Well we made it back safe and sound, though a little moist and sandy. Thanks to all the equipment lenders and all the people who helped to organize our summer retreat! Thanks to Kevin Chan for coming out to speak to us and joining in our sponge games. Despite the rain, it was a good time away from our normal routines and a chance to hang out with each other/hang on to each other as we faced nature.

And how did we end our weekend of adventure? With a stick, a fluffy koala, some tin foil, plastic cups, and some anxious hand-holding. Curious? Ask Matthew and Keith for a demonstration.

Stay tuned for more pictures to come. If you have any to share, please email them to me or send me a link that I can post.

~ Amy

The last few sundays have finally been updated on our sermons page. They are available in mp3 format to download. Check it out here.

“God in the Alley” is written by Greg Paul, the street pastor of Sanctuary. Sanctuary is a ministry to drug addicts and prostitutes in downtown Toronto.

Borrowing some of the words of Darryl Dash (and I can’t remember which ones are his):

“I suppose a lot of us approach a book like this with mixed feelings, hoping to be challenged but scared of where that might take us. The book is called God in the Alley, and the subtitle says a lot: it’s about “being and seeing Jesus in a broken world.” We meet crackheads, prostitutes, and victims of unimaginable abuse. And, surprisingly, we meet Jesus in the lives of these broken people. Seeing Jesus is a discipline of stillness. If I really want to see him, I’ll need to avoid being consumed.

There is a lot of messiness in this book, and surprisingly, the messiness shows up in the good guys like Paul just as much as it does in the sinners. Even more surprising, we meet Jesus in surprising people: in those who are broken and who have little going for them. In one of the most moving stories, we meet a modern-day version of the story of Hosea and Gomer. Jesus shows up in the most surprising places, and if we’re not careful we’ll miss seeing him there. Greg Paul teaches us to see Jesus in people rather than to see people as projects, and ultimately in being Jesus to the people that we meet.

I am more likely to have Jesus revealed to me and through me in weakness than in strength. I began this book expecting that it would teach me about how to serve those the middle class usually ignores. I finished realizing that it did much more than that: it introduced me to the presence of Jesus in some of the people we see as being most broken.”

It is raw and real. It is a quick read but not easy.

As Don Pape says in his book review: “If you love and follow Jesus pick this book up. If you are curious as to why people might love and follow Jesus, pick this book up. If you don’t care but just need a good read, pick up this book.”

~ Elizabeth