Online Ministry Journal nummer nio

These past eight months have been the most influential of my life.

Online Ministry Journal número ocho

Well this last weekend I had the privilege of being a senior Counselor for my first time in essentially ever. Ministering to young kids has been something that I have helped with in the past, junior counselling at camps and after school kids clubs, so I was quite glad God provided this opportunity for me. Going into the weekend I was quite nervous, but my fears were settled by the fine leaders that I had. Since I was able to talk to Janelle and Leader Nick, our student leaders, about my worries, they gave me a lot of good information that I took into the weekend. With the help of the group around me I was able to succeed in counselling that weekend, it was really encouraging to be able to talk with people who had already gone to the things that I was going through, so that was one particular thing that I appreciated about the ministry here at camp.
During the Juniors retreat, I was paired with a Junior counselor, Brayden, and overall, it was a good growing experience. As a cabin, Brayden, the 6 boys, and I had a lot of fun with AllStar games, Q-Town, and swimming. The cabin team games were probably the most memorable thing of the weekend, probably due to the fact that we were going through the games as a cabin team, rather than just as individuals, as was the case with the wide game. Being able to guide my campers from one activity to the next was definitely an awesome opportunity to lead for me; it was memorable because I got to succeed with my cabin.
Throughout the weekend, I learned that a few of my campers were not necessarily professed Christians, but that was a good opportunity to lead them to that relationship with Christ. The way I saw God working during the retreat was in how I got to see my campers look to figure out more about God; so they could have a deeper relationship with him. One time during our cabin discussions, Craig started asking some really deep questions about evil in the world, relating to Gods sovereignty. It was really encouraging to see that even at such a young age these guys were asking tough questions, looking for good answers.

Online Ministry Journal nummer sieben

During the 16 days that we were in Vancouver, we had many opportunities to minister to the people of inner city Vancouver. This was my first ‘real’ experience of what city living looks like, and I was definitely out of my comfort zone. The organizations/Churches that we had an opportunity to be a part of for our mission’s trip were New Beginnings Fellowship Baptist Church and Potters Place Mission. New Beginnings Fellowship Baptist Church is a ministry for aboriginal people and for the poor who live near the edge of East Hastings Street. We interacted with numerous people who worked at New Beginnings, many who had previously grown up in Vancouver, and thus had a giant heart for the ministry that was taking place there. New Beginnings definitely embraced the outreach aspect of the Church mission, even in the few encounters I had with people that the Church reached out to I was given the picture that New Beginnings truly cares for those it gives aid to. At Potters Place we participated in what was called the H project; a week of being immersed in the broken, hopeless, drug-perpetuated culture of East Hastings Street.

Something thoroughly entertaining that happened while we were in Vancouver was the time when Denver and I were driving through downtown Vancouver, following the 3 ton truck in a van. The driver of the truck was driving much faster than I was confident driving, and he would go through yellow lights quite frequently. One such time was on a left hand turn, he had just turned just before the light turned yellow, and I was intent on following him. So I'm turning, looking forward at the truck, when Denver starts yelling, "GRANDMA GRANDMA GRANDMA!" because this small old Asian lady had just stepped off the curb as we were turning. After we finished driving we looked back at that time with fondness and laughter.

One of my experiences where I was put most out of my comfort zone was when Denver and I were tasked with the job of delivering several beds and couches to a single mother’s apartment. I had to drive the 3-ton delivery truck, which I had next to no experience driving, and then we had to go into a woman(who I had never met)’s house and deliver and build these bunk beds, along with the other furniture. I felt extremely uncertain and apprehensive at the start of the job, but as we chatted with the mom, we got to learn a lot about her; her oldest son had been home sick all day, so this new bunk bed would allow him to sleep in a separate bed as his sister. Also her master bedroom had recently flooded, so the queen-size bed was also a blessing for them. That was only one of my many days worth of experiences at New Beginnings, but the situations that I was able to observe certainly gave me new vision and perspective for people struggling on the east-side of Vancouver.

Pastor Deborah, the founder of Potters Place Mission, had many stories that I found showed how much God was working to keep Potters Place open. When she bought the second building, a small apartment complex over an art gallery, she soon discovered that one of the tenants was a major drug dealer; he never left the building and had several running drugs for him. She prayed about the outcome of the situation, but resolved at every opportunity to take this drug dealer and lay hands on him and pray for him. He eventually got so sick of it that he stormed out of the apartment, and was promptly seized by the police.

The Potters Place experience was very different from that of New Beginnings; it was much more intense in terms of the physical and emotional toll.
When we first arrived we were told, almost word-for-word the same that we learned in class; “Don’t think that you are going to make a difference for the people here. I have been here for 15 years now, and it hasn’t changed.” With that in mind, we were able to act with humility, coming alongside the people who came into Potters Place and simply talking with them. Although someone who has not experienced brokenness might not see what we were doing as extremely affective, it truly had an impact on the people we talked to. Leon, an older man who has worked at the bottle depot next to Potters Place for 15 years, was openly crying as our conversation about God’s spirit continued. I could tell that his heart was in the right place, he knew that he was a sinner and needed God, and that is why he came to Potters Place, “I don’t come here for the food, I don’t need that. I come here for my spirit.” Another older man, Hammond, had a story that gave me insight into some of the homeless people’s situations on East Hastings. Hammond grew up in Iraq, and was enlisted at the army at age 18. He deserted the army after ten months in service, and escaped to Iran as a refugee. After 2 years of living in Iran, he immigrated to Canada, originally staying in Saskatchewan. He has no family in Canada at all, and that realization was incredibly stunning to me, knowing that he had left behind everything he had known in order to come to Canada and start a new life. Even though I was completely shocked at the prevalence of drugs on East Hastings, and the blindness that the authorities show to it, I am glad God gave me the opportunity to see and hear the depth of the drug market for myself. Overall, I believe that the mission’s trip was a beautiful success. I think the effect the trip had will be lasting on everyone who participated.

Online Ministry Journal número seis

So two weeks ago we were in the middle of our Perspectives in Missions course. reflecting on the content of the course, I'm realizing the sheer amount of content we learned. I would say we covered literally everything about Mission; overseas and in our own backyards. We started off with the Biblical foundations of Missions, so we looked at Paul's life in the New Testament, and how Israel functioned in terms of Mission in the Old Testament. Then we went into the history of Christian Mission. My favourite story was about the missionary Boniface, who went into an area where people worshipped a tree that was supposedly protected by the god Thor. Boniface was incredibly forward and got an axe and chopped it down! He saw an opportunity to minister to a people group by revealing their false god in a vey dramatic fashion. Afterwards, since Thor didn't "strike Boniface down with lightning", the people realized that God was the one true God.
It was a really good course I would have to say, Tim Stabell covered a lot of ground, and I've really gotten to value my own role in Mission because of it.
Looking forward to our missions trip in Vancouver, I would have to say I am definitely feeling that God is going to do great things in my life and the lives of the whole team that is going on the trip. Since this will be my first missions trip, I don't really know what to expect; but I do know that I will experience things that I have never been exposed before, and that is one of many things that I am turning over in my mind.
One thing in specific that I have been anticipating is the eight days that we will be serving in Potters Place. I grew up in a small rural town, so I haven't seen homelessness or poverty to any great extent like it is in the city. Thinking ahead, I'm praying that I will be able to look at everything with the same attitude that Christ had when he was on earth. Jesus would consistently associate himself with those of lower status in society, so I am hoping that I will portray some aspects of Jesus' character while I am there.
While I am looking ahead, some challenges that I think I will face are accumulating in my head. The greatest one, I think, will be for me to not see the people that I am interacting with as lower than myself. I feel like I may be looking at everything and distancing myself from what I'm seeing and feeling, and I will have to stop myself from doing that.
Although I've pretty much just been saying what I haven't been looking forward to I am definitely extremely glad that God has given me this opportunity. I'm reminded of the motto for the Bible Institute that I grew up near, in 2 Corinthians 5:20 it says, "We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God." It is with this verse in mind that I am going into these next few days, and the weeks to follow.

Online Ministry Journal nombre de six

Missions fest was, to me, an excellent opportunity to expand my knowledge on a wide variety of topics concerning Mission, both here in Canada and abroad. When i entered into the weekend, I really didn't know what to expect, since I had never been to a "missions fest" before. Looking back at the weekend, I feel like I have actually grown in terms of knowledge of the Church's Mission, and how I am able to fit into that field. After we returned from Vancouver, I returned with a wealth of knowledge from the many seminars, general sessions, and Missions representatives we interacted with.

My favourite general session, the Young Adults Rally, consisted of some beautiful worship music and an excellent speaker; Luis Palau. Luis talked about his own life, touching on things like how his father died ("singing worship songs and praising God") and his banking job that preceded his work in ministry. His speaking was incredible! He was honest, authentic, and I felt like his central theme of "Are You Available" was actually applicable to my life as a young college student. One thing that I found absolutely incredible was the fact that Luis, at the prime young age of 78, was still as spry and active as he was; a goal I have is now to be like him when I'm that age.

Throughout the weekend, all of us Kalèo program students were given free reign on the countless seminars that the various groups put on. The first seminar that I went to was probably one that I liked the most, because it was on "When it's ok to be selfish. That seminar focused on the idea that the reason why most missionaries return from their field early is because the missionary is not looking after his/her own spiritual, emotional, and physical health. The teacher compared a missionary that is not emotionally/spiritually/physically etc. healthy to a flat tire on a car - you are just dead weight, and the team has to put more work into "fixing" you than you are putting into the team.

Over the weekend I also had a chance to interview a member of an organization called Loveworks, who focus on "finding tangible ways of using peoples talents and time to show Gods love in practical ways." The organization wants to raise awareness for international justice, most of the money they raise goes to help against injustice in Africa. The representative described how they work as, "helping people who are struggling to find meaning, help those who are struggling to find the means to live, when we do that something beautiful happens."

I feel like my understanding of mission has changed immensely after missions fest, before I did not put much thought into our work in Mission overseas. But now I have a much deeper understanding of how we are as Christians called to "go out into the world and make disciples of all nations." I feel that now that i have the understanding of the practical and Biblical foundations of Mission I will be able to move ahead in my life with more openness to the field of Missions.