Praise God the end is now in site!  The snag we encountered that slowed down the project for a time has been resolved and we are now looking forward to being able to celebrate the end of the work in mid-May. The celebration will be even sweeter because it will involve welcoming several new members into our home.   

With the completed renovations we are move from having 4 bedrooms to 8. This will be an exciting transition but we know it will also have its challenges and we appreciate your continued prayer support.

Although prayer is certainly key, there are also other ways that you can get involved - maybe it's time to prayerfully consider if one of those new bedrooms might just be for you? Maybe you'd like to volunteer to help us with the final touches or massive spring cleaning we hope to do at the end of all this work?  Or maybe you can help us complete the work debt free?  Contact us for more information or head over to our Donate Page.

And once again, thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement. This has been an important season in ministry for us - and we look forward to what God will bring as we begin to open our doors to even more people!

Tagged: renovation, update, end, pray, donate, room

I also want to thank everyone who has been faithfully praying that God would resolve the “snag” we encountered in our building project earlier this month. I am thrilled to report that while the situation isn’t fully resolved, we are feeling God’s hand at each step and are increasingly confident that things will work themselves out.

The issue is relatively technical to describe and you can contact me if you’d like more details but the short version is that there was a difference in interpretation on a specific piece of building code between several city inspectors. If the decision went one way, we could complete the project as planned and on budget; if it didn’t, the budget and timeline for completion would both have almost doubled.

There are many things to give thanks for in this process but I want to highlight two in particular:

I am deeply grateful for the amazing team at Renos by James who are doing this work for us. At each step in the process I have felt a deep sense of confirmation that God chose them to do this work and I couldn’t be happier with that decision. I’d almost… almost… want to start planning another project just so we can keep them around longer. Thanks guys!

I am also deeply grateful for all of you. When surprises come out of left field there is nothing more comforting than knowing that there is a community of people who care and are willing to pray and send along words of encouragement. I have no doubt that your prayers are being answered in this phase of our project. Thank you so much!

Tagged: renovation, update, prayer, thanks

Please dust off your knees and pray for our building project today. We’ve hit a snag that could make our project become both more time consuming and expensive. We know that God is up to something and has a plan but we have no idea what that plan may be. Please pray for a spirit of calm and creativity for all involved in working together to find a solution to this latest challenge.

We are truly blessed to know that we are not in this alone. Your prayers, encouragement, and financial support make it possible for us to do what we do. A change like this can be a scary thing but knowing we’re part of a larger family makes all the difference!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Tagged: pray, donate, renovations

You can see photos of the basement on our Facebook page. (No need to be a member of Facebook to see the pictures)

And if you haven’t already checked out the daily posts on our Gratitude Challenge for Lent, it’s not too late to join the challenge. Just go to the Blog Page on our website.

Finally there are a series of wonderful relationships that are deepening and developing through our shared life in West Broadway. God is definitely up to something! Your prayers, encouragement, and financial support make this all possible – THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT!

Tagged: basement, pictures, pray, donate, gratitude, challenge, Lent

Although numbers only tell a small part of the story, this past Monday, over 500 guests and 60 volunteers from 7 different churches joined together to share food, fun, music, conversation, and a few highly competitive games of Scrabble together. A HUGE thank you to everyone who prayed, volunteered, or has made a financial donation to help make this event possible.

It is also a privilege to pass along thanks from Agape Table and the guests who came out that day. I have received an overwhelming number of thanks yous and kind comments in the last couple of days.

One of the key things we hope that people come away with after their experience at Agape Table is the simple fact that every person is unique and has something to offer. From a distance we often try to generalize and talk about “those people” but that kind of thinking is impossible when you’re sitting together at a table sharing a meal.

Some of our volunteers have been kind enough to share their stories with us. Here are two of two of them:

Thanks Rachel & House Blenders, for hosting us today! I spent some time working with the debrief questions, and thought I would take a minute to share with you a small glimpse into the gift that this day was for me.

The other week I was preparing to speak on Mark 1:40-45, Jesus’ healing of a man with leprosy. As I studied that text, it struck me how willing Jesus was to engage with people who were on the outside margins of his social world—that Jesus wasn’t afraid to touch someone and risk becoming unclean, that he seemed to have no fear of catching any skin disease from the man with leprosy, that he willingly made him clean even when the repercussions of that action meant that Jesus himself was forced to stay outside in the “lonely places”. Although I call myself a follower of Jesus, I was very aware as I studied Jesus that he didn’t seem to hesitate to go to people on the margins, while I myself am quite comfortable staying within my “safe zone” and hesitate to do anything that might carry even the most remote risk of me becoming “unclean” (which could sound crass, but isn’t meant that way!).

Joining in serving at Louis Riel Day today was a baby step for me in exploring what it might look like for me to open myself up and risk loving others more like Jesus did… not a huge leap, but definitely outside of my normal comfort zone. Not knowing what to expect, I was a bit nervous at the beginning of the afternoon, but by the time 5:00 came, I was grateful for the opportunity to have God open my eyes to see that people are people, regardless of what neighbourhood they might come from.

I spent most of the afternoon manning the toaster. Right as we were starting our shift, we were having some trouble keeping the toast from getting too dark, and a couple of pieces that got set out were too dark. One of the men waiting for toast quickly reminded us that if we wouldn’t want to eat it ourselves, neither did they. His words stayed with me, and as I got the hang of things, I realized that serving excellent toast with a smile and the kind of service and friendliness that I myself would like to receive was a way of loving my neighbour that, although small, was nonetheless significant. In simply being willing to serve others with genuine hospitality, I found a baby step towards becoming more like Jesus.

I am quite sure that God fed me in ways that was every bit as significant as the food provided to the guests at Agape Table. Thanks for sharing this day with churches—for hosting us in this experience that takes many of us outside of our normal comfort zones to see God in new ways. It’s significant stuff!

It was wonderful to see the house and hear about what God is doing among you at House Blend!Praying He will continue to bless your community as you continue to grow together!

Food and Fun on Riel Day by Susan Huebert

What’s the best part of a holiday? Is it having the time to spend relaxing alone or together with friends and family? Is it the chance to catch up on work around the house or to read that long-neglected book? How about the chance to serve food, clear tables, and wash dishes or to visit and play board games with complete strangers? That’s what four shifts of volunteers did on the fourth annual Riel Day event, sponsored by House Blend Ministries. With dozens of volunteers and hundreds of guests attending the event, it was a memorable day for everyone.

Despite the warm weather outside, over three hundred guests had come to eat or play games in the first two hours. By the time the second shift of volunteers had come soon after noon, the flow of guests had slowed, but people continued to come and go throughout the afternoon. By 1:30, about four hundred guests had come through the door, while volunteers had served six or seven meals. A group of musicians played and sang for some time during the afternoon, while guests ate their meals and played board games with each other or with the volunteers. Some lingered for a long time, while others left quickly or wandered in and out.

People came to the Riel Day event for many different reasons and from different parts of the city… a volunteer named Keith, who spent his time gathering dishes and scraping off the scraps into a bucket, said that he wanted to give others some of the blessing he had received in his own life. Volunteers like him helped make the day special for others. Two of the guests related how they had even walked from St. James to be at Agape Table that day.

Volunteers came from all over the city, including a large group from House Blend Ministries, as well as groups from churches and several individuals. Whether they were giving out handcream and oranges at the entrance to the room, mingling with the guests, or working with cooking, serving, or cleaning, the volunteers all had something to contribute. Some of the volunteers and guests were newcomers to the Riel Day event, while others had been there in other years and wanted to return.

Newcomers or not, volunteers or guests, the people at the Riel Day 2012 event seemed to find it a worthwhile and enriching experience.

Tagged: Riel, day, thanks, donate, volunteer, story, 2012