Intro #4 - Kim Irwin

My name is Kimberly Irwin and I am from St. Albert, Alberta. I grew up in Grande Prairie, and when I was 14, we ended up moving to St Albert. I have two loving parents, Wes and Cathy, and a younger brother Calvin.
Over the last couple of years I have travelled all over the place! I graduated in 09’, half a semester early, which allowed me to go on an exchange for 3 months in France. After I graduated with my class in June, I worked all summer and then went off to Capernwray Harbour last fall. I really enjoyed my year at Capernwray, and I experienced a major growth in my relationship with God. Having that opportunity to get away, and focus on my relationship with God, has really changed my outlook on life. He is more real to me than he has ever been before in my life, and this is why I am thankful to be living in a supportive home like Life Together. When I was away at bible school, knowing that I would be going to SAIT(Southern Alberta Institute of Technology) in the fall, I was concerned I wouldn’t find a place to live. It was such an answer to prayer when my mom found out about Life together through Thomas’ dad. (My mom and his dad went to bible school together, a long time ago when dinosaurs walked the earth, and remained in contact through Facebook.)
By living in this house, I really wanted to learn to live with others in community and to grow in my relationship with God again. I wanted to make Christian friends, so I would be able to encourage them in their walk, and they would be able to do the same for me. Having a daily devotional together is really helpful when trying to time manage time between school and other social activities. I want to learn to serve God through serving my fellow house mates, and also looking forward to getting involved in a local church. I hope as I continue to grow in my relationship with God, I will become more sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and He will lead me exactly where He wants me to be. I have seen God work in my life before, and I expect great things to happen this year at the house.

Thanks,
Kimberly

Intro #3 - Brittany Eefting

My name is Brittany Eefting. I was born in Alberta's oil heaven Fort McMurray though I think that is the first and only time heaven and Fort Mac will be used in the same sentence. I moved to Calgary when I was 16 and have been here ever since. Moving to Calgary was one of the most critical moments in my life. It completely changed everything in the best way. So that was deep, moving on.

I have the most AMAZING family. I am in the middle with an older sister and a younger brother. My younger brother, Caleb is 14 years old and pretty much the coolest 14 year old around: super athletic, super kind, and super fun. My sister is 25, married to a very talented and funny worship pastor. My sister is one of my best friends and has the cutest son in the entire world and yes I am the crazy auntie who spoils him like mad.
My parents are the best. My mom is for sure my best friend and my dad is my biggest fan and my greatest support.
My family is said to be abnormally close and crazy. From making ridiculous movies on family day, to our crazy love for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and our fierce competitiveness I guess I could agree we are a bit nuts but my life is so full because of them. I could gush for an entire blog about them, alas this is supposed to be about me. So we move on and I will let you all know what I have been doing the last few years and what I am doing now.

I graduated high school in 2007 and attended Rocky Mountain Bible College for a year, mostly to sing in their choir and take voice lessons (music is my life). After that year I went to Mount Royal University to get my Diploma in Early Learning and Child Care ( I looove children). I graduated this past spring and took the summer to basically relax before my new life as a real adult began. Now I am a full time nanny for a fantastic family with two little girls. My job brings me much joy, a lot of laughs, and a lot of yawns.It also brings me a paycheck so I can live in the life together house ( pretty good transition to the next section eh?)

Why did I choose to come to life together? hmm well I have always been super intrigued by the idea of communal living. For years now I have said that one day I would try it. When I heard about Life Together at church I was super interested in it. There it was, my communal living experience combined with my faith! perfecto! I was going to be done school and ready to move out but not so ready to move out that I wanted to live alone. The life together house just seemed like a fit. I LOVE learning with and from people. So it was so clear to me that this is something God would use to impact my life greatly and wanted me to do. When I look forward into this year I have so many dreams and goals my mind gets jumbled thinking about them. I am a passionate person who loves to learn but when I find something I love I am all in. This year I am looking to find balance within my faith. Focusing on listening to God and following through on the things He shows me. I know He has great things in store and I want to be in tune enough to figure it out. I am so extremely excited about this year.

And that’s me.

Intro #2 - Molly Read

Hey. I'm Molly.

I was born in the infamous Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Yes, I own a Saskatchewan Roughrider jersey, wanna fight about it?
Before moving to Life Together here in Calgary, I had lived in the same house my entire life. My family and I have always attended the Gateway Covenant church there, and they continue to do so in my absence. We had a fairly tight-knit community at Gateway when I was growing up, it was a smaller group of kids my age that were a part of the youth group there; although mostly consisting of my own family members. Like most churches, Gateway had it's ups and downs. I'd have to say our youth pastor moving and the following year when our pastor moved took a pretty decent tole on our community, but at the same time it helped us grow. Others had to step up and pitch in to keep our church alive and walking. Childrens ministry has always been something I enjoy doing, and once they left I had the opportunity to teach Sunday school for the 3 children we had left at church.

I've attended Covenant Heights bible Camp for about six years now, which has really been an amazing experience. Each year I meet great new people and take so much home with me once the summer is over. That's actually how I came to know about Life Together. Of course, I had heard about it but I wasn't sure what it was all about. An old friend from Prince Albert had been the previous year, and a fellow camp counselor was going this year. With no intentions on going, but purely out of curiosity I asked questions about the whole project. The more I learned about it, the more interested I became.

For the past few years I had been preparing myself to go into law enforcement. I've always thrived in a competitive and active environment, and after working in retail for two years, I had become confident in my people skills as well. This past year I applied for a police preparation program, and six months later would be able to apply for the city police. It only took me the summer at camp to realize that God had different plans for me, and so when I got home from camp in Manitoba there was an acceptance letter waiting for me for university. I decided to put that aside and start writing up another application; to Live Together.

I don't know what's in store for me this year, but I am currently just settling into this big new city. I've recently started a job working as a nanny for a family down the street. The 5-year-old twin girls are a lot of fun, we spend the majority of the day playing games and making crafts... I can't think of any better job than this! I'm trying to focus on creating a routine in my life (I love routines) that incorporates God into my every day life. With the help from my new friends here in Calgary, I hope to come out of this year with a better understanding of what God is doing and wants to do in my life in the future. I would love to go to school eventually once my ambitions are a little bit more clear, but for now I'm just working on listening and learning.

I suppose that's it!

Intro #1 - Aaron Coutts-Smith

Well he sets some kind of bar somewhere...

This is Aaron's intro to the readers of the blogosphere...

"Now, this is the story all about how

My life got flipped-turned upside down

And I'd like to take a minute

Just sit right there

I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Cal-gary

In south western Ontario born and raised

On the playground was where I spent most of my days

Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool

And all shootin some b-ball outside of school

When a couple of guys

Who were up to no good

Startin making trouble in my neighborhood

I got in one little fight and my mom got scared

She said 'You're movin' with your Joel and Hilary in Cal-gary’

I begged and pleaded with her day after day

But she packed my suite case and sent me on my way

She gave me a kiss and then she gave me my ticket.

I put my Ipod on and said, 'I might as well kick it'.

First class, that’s how I’m described

I listen real good, when I’m bribed

I enjoy playing and watching all sports

In Settlers of Catan I go for the ports

But wait, I hear the country music, farming, and all that

Is this the type of place that they should send this cool cat?

I don't think so

I'll see when I get there

I hope they're prepared for the prince of Cal-gary

Well uh, I hope God has something great planed for me

Cause I have no idea what I’m supposed to be

So I’m going to Bible college

to see if he’ll speak to me there

I try to live my life free of care

I whistled for a cab and when it came near

The license plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror

If anything I can say is that this cab was rare

But I thought 'Man forget it' - 'Yo home to Cal-gary'

I pulled up to the house about seven or eight

And I yelled to the cabbie 'Yo homes smell ya later'

I looked to my kingdom

I was finally there

To sit on my throne as the Prince of Cal-gary"

Season 2 Continued

We retreated this last weekend. It was retreatful. We did some good reflection, some good goal/expectation conversations, ate some good food, had a sweet dunk contest and game of 500, and sat by the fire and talked quite a bit. We did some low ropes, and some low rope challenge feats. We pretty much nailed it. Seriously, though, everyone that had done stuff like that before kept saying “we are making this look really easy” and “we are doing this so fast.” If we could do those as a group competitively or for money we would have a great way of raising funds for the house.

And we all got along and didn’t revert to our caveman ancestry by hitting each other with blunt objects and yelling inaudibly when we struggled.

On ourselves individually, this year we are going to try setting goals/rules for ourselves that the rest of the community is aware of. The purpose of this, of course, is for us to be able to judge one another and tell each other where we didn’t measure up at the end of the year.

Oh, wait, that’s wrong. It’s actually so that we can have a little communal accountability but more importantly some communal encouragement as we each figure out how we can grow and be transformed this year.

On ourselves as a group, we are doing our lectionary and prayer together right after supper every night. So far it has been fun to eat supper together, do the lectionary and prayers together, and then have dessert together. If there’s dessert, that is. If not, most will scrounge for a cookie or ice cream. Dessert together. Maybe we in light of this routine we will need some cardio together.

Keep reading in the next couple weeks so you can meet all of our residents!