Vancouver Missions Trip Experience

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 14^th, 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.