Moments before Summit 2007...

[The last ones!]
Gilberto, Grace, Liz, Melissa, Nicky, and Nicole

Gilberto: Shalom Everyone!

I had a good time at home after the project and now I am almost ready to start school again. I will be starting my 3rd year at Dalhousie, I will also be Weekly Meeting Co-Coordinator and also the President of the International Students Association. I am really looking forward for the year ahead because I was able to re-prioritize a lot of things in my life, and I am excited about the changes that are to come!
I will be living very close to both SMU and DAL and also very close to my friends. I will keep investing in relationships with those who come here to study English and hopefully share the Gospel many times!
My goal is to make my relationship closer and also learn to love people like Christ did: unconditionally!! I have the hope that I will be able to disciple one or two guys during the year, and also learn a lot from my discipler (aka Josh Wong). I am already anxious to see you guys at the EASTERN Winter Conference in Toronto!
Please keep praying for Halifax, pray for the salvation of people, pray that Halifax will be a place where people will come to find Jesus Christ, pray for the C4C ministry here, that it be each day more overflowing!
You guys are all great and I miss you.

Until soon,

Gilberto

Grace: "On the road again,hmhmhmhmmmm, here we are on the road again..." Haha, Well, August has certainly been a crazy month on this road of my life! I have been back working at my old job in retail and have been seeing a lot of friends from school. I am going into my 3rd year of a Communications Studies and Political Science degree. My c4c involvement right now is focused on getting welcome week together! After that, I am unsure of what in C4C i will be doing. Lord-willing, I will be very focused on school and getting to know more of the frosh that will be coming in :) God bless you as you start school this year! It is going to be a great one! Hope to see many of you at Summit and WC!

PS Western is actually a nicer school then I thought it was ;) "W" hand sign ;)

Liz: My mom prayed to receive Christ with my pastor a couple days ago. My cousin
with cancer is continuing kimo at home. My pastor from my home church has asked
me to lead the youth group there and we're in the process of discussing
details.

Melissa: Hey Darlings!

I write this looking out of my dorm room window to the CN tower on a day that is very Halifax like and can’t help but wonder if it is sunny in Hali. The last couple months have flown by without any postcards to say breath, but I think I needed that. I have been keeping really busy with C4C, work and school. This term is my last year here at Ryerson...got 4 months of classes in the Fall and an internship in the Winter. Really looking forward to completing my courses b4 my b-day. Must say that I hate that I miss you all so very much...not a day goes by that I don’t think about something we did or shared together guess that is what happens when you live with 30 people - something must remind you of them intentionally and not. My last day in Hali was spent walking around taking in the scenes and remembering the funny things we did...who could forget the wave. I didn’t realize how much I needed the community created on project...it freed me to be me and not have to keep my brave face on. There is only so long that you can keep a mask on. God is so amazing that he gives you exactly what you need when you need it and I really needed all of you! So, thanks for being a part of a real transformational part of my life:D!

Not completely sure what the future holds for me but I am excited...I feel like I am getting my runners on and walking up to the starting line. My short term goal for the term is to get grounded in some deep Christian community in TO and cultivate meaningful friendships around me...gots to be more intentional with my interactions with people. It is no longer enough for me to just say Hi and Bye – I need to know people beyond the surface.

As mentioned before I am more than happy to have people stay with me if they are ever in town over the term...You can always have my couch:D.

Love yous much,

Melissa

Nicky: Hi friends!

I love and miss you all...what a blast this summer was! Life changing, I'd say! After y'all ski-daddled (sp?) out of Halifax, Veronika ( aka. Veronton, Vetatita..etc..) lived it up at 2730 Windsor Street, Becky's old apartment. It was the perfect venue for our August: it had an amazing dance floor, beautiful lighting and lots of room for entertaining. Jean Brunet made regular Sunday appearances which was fun...somehow we ended up watching boy movies even though Jean was clearly outnumbered, but it was good times nonetheless..we also spent some time with the lovely Katherine and Robert from Germany made a guest appearance. I think what I loved most about August was the amazing quality time V and I were able to spend with our coworkers. They really became our family! We roadtripped and went camping with them to Keji and just loved on them like it was our job! It was a blessed time. Oh Halifax, how I miss thee. There's a large part of my heart there friends!

Coming home was rushed and stressful. I didn't pray nearly enough to prepare myself and it was definitely a rough transition into the
Verboom household. I was only home for 72 hours, so unpacking and repacking for school along with trying to spend quality time with my family and friends proved to be an exhausting venture. It was really hard, but looking back on it now, I can see how God used it to break
and prepare me for O-week. There was no chance I was sailing through on post-project pride. After our Servant Team Retreat, which was a great weekend, I was forced to reflect on a lot of things, why I'm here, in C4C, why this matters...and once again, as he did many times
during the summer, God showed me that ministry needs to come out of an overflow. God showered me with his love and filled with excitement at the thought of others experiencing Jesus' love as he'd shown me.

Praise God for the lessons he teaches us and how he uses trials to
mold us!

Now, back at school, I'm still processing and learning a lot. I'm learning that, although we had a project debrief, I feel like I need an August debrief! I'm really loving my classes ( they're all about families and parenting! yay yay yay!) and I am constantly awed by the remarkable people God is surrounding me with. As Prayer Ministry Coordinator, God's given me a vision to see this campus revived and set on fire for him, starting with the ignited hearts of the Christians. As a prayer team we're working on having God consume every area of our personal lives and being lights to others around us instead of painstakingly trying to take it on ourselves to convince
others to come out to prayer times...that's not our job, we're learning that the Holy Spirit will move and convict others to pray, we just need to provide the opportunity and invitation.
So, I guess that's my life right now...busy and blessed as I'm sure you can all relate...God just keeps blowing my mind with how amazing he is!

I look forward to seeing some of you at Summit and Winter Conference! Miss and love you all...give someone you know a good quality hug today!

Nicole: COULD IT REALLY BE TRUE?? COULD NICOLE HAVE REALLY FINISHED HER BLOG??

Well, friends, here's the DL on my life because you're no longer yelling-distance away... So, it's been an incredibly busy two months since I got back home. First, I spent a few days at my best friend's house-- she just moved two hours away from me with her husband, which isn't ideal but it's completely OK (I've been friends with her since grade six and we've only lived in the same city for two years; we're used to the long-distance thing). Then I went to Lloydminster because I found out that my grandpa has cancer, which my dad didn't want to tell me when I was away in Halifax. It doesn't look very good-- he had cancer before, and I guess it wasn't all cut out or radiated or what have you, and it's gone up his spine and into his lymph nodes, etc., etc. I can't imagine him dying, because he's not the kind of person that would ever die, if you get what I mean-- he's very strong, and healthy, and together-- so it hasn't really hit me yet that he might (the doctors give him 6 mos. to 5 yrs., depending on if the chemo takes). Please pray for him and my grandma to continue hoping and trusting in the Lord-- He's got it all figured out. Then it was catching-up-with-friends time... admittedly one friend in particular (my dating fast continues for another weekish, until October), the C4C planning retreat, then BOOM! School started! I'm not cheerleading this year for lack of time, but I AM ballroom dancing, DG-leading, on our Weekly Meeting team (the MC point-person... I love all things MC...), working (I haven't gotten another concussion or even hit yet, praise God!), and attempting to have a life. I have fallen in love with Chuck Norris movies. I have decided not to be re-baptized, which was a decision that was weighing heavily on my mind to be made. It's my third year of Linguistics and I have the best electives ever-- in drama we stretch and breathe. And play Wink Murder and Zombies. Pretty sure I'm heading out to Tanzania next year, so perhaps I'll see you out there! (And for you westerners, I'd BETTER see you at WC!!!) I think I'll sign off here for now. The end.

Love Nicole

Your long-lost projectile

Ekua in Australia

The following update is from Ekua (Sept 13th):

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Dear friends,

Hope you are all having a blast at school. Its going to be a great school year and I am really excited. This is to give you an update on what's being going on over here and to tell you about all my adventures in just over two weeks of being in this new country.

I left Canada on the morning of the -hmm can't remember now oh there we go -3oth of August. It was an interesting departure. My room mate decided that since we were close to the airport shuttle we should just drag the bags to the bus stop. Little did we know that the bags were rather heavy. So I dragged one suitcase a guitar and my backpack all the way to the bus stop it was about a 5 mins walk but it took us 20-30mins. I almost lost my hands in the process but thank God I still have them. When we got to the assumed bus stop we were a bit confused so we missed the bus I don't think bus look kindly to confused people. Anyways we finally found the right spot. We were just in time for the second bus. Since the bus driver was 12 mins early he decided to drive us to catch up with the bus we had missed. I was so grateful I felt so duno how to explain it but my mouth was open the whole time. I finally closed it though. Yup so I got to the airport safe and sound and on time. Got on the plane which was to take me to Vancouver. Everything was going on well until someone suddenly got sick, so we had to make an emergency stop in Alberta. Not only that but the crew had to debrief about what happened so we were on land for about 45 mins. During the wait the only thing I could thing about was my next flight. Initially I was supposed to have a 3 hour wait before my next flight. Man I hope this is not boring I am not the greatest story teller.

We finally got to Vancouver and I had about 20mins to rush to my next departure gate. I heard my name over the speakers while rushing to the gate and I thought yikes everyone knows about me now. Well the long and short of it is that I made it safely to Australia without my bags. Somehow during all the rush my bags were left behind. It took me six days to finally get them. I thank God for all this interesting experience. So why all these ups and downs well. I think I learnt to trust God more. For some reason when I got my bags I felt a bit different like some kind of confidence, I just wanted to go back to the time where I had nothing and had to depend on God. I guess its a good way to learn humility.

Last Sunday I attended this church called SurfCity and its awesome so far. But still seeking God in that matter. Oh and on that same day someone came up to me at the mall to share Christ with me isn't that cool. Yea lots of exciting things in just over a few weeks.

Well good friends that's all for now I hope to write again soon. Have an awesome week. If there are any grammatical errors I apologise I'm just about ready for bed.

Ekua