’twas the before christmas
It’s Christmas eve. And what am I doing? Sitting in the basement, watching episodes of the West Wing. How so very Christmasy.
For some reason, this year, it just doesn’t feel like Christmas to me. Normally, I love this time of year and it’s awesome to celebrate. But this year, it feels like any other day of the year, except that I’m actually at home, in Leamington now. Maybe it’s because I’ve got a lot of things on my mind right now, like school and Urbana, or maybe because it was raining yesterday when it should have been snowing. But whatever it is, it’s kind of weird, not being in the Christmas mood mere hours away from the big day.
I’m just trying to remind myself, that this is a special time of the year. Not just because I’m home with family. Not just because I can catch up with friends. But because of Jesus. He may not have been born on December 25th. He may not have been born in the year 0 BC (he’s actually estimated to be born 6 years before Christ, ironic, yes). He may not have even been born in the winter. But he was born some 2000 years ago: the greatest gift to mankind, the hope of the world, the lover of you and me, was born. And that’s reason enough to celebrate.
Happy Birthday Jesus!
relationships
This one is inevitable. If you’ve talked to me at some point in the last 2 weeks of November, you may know that this has been on my mind a lot: relationships, specifically the ones of the guy-girl flavour. And I’m not the only one, some of my other friends have been thinking and blogging about this too.
Now, what made me think about this? I don’t know. Maybe it’s the fact that many of my friends and people my age back home are getting married soon or have already done so. Maybe it’s because I may have a longing for one myself. Maybe it’s because of the conversations I had about this topic with various people in that 2 week span. Maybe it’s all 3 of these reasons. Whatever the reason, I was super-saturated with relationships during those 2 weeks.
So why all this relationship stuff? I think God is trying to tell me something. What is it? Still trying to work that out. But there are some thoughts I have about this.
First, why even bother with a relationship? If you look at the world, relationships seem to suck. Even in the Christian context. Half of all marriages (Christian or not) end up in divorce. Even personally, I’ve heard of all these screwed up things that happen in relationships that just hurt both people. It almost seems like there’s no point in getting into one. Almost. Where some may find the marriage statistic discouraging or become disheartened when they hear about yet another messed up relationship, I kind of take it as a challenge. To show the world that there is still such thing as integrity and honour in a relationship. There is such things as pure love that comes from above. I hope to slightly change the marriage/divorce percentage to the better side through my own marriage, God-willing, and show that there is something worth fighting for, worth working hard for.
So back to the question, why even bother with a relationship? Well, according to Voddie, there are two purposes for a relationship, specifically marriage: imitation and procreation. It’s to imitate to the relationship of Christ and the church, where the man is like Christ and the woman is like the church (see Ephesians 5:22-33). It’s to procreate, basically make babies. Now, I totally agree with this, but I think there’s more. What that more thing is, I’m still working out.
Now, why would I want a relationship? Well, of course, to honour God, but true as that is, it sounds like the typical Sunday school answer. There are more reasons that just that. During a dinner outing last year, a friend of mine was going around the table and kind of profiling all the guys with what kind of a boyfriend we would be. When she 
got to me, she said I’d be the type that would do almost anything to make the girl happy. Now, I don’t know if it’s because she said that or if it’s really true, but I believe it is. One of the reasons for me to be in a relationship would be to make the girl happy. This is taking it out of context, but it’s kind of like when Jesus said, “I didn’t come to be served, but to serve.” It’s not what I’d get out of the relationship, but what I could put into it. Now that’s not to say I wouldn’t get anything out of the relationship, but that wouldn’t be my movtivating factor. In fact, if and when I get into a relationship, I hope the girl will really challenge and push me spiritually, help me become more of the man that God intends me to be. I really like the triangle illustration for relationships where God is at the top corner of the triangle and the guy and girl are at the bottom corners of the triangle. As the guy & girl grow closer together, so also will they grow closer to God. 
So that’s a snippet of what I think relationships are about. There’s more, much more, but I’m still learning and still trying to discern what God is saying to me. This is going to take a lifetime to figure all this out.
But let’s end on another type of relationship: one between a father and his son. Truely one of the most inspirational videos I’ve ever seen. Brought many tears to my eyes. The story of Team Hoyt.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryCTIigaloQ]
O Deus é bom! God is good!
Just a short disclaimer before I start this post: this is going to be super long. So be prepared to be reading for a while if you you’re going to read this. If you don’t feel like reading through all this, you can just browse through the photos and read the important stuff in the last 5, 6 paragraphs. You have been warned. 
Well, it’s been 3 days since I’ve gotten back from Brazil. I’m not really much darker (if at all), a little tired (but catching up on rest), but definitely still amazed at the great things that happened during the trip. I can’t say that it’s been a life changing experience where I will be taking whole new outlook on life and be heading in a new direction with God, but I do think I have learned a few things and maybe just changed slightly. First, recap and pictures!
8 of us (Caspian, Teresa, Kathy, Ling Chee, Teresa, Luisa, Chris, and I) headed out on Air Canada flight 90 late at night on July 8 for São Paulo. It was a pretty uneventful flight, but it was fun to be a witness to Ling’s and Kathy’s first time on an airplane. The food was pretty good too. I don’t know why people don’t like airplane food, I’ve always thought it’s pretty good.
The team at Pearson before our flight
After a 10 hour flight, we got into São Paulo the next morning (Sunday) around 10 am local time (Sao Paulo is only an hour ahead of us). There we were greeted by “Fan Goh” and proceeded to stuff our luggage into his church’s van to head to Cabo Verde church. We met up with our other team members, the Loh siblings (Nat, Karissa, & Justina) there and joined in the youth service there. We met a lot of the youth plus Vincent and Rebecca, the adults who we would be working with at the camp. A great time there as we sang Portuguese worship songs (we even did “I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever in Portuguese”) and all shared with the youth why were in Brazil or our testimony. Many of the youth there spoke English, so there were no problems in communicating. We had our first taste of Brazilian food here! mmmm…feijão (beans). This was also the first time we encountered the Brazilian way of greeting people: with hugs and kisses! Quite different to the grunts and simple hellos here in Canada.
The whole team reunited at Cabo Verde
After some pictures, we then proceeded to head to what eventually became our home for the next 3 days: the church in São José dos Campos. São José is about an hour outside São Paulo, so it took us a bit of time to get there. But that was perfect for most of us as we were tired from the flight. I believe most of us slept most of the way (I was in a different car than the rest of the team with Nat & Ling) but I know Ling was sleeping the whole way. Her head kept bobbing from side to side and a couple of times hit my shoulder pretty hard. I’m surprised she didn’t wake up. It was all pretty amusing.
When we got to the church, we met even more youth that we’d be going to the English camp with. More hugs and kisses all around! We joined their youth service where we worshiped some more in Portuguese and some of us shared our testimonies. Props to everyone who shared in Cantonese! After the service, it was time for more Brazilian food! More beans and rice! But not just any beans, feijoada, a black bean stew. mmmm…soo good! The church made so much of this, we ended up having it practically every meal till Tuesday. No complaints from me! We did some grocery shopping that night for the next few days that night at the local 24 hour supermarket. It’s also where I got my Brazilian Havaianas flip-flops and we got our week’s supply of guaraná, the Brazilian soft drink.
Justina and I sampling the Brazilian cuisine
The Teresas playing with twins Thomas and Nathan
The next few days before camp started on Wednesday, we did some last minute preparations and went over everything with the youth leaders at the church. It was great getting to know a lot of the youth. We also got to do some shopping and went out for dinner a couple of times. On Tuesday we went to some of the shops in downtown São José with some of the youth. I gotta admit, not exactly the most exciting time for me. Everyone except for me and the Loh siblings bought so many flip-flops. I think they ended up buying something like 30 pairs. Insane! After that, we went to an all you can eat pizza place with the Brazilians. Wow, that was good. I was sitting with Jeanine, Fan Goh’s daughter, and even though she didn’t know much English and I not much Portuguese, we had a great time trying out all the different kinds of pizza and both found out how much we both love the banana pizza.
Kathy & Justina modeling their friendship coconut rings
Caspian figuring who owes whom how much amongst the 30 flip-flops
mmm…banana and chocolate pizza
Yushi (one of the youth leaders) showing his feminine side
The main part of the trip, English camp, started the next day on Wednesday. We all boarded a coach bus to head to the camp site. But before that, we had lunch, complete with beans, rice, meat and a new Brazilian treat: assai (a-sigh-eee), a delicious Brazilian fruit smoothie kind of drink. No one from Canada really liked it all that much, but I loved it! It took us about an hour to get the the camp site, but when we got there, it was gorgeous!!! I had seen some pictures of it before the trip, but seeing it first hand was amazing. It was more like a resort than a camp site. It had a dining building, meeting hall, separate dorms for guys and girls, a pool, a football (real football, not American football sillies) field, an outside BBQ hut, and a beach volleyball court. We unpacked, set up and started what would be some of the best days in my life.
The beautiful site of English camp
Over the course of the next 3, 4 days, we helped run the English camp. The theme of the camp was “Don’t Waste Your Life” base on the book by John Piper. All the preparation that we had been doing over the last 4 months was finally being used. Each day was packed with all sorts of activities: gymnastics (learning new dance moves to wake us up), devos, musical worship, large group sessions, games, meals, English classes, small group time, testimonies and more.
Each of us from the Canadian team helped lead devos in small groups each morning which was quite an experience for me. They went kind of slow because of the translation that needed to be done, but the most challenging thing for me was the size and age of my group. While most groups were at most 6, 7 people, my group ended up being 12 people. I guess it was because we had 2 other Brazilian leaders in my group, but it was still quite large. Not only that, but the age was very young, I had many 10 year olds and even a 7 year old. This was bit a of a challenge for me as we had designed the devos for teenagers in high school and they were quite deep. I did my best to simplify the devos but also not to dumb it down or for it to lose its meaning and purpose. With that said, I was amazed at the way many of then responded to the devos. Many great answers were to given to some of my questions and one morning, one of the 10 year olds, Steven, opened up the devo time in prayer! Speaking of being amazed by the youth, one of the campers, Julia, who is only 12, shared her testimony in front of everyone! Now, when I was 10 and 12, I would have never dreamed of praying out loud nor would I have shared in front of 50 other people that included my friends and peers. I was so touched by their willingness and openness to share with all of us. Best part of camp was when there was an alter call on Friday night and 3 people came to Christ for the first time! Hallelujah!
There was a lot other fun stuff that happened too. One of the highlights was the game we did with the campers on Friday. We had designed a six station circuit course where each team would receive points depending on how much they could do in 5 minutes at each station. Some of the stations were torturous. For example, at one station, each team member would go one at time and first bob for an apple (thus getting their face wet), then fish a small Worther’s candy out of a plate full of flour with their mouths (thoroughly coating their face with flour) and then take 5 huge bites out of a watermelon. It was hilarious! Another highlight was the Canada-Brazil football matches we had on the last day of camp (Saturday). In the first match, we managed to hold the youth to a 0-0 draw! Woohoo! We were pretty proud of ourselves. But then in the second game, we got slaughtered 3-0 (keep in mind these games were only 15 minutes long, so if we had gone full time, it probably would have been like 18-0). So many more stories and things to say, but I’ll save that for telling you guys face to face.
Phe getting his bandana put on during team flag making time on the first night
Kelly sharing her testimony
The campers lining up for a game on the football field
The results of the watermelon station during the circuit game
Geoffry coming out from the water drinking station during the circuit game
Kathy, Teresa, & Luisa posing with the snazzy new hats we received from the Brazilians
English Camp 2006: Don’t Waste Your Life
Ling chilling on a swing
Overall, camp was a huge success. The weather was wonderful, it was loads of fun, and most importantly, God was experienced. Along with the 3 campers that came to Christ, many other Christians seemed to have renewed their passion for Him. It was an unbelievable 4 days that I’ll never forget.
During the last 3 days, the Canadian team got some time to ourselves. We did some more shopping, had some churrasco (Brazilian BBQ), and got to spend a night at the camp’s speaker’s (Pastor Hsiang) missionary place. Shopping on Sunday was really cool. We went to an outdoor market in São Paulo where they had all sorts of cool Brazilian jewelry, stone carvings, clothes, wood carvings and other knick-knacks. It really was a true Brazilian experience. Then for supper, we went to a churrascaria with the speaker and his family where they bring huge skewers of BBQ’d meat to your table and cut it right there for you. They even let us go in the kitchen to see how the cook the meat and go to take some pictures.
Yours truly carving some meat
That night, we went to the speaker’s missionary place to spend the night. It’s a really cool place in the southern part of the greater São Paulo area. The speaker and his wife had a dream a few years back to create this place in Brazil that would train missionaries in Brazil to go out, house missionaries (like me and the team) that would come to Brazil and just be a place for him, his family and staff to serve missionaries. Well, that dream has come to life and it was really cool to be able to spend time with him and his family and to hear of all the things God has been doing with their ministry. God’s kingdom truly is all over the world.
God’s glorious creation on Monday morning at Pastor Hsiang’s missionary site
Pastor Hsiang and his son Caleb at the fishing pond at the missionary site
On the Monday afternoon, we went to downton São Paulo to do yet some more shopping but I can’t say I enjoyed this part all that much either. We basically spent the whole afternoon in a 4 story mall full of “fan ban” stores. Only thing was, it was basically the same ten, 30 square foot stores over and over again, selling fake shoes, jerseys and clothes. Justina, Kathy, & I got a little bored of this so we went out on the street and had some cheese bread and fresh pineapple. mmm…that was so much better than walking around the stores. When we got back to São Jose that night, we just chilled with the youth, talking and playing some simple, fun games that the Brazilians taught us. The youth also gave us sooo many parting gifts. I couldn’t believe how many personalized cards, notes, and bookmarks I received from them. It was really tugged at my heart.
The unbelievable outpouring of love from the youth
Tuesday was a sad day: the day we left Brazil. After being in Brazil for a week and a half and building up friendships and bonds that we’ll never forget, it was a tearful goodbye at the airport. It sucked saying goodbye, but I was also kind of looking forward to being home again. It was really cool how so many of the youth came to the airport to see us off. Their hearts for God, each other, and us is something I’ll always remember.
Ling and Teresa with their unique “using the telephone” pose
Ling and Jeanine saying goodbye at the airport
So that was the trip. So what did I learn? Well, like I mentioned in my previous post, I learned just how strong the bond and unity we have in Christ.
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Also, I learned what it exactly means to love one another. The way the Brazilians welcomed us, let us stay in the homes and church, gave us small tokens of appreciation, just the way they plained loved us so much even though they hardly knew us at first. It was amazing. Truely a huge blessing from God to experience His love through them.
I also learned that Toronto may be where God is calling me to stay. As great as it was in Brazil, I found myself missing Toronto. And even though I’ve told a lot people that I would prefer to settle down in a small city/town and that Toronto would be one the last places I’d live, I finding myself having a heart for Toronto more and more. Kind of cool how God can change your heart. Lastly, I did learn something about myself totally unrelated to the trip that I won’t share right now. Kind of personal and not ready to share yet, maybe sometime in the future.
One last thing, two friends told me two things directly before and after the trip that have lingered with me: “change the world” and “You’re really flexible, you’re really good for missions.” hmmmm…interesting. Change the world, eh? Well, I don’t know if I or the team changed the world, but I do think some people were touched by God through us down in Brazil (just as we were touched by them). Don’t know if I’ll ever change the world, but that’s definitely a nice goal to have. About my flexibility, I guess I am pretty flexible, going with the flow of things, never letting anything really faze me, I guess those are things needed to do missions. Who knows, maybe God will call me to some sort of longer term missions sometime in the future. I hope I’ll be open enough to hear the call.
Whew! Wow, that was like a novel. If you read through all this, kudos to you for sticking it through. Just want to thank everyone again who supported me and the team in prayer.
Jonathan, out.
hot mugginess
hmmm…so another week begins. Craziness with the unwarned TTC strike today. It took my cousin 2 1/2 hours to drive downtown to work. Man am I blessed to be able to walk to work and not worry about transportation.
There was a wedding this past weekend, Toby’s to be exact. Was invited but didn’t go, kind of regretting it now. I thought my parents weren’t going, but turns out they were only not going to the banquet. Also thought that I wouldn’t know anybody (Toby’s the son of my parents’ friends, so I don’t really know him), but turned out I probably would have known half the people there. Heard it was a great wedding and a lot of fun, but yeah, kind of wishing I could have been there. Ah well, wishing Toby & his new wife a great life together!
And so it’s been a week since CC ended. I’ve processed things a bit more, caught up on some sleep (could use some more though), and just still in awe of everything. Already mentioned in my previous post how I was humbled by God’s providence. But I was also humbled in another way: my pride just being smashed to pieces. I guess throughout the planning and especially during the conference, I had the attitude, “Look at this conference I’m helping plan.” I wasn’t outright boasting vocally, but still, it was in the back of my mind. And so, trying to suppress that thought all weekend, but it was still there and on the last day, me and my big head was half expecting some sort of huge thank you for me and my work. *rolls eyes* When it didn’t come, wow, was heart brought to its knees. Realizing it wasn’t about me or what I did, but about Jesus and what He did. It’s all about Him, always has been, always will be. Not a new lesson for me, but one that I seem to have to be reminded of and retaught every so often.
It’s all about you, Jesus. And all this is for You, for Your glory and Your fame. It’s not about me, as if you should do things my way. You alone are God and I surrender, to Your ways.
none live for themselves?
So, my parents and sister are back home now (in the best place to live in Canada, ). Just saw them last night as they made a stop here in TO before heading home. Can't believe my sister has already finished a year of university. Man I'm getting old.
Speaking of the end of the school year, this always seems to be the time when everyone (in university/college at least) seems to be pondering where they are going. A lot of people I've been talking to, or from reading their blogs, seem to be asking, what's next? What am I going to be doing for the rest of my life? Or as John Mayer puts so eloquently, we all seem to be going through a "quarter-life crisis." I know I've been thinking about this again this year. Should I work after I graduate? Get my P. Eng? Should I apply for teacher's college? I don't know. It's all up in the air right now.
There is one thing I do know for sure though, whatever I'm doing, it will have to be for the service for God and for other people, not for myself. This is my purpose in life is and hence the name of my blog, "none live for themselves." I picked this phrase up from a book I read last year, The Vision and the Vow by Pete Greig. It's an excellent book about Greig's journey in the years following the words he wrote in The Vision and the challenge he gives us all. Throughout the book and specifically in one chapter, he talks about The Honorable Order of the Mustard Seed, which was this secret society formed back in the 18th century (by a German teenager no less) with one simple purpose: to live for Jesus Christ. All of them wore a ring with a Greek inscription literally saying, "no man liveth for unto himself" but Greig used the non-gendered translation, as have I for my blog, "none live for themselves." So I've adapted this as my single purpose in life and I have a long ways to go. But I sincerely hope and pray that this be my passion and that everything I do will not be for me, but for service of God and the service of others.
none live for themselves
I love my roots!
If you haven't heard yet, Leamington is officially (according to money sense magazine) the best place to live in Canada!!! That's right, little ol' tomato town is where people should live! Booyah! Take that TO! heh heh, well, not really, I don't have anything against Toronto, ('cept maybe the Leafs…) but it's pretty cool that my hometown is held in such high regard. Now whenever people ask me where I'm from, instead of saying, "Leamington, a small town by Windsor," I can now say, "Leamington, the best place to live in Canada!" I likes the sound of that.
Another thing 'bout my roots, you all know Cindy Klassen right? Canada's most decorated Olympian ever? Well, she's from a Mennonite Brethern background, just like me! woohoo! What brought up this roots pride in me? Well, when I was back home for Easter this weekend, there was an old Macleans magazine from March sitting in my room and I read an article about her and her success at the Torino games. Nothing out of the ordinary in the article except that they actually mentioned (and quoted) how she was raised up in an MB church & high school and how she said her faith is the main reason for everything she does. Thought that was pretty cool seeing as most mainstream media wouldn't bother to mention those quotes because it doesn't really tell an interesting enough story (to them). I don't remember reading, hearing, or seeing any news coverage about her faith during the Olympics, only stuff about the expectations and her success. So, great job Macleans and great job Cindy!
Just want to end off with a sweet comic I read yesterday. The reason for the season:
