But I’ve got a few minutes here and so I thought I’d try and get this all caught up, as well as mention that I think I’m going to start mixing family updates and prayer requests into my twitter posts (in addition to the fascinating items I normally tweet).  So a good way to keep up with us between blog posts is either my twitter feed (xbrianstegnerx) or Siv’s facebook page.  I’d link those but I’m in a hurry.

January – I don’t even remember January, which is probably why I didn’t write much after the last post.  We had serious overstock left over from Christmas and bills to pay so it was a busy time.  Also Initiative 22 offically launched.  Also we took a week vacation to a frozen lake.

February – I turned 32, noticed a few more gray hairs, and I believe it was at this point that our missional community mulipiled and I started leading the new one.  And once there were two, we started a worship gathering on Sundays so that everyone could still see each other, but that’s geting ahead.

March – Here we started our service, daylight savings morning.  Here’s a pic from a week or two later…

God really provided an amazing space for us to meet in, essentially for free, right downtown.  Jesus is doing crazy stuff.

Also in March I got to speak at a youth retreat.  About Jesus.  Showed Vintage 21 Videos.  Good times.  Also I should link that but there’s no time.

April – Pulled a staycation to work on other stuff, finish taxes, and basically get so super behind that the week after was a nightmare and I’m pretty much dead set against ever taking a vacation again unless we having someone working back home to keep us on track.

May – Preached on May 1st for the first time in sixteen months, which felt really good and was a lot of fun.  Now we’re headed toward summer full-tilt, all the snow is gone.  Today we looked at an apartment on our street to rent for some office space, we’re at the point where we need to make a hire but I don’t want some dude working in my bedroom.

Also I need a place to lift weights.

Pray that our short credit and rental history in Canada isn’t a problem and that we get accepted, should find out in a week or so.  Also pray that my permanent residence paperwork comes through, we’ve finished everything and are just waiting…waiting…waiting…I did risk a trip into the US in March to get trained with Dwight in this Gospel Coach thing that Scott Thomas, the Director of Acts29 started doing.  Zondervan picked up the book so it’ll come out eventually.

There’s so much more obviously but maybe if I start tweeting stuff more regularly then there’ll be a lot less details to fill on on these posts.

Hearts & Stars,

Brian

P.S.

Who doesn’t love Emma Photos?

It has been a while and, with the social pressure to crank out a Christmas letter, well, here we are…actually this is more of a ‘New Years’ letter but whatever.  I’ll start with the highlights and get them out of the way before I start rambling…

January we finished up eight years of ministry at MCC, and sadly closed that chapter of our lives.

February we finished liquidating as much of our earthly possessions as we could, threw the rest into a 16′ trailer, and tearfully said goodbye to family, friends, and Oregon in general.

March 1st we crossed over into Quebec, settled into our new home, and I settled in a nice deep depression – God at work or chemcial imbalance?  Questions for the final frontier…

April we tried to make sense of our new lives, find employment and/or money, and stay married (me depressed = insufficient husbanding skills).

May things started looking up,  the idea that Hazelaid could actually support us began to sound less and less like a pipe dream.  Also God seemed to be done beating us with a big stick (turns out we had pride issues he was tired of).

June Hazelaid became a full-time job for me, and we started making more ministry contacts around the city.  Ben turned four.

July we went camping with friends and family at Sandbanks in Ontario, and then, upon our return to Quebec, promptly moved into a larger apartment with a yard and a parking space (a parcel of dirt and gravel which some unknown persons have mistaken as their dog’s pooping grounds).

August was our first good month, in all respects.

September my family came to visit, we baptized Kate (see current header photo), and Quebec started to feel more like home.

October God changed our call, asked us to take a supportive role to an Acts29 church plant led by Dwight Bernier (the website is coming soon, I’ll get a link in here eventually…).

November Kate and Emma celebrated birthdays, turning six and three respectively.  Holiday business picks up.

December was a whirlwind of business and family activities, we celebrated a restful but exhausted Christmas.

And now as we face a new year in a strange land, I am shaken by my inability to see the future clearly.  I have always salted my expectations for the month I’m currently in with the experiences of months past and my expectations for similar months future.  This is perhaps due to being a youth pastor for so long, where September always meant eating ice cream from a gutter, December always meant Winter Youth, and May always meant the Spring Retreat and The Story.

Hence with the current turn of the calendar year, my mind is beginning to relive our final months of ministry at MCC this time last year, wrapping up Votum, our final Winter Youth, and the insanity of trying to sell everything and plan for a future that was as cloudy as the water in Caronport.

And now it is terribly odd to be passing months by where nothing is as it used to be and where I have nearly no idea what the same month will hold for us as a family next year.  In some ways one month to the next fails to differ as they used to, without the same tidal ebb of youth events to mark the calendar.  Instead I can only see as far as the next couple of weeks, as we live through a cycle that repeats much more weekly than annually:

Sundays are Sabbath, which means no working, rest, and Missional Community in the evening.

Mondays are a work and school day, Kate’s day to help me take orders to the Post and go on a date, and Siv’s mom usually comes over that night.

Tuesdays are a mix of work, school, and meetings with Missional Community folks, including having Dwight & Jess and/or someone else from our Missional Community over for dinner.

Wednesdays are another day of packaging orders and going to the post, this time taking Ben with me and hanging out afterward, and then it’s Date night for Siv and I.

Thursdays I work on the site, do inventory stuff, and spend more focused time with God, and then it’s ice cream night for the fam, and possibly dinner guests.

Friday’s are another day of packaging up to go to the post, Emma’s turn to come along and then have a date with Papa, and then things are again open for hospitality.

Saturdays are family day, which means some kind of family outing, snow fort building, ice skating, etc, I usually work some in the afternoon, and then the evening is again free to have someone over, do hospitality, etc.  We try to keep Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings open for that kind of action.

Then it’s Sunday again, and the week repeats, and repeats, and repeats…

It’s terribly full and purposeful, and leaves little room for writing blog posts, chatting online, or making calls to friends and family back home.  We do miss all of you, and yet we have had to decide to faithfully invest what little time we have beyond labor and parenting in the relationships God has called us to here, and the real reason we came, to seek the spread of the Gospel and His Kingdom in this city.  Many of you are well aware that we’re slacking in returning phone calls, chat messages, texts, email, all manner of communiqué, please forgive us.  We still want to keep in contact!  Email is really the best way to catch us, and you can always spy on our Facebook pages.

:)

Where was I…yes, 2011.  I have no idea what this year holds for us.  Only in the last couple of weeks have we begun to look toward laying out a larger pattern to our lives where we take a week off every three months or so to get off the island.   Being self-employed, it’s not terribly hard to get a week away but it’s hard to remember to take vacation, no one is forcing you or reminding you to use up your PTO before it expires.  It’s harder to do than you’d think.

So that might give some annual rhythm to our lives…and we’ve got sugaring off (maple syrup) in the spring, Sandbanks in the summer, apple picking the the fall…those things are ghosts of the annual events that used to dominate our lives.

What else…we are in the last stage of my permanent residence process, having completed all the steps.  Now we’re just waiting to get my papers which we expect to arrive any day.  Then I’ll be able to leave the country and re-enter without complications, and begin a three-month waiting period to get me onto the government health plan (Siv and the kids are already all set in that regard).

Tomorrow morning I am headed off to the UPS warehouse, then customs, and then back to the warehouse to pick up what are our very last boxes from Oregon, four 90 lb boxes of books.  Yay for books!  Yay for being totally moved out of my parent’s garage!

Yay say my parents!

In ministry we’re looking at an official launch of Initiative 22′s core group on January 9th, where those who have expressed an interest in making Initiative 22 their church are going to covenant together and make it a reality.  We’re thankful to be a part of such a great community and for Dwight’s leadership.

In business we’ve finally got a business number to operate ‘officially’ in Quebec.  The biggest thing we’re now facing is taxes.  We’ve got to figure out who we owe what after the complexity of last year’s employment, and at the same time structure things this year so that we are best positioned as a business operating in Quebec, which is pretty much a nightmare of regulations and complexity.  What was so simple in Oregon (no sales tax!) is now ‘taxing’ my limited excel spreadsheet skills.  But puns aside, God has cared for us manifestly through Hazelaid and for the first time in our married lives we feel like we are not always behind, and we’re making up financial ground lost during our initial months here.

Spiritually God has spent this last year humbling us.  Any self-sufficiency we had in ourselves is now gone as we lean into God with total abandon.  As we have grown more aware of our own brokenness and of God’s manifold perfections, Jesus has grown all the larger in our lives as the bridge in that gap.  One thing is clear as we move into this new year, that God will become more while we become less.

I have drawn much encouragement recently from listening to Tim Keller, As Hell Retreats, and Hands.  The best movie of 2010, TRON: Legacy.  Probably also the best soundtrack.

I guess that’s it.

Love and Miss You All,

The Stegners

P.S.

Vote for your favorite Christmas photo.  My idea was to depart from the traditional Stegner Christmas Tree photo.  Yet we got one of those also.

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/11/15/science/1248069334032/the-animators-of-life.html

At 3 AM on October 3rd God told me to set aside my vision for planting a church and get behind a fellow Acts 29 church planter who was just arriving in the city.  This was obviously a huge thing for us as a family, much of our lives and identity have been wrapped up in this vision to plant a church in Montreal for many years now.  And you are probably wondering how we have arrived at this point, what we are doing now, what our plans are, etc.  So let me try and lay it all out:

We’ve been here coming up on nine months now.  For the first half of that time we struggled.  I struggled with being depressed, attacked, and generally became a bad person to be around.  Our marriage hit a wall like we’ve never dealt with and just doing life together as a family became a daily struggle.  Some factors that probably played into all that was were that we were squeezed into a tiny apartment together, and that we were all there together all the time because I was working from home.  Actually I was being unemployed and doing that from home (as most unemployed do) and it was all very stressful.  And the year leading up to this big move was easily the hardest year of our lives.  It was a mind-boggling amount of work to unentangle our lives from Oregon, from work and ministry, physical possessions, and leave behind all our friends and family, it was crazy.  So we were pretty empty and wiped out upon arrival.

August marked a fresh start for us as we came off of a week of camping, moved to a bigger place, saw our business thrive, and generally started getting used to being in the city.  A lot of of the technical aspects of moving to a new country were worked out, Siv and the kids were finally in the health system, the trailer was sold, my immigration papers had been approved by Canada and had moved into the Quebec arena (which has by now been approved and is back in Federal hands).

We started to have some ministry contacts, started meeting with some guys, and we felt like we were healing from the first half of our time.  I made application to Acts 29 and began what they call Phase 1.  At the same time I was meeting with 2-3 guys each week for coffee and doing a worship gathering with the fam on Sundays, teaching through what was to become our core-group material.  My sense of call had returned, damaged a bit but there, and we were moving forward in faith.

As I met with the guys most of them had also met at some point over the summer with Dwight Bernier, the Acts 29 guy who was headed into the city also, and the guys wanted to know why we weren’t teaming up or anything.  Now Severine and I had met Dwight and his wife Jess at an Acts 29 bootcamp a year and a half ago, and we had had some contact with them through Facebook and email over the summer as they were finishing up their support raising.   And we had talked a bit about partnering in some ways but we both were operating with some misconceptions about the visions each other had and it took us until just before he arrived on October 2nd to figure out that what we were looking at doing was almost exactly the same!

At the same time Got moved them into a place just ten walking minutes north of us, not where they had planned to go, and suddenly we were working in the same area, and with a lot of the same people.  And once God cleared up a few concerns that we had, it became clear that He was doing something.

Then on the 3rd at 3 am God clearly said to me that we were to set aside our vision, at least for a few years, and get behind Dwight and his vision to plant Initiative22.  That was late Saturday night / early Sunday morning.  I took Severine out for coffee on Monday night and walked her through everything and she was supportive and confirmed what I had heard God say.

All that was left was to meet up with Dwight and Jess, we already had dinner set up with them on that Tuesday night and so we tried to get to know them as quickly as we could, just give God one last chance to throw up any red flags, but everything seemed good and so we told them our whole story and said that if they’d have us, that we were in.

Now six weeks later, we are in fully swing with planting with them.  There are already 15-20 people from the area (us included) that are meeting up on Sunday nights for what we call Missional Community and learning about the vision.  Dwight and I meet each Tuesday afternoon and then our families have dinner.  I’m still meeting with the guys for coffee on Tuesday morning (Tuesday is kind of a meeting day for me now).  And we really feel at peace.

I really feel like now I am free to focus on my marriage and family, which both really need my attention.  We’ve got a high view of eldership and if my family isn’t being shepherded well, then I shouldn’t be planting a church right now.  And all this last month I’ve been listening to the latest Acts 29 Bootcamp material and it’s all about guys who need to drop out to focus on their families, and stories of guys who haven’t and have either lost their marriages, their churches, and/or killed themselves (literally).

So I feel like we’re doing the right thing.  :)  And I feel like God has relaxed my call to where I am doing what is is he has for me at this time, just playing a supportive role.

Because we’re now further off than 12 months from doing our own church plant, we’ve contacted Acts 29 to update them and they’ve archived our application so that we can just pick up where we left off when the time comes, which is great because we were nearly done with Phase 1 and ready to do our interviews.  It’s nice to have some of that nailed down already for the future.

So a bit more about the church plant, I’ll link here to Dwight’s blog so you can read up about their story.  Initiative22 has a Facebook and Dwight has a new Twitter (@Dwight_Bernier) so if you follow those that’ll give you more regular updates.  The Initiative22 webpage will be going up soon.  Also I have finally succumbed to getting a Twitter account.  I don’t know if I’ll post much on it…but maybe.  Mainly we got into it finally for our business, which you can follow @hazelaid.  My Twitter is @xBrianStegnerx.

The model that we’re using for the church plant is similar to that of Soma Communities in Tacoma, Washington.  They’ve helped to pioneer the whole ‘Missional Community’ model of church planting, and they also have been instrumental in developing the ‘Story of God’ materials that they presented at Winter Youth this last year.

Most Acts 29 church plants start out by gathering a core group and then launching a big service.  Once the service is stable and growing the call goes out to start forming small groups or community groups.  Mars Hill does this and has bazillions of them.

The way that you plant with missional communities is pretty much the opposite.  You start out forming one missional community and then seek to multiply it a number of times.  Then when you have two or more, you gather those communities together for corporate worship and preaching on a Sunday or whenever.  In this way the focus is on the small group or missional community, verses on the weekend service or gathering.  This allows you to have a truly ‘missional’ church.

That’s the quick explanation.  If you want to get a really accurate idea of what it means to be a ‘missional’ church and have missional communities, watch the following two videos.  Both do an excellent job of explaining them in a visual way (and I love it because I’m a visual learner).  Dwight had the missional community video on his blog and I’m stealing it. :)

The term missional is way over-used and abused these days, and it should never mean anything but what is exemplified here:

Hopefully those work OK, that’s how WordPress says to code it but it seems to be having problem…anyway, miss everyone and ask for your continued prayers.  Everyone has a pretty bad cold right now and are looking forward to being healthy again…

Brian

This is both amazing and a bit scary.  What’s the stat?  Something like 90% of all of the currency in the world is tied up in these electronic market transactions?  It would be sweet to snag some of that cash but you can’t because it’s jogging laps under the Atlantic Ocean at the speed of light.

Curses.

Here’s an update on all things Stegner, one update for each day we’ve been here thus far (in no particular order):

1. We’ve crossed the six-month mark.

2. Our power steering is leaking (but under warranty, I think).

3. My parents and sister just finished about a 10 day visit with us.

4. We spent a weekend in Ontario at Sandbanks with them (in a cottage this time, no camping).

5. WIN: We’re all settled in our new place, and the kids go outside every day.

6. FAIL: Raccoons have knocked over our garbage cans four times now.

7. Severine and I just celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary.

8. We’re making more contacts and progress on the church plant, Jesus is at work.

9. ***We just baptized Katelyn while my fam was here!***

10. WIRED magazine finally started sending to our new address.

11. WIRED magazine has doubled the length of my visits to the john (flow charts of the afterlife!).

12. I just downloaded Demon Hunters ‘The World is a Thorn’ Deluxe Edition, and it is amazing.

13. We are having a super-record month with Hazelaid.

14. My parents believe I have a real job now.

15. I am scared about Christmas sales.

16. Music by ex-Votum bands makes me teary.

17. Kate has started school again (and can read!).

18. Ben has finally decided on War Machine for Halloween (from Iron Man 2).

19. We managed to see Inception in the theaters but missed the first ten minutes.

20. We managed to take the kids to see Toy Story 3 in 3D, but only after the initial showing had a computer failure.

21. We watched Toy Story 3 in 3D for free.

22. I watched Toy Story 3 in 3D for free with the flu.

23.  I spent the 18 hours following watching Toy Story 3 in 3D for free in bed.

24.  I have negative associations with Toy Story 3.

25. Emma talks now.  A lot.

26. We finally have a Canadian Credit Card!  This is good for purchasing inventory, no conversion fees!

27. We are finally collecting Airmiles.  Only 9,700 Airmiles away from Jamaica!

28. I am only able to strike Benjamin about forty times (my record) before he cuts all my arms and legs off with our foam samurai swords.

29. Katelyn got her first Children’s Bible (NIrV) as a baptism gift from us.

30. Ben says he wants a dark blue one someday.

31. Montreal was just named the 9th most expensive city in the world.

32. I’ve officially lost 22 lbs on our alternate day diet.

33. I am officially worried about loosing much more.

34. Ben has his own room now.

35. Ben’s room is filled with weapons and Transformer posters (90% of which are on loan from Papa).

36. Emma is day-time potty trained, and dry most mornings.

37. I just finished reading Darwin’s Black Box.

38. I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of Darrin Patrick’s ‘Church Planter’ (book).

39. We’re reading Isaiah as a family for our post-breakfast family Bible readings.

40. I’m thinking that 208 items going to too take too long

41. **cough**cough**

200. We’re still using our bedroom as our office (meaning I literally roll out of bed and land in my office chair).

201. We’re a third of the way through Peggle Nights (XBOX360).

202. The children have somehow learned to refer to a sneeze as a ‘bless you’ (which is not a term we use in this family).

203. I have been interrupted by the children literally between each of these points (for the last ten or so, Siv is out shopping).

204. After sleeping on flame-retardent free mattresses for six months we have finally aquired organic cotton sheets.

205. However my pillow is still slowly releasing nuro-toxins (flame retardants) into my head (despite the ultra healthy slipcover).

206. Kate and Emma’s birthdays are coming up soon, Kate will finally turn 6 and Emma will turn 3.

207. I’m over half way on writing all my core group material (for when we actually have a core group).

208. Since we’ve moved into this new place, everything has been much, much better (it’s just bigger).

Please pray for us, for our men, and for all those in Montreal who don’t know Jesus as their Savior, King, and Treasure.

Hearts & Stars,

The Stegners