Rob and Iona checking in!

Year 12 – Recharging for the next 12!

Romero’s Prayer

” It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.  No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No [youth work] brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the church’s mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything. This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.”  Amen.

Written by Archbishop Oscar Romero

The “Amen” is mine!

iona

Jen’s new year thoughts …

Happpy New Year! You might be wondering what Lifeteams staff think about when no students are around. Here are a few of my thoughts to begin your new year…

10. Christmas with family is always worth crowding into a too-small house for a few days. Even if makes you a feel a little insane!

9. This week, two friends recommended Francis Chan’s Forgottten God and it’s going to be the next book I read.

8. I may yet convince hubby Andrew we really should paint our bathroom. He thinks we’re done painting…

7. I work with remarkable people—on our Lifeteams staff (with Brian, Rob & Iona) and on our entire Vancouver YFC staff. And for that I’m grateful.

6. 2012 marks 10 years that I’ve been back in BC. Where did the time go? Wasn’t I starting with YFC in Ontario just the other day?

5. One day, I hope to be part of a well done flashmob. They make me happy. Who wouldn’t want to be part of a musical (of sorts)?

4. My hope for this new year is to begin doing weekly meal planning for us. If you have any tips, I’d love to hear!

3. Over the past few years I’ve really sensed God’s word for me being ‘enough.’ Not that He’s had enough of me—but that He’ll provide ‘enough’ of everything for us, and He has! Thank you for caring for us and contributing to our ‘enough.’

2. I’ve recently been augmenting daily time spent with God by using d365.org online devotionals. I’m really liking it, and it’s helping blend time with God more seamlessly in throughout my day.

1. I can’t imagine working or ministering anywhere else! My calling to YFC feels as sure today as it did in September of 2001. Thank you for wandering with me on this    journey, and allowing me to live out that to which God has called me!

Hope and pray your new year is good too!

jen