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!

I sort of feel the need to post something just because I haven't in a long time. Life's been quite busy and the usual summer activities aren't all that conducive to blogging.

Highlights recently have included meeting the well-known Christian blogger Adrian Warnock for a portrait shoot; and Celebration Northeast, an annual meeting of the Newfrontiers churches in this part of the country and Canada. (Audio of the messages should be posted to that site soon). It was a fantastic time of encouraging messages from John Lanferman, Steven Van Rhyn, and Ian Ashby; stirring worship; and great fellowship with new friends and old. Saturday night was a particularly powerful time of worship as the Holy Spirit invaded and touched many people. Two of my friends had bad knees healed. I'm sure there were many other healings I haven't heard of. I personally had a very touching encounter with God. All in all it was a great weekend; the sense was of the church on a mission and of joyful celebration of all that God has done and is doing.

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.