Today we celebrated our second anniversary of meeting together as a church. It turned out to be a good day but it has been a tough weekend. There have been a number of deaths among friends of our congregation - a mother at the school my boys attend, a family friend of another couple, a supportive member of our mother church. It makes you take stock of your life and priorities.

It also happens to be Grey Cup Sunday and the only two teams I have cheered for in the CFL are going head to head. I can't watch it because we have our monthly potluck and tonight we are tying in our anniversary celebration.

I take my laptop out to the little country church we have the potlucks at and we are able to watch the game via webcast - but it is pixelated and rather herky-jerky. We watch the final 3 minutes in a minimized screen because it is the only way the feed will allow us to watch. One of the guys notes the irony that we watched an earlier rider game on a 52 inch plasma and now we are watching the Grey Cup in 3x3 glory.

I don't regret not watching the game - we had a great time together. Our congregation is very multicultural so the potlucks are great (if at times a little scary). Part of the evening we just shared how we came together and what it means to be a part of SouthGate. The thing that came across from each person is that they enjoyed the church being 1) local 2) friendly and 3)international. This was nice to hear because these are all things we value.

The second year can be very difficult according to the church planting pundits - and we did have some challenges over the last year, but the potluck has given me the confidence that we are right where God wants us. This point was underscored by the Riders winning the Grey Cup - even God is a member of Rider Nation!!