Announcements (Page 5)

I watched a movie called Migration this week and really enjoyed it. The movie follows the Mallards, a family of ducks that go on their first migration to Jamaica, led by their dad and husband Mack, who’s paranoid about the dangers of the outside world and prefers everyone staying home. This leads to a chaotic adventure filled with meeting new (and sometimes scary) animals and people, lots of detours and side quests, and humourous lessons about facing your fears, solving…

We just had our 2nd WF(Wildfire) retreat this past August. If I were to describe the WF retreat to you, I would say it was like a mini family gathering. It was very similar to the Family Weekend, except that we had to cook our own food, clean up after ourselves, and we didn’t have to walk or drive to our accommodations after each session. We worshiped together, we learned together, we ate together, we prayed together and we played…

During the Family Weekend, our speaker shared from John 4, where Jesus speaks to a Samaritan woman. She was a woman that Jesus, in all cultural and societal norms, should not have been speaking with or associating with. When Jesus asks the woman to get him water, he was not treating her as a slave. In fact, by putting himself in a position of need of her, Jesus was lowering himself and elevating this woman, giving her a place of…

Dear LifeSpring Family, A couple of years ago, I enrolled in a course conducted by Soul Care on the importance of taking care of our soul, spirit and inner person. The world knows this all too well with her emphasis on work life balance. As Dorothy and I prepare to go on sabbatical in a few weeks, I received the reminder (below) from the Soul Care team about rest and how it can be a “weapon” in my life.  1. Schedule…

Often when we think of surrender – outside of church language, aka Christianese – we might think of a battle scene, right? SURRENDERRRR or ELSE!!!! We might envision someone holding up a white flag to signal the end of a devastating struggle. The definition of surrender, according to Google, is really not that positive either: So… to summarize… whether we’re speaking in Sports language, Legal-ese, or Insurance-ish the translation of surrendering seems to be that you lose. You lose the…

You know the best way to end off the summer? Catching a cough. I know what you’re thinking, and I also thought the same thing. After a summer full of visiting family, a math course, two retreats, and a lot of preparation for the upcoming school year, I planned to finish up my projects and enjoy two somewhat relaxing last weeks of summer before school kicked off in September. Catching my siblings’ cough (yes, it was 100% from them) was…

Last weekend, my family had an opportunity to join MLCF for their Sunday Celebration. We had a great time with the church family in Mississauga worshipping together. From beginning to end, it was clear that the presence of God was with us. We shared words from God for the congregation, took Holy Communion together, and were encouraged by what God had done over the Family Weekend. During worship, a verse came to mind from John 16:31-33. It says, “Jesus replied,…

We had another great privilege to hear from Samantha Tse, one of our Board of Directors and Deacon of Hope. Samantha has been part of the LifeSpring family for as long as I can remember and is truly a daughter and now a mother of the house. Thank you, Samantha, for your vulnerability. The presence of God was there, and I could sense a deep work that God was doing in you. As Samantha was speaking, I felt the Lord…

In this season of Patience Endurance, I’ve noticed that when things get difficult and situations and circumstances challenge my faith, I tend to use more “buts” in my prayers/conversations with the Lord. For example, “Lord you said this, but this happened.” “I hear what you’re saying, but if you would just make a way then.”  Etc. I felt the Lord respond to me with an “and” after every concern I gave Him. After every worry and reason for doubt, I…

It’s a pretty strange feeling to have an event you’ve planned for months and months finally be over, isn’t it?! Within just two weeks, both Family Weekend and our WildFire Retreat took place and I’m feeling a big mix of things… all of which seem to be undergirded with tired. Planning and preparing and organizing things can sometimes take so much out of us that we forget to save some energy for the event itself! We begin to zoom in…

During our Sunday Celebration last weekend, I had a chance to update the church family about some of the things that we’ve been involved in both locally and abroad. Last month, Arthur and Leona shared about their Thailand trip and the connections they made with the local people. They shared about a site in Chiang Klang that had limited access to a stable and clean water supply. This past week, four large plastic cisterns were delivered to this site that were…

It was such an amazing time at the Family Weekend – so many gems, so many challenges, and yet so encouraged as we continue to walk this journey of faith together. Spending time with our speaker the entire week, there was a common thread that he kept mentioning in everything we did. He felt that no matter where he went and who he met, it always felt like family. Part of the Kingdom DNA God has put in the LifeSpring…