Dalhousie University

After landing in the Robert Stanfield International Airport, in Halifax N.S. , I set my trusty GPS for Dalhousie University. It brought me to the edge of campus where I was able to find free parking and walked towards University Avenue, and the centre of campus. Soon it brought me to the Chaplaincy Centre ,which is a house on the campus. Fortuitously, the only people there happened to be the very people I had hoped to find. The Christian Reformed Chaplain, Brad Close happened to be there with his intern, Desiree MacNeil. It had every evidence of being a God appointment. They had just come back into the centre for some random reason and were in the act of leaving when I showed up. They were friendly enough to ask me if they could help me and introduced themselves. Bingo….

Chaplain Brad Close and Desiree

Anyway, we had a great time of talking shop and comparing notes when it comes to campus ministry. Also, we knew a number of people in common. The fact is: we are on the same Team. Different tribes in the same nation working towards the same cosmic goal: bringing all things under one Head that is Christ: Eph 1:10. They are wrestling with the same issues we are and working for the same Boss. In a few hours, we left as old friends. I  look forward to connecting with them again when I am back in Halifax.



Grad @ Dal



A couple of days later, I dropped back at Dal because I wanted to do another brief walk through. There is something about that campus I find to be compelling. It is , as Macleans magazine puts it: Canada’s smallest big university. It is both small and big. It has a medical and dental school, a world class reputation and faculty and a very liveable and human campus. In  a previous blog, I referred to a ministry of a friend of our Fellowship, Mike Miller, called Shiloh University Church. It is an exciting expression of charismatic Christianity meeting on this campus. There are other notable ministries operating on campus. However, it is clear to me that all of them combined only scratch the surface of what God is up to on this campus. We need to think and pray about what our role might be.

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It is surrounded by residential/commercial neighborhoods that range from quaint to funky.

quaint

 As I dropped into the neighborhood Starbucks to use their wi-fi, I was surrounded by a group of people who evidently knew each other. The lady nearest to me called a man over to chat and he sat a few feet from me. I looked over and blinked. I asked him if he had ever lived in Vancouver. He immediately asked me if I was Robb Powell and introduced himself to me as Mark. My recognition was complete.

Mark

Mark Carvery was a member of Point Grey Community Church back in the day and a mutual friend of a former intern, David Langille. He let everyone know I was his former pastor. Before he had to leave  for work, a really sweet couple of moments of catching up with each other’s life. He is a videographer doing an ambitious project on the history of Africville in N.S.   I confess that I never knew about it before. I took our 'random' encounter as another serendipitous sign of God at work. In fact, the lady ( a social catalyst named Lana) who had called him over to talk, told me that she had just called him over on a whim. Further, she was a former member of Southside Community Church in BC, where she attended for three years. She too saw God in this encounter.

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