Ministry Update :: June 11, 2014

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Troy

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Traveling East:
Later this month we will be traveling to Ontario and then New Brunswick. One highlight of our time in NB will be attending the re-opening of the park in Sackville, New Brunswick that is named after my father. They have completely renovated the park, and we are looking forward to having Bill Johnstone’s grandkids play in his park and participating in the opening ceremonies on July 1. We also look forward to spending time in supporting churches and catching up with friends and family alike.

We will be in Ontario (Stouffville, Huntsville, Owen Sound areas) from June 23-29, and in New Brunswick from June 30 to July 16. While our time out there is short, we would love to meet up with as many friends and supporters as we can. Please let us know if you are available to get together with us – we’d love to catch up with you and update you on our ministry.

We will be attending and speaking at these three churches on our trip:
June 29 – South End Fellowship Baptist Church, Owen Sound, Ontario
July 6 – Main Street Baptist Church, Sackville, New Brunswick
July 13 – Woodpoint Baptist Church, Woodpoint, New Brunswick

Please pray for our family as we travel–for safety, health and good spirits.

Other Modes of Transport:
The Lord has blessed us with a few vehicles in the past 8 years that we paid very little for and have been very reliable. Now, in the past month we have been having numerous issues with both of them and it looks like we will need to retire both vehicles soon. The Cavalier I now call my zombie car, it is neither really dead or alive, but the mechanic told me I might as well drive it until it completely seizes up. We’re looking to the Lord for guidance and provision as we consider how we can best replace them.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Troy & Naomi

Builder Bud

Posted on June 6, 2014 by Troy

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Not surprisingly, Ethan likes to build stuff. He likes his Lego and enjoys tearing it apart to put together again.

He did have some problems and was frustrated a few times. He can’t read well yet, but he showed me this picture on the back of the instruction book and said that the big WIN! word at the top reads “I have Lego problems!”. I guess he took the boy’s expression to be one of frustration.

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Awhile ago we had to put together an Ikea folding couch/bed. I asked the Bud to help out and he jumped to the task. Ikea furniture constuction is really just like advanced Lego. The instructions are similar, no words, just illustrations of what goes where. He helped put this bed by looking at the parts and instructions (reading instructions… he is still young. He’ll learn to ditch those soon enough). I did the lifting, but he did a lot of the work of putting parts in place and tightening the bolts!

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Ministry Update :: April 15, 2014

Posted on April 15, 2014 by Troy

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Reminder: we don't have written permission to use photos of students

The last few weeks have been busier than usual around the GoodSeed office. We had a TERM evangelism training seminar scheduled for April 3-5 and the lead-up to it is normally intense as we get ready for it. However, the format has changed since last year and a decision was made to try and record the first day of the seminar. This prompted a bit of a scramble to secure a venue and set up the stage, get projection gear and even some new camera gear.

Reminder: we don't have written permission to use photos of students

The cyborg: part man, part camera. I operated a camera on a Glidecam HD-2000 system. This steady cam rig allowed us to try some camera motion as I moved around the auditorium.

After the Israel/Germany trip we only had a couple weeks notice to make this happen. We worked out set design, and had a number of technical hurdles to leap over to get this, but we are thankful that it all worked in the end. With this footage we will have 6-8 hours of new training material to help people who want to share the gospel message with others.

Reminder: we don't have written permission to use photos of students

We had four cameras recording the event.

Reminder: we don't have written permission to use photos of students

Ken directing the camera operators.

With the first section of the seminar done we changed gears and rooms at the church and modeled for the attendees how you can guide someone through a book like “The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus”. I was one of four teachers this year who lead the students through the Bible’s message of the Gospel. It is a great privilege to teach these truths.

Reminder: we don't have written permission to use photos of students

. Reminder: we don't have written permission to use photos of students

(Here I am explaining how Jesus fulfilled the passover. “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” 1 Corinthians 5:7)

It takes a big team to pull off a weekend like this, especially with the added jobs of a full media crew. Naomi was tasked with arranging billeting for visiting staff and many of the seminar attendees. Thank you to all who helped out! A special thank you to Olds First Baptist Church for accommodating our change of plans and letting us use the main sanctuary for filming.

The week following the seminar I was involved in week-long meetings with members of our planning and creative teams to review and prioritize the many projects going on in GoodSeed and brainstorm some plans for the future. It was an exhausting few weeks (that felt more like a few months), but we made some good progress and now look forward to getting this seminar video edited together.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Troy & Naomi

Winter fun

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Troy

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Ok, I know it is “Spring” and nobody wants to see winter photos, but I forgot about these and want to do something with them before the kids are off to college. Seasonal apologies. Thanks to Amos for the photos!

Spring bike ride

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Troy

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wet back

The glaciers have retreated enough for me to find my way to the shed, pump up some tires and get the kids out on their bikes for the first time this year.

We had buy Ethor a new bike helmet. Though he is 5, we laughed at the helmets labeled 5+. With his big noggin, we got him an adult small helmet for ages 14+. Fits nice.

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Lots of puddles for the kids to splash through. The girls were quite wet and dirty by the time we were done.

Looking forward to many more days of being out with the bikes!

spring splash

Ethan decides to push up “the big hill”