Kevin Presseault

Well, I guess it's official. I'm definitely an Elmira resident... I bought my first pair of hockey skates! Now... I just need to get my hands on a Montreal Canadians jersey to wear when I go skating. :-)

I have boxes and boxes of junk which hasn't even been unpacked since we moved here over a year ago... Included in those boxes is everything from my previous life of a Lotus Notes consultant. Now, somewhere in one of those boxes are old sample CDs of old versions of Lotus Notes... and I'm quite tempted to find those and install it on our server at the church. Over the last few months I really noticed the lack of tools at my disposal for organizing all the little details of my responsibilities at the church. We've been exploring different software options at the church... but the reality is we can't afford to put that on the budget this year with so many other needs which are of higher importance... and besides, let's be honest, I'd be the only one using it :-) I've been trying to organize everything with Outlook... and it stinks. It's just too darn limiting... I can't customize anything to meet my preferences or what I need... and I've been ...

Seeing as how I'm at home vegging out today, I've spent a fair bit of time cleaning up my emails, getting caught up in blog reading, and going over old posts from my blog. This has been quite an interesting morning and really got me thinking about why I bother blogging and reading blogs. I came up with three main reasons why I love doing this. Through blogs I've had the opportunity to meet some great people. I've chatted with so many different people - some with the same interests in technology, some who love the same comics I do, some who believe in Jesus like I do, some who want nothing to do with religion, some who follow complete different forms of spirituality and some from complete different parts of the world - and I've really enjoyed and appreciated every thought and idea that these people bring. How else could I possibly meet so many diverse people? Blogging has allowed me to LEARN so much more then I could have on my own. There are so many talented p...

I hate this... lying in bed for almost 2 hours... just thinking and thinking and thinking and thinking and thinking... and not about anything important or life altering... but nothing is getting the brain to stop. So I figured I better get down here on the computer on do a brain dump... maybe that will help :) I've been struggling this week with just not feeling like I fit in 100% here... Life in small town south western Ontario is VERY different from life in Montreal! It's not that I don't love it... it's just very different... and sometimes I just feel like I can't be completely me because no one around here would really get it. At least I've been reassured by the senior pastor that one of the main reasons they wanted me here is because I am different :) I really need to find time for some kind of hobby. I haven't touched or painted or even glanced at my Warhammer stuff in nearly a year! Last time I played was the beginning of November 2006 and I ...

Those who know me well know one of my biggest passions is knowing and following the real Jesus. Not the one that we want and not the one that a lot of churches pass on as Jesus... but the real Jesus, God in the flesh, the guy who taught us that our religion is meaningless. It's about love and a right relationship with God and with all people around us. I really enjoy the teachings of Bruxy Cavey from The Meeting House church. He is doing a fantastic series right now called The God Debate. He has such a great and honest and humbling response to the popular books out now put out by some leading atheists. If you're exploring who Jesus is, or don't think he was real, or you're a Christian trying to grow in your understanding and relationship with Jesus, I would HUGELY recommend you download this and give it a listen. You can download it HERE . Let me know what you think of it.

For over 15 years I was part of a FANTASTIC group of people who put on a great show for a great cause. It started with a simple phone call to repay a favor and turned into a life changing experience. The group is The Becket Players and each year they put on a Broadway style musical and a cabaret show to raise money to buy hospital equipment for the Montreal Children's Hospital and other children charities. And the awesome bonus was meeting my wife there :) Sure, since Danielle and I had the kids, we've had to scale back on how much we were involved... but there was always a little something that we were doing to continue being a part of it. However, not being involved in the show this past year since we've moved away was a bit of a drag. And not even being able to work out the schedule to get to Montreal to see it was even worst! We've met some great friends over the years in this group and really miss each of them. I don't think Elmira will ever completely fee...

Man oh man what a crazy week! Thankfully I was able to spend ALL day yesterday and all afternoon today just completely vegging out with the family! That certainly did the body good! I'm never going to McDonald's again. I finally saw the film Super Size Me... and I was just floored with it. I probably go twice a week... and that's just got to stop. Vegging out with my wife and kids this weekend has been great. I'm just crazy in love with them! I want to continue to just be crazy in love with God too! I NEVER want to become a typical, sit in my pew Christian. Whether I'm a pastor to the end of my days or not... I want to continually be challenged and stretched and pushed to the limit so that I need to rely on God just to survive it! I want everyone to know me as a guy who loves God and loves his neighbour as himself. Since that's supposed to be the greatest commandment that's how I want to be judged. Thursday I wrote my seminary midterm exam. It was ...

ARRGGHHH!!! Since my last Windows Update Internet Explorer is gone crazy on me. I can't click links in my emails... can't open additional tabs... it keeps telling me that the popup blocker is on. Then I go in the settings and see that it's turned off... I'm done fighting with this stupid thing. I'm going back to Firefox. If only I could get my hands on a free Notes client... then I'd get rid of this Outlook thingy as well :)

I gotta admit... sometimes I'm pretty clueless as to what is going on around me. I never buy the newest technology, and I never catch the cool TV show as it premieres. Sometimes it takes a big news flash to open my eyes to some cool stuff right in front of me... and this is definitely the case with the Captain America comic series! It took killing Cap to get to pick up an issue. And boy am I ever glad I did! I've never read anything with Captain America before. It wasn't until reading Civil War that Cap even came on my radar. I guess it's just the Canadian in me that just assumed that the character wouldn't be relatable if I wasn't American, or if I wasn't a war story nut. Civil War changed my perspective of the character. Sure, he's all American. But he's all that is great about the US. His morals, his values, his respect for others. His love of liberty and equality for all. His role in Marvel's Civil War was great and really gave me an ...

I picked up a copy of this ressource a couple of weeks ago. I'm very impressed and excited about this training... I'm hoping that this will be a part of our kick-off in January.

This post is my 201st entry on this blog. Gee... I wonder where my head will be after another 200 posts :) Here's a bit of a brain dump this morning. Danielle's mom is doing great after her surgery! Turns out they did SIX bypasses! She should be home tomorrow. She'll need 24/7 monitoring for the next two weeks so we're working out our schedules to accommodate that. I think I'm coming down with a cold. Darn it. I can't be sick this week. I REALLY need to be studying on my midterm and a running nose won't help that. I have the greatest wife in the world! With all that she is doing to help her mom she wanted to be a part in helping me dealing with my stresses (which, to be honest, I was trying to keep from her to help her dealing with her mom). I'm so happy that Danielle and I are in a small group together again. It's been years since we've been in a group together... I was in a men's group and she in a ladies group. Those were great ...

I'm sitting in my office at the church... the first service is about to end... and my mind is racing on everything and not much of it is on trying to meet with God this morning. I really hate Sundays like this... when I'm more concerned with the ministry then spending some great time with God. This is happening more and more and I'm really not having a time of worshipping God on Sundays... all I do is wonder and worry about the people he keeps sending here to Woodside. I end up just looking around and wondering if we're really making a difference in people's lives... or are we just playing church? I see so many new faces and wonder if they'll ever get connected here or will they be gone next week and never seen again? I wonder about all the young dads (and there are TONS of them)... will they be godly husbands and fathers or will they become the statistic of another failed marriage? Are people truly growing in a meaningful relationship with God and each ot...

Christopher Byrne posted on his blog that IBM should make available services for people of different faiths during their big Lotusphere conference at Disney World. He was VERY kind enough suggest I could help put that together. Lotusphere was always the highlight of my career... and probably one of the things I miss the most of my life of a computer consultant. Not that I would dream in a million years that this would actually happen, but it's a very nice thought. :-)

Just got a call from my wife Danielle. Her mom's bypass surgery is done and the doctor said it went great. Danielle will be able to go and see her in about an hour. The doc said that the next 24 hours are the real test... bleeding needs to stop and ensure that the heart keeps beating... so don't stop praying yet! [Big sigh of relief] I'm not a fan of medical procedures... so this update was a nice big relief. I'm so glad everything went well!

I just stumbled on this movie trailer for "What Would Jesus Buy?". At first I couldn't figure out of this was a real guy or not... pretty interesting and I definitely want to see this. Looks fun and could be a good reminder of not letting our shopping addiction make us go crazy this Christmas :-)

My mother-in-law, Joyce, is having a quadruple bypass surgery tomorrow morning. She's been in the hospital since Friday. We're praying that the surgery goes well and it's a speedy recovery. If you're the praying type we'd appreciate you join us on this one :-)

Here's some of the search engine referers that brought people to this blog. Some make perfect sense... no big shockers this month... except for the fact that traffic has really been going up. And the #1 search is still people looking for information on having a partry for their pastor! Guess October being pastor appreciation month might have had something to do with that :-) pastor birthday pastor's birthday party ideas fall of the necromancer pastor drews blog how to get a passport folder more then meets the eye may parker in coma amazing spiderman experiencing christ together studies career change for pastors kevin presseault canada culture pace of life elmira ontario transformers pumpkin carving theme party for a pastor pastor's bodyguard party ideas for pastors "brian bartlett" baptist planning pastors birthday transformers sermon "monster machines" elmira woodside woodside church, elmira, might machines open minded christia...

The vote for the building expansion is done. 80% of the votes where YES to move forward with the project. Tomorrow the fun begins :-) Now, I have a year of stewardship campaign and a year of construction to get a couple of the major ministries fully organized: small groups, welcome and evangelism. Yup, going to be very fun!

At tonight's congregational meeting we'll be voting on whether or not to continue with our plans to construction a big addition to our church building. I'm really curious as to how this is going to play out. The response, whether yes or no, will really shape the ministry for years to come. Monday will be a really fun day :-) If you're a member of Woodside make sure you get out to this vote. And if you're not a member come out as well. This is a great opportunity to learn more about what God is doing in and around Woodside ... and may just get you excited enough to jump on in and be involved!