Just over a month in Canada

I just wanted to give you an update on our work and life in Burlington along with a huge thank you for your support in prayers and finances. Above all, Tracey and I would like to thank you for sending encouraging words. Every so often drop us a line in email, Facebook, or call…something because it is always encouraging. We came up here without knowing anyone and it can get lonely.

My daughters have downloaded Skype - we are dowdys4. We were also introduced to Oovoo which allows multiple people to talk to each online other at the same time. It’s like Skype only better! The girls have enjoyed spending time in the evenings talking to friends from Velocity. And as you probably assume, Kowdy, Taylor and Jenny are the ones they Oovoo the most.

We have been actively working toward Vision TO Week. There is a lot to do but we a checking things off the list. We have 25 or so who said they are coming up from Fair Oaks Church. We are thrilled. Eric and Jill Bisignano are coming up from OH as well. My sister, brother-in-law and their kids are also joining us from PA, a friend from MI, and my parents (of course).

We plan to get into the community and meet people so we can get them into the service on the 22nd of August. We are going to spend some time in the Tansley Woods Community Center meeting people and engaging in activities. We will task individuals with Facebook and Evites, rehearsals for music and children ministry, and training for 1st Impressions and nursery. Thursday through Saturday will be targeted toward kids in our community. Of course, there will also be a few days to enjoy the sights and activities of Toronto. We’re aiming for flexibility to allow families to choose when and what they would want to do for fun through the week.

We have been pretty aggressively meeting everyone we can in our neighborhood and have had a few very good connections and informal house church meetings. One lady is very interested and asked me a few deeper questions about what we believe. She comes from a Catholic background and is really searching. I would not be surprised to be leading her to Christ very soon. Her name is Laura if you will pray for her with us.

Speaking of prayer….here is the list of people we have currently connected with and would like you to pray for their salvation:

 Scott, Meghan and daughter, Ryan
 Dragon (no kidding…a guy from Serbia!)
 Paul and Jesse
 Don, Laura and daughters, Eva and Claire
 Darla
 Mansoor

We had a pretty successful event on July 1st with 11 of us on Canada Day for dinner. We were pleased because we have only really gotten to know people in the 2 weeks we’ve all been here plus the week Tracey was here on her own. We were able to share what we are doing in Burlington and we are still interacting with these families.

We were able to share our testimony and the story of Pastor Stokes’ vision in starting this church with my brother-in-law’s church in PA and will share at a friend’s church in MI on July 18th. We are going down to Virginia for a wedding the last weekend in July and as a bonus we’ll see you that Sunday. We look forward to catching up with friends. Ceilidh & Sarah will be down early to go to camp with Velocity and visit friends until Tracey and I arrive.

To say the least, we are having a busy summer and loving it! We are anxious to see what God will do in forming Burlington Community Church and thankful we will be His instruments.

See you on August 1st!

Canada Day Event

Well, we did it! Our first outreach event was a success! We had invited several neighbors to come and spend Canada Day with us and had a total of 11 of us there. We decided to "play our strong suit" which is that of hospitality. Tracey and I did a cookout. The weather could not have been better and the guests any nicer. We were able to enjoy the company and talk about what we will be doing in August. The guests stayed for 4 1/2 hours so we were certainly pleased with the fact that they were comfortable around us. I pray they will come to Christ and to Burlington Community Church.

When we were inviting neighbors to the cookout, I asked one lady if they wanted to come over and grill with us on Canada Day. She said, "Eeewww...what's that?!" Pretty funny, right? As I was explaining she said, "Oh, you mean BBQ" and laughed at me! :-) I'm still being reeducated to Canadian ways, but she came with her husband and 2 young kids.

We are grateful for a good turn out though Satan was at work even that day. My daughters stayed a few days with their cousins in PA so I left that morning to go get them. It was a simple enough task but when I go to the border, I sat for 4 hours! My sister was kind and loving enough to keep coming my direction rather than the half way point we designated. She ended up coming all the way to the border with the girls. I left the house at 9:30a.m. and returned with Ceilidh and Sarah at 4:40p.m. with guest due to arrive at 5:00p.m. NOT what we had planned and potentially very defeating. Thankfully Tracey was home to keep moving on things and the girls and I were home just in time to help clean a few things, put sodas on ice, pull out little kids' toys and fire up the grill. Incredible obstacles but we got through it and Tracey was the key player in that first outreach event.

We look forward to seeing what God will do with us in the future and can't wait to have our friends and family come to help us get the word out during Vision TO Week!

In Canada Now!

The Dowdy family is finally in Canada! We have had quite an experience getting life wrapped up in Virginia and settling in up here. We actually had two very weird weeks when our family was apart for school and setting up in Canada. Tracey and the dog were up here unpacking boxes (more Tracey's work than the dog's) and getting us organized while Ceilidh, Sarah and I were back in VA finishing school, studying and (believe it or not) packing another small truck. I had no idea how much it would take to move us this time but it was no small task. My wife and a team of people from Fair Oaks Church finished packing a truck on Friday, June 18th, as I was traveling home from Lynchburg. We took off Saturday morning, landed at home in Canada around 5:40 p.m., unloaded the truck, and had it returned by 7. This is just my family on that project and I was very proud of the hard work the did! (Dog, again, was no help!)

It is now Tuesday, June 22, and we have finished settling in and I am able to focus on the church today. I am so thrilled to be at work here and our house is starting to feel like home. My office is set up in a cold, unfinished basement so as far as status goes, I can only go up from here! :-) There are still a few logistical things to figure out as we prepare for Vision TO week and know that it will fall together now that we are physically in place. Look for heavy publicity soon!

My Brother-In-Law, Trent Kirkland, is having us visit Zion Baptist Church in Clarion PA to talk about our church plant and visit with them on June 27. I am looking forward to catching up with them and another opportunity to talk about Burlington Community Church and the missions work of Fair Oaks Church. I never get tired of sharing what God has and is doing for us.

What to pray for right now for the BCC?

First outreach opportunity on July 1 when we invite neighbors to a Dominion Day BBQ
House Church begin in July
2 Community wide invitations to hear about BCC @ Tansely Woods Community Centre
Warm reception from Canadians
Many to come help us get 100 Canadians to our church on Aug. 22

We appreciate your prayers and support! Hope you will come and visit us soon!

One Week to Go!

What is going on?!! I feel completely out of control and unable to focus as we head toward our final moments at Fair Oaks Church.

My wife called me after rehearsal tonight and asked me to go for ice cream. What a nice idea and wonderful treat because...I LOVE ICE CREAM!!! She was being very kind and showing love to doing something I love to do. What a sweet woman! Everything was going great! Birds were singing, we were holding hands while running through a meadow, church bells were ringing, love was in the air, people we didn't even know were giving us fist bumps on the way into the ice cream shop, then...I opened my mouth! What is wrong with me and why am I stressing out? She was trying to help me relax and relieve some stress but I was a complete JERK! I cannot believe I am allowing myself to get so worked up about nothing. Those who know us would not even believe I was panicking over things. I need to get control over myself and let God work in my heart and mind. Only then will I have peace to enjoy my life and wife again. I pray I have the wisdom to rely on God now for what is going to happen because I can do nothing on my own.

Lord, help me to live a life that is pleasing to You. Help me to love my wife and daughters in such a way that I will deal with my own issues and talk to my pastor and friends to get the strength and support You provide through them. Help me to keep trusting in You because I foolishly try to keep doing things my own way. You are my God, Creator, Savoir, King and Father. You know the future and You know what is best for me. Live in and through me because I am useless without You. I love and adore you, your servant, Roy. Amen and Amen!

New Determination

I noticed that I haven't written a blog for a while. The last one was on March 11th so... There are several reasons I can give you but they would be pretty lame. :-) The guys on staff still laugh at one of my comments around the lunch table, "I read a blog once." Writing and reading blogs are not a top priority for me but it needs to be.

Tracey and I were at a conference last week and received some greater, new determination from the Lord. The interesting thing is that the person who made the most impact at a time when we really needed it, lives right in our area. Mark Batterson shared some of the struggles he and his wife went through in starting a church. This was good for us because a person (me) can feel alone/unique in their circumstances. In my head, I know others have had many different trials that are similar and I needed to hear that...again. I was beginning to think "doors are shutting" but they weren't. I am caught in some things that only God can work out for us and it can be uncomfortable. It challenges my ability to trust and depend on Him. But when you think about it, why wouldn't I just trust and depend on Him? I am one of His children, right? On that fact alone, I am set, right? Though some things are not going as we had planned, we still have a church family who is behind us in all these efforts God has orchestrated. Pastor Stokes is still very encouraging to us in our efforts and we really have nothing to fear or dread.

It is interesting that while I am going through this, my Bible reading plan is taking me through the book of Joshua. Isn't that incredible! This is a guy taking on a big challenge of taking the promised land and needs the encouragement to "be strong and courageous." I need to hear that and have been hearing it during this entire trial. I just need to do it now. Which JUST DO IT, by the way, was the series our pastor just preached during the time we were going through this trial! Now I'm thinking...am I just stupid or what?!! (Don't answer that question out loud to me, please. Spare me a dignity...) So God has been speaking to me in many ways and I now see myself in a state of blessing and care throughout my trail.

So...what are my current trials I am determined to get through? Well, we went up to Burlington the first full week of April and found "the perfect house and church building." Seriously, they are beautiful! We talked to the realtor 3 times on the other side of the house deal and let him know our contract was coming. He told us the house has been vacant since February so no problem get it in next week. Then, we talked to a community center in Burlington that would rent to us but another church was looking to rent. I told the person to talk to that church to see if they wanted the space before we took it. She called them and they were only looking so I said, "Great, we want it and we want to be exclusive renters for Sunday mornings." She said I will send you the paper work and we are good to go. We got back into town and talked to our pastor and his wife on Tuesday morning about "all the great things God has done!" Then we submitted our paper work for everything. The VERY next day we lost the house (rented out on the weekend we returned) and the church (that other church came back and wanted to rent here too). What?!! We were so discouraged because we had everything set up so we just had to gather stuff and move up on June 5th. Now we have to figure this all out again and find time to get back up there in May. On top of that, the buyer on our home in VA bailed on Friday afternoon! This buyer was patiently waiting for the bank who had negotiated 3 times with them and coming back with more changes. This was very frustrating but we understand why the buyer walked. They had an offer on our home since October 2009 and enough is enough.

So...these are the circumstances we went with to the conference. Pastor and Karen were as loving and gracious as can be. They showed compassion and knew what we were going through because they have been through many trials too.

I went to the conference wondering what to expect. When Mark Batterson was the first up to share how they lost 2 homes and a place for their church to meet then God gave them National Church in Union Station, I was ready to listen and experience the conference...selfishly. I was looking for things for me and my wife to help us recommit. I got a chance to talk personally to Ed Stetzer and ask him the "what would you do?" question about our circumstances. (Different set of circumstances regarding starting a church without a team but my family.) Then, the conference ended with hearing Francis Chan talk about leaving one church he started to start another in the heart of LA. In the message, he shared a 4 min. testimony his wife gave at their goodbye service. This was very good for us and gave me a greater appreciation for what Tracey was feeling. The bottom line is Francis Chan came to the conclusion that God wanted him to plant this church though he is 40 and pretty set where he is. He came to realize that though he wanted to stay at Cornerstone, he could never again speak of obedience before his people because he was not obedient. At that point, we fell in complete surrender and submission once again to be obedient to our call.

Tracey and I have new determination! We are frustrated with our circumstances and ask God daily to reveal Himself so we can move forward. We know it will change and we need to trust. God is good and we wait for His answers.

Interestingly, as we continue through our trials, my Bible reading plan has me going through another book, the book of Job. Is this incredible or what?!! God gave me a verse last week that I had read over and over but now took root in my heart. "But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold." (Job 23:10) Reaching for the gold now! :-)

Seriously...what is REALLY important?

Ever have a conversation that just makes you so angry afterward that you want to punch a wall so as to not hurt the person you just talked to because deep inside you really love them but just think for a moment that they are super stupid and miss the whole point?!! Ever read a run on sentence longer than that one? ;-)

I am going to say straight up that there are a lot of things that go through your mind and a lot of plans in preparation for a church plant. The more I check off my list and evaluate my heart and motives for what I am doing and thinking, the more "narrow minded" I am becoming. I am asking a truck load of why questions to myself (and to Tracey when she is willing to hear them). I do not want to waste time focusing on anything but what is entirely essential in starting a church.

Two incredible thoughts are spinning around me from the last two Unleashed Conferences in Anderson, SC from the mouth of Perry Noble.

Last year Perry said, "If God has called you to start a church, get your Bible and go preach with fire! Grab some dude to help you who can play a guitar and make it happen!" This was very encouraging to me because THAT'S WHAT I THINK! This is not an excuse to be lazy or to dismiss anything creative or costly. Planting a church WILL COST no doubt about it. Nor is this an excuse to think small...I plan on 100 Canadians to help me kick this baby off the ground. This statement is one of focus. God called - I go! Plain a simple. I fully intend on building a large church to God's glory. Rick Warren said, "There is no sin in being small but there is in thinking small." I just need to focus narrowly enough to know that the call to go has real, significant power accompanied with the promise of God to be with me as I follow Him.

This past year, Perry Noble said that we did not have to study and follow all the steps of starting a church. If God called you to start a church, he will give you direction. (I paraphrased but this is the essence of what he said.) This is not an excuse for lack of preparation or gathering information and ideas. I readily admit that I don't know everything about what I am getting ready to do but I have a pastor, David R. Stokes, who has offered his help. He is becoming more dear to me on this journey. He has provided vision, finances, mentoring, and education to move forward. I am going to the Exponential Church Planters Conference and I know that I will grow. I will find out more stuff and ways to reach people than I ever knew before but at the end of the day, it is God and I who need to "run the ball down the field." God knows where I'm headed and what am am capable of and He care about me more than anyone. I know I can trust Him and find what is right in reaching people of the GTA.

Since I have started this journey to Toronto, I have had a few "nay sayers." Yep...they are there and have discouraged me at times even before I get to TO! I had a few preachers and a counselor tell me of many churches that have tried to start in the area I am going. They said that there were some pretty talented preachers and gifted people come up there only to fail. I had another guy tell me of a church in that area that preys on churches that have stared and failed...THAT'S NICE, RIGHT? :-) They told me the whole strategy. The bigger church befriends the pastor of the new work. As it struggles, the pastor would dissolve the church and have the congregation join the bigger church. The bigger church will hire the church planter then fire him after 6 - 8 months. If this isn't building a large church to the glory of God, I don't know what is?!! (read: very heavy, heavy, extremely heavy sarcastic remark) When I hear this stuff, I can't help but think I am either being warned of my fate or I'd better be so committed and stubborn that nothing will move me. I choose to believe the latter! I am NOT going up there to fail. One thing I have that other church planters going to Canada do not is that I know church life up there and I grew up there. I know the hardships ahead of me...and I am still going!

So, seriously! What is really important? The call, preaching the word with power, fervent prayer life, and worship that reveals God is present. I'm just that narrow minded to believe that works!

A Little somethin' somethin' about my dad...

So...if you follow me on facebook and/or twitter, you have noticed a lot of verses in Proverbs. I have posted them because they speak to my heart and give great wisdom and guidance to any who would hear them. As a matter of fact, Solomon said that in proverbs several times...and he was the main author!

A co-worker said to me yesterday, "So, you reading through the book of Proverbs Pastor Roy?" And as a matter of fact, I am. This book has always been my favorite. I cannot tell you how many times I have used its wisdom. Sometimes even in a negative way...like when someone doesn't follow through on a promise. I love using the proverb, "an unfaithful man is like a loose tooth or a foot out of joint!" Those people love it when I quote that verse to them! :-)

So...where did my love for Proverbs come from? Well, I grew up going to a small Christian School in Canada. My father was the principal, administrator, and eventually even the pastor of that church and school. He wore all 3 hats! Suffice to say, "grass did not grow under his feet." One thing he always led at school was the opening devotion and prayer with the staff and students. It was only 5 - 10 min. long and he always used passages from Proverbs. I remember sitting there and soaking in the verses and brief commentary saying to myself, I hope I can be that wise or gain enough wisdom to do the right thing all the time. Dad loves Proverbs and passed that love along to his oldest son and I would dare say to all who listened to him day after day. I love my father for passing along that wisdom and giving of his time to others. I pray I am passing wisdom along to my family and those around me.

If you are not gaining wisdom from Proverbs, start today. If you're thinking you'll pass on that one, let me give you one old Canadian expression..."Smarten up, eh!" a.k.a. don't be so stupid. :-)