He Loves Me SOO Much

I just wanted to use this blog to declare that God loves me a whole lot. Here is my awesome proof:

So yesterday after the completing the last job I wanted to check the time and so I reached for my cell phone only to realize that it wasn't in my pocket. Upon further investigation I realized it wasn't in any of my pockets and a quick search of the van made me very nervous. I suspected that my partner jacked it (jacked means stole for those who don't know, i.e. hijacked). Before going home I asked my boss to call it while I listened for it to ring in the van. Nothing.

I went home very discouraged, perhaps the most discouraged I have been since I moved here. I was perhaps on an even greater level of discouragement than when my bike got stolen because I was also cold, tired, and my day at work wasn't too good either.

On a side note: I have been learning countless times lately that no matter the circumstance, it is always a good idea to praise God. Through rain or shine. (for example, the other day when I missed my bus, for the second or third time in 20 minutes, I started praising God, not because of the misfortune but despite it, and another bus I could take came by within a minute :)

So I tried praising God despite my gloomy misery, but it wasn't really happening much. I managed to offer up a little prayer of, "Jesus, please bring my cell phone back." At about 10:30 last night my door bell rang, and when I opened it Jesus (or rather my good friend Tim Boch representing Jesus) walked in the door and gave me my cell phone!! I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.

So that is how I know that He loves me lots. I lost my cell phone and he brought it back to me.

Here is what happened if you would like to know: I dropped my cell phone, without realizing it, in a snow bank at Fabric Land on Pembina highway just off Bishop Grandin. 5 1/2 hours later Tim was trying to call me and some people happened to hear it ringing and dug it out of the snow to answer it! They then made arrangements and Tim went and picked it up for me.

It's amazing in so many ways: that Tim called exactly when some people were within earshot to answer it. the fact that It was even on ringer, I always keep it on vibrate, I had accidentally turned the ringer on the day before and simply hadn't turned the ringer off yet. that the battery wasn't dead yet, Canadians know that cold and batteries don't go well together, that's why we have to boost each others' cars so often.

Yea, God loves me lots.

Why is Loving So Hard?

"...But I don't want to."

"...I don't feel like it."

"I'm scared, what will I say, what will I do. How will they react, what if they get mad?"

"It's not going to make a difference anyways and I probably won't even find anybody."

"...It's cold outside"

"I think I should take a nap"

"LORD why is it so hard to LOVE?!?" I feel a direct tug on my heart for the homeless. I also don't FEEL like doing anything about that, especially when I know that 'today' is a good day to go out. Even though I know that joy will accompany my weak attempts at empathy.

On Sunday I decided to fill my back-pack with mitts and toques purchased from Steinbach's MCC thrift store and then give them out to whomever I could find in need. It took me about 2 hours of humming and hawing before I finally went out... I had a wonderful time! But why is it so hard to go?!? Why is it so hard to love? or perhaps a better question is, why are some people so hard to love? I have no problem loving my friends. If I found out a friend of mine was outside in the cold of winter without somewhere to stay and without proper clothing; it would not take me two hours to go and help them!

And yet every time on my way home I tell myself, "I should do this everyday!"

I thought of giving this post the title, "Socks, yes, and underwear too please." That is what the lady at the Main St. Program (where my wonderful walk took me) told me when I gave her all the mitts and toques. Since I never gave any out to individuals on my pleasant journey there I felt it was a practical place to drop them off. On my way there I passed a homeless man who was walking very slowly. It looked like he was trying to bunch his toes up inside of his worn-out shoes. I realized his feet must have been freezing. I didn't buy any socks at MCC, it never crossed my mind. So I smiled and said 'hi' cheerfully as I passed him in my comfy winter boots. The encounter led to me asking the lady at the Program if they needed socks. "Socks, yes, and underwear too please," she responded. Apparently when the homeless come in for a shower they don't have any clean underwear so they either keep wearing their dirty pair or go without.

On that note I am accepting donations of clean socks and underwear. I also have a full bag of donated items that I have yet to deliver to those in need (much thanks for that! by the way).

I'm beginning to wonder if love is one of the most difficult things to give.

-Trenton.

A Day at Work

So a typical day for me:

My alarm goes off at 6:00 AM and I jump out of bed and take the day on at full steam!... just kidding, I hit the snooze and drag myself out of bed 10 minutes later. After eating breakfast (oatmeal for the win!), making my lunch and bundling up for being outside most of the day, ill leave for work by about 10 after 7:00. That equates to about half an hour to eat breakfast and half an hour to make my lunch, after all I'm going at full steam. I bike to work, even through 4 feet of snow. I may start walking soon.

I get to the office soon after and sit around with the rest of the guys until our dispatcher gives us our work for the day, assigns us into groups of 2-3 and gives us the keys to a van. It is not unusual to be sitting around until 8 before we leave. (My boss doesn't like this, however he just bought the company so there are some things he is still working through. I love my boss. He is a Christian and I sometimes get to pray with him). Sometimes we are given route work, which is more regular and involves equal driving and working time. It is easier, and has more variety, sometimes doing route work we'll wash the windows of 20+ businesses. Other times we'll be given the ticket for a single job that will take us all day, or even multiple days, these are usually less fun than doing route work. (A ticket is the paper with the job details, also your name needs to be on the ticked to get payed, lose the ticket and you don't get payed.) So far my least favourite jobs are houses, they are more difficult for the simple reason that houses aren't built practical like businesses, they are built pretty, and artsy and frustrating for window cleaners. On top of that, houses are frequently rated lower than businesses (I am not sure why), government buildings are rated the highest, on purpose (cause it's tax payers dollars anyways I was told). I have yet to go on a stage and go up a tall building. I will also someday do chair work, that is where you come down the building sitting on a board, tied with ropes/cables (not for the faint of heart).

The highest I have been on a ladder is 3 stories. The most scared I have been so far is when we did this one house. I had to edge alongside a wall and reach up above my head to wash some little windows without any safety gear (i was 3 stories off the ground!). I had 3 feet of space to work with and it was approx. a 4/12 pitch.

I should explain how I get payed. Each job ticket is rated for a certain amount of minutes, for example the Subway restaurant in Osborne village on Osborne and River ave. is rated for something like 30 minutes inside and outside. that means we wash all the windows, inside and outside the restaurant. so no matter how long it takes us to wash the windows we will only get payed 30 minutes for it, and that is split between everybody, if there are 3 guys they will get 10 minutes each etc. the higher the rating, the more the minutes, the lower the rating the less the minutes. a positive of this system is you get payed for the work you do, and it motivates you to work harder, the more work you complete the more you get payed. The negative of this system is that it motivates cheating.

There. That is a typical day of work for me. I often get home between 2 and 4 in the afternoon. There was one day I got home at 8. Thankfully that is rare.

It's snowing!

Yay it's snowing outside! I like it when the ground is covered in snow, for whatever reason I find it calming and peaceful. I also like how traffic is forced to slow down and thus driving is so much less stressful. Driving is also filled with more adventures like hitting the ditch, hitting other cars and stuff like that. Those things aren't fun necessarily but they are exciting. I just biked home from Young Adults and it was very slippery. I was quite tipsy and all over the place, sort of like I was drunk, except not at all.

The purpose of this blog is to provide an alternative medium to email for sharing about my adventures with Jesus. This way everybody who knows about this blog can read it, without needing to get an email from me. Hopefully this will also help me to share more often because for whatever reason sending email updates feels like a chore and it shouldn't. I also hope this will be a form of therapy because lately I have been quite stressed.

So I am living in the North End of Winnipeg. I am living here because God told me to, plain and simple. So far it has been a marvelous adventure, with all sorts of ups and downs. Recently most of the ups have been with friends. I have three friends who twice a week gather in my little apartment at 5:30 AM!! and we pray together. Those are the highlights of my week. Two of them regularly sleep on my floor because they are voluntarily, semi-homeless. I love that I can offer them cereal and space to sleep and a shower if they like. Most of the downs recently are connected with work. I am a window cleaner (which I like). the way I get payed is based upon the job completed, not how long it took. So whether it takes me 3 hours or 5 hours to do a job, I still get payed the same amount. This last week has been full of full work days but only getting payed for a few hours worth of work, which is stressful. (however at Young Adults tonight we prayed about this so I'm looking forward with hope :)

Looking forward with hope,

Trenton.