A hard year, but...menh, whatev'!

This last year I have eaten more cans of tuna than I thought possible, have paid for gas in pennies, have slept on the floor 300 consecutive nights, and have had five jobs lasting less than two weeks, all seemingly as a result of following God. How can this be? Read on.

Well, as the title suggests,It's been going on one year now that I have been living in Toronto again. Last August I was living in St. Stephen, had just finished a job with my university, and was very confused about where the future was heading. Then, in an attempt at a vacation, I drove to Toronto to attend the wedding of two friends. Turns out a lot more happened than just the wedding. The time frame coincided with another wedding, and TACF youth camp. I signed on to be a counselor, and arrived just in time to go to camp.

At camp I resumed contact with some old friends, and also met an incredible young woman, and we hit it off pretty well. On the thursday night of camp, God wrestled me to the ground, and began to speak to me of my future, and that it would be found in Toronto. So I started to think about it some. Duncan and Kate Smith, Youth and Young adult Pastors at TACF, said that I could jump right in to their leadership team/ Cell group. A Master bass player volunteered to take me on as a pupil, and I found an interesting education program to look into. A construction company agreed to hire me, and the pay would be fifteen an hour.

It was all very alluring, and obviously superior to just passing time in St. Stephen, so I made the leap, and on October 13th, 2005, I moved back to Toronto. This post is about what has happened since that time. Or some small taste of what's happened anyway.

When I returned to Toronto, the first person to meet me was the aforementioned girl. We had an exciting time of reconnecting, grabbing some coffee, and feeling out where things were headed. For about a month things seemed pretty good, but ultimately, the relationship never really got moving. She was a student in a school that was so heart-intensive, that it didn't really lend toward romance during the course of the school. In fact, it's actively frowned upon. As such, and in addition to various other causes, that relationship has been friends, full stop. A bit of a disappointment, as regards the excited young man moving to Toronto last year, but actually a divine circumstance, as regards the young man typing this post today.

Also very early in the year, I found that attaining gainful employment would prove to be difficult, and it remained so for quite some time. I worked for two weeks here, a week there, at all told five different jobs in the first four months of being here. That makes for a very frustrated, demoralized attitude towards work/employment. However, I have now found a job as a glorious barista.

Are you starting to see that things didn't really go as planned? Well don't fret, as I am still smiling.

I tried week in week out to start up a cell group, and for months only one person showed up. I invited people, prayed for people to come, and one guy came. As soon as a second guy came, the first guy quit. It was crazy. It went on like this for a few months, but now I am pleased to say that I have a great core group of guys who are present, whom I love, whom are themselves growing into leading cells.

Music has been interesting over the last year. Things didn't pan out at work, so I had very little money. Having very little money, I couldn't afford to take bass lessons. But instead, I started playing bass right away at a new downtown church plant, and that led to playing in the band at Freshwind, a major youth conference at TACF. Playing at Freshwind in Toronto led to playing at Freshwind in Texas, which led to meeting a lovely girl, which led to a subsequent relationship that is nearing two months on at this point. That is a happy surprise, believe me. Carolyn is her name, and our relationship is beautifully joyous, challenging, romantic, and exciting.

So let's recap: I came to Toronto expecting to work in Construction, lifting heavy things all day. Instead, I find myself indoors, surrounded by smiling people, and coffee. I was hoping to advance on the bass with an instructor, but instead have jumped right into the fire, playing nearly every week. I expected romance in one relationship, and found that there was none, but instead was totally surprised by it elsewhere. Altogether not too bad of a year, I must say. Absolutely nothing went the way I had planned it, but that's the adventure of following God, isn't it? I don't think I'll be getting off this ride any time soon.