General update

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain. What’s so significant about that? It’s the same sound I went to bed to last night and the same sound I woke up to yesterday and the day before. Yea, so what??? This is in a country that over the last 6 years has suffered one of the worst droughts in its history! It’s now been confirmed that some parts of the country have had the lowest 12 month rainfall since records started being kept over 100 years ago. The water storage facilities are sitting around 35% of operating capacity instead of the 80-100% they were at before the drought began. Some would say I’m dreaming but I chalk this one up to the power of prayer. Tuesday was a big prayer meeting at church and rain was one of the big things on the agenda. There have been many prayers offered up by us and others and we’re seeing some answers.

Less than four weeks until conference! The last count I hear said we had just over 2000 volunteers. We need to double the number quickly. To put this in perspective, here are some comparisons for some of the people back home. We need to have roughly twice the total weekend attendance at Southland Community Church (my home church); around 8 or 9 times the attendance of Blumenort EMC; 12 times the attendance of Osler Mission Chapel; somewhere around 4 times the total population of the towns of Blumenort or Osler; or the entire customer base for Vern’s Pizza in Martensville (ok, I actually don’t know the total number of customers but I thought this is a good place to throw in a plug for the best pizza in the world – you’re welcome John). I’ve been named a leader for one of the many teams of volunteers for conference. I’ll be doing the same thing that I do for weekend services and did for the Colour conference in March. There will be around 20-25 people on my team and thankfully I’ll be leading it together with one other person so neither of us has to be on full duty for the entire 17-18 hours per day that we need a leader on the floor with the team. In case anyone is wondering; this is a big event with somewhere around 30,000 people representing over 150 different church denominations coming from 50 or more countries. It’s held in the biggest indoor venue in this part of the country and we also use numerous other buildings on and near the grounds. It’s an incredible privilege to be a part of but will also be very tiring.

I get just over a week off after conference before the next semester begins with somewhere around 250 new students starting a new phase in their lives. It’s hard to believe, but when that happens, it signals a switch for me into the second year of my program. I’m almost half done my schooling here. WOW! Has it ever gone by fast! It also signals a required shift in some of my friendships because some of my closer friends out here are leaving. I was actually at a farewell party last night for someone who’s leaving early to make it home for her sister’s wedding. It sort of brought home the reality of friends leaving to go do great things in other parts of the world and other people coming to start something great here.

Well, so long for now. I have many assignments to do so I can actually be in second year a month from now. And I also have a social life to maintain (for example, I have three current offers for activities tonight, one that I turned down, and one that I’m thinking of initiating which will definitely trump the others if it happens) so I’d better do the assignments so I can keep the social life.