Monday, May 23, 2011

MLA Prayer Breakast Report

On May 19 we held our 5th Annual MLA Prayer Breakfast.  This was a milestone morning for us and we wanted it to be special.  We just had no idea how special it was about to become.  Five years ago, we held our first breakfast in a small room in the Union Club of BC.  It was a great starting point for us.  We had 45 people and 7 members.  We were thrilled!  As we began last week we had a total of 4 MLA's confirmed.  Needless to say, we were a bit concerned.  As we began to make contact with our regular attenders we were thrilled to discover that not only were they coming, but that they were bringing some friends along as well.  The evening before the breakfast, we were expecting 17 members to join us for breakfast.  On the morning of the breakfast, they all came AND brought 6 more of their friends.  We had 23 members in total which is almost 30% of the members in the Legislature.  We've come a long way from 7 members!

We were thrilled to have Stacey Toews from Level Ground Coffee join us for the morning. Stacey connected very well with our guests did a great job for us.  To learn more about Stacey and Level Ground, click here.

You can see pictures of the breakfast by clicking here.

LIM IronMan of Golf

One man. One Day. One Hundred Holes.

On June 22, Tim is embarking on the First Annual LIM IronMan of Golf.  He will play 100 holes of golf in a single day on Victoria's beautiful Olympic View Golf Course.  Our goal is to raise $15,000 to support the work of Leading Influence Ministries.   These funds will position us to be prepared for a strong second half of ministry in 2011 and to ensure that we are able to continue to invest in the lives of our leaders.

We need your help!  You can sponsor Tim by the hole or for the entire event simply by clicking on the Chipin widget on the sidebar of this page. 

Thanks in advance!  You can check back on our progress at any time by visiting this page! 


Monday, May 09, 2011

'Spinter' About to End In Victoria

It's been an unusually cool spring in Victoria.  Someone referred to it as 'Spinter' the other day.  Winter doesn't want to let go and spring seems a bit shy in appearing.   I think I may know the reason for the chilly weather.  The usual February to May spring session of the Legislature has been reduced (up until last week) to only 4 days.  The lack of heat usually generated by thirty minutes of intense political rhetoric has impacted the local climate considerably. 

However, things are heating up in Legislature as normal sessions resumed last week and I predict that in no time at all, Victoria in particular and British Columbians in general will be enjoying our usual balmy spring weather.  The projected high for today is 15 C which is up considerably from last week.  I have heard that we can expect a much warmer late May and June. 

Expectations are that things may heat up even more on Thursday after the By Election in Vancouver Pt. Grey, especially if Premier Clark wins her seat in the Legislature. 

There's never a dull moment in BC politics!

LIM Announces Board and Staff Changes

I'll never forget our first board meeting for Leading Influence Ministries.  I sat in my 'office' formerly known as 'the closet' and chaired a teleconference meeting.  Six of us were scattered from Kamloops to Victoria and we spent our time talking and planning about how we could make the vision of ministry to MLA's become a reality.  In those days, LIM was little more than a fuzzy vision.

I am very grateful to the people who stood with me as we began the journey towards establishing a viable and credible ministry to elected officials.  Donna Pechie and Dave Hauser were two of our original members.  I have very mixed emotions as I announce their resignation from the board of LIM.  I have known and enjoyed longterm friendships with each of them.  They have been tremendously committed to establishing LIM and I am very grateful.  Apart from me, they are the last two remaining members from our original team.  If we ever do a 'Hall of Fame', their pictures will be on the wall. Beverlee Caron has stepped away from the board as well.  I also want to thank Beverlee for her sacrifice of time, energy and faithful service to the ministry.

Change can be unsettling, but it also provides an opportunity for growth and expansion.  I'm pleased to announce that our board has appointed Janice Grunert from Kamloops, Dick Knight from Victoria and Dan Smith from Vancouver to join our team.  They will be joining Paul Vermes (Victoria) Dr. Len Demarchi (Kamloops) and Dan Cousins (Nanaimo).  

I'm also very pleased to announce that Dick Knight and his wife Jacki will also be taking on the role of Prayer Coordinators for LIM and providing leadership to PrayBC.

Finally, I'd like to introduce Cathy Hallam.  Cathy has joined our team as ministry coordinator. She is serving in a short term volunteer role at the moment, but we are working hard to raise the support necessary to compensate her appropriately.  She has been an enormous blessing already and I'm confident that will only increase as we move forward.