the end.

hey all. well. i arrived home..after much frustration at the toronto airport. i had issues getting through the check-in with my treatment. when i finally did get through..my plan was to leave in less than 30 minutes and i still had customs and security check to get through. thankfully the check-in manager got me moved up to the front of the customs lines and i made it just as the plane was pulling out.

thank you, thank you, thank you soooo much for all your prayers and support! it means so much to me, and i firmly believe that you will be blessed for it!

here is a podcast of the last worship service in canada if you are interested in listening to details on our summer: http://www.thesanctuarymississauga.libsyn.com/

also. here is an overall slideshow of the summer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ebRKkde00

love.

homeward bound.

well. this is my last full day in canada. this past week has been a little sad. you don't realize how close you have grown to people until you have to leave them. its amazing the connections and relationships we have developed with people here in just 6 weeks (some even less). but its so rewarding to see God moving and working!!

quick story. bernie..the head manager here at sheridan..kinda took a liking towards team habakkuk. we would play phase 10 together and chat every now and then. all week he expressed interest in hanging out with us some before we left. since alyssa was leaving this morning, he wanted to hang out a little last night. apparently he had been putting off alot of work..and ending up having to work the majority of the night and into the wee hours of the morning. but he took a few minutes of his time to come hang out with us a little. then..he told us he had gifts for us. so we were like..ok cool, not really expecting too much. then he pulls out this bag and hoodie that say sheridan on it. and he proceeds to tell us that he never does anything like this, but he just really likes us and wanted to do something special for us. how cool is that!

continue to pray for bernie. especially that God would put other believers in his path to share with him and water the seeds the Lord has planted in his life!!

on a second note, the family from sheridan has been trying to squeeze in every moment possible with us...which is awesome! on wednesday, we all played mini-golf together, had another pizza night and then headed over to a secondary school to watch jennifer's soccer game. we started the wave, had posters for her, and screamed louder there than the argos game and blue jays game combined. it was great! then we headed back to sheridan and stayed up chatting with them until almost midnight. we had several opportunities to share what the Lord has been doing through us this summer! it was wonderful. also, God is opening doors for the allen family to possibly move into the verbeeks basement until their home is ready! how awesome is that!?

so, all in all, God is doing some great things. and its really awesome to see that His work that He begun with us (team habakkuk) is going to continue after we leave, which was ultimately the goal.

thanks again for all your prayers. they mean SOOO much to me! and now i ask that you would pray for me as i head back to "real life," that the missional lifestyle i have taken on would not be put to the side just because i'm back to school and work and all.. pray that the work the Lord has done in my heart will continue to grow and i will be willing to be used in every way.

love you guys so much! see you soon!!

saying goodbye is never easy..

sorry it has been so long since my last post. as the last days draw near, we find ourselves wrapped up in dinner with families, and squeezing in last minute activities.

this past weekend, a mission team from florida came up. 2 of the guys stayed at sheridan with us in carson's extra room. we spent time with the team, throwing block parties, and doing youth events with them. stephanie and jennifer (the 2 girls from the family at sheridan) came to the youth event with us (5 pin bowling)! we had a blast. we are trying to find every bit of extra time to spend with the precious family at sheridan before we leave.

as we pack up and prepare to fly home, we are looking for ways to further the ministries we helped start here in the area. aubrey and nishika have decided/agreed to continue the bible study at UTM with kevin, and possibly some other interested people, which is very exciting!! also, we are hoping to connect the family from sheridan with the verbeeks, who also live in oakville. we're not really sure what God had/has in store for the children of floradale park, but we trust that He will continue to work there.

church was good yesterday, but hard. team habakkuk had a time to share about the summer and encourage the Sanctuary, but we also had to say goodbye to our new family. it was tough, but also exciting, knowing that God's work is being done here in the toronto area, and that we have family here to come back and visit.

so my plane leaves on saturday, and this week will be full of goodbyes..be praying for the team as we part ways, for safe travel and for the family and friends we are leaving behind! as always, your prayers have been an amazing support and encouragement for me. much love!

1 of the 7 wonders of the world!

today was alot of fun. we started off the day with an adventure to niagra falls. we had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours on the canadian side of niagra falls..which is alot prettier than the american side. we rode maid of the mist..which was more like (in carson's words) maid of the tsunami. it was wild..granted we did choose to stand on the top level, close to the front of the ship. but anyways, we had a good time. we walked around..hoping to catch another tourist attraction, but ran out of time, so we finished off the afternoon with lunch at the rainforest cafe. :) it was nice.

we got home and had a few hours to chill out, and prepare for tomorrow night's bible study at UTM. since this will be kevin's first bible study as a believer..we are trying to prepare some stuff that suits a new believers needs. for example, baptism, faith, and repentance. we each have one topic to prepare. i will be leading the faith portion..which i've realized is alot more complicated than it seems. looking forward to the bible study though.

we decided to also go back to floradale park tomorrow and take materials to make salvation bracelets with the kids. so we spent a big part of the afternoon/evening putting beads, bands, and papers explaining the bracelets into ziplock bags. we are praying to a beautiful, sun shiny day, and lots of kids!

after dinner, we spent the evening with our family friends: peter, allison, stephanie and jennifer. they decided to give us a tour of oakville, ontario! we really had a wonderful time. they also showed us their new home (which is in the process of being built) and made it very clear that we are welcome if we come back to the area. they took us out for ice cream, and we spent alot of time just walking and talking. very enjoyable. we also learned a little bit about the family's religious background. allison (the mom) grew up anglican, and then "converted" to catholicism for her children to go to a certain school. it seems they are not really dedicated to any religious practices, just in name only. we are hoping to connect them with families from the church for after we leave. pray that God will work all that out.

it is truly exciting to see what God is doing here, and i'm a little nervous about going back to "real life." its been a summer of learning how to life a 'missional lifestyle' and seeking the Lord in all things, which is something that i will be bringing home with me (thankfully i don't have to put that in my suitcase, which is probably going to be over 50 lbs.) i'm excited to see what God has in store for me back home, but also what He will continue to do after team habakkuk leaves. as always, thanks for the prayers and thoughts. blessings.

:)

the last few days have been more laid back..which is exactly what team habakkuk needed. yesterday we had church. still no sign of tammy :( but an argonaut (football team player) and his wife came as well as another argo wife..which was pretty exciting! later in the evening we headed over to the verbeeks to try and help out the big final packing up stuff to head to big trout lake. its kinda cool being on a "mission trip" and helping other people prepare for their mission trip. aubrey and nishika were there as well..so we all hung out and spent time together after dinner..which was nice.

today we planned this week out, went to lunch with leeann and then dinner at lorianne and jean's place. they are from south africa, and i just find it fascinating to learn about other cultures! i could just sit and listen to them talk about their home for hours..especially with their awesome british accents. :) we enjoyed our time with them..and the authentic african food we got to eat! yum. so far we've had: south african, chinese, vietnamese, mediterranean, greek, italian (pizza), and trinidadian. we will be having authentic indian sometime next week..and possibly a few other dishes. its quite exciting!

plans for the week include: niagra falls tomorrow morning!! yay :), then tomorrow evening spending time with the family living at sheridan. time at the park to have the kids make salvation bracelets, and then bible study at UTM on wednesday. thursday will be a bluejays game (baseball) and then meeting the team coming from florida and having dinner. friday we will probably be helping out with a youth thing with the team, and then saturday a block party and then a bbq (cookout) with the church.

pretty exciting stuff!! its hard knowing that our time here is coming to an end quickly..but its great to see how God is working and just the mystery behind all He does!

superrrr exciting news!!! a must read blog.

i really don't have tooo much to blog on today..but i actually have the BEST news to share. i shared last night about our bible study at UTM and how we each shared our testimonies. well...today, we got a call from aubrey saying that kevin has become a follower of Christ for real! he shared that after hearing each of our stories, and how real Christ is in our lives, he felt convicted and desired God as well. i can't wait to see him tomorrow!!! wow. our God is sooo good. and prayer is so powerful. :) you just can't not get excited about that!!

pre-hearing about kevin..we slept in today. sleep was very much needed, and it felt great. then we had a lazy afternoon, eating, making team t-shirts, and watching videos. it was super nice. and we had a good time. then we headed over to the chandoos for dinner and a movie.

it was a good day. to God be the glory!

well, track and field camp had its final race today. yesterday was super busy. we left at 7:30 am and didn't get home until 11:30 pm. you can imagine how exhausted team habakkuk was! we had track and field in the morning, headed to the hudsons for lunch and a quick nap, and then went to floradale park for our second "mini block party."

lorianne and nishika joined us, which was absolutely wonderful! but it was quite strange. only one of the same kids was there, even after they all begged us to come back last thursday. so it was all new kids, and most of them were speaking an indian language, as well as english. but these kids were older, so i decided to try and talk a little bit about Jesus. i asked them if they had ever heard of Jesus, and one of the girls replied 'thats the christian god.' most of the kids said they hadn't. so i shared a little bit, saying that Jesus loves them. i talked a little more to one girl, and she told me that on canada day someone gave her a little bag with things about Jesus and she watched a video on Jesus (i'm assuming it was the Jesus video). then alyssa told me that she was talking with her and she was sharing that her family had just finished fasting and praying to all the gods, making us believe her family is most likely hindu. so..very interesting group.

we heard that the park had been closed earlier due to a fallen tree..which may have been why the kids from the week before weren't there. the dynamics of this group of kids was completely different. we mostly played soccer while there was a little bit of face painting going on. there weren't half as many kids either, which i feel was a blessing in disguise considering how tired we were.

when we left the park we went to square one and had dinner in the mall before bible study. kevin was the only one to show up for bible study, but the study was great!! last week, if you recall, we talked about the depth of sin, and this week we talked about the cross. we each shared our testimony, and aubrey asked kevin to close in prayer. in his prayer, he thanked God for allowing us to share with him what the cross means to us, and prayed that he would have that same experience. we all feel he is super close to becoming a believer!!! continue lifting him up in prayer.

on the way home after bible study, we were praying for another encounter with peter (from the bus last week). our prayer was answered, but not in the way we expected. we saw peter, and he acknowledged us, but went out of his way to avoid us. the way i view it is God is working in his heart, convicting him, and he's scared. i mean..i think it would be hard growing up believing you are a good person, and then find out that you've been missing something for all this time, a relationship with Jesus and the salvation He brings. so we didn't really talk to peter, but i still believe the Holy Spirit is convicting him.

today we had our final day of track and field camp, ending the day with the final races and closing ceremonies. it was sad to see the kids go, especially since i love playing with kids so much, but it was great to see them finish big!

tomorrow..we are sleeping in as long as possible!! (we lost quite a bit of sleep this week) and then we are just having a relax day, and ending the day with supper at the chandoos! praying for recooperation from this busy week, and looking forward to what God has in store for the last 2 weeks of our time here!

much love!

camp and busyness

once again, i've fallen behind on my blogging. i apologize. we've been super busy this week with track and field camp, which is going very well by the way. i have some crazy kids in my group, but they are fun to hang out with. its been a real blessing to be around kids for a little while. team habakkuk has had a chance to share a "devotion" each day with all the kids at the camp, which is really neat! the camp is made up of some kids from the church, but the majority of the kids are just from the community. we also have a few volunteers from a high school helping us out, all 3 are not christians, so we are even getting a chance to share with them!

i was talking to my mom tonight, and realized that part of me has gotten a little discouraging. i had to fill out some papers for the namb, and some of the questions were how many people have you lead to Christ, and how many people have rededicated their lives to Christ and accepted the call to missions. we as a team have not seen any tangible, physical results from our work here, and that can be a little discouraging. we know that God is working, but its frustrating when we don't see what He is doing with our own eyes.

on a lighter note, we had dinner and spent an evening with the family living at sheridan. (i don't know their last name, but its allison, peter, stephanie and jennifer - i've mentioned them before) we had planned to have pizza then watch a movie, but we ended up just talking until about 10 pm. i thoroughly enjoyed our time with them, and i think they felt the same! they really want to take us out sight-seeing at some point before we leave! pray that God will continue to open doors for us to share our love for Jesus with them, especially now that we have formed more of a relationship.

like i said, its been a busy week, and the team is quite tired. so even more so now, we need some prayers, especially tomorrow! general plan for thursday: track and field camp til 12 or 12:30, lunch with the hudsons, headed over to the park for our 2nd "mini-block party" if it isn't raining, dinner out, bible study at UTM. good news about the bible study - we will most likely be having a muslim join our bible study. he overheard us having it last week, and wanted to join..so i'm pretty sure he will join tomorrow night. also, we're praying that kevin's friend might be able to come as well. so it will be a busy day, but hopefully an exciting, encouraging day!

we have a little bit over 2 weeks left in canada. wow..the time has flown by. but now we have to start praying about and planning for how to leave..connecting those we have met and ministered to with people who live here and can continue the work God has done through us. pray that we will have wisdom in working these kinds of things out!

as always, i covet your prayers, and want you to know that you WILL be blessed for faithfully lifting up me and my team to the Lord. grace and peace through Jesus. :) love y'all.

first day of track and field camp.

sorry for not blogging yesterday. we had church in the morning. i played the piano again..which was fun! the service was good..but team habakkuk was a little disappointed because tammy (the bus driver) didn't show up. :( but i'm sure she has a reason..and we are praying that we will see her again soon! after lunch we had lunch and a meeting to get ready for camp this week.

after the meeting, we went with the verbeeks to help get everything ready for their mission trip to big trout lake in a few weeks. so we spent most of the afternoon and evening doing that stuff, ate dinner, and chatted for a while. :) it was fun.

this morning, we got up SUPER early to head out for the track and field camp. we had a reallly great time. i'm so excited because i've missed working with kids, and i get to this week!! carson and i got put with the 3-4th graders, and alyssa is with the 5-7th. the kids aren't necessarily christian or affliated with the sanctuary in any way..but its cool because we get a chance everyday to share a little devotion with all the kids! we started out our devotion today with a skit..the kids LOVED it! then we talked a little bit about "doing your best."

we had a really good time with the camp, and i'm looking forward to getting to know the kids in my group (14 kids) and sharing the love of jesus with them!

plans for tomorrow: camp in the morning, grocery shopping, baking brownies for our evening with the family living at sheridan. movie/pizza night with the family!! yay!! pray for opportunities to share with peter, allison, stephanie and jennifer!

wonderland, argos, and chinese opera

i have quite a bit of catching up to do..but i'm gonna make it kinda quick because its really late and i need to get to bed so i'm not dead in church tomorrow morning.

so yesterday morning, we got up early to head to canada's wonderland (like carowinds or busch gardens). we missed our first bus, and we were quite upset..but it turned out to be a God thing..cause we saw tammy!! (our bus driver friend) we got to our stop and she got off for her break. we ended up talking with her for like 20 minutes while she was on her break. so i decided i would just give her a card of the church we're working with and say we would love to have her come if she got a chance. she took the card and said 'i'm off on sundays this month, i'll be there and i'll bring my kids.' and that was that. so tomorrow..we're expecting her and her kids!!! which is super exciting!! :)

we got to wonderland just fine, enjoyed a full day of rides and lines. it was fun though. we got home at 11 pm and ate supper. haha.

then today, we got up and headed to toronto to watch a cfl (canadian football league - basically the canadian version of the nfl) game. it was a whole lot of fun! and we met some people sitting beside us. alyssa got a chance to share a little bit about Jesus..so that was exciting. the argonauts (toronto's team) didn't win..but the experience was alot of fun.

after the argos game, we headed back to mississauga for a chinese opera. there was a chinese orchestra, dancers, martial arts people, the opera, and some more dancing. it was AWESOME! if you know me at all, you know how much i love asians and asian activities...so this was basically the highlight of my life. :) seriously, it was alot of fun, and it made me want to go to china really badly! (maybe that will be my next trip.)

we got back around 10:30 and headed out to the lobby to do our bible study. we talked to bernie a little bit, and spent about an hour in the Word. it was really great.

our God is so amazing. i hope He is as real in your life as He is in mine. :) be encouraged and know that He is working, whether you can see it or not. yay God! as always, thanks for reading my blog and for commenting (i love comments! :D) and for praying for me. you will be blessed. love you all!

balloon animals, sunburns, and JESUS!!!

so i'm SOO excited right now, i may have trouble putting my thoughts into words (just warning you). today has been very busy. we started the day a little earlier than normal in order to have plenty of time to get to the park and get set up. so we headed out with a cooler full of water bottles, another cooler full of freezies, and a bag full of goodies (balloons for animal balloons, face paint, frisbees, balls, and probably some things i'm forgetting to mention). needless to say, we were very excited and pumped about the day!! this is going to be a long blog, by the way.

we got to the park a little before 2, and as we were walking up from the bus, a ton of kids come running up to us yelling "FREEZIES!!!" i feel like we spread the message pretty well yesterday about coming back today. carson started handing out freezies while alyssa and i prepared ourselves for an afternoon full of balloon animals. alyssa literally made balloon animals for over 3 hours. i also made them for the majority of the time, taking a little break to play soccer with some of the kids. nishika spent most of the afternoon painting faces, and she did an excellent job if i say so myself!! it was wonderful! we talked to a few of the parents about why we were there, and many of them asked if we would come back. we plan to do a block party again next thursday. i wish i had gotten more of a chance to hang out with the kids and get to know them, but i feel like we've gotten our feet wet, and they trust us now, so if we come back any other times they would probably be cool with playing with us or hanging out. and the parents know they can trust us now as well. so that was awesome. we also got sunburnt, which is very important for the rest of the story (keep reading to find out why!!).

after we finally pulled ourselves away from making balloon animals, we rode the bus to square one to grab a quick dinner before bible study. then we headed over to UTM, only to find out that kevin had not gotten our email about changing bible study to tonight instead of tomorrow. so, after debating a little on whether or not to just leave, we decided to go ahead and have a bible study. we went inside to the "cafeteria area" and sat down. a few minutes later, kevin called aubrey, and he was at UTM and had just gotten out of class. so he came and joined us!! so that was very exciting!! so we talked for a few hours, had some really deep conversations about sin and the holiness of God, it was great.

when we were done, we headed back to south commons (our midway point from UTM and sheridan). carson and alyssa headed to walmart to get some aloe, because we all got sunburnt, while i waited with the coolers and goody bag at the bus stop. i waved as our bus came and went. but it was all good, cause another bus would come in about 30 minutes. so..alyssa and carson got back, and we waited for the next bus. around 10:55 pm, the bus shows up, and we get on. (i know you are getting sooo excited to hear the rest of this story! believe me, this is the most exciting part). so on the bus, the lights are blue, and we were pretty excited about this. alyssa asked the bus driver why the lights were blue, and he said something about it being a "stoner bus." we just kinda laughed, and this guy that was sitting across from us said something to the effect of "these people aren't stoners, they are charity workers." and we were like, how did you know!? (despite the fact we were wearing matching shirts, and carrying coolers and goodies).

so this guy started asking us what our "charity" was, and we explained to him that we were working with a church, came from the states, and just wanted to share Jesus's love with everyone. he began talking about how he believed all religions lead to the same place, and the conversation just took off from there!! we shared our faith, and basically the plan of salvation. and the coolest thing was how we could see the Holy Spirit working in his heart, convicting him. no kidding! it was amazing. and then there was a dude in the back that was definitely listening in, and the bus driver even turned off the air conditioning so he could hear better. the guy's name is peter, and i'm praying that we will encounter him more and more! and who knows if we will, or what will ever happen to him, but it was sooo encouraging to really see God work, right in from of our eyes!

looking back, we realized that had we not gotten sunburnt today, the conversation on the bus might have never happened. because alyssa and carson wouldn't have needed to go to walmart, and we wouldn't have missed the first bus, and the bus wouldn't have had blue lights, and the guy wouldn't have been on the bus and asked what our charity was. isn't God just amazing?! its so crazy to see how He works things out. but i'm SO glad He chooses to use me!! wow.

words cannot describe how excited i am right now. sometimes its nice to be reminded of who God is, and that He wants to use me. so awesome. be praying for peter. for his salvation and understanding of what we shared with him. and even for the bus driver and the guy in the back. they all got a big dose of Jesus tonight!

so tomorrow we are headed to canada's wonderland for a day full of roller coasters and adventures, and i am thoroughly pumped about it! i hope tonight's blog is an encouragement for you. thanks, as always, for your prayers. love you guys!

party!!

time to update the blog. yesterday..we woke up at 5 am to make breakfast for the sheridan staff. we made lots and lots of muffins and cinnamon rolls. then we went back to sleep. haha. when we got up, we spent time researching the laws of mississauga. yes..i know..this sounds cheesy, but we wanted to make sure we don't get arrested in canada. so we got the lowdown on parks and whats allowed. then last night we headed over to the porter's for some more Jesus-time! it was great. we talked about falling more in love with Jesus. can be a challenging task..its easy to fall in love with the Word, and with the ideas of Jesus, not with Him. it was a good lifeGathering.

after lifeGathering, the verbeeks took us over to the oakville recreation center where we got to watch bruce play hockey!!! it was very exciting. but sadly, we only got to watch about 20 minutes of play time. of course we cheered as loud as possible, even though we were just about the only audience. it was great. after their game was over, a younger, more energetic group took the ice. as we waited for bruce to come out, we watched the pros play hockey. haha.

this morning, we got up, packed up the cooler full of freezies and headed to our "chosen" park. this park is called floradale park, and it is really close to square one (a big shopping mall in mississauga). when we got there..there were only about 5-6 kids. we gave them all freezies and decided to wait around, hoping more kids would come, and spreading the news about our "mini-block" party tomorrow. quite a few more kids drifted in and out, and team habakkuk felt really good about the number of kids we gave freezies out to, and the number of parents we got to tell about the block party. i anticipate quite a few kids! which is very exciting.

we stopped by brett's to pick up some balloons, balls, and other fun stuff for the party. on the way home, we practiced making balloon animals, hats, and swords. i think its gonna turn out to be a very fun day tomorrow.

so i'm headed to bed, anxious about playing with kids tomorrow, since that is what i did all last summer and i'm really missing it now! pray for the kids and their parents we will come in contact with tomorrow. then tomorrow night..bible study at UTM. yay!

in You i find my peace

so its about time for an update. yesterday wasn't too eventful, so i figured i would just add it on to today's blog. yesterday was church. i had the opportunity to play and sing with the praise band, which was awesome! i loved it. we also had communion, which was also great. after church, we went home with the hudsons for lunch (kevin joined us!!) then we went grocery shopping. fun stuff.

we came back to sheridan and crashed..we all slept for quite a while..and were woken by leeann calling to invite us over for dinner. of course we said yes!! so we went to the verbeeks for teriyaki steak dinner and funnel cake dessert. :) yum. then home for some r&r.

so, if you recall, i mentioned a couple that we met the other day in the kitchen who are living here this summer. well..this morning, i saw the father and his 2 daughters at breakfast. we chatted all through breakfast. i really feel like God is creating a bond there..which is really exciting! i invited the 2 daughters, stephanie and jennifer, to go to canada's wonderland with us on friday, so hopefully they will want to join.

our original plan for today was to go back to UTM and pass out freezies. weatherchannel.com said there were suppose to be thunderstorms all day..and i believed it. so we decided to just go to campus and see if there is any way we could plan some kind of worship service for students on campus. we felt quite a bit of opposition, but did get some names and email addresses for the baptist student ministries on campus, so thats pretty exciting. we can back pretty early, and decided to invite our new friends, stephanie, jennifer, allison and peter (the parents) for pizza and a movie night. we slid a note under what we thought was their door, only to find out later that they were actually in a different room. when we didn't hear from them, we headed out for dinner and ran into them on the way. it didn't work out for them tonight, but they seem really excited about doing dinner and movie/games one night! which is awesomeeee!!

after dinner, we came back and decided to go out to the lobby to play phase 10 and hope that maybe some people would like to join us. so..bernie, the head dude, actually did join us!! sooo cool. it was great. about 2 hours of just hanging out and talking..another bond forming there as well.

so we were kinda bummed that we didn't get much done on campus, but super excited about some of the connections God is working out here!! :)

so here's the big prayer requests for now:
-bernie, head guy of sheridan
-the family (peter, allison, stephanie and jennifer)
-that we will somehow get connected on the UTM campus
-the people at the park we chose to have a mini-block party at on thursday!

4th of july..in canada.

not too much happened today. team habakkuk decided to make brownies for the sheridan staff. so that took most of the afternoon. we had a chance to talk more to bernie...seem to really be forming a bond with him, and with some of the other workers.

we headed over to the chandoos, a family in the church, for a bbq (cookout) with the rest of the church. we had a really good time just hanging out and fellowshipping and eating! :) even the canadians know how to have a good southern baptist fellowship. ;)

thats about it for today. tomorrow, i will be helping lead worship on the keyboard! so i'm pretty pumped about that, and hoping my finger will be strong enough.

today was a bit frustrating for me. alyssa, carson and i left around 1 to find a good park/neighborhood to begin some ministries. we didn't arrive at the park until about 3. yes..it took us about 2 hours on bus what could have taken about 20 minutes in a car. we did find a great park though, and we're hoping to have a block party or something very soon!!

so we got home and had about an hour to cook and eat dinner before heading out again to make it to bible study on time. so we ended up having to go to the kitchen upstairs, then found out later that the kitchen on our floor is reserved for 3 weeks. so that was a bummer. then we had to share our kitchen, which at first was a little annoying..but turned out to be a great thing. we got to meet a couple that is staying at the sheridan all summer, and we had a chance to share a little with them and what we are doing here. so that was good.

but anyways, we were rushing to eat supper really fast, and then we headed out to the bus stop. we got to the bus stop around 6:10, and realized we had just missed a bus at 6:05, but we did not fret because the next one was suppose to come at 6:20. so we sat and waited, and 6:20 came and went. for some reason, that bus never showed, and we had to wait til 6:40 for the next bus. this was very frustrating. we ended up being about 45 minutes late to bible study. another 20 minute car ride that took 2 hours on bus. so, needless to say, we were slightly irritated with the whole transit thing.

we did make it to bible study, and it was good. kevin's friend didn't make it, but kevin was there, so we were pretty pumped about that! the bible study was actually very challenging and thought-provoking for me. aubrey kinda led the bible study, but it was mostly discussion based. we started out with, 'if there is a God, what should He be like?' we developed a list not based on the bible, just what God should be like. aubrey was telling us that any person, christian or not, would come up with the same basic ideas: all-knowing, merciful, trustworthy, omnipresent... then we went through and pointed out the characteristics that are transferable to us as humans because we are created in His image. it was intriguing. i was actually quite overwhelmed, and challenged as well. aubrey, who has been a christian for only a few years, knows the bible so much better than i do. and i've been a christian for 17 years!!

anyhow, its been a long day, and i feel like the majority of the time was spent on a bus. but, God is at work. and that makes me happy. tomorrow we plan on doing something special for the sheridan staff again. continue to pray for opportunities to share with the staff, for the couple we met today, and that i will not get frustrated with riding the bus. :)

team habakkuk finally finished up our "jericho march" around the city of UTM today. we headed out around noon, determined to walk the 8-9ish miles around the campus, rain or shine! nishika joined us, which was extra special! it was so rewarding to finally finish that sort of "covenant" with the Lord. at the end, we all shouted and then the buildings all fell down!! ok. not really. but i didn't shout. :)

after the walk, we headed over to the hudsons for dinner with a team from ocala, florida. it was nice to sit down, and eat. :) and i thoroughly enjoyed the company and meeting new people!

when we got back to the sheridan, we came in, grabbed some dr. peppers, and carson headed to his room to get some sleep since he's been feeling a little under the weather the past couple days. i decided to run to the lobby to grab some ice, and ended up talking with the front desk guy for a good 15-20 minutes. it was actually quite interesting. he (bernie is his name) stopped me, asking if i was with the "church group." naturally, i said yes. and then he went on to ask what exactly we were doing here and why i came here, and questions like that. it was a good conversation, and once again i feel encouraged that God is using us here on the sheridan campus!

so 2 new people to add to the list. bernie and katryna, who was also there at the front desk while i was sharing our ministry. :) bernie is actually the head dude here at the residence of sheridan, and he seems like a really cool guy, so pray for open doors there. also, remember to lift up hailey, on of the housekeepers i've been sorta talking with daily. the weird thing about the workers here though is that they work 4 days and then have 4 days off..so it feels like forever before we see them again.

other good news! while i was out talking to bernie, alyssa came out looking for me. she was a little worried since i had been gone for so long, but she also had some veryyyy exciting news!! so we had already made plans to have the 'UTM' bible study with kevin tomorrow night, and we emailed him to see if that would work for him. he emailed back saying that would be great, AND that he is bringing a friend!!! how exciting is that!? :D so this friend probably isn't a christian, but he's interested. so, needless to say..we are super excited, and its soo great to see God working. alyssa and i were talking today about how we may not ever see any "tangible" results while we are here..but we do know God is working, and for me, this just confirmed all of that!

praise the Lord for what He is doing!! thank you, thank you, thank you for your prayers!!

canada day.

today was a very exciting day for me! i woke up and headed to breakfast, and had a chance to talk a little bit to one of the housekeepers, sharing a little bit about what our team is doing here. then the rest of the team got up, all super excited about canada day, we packed up a cooler of 32 water bottles, and headed out to the big city of mississauga for excitement. we sat at the sheridan bus stop for about 45 minutes before out bus arrived, and we realized that because of canada day the bus system was different. but it was all good. once we arrived in mississauga, we met up with aubrey, nishika, and them (pronounced tim), our friends from the sanctuary, to hand out water bottles and stickers.

we ended up running out of waters in like 5 minutes. so..them and carson went in search of an open store to get more while the rest of us continued to hand out stickers. the stickers were gone in about 20 minutes, but thankfully we had more water by then. we had to make 2 trips to get more waters. overall we gave out about 300 bottles of water and 400 stickers. we didn't really plant many seeds, but i truly believe the Lord blessed our work today.

while we were waiting for carson and them, i saw some people signing and decided to strike up a conversation. so 2 of the people were actually deaf, and then the other was hearing. but it was amazing! i felt such a connection with these deaf people. i explained to them that my father is deaf and that i am from the states. we continued talking for a good 5-10 minutes. they asked what i was doing in toronto, and i had the opportunity to share with them about the sanctuary and my work this summer. i asked about the deaf population in the area, and they shared that they think there are probably about 50 deaf in the area we were at today (square one). i'm sure there are more than just 50 in mississauga. but my heart broke for these people. i started wondering what kind of deaf ministries are even in this area, if there are any. i gave them a card from the sanctuary, but completely forgot to ask their names. it was such an encouragement, though, to make a connection with them! and i know daddy is proud that i made contact with some deaf. :) if they were to come to church, which would be amazing, i will be here for the next several weeks and could interpret if need be. so that was exciting for me.

after passing out the waters and stickers, aubrey and nishika invited us over for dinner. it was SO encouraging to spend time with them. they shared with us their whole story. basically, they are both from india, and both grew up in catholic homes. they told us how they met in catholic choir, and aubrey was in alot of bands, living in the world, drugs, alcohol and so forth. then he met a guy that took him to a church that met in a mall. the church accepted him and his long hair, and the Holy Spirit began working in his life. he and nishika dated for about 7 years, and most of it was in secret, especially after aubrey started going to a non-catholic church. basically, aubrey accepted Christ, and nishika was very hestitant, but eventually accepted Christ as well when she saw aubrey's life being transformed. aubrey's family has radically been changed since aubrey became a christian, but nishika's family is slow to accept the gospel..but i believe God is working through this very sweet couple.

they shared with us all that God has been doing in and through them since they got married in november. they plan on going to seminary to become missionaries, which is very exciting! sitting and listening to their story brought so much joy to my heart. it is so encouraging to see a newlywed couple, brought together only by Jesus, despite the persecution from family and friends, and their heart for the lost. they are so precious to me, and i can only imagine what the Lord is going to do through them!

we just got home about an hour ago, and the 3 of us went to the lobby to have our bible study. we've decided to start having our team bible study in the lobby, so maybe we can have more of an impact on the sheridan staff. the bible study went well, and then we debriefed on the day. at first we were a little unsure about whether or not just handing out the free stuff was exactly what God wanted us to do for the day, then alyssa shared the scripture that says 'i was hungry and you fed me, i was thirsty and you gave me something to drink' and we decided that the day was good. :) sometimes, a cool drink on a hot day says more than words. i don't know if we really planted any seeds, but i do believe that God was honored by our service today. and that makes me smile.

for me, i really felt blessed by the day's events. it was nice to get outside. meet some new people. have some great fellowship and encouragement from people of a completely different culture, but passionate about the most important thing: Jesus. i think maybe today was for me. from the Lord. just an encouragement day. a reminder that He is here with us. and loves us. and thats enough for me!

rainy days..

the day started off a little bit as a downer. taylor left this morning at 6 am. so when we all met for lunch, it seemed extra quiet and lonely. on top of that, our plans for walking around UTM 7 times were desolated due to thunderstorms all day. walking around UTM was actually our backup plan, so we were definitely up the creek without a paddle. it kinda felt like we weren't really doing anything. we tried to plan for the week, and think of creative ideas to reach out to the staff at sheridan, but still felt as if we weren't accomplishing much. we tried to contact kevin, the student from UTM, to see if he would be interested in having a bible study tonight, and we also remembered that people from the Sanctuary meet on tuesday nights for lifegatherings. so we decided to go to the lifegathering if the bible study with kevin fell through. we ended up heading to lifegathering, which was intriguing and enjoyable.

surprisingly, the topic of discussion was homosexuality, and how the church approaches it. it was really neat to hear the dialogue between the group, and realize that God uses people in different ways according to their personalities to reach the lost. and that when it all comes down to it, we just have to love like Jesus loves, and let the Holy Spirit do the work.

tomorrow is canada day! whoo-hoo. so..we've been brainstorming on how to reach out tomorrow. a few people from the church asked if they could join us in our adventures tomorrow, which is very exciting! holidays are huge in canada..meaning everything kinda shuts down for big celebrations. so what we plan on doing is spending the afternoon in mississauga, finding some festival type things, and handing out water bottles, stickers, and little canada tattoos to the kids. i've mentioned previously that canadians seem to get pretty surprised when stuff is handed out for free, so we're praying for some opportunities to share the love with some people. :)

tomorrow evening, there is a festival in streetsville, close to mississauga, that we are hoping to head over to and possibly hand out glow sticks. which i think would be super fun! :) maybe we'll see a few of our bus driver friends along the way, and make some new friends.

continue to pray for the staff here at the sheridan, that we will find ways to reach out to them, and just be an encouragement for them. pray for kevin, that we will be able to find a time for a bible study this week, and that he will have an open heart for the Lord. also pray that we will get a chance sometime this week to actually finish our "jericho walk" around the UTM campus! i do believe God has some great plans for the UTM campus, and i don't want to miss out on "the walls falling down!"

always,
thanks for your prayers and support.

i have some catching up to do. yesterday was a very busy day! we started the day with church in the morning. church was good. :) we talked about Jesus..and sang, and brett preached more on joshua. we talked about how sin affects not only yourself, but also your community. then after church, a man from the church asked our team if 2 of us would go to lunch with him and a friend of his. so carson and i decided to go to lunch, and we had an opportunity to share with rogered. it was really interesting talking to rogered. he was born in the philippines, moved to canada when he was 6, and was raised catholic. he asked us alot of questions on the differences between catholic and protestant, and seemed interested in how "different" we were. he said something to the effect of being surprised of how passionate we are about what we believe that we would come to canada to share with people. i just stated that we truly believe Jesus loves us, and we want to share that with as many people as possibly! i felt kinda convicted by the fact that its so much easier to come to another country and share the love of Jesus than at home. my prayers are slowly changing, asking the Lord to place more lost friends in my life at home/school.

after we got back from lunch, we found out one of our team members is headed home. taylor feels called to head home and spend more time ministering to her family. so she leaves tomorrow morning, bright and early. since it rained all day yesterday, we decided to hold off on walking around UTM 7 times today, and we plan on walking tomorrow...even though the campus will be deserted.

while carson and i were eating lunch with the 2 guys, alyssa and taylor were grocery shopping. we all got back and had a team meeting with brett to plan for this coming up week. our plans aren't really set in stone for this week. we are still looking for a neighborhood to really focus on, so be praying that God will lead us in that area. we will also be helping out with some stuff with the Sanctuary too probably. we ended the day with a greek dinner at the verbeeks. :)

today was our off day. we got up and left at around 7:45 am toronto bound. we walked around the city for several hours, shopping, exploring and having a good time. we ate lunch at a really cool restaurant called richtree. it was alot of fun. but it rained. so that was kind of annoying, but we still had a really good time. i have alot of pictures on the way! so check facebook. :)

update on the finger: its getting much better. the swelling is almost completely gone, and just a few aches now and then. i worry a little about the future of my finger and my upcoming piano recital, but i know God has it all under control. thanks bunches for the prayers. love you all.

end of the week.

i am so tired today. its only 8:20 and i think i'm going to hit the sack very soon. we didn't do a whole lot today, in fact our plans didn't work out the way we thought. we prayerwalked like normal, prepping ourselves for the long walk tomorrow, then we headed to plan #2.

alyssa and i looked for a neighborhood/park in west mississauga to try and start up a ministry last night. we found one that looked promising, and had planned to have a free car wash there on tuesday and put up signs today in the area. when we got off the bus, we realized there wasn't really a good place to have a car wash, the neighborhood was quite large, and apparently the only way to have car washes is if you have a cause.

so we headed home for supper, a little bummed, but looking forward to hitting up the oakville waterfront festival. we weren't exactly sure where the festival was being held, so we looked it up online, only to find out there was a $15 charge to attend.

we finished off the day with a batch of cookies, popcorn and a movie. i fell asleep several times during the movie, realizing that i'm pretty tired and probably should get to bed earlier tonight. so, that ends my day. no real exciting stories today, but i look forward to church tomorrow morning, shopping for groceries, and the 10 mile walk around UTM. :)

freezies and friends.

the day started out with a quick breakfast and freezies. so brett brought the freezies by early, before alyssa and i were awake. some of them weren't completely frozen, so we had to find the ones that were the most frozen.

handing out freezies went really well! so many people thought there was a catch to what we were doing. this one guy stood about 3 yards from us asking us what our agenda was. he refused to believe that we were just giving away something completely free. he stood there for probably a good 10-15 minutes waiting for his bus to come. we told him we weren't expecting anything in return, we just believe that Jesus loves us and we want to spread His love. the guy seemed completely confused. we told him we were from the states, and that confused him even more. he said..if i went on a trip to the states i wouldn't be passing out free freezies for fun. (you liked that alliteration i'm sure) i hope we got him thinking. and i hope to see him around some more. we didn't catch his name, but you can pray for him as the freezie boy.

after passing out freezies, we went prayerwalking once again. the song "God of this City" continually came to my mind. its such a great image of what God can do on the UTM campus: "greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city." it just excites me so much to think what God can and will do on the campus. maybe this summer or maybe for years to come. its so exciting!! :)

we headed back here after prayer walking. we bumped into tammy, the bus driver we met the first day. it was really neat seeing her again! she talked with us like we were close friends. continue to lift her up, and pray that our paths will cross more and more. she told us about a festival going on in oakville this weekend. we're gonna try to hit up some of that!

so tomorrow we plan on prayerwalking around UTM, scoping out a neighborhood to start up a ministry and the festival. not sure what order, but i'm pretty excited! the finger is continuing to get better. the swelling has gone down dramatically, and the pain is less and less. praise the Lord! :) i don't know how much longer i could have dealt with that..thank goodness for Jesus and medicine!

thanks, as always, for your prayers for me and my team. love you all!

canadian hospitals, sandwiches at 2 am, coffee shops and such..

so much has happened since i blogged yesterday! last night..i rushed to the emergency room at 11 pm. (not really an emergency..but i'm really glad i went.) like i said in my blog yesterday..my finger was swollen and in alot of pain. so leeann and her mom (some people that go to the Sanctuary) came and picked alyssa and me up from the hotel and took me to the hospital. we got there and found out since i'm not from canada my insurance has no bearing, so we had to pay $400 up front. ridiculous, i know. so anyways. we wait in the waiting room for about 2 hours before they call me back. then they call me back..and i expect to go to a room, but they actually just sit me in some chairs in the hallway. apparently, canadians don't care so much about privacy. so anyways. we sit there next to a woman whose whole arm is swelling up by the minute from a bee sting. so while we sit there, the doctor comes and examines her and they start an iv. yes, while we sat there.

finally, after another hour or so, the doctor comes to me. and lets me know that i have auto-immune inflammatory arthritis. in other words, arthritis in my index finger. she gave me some prescriptions for prednisone (not my fav..but i'll deal with it) and something called tylenol 3 (hard core tylenol with codine!) almost 24 hours later..i'm feeling 10 times better!! yay God for giving me drugs to feel better!! :) the bad thing is arthritis never really goes away..and i have a senior piano recital coming up in oct. but i guess i'll just cross that bridge when i get to it.

so we finished up at the er around 2:30 and went to a 24 hour pharmacy..which i thought was pretty awesome..i didn't even know they existed. and the pharmacist actually let me take some of the pain killers right there..he got me water. :) anyways. so alyssa and i got home around 2:45 and sat down for some sandwiches so i could take the prednisone. we finally rolled into bed around 3 am. we left a note for taylor and carson informing them i had broken my finger in 5 places and was having emergency surgery soon. we didn't think they would believe it, but they actually did!! it was so funny to see their reaction this morning. we have such a great bond within our team.

we decided to leave a little later than normal today, go to the campus, prayer walk and have our bible study. yesterday we invited several people to the bible study, but only 1 guy showed up.. he is a student at UTM, but he also attends the Sanctuary. his name is kevin. kevin isn't a christian yet, but hes SOO super close. we spent the evening with him, had a lot of deep discussions and genuinely had a good time. the team agreed that today felt like our first real day..we actually did what we came here to do.

so tomorrow, we will be going to the UTM campus to pass out freezie pops. we are praying for hot weather and lots of students!

thank you all for your prayers for my finger! i know that satan is trying his hardest to discourage us..but its really not working. :) i'm pretty excited for tomorrow, and looking forward to spending more time with kevin and hopefully some more UTM students! love y'all!

p.s.- i think all proms are over..not that i even noticed the 2 rival schools here last night because that codine really kicked in..apparently some people were arrested and 1 person got alcohol poisining. not good.

blogging early today in case i don't get on later. besides extreme pain and swelling in my finger..today was a good day. we went to the campus and prayer walked like usual..then we did our "surveys." the survey included 5 questions:

1.are you originally from canada? if not, where?
2.when do you spend the most time on campus (so we have more of an idea of when a good time to minister is)
3.do you believe in God? religion?
4.what will happen to you when you die?
5.would you be interested in attending a christian bible study?

the answers we got were veryyy honest. most people didn't really have any type of religion. out of our whole team we didn't find not one christian. that was a little discouraging. i had a few opportunities to share my faith..which was exciting. a couple girls, when asked question #4..answered "hopefully i will go to heaven." i took that as a nudge from the Lord to share why i know i AM going to heaven.

its sad to see that there are so many lost..but its exciting to think what God will do! He is all-powerful! and He is also compassionate and hears our prayers. everyday as we walk around the campus, i am reminded that God has all the control and He will do His will..which could be mind-blowing to us..or it could seem so small in our eyes. but the cool thing is..its God-sized!!

while we were prayer walking we came upon a doe. we were superrr close to it..and it walked about 40 ft. in front of us. it was amazing. the way deer run/jump always amazes me. one leap gets them so far. in alot of ways, as a believer, when i run and leap, my leap is as powerful as a deer, because of the power of Christ in me. He gives us the strenghth we need, each and every day.

so here are some names to lift up:
-continue praying for ziad, the guy we met on the bus. we contacted him and are hoping to hang out at some point.
-april, a girl i shared with today
-mohammed, a muslim i also spoke with
-alexis, another girl i shared with
-andrew, a guy alyssa talked with for about 45 minutes
-and a few others that carson and taylor spoke with

continue praying for my finger. i think i am going to the doctor for it tomorrow since the swelling and pain are getting worse. thankfully, it stopped hurting around the time of our surveys..just long enough to talk with my last person. i believe that was the Holy Spirit helping me stay focused on the mission.

tomorrow we will be passing out freezies (popsicles) and prayerwalking. we found out that everyone is having exams and next week they will all be off and the campus will be deserted. pray for more opportunities to share.

tonight's blog is going to be short because i only have one hand to type with. first of all i just want to thank you guys for ALL your prayers and support! words can't even begin to describe how much it means to me. so about the hand. some of you know that i began having problems with my finger about a month ago. it swelled up and was hurting so i went to the doctor and he said its tendinitis. it stopped hurting and went away..so i didn't worry about it. well yesterday it started bothering me again..and this morning i woke up..and i have another little sausage finger. whoo-hoo. its quite painful right now, so please be praying for that..despite how juvenile that may sound.

today was a little different. we had plans to head to the university to prayer walk and do surveys to get an idea of the "spirituality" of the campus. so after lunch..alyssa started feeling sick..so we decided to wait a little bit to see if she felt better. by the time we left..all we had time to do was go prayer walk and come back. so we didn't do the surveys or get to meet anyone really.

we went to dinner at the hudsons..which was absolutely wonderful!! and kinda hung out for a while watching youtube videos. yes..i know..very missionary-like. :) we had a good time.

tomorrow we plan on prayerwalking and doing the surveys. pray that all that works out. no new people to pray for today..but remember my poor little finger. due to the finger issue..i may not blog for a few days..we'll see how its feeling after a day of immobilization and lots of advil. :)

first official day.

officially, today was our first day. we finished orientation yesterday..and this is what we've been preparing for. we left a little after lunch for the university. we walked around the whole campus, praying, and realized that sunday is gonna be alot of walking. it took us a little under an hour to get all the way around the campus. soo..walking around 7 times is gonna be fun! i definitely felt better after today about our mission at the university. when we went on friday there weren't many students at all..the campus was pretty deserted..and we were wondering if there were going to be any open doors on campus. today..there were ALOT more students. so that was comforting and reassuring.

i met one guy from the middle east. i shared with him what i was doing while he lead me to the multi-faith room..but we didn't get long to talk. the multi-faith room is definitely dominated by the muslim faith, not surprising. muslim is definitely one of the predominating religions in this area. there also seems to be quite a bit of wiccan practices happening.

the place we are living is basically a college residence which turns into a conference center over the summer. so we never know what kind of conferences or groups may show up. the other night there was an after prom party here. alyssa was sitting in the lobby when the students all came in and overheard the directions. they directed the students (high school couples that were checking into rooms together) to smoke in their own rooms and drink responsibly. this came as quite a shock..but thats how it goes. they were sooo loud. at about 4 am they banged on every window. it was a nice welcome and greeting for us statesians. :) so there is a prom party here tonight as well..and 2 tomorrow. so the next few nights should be interesting.

i also kinda met one of the guys at the front desk. his name is tyler..and hes working here for 2 more days..so if God wants anything to happen there it will have to be quick. which i'm not worried about. He's got it all under control. so right now we have 2 front desk guys to be praying for: tyler and frankie.

our plans for tomorrow are more prayer walking and doing "surveys" on campus to get an idea of what the spiritual-"ness" of the students is like. i'm praying we meet at least 1 christian. i think we will find alot of "no religion" people, muslims and maybe even some wiccans. be praying for boldness as we will basically just be putting ourselves out there..definitely out of my comfort zone! and also be praying that some really good conversations will start and that seeds will be planted. love y'all!

Sanctuary

today was the first time going to church. i absolutely loved the service. it was great! i love worshipping in other countries! its so great to see how universal the Lord is! i also just love seeing complete genuine worship from the whole congregation. (not that we don't have that in the states..its just smaller churches with new believers come across as more sincere. does that make sense?) but God's love extends across every border. and thats just sooo exciting!

our team decided to model the story of the battle of jericho in the book of joshua on the campus of the University of Toronto in Mississauga. so for this week we plan to walk around the campus 1 time each day and then the 7th day walk around 7 times to symbolize that we have faith God will break down any spiritual walls around the campus and win the battle for us.

so brett, our supervisor and pastor at the Sanctuary, preached on that exact passage in joshua this morning!! what confirmation! just proof that God is backing us up allll the way! it was so neat to experience that.

so after church we went back to brett's house for lunch and to discuss our plans for the week. then we went grocery shopping as a team. afterwards, alyssa and i decided we wanted to head into the city for a festival that was going on. it ended up being an indian festival..and we were probably the only caucausians there..but it was still pretty awesome! on the way..we met ziad at the bus stop. we ended up talking to ziad for probably about 30 minutes or so. really be praying for ziad, because we will most likely hang out with him again..and hopefully share the gospel! he's from egypt and wants to go to college in florida. but he seemed interested in what we were doing and really wanted to hang out again. so theres tons of potential there!!

i really can't wait to see just all that God is gonna do. i know that we make plans, and have expectations..and it completely excites me to think that God's plans are FAR better and He will go above and beyond our expectations!! how COOL is that! :)

tomorrow we hit the UTM campus..and we're basically going to be prayerwalking all day. there is power in prayers..and i can't wait to experience it!!

planning day.

so today we spent a couple hours figuring out what this summer is gonna look like. everything is still really tentative because we don't really know what God's gonna do. we have yet to really meet any students at the university. but i'm really excited about what God is going to do.

our team picked our team verse: "Look around at the nations and be amazed! Watch and be astounded by what I will do! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn't believe even if someone told you about it." habakkuk 1:5. i just think its so great to realize that God is gonna do some reallllly awesome stuff..stuff we might not even believe!! how great is that? :)

so anyways. we have church tomorrow..and then we're going shopping! for groceries. :) haha. then monday starts up our real job. no more orientation! yay! short blog today. so keep my team in your prayers as we start off this new journey. love y'all.

2nd full day.

today was very similar to yesterday. we spent the first couple hours this morning finishing up the "book" part of orientation. we talked a lot about missional living the idea of planting seeds in peoples lives through every day interaction. its really an interesting concept. like..how often do we share what we are about and see what God does with that? i mean..you don't have to live on the mission field to plant a seed. i will say that it is much easier..having a purpose, as opposed to just doing it naturally..but i guess that is something that you can develop over time. one of my goals this summer is to learn how to live missionally..live life as a missionary (sharing the love of Jesus in everyday life) whethere i'm on the "mission field" or walking across campus. our visual goal for the summer is to plant 1 seed a day for everyday we are here. we actual have a vase in our room, and a bag full of sunflower seeds. for every seed we plant in someone's life, we add a sunflower seed to the jar. it is really exciting and motivating!!

we talked to several people on the bus transit today. one woman we basically talked about the whole bus system and gave her a little information on the church. a guy that was sitting across from me overheard me talking about church and moved over to talk to me. its actually really exciting to see that people eavesdrop (i know its weird) and get curious enough to start a conversation. we talked a little bit about what kind of work we were doing in canada, why we were here...and then he asked if i had a boyfriend or was looking for one. yes..i know..weird. and awkward..but God handled it for me. :) we invited him to church..and i really believe he might actually come! which is really exciting. he shared with me that he is trying to find the right religion. his name is andrew. so be praying for him as well..i'll keep you updated on whether he comes to church on sunday!

we talked to 2 other people briefly on the bus. one, a young muslim guy, we are going to try and actually go back to visit since he works at tim hortons, and pray that God would open doors there. the other was a girl, natzia, who was completely shocked that we would even want to come to canada for the summer. she was obviously unhappy in canada, and told us that she plans on moving to california to go to school for fashion. i think she may come to church also..which would be cool. :)

we finished up the day with exploration of the university of toronto in mississauga which is going to be a huge part of our mission this summer. one of our goals by the end of the summer is to have a bible study started on campus. when we went to the campus today, we realized its gonna have to totally be a God thing! which is great. i completely trust that He will do what He wants. the campus was pretty scarce. i'm sure it has to do with it being summer. it seems there is a pretty big muslim influence on campus (from what we gathered from the website), and that in the past christians have been nervous about starting anything for fear of opposition from the muslims. it seems they have a pretty big stronghold there.

we met brett, our field supervisor, for supper and had a mediterranean dinner..which was excellent! then we headed back home to rest up. my roommate and i are looking for a place where we can see moose..cause that is one of my personal goals this summer. :) so we spent some time googling moose in the toronto area. we plan on witnessing to the moose by the way!

God is gonna do an amazing work this summer..i can already feel His presence in all that we do. i can't wait to see what happens next!!

from the beginning.

wow. so much has happened in the past 2 days! well..i packed up all my bags (which probably weighed over 100 lbs all together) and got on a plane! i had the opportunity to talk with 2 people about my summer work on my way to canada which was super exciting!! God worked it out for me to sit next to a guatemalan woman from the bahamas going to toronto to visit family. it was so neat! she opened up to me about her family and life, and i had a chance to share with her about my family and what i was doing in canada for the summer. so neat how He works those things out, you know?

so i arrived in canada..got through customs with no problem and met up with leeann, a pretty cool gal from the church i'm working with this summer called The Sanctuary in mississauga, ontario. we rode to my summer home (a semi-dorm/hotel located on a college campus) to meet the rest of the team. i got all checked into the room, and we headed out to dinner.

my team is basically amazing! we instantly clicked, which was definitely an answer to prayers. there are 3 of us girls: me, taylor, and alyssa. and 1 boy: carson. we basically laughed alll through dinner and until about 1:30 am. it was great!

this morning we started orientation and are kind of getting an idea of what exactly we will be doing this summer. of course our ultimate goal is to spread the news of Christ, but mostly we just want to build relationships with the people in the area and encourage church planting. its definitely going to be a step out of my comfort zone..which will be absolutely wonderful!

we spent the afternoon exploring the city of mississauga..riding the bus and trying to figure out whats around and how to get from point a to point b. it was fun to explore and hang out! my team and i got a chance to speak with a few people..conversations which mostly started by asking questions about which bus goes where..but turned into more at times..which is sooo exciting!!

i covet your prayers! seriously. i ask that you pray for me as i step out on faith and get out of my comfort zone. i ask you to pray the same prayer for my team. and i ask you to pray for those we will encounter, that we would really be able to build relationships and minister to the lost of mississauga. pray specifically for stephanie and tammy. we met stephanie at the bus stop and invited her to church on sunday. tammy is a driver for the bus system in the town we are actually living in..so we will probably encounter her frequently! pray for their salvation. i believe God will do a work in their lives and i'm excited to be a part of the process!!

i love you all so much. and thank you for your ongoing support.