Last weekend (okay, the weekend before) we were delighted to host our good friend from north of the border Gary Sharpe. I (Niels) met Gary through a former roommate of his when I was still living in Belgium and Gary was on a European vacation with two of his friends. He always said 'I have a feeling I haven't seen the last of that guy.' Well, he was right. I came to visit him in Kitchener, ON on a couple of occasions and last year I had the pleasure of introducing my wife to him. Unfortunately he couldn't attend our wedding since he was in Africa on a missions-trip so we made arrangements for him to come down later that year. Due to various reasons (among which his change in jobs from a worship minister to an international missions organization) we couldn't get together until early July.
He arrived on Friday and we talked about life and how it had changed for both of us. On Saturday we went to visit the Rock Hall in Cleveland, since Gary - being a musician - wanted to go for the last 10 years. On the way to the Rock Hall he played a few songs of his first attempt to enter that coveted museum as an exibitor. His album 'Change the World' is due out in October and we hope to be in Canada for the CD launch. We had an excellent time at the Hall and I think Gary will be back for subsequent visits (if not to see us, he might just stop in Cleveland... *smile*)
We were very happy to show him our church home 'RiverTree Christian' here. We introduced him to our Tech director 'Tonto' and some of our pastors. He was pleased to see how we rooted ourself in the 'Tree' and how similar it was to Grandview Baptist in Kitchener where he used to work.
On Sunday we had a full program as well. First we had our small group / support group for Adult Children of Divorce (a class based on the activities in Jen's book 'Generation Ex - Adult Childern of Divorce and the healing of our pain') followed by our regular small group gathering. This included a presentation by Gary on his missionary work in Africa (he focused on the project in Rwanda) and a visit from our friend 'Dr Jen - Medicine woman'. We had a great time seeing Gods work being done in Rwanda through Gary and the resource he is able to provide through his job at International Teams Canada.
Around 4pm it was time to say goodbye again, not only to Gary, but also to our small group since we had a wedding shower for one the DJs at our wedding, Jason and his future bride Andria.
Thank you Gary for a great time. We'll meet again soon!
Oh, don't forget to check out his single 'Bleed'. It's up on youtube: Gary Sharpe - Bleed
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