So last weekend, my church here in WashDC had a retreat at Messiah College, which apparently is somewhere in Pennsylvania… I wasnt really paying attention during my ride over, so I didn’t even realize I was in another state until after the fact. It was a pretty fun weekend, I got a chance to play v-ball with some of the teens from church and the summer enrichment program, and it was pretty exciting to see them all on fire for God. I got stuck in the “old people” building, so (un)fortuently I didnt have to deal with the late-nite craziness involved with cramming 30 odd teens into a single dorm building… that task was left to the new couple. A bunch of the teens actually just came back from a short term missions trip into West Virginia, and it was pretty cool to hear the stories and testimonies they brought back about the work that they did.

All in all, the retreat was a lot of fun and I got to hang out with some people I dont see too often. The retreat also helped me personally deal with some questions with regards to my “professional future”. The work visa that I have while I’m working in the States is about to expire, which means that I have to renew it by entering Canada and coming back into the States. Kind of a pain, but it gives me a chance to go visit a friend in Ottawa. My appartment lease is also about to expire (in Sept), which means I have to make a decision pretty soon on whether or not I want to commit to another year-long lease. It’s been 3 years since I made my move down to WashDC, and with the appartment lease renewal and work visa happening all at once, it has given me an opportunity to think about where I would like to be in the future… mostly thinking about whether I should move back to VanBC. I mean, Canada was voted second most favorite place to live in a global survey (Auzzie was #1, and USA came in 11^th). Not to mention the food is so much better. Which begs the question, what I am still doing in WashDC? The speaker for the retreat talked about missions, and basically where ever we are, that’s where God has called our “mission field” to be.

So while I do think that I will eventually want to move back to VanBC sometime (maybe 2006/7?), my place is here in WashDC for now, and the retreat helped affirm that. I’m not technically on “missions”, but because of my job, I do work with some pretty neat ministry and missions organizations… which as I mentioned before, is (still) a pretty cool and unique opportunity to serve.

Now in 2 hours, I leave for ottawa for the weekend