my buddy Andrew

i mentioned Andrew briefly in my last post but i haven't ever gone too indepth about him here. he's the closest thing to a brother that i have in my church community and i'd run through a wall to help him if i could. we've been in the same seed group together for ... 8 years i guess, and that's a significant thing because we change our seed groups every 2 years or so in our community. we've gone through some struggles and we've been alongside when the other has needed something. he's a strong man of God that i love and respect more than i probably tell him.
we came to Winnipeg and we joined our community where we have happily remained for 12 years now. i didn't find Andrew as a close friend at the time, instead i latched onto some fatherly types that helped me grow a lot before i began to "come into my own" as it were at Grain of Wheat.
since we began to spend a lot more time together and shared our struggles more then he has been a tremendous resource for me and an example of someone who wants to reach out to God and find Him. his daughters are dear to me, his wife is a dear friend who encourages me and helps me along the path.

my family is not present with me here (outside of my dear wife of course) in this tundra-land but i have a brother who checks in and shares his struggle as i share mine. we're planning a brisk game of Settlers of Catan for Saturday eve this weekend. i love Settlers and i can never seem to beat Andrew at it.

Andrew introduced us to an appreciation of Cat Stevens (you may know him now as Yusuf Islam). if we ever owned a cat we'd probably call him Stevens because of a running joke that we have between our families.

and with that statement i give you Cat Stevens, courtesy of Andrew.