Hello faithful readers,

My sincere apologies for the long delay in posts. I have many stories to share and hope to have them up with photos soon. In the meantime, here are some stories and highlights from December 2011.

Winter Roadtrip

After a fall semester full of exciting new ministry, I spent some time traveling in the States. I went to visit 2 of my SALI mentees, Pavi in Philadelphia and Sasha in Tampa. And as someone who enjoys the down-time that comes with travel, I decided to embark on this journey with my friend (and sometimes foe) Greyhound.

The journey was long, but I enjoyed the trip down, and enjoyed the books I brought down with me. I was reading the Settlers Cookbook by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, which is a good read but very heavy. One of the things I really appreciated about it was Brown’s migration story, as its one that closely resembles mine, and that mixed with recipes she’s acquired along the way made this read very memorable. Her perspective helped shape and give name to things I inherently knew.

I enjoyed my time in Philly with Pavi. I only spent 24 hours there, but I got to see some of her favorite haunts, check out and hang out at her work, sit in on some meetings, and get a guided tour of Philly. I also had some AMAZING dosa from the Philadelphia Chutney Company.

In Florida, I met up with Sasha and fellow SALI alum Rekha for a quick bite after my very long bus ride. It was really exciting gathering together with my SA sisters and seeing how God had been present and blessing their ministries. Afterward, Sasha and I headed back to her family home. The following day Sasha and I went to Clearwater Beach and met up with some USF students for beach volleyball and a bible study! Afterward, Sasha and I met up with a different group of USF friends to see a street with a beautiful Christmas light display. It was really cool to see but very odd for me to be seeing all these Christmas icons in a place that was so warm that I didn’t need a coat! The next day Sasha and I headed to Orlando, where we fulfilled a dream of mine to visit Celebration USA. Celebration was just as picturesque as I imagined, but still was struck by how friendly the people were and the size and growing diversity. Also that there was a legit university there! To remember my time there, I got a Florida shaped cookie cutter. After Celebration we hung out with one of my SALI staff friends and got a tour of UCF, his campus, and got to hear stories of the some exciting ministries taking place. Following our time at UCF, Sasha and I fulfilled another dream of mine by visiting Sweet, a cupcake shop owned and operated by two-time Cupcake Wars winner, Hollis. The cupcakes were delicious and there were so many to choose from! We took our sweet treats and used enormous amounts of restraint and ate them back at Sasha’s house. The following day, we stayed pretty close to home, and Sasha took me to her favorite rest spot, and while there I finally felt refreshed, and was able to feel really awed at the splendour of God’s creation. I also caught my first fish, and I wanted to cry the whole time. The next day we celebrated Sasha’s mother’s birthday, and we made her a cake. We made a Cashew Carrot Cardamom Cake with almond butter cream cheese icing and topped with chopped cashews. It was so delicious! The following day, my last in Florida, Sasha took me on a tour of USF, her friend Juan who I met while looking at Christmas lights, joined us and offered some of his insightful comments and hilarious experiences during the tour. After our time on campus, Sasha and I made some Florida cookies, some of which, I enjoyed on my bus ride. Then that evening, Sasha drove me to the station, and sent me off.

I began the long, slow journey home. Long story short, the bus I needed to catch to make all my connections was full, and I got put on the next bus, which left 5 hours later; setting back my arrival time 7 hours! Needless to say, I wasn’t impressed with the Greyhound. But it only put a slight damper on my amazing experiences and the wonderful memories from this road trip.

Kingdom Calling

Kingdom Calling happened December 27-31 in Toronto. Kingdom Calling is a conference that replaces the National Student Leaders Conference, which happens to be my favorite Inter-Varsity Conference. Kingdom Calling is a 5-day conference where students in 3^rd or 4^th year come and receive teaching and vision about what their life could look like post-University and what some ministry options could be. I love this Conference because it was one that had a significant impact on my decision to pursue ministry options with Inter-Varsity, but there’s also this exciting energy as students meet their peers from other campuses and pray and discern for one another as they pursue the next thing God has in store for them. Some of my closest friends in ministry are some of my peers that I met at this conference, so I was eager to be present as staff for this Conference and see the next generation of Kingdom Leaders.

I also had Moses, one of my Ryerson students, attend the conference; and he had a great opportunity to be placed in a small group with fellow art students from OCAD, Emily Carr and Humber. Since the staff from most of those campuses were present, I volunteered to lead a small group of students from another campus that didn’t have staff present. I chose to be intentional and lead the group from Queen’s, as I would be working closely with their Campus Staff this May on a Global Urban Partnership to Bangladesh (more on that here). I had a great time with the Queen’s students as I lead a group with students from three fellowships on that campus;  Queen’s Christian Fellowship, Korean Christian Fellowship and International Student Ministry at Queen’s.

Also, I got to spend a bit of time with other students I knew from regional events who either had just returned from Bangladesh or were considering applying for the 2012 team.

The Conference itself offered some great talks and insights. For me, I found it tricky to hear some of the stories and the bold statements of God’s provision, as I was still mourning the cost of saying yes to Bangladesh. Or rather, the talks were propelling me to find out for certain whether I would be celebrating or mourning the costs of saying yes. I found myself with some free time and set aside an hour to find out for certain. Just as I suspected, I found out that I would indeed need more time to mourn the costs. But despite hearing the bad news, it was good to feel supported by some of the staff there who had been journeying alongside me in my discernment. Some of the above mentioned close friends in ministry were there to mourn with me and offer words of encouragement and hope.