Christmas Thoughts

For the past week or two, I've been walking around trying to synthesize all the various Christmas messages I've heard along with what's happening in our lives.  Life has been busy and challenging recently with family illnesses, friends in crisis, more friends leaving, and yet another battle with my nemesis, depression. At my church we've been doing a series on the people involved in the Christmas story.  I heard the sessions on both Joseph ( I forgot I was helping in Sunday school, oops!) and Mary. The first Christmas threw their carefully ordered lives into chaos.  What we celebrate as a time of joy, of God's greatest gift to humanity, quite possibly felt like a cruel joke to Mary and Joseph.

Moments ago, I sat down at the computer to respond to an email with yet more troubling news, when suddenly it all connected. During this season of grief, fear, loneliness, doubt and depression, my task is to celebrate Christ. In the midst of an increasingly troubled world, Christ promises peace. Like Mary and Joseph, I don't know what God is doing, but I do know that He is worthy of my trust and worship.

And God is doing some amazing things in our lives. This year God worked a miracle in my mother's life. She has experienced such wonderful healing that she is even driving on the expressway all by herself! This only makes sense if you know my mother, but Steve and I continually praise God for the work He is doing in her.  One of our close relatives almost died twice this year, but God was faithful and he is still alive. I am making new friends which has been a balm to my soul. My friends that haven't moved away have become increasingly busy, but God has been faithful in bringing in new friendships, or revitalizing old ones. We have three healthy children. There were some complications when Kian was born, but he recovered quickly and we were home from hospital within hours. Aris and Zane are growing in the grace and knowledge of God. We were discussing family birthdays when Aris piped up and said that a member of our family has birthday in December. I kinda guessed where she was going with this, but asked "who?". She responded "Jesus! His birthday is in December and He's a part of our family!".  Zane seems a little unsure about Christmas, but he also loves to praise God through song and dance. God has and continues to bless and provide for us, even through troubled circumstances.

May you have a blessed Christmas and experience God's peace in all circumstances, Gracie:)

I'm Back!

Greetings friends!

It’s been far too long since I updated you last.  I apologize for that.


In my last update, I announced that we had a baby boy.  Well Kian is now over 7 months old, and doing quite well!

Since Kian was born, I’ve been on parental leave.  I’ve been helping and supporting my wife and building into my relationships with my kids.  It’s been exciting to be able to get to know Aris’s classmates, and other parents at her school.

While the transition to 3 kids has been an exciting, if not challenging time, I’m pleased to report that Grace has done much better than when Zane was born. (You may recall that she struggled with postpartum depression.)  Praise God for that!

I’ve also been serving my church in various ways, from putting together a new audio-visual system to doing some graphic design work as we moved from a room in another church to a local community center.


From time to time, I’ve had opportunity to do some work for International Teams as well — updates to web sites and services, etc.

As I ease back into life at the office, I’m getting back into managing some of our web sites, assisting with various aspects of this year’s Ride for Refugees, and helping our team with some back-office upgrades that will help us to more effectively serve our missionaries and the church.

I’ve recently completed a project that has significantly improved our web sites and email services in terms of speed and reliability.

Thanks so much for your continued partnership in our ministry!

Steve.

Ride for Refugees

As in previous years, International Teams is hosting the Ride for Refugees.  And we’re growing again.  We will be holding the ride in roughly 10 locations across Canada.  We anticipate 2000 riders taking part, and raising $500,000 for more than 40 different refugee ministries across Canada and around the world.

What an exciting thing to see this fund raiser grow as it has.  It is enabling both our refugee ministries, and many other partner churches and ministries to make a difference in the lives of Refugees.

I’m planning to take part again this year too.  Would you like to sponsor me?  You can at http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=1983939

Would you like to take part in the ride?  It’s not too late.  Go to www.rideforrefugees.com and register to ride, volunteer, or to get more info.

Kids: Where are they now?

Since I last sat down to write to you, we've acquired a new family member. Kian Tobias was born February 23rd, 2008. He was 11 days late. In addition to him being the child that got baked the longest, he has also been my hardest child to nurse. After he finally figured out nursing, he started cutting teeth. Kian is now 7 months old and has 4 teeth.  My older children, on the other hand, cut their first teeth at seven months. This has been a little stressful. However, Kian is also a little joy. He is very snuggly, has a beautiful smile and a wonderful giggle. He loves his siblings, even when they carry him around like a doll. Kian is also very strong. He can sit up, rolls all over the place and really likes to eat his sister's crafts. She does not appreciate this.

Aris is now in senior kindergarten. Once again, she has a wonderful teacher. We so appreciate her teacher's love for her pupils. I was concerned this year as the school board has switched from half day kindergarten to full day, alternate day classes. Thankfully Aris adapted much better than last year. She is enjoying being back in the classroom and seeing her friends again. This fall, we started Aris in dance again. We took last year off and she missed it immensely. One of her best friends is in her class and she is enjoying that as well. With her we never quite know, so we were relieved when Aris took that well. Aris is becoming a big girl. She can do up her zippers, set the table, and is very good at helping her parents and siblings when she wants to. She is also becoming much calmer than she has been. Not only that, but she has a tender heart towards God. This summer Aris got a "big girl" Bible. She loves hearing God's word. I rejoice to see God answer our prayers for her!

This summer Zane turned three. I think I got off fairly easily last year in comparison to now. At the moment, Zane is wearing my makeup because he got into it when he was supposed to be using the bathroom. At lunch he knocked over his juice because he was trying to pick it up while wearing an oven mitt. Shortly before sitting down to write this, I stopped him just as he was about to climb a stool that he had placed on a folding chair. Not surprisingly, Zane has many bumps and bruises.  Zane is also becoming a big boy. He finally potty trained this summer. He has been fairly resistant to this and when i tried to train him, he started waking up screaming in the middle of the night. We gave up and soon after he trained of his own accord. We are very proud of his diaperless status. Zane's favourite things are superheros, cars and pirates. He has a very good imagination and loves playing pretend with his big sister. Even in the midst of his temper tantrums and crazy stunts, Zane is living up to his name: God's gracious gift.

Grace's Space: Here I Am

So I just sat down to write this and the song on the radio seems to sum up exactly where I am right now. The song is "Here I Am" by Downhere.  It talks about giving my life as an offering and that God takes my brokenness and redeems it. This seems to be what's happening in my life right now. God is so good! I rejoice often in how He has taken my brokenness and continually uses it, and makes it beautiful.

This morning I went to mom's group. As I was encouraging my children to enter the building, one of my friends came through. She seemed really down today. How well I understand that!  This week has been particularly challenging and I have started crying several times, saying "I can't do this, I can't do this".  After the study, as I was chatting with my friend, I realized that she might be under spiritual attack. It turned out that she was supposed to lead a Bible study this evening. Whenever I am involved in ministry, or even just doing what God wants me to do, I come under attack, often so badly that I need Steve to pray for me, because I can no longer pray for myself.  So my friends and I stopped and prayed together asking God to protect our friend. For me, this was a huge encouragement. To see God using my brokenness and all my struggles that I would be able to understand and come alongside a hurting friend. I am reminded that God cares about us intimately.

Two weeks ago, I had another cool experience. Once again, I am involved in youth ministry. This is our fifth year of working with the youth. However, this year I am serving with both Lincoln Road Chapel (LRC) and with LifeSpring Christian Fellowship. While I was praying about serving with LRC again, we were away at a youth retreat with both youth groups. After one of the sessions, I ended up talking and praying with a young lady for over an hour. During that time, God took all my struggles with following after God as a teen and enabled me to understand and speak truth to my young friend.

I'm trying to find the words to summarize this nicely and I just can't. I'm blown away by God's goodness! Every time He uses me to speak into someone's life, or pray with someone, I'm overwhelmed with amazement. My life has been utterly transformed in the last six years and all I can do is stand here with my arms lifted in praise. Our God is so good!

Prayer Corner

Thanks so much for your ongoing prayer.  It means so much to us.

Here are some things you can be praying about:

• Pray for God’s direction in the evolution of Steve’s ministry with International Teams


• Pray for wisdom for Grace and Steve as we seek to raise our kids well


• Pray for wisdom and guidance as we seek to lead the youth at our church well


• Pray for opportunities to connect with our neighbors, kids friends parents, and others in our community

Kian's Birth: Fast and Furious

CAUTION: this is a birth story. There will be material that some may find disturbing. If so, please read other postings in this blog.

Kian Tobias was born at 12:46pm on February 23, 2008. He was due February 12th, 2008.

It's a Boy!

We're excited to announce that we have a new baby boy!Kian Tobias was born today at 12:46pm. He was 8 pounds 4.5 ounces.

Here are a few pictures. There's a bunch more to our photo gallery:
http://gallery.vanbruwaene.ca/index.php/2008/2008_02_23
You can even get the full quality ones too! More details for those of you who care about such things:

• Name: Kian Tobias Van Bruwaene


• The birth date is February 23, 2008 at 12:46pm


• He was 8 pounds 4.5 ounces


• He had some trouble breathing at first so was taken to neo natal. We got him back a couple hours later, and he's doing fine


• His first nurse went really well. He's having a bit more trouble now, but is catching on


• Kian was 11 days pas his due date, and was induced. Since we had midwives, this meant a transfer of care, so we ended up with 2 midwives, a nurse, and an OB, plus pediatrics. So we had really great care. I'm sure Grace would be happy to tell anyone who's interested more about the birth.


• Mom and baby are doing well, and looking forward to a (hopefully) good night sleep.

Thanks for your prayers.

Steve & Grace.