Posted on February 22, 2007 by Rodney Bartlett
It has been an quite a period of transition for us over the last several months as I’ve started to work part-time. I’m a contractor working with a company called Ubertor. We host web-sites for real estate agents. It is a unique market and I’ve already learned a ton about the real estate buisness. I sort of went into the job with mixed feelings. Tiff and I moved to Vancouver 4.5 years ago and our main focus has been trying to help start the bridge, a new church in Vancouver. The bridge is the reason that we came to Vancouver and I’ve been working exclusively for the Bridge for the last several years. I say I went into the job with mixed feelings because I was afraid that my heart or my desire for the success of the Bridge would diminish with the start of this new job. I’m happy to say that just the opposite of that has happened. The new work has caused me to be more sure and more committed at the Bridge. My time to do Bridge work is now limited, but this has caused me to strive to be more focused and work harder in the time that I do have. Overall I guess I’ve found that my heart is not divided. I can still work with all of my heart as working for God and not man whether I’m working a secular Job or working for the Church. I want to do my work as best I can in order to please my earthly boss and my Heavenly Boss (aka Jesus).
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Posted on January 7, 2007 by Rodney Bartlett
Our drive to Kansas was quite amazing. We were driving from Wichita Falls Texas through Oklahoma to Wichita Kansas. I forgot how long the horizon is in Kansas and Oklahoma. The Blue sky just stretchs on and on. Caleb made a few interesting comments on our road trip. He was sitting in the back seat pretending we were “Lightening McQueen” from the movie Cars. Caleb kept saying, “come on dad pass em on the inside.” It was a fun trip although I think we lost the race and didn’t win the piston cup.
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Posted on January 5, 2007 by Rodney Bartlett
A new year — where did 2006 go? I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year celebration. We enjoyed celebrating an early Christmas in Vancouver. On Christmas day we loaded up in the van and drove to Seattle where we caught a flight to Dallas/Ft Worth and spent a week with my parents in Wichita Falls, Texas. As we were waiting for our luggage, Caleb looked around and said, “This isn’t Texas. This is still the airport.” Spoken like a truly observant 4 year old. We had a good visit with my parents and we were able to all be together with my family for at least one day before everyone had to start heading back for jobs and other family commitments.
We left Texas on Jan 2nd to spend some time in Kansas. Tiff and I enjoyed the drive up through Oklahoma (never thought I’d say that). The sky was clear and the horizon seemed to stretch on forever. In Vancouver we enjoy the majesty of the mountains, the vast forests and wide oceans. The plains and rolling hills of the Midwest contain a unique beauty. At sunset the sky was on fire with brilliant orange, yellow and blue. Our drive made Psalm 19 come to life — “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands”
Some changes ahead for us
We wanted to let you know of a few changes that are coming for Tiff and I. I have accepted a part-time position as customer service representative for a company called Ubertor. The company host websites for realtors and mortgage brokers. I will only be working 20-25 hours per week and will be doing 90% of my work in an online chat environment or over the telephone. I will still be working for the church but will scale back my hours at the Bridge. I’m excited about the job. The job could give us more of a long term future in Vancouver. Over the years the Bridge has remained 50 or fewer members and cannot support two pastors. The longer we are away from you, our supporters, the more difficult it is to maintain and raise new support. This new job will help supplement our income and provide us with more options for our future.
MSC
We have also applied to the Mission Service Corp (MSC) program. This is a program of the North American Mission Board. Just before Christmas we received our acceptance letter. Being a MSC missionary will not be a major change for us. We will still be working at The Bridge and Jerry Conner will still be my supervisor. The primary change will be in how our support is handled. Currently all of our funds go through River Community Church. River has been gracious to collect our funds and distribute receipts to all of you. MSC has a financial team dedicated to support people in our situation and will begin handling our support and distributing tax receipts. Beginning in February of 2007 our financial support will be handled by MSC. We will be in touch to let you know more about how this process will work.
A new year can cause you to look back and also look ahead. As we look back we are grateful for you. Your prayers and support have allowed us to be in Vancouver. Your investment of time and resources has given us the chance to give our lives away for God’s glory to Canadians in Vancouver. As we look ahead and God leads us through these changes, we can be confident because we have a future hope and our hope will not be cut off.
Thanks for your love and support
Rodney, Tiffany, Caleb, Jesse and Emily
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Posted on December 11, 2006 by Rodney Bartlett
Tiff and I went an saw an interesting exhibit at Science World in Vancouver on Saturday called Body Worlds 3. I would say it was a lively exhibit, but that would a total lie!! The exhibit was made up of human bodies which had been plasticized. All of the sculptures were then posed so that a certain feature of the body would be highlighted. Oh, did I fail to mention — none of the bodies had their skin on!! With almost all of the sculptures the fatty tissue was removed and you could see the muscles, tendon and bones working together to perform a certain action. Some of the “sculptures” were standing, one posed as though they were praying, several were performing some sort of atheletic move and others were dancing. In the exhibit they had a section dedicated to each system in the body. They showed us what healthy lungs looked like and lungs with cancer. We saw a healthy brain and one with tumors. They even had a section dedicated to fetal development. To see this unborn baby through different stages of development was amazing. I’ve seen pictures, but to see the real thing. This exhibit may sound a little odd, and actually it was a bit surreal. It was also very interesting, informative, and a bit inspiring. Inspiring? How so? Glad you asked — There was a cross section of an obese persons body. It was explained briefly the effects that obesity had on your internal organs and your body in general. I don’t think I am in danger of become obese, but this body I have is the only one that God has given me. I was inspired to take better care of it. I haven’t been to the gym in 2 weeks. I guess that is a good place to start for my inspiriation to turn into action!
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Posted on December 2, 2006 by Rodney Bartlett
Well we are offically into the Christmas spirit. I pulled the decorations out from our storage last night and Tiffany even got a few decorations set out. We haven’t celebrated the Christmas seasons with advent candles before, but we are trying it this year. I know that you are suppose to do it on Sunday night, but there were some Christmas activities planned in our neighbourhood, so we thought that tonight would be a good night to start our advent celebration. A few friends were invited to join us, but no one could make it. After somewhat of a tiring day we decided to postpone the advent kick-off and get the kids to bed early. We did however get out to ride the free horse drawn carriage around Granville Island. Some friends from the building joined us. The sleigh bells, hot chocolate, and cookies told us that the Christmas season is officially upon us.
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Posted on December 1, 2006 by Rodney Bartlett
We have blogged a little, but we are finally making a commitment to it. If you click on the link above called monthly letter you will see the newsletter we send out each week. Hopefully we’ll keep this thing up better than we did with our website. Check back often to see little tidbits of our lif in Vancouver.
Cheers
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It has been an quite a period of transition for us over the last several months as I’ve started to work part-time. I’m a contractor working with a company called Ubertor. We host web-sites for real estate agents. It is a unique market and I’ve already learned a ton about the real estate buisness. I sort of went into the job with mixed feelings. Tiff and I moved to Vancouver 4.5 years ago and our main focus has been trying to help start the bridge, a new church in Vancouver. The bridge is the reason that we came to Vancouver and I’ve been working exclusively for the Bridge for the last several years. I say I went into the job with mixed feelings because I was afraid that my heart or my desire for the success of the Bridge would diminish with the start of this new job. I’m happy to say that just the opposite of that has happened. The new work has caused me to be more sure and more committed at the Bridge. My time to do Bridge work is now limited, but this has caused me to strive to be more focused and work harder in the time that I do have. Overall I guess I’ve found that my heart is not divided. I can still work with all of my heart as working for God and not man whether I’m working a secular Job or working for the Church. I want to do my work as best I can in order to please my earthly boss and my Heavenly Boss (aka Jesus).
