January: starting again, family, patience, and prayer.

Good Morning Friends, Family and Internet Wanderers

If you have been keeping up with this Blog, you might remember that the past few months have been difficult ones for me, but January has been surprisingly positive. Perhaps my positive outlook is because a new year has begun, or more likely it is a result of the the Lord at work in my life. By in large not a lot has changed this month from last aside from my outlook. Well perhaps that is not entirely true, this month I have been leaning deeply into the Lord in prayer. Prayer has characterized my response to just about everything this month and in this practice I have found tremendous relief and encouragement.

Thankfulness:
I find it curious to observe in myself and others just how quickly we turn to, or turn back to, God when trouble comes around. Lately while my Bible reading has been on point, my prayer times have been infrequent and brief. But with the difficulties of the past month I have been delving deep into prayer both for myself and for others. It is in this place of regular prayer that God has been showing me how He is at work in some of the areas of my life. Particularly He has been reminding me that I am not just a physical being but spiritual as well. In the western world we like to forget or ignore the idea of the spiritual, but the Bible is clear that it exists, and affects our lives. So part of my daily routine has been to claim in prayer the authority given to me by Christ as a Christian. As I daily pray and speak out against spirits of depression, oppression, and offense, I find my days have been improving significantly. While I do not know that these three will always be what I name, I am so thankful for Gods provision in my life. "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" - James 4:7

On the same note as above, during times of trouble I take comfort in my family. It dawned on me one day this month that not everyone has such an amazing support team as I do and while that is sad, it is also an incredible blessing for me. So this month I have been spending a lot more time with my family than I have done in a long time. Ever since I moved out I only really visited family on special occasions, opting for independence and friends over them. Partially this was due to some conflicts (as we all have with our family before we move out on our own), and partially it was my own hubris to declare that I could stand all on my own. But that gets lonely and I was missing out on a lot of good. So weekly now I have been enjoying time spent with family, being supported and supporting them. Of particular note is the growing closeness with my sister, that I did not expect and I am really thankful for.

Finally in January I am extremely blessed by the donations and support by all of you. The church accountant is currently busy with tax forms and whatnot, but I have been assured that I am covered for a good while now. If I had to guess I would say that I am likely funded until June/July 2017 now. I am exceedingly blessed by the generosity, both big and small, of all of you. I know I might sound like a broken record, but I really could not do even a fraction of what I am without your support. Thank you. It means the world to me.

Prayer:
As many of you know, I have been experiencing difficulty in some of my close friendships. Without going into specifics, the basics of life, eating, sleeping, and even recreation have been affected. Now all that being said January has seen an improvement in this area from December, but there is still a fair way to go to bring about reconciliation. Please pray for wisdom for all parties involved, that I would act in a way that is representative of God's love to these people, and that they would do similarly.

This past month I also took the initiative to sit down with some of the other leaders in the ministries I am responsible for and ask them really concretely what their impressions are of me and my leadership. I mentioned in my last post I was feeling like some things needed to be changed and my feelings were confirmed. This was a positive process for me as I was able to hear other perspectives, voice my ideas and feelings and then be given concrete ideas and responses to my ideas. Please pray that I would continue to seek out God's best for these ministries, and that He would show me how to move in the directions which I believe He is taking these ministries.

Finally, as many of you know I have been volunteering for a few hours a week at a local high school, helping to teach English to students who are new to Canada. Being that this is a public high school I was a little uncertain they would allow a christian part time pastor to serve, but it has been going very well. So well in fact that the teacher I volunteer for/with has asked me a few times about my faith, to which I have shared and found that she too is a Christian. This led her to approach me about two weeks ago to ask if I would be interested in helping set up a Christian faith based club at the school. She was not terribly specific as to what it would look like or entail, but said that with the influx of Muslim students there have been groups forming around that faith and she thought that Christians should have one too. I am incredibly excited and vehemently agreed to this, but also said that I am content in my current role. So we left the conversation with her saying that she would bring it up to the school for approval. Please pray that the Lords will be done at this high school. I can see so many opportunities for connection and blessings, but I also know that I cannot force anything, and that trying to will not achieve the results I want. It is my hope that this will happen, but I trust in what God is doing, even if this does not happen.

Thank you for all your support, and for your prayers

May God bless you this month as you continue to bless me.

-Stefan Klassen