You are right Jade, God has good humor (lengthy title)

So I read Jade's post and when she mentioned that she will be staying at Trent's church it reminded me of a another funny coincidence that occurred last Sunday night. So I had just spent the weekend in Fredericton NB, visiting old friends and having some peculiar adventures involving Matthew 10:42 and of course Parkour! Anyways I was on my way back to the island (Prince Edward not Vancouver, sorry Jim) cruising around 140 km an hour, speeding slightly and my attention turned from the road to a waving maniac in the car next to me. I was utterly confused until I noticed a bright pink stripped shirt and realised that is was none other than the one and only Nicholas Vansnickolas! I waved back and had a moment mixed with utter confusion, shock from the "chance" meeting and joy that I had finally seen someone from Kaleo after Kaleo. I followed him to the Salisbury Bigstop, (a landmark in NB without a doubt) and we stopped and chatted for a few minutes. We didn't have a whole lot of time but it so good to get a chance to catch up a bit. Now I apologize for my poor word choices. Words like coincidence and chance are not what I truly believe to be the underlying causes of this meeting. I know God set up this little rendez-vous and I am thankful. It is a good reminder at a very important time that I am not the only Kaleo student trying to live in this world. I find that here on the PEI I can become quite isolated and I even start to think that I prefer it, but really I want more connection. My church situation is still pretty dormant, that is, my godly community is not much more than my parents. I would ask for prayer that God set up not just a meeting again, but some friendships.

I recently came across an interesting revelation. Jesus had three types of Christ centered community. He had his really big group of followers, his 72 disciples or more. He also had a smaller group of 12 that he knew much more intimately and spent a lot of time with. Within that group of 12 he had a group of three, his very close friends whom he was very open with and shared some of the most personal experiences. Jesus had these groups for different levels of relationship, all with some distinct purposes and all Christ centered. In the same way we need Christ centered relationships with similar dynamics. We need large groups like church congregations, we need smaller groups like...small groups or like Kaleo, and we need those one or two people with whom we are the most vulnerable and open. Jesus set the example of community with his own life and I believe it very important to follow. I could unpack this quite a bit but I don't feel that this blog is the right context to share a sermon.

So I just like sharing thoughts, gets them out of my head and helps me make sense of them and perhaps this can be a challenge or and encouragement to some of you. I would again ask that I could find all three levels of Christ centered community. I really feel like I need them and I feel like I only have the big group when I go to church on Sundays. I need more close and present community. Of course you guys are a big answer to that prayer but it is also pretty valuable to have that sort of community physically present. Anyways I tend to ramble on this blog. Thanks for listening friends. Grace be with you always. Cheers.