This picture is me with one of the women I met at the Kiziba refugee camp 2 years ago. She- and others like her- inspire me every day to invest my time and gifts in working for justice for the forcefully displaced in our world.

I have been asked by IT Canada to lead a short term team specifically for people who working with refugees in Canada. There is a need for us to deepen and expand our understanding of the experience of those currently on “the Refugee Highway” so that we are equipped to better respond to refugees arriving in Canada.

This March I will be taking a team of 6 to East Africa to listen to, to learn from, to pray with, and to encourage those who are currently in Kiziba refugee camp (Rwanda) and those living in urban areas of Nariobi Kenya.

This will be my 4th time in Rwanda and I can’t wait to return. I want to introduce my team-mates to the refugees who have changed my life. I know that they too will be changed by the time we spend with refugees in Africa. We expect to return from this trip better equipped intellectually, emotionally and spiritually to re-engage our involvement with refugees here in Canada. We want to become active advocates on behalf of refugees in our churches, our organizations, and our community.

To give towards Alison’s trip with the Refugee Highway Team–
Canadian Giving Link–
US Giving Link –

Josiah

• Graduated from Westdale Secondary School with honours in June
• Accepted into Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo
• Ventured deeper into the summer job scene and raised his part of the funds for University
• Moved into Renison College and started courses at UW in September

 Micah

• He’s now more than half way through the first semester of Grade 10 which includes an on-line course in addition to the normal load of four courses.
• Went on a weekend mission trip to Chicago in September
• For one of his classes he created a great presentation about the challenges facing refugee claimants and how Micah House seeks to respond
• Enjoyed successful soccer and volleyball seasons and is now gearing up for badminton
• He wasn’t thrilled about his brother going away to school, but being able to get the basement bedroom that his brother vacated when he left for University made up for his loss

Alison

• Successfully organized a family effort to re-landscape the front yard despite Dave’s broken ankle
• spent a wonderful week in Colorado with a great group of friends from Manila days to celebrate with her good friend Nancy Donat
• Is enjoying a monthly group hospitality study of the book Making Room

Dave

• got off the crutches at the end of June and rehabbed the ankle all summer–he is back to a normal schedule though he doesn’t go up and down stairs or run for busses like he used to.
• Enjoyed leading the Discipleship Explored study at Bethany as a follow up to the Christianity Explored study that we did last spring

Exploring the Witness of Unity in Mission

Ever since Alison returned from her first trip to Rwanda and Kenya in the fall of 2004, she has talked of the need for me to experience Africa.  She has been back twice (and is going again in March), but while I have been open there has never been a clear sense of God’s leading for me to go…until now.

A year ago my friend Matt Pamplin, one of the pastors at Grindstone Church, asked if I thought we could put together a TrueCity team to assist a ministry their church is partnering with in Kampala, Uganda.  It is an innovative ministry that opens up pastoral training opportunities for pastors from smaller churches who have had little or no such training.  It is also a ministry Alison visited when she traveled to Uganda in 2008 (see photo).   Matt felt that a team of TrueCity pastors would bring great resources and that our unity would be a huge witness to churches that are too often suspicious and divided.

As this seed began to take root I became aware that two other churches involved in TrueCity had strong ties to ministries in Kampala.  As I talked with church leaders about these connections the exciting possibility of a collaborative team grew and took form.  This fall six of us from five different churches and a partner ministry have begun meeting to plan and prepare.

We will go for two weeks in April.  It is a trip that will  allow us to bring some great pastoral training resources while simultaneously exploring together the way that global involvement and local engagement interact.  We will bring some of the best that TrueCity has to offer–a wonderful mix of experience, passion, gifts, age, and church background.

And yet we are already aware that  we will receive more than we bring.  It is in this hope–knowing that in God’s economy whenever we give freely of the best we have He stands ready to meet us and pour abundantly back in our laps.

So as we go to share the beauty of the unity in mission God has worked into our lives here in Hamilton I know He will pour more into us that we will bring back to bless the church in Hamilton.

To give to Dave and the TrueCity to Kampala team–
Canadian Giving Link–
US Giving Link– 

All the more amazing is how God has worked in the midst of this–over these 5 weeks  a number of things have come together in my work that I have been wanting to see happen for months and in some cases years.  That these developments unfolded when I was only able to work half as much as normal is such a clear witness to God’s grace.

Back in January I was in the midst of a time of personal darkness and struggle–I was questioning my calling and wondering what God was up to.  So many of the things I had expected to happen were not going the way I anticipated.   It brought a number of deep-seated fears to the surface.  I knew God was calling me to wait on Him–to trust that even though it didn’t seem like it, He was at work, but I found myself unwilling and unable to wait with patient trust.  Through it all I became aware of idolatrous patterns in my life–ways in which I was getting my significance from what I do for God rather than from my relationship with Him.  I had so much to be thankful for but I had no joy–I needed to repent.

Then God broke in–its hard to describe how the equation changed, but by the end of March there was a thaw in my heart–spring was on the way (we had to wait a lot longer for the weather to mirror this change).  But just as things were beginning to move ahead I broke my ankle.  And inexplicably that is when the peace set in.  Just when I had a tangible reason to doubt and question I no longer was.  Somehow I just knew that God was present and at work.  I knew that He had not caused this break, but that He was working powerfully in the midst of the circumstances.

Moving forward the challenge is whether I can take away from this what Paul did.  In the second part of 2 Corinthians 12:9, Paul’s response is to boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest on me.  As I begin to recover (there is a fair way to go still, but things are moving forward), can I continue to rest in God’s grace?

The temptation is to assume God’s been nice to me for a few weeks but I better get back on the stick soon.  Can this peace and joy I have experienced over these past few weeks characterize my life more and more even when I am back to working full out as before?  Can I recognize that God is always at work and that my striving steals my peace?  Can my heart be more attuned to His grace so that I recognize and repent more quickly when I have lost my joy and peace?  That is my prayer.  Whatever comes I see how having experienced this and learned these lessons God has taken this time of trial and brought fruit from it.

While this is a new role it builds on the foundation of what Alison has been working on over the past ten years.   What’s new is that World Vision has provided funding for Micah House to focus more fully on this and Alison has been chosen to head this up.   The project is set up to focus specifically on issues of housing, employment, and creating community.  We will share more as things develop over the coming months.  Pray for Alison as she works to get things organized and moving forward.

It seems the crutches will still be part of our lives for awhile, but over the next few weeks we trust that the range of motion and ability to bear weight will return in increasing measure. Pray for wisdom as I seek to find a good pace of life.

(Click here for the initial story)

The “Breaking” News
Two weeks ago Dave broke his ankle.  It was a case of a less than nimble 48 year old playing with some over exhuberent neighbourhood teenagers at an open gym time that Bethany runs. Apparently his drive to the basket looked good even if the result was him sprawled on the floor with a shattered talus.

We knew he was in trouble when we overheard the ER doctor on the phone with the ortho department, “I’ve never seen one like this before” she related to them.  12 hours later he went in for surgery and three hours and two bolts after that he was ready to start the process of recovery.    We would appreciate your prayers as our family journeys down this road of recovery– (click here for the May update)

Have you heard of “Christianity Explored”?  It’s a 10 week study that uses the gospel of Mark to help people explore who Jesus is, why he came, and what he calls them to.  We are currently leading this study at Bethany for a group of 20 people.  We’ve been having some fascinating conversations as we let the Gospel of Mark show us who Jesus is. Not surprisingly there are all kinds of misunderstandings of what Christianity is all about.  We are trying to create a safe place for people to ask questions and sort through what they believe. We are finding it quite challenging – but really good.

Family Stuff:
In the next few weeks Josiah has to decide which university he will attend in the Fall. He was accepted into the Computer Engineering program at 3 different schools. He seems to be leaning towards U of Waterloo which is about 1 ½ hours away and has an excellent reputation in engineering. We are getting a crash course on student loans, scholarships and bursaries as we try to figure it all out.

Micah is loving high school and discovering new interests. Who knew he would love playing badminton? Largely due to the influence of his new friends who are passionate about badminton he now spends several hours a week on the badminton court.  But soccer season is just around the corner.

We anticipate a quieter summer this year with no big trips in the works. Alison has plans to build a raised vegetable garden and to entice us to eat healthier with lots of fresh home-grown produce. We are also looking forward to visitors from out of town including Alison’s uncle and cousins from England.

7th TrueCity Conference


For  the past 7 years we have gathered churches from across Hamilton at the end of February for a TrueCity conference.  This year was no exception. Our theme was “Our City, God’s City” which led us to explore how we are God’s called out people learning to live our lives in such a way that Hamilton is transformed. Over 250 people gathered over the weekend to worship, to learn, to meet each other, and  to pray together.  

A key area of focus for Dave was preparing videos that tell the stories and capture the voices of how churches are working together for the good of our city.  He worked with a few others to produce four videos this year.  To get a taste of what is going on go to www.youtube.com/user/TrueCityVideos and  take a few minutes to watch some of these videos.

Board Gathering (not to be confused with a Bored Gathering!)

Dave’s other responsibility was to arrange a gathering of core leaders from the churches that are most keenly involved in this movement.  It was definitely not boring! We thought we would be doing well to gather 50 people so when more than 80 leaders from 14 churches came together we were pumped!  There was lots of energy in the room as we spent 3 hours considering the specific calling of our congregations and how best to live it out in collaboration with each other.
One leader who has worked with churches in cities across the country said to us  -“that the elders of the True City churches would meet to talk is, I think, pretty unprecedented. I cannot think of a single time in my travels, ministry years, city working, etc., where there was an attempt to connect the elders of churches to each other “.  We plan to keep building on that momentum.

Merry Christmas–This week we lit the 3rd Candle on our family advent wreath and read the Scripture about the Magi from the East coming to find Jesus.(Matthew 2)  Why would God choose these truth-seekers from another cultural and religious group? They are not the ones we would expect God to use. It led to some fascinating conversation about how God shows up in unexpected places and  works in unconventional ways. In fact, we’re seeing that the whole christmas story is full of God showing up in unexpected ways. Our prayer for ourselves, and for you, is that God will enter our lives in unexpected ways in 2011.