I'm still high from an absolutely fabulous weekend at the Newfrontiers Canada leadership conference. We had great worship, great teaching from Chris McLean, Roger Bye, and Joe Crummey, and wonderful fellowship as we prayed for and spent time with one another.

The most exciting bit was our visitors from Montreal. There is a group of young people there who are experiencing a real move of the Holy Spirit. Kids are getting saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, and healed. They're not formed into an official "church" per se, but they meet for worship, prayer and fellowship. God has brought about a connection with Newfrontiers in Canada, with the purpose of encouraging and helping them in whatever ways that we can.

Two of the young people who came from Montreal were guys who have only within the past few weeks been saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. Both quit drugs, alcohol, and smoking. One had been so violent and badly behaved that parents wouldn't allow their children to hang out with him. Now he's passionate about Jesus and they're both growing and radically changed.

I personally feel that God has given me a connection with them and I feel an urge to help them, pray for them, and do whatever I can to support them. I'm deeply grateful for their friendship, prayers, and encouragement to me.

The weekend ended rather spectacularly with a sledding trip to Toronto's Riverdale Park. The weather has been warm lately and many people have been sledding, so the hill is quite slick and icy. Somebody built a jump at the bottom, and several of us hit it, with predictably disastrous results. One guy has his arm in a sling, one girl had the wind knocked out of her, one guy has his back and foot hurt...and I'm sure there are more I haven't heard about.

I hit the jump on my first run, went flying into the air, parted with the sled, did several revolutions in the air, landed on my back, had the sled land on top of me and then bounce off. I felt fine yesterday but today have symptoms of a mild concussion: a quite peculiar feeling. No more sled jumps for me!

Life hasn't included much time for blogging recently, or anything else nonessential: I've been rushing around like the proverbial decapitated barnyard fowl, but hopefully accomplishing something more than he does in the process.

Importing my car to Canada has turned out to be a royal, and very expensive, pain. Thus far it's included hefty fees, lots of paperwork, many phone calls, rushing around to various offices and dealerships, and one large stress headache. However, the process seems to be moving along, with the federal inspection form released today. Now I just have to get the car inspected, modded to meet Canadian safety standards (which I expect to involve several more hefty fees), and then, hopefully, somewhere at the end of the process, sold for enough to make this whole sordid thing worthwhile. In theory.

It's the night of my move to Canada. I'm back in my city. I'm driving to my new house, someplace I've never seen or visited, much too late, in the dark and the rain with a car loaded full of my stuff. Somewhere out there is a house with three roommates who've promised to help me move it all in.

I'm numbly tired; up at 4 am, traveling for 13-plus hours, worn from the stress of the border crossing. The intersections slide past: Jarvis. Church. Yonge. Bay. Avenue. Spadina.

So, I'm back in the city where I lived for six years, and I am absolutely loving it. I had no idea how I'd take it, how I'd feel, before I moved, but I am so very thankful to be back.

People always used to ask me the differences between Canada and America, and I didn't know what to tell them. I'd lived in Canada for so long, and been so young when I moved, that I'd kind of forgotten what America was like. Then, when I moved back to America, I only had the shock of what was different about the States. Now that I've moved back again, I have a somewhat clearer perspective.

Friday, my friend Margaret and I rose early and made the 9-hour drive to the Queenston-Lewiston bridge into Canada so I could complete the immigration process by landing (entering the country).

I have to admit to a terrifying amount of nervousness as we approached the border. Border crossings are always a point of stress, and this was the biggest one of all. After so many years, so much money, so much work, and several moves, was it all going to be scotched by a suspicious immigration officer? My leg on the clutch was shaking as I frantically prayed that all would be well.

Today I went to Boston for what will probably be the last time during my time living here. I met my friend Gabi and we walked and talked and I gave her a lens to return to a mutual friend and she gave me some prints of her photos and we sat outside the Boston Public Library and sipped tea from an expensive cafe. I was too tired to do much more than listen to her talk. We people-watched as she chatted to me about her photography course and all that she's learning, and I realized again how much I miss living in the city.

I'm keeping this blog out of some principle or other (in theory partly to help my far-flung friends and acquaintances, should they choose, to keep up with my happenings), but I find myself tempted to give it up most of the time. Mainly because I'm not funny, don't write about the mundane happenings of my day in a compelling fashion, and when I do have something profound to say, it's usually overly serious.

Today, I received word that Citizenship and Immigration Canada has approved my application for permanent resident status.

The next step is to send them my passport, which they will return with the visa. After that, I have a time limit (usually 4-6 months) in which to enter Canada.

I have to admit my first reaction was not joyful excitement. It was weeping.

Why?

Photos from the Newfrontiers Canada Leadership Conference 2007 are now online at the Newfrontiers Canada site. With the exception of the first one and last six, I took all the photos.

It was a great learning experience; going forward, I'd move around more and try for a little more variety in the people I captured. But it was a lot of fun, and I'm fairly pleased with the results.

This past weekend, I attended Newfrontiers Canada's second annual leadership conference in Oakville, Ontario. It was fantastic to be back "home" and to see so many beloved friends again—well worth the 11-hour drive. Fortunately I was able to carpool with a pastor from North Berwick, Maine, and two young guys from his church, which made the drive much more tolerable than the times I've trekked it by myself.