Hebrews 12:1

After completely neglecting my blog for well over a year, tonight I decided I had something to say.  Whether or not this means that I’ll start blogging on a somewhat regular basis again remains to be seen. There has been a lot going on in my life out here lately, and I may use this to try and let everyone know what all of that entails.  Here goes…

I have now been out here for almost 2 years, both of which I can/will summarize very briefly: year 1 – rough, year 2 – recovery.  I realize that is a significant over-simplification,  but it will have to suffice for the time being; the key is to just understand that things did not particularly start out well (overall), and this last year has been spent doing a lot of repair work.  However, the last 7 months are so have really been much closer to how I envisioned my time out here would progress.

After struggling with whether or not I wanted to return last summer, I ended up sealing my decision with my first ever tattoo (seen in the posted picture).  Now, this wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment tattoo, but one I have wanted for many years.  The tattoo is reminder to me of two main ideas that I pull from that particular piece scripture: perseverance, and reliance (a great cloud of witnesses).  More than ever, these have been guiding me these year, but right now I want to focus on the second.

Tonight I was able to attend a bar-be-cue hosted for the various members of the Saturday night and Connection worship teams at my church; it was a very enjoyable time.  What has really stuck out in my mind though is how God has really been blessing me with so many wonderful people through my church.  Although my church (Willingdon Church) is rather large, until recently I knew very few people.  Through various means, God has been changing that.  He has helped me to meet people through small groups, “random” occurrences, and most substantially, through my involvement on the worship team.

One of the biggest mistakes I made coming out here was not getting involved right away…I thought I needed a break.  But what’s done is done.  I am now extremely privileged to me on a team that helps on Saturday nights, as well as the Sunday morning services occasionally as well (4 services in total).  In addition, I am also involved on the team that leads a small young adults worship night once a month.  Standing before a church full of people (which can mean up 10 1000+ people) gathered to praise God is such an honouring and humbling experience.  Even more, the people on these teams are such a joy to work with.  They make me laugh with their humour, and with their professionalism help me to strive to be a better musician.  I always look forward to the times that I get to join them in leading worship…and I look forward to continuing to let God use me in the church and growing closer with the crowd of witnesses that He provides for me.