Transitions 2017/2018.

It’s been longer then intended since my last post. In fact I missed a whole year of my life.  What happened in 2018. Well since my las post we had a healthy baby boy Named Asher James Young. He was born 10/10/2017. Life became busier then atecapted with two boys. I was getting worn out working at the youth centre and trying to keep up with family life. In March of 2018 I finished my time at Joes Place after working  there for 9 years. I took the opportunity to take 3 months of parental leave and during that time began to transition my life into adulthood, fatherhood and deeping my faith and relationship with God.

I started by first packing up my wii and canceling Netflix and Crave. I blocked Facebook on my phone and began to spend time with my family. We took a trip to a cabin and enjoyed time together. I read some books on spiritual disciples and went through Soul Care by Rob Reimer. Which helped Myers to discover who I am in Jesus and worked through some sin issues and forgiveness as well as some healing and deliverance. I also got my Truck license and in July started working in a farm which I am still currently doing. Also in July we moved into a house with a yard and garage and for the for the first time since moving out of my own house didn’t share a wall with neighbours.

We are still in alittle bit of free fall as a family. We are hoping to move to Ontario next year and hopefully buy a home and settle in, closer to family and in a place that feels more like home. For that to happen we are waiting and starting to save what we can to make the move as cost effective as possible. There are many challenges ahead. But we will get through and see where God leads us.

I forgot to mention that Leanne also started a business with Roden and Feilds and is coming up on one year into this venture. She has been doing well at it and hopefully will be able to make enough to be a stay at home mom and work her skin care business full time. I am not planning on driving truck
For the rest of my life but it was a goal to be able to drive a truck and keep my licence as a backup job when needed. I am considering going back to school for a child and youth worker diploma and working in the social services field as a mentor or something along those lines. Until the. I am enjoying having the time and space to think through the future and pray and learn while I work.

Into the 3rd decade of life.

I am a few months late into doing this post but better late then never. I am know 30 years old, my last year in my twenties consisted of watching Isaiah grow up, paying of my student loans, moving to a new place as the apartment that we were in was taking over by new management and turned into a home for people needing assisted living due to mental issues. As a result we moved into a new town house not to far from were we used to live and gained double the space that we had. We moved into the new place in May and then went to Ontario for Isaiah first birthday. In the summer Brain and Dianne came out to visit. We spent our last Christmas in Ontario puking due to the flu. Voltage sold out this past year and it was a huge success. Sean took a medical leave from Joe's Place and I took on more responsibility of programing. Those were the most memorable moments of my final year in my twenties.

As I turned 30 this year my one wish was to go skydiving and have 30secs of free fall. Which I did just last weekend with some friends. It was an unreal experience and was something that I needed to help me feel alive again. God has also used that experience to help me think through this next year. I have stayed on at Joe's Place this summer but I am feeling that my time there is actually coming to a close. I am feeling that I am to comfortable at Joe's Place and feeling like it is time to take the leap of faith and see what the next decade holds for me. I know there will be a time of free fall and i need to trust that God has pack the chute and knows when to pull the cord. Also that he will take care of us were ever we end up. I am looking into being a truck driver, as a means to provide for my family and take some time to figure out the next number of years of my life. I probably won't do that until next spring. possibly the fall depending on what life looks like.

On Valentines day this year Leanne found out she was pregnant again and we are due in Oct. praying for a healthy and whole baby, and we found out that it is another boy that is coming which at first we were all Little disappointed as we had been hoping and sensing that it might be a girl as it was such a different pregnancy then with Isaiah. but we are excited and looking forward to seeing Isaiah be a big brother and interact with his little Bro. Once baby is born that will determine more of what this coming year will look like and what life will look like next year.

My hope for this year is that I will be able to trust in God and have him lead us in the way that he is leading. I love being a dad and recently have been learning to see God as my Father and I as his beloved child. I have always taking the position of a servant more then child but learning to Love God in this new way is also helping me understand how to love others like He loves us. I have also been set free from my porn addiction since October, temptation is always there but I am walking in victory with Jesus. I am looking forward to seeing how God leads me. I want to be a father to more then just my own children as well. I hope to be a dad like figure to my children friends and possibly some foster children in the future, but that is up to God to lead us that way. For know I just want to be faithful to God and who he is leading me to be.

Year 29

As my 29th trip around the sun starts today I decided that this blog needed a revamp so after some slight changes I am now ready to write about this past year.

At this time last year my wife Leanne was a little over half way through her pregnancy with our first child Isaiah. Who was born on May 13th 2015. He is now just over 9 months old and playing beside me as I write this. His birth was the highlight of the year for me. Although he got off to a little bit of a rocky start. As like his father he decided to stay in longer then expected and then had to be pulled out through a c-section, after coming into distress and inhaling some of his own poop. He spent 2 weeks in the NICU recovering and drying out his lungs. those first two weeks although trying, allowed Leanne and I time to have many dinner dates and learn how to be parents. During that time our family was able to come out and help support us and meet the next generation of the Young family.

Other highlights of the year was getting my motorcycle license, and putting a couple 1000 Kms on my bike through out the warmer months. I enjoyed many weeks of bachelorhood, as Leanne was on maturinty leave and took the opprotunity to take Isaiah to Ontario for three weeks in the summer and three weeks around christmas. I went to Ontario for the week of christmas and enjoyed time with my family. We have been blessed with a great baby that likes to travel. We took two road trips this year one with Isaiah still on the inside. we traveled to B.C. to visit friends in march and then went to northren alberta with isaiah to visit my aunt and uncle and cousins in Grande Cache in the fall. While there we went on a lot of walks and drives. over all it was a great year with a good amount of visiting friends. I hope that this year will be filled with more road trips and visits from friends and family.

This past year I have continued on the elders board at Moose Jaw alliance Church. It was a trying summer as there was some spiritual attaches on the leadership, in the form of letters from former leaders. We handled it the best that we could through lots of prayer and seeking truth in the midst of lies. Although hard it was a time that has built character in our leadership and we are strong from it. We are continuing to seek God in the direction that he has put us on as a church. I am becoming closer to God through these times and I know that we are in the midst of plating seeds. Leanne and I have also started to help lead the youth group at church. The first semester we ran a small group that consisted of two girls. This past semester we have joined with the other group that was meeting and it has been going alright. Numbers wise we are doing really well but as we don't have a point person to lead and we are leading together but we are not exactly on the same page. Over all ministry wise things are going well at the church I am continuing to learn how to be a better leader and enjoy working with the other elders and Tim.

Speaking of ministry I am still working at Joe's Place, and enjoying it for the most part. I have had to step up my role  a little as Sean our program director has been diagnosed with Lyme disease and is not always able to be relied on. We have also hired some new younger guys that are sorta under me. So I can delicate some of my tasks to them. Which has freed me up to focus on more of the over all programs. I plan on being at Joes for another year or so but I don't know how much longer I will be there. I am wanting to try my hand at another career some that might be a better fit for me in the long run. Or at least take enough time off to get bored again.

I am thinking that by the summer of 2017 I will be working else where, possibly moving back to Ontario to be closer to our families. In other exciting news I should be done my student loans by the end of the next month. Then we will be debit free. Which I am excited about then we can start saving for a downpayment on a house or other future places to live. For now though we are happy to live on the Ibc campus and pay rent. If we weren't living here we would still be in debit for at least another couple years. For now though we are just enjoying life as much as we can despite the busyness of it all.

Well that has been this year in a brief post. I pray that this coming year will be full of joy and love and peace. As I seek to be the father and man that God has called me to be. I pray that my boy will continue to grow strong and have a heart of compassion. As we know he does already. Only god knows what this year will bring and I trust in him to take care of us as I grow older.
   

Life is Good...Hard sometimes but in the end Good.

In keeping up with tradition here is my annual birthday blog. This blog has become a snap shot of my life over the years. the highs and lows and parts in between. I enjoy reflecting and reading where i have come from and seeing where I am still wrestling in life. Seeing the constants of Faith in God and life with my wife Leanne. She is a much more avid journal writer and spend hours in the week and has a collection of her thoughts but only in paper. This is my writing outlet once maybe twice a year. If you are reading this thanks for taking the time to look into my life. Feel free to read previous posts and please excuse my poor grammer and spelling this is all just raw thoughts that come to me as I write.

If you read my post from last year you will notice that it is kinda broken up and posted really late. the result of that was due to a hard time in my life while I processed through the loss of our first child. It is apart of my life story and probably the only loss I have ever really felt. Almost a year has passed since then and life is looking much more promising this year as Leanne is 7 months pregnant with a boy (named to be released after I meet him in May).  God has used that time of the miscarriage to teach us lots about Him and our selves. I learned how to love my wife more and just BE with her. I learned how to trust God and experience his unexplainable peace that Paul mentions in Philippians  4:6-7 and 9.

In the midst of pain God provided an expected trip to Spain. before we lost Chad Taylor we had made plans to visit our supporters in Ontario to update them on life. but instead of being able to share the news of pregnancy we shared that we are staying on at Joe's although we were feeling pretty burnt out from the transitions and loss of Chad. While meeting with a couple of Leanne's supporters they asked us what we where doing for life and what we might be doing for some rest and relaxation. We told them about our friends who are missionary's in Spain and wanting to go visit them if we could afford the flights. As it turned out they and just been to Spain last year and wanted us to see what they did and so offered to gift us a trip to Spain. So in August we went to Barcalona and then to Bilboa and then to the province of Asturias where our friends are.

Barcelona was amazing we only had 36 or so hours there but we took in a lot. best parts was seeing and walking through the Sagraida familial cathedral. and experiencing being out of north america. we took a train to Bilbao and found our selves in the midst of there local festival which was really cool to see this huge city wide party going on. and going to the Guggenheim art gallery and seeing some of G. Burgess works. Then we spent a week with Adam and Angela. They took us around to some of there favorite spots and we explored the area with them. On our last day we found out we were pregnant again.

Leanne took some time off in the fall to rest and get back to her normal self after feeling burnt out from the past year. I have continued on at Joe's Place and on the Board of the church. We also have hired a new pastor in Sept named Tim. He has been doing a great job leading our church and helping us develop our core values and figure out how to live them out. Life is marching on and not slowing down. The new years party went well and we have a lot of new youth coming out to Joe's. It is over whelming at times and I am getting pretty tired. But god is my strength and helping me through. I have been spending regular time reading the bible and praying for those that I am working with and that is giving me the joy and energy to keep going.

This year I am looking forward to holding my first born Child, Learning how to live more for God and continuing to BE with him. I know that hard times will come and God is my strength. there is lots more that I haven't mentioned but I think that is all the important things that I want to record. Life is good.

God is my rock and my wife is my love.

Here I am again on my annual blog post. A time of reflection over the last year of my life and looking forward to what this next year will bring. I always look back at what I wrote last year to see if I have accomplished my hopes and dreams or if they have changed. As I reread my previous post I can see that for the most part all my hopes and dreams have changed. Well that's not completely true my hope and dreams are the same but the reality of life has significantly changed. For example I thought our time at Joe's Place was coming to a close but it seems that only Leanne's time is. I am hoping to stay on for a few more years and continue to grow with the organization. I thought we would be moving back to Ontario this year but that has also changed with the reality that I have been given other responsibilities at the church as I have joined the elders board, which is a 2-4 year commitment. Also looking at our financial situation it is much more affordable to live in Moose Jaw then to move back to Ontario. One day we would like to move back or possibly to Lake Cowachin in B.C. Which I fell back in love with when we visited this summer.

This year has been a difficult year for me. It has been filled with joy and laughter and many great times with friends and family and of course my beautiful wife, Leanne....(a few months later)

As I have just mentioned this is a different year for me. I started writing this post in February just after my birthday but didn't know what fully to say i stopped and left it for a few months. It is know April and so much more of my life has changed. I am beginning to see that change in my life is the third consistent part of my life with Jesus being the first and my wife being the only other consistent parts of life.

Let me catch you up to speed on the last two months. When I was writing this blog in feburary Leanne was pregnant with our first child. At that time we had only told our parents and a few close friends. I really wanted to write about it then but felt it was still to early so I left it. About 3 weeks later Leanne and I went through the most tramatic experiance we have ever had.

We had just been approved to come back to Ontario for a few weeks to talk to our supporters and let them know what the plan was for our future at Joe's Place. As we were expecting, and Leanne would be taking at least the next year off to raise our child. That night she started to bleed and have a lot of pain, I went to work but texted to check on her every so often. The next day she was still in pain and bleeding, by the third day we seemed to be in the clear but then that night it got really bad and we went to the hospital. Everything seemed to be OK in regards to the pragnancy but then the next day our fears were confirmed we had lost the baby.

In the midst of the waiting we spent many hours praying, listening to worship and just holding her as she cried. God gave us lots of peace through out the time and we are still receiving that peace in the midst of the grief. We felt as though it was a boy and so named him Chad Taylor. I believe he is in heaven watching over us and for whatever reason God took him before we meet.

It has been a month since that experience and we have drawn closer to God and each other. We are still in Moose Jaw and life continues to move forward. but this moment has redefined what life is about for me. God is of utmost importance and I am still learning to spend more time with him and BE. I love my wife even more and look forward to having a family with her. Although life is in constant change God is my rock and Leanne is my love.

The most memoriable 6 months of my life.

It has been almost exactly one year since my last post. This year has felt like the longest year of my life. As I reflect back over everything I have done it is probably the most memorible and that is why it feels the longest. The funny thing is that I really only remember the last 6 months to be absolutly honest other then preparing for the wedding I don't really remeber Feburary to August other then the camping trips I went on. Lets start then in August.

After a summer of planning a wedding (done mostly by my lovely wife) and taking youth out on camping trips and outings I got married. It was a beautiful wedding with lots of friends and family attending. There is so much from that day I wish i could share on here but words would not express them. Here is a highlight video of it though and a couple pictures. http://youtu.be/-55hCN_p7n8 

 The video was done by our friend Sean and Luke and the photo is from Rachel they did a great job capturing our day. 

After the wedding we took a 2 week honeymoon/ road trip from Haliburton ON. to Luninberg NS and back. It was a wonderful time filled with great weather, great food, amazing sights and time with each other and visiting some friends along the way. Again something that I can't describe in words but it was an amazing time and we hope to travel out east again.

We came back and began our life together, in Moose Jaw and hit the ground running. There have been lots of transtions in the last 6 months that I have been trying to figure out. I am learning what it means to be a husband and share life with Leanne. I am still at Joe's Place in the same role as last year but we have had some staff change over and more growth happening and so we are on a seemingly steep learning curve and have some growing pains. It is all good stuff but it's also been hard to transtion from the way things have always been to where they are heading. We are starting to feel that our time at Joe's is coming to a close in the next year or so but we are unsure what that looks like or means for us. I hope and pray that God will bring in the right people to take over our roles in the time remaining for us at Joe's. Then we would like to start a family. But all that is in Gods hands.

This past janurary Leanne and I took our second trip together to Mexico. that was a time of relaxing and getting our feet back under us. As the christmas season was not much rest visiting with family and running the newyears party again. Which went really well here is a highlight video of Voltage.
 http://youtu.be/5Rj5byHfCnA  That was alot of work but worth it then we have just finished YQ and we are looking ahead to what this year will bring.

At this point in life I am overwhelmed by all that is going on. It's crazy to think what this coming year will bring. I have a lot to learn about being me. I am trying to spend more time with Jesus he is still a big part of my life and I take comfort in known that Christ  and my wife are the two constent things in my life despite all the change. I recoginize that I must do my part in my faith and in marriage to keep it going strong and I am willing to do that despite how tired I may be. There is a light on the horizon that keeps me going knowning that their is a new day dawning.

Lord I thank you for my life and how you are bring it together. Forgive me when I think that it's all me or doubt that you are there. I am sorry for not taking the time to BE with you and listen to your leading. I am often lost in thought trying to see you i am. Please continue to draw me closer to you and hear your voice in my life as you lead me. May you make me into the man, husband, friend and one day father you desire me to be. I am nothing with out you and your grace in my life. Thanks for giving me breath and leading me to be who you want me to be. I pray all this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Whats to come....

Here I am entering into my 25th year of being on this earth. I have just spent the last hour reading through some of my old posts on this blog. It is interesting to read back and see how God has been leading my life and reading about things I wanted to accomplish and have done so. I don't regret anything I have written on this blog over the past 4 years that I have been recording my life. If you do read this feel free to go back through my posts and see where I have been. Usually i take this time to reflect of the past year of my life but I feel my last few posts have done an adequate job of that. So I would like to talk about what is to come.

As I enter into my 25th year of life I am preparing for marriage to my beautiful, loving and precious fiance Leanne Plouffe. Last year I wrote that I wanted to marry my best friend and ministry partner and Leanne was the women I had in mind but I knew I had to wait it out for her to want to be with me. It only took about 4 months to happen, as God was already at work in her heart and mine. In the next 6months we will be wed and begin our life together as one. I am looking forward to this as she has become the second most important thing in my life next to Christ. I trust that God has brought us together and will continue to use us in ministry for the sake of his kingdom.

Speaking of ministry I look forward to where God is leading me in my service at Joe's Place. We have been going season of growth and we have many new youth coming out to Joe's Place and good number of them have been making life changing decisions to follow God. Also I have been able to release a lot of the jobs I was having to do and begin to focus on just out door trips and male discipleship. I am hoping to set up more trips and activities outside of Joe's Place that will raise up young men of God. I have a lot of skills and resources at hand I am know getting the training and getting in to shape to lead these trips effectively. With the help of the Cornerstone outdoor ed class. My hope is that I can do a lot of networking and training this year so that next summer in 2013 I will be able to run one over night canoe trip, run the dusty moose with a team from Joe's Place, travel to Calgary and do a service trip and do a hiking trip in Banff. Before all this can happen I need to set up a training schedule and service learning trips. Through all of this I pray that I will be able to connect with some of the youth in moose jaw and see them meet Jesus and grow in their faith.

I pray Lord that this is your will for my life and if it is not that you will make that clear to me and if it is that you will bless me with all that I need to do this. I desire to pour my self out on your behalf to lead others to you. May my life continue to be an example of your love to this world. I ask all this in your holy and heavenly name of Jesus. Amen.