There you go ‘Brockville Times’, there’s a headline for your next paper (no charge).
A lot has happened since I introduced myself in my first post. We’ve moved around several times, and we’re currently in a different country, so I’ll attempt to catch you all up to speed with Atlantic’s activities.
When we discovered that the drums were actually at the Ottawa Greyhound station the entire time that we were searching for them, Drew quickly doubled back to Ottawa to gather them while the rest of us spent some quality time with the Thousand Islands Church Youthgroup in Brockville, Ontario.
At the youthgroup, Josh shared with everyone about the holistic nature of the Christian calling that he had been reading about in 1 John. We had some discussion about how following God requires wholehearted pursuit in mind, body, and spirit. It was exciting to see just how open the group was to conversation, and how perceptively & honestly they brought up the challenging reality of such a calling.
It’s not just about actions, and its not just about good intentions either. The whole conversation has actually got me thinking about the biblical imagery of ‘Running the race’ (but maybe I’ll share more thoughts about that in a later post).
After Brockville we got to spend a sweet weekend with some youth up at Silverlake Camp in Maberly, Ontario. Our weekend was filled with beach volleyball, tubing, soccer, some really encouraging times of enthusiastic worship, and even a couple rousing games of Settlers of Catan (so far I remain undefeated, and I mainly bring that up just to make them want a rematch).
We left Silverlake, and hurried ourselves to Toronto in order to meet up with a longtime friend and seasonal member of Atlantic. Steve Higgs is back in action with Atlantic, and we’re all stoked to be spending the summer with him. Steve spends most of his time these days touring with the African Children’s Choir. He has traveled the world as an Uncle to the children in the choir, and he’ll be joining them again in early August after spending a couple months with Atlantic during this summer tour.
After our brief stop in Toronto, we crossed the border and have been nodding our heads like ‘yah’, and moving our hips like ‘yah’ (in other words we’re partying in the U.S.A.). We’re currently in Grand Rapids Michigan, and we really have been busy. We’ve enjoyed dining at Atlantic’s favorite restaurant: Red Ball Jet Café. We tried our luck at swing dancing among the hundreds of locals who regularly meet in GR every Tuesday. Some were more successful than others (FYI. Josh is a monSTAR on the dance floor; he tears it up. I suspect ballet lessons as a child, or maybe a latin heritage). Last night we went downtown to a crowded blues festival in the park, and today…. Best of all: We celebrate Drew’s Birthday!!!
The plan tonight is to hit up an International House of Pancakes (another favorite restaurant for Atlantic) and then go up to a cabin for a little bonfire with snacks and local friends. Nothing too fancy, just some quality time with a quality guy that we’re extremely grateful to know and share life with.
wow…
Give yourself a pat on the back if you made it through reading all that, because that was a lot to catch you up on, but as far as I can tell, you should be all caught up with our most recent activities.
We’re off to celebrate Drew.
Have a great ‘Drew’s Birthday’ everyone!
-Brady
