Moose Deer Video

Check it out HERE!

Here we are...

As per usual, your staple TILT website weekly updates are here:
:. Weekly Resources up to August 31.
:. The weekly posting for Community Prayer is here. Post a prayer request here.
:. On Sunday, we did the Prayer of Examen - read about it here on the Daily.
:. Greg's teaching is up as well here.

(photo: http://www.unisa.edu.au/printing/images/binding/staple%20icon.jpg)

What's Goin' On | August 21

Check out the newest postings through the TILT blogs:
:. Community Life & Prayer (post a prayer here, view the prayer map here)
:. Weekly Resources
:. Gene's Teaching from August 12
:. How to get the TILT Podcast!

On Sunday night, we will be sharing about the week at Moose Deer, with lots of pics of course :)

We are home....

Sorry for the lack of updates on the last two nights - time was limited and energy virtually nil for web updates on dial-up...we are now back in Toronto, and all of us are definitely changed by this experience. God has broken our hearts not only for the people of Moose Deer Point but also for all of the lost - as Jesus wept for Jerusalem when he journeyed to the cross, we too, weep. But we are thankful for the hope in Jesus' Resurrection!

Thursday and Friday were both challenging days. By Friday, I think we were seeing what was "normal" behaviour on the reserve - meaning the kids were no longer as respectful, etc. In one-on-one situations, these kids are all precious, but as a larger group, destructive behaviour brews--learned patterns and cycles from their community relationships. It was challenging! On Friday, one of the tougher kids decided to come for the day - as Greg had been praying, this was but a glimpse of the true spiritual warfare that is happening every day in this place. This one addition to the group completely changed the dynamics and showed us just how dependent upon God we are, and how much God is fighting for all those beautiful moments we had throughout the week.

Thursday night baseball was fun, and pretty low-key, which was probably a good thing. Congrats to Barb on her first softball game and her stellar play from behind home plate! A bunch of the older youth showed up and we were able to interact a bit with them, although perhaps not as much as desired (they ended up at one table and us at another eating hot dogs after the game...).

We had a very intense time last night as we shared with each other from the week and spent the bulk of our time in prayer. Tears were flowing in abundance! We do not want this to be a one week relationship, but we also have to entrust these people to God because it is only He who can do a good work there. There are also Christians on the reserve who need prayer and encouragement, and of course the DayStar ministry as well, under whose umbrella we were operating.

We look forward to sharing more in person! You can few some of the initial photos in this photo album. It includes the "passport" labels of where we travelled each day!

DayStar Day 3

Another good day at Moose Deer!! Staying with mostly the same strategies as yesterday and continuing to recognize it is God alone who gets us through this, it was great. The relationships you can form with kids in three days just blows my mind. We have had opportunities for great conversation, and especially building into kids who clearly have been told they are not of much value to their world. Today we were in a "far country" for the story of the Prodigal Son. We thought we were in trouble this morning when we couldn't locate the puppets, but they were found and all was well in the world :). Tonight we are going into the reserve for the church service there which should be interesting - not sure if how 'populated' it will be, but that is of no consequence anyhow! Tomorrow night we'll be playing softball with everyone! (I think half of our team has never played so it should be interesting...)

Thank you for your prayers! I would upload pics but am on long distance dial-up here so it's expensive AND slow!

DayStar Update!

Sorry we missed yesterday’s update. We were hosted by the Simmons family from Spring Garden for an incredible meal at their cottage – two very different worlds in one day!
On Sunday night, we headed to Moose Deer to hand out flyers (yes, you hand out flyers for a weeklong camp the night before it starts). We were able to meet many children and their parents and were all excited, yet quite nervous for the next day.

Monday was an incredibly intense day – having no idea what to expect and no experience at running a camp! We have about 25-30 children aged 4 to 15 – they are all amazing in their own ways and are already teaching us so much. Yes, there may be behavioural problems at times, but more clear are the multitude of things we can learn from our time with them. Our day starts with “boarding” our plane and starting the weeklong journey. The puppet shows have been a hit, telling the Bible stories and “Big Bible Bill” delivers a rip-roaring message in about 3.5 minutes. The rest of the time is filled with snacks (very important), sports, crafts and ‘bible time’ (which varies depending on age from playing in the park to a chillin’ conversation). Day one was chaos!! By about 1 pm, we were exhausted and I think most of us were feeling that the day was less than successful. However, Shirley from DayStar reassured us that it had been a good day and God was already clearly at work. The evening was a great time of refreshment at the Simmons home – thank you thank you thank you!

Tuesday was amazing! We did some revamping in terms of organizing groups and leaders and it went swell. I personally (Scott) had the pleasure of hanging out with “da boys” which was encouraging and we had some great discussion. Greg and Michelle W lead the ‘middle’ group who enjoy nothing more than climbing all over them. The young ‘uns are with Barb, Lindzie and Milan. Jen-Mai led the elder girls today and said they were fantastic. Michelle D tends the special needs kids with great compassion and care. The rest of the team leads the various activities with vigour (Becki, Mel, Bill). A highlight was swimming in the afternoon with all the kids. The reserve is split along two forks and so the group split into two to swim with the kids from each “split”. It was a great time, and a great time of connecting.

We were greatly encouraged after today and incredibly grateful for God’s providence in so many ways. To see the ‘difficult’ kids be less difficult today was a miracle – to know valuing, caring and loving these kids makes a tangible difference is a simple yet profound expression of the power of God’s love.

Well, tonight we might actually get to bed on time for a good sleep. Prayer: another day like today ☺, continued energy and compassion for the leaders, for the reserve itself especially – for the spiritual warfare that is evident here, for the hurting kids and families…

We are off!!

We leave for Moose Deer tomorrow!

Resources for the week are on the Urban Monks blog. We will try to keep you updated as much as possible! Update Number One here!

The Latest & Greatest | August 7

Steve Jobs will try and tell you that the iPhone is the latest and greatest, but really, all you need to do is follow these links for the real latest and greatest:
:. Resources for the week are up under Urban Monks.
:. Community life and prayer is also there.
:. Other normal weekly additions are here.
:. The Prayer Map is here - I encourage you to check it out and add yourself to it (read the post for more info).
:. Read about next week's Moose Deer Trip.
:. Scroll down for more interesting stuff

Green Leaders

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the greenest religious leader of all? Les pointed me to this site a couple of weeks ago...just for your interest: http://liveearth.msn.com/le/photos/top15religious

You can also check out WWJD. No, not what would Jesus DO, but what would he DRIVE?

What's Goin' On | August 6

Hopefully most of you have been able to enjoy a beautiful civic holiday in honour of Mr. Simcoe. The website, alas, never rests...(ok, maybe this isn't always true)...Here's what's been added today:
:. Gene's teaching from last night.
:. In the Daily - The prayer of St. Francis, with links to more info and the slide from last night.

What's Goin' On | July 31

Hello everyone. Regular updates are...upated...

:. Bill's teaching.
:. Weekly resources.
:. Community prayer posting.
:. Prayer Map. (Still looking to continue adding people to it!)

:. NOTE: The TILT Teaching podcast is now registered with iTunes. Simply go to the iTunes store and search for "TILT Teaching" under podcasts and there it will be!!!!

Leadership Retreat | Announcement

About a month ago, the TILT leadership team took a day to pray through and for many aspects of TILT and its raison d'etre. Gene did an announcement a couple of weeks ago about that day, and since many of you likely weren't there, I figured I would put it up on the web for you! Thank you for all of you who gave us some feedback - it was much appreciated.Download the announcement here (right-click and select Save As...) or listen to it below:

Photo copyright istock photo

What's Goin' On | July 25

Sorry for the late posting this week... Anyhow...
:. The weekly resources are posted on Urban Monks here.
:. Community life and prayer posting also on Urban Monks here. Post a prayer request here.
:. The Acts background themes are in the TILT Web Photo Gallery.

:. Prayer map has been updated! If you would like to know how to get on the prayer map, read this post here.

The TILT Teaching Podcast is UP!!

Yes, TILT now has its own podcast, downloadable within iTunes and easily added to your iPod playlists. The podcast was just put on today, so it isn't yet in the directory, but here's how you can add the podcast to your iTunes...

Open up iTunes. You don't have iTunes? Download it here. Once you have downloaded and installed iTunes, follow these simple steps:
1. On the menu bar at the top, click on "Advanced".
2. On that drop-down menu, click on "Subscribe to Podcast".
3. Enter the following URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/tilttoronto
4. Click on "Podcasts" in the library on the left side of iTunes.
5. You should see "TILT Teaching" as a Podcast!!
6. To download all the sermons, click on the "Get All" button to the right of the Podcast title, or click on the "Get" next to any week's teaching.
7. The sermon will then be downloaded and you can listen to it in iTunes or on your iPod or other MP3 player!

Please let me know if there are any problems with this.

What's Goin' On | July 15

Lots is goin' on of course...

Pray for one another...pray for our city, our country, the world. Click here.

Weekly resources are posted (they begin on Wednesday...last week's are here.) We would love feedback on these! Are people already doing their own thing? Do you think there is power in a community of people reading the same Scriptures throughout the week? Are you too busy to do these kind of readings? Post a comment by click on "__ COMMENTS" at the bottom of the post!

Scott's teaching is posted on the teaching blog. No more slow voices!

Acts | A New Translation

Hot off the press! As we have been mentioning for a couple of weeks at the TILT gathering, we have purchased a bunch of copies of a new translation called the Voice - specifically, "The Dust off their feet" is a translation of Acts. It is refreshing and tells the story in an engaging manner that opens your eyes in new ways! If you are interested, please talk to anyone on leadership at TILT or leave a comment on this post. I believe they are $9, but if you can't pay any or all of that, don't let that stop you - we will still give you the book!

Resources & Prayer

The resources for the week are now on the Urban Monks blog here.

Community Life and Prayer is here too!

Still looking for help (in preparation and on the trip) for the Moose Deer Point Reserve trip...read more here...

What's Goin' On | July 9

Good morning one and all!

Gene's teaching is now posted here. Not sure what is going on with the voices when you listen online, but we will work to resolve it...

Community Life & Prayer posting is here. As always, please leave any prayer requests, stories, anything by posting a comment here.

And of course, the prayer map is here as a way to pray for one another in the places we are throughout the week!

NOTE: the cartoon is a humourous way of expressing what we hope TILT NEVER becomes!! (Even though I really do like my Mac)

Community Connection | Moose Deer Point Reserve

Hopefully you know that we are going on a trip to Moose Deer Point Reserve to run a day camp there for children. This is under the umbrella of an organization called DayStar. We still need help - both for people going on the trip and for preparing beforehand. Here's the original post about the trip. You can also read the DayStar newsletter here.

Resources are up...and Map fixed...

Good morning, you can find the Once-A-Day resources and Divine Offices in the Urban Monks blog - click here.

The Prayer Points Map should be fully operable! Email tilt.toronto@gmail.com if something isn't working, or if you'd like something changed, or if you'd like to be added!