From the Field - Orientation and Settling In

On Monday, I left home by myself for the first time. My flight schedule was supposed to go as follows: Jacksonville to Atlanta, Atlanta to Dallas, then straight from Dallas to Vancouver. Instead, I went Jacksonville to Atlanta, sat on the runway for two and half hours, flew to Dallas, missed my Vancouver flight by five minutes, sat in the Dallas Airport for four hours, then flew to Vancouver. I eventually flew in at 9:30 Pacific time, which was midnight Eastern time. I got through customs fine, found my suitcase almost immediately, and found the group that was meeting me almost as quickly. There were four other people flying in around the same time I was, so we all met up with one of the group leaders we would be working with this summer.

Current Canada Vancouver is more than just me and my two other team members at CCGC (Chinese Christian Gospel Church), it is 16 other young adults working with four other churches throughout the Vancouver area and Vancouver Island. So orientation was not just my group, it wads a huge team coming together to learn about and pray for these communities we're serving in. We are a team as a whole, underneath that, we are separate teams, and underneath that, we are individuals, all striving to allow God to move in them and move through them. We all came with the intention of changing lives even if the lives changed are their own.

Monday through Wednesday, we stayed in one of the churches we'll be working with this summer. Tuesday morning, after everyone was awake and had eaten, we began orientation. We started with a devotional and prayer time to open our hearts to the things we needed in order to fully work for the Kingdom. After, we were given an overview of the church planting vision for Vancouver, and given a rundown of Canadian culture. (I'm not allowed to say ma'am or sir, or call an adult by Mr. or Mrs. My parents worked for 18 years to get me to say those every time I addressed an adult, and now I'm not supposed to because it's rude.)

After that little culture shock, we were given a very good guide on how to evangelize with Canadians. In America, we are encouraged to openly share the Gospel and our testimonies with people we don't know that well. In Canada, we have to build relationships before we can begin to talk about things on a spiritual level. While Canadians are open to talking about spiritual things, they're not open to talking with a spiritual connection. It takes time to build relationships where they are comfortable talking to you. Americans will let you into their lives but not into their homes, but Canadians will let you into their homes, but not into their lives.

After evangelism training, we had lunch and played flag football. (I did not play flag football, I kept score and played with one of the leader's little kids.)

After lunch, we got into our groups and talked about the roles of each team member. Since I am living by myself, I am my own accountant, food director, spiritual leader, and planner. The guys (Stephen and Morgan) will be working at two of the other locations of CCGC, so I'm by myself for a while.

I am working at the Richmond location, where I will be taking over administrative duties for their youth group there. I will be teaching bible study twice a week, as well as setting up a praise band while I am here. I have two other girls who are helping me through the adjustment process and I am so thankful for them already!

After we were done on Tuesday, the leaders let us loose into the city to explore. We ended up going downtown and eating in the Italian strip. Then breaking off into groups of three and four. I went with my team and we ended up at the waterfront and talking about our testimonies. Maybe I can get the guys to write a guest post to put up here soon. After that we headed back to the church we were staying at, which is also where I will be working this summer. Wednesday, we went over a few more things then we packed up the vehicles and sent to get settled into our apartments. I met the family that is hosting me, and they are all very sweet. Their youngest is a girl a year older than me, and she seems very open to starting a friendship with me. There is a ministry opportunity there, so please pray for that. We took the boys to their apartment, then ate poutine (fries, brown gravy, and cheese curd. It is absolutely to die for!) And went to get groceries. We dumped those at the apartments and then ate pizza for dinner.

They dropped me off at my place, and I got everything unpacked and took a nice shower, then went to bed. Today (6/20) I've mostly been various books that have been assigned to me, and have been looking into curriculums for bible studies. Later tonight, I am meeting a girl named Erica and her family,. She is one of the girls I will be working from the church. She's in university, but I'm not quite sure what year. Tomorrow, I'm going to try and meet with the guys and get some sort of meeting schedule set up, and I'll probably try to go exploring through the Richmond area where I'm staying. Tomorrow night, they are having a welcome party for me at one of the youth's house. I'm so excited about their excitement to have me here! So far, they have left me a gift basket with all sorts of snacks, and a beautiful card welcoming me here!

Excited to see what God does,
Emily M.