Wednesday, July 30, 2008

I do not think of enjoying, I should. I am.

Sometimes it is relevant to let someone else's words speak for you...
I shall have more to say, but my mind is absorbing Existentialism at the moment, and though I currently wish to embrace body time and enjoy, I am mixed between the two worlds as I also long for this 'Philosophy of Western Civilization' course to close because it will usher in the arrival of my girlfriend and my first time ever to experience summer loving; I would posit it will have nothing to do with the ideas presented in Grease the musical, and everything to do with experiencing sacred romance.

Consider embracing each moment based on the thoughts of Einstein from 103 years ago:

"24 April 1905 In this world, there are two times.

There is mechanical time and there is body time. The first is as rigid and metallic as a massive pendulum of iron that swings back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. The second squirms and wriggles like a bluefish in a bay. The first is unyielding, predetermined. The second makes up its mind as it goes along.

Many are convinced that mechanical time does not exist. When they pass the giant clock on the Kramgasse they go not see it; nor do they hear its chimes while sending packages on Postgasse or strolling between flowers in the Rosengarten. They wear watches on their wrists, but only as ornaments or as courtesies to those who would give timepieces as gifts. They do not keep clocks in their houses. Instead, they listen to their heartbeats. They feel the rhythms of their moods and desires. Such people eat when they are hungry, go to their jobs at the millinery or the chemist's when they wake from their sleep, make love all hours of the day. Such people laugh at the thought of mechanical time. They know that time moves in fits and starts. They know that time struggles forward with a weight on its back when they are rushing an injured child to the hospital or bearing the gaze of a neighbor wronged. And they know too that time darts across the field of vision when they are eating well with friends or receiving praise or lying in the arms of a secret lover.


Then there are those who think their bodies don't exist. They live by mechanical time. They rise at seven o'clock in the morning. They eat their lunch at noon and their supper at six. They arrive at their appointments on time, precisely by the clock. They make love between eight and ten at night. They work forty hours a week, read the Sunday paper on Sunday, play chess on Tuesday nights. When their stomach growls, they look at their watch to see if it is time to eat. When they begin to lose themselves in a concert, they look at the clock above the stage to see when it will be time to go home. They know that the body is not a thing of wild magic, but a collection of chemicals, tissues, and nerve impulses. Thoughts are no more than electrical surges in the brain. Sexual arousal is no more than a flow of chemicals to certain nerve endings. Sadness no more than a bit of acid transfixed in the cerebellum. In short, the body is a machine, subject to the same laws of electricity and mechanics as an electron or clock. As such, the body must be addressed in the language of physics. And if the body speaks, it is the speaking only of so many levers and forces. The body is a thing to be ordered, not obeyed.

Taking the night air along the river Aare, one sees evidence for the two worlds in one. A boatman gauges his position in the dark by counting seconds drifted in the water's current. "One, three meters. Two, six meters. Three nine meters." His voice cuts through the black in clean and certain syllables. Beneath a lamppost on the Nydegg Bridge, two brothers who have not seen each other for a year stand and drink and laugh. The bell of St. Vincent's Cathedral sings ten times. In seconds, lights in the apartments lining Schifflaube wink out, in a perfect mechanized response, like the deductions of Euclid's geometry. Lying on the riverbank, two lovers look up lazily, awakened from a timeless sleep by the distant church bells, surprised to find that night has come.

Where the two times meet, desperation. Where the two times go their separate ways, contentment. For, miraculously, a barrister, a nurse, a baker can make a world in either time, but not in both times. Each time is true, but the truths are not the same."


Friday, July 25, 2008

French Project Update # 6 - Nice

Original letter written June 28, 2008:

Hello Family & Friends,

I will be sending you a more detailed update once I return to Canada and take a time to digest all that has transpired that the Lord has done in my life and the lives of others on the project.

This update is just to let you all know that I am currently in Nice, France serving with Calvary Chapel Nice, a sister church to my own in Calgary.I have met some great people here and it is always a blessing to be with a church family when you are away from your own.
Here are a few photos and a little summary that the Pastor of Calvary Chapel Nice posted on the church blog:

http://ccnice.blogspot.com

(text translation: Big Summer Cleaning "Jonathan Brower's visit from Calvary Chapel Calgary in Canada has given us the occasion to do a big summer cleaning. Thank you to him, Daniel, Jeni and Marc for a hard labour in the midst of the intense heat")

The week has been busy and very relaxing at the same time. The weather here could be technically described as a heat wave, well at least to me. I am sitting on my bed with my friend Jeni's laptop as a big fan blows cold air into my face, so refreshing! Even more refreshing (the gelato flavoured as black olives, or cactus or poppy!! Yummy. (also available, Avocado, Vanilla with Pepper and Rose, Thyme, Tomato Basil, Lavender...).

I have been able to help out with little fix it up things for the church this week as well as be able to see some of my friends who did Youth With A Mission here in France with me 3 years ago, a mini reunion of sorts.
We have been able to take times of worship and prayer together like on the school and what a gift from God, I met a Quebecois guy from Montreal (William) at my friends' hostel and was privileged to share my faith with him in the 4 hours we all spent together, how cool that it fell in line with my vision as well as the project I just finished with Campus for Christ.

I can't wait to give you all more details about the last week and a bit of ministry our team shared in Paris, but lets just say for me it was the week where I was completely blown out of the water by the Lord and He gave me an even clearer vision of His heart...lots more to say later. I return to Calgary the evening of June 30th.

Can I just tell you all that you are valued by me and I appreciate your prayers, your vision and your support in my life, and most certainly your friendship. Thank you for sharing these experiences with me! Thank you for your support and thank you for reading, I know I write a lot.

An encouragement for you all, as you have been praying for me I have been living your prayers, you have been here with me and I have been so thankful for that extra company, just knowing that you have been on your knees for me, seeing the power of God so strong and thinking "God is really moving here and I know its not just cause I am here and ready, its the power of your prayers". As Proverbs 25:25 says " Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land" --you have been a part of turning on the tap, praise be to God for you.

Prayer requests
-that the Lord would protect all He has taught my team and me through this time
-that re-entry would be smooth, restful and encouraging
-that the rest of my ministry time would be a blessing to the Lord and his church here in Nice
-that the Lord would use what I have experienced here to bless others and encourage them when I get home
-that the Holy Spirit would continue working on the hearts of those our team spoke with in Montreal and Paris (and Nice), and that our communication with those contacts as friends would continue and bring Him glory and help them know Him more

Little story: The very first picture you see at the top of this letter has a guy named Kris from Scotland right beside me whom I rode the train back from Nice to Paris with and told him Bible stories and prayed for his heat stroke (he's not a Christian, but really appreciated it). Also in that same pic at the table, at the very back left is Bryan a triathlete who had just run the Ironman whom we talked to about faith and turns out he goes to church back home but had been training so much he hadny connected with God for a long time. We invited him to be part of our worship and prayer session the next morning as all these people were from the same hostel. He loved it, and we all got along famously and spent most of our time together. Also, there is a picture of me with William the Quebecois near the middle (He's drinking a beer), that was the night, the only few hours I had, where I got to share the gospel with him and talk about living faith, it was so great to get to know all these people and just share with them our love for Jesus. What a privilege to be with such a group of French, English, Swiss, and American youth souled out for God.

In Him,

Jonathan Brower
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My YWAM friends, Left to right: Junior & Gaelle, Esther, me, Marie, Christophe, Katie and then our missionary friend Jeni from Calvary Chapel Nice


French Project Update # 5 - Paris

Original letter written on June 14, 2008:

I am writing from an internet cafe in Paris around the area Montparnasse, just about to spend a day of free time recouping from a very full and challenging week in the City of Lights. It is ironic that we have yet to be out past dark because it doesn't become night here until near 11 and we are in need of a lot of sleep, so in fact we have yet to see the "Lights". Frogive me for any spelling errors on these difficult french keyboards!

We arrived in Paris last Thursday and started ministry on Friday. My team has been assigned the campuses of La Sorbonne and La Dauphine. The former is one of the most famous Universities in France and La Dauphine is a very upscale school for students from bourgeoisie parents. The way ministry is working here is that because of French policy within all public institutions, we are unable to do any formal ministry or events in the buildings. So, we have been eating lunch outside with the students at Sorbonne and inside thankfully at Dauphine. Our primary target here is to touch the lives of French students on the campuses and mainly it has been happening through friendship, spiritual interest surveys, and an artistic photo tool called Solarium. We eat our lunch with the students and cannot hand out any literature in the buildings, but outside in the university square "Place de la Sorbonne"
we have had much success with meeting students and sharing the gospel with them.
French students are very open to talk about spiritual things and their opinions, as well to hear ours, but the nature of their decisions to follow Jesus comes slower after a developed friendship and talking through issues of faith. With two weeks here we are doing our best to accommodate this fact, but we also have many contacts here that live here year round and can meet with the students we have spoken to.


The beauty of ministry here is that once a French student accepts the Lord, it is a decision for life and they do not take it lightly.

Our team has been joined with 4 Russian girls and one Lithuanian staff girl all from Agape (Campus for Christ) International. My team is doing extremely well in unity, but our biggest challenge here in health as the pollution a spiritual heaviness here has taken a bit of q toll. I have had allergies since we arrived matched with a cold/sore throat, but my spirit is well. There have been a couple evident spiritual attacks on our team but we have the victory in Jesus and we know that He goes before us in battle; so we are not fearful but truly realize that what we are doing here is making a difference.

Our team has also encouraged the Paris Agape staff working with us and one staff worker told us yesterday that as President Bush is here in Paris for two days, the world thinks its a big deal, but in reality, our presence here is much more important in God's eyes.

Please pray for: health, energy,
effective witness with students,
effective and successful follow-up's,
Monday night art discussion outreach at Cafe Genesis where we have invited those we've met,
perseverance,
clarity for me in long term calling.

You are all such a blessing and encouragement to me, may the Lord bless you as you rest in Him and see His greatness and faithfulness in your lives!!

In Him,

Jonathan Brower

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Au Revoir Montréal, Bonjour Paris - French Project Update # 4

Original letter written on June 4, 2008

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Resumé of Montreal Experience
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Our team with Campus for Christ has finished our journey in Montreal and are heading off tonight for Paris for the remaining 2.5 weeks of the project! We are about to make a huge language transition from Quebecois to Parisian French...should be interesting and hilarious to say the least!

We have so much to be thankful for and have seen God move in huge ways here. Just to quickly put it in perspective, this missions project is the first of its kind like this with Campus for Christ. The work the Lord has done in preparing this terrain of open hearts in Montreal has been years in the making, it is invisible prayer work and work of former missionaries, but also work from your prayers for my team, this city, this project and me. Thank you! Success is relative in ministry as counting numbers does not do justice to the hidden spiritual victories that you all through your intercession prayers have helped my team and I through, but to give you a bit of perspective on what we can measure of what God has done I will give you a tangible example. This past year, throughout the entire province of Quebec the ministry of Campus for Christ has seen 23 people give their lives to Jesus. Our team director worked here in Montreal on University campuses for 3 years before he saw one person give their life to Christ (and that was this September).

Amazingly, our team, through the ministries we have been involved in here in Montreal for the past 3.5 weeks have witnessed 10 people give their lives to Christ. Personally, I got to lead 4 of those people to the Lord, something I had never done myself before, let alone doing it in French, our team on the University de Montreal shared the gospel one on one about 40 times, almost all to students who had never heard why Jesus came to earth nor the full gospel. The only thing most students we spoke with know of Jesus is that he was someone good who told people to love one another, period, end of thought.

There is something happening here in Quebec, and its not a coincidence that its the 400th anniversary of Quebec city and there are more missions teams coming to Quebec this summer than ever before. So, as we leave Quebec, please continue to pray with us for revival there as hearts seem to be so ready and open and there is most certainly an openness to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. Consider this as you pray; in Quebec, in its current spiritual state, it is completely possible to be born there, live your entire life, and then die without ever hearing the gospel, the hope of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I can image this scenario easily in certain places in this world that are closed to the gospel as it is illegal, but in Canada...wow.

What is also very humbling for me is that God could have used anyone on this trip, He didn't need me specifically, nor my words, nor my love for the language, but the fact that He chose to use me reminds me of how merciful He is. I have learned so much. I am also reminded that without your support and prayers, my effectiveness, growth, experiences and vision would be unachievable -- thank you! My heart for Quebec and the people here has grown immeasurably and I hope yours has too.

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Analogy
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Along with the picture of our team I have included a photo of the cross that overlooks the city of Montreal. I offer you this reflection/illustration for where our team has been and where we will go:

Montreal: the people of that city are searching for spiritual answers and hope, yet what they need, the message of the cross and the answer to their question is before them daily. Let us pray they will look up and search for the truth of the cross.

Paris
: its inhabitants live in spiritual darkness...how contradictory that it be called the City of Lights, but how we pray that that title would someday refer to Christian believers.

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Encouraging Verse
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It is here I will leave this update, but with a verse that touched me this week as I was reminded of just how small I am in this midst of this battlefield in Quebec and next in France, but that Jesus delights in me, has a plan for me and fights for me anyhow, as well as all of you--> Only He can change hearts, only He goes before us, only He brings the victory. Praise God for that!

2 Chronicles 20:15 (I encourage you to read verses 1-29 to see the full picture of this battle and the victory the Lord brought in what looked like an impossible win for the Israelites)

"Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jahaziel son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite and descendant of Asaph, as he stood in the assembly. He said: "Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the LORD says to you: 'Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's."

Grace & Peace in Him,

Jonathan Brower

French Project Update # 3

Original letter written on May 27, 2008:

Dear Family & Friends,

First off, I wanted to thank you all profusely for praying for me and my team as we continue our ministry to the francophone world here in Montreal. There is no doubt in my mind that your prayers have been and are effective as even in my times of greatest trial and weakness. In those times it is as if I am surrounded and upheld, secure and guarded without a fear.

Once again, to help you navigate my novel-like email update it is sectioned out for you.

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A Little of What I'm Learning
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I am really enjoying getting a feel for francophone ministry, trials and successes and groundwork, it is certainly not easy, but it is not too difficult because I am secure in having been called on this project and there is no other place I feel I could be more useful to the Lord than here. He is also growing me personally in areas I felt I had covered, and that is humbling and really a great stretching experience. Specifically, I have been challenged to become a more direct communicator and even more so to get over my fear of man, or man pleasing tendencies to simply focus on the Lord's vision of things.

I have been contemplating about how the Lord brought me on this project and what the bigger picture of life looks like in terms of being a servant of the Lord. From this consideration I have become ever more aware that as much as future planning is super helpful, every moment here counts. Each minute is a choice to serve the Lord in so many ways on this project and if I am focusing on what is next too much I will miss what He is doing, and what He is doing is tremendous!!

So, you might ask, what is He doing? Well, simply put, He is changing hearts one by one and lifting the scales off peoples eyes and pulling the plugs from their ears that they might see and hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. All this by the way is happening despite our anglophone french accents!

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Prayer Requests
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1) Very Important: We have a film festival at University of Montreal on Thursday at 7pm and at University of Quebec at Montreal at 7pm Friday evening. This event is what we have been promoting since Wednesday last week and we will be showing short films which have themes from the teachings of Jesus, for example: The Prodigal Son. We will be showing these films and then having a snack and discussing them with the attendees. We will then also present the gospel. The people that will be there for the most part are those we have had personal contact with and know that we will discussing spiritual topics regarding Christianity, so they are already quite open. Please pray for this event, for good planning and execution, for many to come out, for many seeds to be planted and for those in attendance to hear the message of Christ and accept Him as their savior.



2) Team unity, specifically for myself and my roommate as we work to establish effective communication and a genuine loving friendship

3) Preparedness for the second part of the project in Paris. We leave Montreal for Paris June 5th.

4) That I would balance working with the Lord in ministry alongside getting to know Him in a deeper way

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A Story About What God is Doing Here
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Last week I was privileged for the 3rd time to personally share my faith and the gospel with a Quebecois Chemical Engineering student and see him make a decision to follow Jesus.

The story goes that last Thursday was a really hard day. I had been put in charge of organizing the team of 5 students that have been doing evangelism at the University of Montreal and since then there have been some harder moments with the only other guy student on the team as he gets used to me directing things, not to mention we live in the same room, he is an Engineer and I am Communication Studies ha ha! To add to this, we introduced using portable DVD players into our evangelism time to promote our Film Festival outreach event for this week. With the DVD players, the transition between the short film and a spiritual conversation had been quite a stretch for us and we were a little discouraged that day. We took a time to really pray for these things and then we all set off to our specific tasks. I went out with Spiritual Interest Questionnaires but was really just feeling the pressure of the battle, so I started to pray and really cry out to God for help and direction and a true heart for the campus and the lost there.

As I was walking I got lost and found myself at the top of the campus, which is on a hill, right next to the border where the campus ends and thee cemetery begins. We pass the cemetery each day as we take the bus to campus and always remark how huge it is and how long it goes on for. The cemetery is on the famous Mont Royal hill and it truly is gigantic (I like to say it's the dead centre of Montreal). As I stood there and prayed for vision, the Lord asked me to look at the cemetery and see that His heart for the campus would be that University of Montreal would be a stark contrast of a bright shining light on the hill compared to the cemetery that borders it. That it would be an example of the vibrant life in Jesus as opposed to the death and darkness without Him. As I was praying this I walked and ended up in the polytechnic building where I was able to present the gospel to an atheist science student who had never even heard of Jesus before. He was unsure of what he wanted to do, but he took a film festival invitation.

I then made my way up to the top floor which was a nice fluorescent green (my favourite colour) on the walls and tables and chairs. I approached a guy named Richard who was open to doing the questionnaire with me in French and was patient with my mixed Italian-anglophone accent. As we went through the questionnaire I discovered he was far from having a faith, at least in my human eyes. His parents were catholic and he sometimes went to church but he didn't believe in life after death, he was unsure if there was a God because of science but said he couldn't deny him. He said the meaning of life was to do your part and he thought that Jesus had come to show humans that they were responsible to look after themselves by trying to be good. I was able to ask him what the cross and resurrection meant to him and he didn't know what the message was. The Lord helped me bring him back to his roots of doing communion as a kid and certain truths he had learned from the Catholic church. As we touched on these things and I led him through the gospel he realized that he remembered some of that stuff but that he had not really taken it to heart and decided to follow it. As I put it before him in terms of my own life he realized the power and the freedom of Jesus in full control of a life and he was totally game to have that. So, we prayed and during the prayer he said "Merci Seigneur" which means 'thank you Lord' and then when we finished praying he took my hand with both of his, his eyes bright and new and said "Merci". I went away praising the Lord and praying for Richard. We are to have a follow up meeting this week to build on his decision.

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Final Greetings
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People here are so open, most everyone wants to talk at length and we have been able to do so many gospel presentations. When we share our faith with people a common response is "wow, you actually believe that, I've never heard that before". It is amazing. Just a couple days ago I got to share my faith with a Muslim girl who told me 'I have to think about that message and this grace, it seems too good to be true".

Our team in general has meshed super well together and despite normal discrepancies, love is abounding and therefore our ministry is going very very well.

Thank you for being a part of this journey with me as I learn to share my faith in french, live in community, know God better and gain a deeper vision and heart for Francophones.

Additionally, I thank those of you who have written me to encourage me and to send me prayer requests, I have been praying for you and I am grateful for your faithful prayers and communications. I have minimal Internet access so I have not been able to write many of you back, but know that I am so touched by your love for me and will do my best to reply in a timely way.

May the Lord continue to show Himself to all of you powerfully and may you rejoice in the richness of the gospel we have received that we now live in with abundance. How blessed we are to know the message of Jesus and to have our lives changed daily by it!

Grace and peace in Him.
Sincerely,

Jonathan Brower



French Project Update # 2

Original letter written on May 19, 2008:

Hello Family and Friends!

As Paul would say: Grace and peace to you all from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!! Below is an update from the past 10 days of project. "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice!!"

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The Week in Review

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The past 10 days have seemed to me to be as long as a month in my longing for you all with "the affection of Christ Jesus" (Phil 1:8), but also have so quickly passed as I find God has been pouring into me so much certainty, assurance and steadfastness as well as much growth, that I long for each day to continue on so I can get as much out of it as possible.

I arrived safely in Montreal on May 10 and was whisked away for a 3 day orientation retreat near Mont Tremblant. During those 3 days our team of 10 students (2 guys, 8 girls, everyone from campuses either in Ottawa, Toronto or Montreal) were equipped with the resources we needed to be prepared for campus and other forms of evangelism. It was also a great time to build team friendships and get to know one another as our complete team has 10 staff too, so 20 in all.

I played Scrabble in French and realized I am terrible! LOL

We returned to Montreal on Monday evening and then started ministry on Tuesday. Our days so far have seen us meet for worship, teaching, prayer and inductive bible study in the morning at a local church and then we take the metro to our assigned campuses (mine being the University de Montreal) with our assigned teams. The project director designated me to lead our University de Montreal team as the staff only come with us occasionally to do the campus evangelism.

Our time on campus consists of approaching students in cafeterias and such and asking them if they would like to do a spiritual interest survey, we tell them who we are and then discuss the survey questions and almost always get to elaborate on the questions. This is not the only approach to evangelism on this trip, but for on campus, it seems to be the most useful too so far.

We have also partnered this week with two local ministries, one being a food distribution ministry for the homeless and the other being a street evangelism outreach team.


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2) Praise Report

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In all three outreach areas that we participated in this week, Campus, Food ministry and Street Evangelism, we saw 8 people give their lives to Jesus! God is BIG!

Personally, the Lord allowed me to lead one mature student at the University de Montreal not only to a surrendered life to Christ but also a life daily reliant on the Holy Spirit. At the food distribution, I approached one young man as he ate and we spoke of having hope in life and where he found that. His life had been shattered when his father committed suicide 4 years prior and he had been the one who found his father's body. That evening I didn't have any survey or tracts or tools as I wasn't expecting to be leading this guy to Jesus, but by the grace of God the Holy Spirit gave me the words and we prayed together and when I opened my eyes I saw Dave's eyes (that's his name) and they were bright and wide and he had this huge smile on. I didn't have anything to give him besides my own personal French Bible, but it was a blessing to do so and he was so grateful.

The COOLEST part is that both of these experiences were in French and it was evident that the Holy Spirit had so powerfully already gone before to woo these people's hearts to Him.

There is so much more I could tell you, but I will leave it at the fact that Montreal is thirsty, Jesus is the answer, we have only 2 more weeks here and there is so much work to be done. I believed that the Lord was moving, but to see it first hand and to see the openness has grown my heart and encouraged me immensely, not to mention the entire team as well as the ministries we've been working with.

All week it has been so easy to approach and talk to people here. I think the shortest conversation I've had so far is over 30 minutes.

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Prayer Requests

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-that my personal time with the Lord would be so rich

-that we would be able to use people's openness to share with them Christ's message while relating it to their personal situations

-that our burden for the lost here would grow even stronger

-that we would be aware of the spiritual warfare here and use the weapons God has given us to fight and be strong in the Lord and the power of His might

-that prayer and intercession would be a main priority as we realize the reality that only the Holy Spirit can change a mission field and bring revival

-that our French would improve continually

-that our team relationships would be positive and further the gospel here rather than be a distraction

-for Christina and Dave who decided to follow Jesus this week, that they would respond to our contact and follow-up efforts

AND lastly, that as we see people come to the Lord, that we would be able to effectively connect them to local church bodies here so that they will grow up in the Lord with a loving family of believer's around them (there are local staff here on the team that are also connecting with these new believers so that they have local contacts).

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Final Greetings

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I give thanks to the Lord constantly for you all and your faithful prayers for my team and I on this project. The Lord is moving, He is guarding me and building me up, and His kingdom IS advancing here in Montreal. Thank you for helping further the gospel and showing your obedience and love for Christ as well as your care for me as a fellow brother on the French mission field.

I also hold you all in my heart and request for you to send me updates on what I can pray for. Just because I am here does not separate me from praying from my family.

Que Dieu vous benisse/ Blessings from God on you all


In Him,
Jonathan Brower


French Project Update # 1 - Pre-Departure

Original letter written on May 9th & 10th, 2008:

Dear Friends & Family,

As some of you already know, I will be leaving Calgary for Montreal tomorrow to embark upon a 7 week mission trip. 6 of those weeks will be with the Christian ministry called Campus for Christ (http://www.campusforchrist.org). The 7th week I will be solo, but partnering with a church in the south of France called Calvary Chapel Nice (http://ccnice.blogspot.com). I will be away from my hometown Calgary from May 10 - June 30 and am super excited about the opportunities that lie ahead!!

For those of you who are aware of how much I love to write and how long my emails can be, I have broken this one up into sections that will be easier to scroll to:

1) Itinerary & Trip Description
2) Mini update on my life
3) What God has been doing in my life recently
4) What you can be praying for
5) An awesome passage

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1) Itinerary & Description
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For the beginning of the project with Campus for Christ our team of 12-14 students will be in Montreal from May 10-June 5 and will focus on Campus ministry. This means that we will be on the campuses of University of Quebec in Montreal and the University of Montreal daily. On campus we will be meeting with students and sharing the message of Jesus Christ with them in French. We will also be holding some special events to connect with students.

For the second half of the project we will be flying to Paris, France to connect with students on the University campuses of Paris. Here we will be working again alongside Campus for Christ staff workers with the French Campus for Christ ministry called Agape France (http://www.agapefrance.org/agape) as well as other Christian churches and ministries. Both parts of the project will be similar in what we as students will focus on: sharing the love of Jesus to those who have never heard about it. We will stay in Paris from June 5 - June 22.

My solo week from June 23-June 30 I will be heading down to Nice to serve the Calvary Chapel church there where I know the pastor and missionaries from visiting them last summer.
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2) Mini update of my life
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Life is fabulous! Really, I am loving it here in Calgary and am really enjoying my degree and all that God has for me out here.
There are a couple new things going on in my life:
A) I have just had braces put back on both my upper and lower teeth because I had corrective jaw surgery in December on the upper jaw and will have the finishing surgery on the lower jaw next May. Once the second surgery is complete I will be able to bite into anything and everything which will be such a blessing to eat normally.
B) I just finished my 3rd year of Communications Studies at the University of Calgary. I am doing a program called Bachelor of Communications Studies Coop. This program enables me to do work terms in between my semesters of school to gain experience in various communications fields. I have one course left to finish at the University this summer and then this September I will be moving onto the second phase of my degree at SAIT Polytechnic (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology). There I will be majoring in Radio Broadcasting which is a two year program.
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3) What God has been doing in my life recently
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As I have been preparing for this near 2 month trip, I have seen God move powerfully in my life and others lives in ways that have astounded me. There is one story in specific that is actually (according to some of my friends) hard to believe that it's true and that it happened to me. It is actually somewhat of a detailed story, so I have included an attachment that will walk you through the story and gives light to the amazing and cool work God has been doing.
Even though you can check out the attachment, I will simply wet your appetite for what is to come...It all starts with a bright pink glow in the dark bracelet that I got in Holland...and a self professing athiestic Jewish professor with whom I took the best University course of my life with in my 2nd year at the U of C...I can't tell you anymore or I will ruin the rest of the story, but I encourage you to set aside some time to read it as it will blow your mind and hopefully inspire you. It is to come in the next post.
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4) What you can be praying for
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As I head out on this amazing journey, there will be some challenging times for sure, but I am encouraged and uplifted when I think of all of you and how you have supported me to get here. In fact, not only have many of you committed to partner with me by praying, but many of you have also supported me financially as I set out on this mission. How blessed I was and eternally thankful when ALL of my support AND MORE rushed in within 3 weeks of me starting to raise funds. WOW! That's really all I can say, it just confirmed in my heart that you all are with me, as well as confirming how I have felt the Lord directing me towards sharing Jesus to the French. So cool.
I greatly appreciate your prayers, and as the project starts I would ask you to pray for:
-good health
-direction towards helping with specific ministry tasks
-group unity
-great group communication (as many of us are anglophones that are hoping we are bilingual)
-that I can express who I really am and my heart effectively in French
-and mostly, that the seeds of the gospel of Jesus Christ would be spread throughout the campuses of Montreal and Paris
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5) An awesome passage
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I have one verse that has stuck out to me recently (I think because of the nature of my trip) that I just love and wanted to share with you all before I sign off and try to sleep a few winks before I leave my house in about 2 hours for the airport (I'm so excited I can't sleep!!):
From 2 Corinthians 2:14-15
"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing"
Also verse 17 is great "Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God."
May you all have a blessed weekend, and thank you for reading!
Grace & Peace,
Jonathan Brower

Friday, February 01, 2008

Only for the weak, Redeemed

I can't sleep, even though I have to get up in 5 hours for PIT Crew training. I can't stop thinking about all the crazy things ahead and how somehow along the way, in finding my identity, I have also misplaced the other half. Rectification, redemption....I was reading the epic Oswald Chambers today and he spoke about Redemption being the main message of the gospel...I think this applies not just to non-Christians, but to Christians alike. Jesus restores us (or at least wants to if we will let Him) to who He created us to be in the first place, which is beautiful.
But, how can you be certain that some aspects of your life need that restoration or if they need to be laid to rest. If laid to rest, can they be resurrected in a new fashion to bring glory and honour to God instead of shame?

However He breaks me down, I pray that He would show me what's worth keeping and what's worth letting go. I feel that somehow I have let go of things that were never meant to be seen or used for compromise...if He owns it all, if He dishes out the skills, gifts and talents, then I ought to do what I do best in light of His glory, dedicated to Him...I'm sure He'll take care of the rest, not to mention the history.

In the words of Mattew West, "Yesterday is history, and history is miles away, so leave it all behind you, let it always remind you of the day...the day that Love made history"

Thanks Jesus for making the old me history and transforming this so called man into a so-called child. I find my ID card in you, and so its with all I have that you have given me that I will turn back to you for your use. I feel you around me, you go before me and are behind.

Simplifying the words of God through the prophet Jeremiah, IT'S ONLY FOR THE WEAK. Hallelujah to that peeps!!

"Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgement, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the LORD."

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Carrot Soup


I am sitting here eating carrot soup which I purchased at Safeway last week in a phenomenal sale. Actually, I purchased not just one soup carton but 30...it was just such a good student deal.

Technically right now I am not a student, so why would I eat like one??? Well actually, I still get paid as if I were just working a part-time job because I am doing a COOP degree. If you are Canadian, you may associate Coop with the grocery store and think that this post is just one giant circle tangent, but actually I am a doing a Bachelor of Arts COOP in Communication & Culture. This means I add an extra year onto my degree...three years to go...and gain valuable experience in my degree field of Communications.

Right now I am working on campus at the University of Calgary for the United Way campaign which runs Sept 21-Nov 16th. I am a communications assistant, which entails no small amount of things but to sum it up: I am in charge of website content and layout and I publicize the campaign on campus through writing (journalism).

The picture is of Julia Cliplef, fellow United Way Coop student, the legendary Juno award winning Ian Tyson (my parents love him-he sings "Four Strong Winds") and myself of course. We got to meet Ian at the United Way Launch last Friday .

Life is amazing right now, and since Europe, it has blasted off in full gear with God. I couldn't ask for more.....
.....except, I am now finished my carrot soup and I am still hungry!

Oh yes, and ever relevant in my life is this verse from Hebrews 11:24-26 :

It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

I'm a tool

Today I realized something profound, I am like a tool that needs to be plugged in to be able to work. I can still work without being plugged in, but consider this: a giant bobcat tractor with a giant shovel that is sitting on the ground, a bird hits the window and is taken out, i am a shelter for a homeless person, i look pretty and majestic on the ground I sit on.



I am a tool (I've always wanted a good reason to say that) but unless my driver gets inside me and gets to work, i will be a tool used for the wrong thing, not useless, just misguided...a waste, maybe not a total waste, but it could be better.

So in the spirit of a tractor, I am using the Bible to oil my stiff rusty door joints, and once again I am opening up for my driver...it's about time once again to realize that the potential for a tool to be use for what it is created for only comes if the tool is solidly built...


I started writing a speech tonight with no guidance and it sucked, i then realized that it was God's speech, called someone for prayer, and voila the beauty came out as I let go of the reigns.

It's not complicated, it's just sometimes really damn hard!

Maybe I'll share the speech with you sometime...as long as you remember I didn't write it.

Monday, March 05, 2007

A Tribute to Sugar Brower



For my beautiful Sugar, you will never be replaced in my heart! I know you are up there and I will come to be with you some day. You brought me so much joy and comfort, my friend in those hard times, through divorce, break-ups, depression, deaths, betrayal......through the good times Lake Newell, The Karkanis' charades, Victoria, the ocean, Pender Island, chocolate cookies and garbage cans, Silver Springs.

I miss you

you'll always be my little girl

Searching for that eternal perspective


So today sucked, but since this blog is about sharing my life with the ones I love, then we are all about truth here.

I love it here in Calgary, but sometimes I get overwhelmed when I realize my family is all in BC, that I tend to hide even from those I love, and that if I don't get this thing right I will not only be disappointing myself and my family and friends, but I'll be disappointing God.

Sometimes that's what drives me crazy, remembering that I not only have to deal with what I do and how I love and live today, but when I come before God once again I will have to do that. Granted that this great life wouldn't even be mine unless if wasn't for God, but sometimes it seems less easy that that.

Because of my faith I am free from the consequence of sin, free from that lake of fire per se, but with that freedom comes what seems like bondage at times, I wake up each day wondering if what I do wrong today will have eternal effects.....

no matter where I choose to be, in God's heart He'll always see me everywhere

But what about grace, love, mercy. I grasp they exist, it is my turn to relearn the gentle regard that God gives. Cause I know He says he sees me as perfect cause of Jesus' sacrifice...therein lies my own brain contradiction :
If I am perfect to God, then how can I live up to that....I guess I'm not expected to.

God, be beauty in my broken

Time to study, the least of my worries, but seemingly the biggest today.

SEARCHING FOR THAT ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE