Life Group

Last night we met our new life group. Having had an incredible experience in a life group for the past three years, we know how valuable and life changing the experience of being in a life gorup can be. We highly recommend it! David was pretty hesitant about the thought of joining a new group. What would the people be like? Would we have similar interests? Would we be able to be friends, not just people who meet once a week? This is where he is often more pesimistic and I'm more optimistic.

Well I am happy to say that we both feel really good about our group. There are three couples that were in the group prior, and one other new couple that joined last night when we did. All of the couples have a child somewhere between 4m-16m and, except for one which is expecting their first in 4 weeks. The other interesting thing about the group is that all but one of the couples have little or no family in the St. Catharines area. We're the only ones 'out of province' but I still thought it was really neat that we all had that aspect of life in common. Everybody in the group seems pretty relaxed and flexible, making us feel welcome right away. It's a great feeling to be in a room of strangers and think to yourself, yep, these are people I think I could be friends with.

We know that this experience will be different than our last life group experience. Different people, different dynamics. But we're excited for the changes ahead and the new relationships that will potentially form. We think that one of the hardest things will be not leading anymore. So we pray for God's wisdom in knowing when to speak up and step in and when to just let things be.

We trust that God's plans for us here are great and want to be used by him in all ways. So we continue to take risks and step into uncomfortable territory. We know that in order for God to use us and in order for us to be blessed by others we need to just put ourselves out there. We have both been amazed at how far we have already come and the numerous ways that we have been blessed by others since we have moved here.

Knowing that we're most likley only going to be here for about three years makes us sometimes question how important it is to make friendships here and feel a part of a community. Three years isn't that long but yet it's long enough to need friendships and community, at least for us. I also want to be intentional about living in the present. It would be easy for me to just talk on the phone each day to friends back in Abby. Actually it wouldn't be that easy since I do get sick of the phone after a little while. I could also have the mindset that it just doesn't matter since we'll be moving eventually anyways. However, right now our home is here. Therefore this is where we need to be a part of a community and build relationships. At least that's how I see it.

On another note, the snow just continues to fall. It's forecasted that we'll get snow almost every day this week, and about 5-15 cm each day. Crazy. So far so good for me and winter, I'm still enjoying it.