Merry slightly-late Christmas and happy New Years!

The Lord works in mysterious ways most of the time and this year has not been disappointing so far!

December 15 has come and gone.  It was the deadline when we would determine whether or not we were going to be able to run the school this year.  We needed five students to make the school financially viable -- money to bring in speakers, pay for rent and groceries, etc.  Of course, we were expecting those five students to miraculously show up but more than that, we were expecting God to show up and take our plans and expectations and make them His!

When the dust settled, we had half the students we needed for this year.  Yes, half!  We had two officially and one guy was sitting on this fence deciding between doing the DTS this year or next year; he settled on next year dropping our 2.5 students to 2.  Not quite enough!

"God, what do you want us to do this winter then??"   

“'I don’t think the way you think.
The way you work isn’t the way I work.' God’s Decree.
“For as the sky soars high above earth,
so the way I work surpasses the way you work,
and the way I think is beyond the way you think...
So will the words that come out of my mouth
not come back empty-handed.
They’ll do the work I sent them to do,
they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.
"So you’ll go out in joy,
you’ll be led into a whole and complete life." - from Isaiah 55

That's right, God does know what He's doing here...

I'm really excited to plan, strategize and spread the word for year's discipleship training school!  A full year to get all of our ducks in a row.  If you've read from the first blog post in August you'll know that this is a dream that so far has been waiting 15 years to come into play, another one won't hurt!

So practically speaking, what will we be doing this winter?

• Office work!
  • Photography/video: getting the cool shots for social/print/web media (also, hopefully some saleable images as well!)
  • Graphic design: I'm currently dusting off my graphics skills designing posters, info cards, etc to help spread the word for next year's SDTS.
  • Video production: creating content and editing a promo video for next year, I'm working with another SDTS staff member on this one.
• Traveling!
  • Locally: Manning Park (Abbotsford Vineyard Young Adults Retreat), Vancouver Island (Mt Washington/Comox Valley).
  • Japan: recon for next year's outreach to Niseko and other locations TBA.
• Ministry!
  • Linking up with Snowboarder's For Christ's North Van group for Friday night rides at Mt Seymour.
  • Treasure Hunts: taking time to see who God wants to talk to both in the city and on the mountain.

How can you partner with me?

• Financially:
  • Living in Vancouver can get expensive!
  • To donate via credit card visit my Chimp page, or go to YWAM Canada's Project Funding page other donation options. My staff code is: Chris Harder | HC23.
  • Alternatively, if you just want to help a brother out you can send to my PayPal account (click this link to grab my email address) as well!
  • Gift cards: SaveOn Foods, Shell, etc are rad! (I'm not huge into Starbucks or Tim Hortons though...)
• Spiritually:
  • Pray for amazing Holy Spirit encounters on the mountain and in the city.
  • I'm still looking for a good church to land in for the next few months (something charismatic), home is still the Abbotsford Vineyard but it's a bit of a trek every Sunday and I'm trying to walk more and drive less!
  • Pray for snow! We've had a lot of inversion layers recently and as much fun as spring conditions are, they're more fun in the spring!
• Locally:
  • Like to ski or board? Come join us for a ride at Seymour! We'll be out a few days/nights a week.
  • If you're in the city, give me a ring for coffee/lunch/dinner!

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