Visa Update

One of the big themes we have been learning about while on training is putting our trust in God. As we step out in obedience to His calling, we will find ourselves in situations where we don't have the strength or ability to do it on our own. In these moments, we can no longer rely on ourselves but must depend on God to pull through for us. God wants us to live our lives like this, not depending on our own strength but trusting in God's provision.

During training, there haven't been many opportunities to really exercise this kind of faith in a big way, as I am anticipating there will be in the Philippines. I have been praying that God would show me how to place my trust in Him.

If you read my last blog, I asked for prayer about our visas. When we went to Vancouver on Tuesday to apply, the consulate told us we would need a letter from our host in the Philippines before our visas could be processed. Doing this would take an extra four days, which would make the timing really tight for our departure on March 4. I was already worried about getting the visas on time before this, so I found myself quite stressed out about it. As I prayed, I felt that God was telling me that this was something I would need to trust Him with, since it was out of my hands. He wanted to teach me a lesson on faith and His provision. Realizing this made me feel better, and I gave the visas to God and put my trust in Him.

The next day (Wednesday), Nate, one of the TREK interns, told me he looked into the issue more. Requiring a letter seemed unusual, so after some digging, he found out that we don't actually need to apply for visas beforehand. We can simply get a 21 day tourist visa when entering the country and then apply for an extension while there. This is a common way of doing it in many countries. We think that there was some confusion due to going through an organization that led to the requirement of the letter, which we now know is unnecessary.

So it turns out that in one day, God completely answered our prayers in a way that was totally unexpected. God taught me a huge lesson in trusting Him, as I far too often rely on my own ability or worry about things that are out of my control.

Update

It is a little surreal to think that in 13 days, I will be in Baguio City, the Philippines, getting ready for three months of ministry there. Our flight leaves the Vancouver Airport at 11:10 AM Pacific time on Sunday, March 4. I am excited to finish this last leg of training, which will include cross-cultural training, learning to teach English (not sure how much we'll use it, but it should be good anyway), and some practical training on things like music and children's ministry.

The view from Steve Klassen's backyard, where we had a session on the Gospel of Mark

The last couple of weeks have been solid, with some really good sessions on spiritual authority and evangelism. I learned a lot about the authority we have in Christ and am pumped to exercise that more as we go serve. I also learned how witnessing is an essential part of our life as Christians and should flow out of our love for God and desire for others to know him.

Getting ready for some all-night prayer

We were also able to share about our trips with a nearby church and be involved in an all-night Prayer for the Nations event that MB Mission put on. It was awesome to spend an entire night learning about and praying for different countries around the world.

Every Tuesday is Plaid Tuesday

Before we leave, we need to have our traveler's visas processed. What was supposed to be a three day process is ending up taking longer, as we just found out that we need a letter from Sam (the pastor we will be working with in the Philippines) to the Philippine Foreign Affairs Office in Manila, before our visas can be processed. If everything works smoothly, we should have our visas in time, but prayer would definitely be appreciated to ensure that it happens!

Reading through the old blog posts, I realized that I haven't said much about what we will be doing in the Philippines. Our team will be working under the leadership of a local pastor named Sam Arcaño. We still don't know all the details, but some of the ways we will likely be helping out include youth evangelism and discipleship, Bible studies, VBS's for the kids, youth camps, and music ministry.

Along with the visas, also pray:

• for energy and determination to finish training strong
• that God would teach us what we need to know through the sessions
• for some good team bonding before we leave
• that God would be at work in the Philippines now and when we go

Thanks for praying, and for reading! Have a great day.

Pender Island

This past weekend, I was privileged to travel to Pender Island with my fellow TREKers. Pender Island is a small island just east of Vancouver Island and as you will soon see, it is quite beautiful. We stayed in a lodge that the MARK Centre is currently leasing (check out their page for more details and some pics). We did many of the same things that we we would normally do here in Abbotsford, including hearing from inspiring speakers (Steve Klassen, Sam Dyck and Ray & Judy Harms-Wiebe) and some work duties. We also had time to take in some fun activities, like canoeing, hiking, and my favorite: frisbee golf! But rather than writing a bunch, I have included 13,000 words worth of pictures.

View from the ferry

The Lodge we stayed in, with an amazing ocean view on 3 sides

Frisbee Golf = good times

Steve Klassen trumpeting hymns into the Pacific sunset

Canoeing in the mist with Megan and Tejal

Fog

I'm smiling because I finally remembered how to breathe. 6˚C water is so refreshing!  

Light shining through the smoke from the campfire

The stairs I helped build as part of our work project

The view from above, after a good hike 

Roe Lake

Hiking path

A good place for skipping rocks

We all had a really great time on Pender, and we are now back in Abbotsford, learning about spiritual authority. We heard from Randy Friesen today, which was really inspiring and challenging, and I am looking forward to more sessions throughout the week with Keith Martens.

God is good. Thanks for reading.

Amazing TREK Race!

If you have seen the TV show "The Amazing Race", you will have an idea of what my Saturday was like last week. TREK leadership organized an epic all-day "Amazing TREK". My Philippines team raced the Ukraine team all through Abbotsford in the snow, rain, and hail. We used a GPS to track down bandanas hidden in the woods, completed obstacle courses, ate at a Sikh temple, exercised our brains by memorizing a passage of Scripture as fast as possible, dunked our heads in chocolate pudding, built fire in the rain, and much more. The race started at 6 am and we limped across the finish line at 7 pm.

Needless to say, it was intense! By the end of the day, we had walked/ran at least 15 km and were dead tired. The hardest part was the "missionary breakfast", where our team had to eat a huge meal of really unique foods from around the world before moving on. If you clicked on the link in my last blog, you will know what balut is. And yes, that was on the menu! Most of the other food wasn't much better. Before we went in, one person had to volunteer to eat a "special meal". Knowing that I have a fairly strong stomach, I volunteered. Unbeknownst to me, the special meal was Cheerios, and I was unable to help my team eat the rest. You may think that was lucky for me, but it was actually very difficult! My team, despite a valiant effort, had a tough time keeping the food down, and I felt so useless and so badly wanted to help out.

Through the whole experience, our team learned a lot about each other and we discovered how well we work as a team. I am really excited to be travelling to the Philippines with such awesome people.

Here is a team photo:

From left to right: Jonas, Ashley, me, Tejal, Charis

And now a picture I took today of a park nearby the MARK Centre. As you can see, it is nice here.

Tomorrow, we are heading out to Pender Island (a small island close to Vancouver Island) for a four day retreat. I am quite excited. I will be sure to post some pictures and stories when we get back.

I am still learning lots; it is like drinking from a fire hose. It is great though. Today, we heard from Jamie Munday about holistic mission and how the Kingdom of God is not just about our own relationship with God but about being involved in His work of reconciliation with others, the community around us, and His creation. Good stuff!

I hope you enjoyed reading this. As always, I would love to hear from you, so comment away!