So, what do ya do when you are in a place where you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere? You feel like everything you do doesn’t matter, you have no “real” friends, everything you want to do seems SO far away and everything you don’t want to do is just right there with doors wide open… From faith to work to friends to life itself… Isn’t it funny how we work so hard to become something and yet everything we are supposed to be adds up to becoming nothing. the least of these. a servant… sucks doesn’t it? OR DOES IT. what if that IS our purpose. to become nothing and serve others as Christ served the people around him. Its like you take 0+0 and make it actually add up to something. I don’t know, but it ALMOST sounds interesting. God wants us to become nothing, a servant unto HIM first and others second. Why have we made the word “servant” such a “BAD” word? Why are we scared to put others before ourselves. Why NOT!?>

Not a sermon. Just a thought…

p.s. not that I have actually attained it myself. I HAVENT! lol

           Which picture do you think should represent the “Trial by Fire”  Logo???    Let us know.       

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8 )

9)

10)

11)

12)

13)

14)

15)

16)

17)

Good morning everyone. Well, got home day before last. Settled in yesterday and now the unpacking and job hunting begins. Great to see and spend time with family. Please pray for us for jobs and direction now that we are back. For our ministry, We are gonna take the next month or so to get settled and then begin. Really need prayer for us to get on track and renew ourselves after a few years of hard learning and frustrations and let downs and good times and everything all rolled into one. We know God has a plan and we want to be ready and prepared for it. Bless you all and please keep in touch and get writing your thoughts on here. Can’t make ya but I think this site could be really useful to us all as we share with others and pray for each other and ask hard questions and give our opinions and experience to help edify each other and lift each other up.

We are now in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Its been great. Went to see Little House on The Prairie, Oklahoma City Bombing site/Memorial, Canal Cruise in OK City and now in Tulsa. Quite a packed day. We will be arriving in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada Tuesday and will be taking a couple weeks to unwind, visit family and settle back down into “real life”. Excited to see family. Anyhow, pray for us as we begin this next chapter and just that we would walk with Christ and grow and see God do things again. Its been a dry dry year for us… we are very dry and exhausted, but know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Bless you all and please keep in touch.

Please pray for and look for our next big “thing” in our ministry. Our personal ministry “Trial By Fire” website… We will have it out in the upcoming weeks/months… We are excited for what will be available for all of you to take part in, get involved with, etc… We will have a place to upload pictures of ministry, videos, blogs, donations, links to some of the greatest christian ministries, regarding music, dance, self helps, missions, marrital, dating, and on and on… We look forward to it and please pray for every aspect of our ministry as we begin to move into deeper water…

2 weeks from saturday we will be embarking on the greatest “road trip” ever as well as closing the book on our time out west. We will be beginning a new book and first chapter back in our hometown of Sarnia, Ontario.
We currently have started this facebook group which started with a HUGE bang and now has kind of slown down to a stop… lol
BUT… good news is in the future… We are presently awaiting our official website to be finished and will be unvieling it in the coming future.
We also are setting up plans for different aspects of ministry. I am now a Licenced Minister with Gospel Crusade Fellowship of Canada. They are a great and amazing group. My father is ordained with them and I hope to soon follow suit within the next year or two. Their main hub is in Bradenton, Florida, USA… We also have a head office in Picton, Ontario, Canada. Please feel free to check them out at their website ( www.gospelcrusade.ca ).

Some of our plans of ministry are areas such as ministering to people online involved in pornography. We are hoping to actually be able to get on certain sites where Tara will chat with girls who are online trying to make a “living” by involving themselves in pornography. I will hopefully be ministering with men who are online seeking to fulfill their lust and hopefully direct them to churches in their local area or ministries that can help them first hand. As the Lord grows our ministry we will hopefully be able to go and assist people firsthand with this issue.
We are also praying into and talking about starting up a centre/school of some sort to teach different aspects of the Arts world. Areas such as dance, instruments, singing, and the many areas involved with those themselves… ie. different instruments, genres of music and dance, etc.
Also, we will be sitting down to talk with a local church in Sarnia about joining with them to start up a youth ministry out of their church.

Another area we are hoping to start to pray about and look into is local, provincial, national and international missions. We want to work in areas like the Greater Toronto Area, Quebec, Michigan, New York, Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago and different parts of Africa. We are truly excited as well as nervous to begin this new chapter.

Please pray for us as we have weathered many storms along the way through the past 6 years of life. At times it has been trying, at times it has been SO rewarding and yet other times it has felt like complete despair and failure… BUT, the good news is that we serve Jesus Christ. A God who prides himself on his love, compassion, mercy and grace. A God who never slumbers nor sleeps and will never leave nor forsake us. A God who allows us to go through a great deal only to bring us through taller, stronger and more mature in HIM. Its NEVER easy. Never will be. BUT as we continue to push forward even when we feel like we are taking steps back….

In actuality… he is continually bringing us a step further to HIS Plan and Purpose for all of us… Trust Him… And when you just can’t… let Him give you the strength to trust when you yourself just cannot get it done… I say that while praying that He gives us that very strength to trust Him and the decisions we are making even today in our lives. Blessings on you all and I know this is long winded but read it in its entirety to keep up to date with us, our ministry and where we are going and what we are doing.

Thanks a ton Cheryl and Len for hosting our party. Thanks to Shawn, Brett, Pastor Harry, Laurel, Brent, Charlotte, Matt Allen, Stacy & Graham Young for coming out to see us. Appreciate your support and love for us. We will for sure miss ya guys and we still have a month so whenever ya want/can get together if we are available that would be awesome. We thank God for the opportunity we have had to be His hand extended out here. We know God has changed many lives in and through us and we pray His blessings on you all. Pray that the things we said and did that inspired you, taught you, encouraged you, etc that you would always remember that and most importantly that God desires all of you for his service and kingdom. Never give up, no matter what people do or say. (we have learned the hard way many times) God is ALWAYS there. Sometimes we don’t feel him, see him, etc and we get discouraged when the enemy press us between a rock and a hard place, but in due time somehow God is there. He will never leave nor forsake us. Hard to understand and believe sometimes, but the Word says it. It MUST be true.

We will be unveiling a website very soon, along with a more detailed plan of where we feel God is leading us in our lives and our ministry. We feel and know that there will be a season of repairing our hearts, spirits, lives, etc and building our finances, paying off debt, studying under a couple pastors in Sarnia at the church we will be involved with and growing the areas which need growth and nurturing the areas which we are growing in. We appreciate your prayers and support and look forward to partnering with some of you in the near future. Pray that God will lead and direct the ones he desires to be in partnership with us prayerfully, financially and with your support.

God Bless.

hey just want to know where you are in your life with God..? I… Well, lets just say if you want to hear where I am with my walk or Tara with hers… message us… lol we would love to tell you one on one… but only those of you who really want to know. Those of you who are struggling with your faith and your walk… those of you who think there is no one else out there… we want to talk with you… we want to hear your story and share ours with you… life really sucks sometimes. Christians really fail sometimes. God seems like he is non existant sometimes… right? if any of you were to say no you would be a liar. The truth and reality is… we are human and our minds get so overwelmed with every day life itself that to just try to take some time out to comprehend the love of this guy we call Jesus and serve people we call christians who are our brothers and sisters who are the very ones that hurt us like nothing ever could… Does it all make sense? Why? If these are just a little of what you are thinking, we want to talk with you? WHY? you might ask… lol because those are the very things that we BATTLE through every day… our failures as humans, husbands, wives, children, parents, pastors, elders, run of the mill christians, HUMANS!!! lol It is such a struggle, BUT the one and only thing that is for sure and that we can ALWAYS fall back on and COUNT on is the love of Christ which obviously passes all of our understanding… how? I don’t know. Why? Don’t have a clue. But I believe!!!

some dudes looking to see where you at...

Does that statement mean anything to you? Have you ever had that moment where whatever it is is just plain freakin hard. Everything in you wants to scream and yell. You just feel like this is so stupid. Why me?

Why do we always make things so hard? Ya know, I’m going through something right now myself and it’s like, “AHHHhhhhhhhhhh this is soooo hard God, why is this so hard?” You know you have to do something, say something or go somewhere… but you just FIGHT like there is no tomorrow with it and you say,”God I just need direction” or “God I don’t know what to do, where to go, how to live”… Ya know I kinda wonder if that is the “resounding gong” that the Bible talks about.

I heard something today that really nailed home… TD Jakes was saying how the Israelites had been in captivity for 400 years and now they were leaving and they came to the Red Sea…. They could hear the POUNDING HOOF BEATS of Pharoh’s army coming after them. They had no where to go, and all of a sudden they started to cry out against Moses and say things like, “We should never have left” or “Let’s go back”….

Do you feel like that sometimes… You step out and everything starts to get a little “risky” and “unsafe” and all of a sudden you start running back… DON’T LISTEN TO THE “HOOFBEATS OF YOUR PAST” It doesn’t matter what you have done, where you have been, what happened… Let it go… If you were hurt, stabbed, laughed at, scorned, alone, and on and on the list goes… Leave it behind… STRETCH OUT YOUR ARM (just as Moses did) and WALK ONTO THE DRY LAND. We MUST have a good hand eye co-ordination… Between our dreams and visions and what we are doing to attain them and the paths we take to get there… Moses lifted up his arms towards the Promised Land and set his eyes in the same direction and TRUSTED THE LORD to take them through…

I don’t know what you are going through right now, but raise your hands, lift up your eyes onto the hills from where your help comes from. Keep fixed on that dream/vision. It won’t be easy. But one day at a time God will continue to guide you and lead you towards what he has set before you.

I would REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY encourage you all to download or get ahold of T.D. Jakes messages, ” Matter of Time”, “2 Decision”, “Living with the Threat of Failure” !!!!!!!!!!

ABSOLUTELY POWERFUL AND I TRULY BELIEVE IT WILL COMPLETELY ALTER SOME OF YOUR LIVES IF NOT ALL IF YOU ALLOW IT… But hey, don’t take my word for it… BE A CHICKEN; DON’T LISTEN !!!!!! lol

Blessings,

Shaun & Tara

p.s. just a thought… not a sermon…