Eye Re-Use

Bobby's latest 'find' on Queen Street West. Yes, he literally found this on the street. Ewww.

What the world sees.

What I see.

What God sees.

In a Gamble...I'll put my $ (and life) on Jesus.

"I believe in both faith and reason. The more we learn about God, the more we understand how magnificent this universe is. There is no contradiction to it. When I look at history, I would disagree with Sam: Christianity has done far more good than bad. Altruism comes out of knowing there is more than this life, that there is a sovereign God, that I am not God. We're both betting. He's betting his life that he's right. I'm betting my life that Jesus was not a liar. When we die, if he's right, I've lost nothing. If I'm right, he's lost everything. I'm not willing to make that gamble." Rick Warren from a interesting interview with an published atheist.

Check the whole interview out at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17889148/site/newsweek/

For Rent

A few weekends ago, we took our adult leaders to Detroit to a Urban Youth Worker Institute day. We love Today's Teens and The Core and other Adult leader training days but we really wanted some training more directed to our situtation.

I have to say the closer we got to the church the more I felt like a country mouse. There were SO many boarded up houses. The picture is of a row of houses (there were at least 10 of these). The one at the end had no boards or windows, but it did have a sign that said, "FOR RENT". I kept having these 'what have I gotten us into' thoughts. That didn't go away even after we had parked our car on the street and gone into the church. In the past 4 years, this community has had ONE high school graduate versus our high community dropout rate of 30-40%.

The seminar speakers were bang-on for me. Relevant, insightful and God-reliant, we were all encouraged to pray & put ourselves out there for our youth. If you'd like to check out some similiar seminars http://www.uywi.org/index.php?do=resources&id=12 .

One interesting thing that came to me throughout the day was our situtation at Toronto Alliance Church is very different. You see that church in that rough neighbourhood...it was nice, really quite nice. Comfy...really comfy chairs, a big gym/auditorium, more than 3 classrooms...good sized ones, multiple washrooms, a foyer, a big kitchen, etc. We simply don't have that here at TAC...the big facility and personally I'm more than cool with that...building can equal a departure from first loves...it just means we have to be more creative and build community relationships with organizations that can help us out. We're a poor community living in a rich area. Interesting, no? The entire Detroit experience made me love our little Queen Street West community and its residents all the more.

Loafing Around...Kind of

What can I say? The blog has been neglected over the past few months. So here are some updates.

I, Melissa, have been at my new job for a month & a half and it has been good. Kip came and visited me at work and said it was the first time he had seen me smile at work. I then asked Bobby what my face looked like at IKEA and he said, "frantic". So I'd say things are looking up!

I am also loving not having to commute to work and becoming more familiar with the Queen Street West crowd. Coming home for lunch and hanging with the cat or Bobby has been a treat as well.

Bobby is busy going to support some of our teens and their families in court. There have been some very cool breakthroughs. Guy's club is also going well and been well attended. Its been great having good, new male leaders too. Our event nights continue to be both challenging and encouraging as new & old teens come out. We are always surprised by who shows up...in good ways.

Bobby & I are both looking forward to the summer. Summer is a big networking time in the community for Bobby. Youth and their families are outside alot and Bobby just needs to walk around to connect with them. It is completely his element...maybe not culturally but socially!