In Loving Memory of Nate

Sometimes life doesn't make any sense to me. And the question why is brought to the forefront of my mind. On the weekend I heard that a friend from Bible School, Nate Toews, was killed in an accident. Nate and I shared a instant connection when we first met at Bethany. We were both P.K's, we were both Nate's, and our birthday's were even close together. But on my part I just wanted to be associated with Nate, there was an infectious quality about Nate. He was one of those people who you meet and will never forget, who leaves a permanent mark on your life and soul, who was the presence of Jesus to many many people. I loved Nate, I loved to be around him, life was never boring in the dorm with him around. I always felt inspired and loved after a time with him... oh and my sides usually hurt to from laughing, and soaking in the joy that radiated from him. After Bethany we sort of lost touch, but a two summers ago when we were at Redberry Bible camp he and his brothers came through and did the chapels at camp. And it was so good to pick up again and hear about the things he was up to and such. Once again I was struck by his passion and love for God, and his incredible Joy! But a tragic accident has robbed us far to soon from someone who brought so much joy, robbed us of a husband, friend, and disciple of Jesus.

My prayers are with Rosanna as she grieves the loss of her husband, and with the rest of his family. And my heart grieves with them. There are no words to explain how my heart reaches out. I want to say something... but I can't... I don't know where to begin.

And we are all left with a why? I cannot except simple answers, pat answers. "God had a plan", "It was time for him to go", these answers do not answer the pain that is left, and only cause me to doubt the goodness of God. How can a good God leave a young widow to mourn? How could a good God rob us of such a holy inspiring man? How could... And yet... I do believe that God is good, and I believe that his love and comfort know no boundaries, so while I cannot believe that God caused this tragedy, or even wanted it to happen, I do believe that God is good, and will work destruction into beauty, will work tragedy into celebration, and will work death to life. I don't understand the why and don't believe I ever will, but I put my trust in the good and loving hands of Jesus and trust that he will turn our mourning into dancing.

ht: thanks Trev for the great picture from our freshman year missions trip

Throwing stuff off the bridge

Just got this pic from my friend Brad (aka Potty) Yup, this about sums up the good times we have! ... and yes, we did throw all those pieces of wood off the bridge!!

Canada Weekend

So after preaching on Sunday, Niki and I packed up and headed out to Pelican Lake to spend Sunday and Monday at our Friends Cabin, a beautiful two days of boating and relaxing in the sun. I continued my quest to conquer the wakeboard... but as you will see in the pictures, I still haven't made it happen. Niki on the other hand got up on her second try..... oh well, the quest continues, I haven't given up hope yet! It was a great weekend, but just so you can see how great here are some pictures.


This is as far as I ever got up.

















Jer clearly had a bit more luck
than I did.









Getting ready for a nice evening cruise













beautiful











what's Canada Day without fire works??

No Opportunity Wasted

One of my youth leaders here in town is applying for the CBC reality show No Opportunity Wasted. It's a show where people take on their fears and see what can happen. Personally I think Dwight would be awesome for a show like this, I would watch every episode. Anyway one of the things he had to do was make a video of himself telling why he should be accepted. Well I would say this video shows all the reasons why!!!

Visiting a Friend

Last night I had the chance to go out for Coffee with a friend of mine, Dan King. He's out in Winnipeg from Saskatoon to teach a YWAM DTS so I figured since he was so close I had to try and get together with him. Which brought me to last night. We decided that I would come out to Winnipeg and pick him up from the YWAM house. So I ventured into the downtown area of Winnipeg looking for Furby Street. Thanks to Google Maps, I had my route all planned and it was going to be a simple task of turning off St. Mary's on to Portage followed by a nice and simple right turn.... well I'm not sure what happened but I never really did find Portage... after driving down a number of back roads, and one way streets I eventually did find 433 Furby Street. I looked at the house and my first thought was, "This can't be it!" It was a single story house that had boards over all the windows, and no lights at all. But the path up to the door was really beaten down so I thought, maybe…. With a little fear and a small bit of excitement I walked up to the house, and decided for sure that this was not the right place! For one thing there wasn't a door knob on the door, just a gapping whole where it used to be. I also decided that the big padlock on the door was another sign that YWAM wasn’t stationed there. At this point I decided that this definitely wasn't the YWAM house, it was more like a Crack house. So I got back in the car, looked at my map again and realized that I was supposed to be at 443 ten houses down. Much better!!! Anyway Dan and I had a good coffee in Tim's. It was good to share God stories, and talk about ministry and stuff with a solid Godly man. That whole iron sharpens iron thing. I really enjoy those times. Anyway it was a really solid time, and I enjoyed it a lot, and I’m looking forward to the next time I’m in Saskatoon so I can hunt him down again… It was a really good evening, and now I know that if you're looking to score some crack, 433 Furby street.