Time has passed so quickly along with many changes. We love pastoring in Belmont. In March we will have been here five years. We have not lived this long in one house since we have been married. And just to clarify, we are not looking to leave any time soon. For the first time, I have actually decorated a house the way I like.
Our church is small. We have the ultimate small group, but we are also pleased to say we are finally starting to grow. Since being here, it has been our prayer to see growth take place from Belmont. It is awesome to have the numbers but if you are not reaching your own community then are you really connecting. In the past year, the growth has been taking place locally. Our children's program is growing with kids from Belmont. We have just begun a young adults group with our first event last week. There were twelve playing ball hockey and having a great time. Next month we will be playing Snow Football and Tube Mania.
Changes have been taking place in our family as well.
In May 2005, Anya graduated from Tyndale Unviversity College with her BRE with a major in ECE. Although offically not dating at the end of school, a friendship between Anya and long time friend Dave Bysterveld, was in the process of changing. In July, Dave joined us on a trip into Waskaganish. While there he asked permission to date Anya which we were delighted to give.
What a trip to Waskaganish that was. Sam Martin was also with us. Sam had been with us on our first trip to Waskaganish and he absolutely loved it, so we brought him along again. We did Boot Camp, the program Anya and Charity had written several years earlier. Dave had a crash course into a dramatic ministry. It wasn't until we were on our way home, we discovered how out of his comfort zone it was. In spite of that he did great and has been part of the YASM team ever since.
We were also thankful to have Dave's French skills on the way home. After our three hour delay on the highway waiting for the forest fire to clear away enough so we could drive through, we lost a wheel on the van. We were in Northern Quebec on a Saturday night and Dave was our translator. Through a series of God co-incidences and Dave's language skills, we were on our way after only about a six hour delay. Dave was definitely inducted into the team and family on that trip.
Anya was not able to travel with us very much anymore as she had been blessed with an amazing job at Temple Tots, a Christian daycare in London. In February, 2006, Dave proposed and the wedding plans were in full swing for an October wedding.
Charity was completing her schooling. In her third year, she lived for half the semester with good friends from the Newmarket area. It was a difficult time for her though with the commute. By Christmas she was exhausted, and had the opportuntiy to rent the same apartment she and Anya had shared before. She moved in with three college roomates, and was home most weekends. By reading break, Charity was quite sick and with symptoms similar to meningitis we took her to the hospital. The spinal tap tests came back clear and after the CAT scan she was pleased to hear that her brain was in a "pristine" condition. The rest of the semester was busy with endeavouring to finish her assignments and thanks to extensions from her teachers she had them in on time (I think).
Summer 2006, found us back at Manhattan Beach Retreat Centre in Manitoba. It was a joy to be back and actually using the new dining facilities we had helped fundraise for the last time we were there. The changes at Manhattan Beach in our years there have been a pleasure to see. The end of July found us back at Cedardale Nazarene Camp in Pefferlaw for our sixth year. OUr team was beginning to change with work schedules only allowing the team to be there for a few days at a time. Even Dave came down to help out as we were short staffed and Anya was unable to take the time off work.
By the time camp was over, we were into full time wedding plans for Anya. Charity was heading off to Parkwood in Windsor for her internship. Rhian was at home working as a supply teacher at the daycare with Anya and also at a local cafe in Belmont.
Charity was enjoying her Worship and Creative Arts practicum for her internship. She was involved with the children's choir, led the song service on several occasions, was involved both in the behind the scenes and the presentation of the Christmas production, plus helped out in the midweek children's program. In the centre of this, she was also trying to be on hand as much as possible for wedding preparations as she was the maid of honour.
October 14, 2006 arrived and we had a beautiful day. Joel performed the ceremony and now we are thrilled to have Dave as an important part of the family. After their honeymoon, Anya packed up everything that hadn't already gone ahead and moved away to Sundridge where she is actively involved in the church there.
May 2007, Charity graduated from Masters College and Seminary with her BTh with her major in Worship and Creative Arts. Following graduation she joined us at Belmont as our Music and Family Ministries Pastor. It is a joy to have her still involved locally and in YASM as much as she is able. She has dreams for YASM which involve discipleship and youth training. We are still waiting on God's timing to see how this will all come together.
Summer of 2007 found us packing up the van for a trip to Living Waters Camp in Saskatchewan. It had been many years since we had been there before and we were to experience some first time events. During Family Camp, the caretaker's house was being used for a movie shoot so the campgrounds became the set up for the day at the lake. One of the characters was a dead man discovered in the lake by some dogs. The cast were quite friendly and Rhian had her photo taken with the 'blue' man.
One night a horrible storm blew in. We had to get up to close the windows because the rain was blowing in. We heard a horrendous crash and Charity jumped out of bed and ran into the living room. The next thing we knew, a tree came through the roof. About twenty or thirty minutes later, someone came by and saw that we were okay. We were trapped in our cottage as the tree that came through the roof also blocked our door. An hour later after we had been cut out, we felt a little like we were entering Narnia. What was totally amazing though was the clean up. The storm came through around five. By two in the afternnon, you would not have known our cottage had been damaged. The many trees that had fallen, of which four were immediately around our cottage, were cut up into fire logs and piled. The co-operation and speed in which the clean up took place was phenomenal. It seemed like we may have had a wind tunnel come through the camp. If the path of destruction would have been slightly to the right of the path it took, the dining hall would have been taken out. Instead the uprooted trees did some damage to our cottage, fell on one or two cars, and the rest of the damage was at the mini-golf course.
We arrived home from Saskatchewan with just a day to do our laundry then we were back on our way to Cedardale. This time we had help with Miranda and CJ, teens from our church. We had been presenting a new program we had written called CSIU (Christ Seen In Us). Miranda was Mackenzie TopGunn and CJ was Jim Dandy. Along with Doc, they were discovering clues to solve a mystery.
The summer seemed to pass by way to quickly, although I must admit there were a few upcoming events we were looking forward to in October.
October 13, just one day short of their anniversary, Chloe Evangeline Bysterveld was born. We were half way to the hospital (a four hour trip) when Dave called to say Chloe had arrived. Dad, Mom and Baby were all doing well. I was blessed to be ble to spend Chloe's first week with her and her Mommy and Daddy, of course. So now the next generation of the YASM team have started to arrive. Chloe made her cameo appearance at Christmas as Baby Jesus.
We arrived home form Dave and Anya's Saturday night and left on the Sunday for our dream trip, a Caribbean Cruise. We had long wished to go on on, and this year God provided for us to be able to do that with our good friends Ken and Kathy. We loved the trip in spite of the weather. We were in Florida during the precursor of a hurricane, so the last few days were rainy. In spite of that, the trip and the friends were great.
Christmas was busy with a trip to the Richmond Hill Chinese Community Church for Christmas Eve. Dave and Anya were home with Chloe and she was very good in spite of all the people coming anf going.
Now it is a new year. We do not know what the year holds but we are looking forward to continued growth at NLCC. We are praying for a youth pastor who is willing to be a tentmaker.
We are returning to Silver Birches Camp and Cedardale Camp this summer. We were at Faith School in St Thomas for an assembly this past week, and will be returning for two more assemblies before the school year ends. We will be going to Blenheim to close out TNT for the year, plus there are a couple of upcoming events on the TBA burner. So keep tuned. YASM is still alive an well.
y. Non-essential trips had been cancelled. For going on a trip out of town, we felt renting was our only option. We have been praying for a new vehicle for eight months, but now it’s spring. It was time to prepare for rain.
moved to Belmont, we owned a mobile home which we needed to sell. We finally did sell it almost two years ago but it was at quite a loss. Since then we have been working hard at paying off the remainder of our loan, the equivalent of a mortgage. We needed the rain.
