friendproject

I had an idea the other day that I would start another blog where I would write about a different friend of mine every day. I’d write about where we met, three things I like about them, my favorite memory of them, and a picture of me and them. Well, I started it today. The blog is friendproject.wordpress.com so check it out and subscribe to it. Of course the first post is about my wife but the rest will be as random as possible, showing no favorites. My thought behind this is to just encourage and edify each other. Sort of considering one another in order to stir up love and good works. I’d also like to encourage you, if a friend of mine is a friend of yours, to leave some of your own thoughts and memories in the comments section. Help me out and let’s encourage each other.

First Post: Rachel Saul

Grace and Peace,
Ryan
Matthew 9:37-38

Oh, Hey

Sorry for the absence in writing this blog. We have been busy and time has slipped by. Lo Ciento.

So what have we been busy with?

-Baby, obviously.

-We have had a series of amazing visits over the last few months. In April we had were lucky enough to have Barbara here for a solid 10 days, I believe. She made us some awesome dinners and helped with the kids. It was awesome having her here. I am so thankful to have her as a mother in law. I got lucky, I don’t think I could have gotten anyone better. In May we had Brett and Kara and Zac here. What a treat that was. Late nights just talking. We got the chance to hear Brett teach, in person, not online. I got to proudly sit next to Zac as he shared his testimony and taught from Mark at the Sunday night Jericho Road Bible study. I was amazed at how Kara ingests Sriracha like it’s water. In June my mom was here for 10 days as well. What a blessing. She shared her room with the kids the whole time. It was a great relief for us. She made some more awesome motherly dinners and left our freezer full of lasagna and french onion soup. Each visitor was especially hard to say goodbye to but with each visit came a renewed affirmation of God’s plan for our lives.

-Monday is my day off so we have decided that each Monday until we leave we are going to do a family outing of some sort. Two weeks ago we had a picnic and spent the afternoon at the Mer Bleue Bog. It had a beautiful boardwalk through swamps and woods. Johnny was quick to say that there would be gators EVERYWHERE if this was in Florida. Instead there were beaver trails and funny plants. This past Monday we spent the afternoon at the Museum of Civilization. Impressive for sure. We still don’t know what we’re doing this coming Monday so if you have a suggestion, bring it on.

-We have begun packing early for several reasons. 1)Again we have to make the decision of what we are and aren’t taking. 2)We don’t want to put it off and freak out about it as the day is quickly approaching. 3)Our landlord is beginning to show the place so instead of putting things in the corner we decided this would be a good chance to just box them up.

-I have been running lately. You may be familiar with the #HASSELHOFF phase I went through. Well, that turned out to be a one hit wonder just like the program’s namesake. Now my program is the 1 Kings 18:46 program. I’ve always hated running and never been very good at it. I prayed a while back that God would give me the desire and discipline to run and He has. Over the past couple months I’ve been running 20+ miles a week. I usually do a 5k early in the week, then a couple 4-5 milers during the week, and then a long run on Saturday. The longest run I’ve done so far is 13 miles. I’ve become obsessed with distance and for some stupid reason I really want to try to run 50 miles in one day. Anyway…

-I took Johnny to see a longtime hero of mine play in Ottawa. Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music. I’ve known Chuck on an informal level for a while now and had the opportunity to interview him once for REAX magazine. An interview that turned into talking about fishing instead of the tour I was supposed to be asking him about and got cut majorly short in the final print. I got a hold of Chuck before his Ottawa show, a show that was supposed to be 19+, and asked if he could do anything to get Johnny in. Not only did he get Johnny in but made it one of the most memorable nights that Johnny, and I, will have for a long time. Chuck gave Johnny a harmonica, a shirt, and a record signed by him and the band. He also had Johnny help him with his soundcheck. It was an unreal experience. You can see some photos if you click here.

-The kids are in VBS this week and loving it.

-Lastly, and most significant, to me anyway. Rachel. Rachel is amazing me everyday in many ways. Her wisdom, her patience, her love. Daily she goes above and beyond, both as a mother and a wife. Proverbs 18:22 says “He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord.” I can attest to that. It’s true. You want a biblical picture of who Rachel is? Read Proverbs 31:10-31. I knew that I loved her when I married her but I had no idea the deal that I was getting. I have been incredibly blessed by her. Proverbs 27:17 talks about how iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. I usually think of men in my life when I read this, guys like Zac, James, Brett, Andy, my dad and so on. However, I realize that daily Rachel and I are sharpening each other and it’s amazing. God knew what He was doing with marriage. It’s a sort of self sustaining fire and as long as both are earnestly seeking Him, He will provide more than enough fuel for that thing to keep going. Praise Him!

Anyways, as you can see, we’ve been busy. I promise I will get better at being more consistent with the blog. Until then, be excellent to each other.

Grace and Peace,
Ryan
Matthew 9:37-38

A Time of Firsts

Being in Ottawa has been a whole lot of firsts for our family. First time the kids had been in snow. First time experiencing rain, snow, sleet and sun all in the matter of a few hours time. First time Ruth has taken ballet class. First time seeing a beaver in the wild. First time eating a beaver tail. First time watching the seasons. First time participating in Shabbat.

Which leads me to share with you about our dear friends The Gilmans. A family of 12, Alan and Robin’s oldest is 30 and youngest is 7. They are believing Jews and have an incredible family. They started attending Calvary shortly before our arrival. Their oldest daughter Sarah has been a missionary in Haiti since before the earthquake. Adult daughters Naomi, Devorah and Hannah are beautiful dancers and have gone through or are currently attending Ballet Magnificat, a Christian ballet school and company in Jackson, Mississippi. Adult sons Josh and Daniel live and work in Ottawa. Josh works as a reporter at the local news radio station and Daniel works on Parliament Hill and in school for his Masters. And their at-home children Jonathan, Tikvah, Abigail and Nathan are home schooled, play instruments and dance. I tell you all these details because I just adore their family and I want the Saul clan to experience the same unwavering commitment to family. It’s hard to describe the richness of their bonds but one word is so obvious – Jesus. An amazing, inspiring, consuming love and worship of Jesus emanates so brightly from each member of the Gilmans.

So this past Sunday, we attended Tikvah’s (who is also one of Ruth’s ballet teachers!) 13th birthday celebration. It is more commonly known as a Bat Mitzvah but since they are believe in Jesus it is called a Bat Hesed or “Daughter of Grace”. We ate dinner, sang worship, spent time encouraging Tikvah with words, dancing and song (courtesy of her brothers), prayed over her and then participated in some sweet Israeli folk dancing. Then the evening ended with just all out dancing and worshiping of the Lord.

As I mentioned earlier, a number of the girls are dancers and it is just amazing to see how they worship the Lord through dance. If you have a few minutes watch the videos below of the dancing. **Especially the last one which has Johnny pulling out all his breakdance moves.

And check out Alan’s blog Torahbytes for a commentary of the Word from a messianic perspective.

“My mouth just wanted to punch myself in the face” (LeRoy’s)

I figured that since this is my favorite restaurant in Ottawa I would tell you about it. More specifically about my date there last night with my beautiful wife, Rachel.

I have eaten at LeRoy’s a good number of times and have taken ten or so different people there but I haven’t had the chance to take Rachel until last night. Last night Rachel and I shared something so beautiful and intimate together that I could feel us falling in love all over again. That something was the chicken and waffles and the mac and cheese.

Last night I said on facebook that there are only two restaurants that make food so good that it makes me emotional. I was wrong. Upon further consideration there are three. These three restaurants are LeRoy’s, the Taco Bus, and First Choice BBQ(the Taco Bus and First Choice are both in Tampa). By emotional I mean I become a wreck and have a very tough time controlling myself. It’s not a good thing and I imagine it is pretty similar to what crack is like. It usually starts with a couple involuntary Arsenio Hall-ish fist pumps. I can catch those quickly but I also know that it is usually too late once they start. They started last night as I got my appetizer, chicken and a biscuit with butter and syrup. Naturally I quickly made myself a small sandwich of splendor and sensational succulence(Uncle Ted Voice). As I started to eat my creation, which was a joint effort between myself and the geniuses at LeRoy’s, I became overwhelmed with the urge to run through the restaurant and high five everyone. The urge for hand slapping quickly changed to me wanting to throw my sandwich at the wall because it was so good. I restrained. I was able to compose myself long enough to finish and to notice that Rachel was eating a cup of gumbo. I don’t know if she was as overtaken as I was but she did say it was good. Shortly after, I don’t know how long because everything was a whirlwind by this point, our dinner… forgive me, I’m trying to get though this without crying… our dinner came out. I had ordered the chicken and waffles, obviously, and Rachel got the Southern fried chicken with TWO sides of mac and cheese. This was because we split our meals. I shared. If you ever eat with me you know that I loathe the idea of sharing food. My philosophy is this: If you want what I have you should have ordered it. However, LeRoy’s has a way of pulling out even the most hidden of simple childhood qualities, sharing. I don’t know if it is the music or LeRoy and his wife but, and I am not a fan of cliches, you can really feel the love. As we ate our chicken and waffles I began to feel like I was going to lose control again. I was feeling so overwhelmed with a vast variety of emotions. I was so enraptured with the beauty of my wife across the table from me, mixed with the flavor explosions of the two sides of sweet and salty waging war in my mouth that I wanted to cry and I wanted to laugh. I wanted to sing and dance and be happy but at the same time I wanted to go to sleep and sulk into my pillow. At one point I felt like my mouth just wanted to punch myself in the face. It seemed like forever as we dined. I told Rachel that the only thing we were missing was candlelight. I can’t explain everything that happened last night. To be honest, I don’t remember a lot of it. I think the best way to describe eating at LeRoy’s is this: It’s like your wedding day. It’s the best day of your life but you have put so much planning and effort into it that when it comes it goes by so quickly that the memories you have are just a giant blur of jovialousness. Below is a photo of our dinner, post appetizers and sweet water cornbread and pre sweet potato pie. I said sweet potato pie. sweet potato pie. sweet potato pie……

As you look at this single picture. I would recommend that you click to the link ” here ” and open it in another tab and just listen to this man as you look at our food because this is what it sounded like in my head during our entire dinner, especially around the 1:35 mark in the video.

Florida, pt 1.

As hard as it was, we let go of Florida again and are now back in Canada. We had an incredible time with friends and family that we miss a lot. This trip wasn’t just a vacation, though. Rachel and I both had a bit on our plates while we were in town. Here is a rundown of the first half of our trip, from my perspective. I’ll do the second half on Tuesday. Maybe Rachel can add to this…

I won’t get into the travel woes that we experienced in New York but let’s just say we spent the night at JFK airport and got into Tampa nine hours later than scheduled. Rachel went on to Lakeland and I went to Clearwater to meet my brother, Cory, and to pick up the CCSP missions van that they were so gracious to let us use. Cory and I went to Orange Blossom Groves to get a giant cup of OJ and look at the alligator heads. Then we went to Acropol in Clearwater for lunch. After lunch I headed to Lakeland to meet Rachel and the kids.

We spent the first night at Rachel’s dad’s house in Lakeland. We had a great visit and had an opportunity to really share what we have going on in Ottawa and how the Lord is moving up here.

We woke up Sunday morning and went to church at our home church, Calvary Chapel Palm Harbor. We are so blessed by our family there. It was a great reminder of how fortunate we are and how much the Lord has blessed us with the people in our lives. After church, Rachel and I went with James and Brooke to the park for a youth group picnic. I miss those guys and girls a ton and I’m really thankful that I got to spend a good amount of time with some of them. Sunday afternoon, myself, Johnny, and Jim got to get out and fish a little bit and Johnny caught himself a decent trout that is now in the freezer.

I’m totally drawing a blank on Monday. Weird. I do remember that Rachel and I and Jim and Barbara went out for sushi for dinner though. Amazing, sushi is.

Tuesday morning I was given the opportunity to share at the Calvary Chapel St Pete’s men’s breakfast. What a sweet time. Jim Bourland and Zac Copple were kind enough to come with me to the breakfast even though it was at 6:30am on a Tuesday morning. I miss Zac a lot. We used to see each other everyday so being away from him has been one of the harder transitions I’ve had to make. We also got the chance to get breakfast a few times while I was in town. I am very thankful for him and his family. After the breakfast I met with Art Dykstra, the missions pastor at St Pete. This was the first time I’d met Art. I like Art. You may have read in an earlier post that I went to Taco Bus for lunch with my good friends Rob Schwager and Jimmy Likeness. If you didn’t read it, go back and look at the pictures. For real. I got a chance to spend a lot of time with James on this trip, too. That was a great blessing. Tuesday afternoon I got to pick my sister, Kasi, up at the airport and then we waited there for the crew to get back from the mission trip to Kenya. My mom and dad were part of that crew so when they arrived our week became SaulGood. The whole family went to Acropol for dinner. I was so nice to have everyone back together again, even if it was for a brief time.

Wednesday was a good day. I went up to church a bit early to study because I was given the opportunity to teach on Wednesday night. Brett and I went out to Brady’s BBQ in Safety Harbor for lunch and got some amazingness. Again, please refer to previous post. Wednesday night was an awesome night. It was an huge honor to have the chance to share with everyone in Palm Harbor. I shared a bit about Ottawa and what we have going on up here and then I taught through Romans 12. I have personally been so convicted by this chapter and it was amazing getting to share it to a big group of people who I love and I really wanted to hear it, too. God is good. When the service was done, I had everyone break up into small groups and pray with each other. I regret not taking a picture because it was really cool to see.

Thursday morning began with breakfast with Zac. Then I went up to the church and helped for a little bit in getting the sanctuary ready for the women’s conference. I went to lunch with Brett, Jim, James, Daniel, Chris, and Justin. I miss our Thursday lunches and it was nice getting to join everyone this week. Rachel was spending a good amount of her time up to this point getting prepared for the conference. Thursday night Rachel and I, accompanied by our good Canadian friend, Chelsea Gardiner, got to hang out with the Palomino’s small group from CCSP. What an awesome group. We got to share a bit, eat together, and pray together. I’m thankful for the new relationships we have there. Thursday night I was going to go fishing with my good friend Steve Musha but the wind was a bit out of control so we decided to grab some coffee, go to the Safety Harbor pier and talk. I had such an encouraging time with Steve. He is one of my best friends and I am so thankful for him and his amazing wife, Darby. There are some people that you know the Lord has placed in your life solely for the purpose of sincere friendship. Steve is one of those people.

I am so thankful for our family in Flroida. I am also so thankful for our family in Ottawa. This is the beauty of God’s family; it is so abundant and without bounds. There is nothing that you can share in common with someone that will bring people together bore than the common bond of a love for and a relationship with Jesus Christ. If you’re not, you want to get in on this family. Trust me.

Grace and peace,
Ryan

Matthew 9:37-38

The Taco Bus

Again, apologies for the delay between posts. As you may or may not know, we are in Florida right now as Rachel is speaking at the Calvary Chapel Palm Harbor women’s conference this weekend. I had the opportunity to speak at the Calvary St Pete’s Men’s Breakfast this morning and I get to teach tomorrow night at the Calvary Palm Harbor mid-week service. This stuff rules, of course, but what I’m really excited about is what you see below. I went to the Taco Bus today with my friends, James Likeness and Rob Schwager. The three of us shared something today that none of us will ever forget. You’ll never know what that is if you’ve never been and it is something that is, unfortunately, indescribable.

Back at it…

I had a nice couple weeks of not logging into our blog page. We have been fortunate enough to spend our holiday with our families even though we are a country apart. My sister, Kasi, was the first to show up. She came from Calvary Chapel Bible College in Murrieta, California. She flew in on the 9th and was with us until the 2nd. Next to come was Jim and Barbara, Rachel’s parents. They came in on the 18th and were with us through the 22nd. It was such a blessing having them here and I am so thankful that God has put them in my life. I wish they could have stayed longer. While they were here we got the chance to do some fun things. Jim went with me to the Jericho Road Bible study that I teach on Sunday nights and then we had a great dinner with our friends, Joel and Kathy, from church. We also had the chance to do a bit of sledding. You can see some of the videos on our youtube page if you click here.

Sadly, Jim and Barbara had to leave on the 22nd. It was bittersweet because they were leaving but it meant that my parents, my brother Cory and his fiancé Elizabeth would join us the next day. What ensued over the next 10 days was a whirlwind of laughs, pink eye, biscuits and gravy, grits, sledding, arguments, dancing, the Ruby’s, the Gilman’s, and a bunch of other variables that totaled a truly Saul Good time. It was a bummer to see Cory and Eli leave. It was a bigger bummer to see my mom, dad, and Kasi leave.

I thank God for my family. I thank Him that we were able to spend the holidays together. However thankful I am for these things, though, I am more thankful knowing that we are spreading back out across the country with an intimate knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the hearts to share it. I feel renewed and encouraged after having the chance to spend time with family but more importantly I am reminded and reassured of the sacrifice that is necessary to pursue the will of God. I feel like Rachel and I are running on full tanks again and have a long road trip ahead. I am also confident that we are walking in His guidance and His will and I am excited to be used. I am so unworthy but He is so worthy.

Grace and peace,
Ryan

Matthew 9:37-38

Church Politics pt 2

Just kidding again. This story isn’t about church politics. It’s actually about a miracle that happened around Christmas but as tempting and appropriate as titles such as “Miracle on 34th Street” or “A Christmas Story” or “A Christmas Miracle” are, I decided to go another route. Anyway, read the story and be encouraged.

Rachel has been suffering from a toothache for a while but we didn’t think it was very serious at first. Being that we are on a very limited budget, we weren’t able to make a dental visit a priority so Rachel dealt with it for a while. I think it may have been more painful than she led on but over the last few weeks it got out of control. It got to the point that she would be waking up at night in pain and wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep. We prayed for God to provide the funds for a trip to the dentist, anticipating a pretty heavy bill. We had made the decision that we were just going to make an appointment and trust God to provide. He has been faithful in everything so far so why would this be different? Well, we weren’t expecting the provision that He had planned.

Rachel called dentists all over the city and couldn’t find any that would work on a payment plan. We had no idea the costs and didn’t want to be surprised with a huge bill that we couldn’t afford. She was finally able to find one so she made the appointment. It was scheduled for this past Tuesday. Over the weekend Jon and Vikki Ruby told Rachel that there is a dentist in the Ottawa Mission and that you can get treatment for free there. We were pumped. We called and canceled Rachel’s appointment and planned to go to the mission on Tuesday morning. Tuesday came around and we drove through some insane snowy streets to get to the mission. I walked Rachel inside and we found the dentist office. The tech was in there at the time and I asked him about setting an appointment for her. He asked if she was homeless and then said that they can only treat homeless people there. I pulled the Jon Ruby card and a woman from another room yelled out, “If they’re with Jericho then they’re ok.” Sweet, we were in. But then the tech said that they still wouldn’t be able to see here until January 4th. We were pretty crushed. We walked back to the car without a plan now. The appointment she had set was canceled and the dentist office was closing on Wednesday for two weeks. We were stuck. As we were buckling up in the car, I felt like God was telling me to go back inside and try one more time. Rachel and I prayed and I went back in. I told the tech that my wife is in a lot of pain and we have no other options. I asked if there was anything that he could do and he said, hesitantly, “Come back at 1.” Excited, I hurried back to the car and told Rachel. She was pumped, too. We thought this was it, our prayers were answered. And they were, almost.

We showed up back at the dentist at 1 and went in to meet the dentist and the tech. The dentist asked a few questions and went on to say that they don’t normally treat anyone who isn’t homeless but he would check her out. While he was looking at her teeth he was asking questions. We found out that we had a mutual friend in Doug Sprunt and we told him our situation. That we were from Florida and briefly how and why we were here. When he finished looking at her teeth he said it was too much to take care of at the mission, they don’t have the resources there, but he can see Rachel at his office. It was a blessing but I was now afraid that it would be expensive. As he was getting his card for us I asked him if he would be able to work on a payment plan. He looked at me and said, “I’m not gonna charge you.” Wow. Not only was Rachel going to get the care that she really needs now but we weren’t going to be charged for a potentially very expensive dental bill. God answered our prayers in a way that we never would have expected. This was an out and out miracle. No doubt.

To top it all off and to bring more glory to the God who knows our needs better than we do I’ll share this quick side story. A few nights before this happened Rachel was up in pain and couldn’t fall asleep. It broke my heart to hear her cry and I started praying. I asked God to just take the pain away and let her sleep. I felt that it wasn’t fair that she had to endure this. I even volunteered to take her place with the pain but nothing happened. I began to get frustrated with God because I felt like He was just not listening. In hindsight His timing was again perfect. If He would have healed her that night, or even numbed the pain, then we wouldn’t have pushed so hard to get into a dentist so quickly. If we hadn’t pushed then God wouldn’t have received the Glory for His continued provision in our lives. We also wouldn’t have been able to be firsthand witnesses to His perfect wisdom, timing, love, and provision. We are so thankful to serve a God who is so faithful. Please continue to pray for us as our adventure here grows. Pray that God would continue to provide us with opportunities to share His gospel and to love.

The dentist’s name is Dr Tom Harle, and his website is http://www.tomharle.com. I’d encourage you to poke around on there a bit and see what he has going on. God is the only reason that we were matched up with him. It’s exciting to be a part of a miracle.

Grace and peace,

Ryan

Matthew 9:37-38

What a weekend.

As you may or may not know, my sister Kasi showed up on Thursday. She will be staying with us through New Years and it is such a blessing. I picked her up at the airport Thursday night with a large double double from Tim Hortons and gave her a mini tour. Saturday Kasi and I had to run out to grab some last minute birthday presents for Johnny and we got a chance to see a little bit more of the city, too. We had church a memorable service Saturday night. You can read more about it at Andy’s blog, here. I really wanted Kasi to get a chance to meet and hang out with Jon and Vikki Ruby and it happened that I was hanging out with them after church. I invited Kasi to come along and so she and I piled in the Ruby’s car and “went out”, or whatever the kids are calling it these days. Little did Kasi know, but we were heading to Boston Pizza to watch UFC 124. Kasi, although squirming and on the edge of her seat for three hours, was a great sport.

We celebrated Johnny’s 5th birthday on Sunday. He had some friends over and had a typical five year old’s birthday party. There was cake, presents, playing, crying, messes, and fun had by all. I can not believe that Johnny is five years old. I can not believe that Johnny is five years old. I can not believe that Johnny is five years old.

We had the Jericho Road Bible study on Sunday night. I am overwhelmed with what a blessing that study is for me. If all of the other guys get nothing out of it, I can tell you that I am growing.

Yesterday we went downtown because Rachel had a baby doctor appointment. The girls went to the appointment and Johnny and I had some man time which included hot chocolate, a trip to a toy store, and buying trick candy that makes your mouth turn green and giving it to Kasi and Ruth. We then went out for lunch for Johnny’s birthday and headed out west, really west, to get our Christmas tree.

The Christmas tree experience, I’d say, has been the first real winter experience we’ve had so far. We went to Ian’s Evergreen Plantation in Ashton. This place was too legit to quit. First of all it was snowing and cold. Secondly, they have reindeer. Thirdly, you cut down your own tree like a man. And last but not least, they serve hot chocolate around the campfire after you cut down your tree. It was awesome. When we finished the hot chocolate we got in the car to leave and I just needed to tie the tree down on the roof. By this time I was frozen and having a hard time with simple motor skills. Reminiscent of the episode of Man vs Wild when he couldn’t unlock a lock because his hands were so cold, I had a very hard time tying a knot. Another funny side note from this trip, I was wearing cut off gloves with my fingers exposed and my fingers were freezing. I mentioned it a few times to everyone and we kept doing our thing. After a while, it sort of clicked in Rachel’s head and she said, “Well, do you want one of my gloves? I have two pair on…”

This morning we woke up to a lot of snow. I, being from Florida and everything, would say that we had a “real snow” last night. Am I correct in thinking this, Canadians? The streets are slippery and the traffic is slow but once you get used to the car sliding everywhere and you learn how to control the uncontrollable you are fine.

We are heading into a new season here and a new season of our lives, I believe. Baby on the way, still pretty new surroundings, new friends who now feel like old friends and family, and a lot still to learn. Please continue to pray for us as we serve up here in Ottawa. It is so exciting to see what God is doing and I know I say it often but I am so honored and excited to be able to be a part of it.

God bless.

Grace and Peace,
Ryan

Matthew 9:37-38

Giving the Gospel this Christmas

Some friends of ours here in Ottawa are doing a cool thing this Christmas. Below is an email I got yesterday from Margie Rennie with some info on what they have going on:

Dear Friends! Merry Christmas!! In the next couple of weeks the malls are going to get busier, the streets are going to light up with Christmas lights, side walks are going to become crunchy with snow and our houses are going to be filled with Christmas food and family and friends. For some people.. this is what defines the Christmas season… What if… this Christmas families across Ottawa encountered Jesus! What if…this Christmas people in Ottawa encountered the love of God??!!! … what greater gift can we give this Christmas … than the Gospel! As some of you may remember, back in December 2008 we (The Lower Town Ministry) had an outreach here in Lowertown where we went door to door and handed out a copy of the Jesus DVD (in 17 languages). We did this to approximately 3000 doors here in our neighborhood! Because of that distribution, we connected with many neighbors and developed relationships that still exist. In addition to Lowertown, there are 4 other neighborhood in the west-end of the city that we want to distribute Jesus Dvd’s as well. In total, we are hoping to distribute approximately 8000 dvds to 5 neighborhoods! Would you consider signing up to help us distribute the Jesus Film DVD’s for NEXT WEEKEND: DECEMBER 18th and 19th? We need all the help we can get. Please feel free to forward this to you friends.

If you are in Ottawa and feel led to participate in this, then get on it! In the spirit of being organized, they have set up a fancy sign up sheet online. You can view it and sign up for it by clicking here.

If you can’t participate directly by being here to help, I’d like to encourage you to still participate by praying for our brothers and sisters and for a fruitful return on this investment.

Grace and Peace,
Ryan

Matthew 9:37-38