In the Month of February, two
teams set out on mission’s trips to two different places. One team traveled to
Mexico while the other team traveled to Vancouver. The process of choosing
which trip I wanted to go on was difficult. I saw pros and cons to each and had
very little idea of where God wanted me to go. As the day to choose our trip
fast approached I had absolutely no idea where God wanted me to go and where I
wanted me to go. In conflict with about 5 minutes left of the day before my
answer had to be in I went to Lyann undecided telling her the conflict I found
myself in. Her solution to this problem was her right hand would be one
destination while the other would be another destination. I chose right hand
which just so happened to be Vancouver. A month after this decision I found
myself waking up at 4 am on the morning of February 14th, loading up
my stuff into a 15 passenger van and piling in to arrive at the ferry terminal
for 6:00am.
Arriving
at New Beginnings church by 9 am exhausted not sure how I would make it through
the remaining of not only the day but two more weeks we hopped right into
serving. Our week at New Beginnings began by emptying storage closets, building
retaining walls, washing vans, washing floors, helping tutor and running youth
events. As I began emptying storage closets I could tell my attitude was
beginning to suck. I felt unsettled and miserable and found myself getting
frustrated very easily by others around me. The only thought at this point
running through my head was ‘I must have chosen the wrong trip’. I knew there
was nothing I could do to switch at this point so instead I chose to pray. I prayed
every day for God to change my heart, and adjust my perspective and eventually
found myself serving with a true servants hard seeing God in more than just on
way in each and every circumstance. One
of the things that was most exciting to do was the tutoring; in this I was
given the opportunity to sit down with kids, play educational games, chat with
them, and just be a friend to them. This was super encouraging as we got to see
these kids about 3 times a week. When we
came back to Potters Place we had a youth service that we were running. There
were kids of various ages here and we each took control of different age
groups. One of the coolest opportunities I had this night was while upstairs
there was a little girl who was hanging out by the piano and I decided I’d go
check out what she was up to. This resulted in me sitting down with her on my
lap teaching her Mary Had a Little Lamb on piano. Every time she got a bit more
of the song and was able to play it watching her face light up with a huge
smile was very rewarding. After coming back to New Beginnings we all found
ourselves exhausted and taking off time to hang out in community and rest so
that we would be able to serve better the next day. There was one particular
night that Derek was especially tired. Almost everyone was watching Lord of the
Rings except Brookelynn and I. We decided that it would be exciting to hang out
on the stage. Derek joined us and slowly he began fading. His energy level went
from very high to VERY low. He found himself eating cookies in his sleep and
falling down stairs. This was one of the funniest moments for me as Brookelynn
and I stopped, looked at each other after hearing a huge bang (knowing Derek had
just left to go down stairs) and eventually picking up the speed of our walk to
stand up at the top of the stairs looking at Derek at the bottom lying with all
the dirty shoes on the ground. In that moment we knew he had fallen down the
stairs. Rather than asking if he was okay we broke into laughter- we couldn't ask because we were laughing so hard.
After approx. a week at New
Beginnings we packed up our stuff and went to East Hastings to Potters Place
mission. Due to the lack of communication we had no idea where to go and what to
do. Finding out within 15 minutes of a service that we were running it,
everyone jumped right in encouraging each other and praying for one another.
While at Potters Place we had the opportunity to share messages, testimonies,
pray with people, make meals, serve meals, build shelves and organize food.
East Hastings was a different environment from that of the location where New Beginnings
was. An example to show the difference is while at new beginnings Derek would continuously
say “let’s avoid alleys there not safe” to a contrast while at Potters Place
when Derek would encourage us to walk down alleys because it was safer than the
street. The highlight while at potters place was being able to sit and chat
with various individuals. This was cool for me because I got to hear their
stories, I was able to encourage them through prayer and just be someone for
them to talk to. This was cool because after praying you could tell they
appreciated it and that even just if for a few minutes they knew that there was
hope. Well at Potters place we also did two street serving things. One was handing out sandwiches to people. This was crazy because we weren't even able to make it a block without over 70 being all gone. The other was handing out flowers to prostitutes. This was a cool opportunity as we actually found that we were out too early and there was very little out when we went. when we all found ourselves feeling discouraged in that moment there was this one lady who my group approached with a flower. We simply told her that we were from potters place mission and we just wanted her to know that Jesus loves her. She was overjoyed, she had no idea what to say and she simply smiled an incredible amount. this was a true encouragement to see.
One of the hardest things about
this mission’s trip was the knowledge that you couldn’t help the people at
potters place, that there was a reality that these people could easily die from
overdose, being murdered because of debt or simply that these people would be
living on the streets for the rest of their lives. We could talk to the people, pray for them
and hope that they could get back on track but the reality that we all knew was
that these people have been living this way for such a long time and there was absolutely
nothing I can do to change it. Nothing I say or do could convict them enough to
cause them to turn from their lives. The only hope there was, was God.
Preaching a Salvation message I realized you know these people can be running
from so many things in their lives and turning to things to fill their lives up
with some sort of hope but until they are convicted through the Holy Spirit and
forced to their knees in surrender to God they will never find the hope, the
light they so eagerly are searching for. I felt helpless because all I could do
was pray and hope one day God would be able to break through to them. In this I
saw God showing to me how powerless I am, but rather how powerful he is. I
realized I try so hard to be other people’s heroes, I tried to be their saviour
but the one true savior is God the Father, His Son and The Holy Spirit. In
knowing this as I went to speak a message to people at Potters place I found
myself speaking the best-spoken message I’ve ever presented before. The words
God spoke through me were not my own but rather his. I was able to share hope
to the people there that their hope in God through my testimony and able to
show them that there is a way out. Even though I saw no physical fruit, even if
that message stuck out to one person and one day that person remembers that in
their hopelessness God is there that is all that mattered. I only care about people
knowing about the Hope in God. The only reason I was able to speak an
encouraging, yet convicting message with little preparation so incredibly was
because none of it was my own, but all was from Christ. One man came up to me
that helps serve and said to me that the message I spoke hit something in him
and that he just couldn't stop thinking about it. Hearing this was encouraging because
I knew God worked in an incredible way in that man’s life through me. I realized
God is truly the only hope and that was encouraging to see God working in even
the people’s lives who I didn't think were there to have their lives worked on.
While on this missions trip God
showed me the importance of prayer. While I found myself frustrated, unsettled
and not enjoying the missions trip I found at the bottom of it was my
perspective. I knew in this I needed to pray. I prayed every day of the mission’s
trip for God to help change my heart, for God to change my perspective, and God
to give me the Energy and motivation to serve with everything I was. There were
points in this trip where I had no idea how I could wake up the next morning,
get out of bed and serve because I was so exhausted. In these times I found
myself praying for energy. I’ve always seen prayer as something important in my
life but I’ve never truly prayed according to Gods will. While on the missions
trip I found myself turning to God for both the big and little things. I found
myself learning to rely on his will more and allowing him to change my heart
how he wanted to show me why he led me to Vancouver. While on the missions trip I didn’t realize I
learned about prayer but coming back I’m realizing now more and more that
prayer was the only thing that got me through specific parts of that trip.
Through Prayer God was able to teach me about his sovereignty and Goodness, I was
able to learn reliance on him and realize he was my only hope. I realized that
he was the only way I would make it through the rough days and I found myself
able to rely on that. Because of God my heart for the mission’s trip was changed
and I was able to see God working in my lives, others’ lives, and various
situations.
