H2O Annual Report for 2007

Members of the committee were asked to submit a reflection on the past year to the church as part of the annual report. Here is what we sent in:

The last year has been a year of growth and change for H2O, as the leaders and members of H2O have seen the fellowship through times of searching, trying out new things, and finding out who we are as a fellowship within CCCO as well as the larger body of Christ.

After a leadership retreat at the beginning of January, the committee felt that H2O Fellowship would benefit from maintaining the same goal as the rest of the church, and so we also adopted the theme of: “Reaching out - to God, to each other, and our neighbours”. During the first half of the year we were able to spend time on exploring the different aspects of reaching out to our Lord. First, we focused on prayer. Topics such as ‘The Power of Prayer’ and ‘Approach to Prayer’ helped us to reiterate the importance of constant communication with God, while the DVD ‘Prayer: A Remix’ explored some truths that we might not have thought about when we pray, including on rethinking the words we say that are often cliché and turn them into what we really meant to say to our Father. From prayer, we moved on to focusing on reaching God through His Word – The Bible. Pastor Francis Wong and Joseph Lam were able to help teach us the different ways to read and study the Bible, and the fellowship was able to apply the tools to an exploration of the book of James. The first part of summer vacation found us out on the steps and porch of CCCO, soaking in the sun and digging into God’s Word.

In July we held our annual summer retreat at a campsite in Mallorytown, Ontario. We studied passages in Matthew 7 and Romans 2, encouraged each other to spend time to truly listen to God’s voice to and follow Him, and exploring the difference between God’s judgement and our own. Many precious memories were made as we worked together to cook and clean, and worshipped our God in the great outdoors. The time of bonding within the cabins led to our continuation of the theme “reaching out”, by reaching out to others within our church and fellowship. Starting in September we turned our focus to building closer relationships between brothers and sisters by starting gender-based cell groups. The guys and girls met separately every other week in a more comfortable setting to discuss topics and engage in activities that were more gender-specific, in hopes of building up stronger bonds that would foster deeper sharing between one another. The theme was also perpetuated through H2O’s participation in joint activities with other fellowships and congregations, including: assembling and selling brown bag lunches to support our summer short term missionaries to China (through the graciousness of our Father, our STMs’ needs were met and funds raised went towards resources to support staff in China); the English Congregation Soccer Tournament; the first ever joint coffeehouse with YF; CCCO’s Missions Conference where we heard amazing testimonies of reaching out and winning Muslims for Christ; worshipping with 4000 other Christians from Ottawa at The Gathering; and our annual Helping Hands for Hire event. And of course, what year would be complete without our annual end-of-the-year bash? Our annual gala event in 2007 was held on New Years Eve, with around 60 friends (from H2O, YF, other churches, and new friends) gathering to dine, laugh, re-connect, and celebrate. And the special bonus? Celebrating Josh and Shelly’s 1st wedding anniversary just before the clock struck 12!


While all these programs ran, much work was taking place in the background. In addition to ensuring some sort of order at our weekly events, the leadership team desired to equip ourselves as leaders and develop a more concrete picture of what H2O is and where we are headed. We gathered numerous times throughout the year, formally and informally, to listen to leadership material, discuss our dreams for the fellowship, and evaluate how things have gone. In our program, we tried many things to better draw the group together…. Some which worked better than others. We are very thankful for the help and leadership of Pastor Cal, our mentors, and other Aunties and Uncles at church for their time and interest in H2O. Also, the committee wishes to thank all the members of H2O, who faithfully put up with last minute event notices, seemingly ever-changing meeting times, wild games, and all our other crazy ideas.

At the start of the New Year, the committee spent a night sharing about 2007, especially the second half. We are all immensely thankful to God for opening up our hearts that night, because the honest sharing that took place has served to draw the team closer together, and to make evident places where we can improve in 2008. In the coming year, we hope to re-enforce the unity of the group and get back to the basics of being a fellowship, devoting ourselves “to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). We are excited to see what God has in store for us in 2008!

In His Love,
Chung & Steph (for H2O)

Photo credits: Chung Kan, Steph Wong