Jonathan Manafo

We’re back form Montreal and into the regular grind. What a great trip. It was so cool to be able to help the Westside Gathering with there kids camp. A total of 26 kids were registered for the week (a WSG record). The team of students and leaders exhibited such servant hearts. They worked hard and used there energy and skills to help a community in need. We not only ran the camp, but helped distribute promo for WSG’s ‘community fest’ happening in a few weeks and put on a free car wash in the community.

Of course it’s always great to be in Montreal. What a great city. So much life and action. I miss living there. Everytime I go I’m reminded that Quebec is a huge area of need for spiritual health to be communicated. WSG has been up and running for 3 years. They have about 40 adults, plus children, who gather weekly to learn about Christ’s message and live out his pirniciples. A church like that in Ontario could easily be at 150 by now, but the ground in Quebec is much more resistant to the gospel.

Please pray for WSG and other communities of faith that are living out God’s kingdom and letting people know that God loves them.

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I realize that my last blog entry was well over 2 weeks ago. Needless to say it’s been quite busy. So here’s a recap on my life since Easter.

- I already told you about Peterborough…great experience at the Cedarside Gathering

- From there my family and I travelled to ‘la belle province’ (Montreal) to hang out with my twin brother and his family. As we arrived I quickly got changed and played ball hockey with some guys from his church. It was cool to meet some new people and re-connect with some old friends. We were only there a couple of days, but our families had a great time together. I love Montreal. It’s the coolest city I know.

- Got back and had to plan for our 4th LOBBY Cafe. It was another great night. This time we went a little deeper than most cafes on the teaching side of things - But once again there were a number of area churches represented and also a few unchurched friends that hung with us for the night.

- I had a huge paper due for a class I took this semester and finally got it done at 2:30 Monday morning. The paper was fun to write, but unfortunately I’ve been so busy that I couldn’t put as much in it as I would have liked. I wrote about intentional and unintentional truth in the music of U2, John Mayer and Sheryl Crow. Maybe I’ll post it some time.

- From there we I scooted over to a Dsitrict Conference for the demoniation I’m credentialed with. It was much better than the last one we attended. The new leadership seems to be much more consious of moving forward with integrity and honesty. The Financial picture is a little bleek, but their hearts may be purer than ever, so I believe God will bless our leadership’s efforts to move forward and serve the church well.

- From there we finally got home to rest a little. It felt great to have a Saturday that only involved my family. I swear we did nothing all day…the way God intended the Sabath to be.

- Oh ya, this past Friday, I played bass with my friend Phil at a Toronto Youth Rally. I was so impressed with the intentional multiculturalism. The city churches have moved to a much more inclusive fromat. There had to have been 400-500 students in at church at Jane and Steeles. The vibe was amazing. I was so glad to be a part of it. Back at my church I had my cousine Joe fill in for me with our student ministry. He did a kicking job as always. The students just loved him…and it wasn’t just his long sideburns, tatoos and spacers in his ears. Joe has a way of connecting with students and relaying biblical truth.

- This week I feel refreshed and ready for what God has in store. Our church is doing a series called, ‘Coach in your corner’ which is a 7 week series on the Holy Spirit. Mark (our lead Pastor) is away so I’ll be speaking on the ‘directionally challenged’ (following the Holy Spirit’s leading). Sounds quite Pentecostal doesn’t it. Well it is, but it’s also very Biblical. I’ll try and post a recap on it next week.

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Just recently there’s been a change in our student ministy at (clc) which means that I’m overseeing the students as we look for another leader. That said I had the opportunity to travel with them on a retreat this past weekend and we had a blast. I’ll try and upload some pictures soon.

I had a friend of mine speak…fellow blogger dom ruso. He leads the embasy, campus ministry at the University of Waterloo. I wanted to say that he was excellent. You know when you’re friends and you spend so much time together (and we do, we play music together and have been friends for a long time) you don’t always see every facet of who he/she may be. Dom displays a wonderful passion for scripture and the church and he got across to our students so well. I’m probably saying this more as a plug than anything else…but its fun to promote friends.

Our students had a blast, they responded so well to the sessions and interacted great with one another. The best moment had to be when we sang Happy Birthday to a young girl. Let me explain. This girl had left me a note at the front door of the church on Wednesday…with lipstick I might add…about wanting to come to retreat. Initially I thought it was from a stalker, but then we called the number on the paper and found out who it was. Her foster parent told me that it was her birthday on Saturday and that all she wanted to do was go away with the church. She also told me that her foster child had never asked for anything like that before and really wanted send her. This girl didn’t know that we knew it was her birthday…it was really special to see the surprised look on her face.

Students are great. My role with them over these next few weeks will bw above what I normally do at our church, but I love every minute of it. We’re praying for a new leader, but in the mean time, I’ll give them what I got.

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