What a weekend! I was hoping to take pictures to post on here, but I can't even find my camera right now. Acquire the Fire was great! Hanging out with all the students was great. Great bands, great worship, and great speakers who really challenged us all. The last challenge they made was for each kid to reach out to 7 of their friends.. And for youth groups to double in size in the next year. This wasn't just about numbers, but about kids becoming real and active about their faith, as well as youth leaders and the youth group in general. We are already having the wonderful problem of running out of room for our youth events because we are getting so many out...we desperately need to find somewhere....We desperately need to have our own building! God is already do such amazing things in Erin, both in the youth and in the Church. Just imagine the potential we have for reaching kids in Erin, and families in Erin once EVAC as a building of their own!!!
Tonite at quizzing we got together with all the quizzers and prayed for our quizzing program and for the youth group in general. One of the things we prayed for was a building and money to build right away! Jake talked to us for a bit about the need for a new building....How in the youth group, and in the Services we are just starting to grow beyond the space we current have access to.....God is doing amazing things in peoples lives....Why can't he also provide a million bucks just like that so that EVAC can start building.....
I can't wait to see where God takes this Church and this youth group in the next year.,.....It's gonna be amazing!

The Penguins finally have a win. 7-5 over the Thrashers. Lemieux had a five point night to lead the way, as well Gonchar, and Leclair finally stepped it up for the Penguins. Crosby continued to play strong for the Pens notching 2 Assist to bring his point total to 14 in 10 games, the leader among all rookies and in the top 5 for scoring overall. The question is....are the Penguins going to have to score 7+ goals every game in order to win? Like I said at the beginning of the season, their defence and goaltending may be a problem. If they can fix that, look out for them.

Anyways, since most of you who read this probably really don't care about the Penguins and hockey...lets move on.

Tomorrow is Acquire the Fire. All the spots are filled (sorta) we may have an extra ticket cuz someone is not able to go because of something they need to be at and can't miss. but other than that we have sold all the tickets. Hopefully I have got all the small things taken care of....it's those small things that worry me the most cuz they are so easy to over-look. So off we will go to ATF tomorrow until Saturday night! It should be the blast; I think Jake said that this is the first time the youth have ever done anything overnight, except for quizzing, so hopefully it goes well and everyone enjoys it.

I've been blown away in the last couple days by the people at EVAC, and what God is doing. We are taking the youth to Acquire the Fire this weekend. It wasn't looking like tickets were selling too well, a big reason being that it is pretty expensive to do for the weekend. But I just felt that this was totally worth it and that somehow it was gonna all work out. This Sunday I had a couple people in the Church offer to pay for youth to go on this trip because they felt it was important that money not be an issue and that God is going to do amazing things in kids lives through ATF this weekend. We never asked for people to do this, we were simply just trusting that God would take care of working out everything for this weekend. The generousity that people have shown, and the hearts that they have for the youth in our church has completely overwhelmed me! Praise God!!! God is going to do amazing things at ATF in the lives of our youth! PRAY PRAY PRAY......

Tonite we did "wacky hat night". We had 60 youth there tonite!!! Lots of fun, I lost my voice, but it was great! The devo was about "Value" and how much God values us all. A lot of kids responded that they wanted to give up trying to find value in other places, and to replace it with God's love, and the true value that God gives us because he created us, and made us wonderful. Thanks for all who pray, I know a lot of you do!

I'm learning just how much work God has to do in me...constantly...God continues to show me how beyond me He is, and how he will be seen, and he will use me to be seen....how amazing, and absolutely terrifying idea is that?


Peel back this smooth exterior
(is it cold to the touch)
Tell me what You see inside
(all that is trying to hide)

Is there life behind the cold walls built up so high?
Will I retreat and run, when I see the Light?

Your warm breath forms icy frost in thick air before reaching my ears
Your soft touch can be so painfully comforting at times.

Sometimes it's easier in the soft glow of a dimly lit life.
(not lost in the dark, nor blinded by Light)
But something is changing,
Somehow You are changing me.

In Marvelous Light, I cannot hide.
All is laid bare, dividing to spirit and soul.
Sharper than any double edged sword.
All creation will see!! All creation will see!!

Somehow You Are. Somehow I know.
Somehow You are changing me!

Sorry the a lot of the pictures are blurry....never said I was a good photographer....











Last night we did Bigger and Better. We had over 50 youth there, and it was a blast! We got everything from an organ to a garage door to a fridge brought back by the groups, to see those pictures go to jakes blog at http://birchbarq.blogspot.com . The following pictures were taken after later in the night when we played other games like seeing how many we could fit in a phone booth. To any one who keeps the youth, and it's leaders in your prayers, thank-you, and if you don't please do! God is doing great things!

1 Peter 1:15-16
"But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy'"

Today as I was thinking about how I am anything but holy, and how on earth I am ever supposed to be holy, and I was asking God what he wanted, where I was supposed to be, what I was supposed to do, how am I to follow Him, where is He leading me.

The question came to me, but why do I need to be holy?? Why would God ask me to do that??because I can't be holy....no matter how hard I try it's just not possible.

As I was asking myself, and God these questions it was like God gently whispered to me:

"Excuse me, but it's not about you, it's about ME, for I AM holy, I am Mighty, I am worthy, I am beyond your wildest dreams, I am beyond anything you can imagine, I am everything you know, and everything you don't know, and everything you can't know and everything you can only imagine and everything you fail to imagine, I am so far beyond everything you have ever seen, heard, felt, imagined or dreamed; and it's all about Me."

So why does God want us to be holy?

Is it to prove to him that we are now worthy? -nope, God already did that, we ARE worthy because of what Christ did.
Well, than it must be so that others look at us and say, "wow, look at how good that guy is, I wish I could be like him" --Not exactly.

This is what I think God wants from us when he says "be holy for I am holy"
-that people will look past/through us and say "WOW, He (GOD) is Holy, I wish I could be like Him!"

"So be holy in all you do"--to God be the Glory

Sidney Crosby scores his first NHL goal tonite against the Bruins! He also added two beauty assits, which gives him 5 points in 3 games. Unfortunately the Pens couldn't hold on the the win; I must say they may have one of the worst defence in the league...they gotta fix that.

Anyways, sorry for all you people who read this who really don't care about hockey...but that's too bad, cuz I probably will talk about it quite a bit....BUT I will talk about other stuff.

Like today....we had another garage sale to raise money for the missions trip. I already had a cold before this....Now I really have a cold. Oh well, life is rough like that sometimes. Tomorrow I am playing guitar in the service...and then i am heading back to Chatham for a bit. Hopefully I'll be able to see some of you there.

so Jagr says his goal is to win the Art Ross trophy this year (scoring title). Personally I hope someone knocks him out for the season(with a good clean check of course); he has some nice moves but he is one of the worst all round hockey players and one of the biggest whiners in the league.

Speaking of guys with good moves but no class, Montreal played rookie Perezhogin tonite. Perezhogin scored a goal. The thing about Perezhogin for those who the name isn't ringing a bell....he was suspended for a year from the AHL for slashing another teams defenceman across the face like it was a tee-ball. Any hockey player or anyone for that matter who has seen that slash probably felt sick to their stomach. Should guys like this get a chance in the NHL?

Enough about hockey for now. I'm coming down with a cold...I've felt it coming for a while now and its really starting to hit me right now. Hopefully it doesn't get too bad as it will be a busy weekend. and I'm going home to Chatham sunday afternoon for a day or two!!! but for the next couple days I will be in Erin experiencing the famous Erin Fall Fair!!!

IT'S OCTOBER 5TH TODAY!!!!!! Which means opening night of the NHL!!!

So I live with big Senators fans, which is fine with me, I like the Senators, they are a great team.

But the I'm a HOCKEY fan so I will watch any hockey game at anytime, anywhere. But here are some of the teams I'm going for, and who I think have a chance at the CUP...come January I will give my final picks for the cup....I picked Tampa Bay last time in January and they won...everyone thought I was crazy when I picked them though.

So my number one team this year is the Penguins! Sidney Crosby is amazing, and I've been following him through Junior so I can't wait to see what he does in the NHL, and also penguins have built up a nice team around him. They might have some problems on Defence though.

Calgary is my number 2, Kipper and Iggy. Need I say more? Well I will, how about Amonte, Donovan, Yelle, Simon and arguably one of the strongest defence cores in the NHL. With the addition of Dion Phaneuf back there they are gonna be solid on the blueline. Wish I was back in Calgary to see them live a few times!

Well then you got Tampa, who still have Lecavalier, St. Louis, and Richards among others, not to mention a solid D. Question will be can Grahame and Burke step it up in net?

Ottawa----well this might be the year for Ottawa...Spezza is flying, Heatley was added, Hasek in the Pipes, not to mention Emery played well too. Also the SENS have a very strong defence who will make life easier for any goalie.

Well...can't leave my Leafs out completely, although I don't think this is the year of the CUP. But they might surprise some people. Allison, Lindros, Sundin, Stajan, Belfour (still one of the best when he is healthy) IF those guys live up to even a fraction of their hype they could do some damage for the leafs...we'll wait and see. I'm not gonna give up on them.

Anyways...i Must get going, and paint my face for tonite....enjoy the season!!

So I just got done watching a show called 'Prison Break'; it is by far the best show on tv right now in my humble opinion! For those who haven't seen it, it's about a guy (Michael Scoffield) who's brother is on death row because he was set up and falsely accused of a murder he didn't commit. So Scoffield plans to break his brother out of Prison before he is put to death. Scoffield was a very respected architectual engineer who helped design part of the prison, so he tatooed the blueprints on his body and purposely gets himself arrested and sent to the same prison as his brother to break him out......as that is going on, there are a couple people on the outside working at finding out who set his brother up, and why...and as you watch you notice that in fact he was set up...and by someone who is very powerful......
anyways....that's a bit of the jist of it. If you get a chance, watch it....it will blow you away!

ahhhh, a long, and tiring, but absolutely wonderful day!
7am-2pm I was at a garage sale. We raised about $375 toward our youth mission trip. pretty good considering this was sorta a last minute thing. We are doing another one next week in Erin when the Fall Fair is on.
The rest of the day I went with Gord to Barrie to watch him and the rest of Narrowroad play a concert. They were very very good live! And they didn't even have their fiddle player there today. Everyone in Chatham, make sure you come and see them in December when they are in Chatham, it's more than worth it!! also I might try tag along again for that one so I will hopefully be there.
anyways, tomorrow will be a nice and busy day again. 8am-12pm at the church doing "stuff" then we have a mission leaders lunch and meeting, and then Quizzing at night, in which I have to do the worship.
It's been and will be a full weekend! which is awesome! thank for everyones prayers