaking to my heart revealing that the enemy had clearly claimed the Pier as his territory and that children of God were not welcome. More than that though it seems that the enemy has gripped the people of Whitney Pier and he isn’t letting up any time soon. It was tripping me out and I could feel the fear trying to pull me down.
Michael on the other hand felt God confirming the need for us to really get serious about this war we are facing. The truth of it is (and I don’t really care if people want to ignore the reality) God has gone to war for Cape Breton, He wants it back and He wants it back now, but the enemy is heavily entrenched here. In fact the enemy has constructed some strongholds and fortresses through, substance abuse, addictions, worthlessness, and self abuse. And the enemy doesn’t want to lose ground. Tonight I think we realized that more clearly then we have since we arrived.
We rolled into the drive way shortly after this all went down and personally I felt wrecked. More then anything I wanted to crawl into bed snuggle with my wife and try to push the fear that was still wrestling with my spirit out of my mind. But again thankfully what runs through my mind at 2 am isn’t what is running through God’s. Michael suggested we take some time and pray in fact he pretty much said we needed to pray, which in hindsight was the best suggestion all night. I took a deep breath waiting for Michael to open us up when the Holy Spirit showed up and decided that He was going to lead the show.
The funny thing about the Holy Spirit and when He makes up his mind to lead stuff is that most of the time you cant even process whets going down, most of the time your holding on for dear life like you would on one of those roller coasters that your feet dangle the hole time and you cant see through the dark tunnel, ha just close your eyes, feel the crazy butterflies doing death defying acrobatic maneuvers in the depths of your stomach and scream with glee as you enjoy the ride. When the Holy Spirit shows up all heaven breaks loose and tonight was no exception. I don’t remember every word that was spoken nor do I remember everything we prayed about and to be honest I don’t think I can ever really convey exactly what the Holy Spirit did while we sat in the car with the doors locked, in the drive way, but I can tell you that The Lord showed up and he found too seriously humbled fools crying out to him. And then there was peace, peace that passes all understanding and logic, peace that baffles shrinks and doctors, peace that trips the intellects and the scholars, peace that puts demons in their place and makes angels laugh like children. I believe that God showed us what is really going on in Sydney, underneath our good intentions, our grand plans, our newsletters and our contacts lists, there is a war raging on for the very souls of our neighbors, our friends, the people we haven’t even met yet, its for them that this battle rages, and its bloody, it hurts and its real. Oh it’s very real, more real then your everyday activities, your afterschool activities, your church socials, and your day jobs. It’s the thing that’s really going on when we find kids dying from overdosing, we find teens shooting up schools, when we see young adults getting sloshed out of their minds every day of the week, we find parents ignoring their kids or worse abusing and misusing them, and we find the old being herded together without any real concern for their well being. This thing is a war between heaven and hell and the battle ground is here on the plans of what we call reality, what we call life and we have a part to play. If ever there was a time for us who declare allegiance to the King of Kings to stand up and shout our battle cry the time is now, give up self imposed ignorance, throw down complacency, fight against apathy and stand up. There is a battle going on around us, in the very midst of us people are being lost.
We finished our time of prayer feeling exhausted but energized, at peace but restless to fight the good fight to be counted as one of the Lord’s fools. I truly believe that God is going to transform this place, He is going to build his church on this rock that the gates of Hell WILL NOT PROVAIL. The reason, GOD IS BIGGER, STRONGER AND MORE POWERFUL then anything the enemy can throw our way. God wants to raise hell to the ground here in Cape Breton and he’s going to build a church in its place. And it won’t be a Wesleyan church or a Pentecostal church or even a Baptist church, its going to be God’s church where God’s people come together and they worship him in Spirit and in truth, they help the poor and the orphans and the widows and the drunks and the addicts and the broken and the dying. In God’s Church his children are going to fight injustice, love the wretched, bless the poor, and feed the hungry. In God’s church a brother won’t be distinguished by color but by blood, Christ’s Blood which was poured out for all our sins, the blood that makes all men and women equal, the blood that frees the addicts, the drunks and the sex fiends. In God’s church we are going to dance in freedom and sing with Joy all the time. In God’s church we are going to understand grace that makes Holiness possible. Because in God’s church it won’t be about race, social status or who you know, wait, actually it WILL be all about who you know be cause in God’s church everyone is going to know who Jesus is even if they don’t know it yet.
And God’s church is going to start right here right now as his people pray. And prayer wont be a part of the day, prayer will be the day, any time all the time God’s children will be talking to their dad, they will be sitting in his lap sharing their darkest fears while in a traffic jam, they will be lifting up his praises while in the grocery checkout line, they will be praying for their lost brothers and sisters in their high school cafeteria all the while being scoffed at and ridiculed. In God’s Church prayer isn’t what we do it is who we are.
At 1am this morning when Michael and I hopped in my four door Saturn and hit the road looking for homeless people I had no idea what God wanted to do. At 3:30 am I sit here smashing keys on the keyboard with conviction. I still don’t know all that God wants to do but I know what he wants us to do next and that’s enough, to be honest I don’t think I could handle any more then that right now. So I’m going to post this get up from the computer and do what God has called me to do, but what I think God would like to know is what are you going to do?

peace
Matt

Play Pump

Check out this link...to discover the creative and wonderful genius of those who want to tackle 2/3rd's world poverty. These guys are doing inventive things to bring fresh drinking water to a thirsty land.

http://www.we-are-one.org.uk/projects.html


Imagine, no one works to extract the drinking water from the land. Kids do all the work while having fun! That sounds like a wacky, heavenly, Kingdom-of-God type of answer to a major problem!

-Michael...2Timothy1.7

Gellin' like Magellen

The great experiement here with the Sydney church plant, Harbour Wesleyan, is to live out an Acts chapter 2 existence at the roots, radical. We are not trying to be extreme or envelope pushers, just authentic followers of The Way. Acts 2 details some very exciting marks of distinction. It speaks of a body of believers who were dedicated to a lifestyle of worship together. It speaks of a community that was sold out to learning God's word from the leaders of the church and committed to one another so much that they spent time together daily sharing meals and their very posessions. This group of people truly cared for one another in action and deed as an expression of their obedience and love for Christ.

We aim to live this type of existence so much so that we are living together and eating together and meeting to worship and pray together as often as those believers who are written about in the good old book of Acts. The funny thing is...we are growing closer and full of love for each other beyond what we could have ever imagined! We are a tight team after only a couple of months! Our vision is melding together and growing out of our existence as a team focused on living truly dedicated to Jesus. Upon this and the foundation of prayer I believe we are headed for amazing things on this journey in Steel City, Nova Scotia.

-Michael...2Timothy1.7

I'm singing in the rain...

So actually I wasn't singing in the rain for two very important reasons, the first being my inability to walk and do anything else at the same time and two because it would be a social injustice for me to break into song in public. However I was walking in the rain today Listening to Norah Jones sing in the rain on my way to Loaves and Fishes when I came across a young lady on the curb. I passed by her as I would anyone else but as my feet steered me around her I could hear God cough suggestively under his breath. (For many of you God may very well speak to you in a loud clear voice but with me I find he likes to give me the suggestive cough, and the thing about the suggestive God cough is that there is an entense exchange of words that take place between God and myself all contained within his suggestive cough.) but for real as I walked passed this young lady with her jacket over her head soaked to the bone on my way to the warmth of the soup kitchen near by I felt a very strong conviction(aka the God suggestive cough) and God began to remind me of all the things I have been reading about lately, and in God's way he let me know I needed to sit down and talk to her.
I wish I could report that we had an inspiring conversation about God's love, his salvation plan for her and that she needed to accept Christ as Lord and join our church plant. However that wasn't even close to what happened. I asked her why she was sitting on a curb in the middle of the pouring rain and I could tell in her eyes that she was probably wondering why I was standing talking in the middle of the pouring rain, but unlike myself she was much more discrete and not nearly as nosy. So being the more nosy of the two of us I did discover that her name was Krystal'she and that she had to drop out of school because she has just recently had a baby. The reason she was sitting on the curb was because she was waiting for her dad to pick her up to take her home he was late and she was cold and wet. I carried on the conversation as best I could after that which was rough at best due to my inability engage in conversation unless it is about the latest game out or my stats on world of warcraft (/sigh) and shortly there after her dad showed up and as fast as the rain had come that day she was gone and I was continuing on my way to Loaves and Fishes listening to Norah Jones sing in the rain.
My thoughts for the rest of the day have been mixed, first I wonder why I had such a difficult time talking to this girl, I was frustrated because I didn't get to bring the conversation around to the love of Christ and I also have been wondering why whenever it rains Norah Jones seems to be the best music to listen to. I also wondered if I even really made an impact in Krystal's life, if she will even remember me when she goes home and has to feed her new born when she is up in the middle of the night because her child has a fever or is hungry? I don't know, but then God planted an idea in my head that has been sticking to me like peanut butter on a kids hands, What if the point wasn't to talk about Christ but to be Christ to her. For one moment in a world of craziness what if just sitting and talking with her was being Christ to her. I have know idea and I don't pretend to be real good at this talking to people about Jesus thing either but what I do know is that Christ compels me to go out and love people and today I think I got a chance to show Christ's love to Krystal , the rest is really up to God.; could I have done more, definitely did I do it all right probably not, but it really doesn't matter, in the end if we are willing to go God will deal with the details.
Peace
Matt

Coffee is Good...for the soul

Just wanted to say that coffee can be an addiction for some (the Christian drug of choice) but for others it is the ticket to a Bohemian pleasure like none other. There is nothing like sipping a cup of God's java in an asthetically pleasing environment in which melodious tunes roll and a good book is in hand. I do not mean coffee drinking in which one has to have one of those Tim Horton's pot-sized coffee containers refilled twice a day to get a fix type of drinking, but the more bougoise style of enjoying coffee along with the other fine things of life: Art, Music, Literature, you know, the classics! So, to Matt I can only hope that his report on coffee is an attempt to help his fellow man, the man who has a problem with beverage drinking control. Nevertheless, I feel that he could be implying more and should be wary of lumping all coffee drinkers into the same category.

Michael

Coffee is for death...

So I was breezing through the news this morning and came across an article all you coffee addicts might find interesting and remember after reading don't shoot the messenger I just thought it was funny no need to get hostile. (but as a side note it is interesting how we defend the things we have addictions too when confronted with them!) anyway here is the address for it

http://www.cbc.ca/story/health/national/2006/09/18/coffee-report.html?ref=rss

On another totally different and entirely more serious but not so serious as to make you want to be an Emo kid note, Sunday was a really good day here in Sydney, the weather was great and no one had to work which is in and of itself an amazing thing (I give God the credit on that one for sure). I think it was the first day we have all and by all I mean the 9 of us have been able to just sit down and enjoy each others company so that was great and I just wanted to put that out there.
Anyway that's all I have for Monday morning and remember all you coffee junkies don't hate me I just read the article!
peace
Matt

The night life

So the other night Mike and I got the opportunity to hang out with our neighbors and play some cards. It was great. I learned how to play a game called spades (or at least that's what I think it is called). Mike and I played our two neighbors in a game and after a tough game we came out the victor. But the really cool part was the fact that we got to hang out with them. They are a great bunch of guys who love to joke around and chill. It was a great connect and I am hoping we will get the opportunity again soon.


ON some other fronts God has been blessing us all in crazy ways. Jess got a job and has had some sweet opportunities to connect and even talk to a girl about what we are doing here and the girl was even interested in joining Jess's small group when she has one. Praise God for that one cause that's crazy she's only known the girl like three days. anywho another crazy God thing that's been happening is that God provided Terra and I will fifty dollars from a random donation which was exactly what needed so we could get food this month. Its insane how God provides what we need even before we get a chance to ask him about it. Its been crazy.
On the prayer request front be praying fro all of us that we can get out there and plug in to the community. We are all kind of looking for our places that we can relate to people and for some of us (myself included) that's a difficult task. Also if your thinking about it be praying for God to show us exactly where he wants us and what he wants us doing.
Anywho that's all I got for now
Peace
Matt

The video blog part the two...

Hey everyone well yesterday Mike and I and the kids went for a drive and this is where we ended up. A couple weeks ago we gave you a taste of one side of Sydney well this video blog we wanted to give you a taste of another side of Sydney hope you enjoy




And there ya have it folks
peace
Matt

Office Space

This will be a quick blog mostly cause we have spent the entire day cleaning up the office which if you haven't seen the office is a huge deal. Anyway with the arrival of Nate and Jess we discovered that we have a need for more room and another desk. So today's task was to see those things come into being. And so here is a look at the finished product

isn't it a lovely desk, thanks to the hard work from Nate and Terrell we now have a wonderful desk in the office so I'd just like to say thanks to both of them for their hard work

Anyway that's been our big thing for the day
talk to ya'll later
peace
Matt

Another day in the life of us Sydney folk

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. So another week has come and gone and this is what's been happening. First and foremost the Weavers have finally moved in to their apartment here in Sydney. Jess is currently on the job hunt so please be putting that in your prayers and please being praying for Nate as he starts diving into the ministry here with us stay at home men ;) see for those of you who don't know Nate and Mike are both Americans and still waiting for their paperwork which means they are full time stay at homers as for me well I just seem to suck at the finding a job thing. I've been applying but keep getting the old rejected sticker. And so here I am sitting on the computer updating the blog jobless. But God is teaching me a lot about trusting him and actually learning to trust in him and have faith that He will provide. And its been good. So that's what's been happening on that front so be praying for all of us as God teaches us Guys about trusting!
So here's a thought to ponder

"Our intimacy with God is the gift of grace, not the attainment of piety. Our involvement in society is inspired by mercy, not militancy. Grace is the heartbeat of our vision." -Pete Greig (the vision and the vow)

I've been reading through this book the Vision and the Vow and its been crazy sweet. God has been teaching me a lot through it but this piece really hit me hard the other day so I wanted to share it here. Grace is key to living for Christ. In fact without grace what hope do we have of following Christ. And yet so often I find that Grace falls to the back seat in our relationship with Christ. Instead of falling on grace in our day to day walk with Christ we fall into a mind set of rights and wrongs. We replace grace and love for duty and guilt. Why, in our journey towards holiness in our walk with Christ, do we trade grace for duty, for lists of rules and for self righteousness many times?
Anyway that's all we have time for today folks
Peace
Matt