grocery grabber.

Yard Sale...

Today we hosted a flea market of sorts at Arrowhead - we were hopeful that we'd have a good turnout to spite the fact that we are a bit off the beaten path! It wasn't a bust and we had a great day! Rob and Irene VanAsperen came down to join Liz and I and Marcia as we held our sale in the big field. There were several items of Arrowhead's that we felt would be better in different hands than sitting at our property collecting dust. Arrowhead raised over $300 for our dock project.

Irene baked some beautiful baked goods and had them for sale (our fridge is now sufficiently stocked with goodies - yay!). Liz had the BBQ going and we sold hot dogs and pop. It was a fun day, a productive day and a beautiful sunny day and we were able to get rid of some superfluous things from our move.

We were excited when a couple of carloads of friends from Riverglade Baptist Church pulled in. They checked out the yard sale and were able to have a tour of ANBC and see all of the work that has been accomplished this Spring!

A great day to spend with friends.

Liz and I will be traveling to Nova Scotia today to collect the generous gifts of several churches who have taken part in the Grocery Grabber program. We'll make a little video blog of our journey and take you along with us! It should be a fun week.

Plans for camp are coming along, Staffing is all coming together very nicely - we should be well staffed this year. The Lord has certainly been humbling us as He's provided for us in this area of camp. We are now working to communicate closely with the band leadership and recreation departments to ensure that all of the kids that want to come to camp get here! Please keep this item in prayer over the next few weeks.

On the Road

This past weekend, both Kevin and Marcia, Liz and I were on the road. The Strouts were asked to give an Arrowhead update at Devon park Baptist Church in Fredericton. This past Sunday was their camp Sunday and church members brought in cereal and kitchen items for the various camps represented. This week Rob Burns, pastor of families brought the generous gifts to us here at ANBC.

Gifts like these are such a wonderful blessing to the ministries at Arrowhead.

While the Strouts were at Devon Park, Liz and I visited Nasonworth Baptist Church, just north of Fredericton for their camp Sunday. It was so encouraging to be able to share and then to fellowship with the directors of some of the other Bible camps in our area. Dennis MacQuarrie and his family were representing Sandy Cove Bible Camp, a CSSM ministry. And Steve Alward was representing Greenhill Lake Bible Camp. It's during these brief opportunites for our paths to cross that we can share ideas and burdens with one another! The church held a pot luck following the service and we very much enjoyed fellowship with everyone.

This week we've been busily preparing for the summer; connecting with our staff and campers, doing maintenance and Spring clean-up. We are expecting two NBBI students to join us in just a couple of weeks. They will assist with a lot of the physical jobs that need to be done before everyone else arrives.

It's a busy time, please keep us in prayer as we seek to accomplish everything so that the summer camps may be as effective as possible for the Glory of God!

99 Balloons!

I want to share a video that a friend of mine posted on Facebook today. It is a sad video, but I highly recommend you watch it... don't be overwhelmed by the story and miss the point though.

A lot of people ask me "Why do bad things happen to good people" and there are 2 answers to that question... firstly (in short) that there are no good people (Romans 3:10, Matthew 19:17). But more importantly, bad things are allowed to happen to bring glory to God. This video is an excellent illustration of this.

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him" ~John Piper

Just thought you might appreciate the encouragement... if we are walking with the Lord and allow Him to carry us through the valleys, He will be glorified in us and we will be sustained in Him!

99 Balloons from Igniter Media on Vimeo.

mawio'mi: the gathering 2011

We had a fantastic weekend at Arrowhead with the men for the men's retreat! It was a blessing to have men from around the Maritimes come for a weekend of fellowship, fun and worship! Kirk Hubick, a missionary with Open Air Campaigners came to share with us in four sessions over the course of the weekend. Kirk brought the gospel in a clear and comprehensive way that gave us all cause for pause as we considered our own relationship with the Lord.

Keep Kirk in prayer as he continues to go and labour for the Lord on the streets of our cities and campuses... and consider perhaps joining him!

We were also blessed to have Paul Patterson and Ewen MacKillop come and minister to us in music.

David Goodfellow came to facilitate our 'spud gun' workshop - it was a blast!

And what would a men's retreat be like without lots of grand vittles! The ladies in the kitchen spoiled us for sure!


Here's a video of our spud gun antics! Good times had by all!

Animism and Chronological Bible

This is a great little article on the CMI website pertaining to Animism and the challenges of sharing the Gospel. Just thought I'd share it with you all. I highly recommend giving it a read!

Just click HERE to give it a look.

shuttering...

Last week Kevin and I traveled to Lisbon Falls Maine and had a wonderful meeting with the team from Lisbon Falls Baptist Church that will be coming to minister together at Arrowhead this summer. We are always encouraged by the enthusiasm of the team and look forward to having each of them come this summer.

This week has been busy as we prepare for "the Gathering", Arrowhead's first Men's retreat. Yesterday Liz began preparing the menu and cleaning up. I did some painting in the office. Today while Liz cleaned the main lodge, Roger, Rob and I installed the new shutters in the kitchen and dish palace (due to the recent renovations, the dish pit is now far too nice to be called a pit - so at Lorrayne's encouragement we've decided that it shall henceforth be known as the dish palace). The new shutters will help with noise reduction in the kitchen area.

This afternoon Liz and I put a couple of more coats of paint in the office. Martin Bear and another gentleman are coming tomorrow to install the new flooring in the office - so we're hopeful to have all the painting done before they arrive. I'll post some pictures of the office renovations once we have all of the furniture back in!

Please keep the men's retreat in prayer. It is our first year doing a retreat for men in this way. We are hopeful for good numbers of men and opportunities for ministry.

A new shutter and a new counter for the dish palace.

Roger making some adjustments to the big window shutter!

Holding... holding... holding...

The new shutters look pretty snazzy and should help with kitchen noise reduction.