The End of an Era
The Seuss themed end of year party had some great moments; my favorite being a game poking fun at Patchy, called Pin the Beard on the [Patchy]. I also had a lot of fun blind-folding (and terrifying) the winner of the Richard Baker Award, an Award that’s been a tradition at Ryerson given to graduating students who go above and beyond choosing to extend hospitality and invest in younger students especially in their last years of their degree which are usually the busiest. I had her blind-folded and brought to the front of the room, then proceeded to talk about all the wonderful ways she’s blessed our community, and relished as she squirmed thinking she was in for something awful, then I had the blind-fold taken off and gave her the award. I think she was more upset at the anticipation of something terrible happening than if I had actually done something terrible! But she was grateful for being honoured with the award.
At this point in the festivities, I made the announcement to the larger community (and now to you) that I would be leaving Ryerson and becoming a campus minister at OCAD University.
After this, the same student who won the Richard Baker Award, called me forward, and asked me to sit in one of two chairs at the front of the room. She took the other seat, and then proceeded to conduct an “exit interview”. I think it was meant to be more lighthearted and funny, but some of the questions (which I had no prior knowledge of) were a little awkward to answer without preparation.
After a few more games and tons of desserts, the party was over. I had a lot of fun, but as my last RIVCF party on campus, it felt like a bit of an anti-climactic ending. My last official Ryerson-specific event after this party was a final leader’s meeting to debrief the year.
At our last exec meeting, which was 2 days later, we spent the time eating pie and sharing with each other what we appreciated about one another and about all the things we were glad to receive this year in leadership. I was encouraged as I saw this group of strangers had become deep spiritual friends and deeply loved one another.
As you likely know, I’m an avid reader, and as a parting gift I gave away some books for the students to further their development moving forward giving each a specific book to meet them where they are at, many of these titles may seem familiar as they are ones I’ve mentioned on this blog:
- Patchy: Real Life by James Choung
- AP: Small Things Done with Great Love by Margot Starbuck
- Beaker: Pursuit of God in the Company of Friends by Richard Lamb
- Swift: Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster
- Pink: Everyday Justice by Julie Clawson
- Dumplings: Baking Bread: Recipes and Stories from Immigrant Kitchens by Lynne Christy Anderson and Corby Kummer
- RA: Wounded Healer by Henri Nouwen
It felt good to give the students my personal copies of these books and share the insights I’d received these books and bless them into the next things in their lives be it more school or entering the workforce.
Scattering Seeds
He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.” Mark 4:26-29
Early in November, the Toronto regional Undergraduate Student Ministry, International Student Ministry, and High School Ministry Staff got together for a time of fellowship and training. We started this time studying the above passage of scripture and spent some time reflecting on where are the places we have faithfully scattered seeds in our ministries. We focused more on the places where we have been faithfully scattering as opposed to paying too much attention to whether or not things have grown. As my staff partner and I reflected on how we were scattering and wanted to celebrate the following:
Tube Duels
A google search of “obscure sports” brought up the discovery of cardboard tube duels, where people duel in homemade cardboard armour with cardboard paper tubes! My staff partner, leadership team and I thought that this was a ridiculous idea, but one that could be a lot of fun to attempt as a new student outreach event, so we did. It was a lot of fun, brought in a bunch of new and old faces, and we had reporters from one of the campus newspapers come and participate and do an article about it! We began the event by putting people into teams and asking them to create armour that represented their team (there were 4: ninjas, robots, pirates, and knights). Then the dueling began! After a number of individual and team wounds, we announced a winner who won a cardboard replica of Thor’s hammer. After a quick clean up, we invited everyone over for burgers at the McGill house, where we had a pinata strung up across our driveway. 80% of the people who came to the duel came back to the house, and a few signed up to come to our fall retreat!
Fall Retreat
For the first time in 4 years we had a fall retreat (which happened outside of the city)! We took the students to a retreat centre at Jackson’s Point, and had a great time studying Scripture, growing in friendship, worshipping by the campfire and enjoying the outdoors! We had a good mix of new and existing group members and felt very blessed and refreshed by our time together!
Teaching Workshops
Responding to a need for more teaching and training, Lauren, a student leader who is in her last year on campus, and I developed some workshops to equip students with tools to grow in their leadership and spiritual development. These workshops include scripture study, an interactive art piece, prayer and a time to learn and share from experiences. We led 3 this term on invitation, being a welcoming community and how to discern calling and listen to God’s voice. We’ve been amazed as we have seen students come from different clubs on campus and different campuses to receive and be blessed by these workshops!
The Arch 