Dear Friends, 

I had the privilege of flying to New Mexico last week to attend some pastoral meetings. It was an extremely beneficial and useful time and I managed to use a three hour break in the proceedings to ride 40km along the Rio Grande River. I rode this route last year and decided to go north this time. For the record, south is more interesting! But it was still nice to be in the sun and see all the interesting flora and fauna. The Rio Grande itself is one of the uglier rivers I have seen. Both times I have been there it has been flowing strong, but dirt brown and full of lots of floating refuse. 

How unlike that other River…

Psalm 46:4–5
    There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
        the holy habitation of the Most High.

That river that points to another!

Revelation 22:1–2 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 

And a day will come when…

Psalm 36:8–9
    They feast on the abundance of your house,
        and you give them drink from the river of your delights.

As Spring pops, look at the rivers in Toronto and remind your heart of the River of Delights!

Summer Cometh
We are getting quite excited for the start of our new Assistant Minister, Connery Vanderkooy. He starts in the office on May 23. Pray for Connery and Annika's smooth move and easy transition to Toronto. T-14 days!
We are also tidying up our summer plans. We hope to have lots of good and fun and useful things to do with one another this summer. Pray for wisdom, resources and fruit.

We Need a Replacement
Our friend, Sam Clemens, marched into my office last week and quit. Okay, not really. Like, not even close! But, Sam is moving on and that opens up a position for a man or woman to serve as our second Facility Maintenance person, working under Jaime Walks. We will be accepting applications for this position until May 17, so you will need to act quickly. See the link below for the posting. 

Hobbits Named Sam
Speaking of people named Sam. Well, of hobbits named Sam. (Are hobbits people? I honestly have no idea.) Anyway, do you recall when Samwise Gamgee said this?

“It's like the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad has happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines, it'll shine out the clearer. I know now folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something. That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for.” 

Pregnancy Care Centre Long Walk
Maybe Sam’s words will encourage you to carry on this week? They might even encourage you to keep on walking the full 5km at the Pregnancy Care Centre Fundraiser on Saturday at 9AM at The People’s Church (374 Sheppard Ave E). 

Prayer, Matey!
If you use PrayerMate to help you pray for fellow church members, I would like to hear about that. You can reply to this email to let me know if that is useful, helpful, etc.

Paul