The adventure of faith continues....

In 10 days I'm go back to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania! Let the adventure begin!

Who's going?
24 students from Universities across Canada and 9 Campus for Christ staff.
What are we doing?
We're going for 6 weeks to share the gospel with the University students in Dar Es Salaam and help build up their faith and the ministry there. Part of our group will do the same in Malawi. We will also show the Jesus film in rural villages throughout Tanzania.

This is the same project I went on 2 years ago, with Campus for Christ, but this time I will help to lead our team. I'm really excited to get the opportunity to go back to Tanzania and looking forward to meeting many Tanzanian students and sharing my faith with them all day long.

I will keep you posted with our activities in Tanz and specific prayer requests.

Right now I am working on a talk about the assurance of salvation to give during orientation. I discovered last time that many Tanzanians believe that one can lose one's salvation; that they doubt their eternal security in heaven. Our job is not to tell them they are wrong, but to point out the truth through scripture and convey, through our own personal testimonies, how we have come to have assurance of salvation.

"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who begun a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:3-6

Thank you and bless you

I'm back to writing in my blog...

It took me awhile to remember my blogger password AND actually write a new post. Much has happened since my last post in March- too much to include in one little blog post. The biggest news is that I was placed to work at the University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg, as staff with Campus for Christ. It's a bit sad for me to move to the land of the prairies and leave the mountains, but also exciting as I think about the work I will be doing there and all the cool things I will get to experience. I know that God has called me to Winnipeg for a few years, and by faith I know that He will provide all the financial and prayer support I need.

I intend to use this blog site to post cool stories and happenings that I want to share with anyone and everyone who happens to read them, and also other random thoughts (I tend to have a lot of these) that you might find interesting.

stay tuned!

Scotland stories

A little update on my time in Scotland. Cool stories about how God used us to impact Edinburgh.

I went with Campus Crusade for Christ to Edinburgh, Scotland February 21 to March 4, 2007.

Who went?
Week 1: 30 students from MacMaster, York, Calgary, Ottawa, Halifax and UBC
Week 2: 8 students from Western, York, Windsor and SFU
For most it was their first evangelistic project. They were all familiar with the 4 spiritual laws booklet, had experience sharing it on their home campus’, and were passionate about telling the Edinburgh students about who Jesus is. Our intent was to call back the children of Scotland to their rich spiritual heritage. We felt fortunate to be used by God to place a few more stones across the river of faith for the non- believers.

Impact on the Agape staff members
Encouragement. We brought them a new hope at a time when they were very discouraged and doubting in their efforts on campus. They had not seen any students come to Christ and their vision that God could "turn students into believers who know God and change their world day by day" was blurred. Now this mission statement is clear to the staff and students of Agape ministries and they have a renewed desire to share their faith on campus.
Truly a blessed experience.

Meagan from the University of York
Although the spring break for the University of York did not coincide with the Scotland project, Meagan opted to miss a week of classes to join the project for week 2. Meagan’s grandmother was from Aberdeen and was in full support of this project. Grandma had been in and out of the hospital with poor health, but had strongly encouraged Meagan to go. Two days into the project, grandma went into a comma and passed away. Meagan decided to stay the remainder of the week as she felt her grandmother would have wanted her to stay. That evening she met with a girl (from India) with whom she had shared the gospel the day before. The girl had read parts of her new bible and was very familiar with the 4 laws booklet. Just before praying to receive Christ, she asked, just to clarify, "so I don’t pray to any other God’s now?" Meagan reassured her that there is only one God to whom we pray. Excited and refreshed, Meagan was also assured of her call to Scotland and her grief was postponed.

Question: Who is Jesus?
Son of God or just a prophet? Was he really God? Why did he die? We asked this question a lot. The bible clearly states that Jesus was the son of God (part of the trinity), actually was God (the great I am), fulfilled the prophesy about his life, lead a perfect life and died on the cross as payment for all of our sins. However, many of the students we spoke to either didn't believe this truth or didn't even know.

Moral Pleuralism
Many students we spoke to didn't have a strong belief in God or in religion. Just like here, in Canada. This made me realize that I don't need to travel a huge distance to have the same sort of spiritual. I did gain a lot of experience at sharing my faith and learned to ask many ‘why’ questions to get people thinking about God and what happens when they die. Because we don't preach at or force people to repent from their sins, we actually have meaningful conversations that include listening and thought provoking question asking.
Pluralism= belief in multiple beliefs/religions…. and that each religion is equal

Personal Impact
I found my niche in leading a team and discipling girls. I enjoyed helping them sharpen their skills in initiative evangelising and in their own personal walk with God. Being staff for a week was a glimpse of what life will be like for me as a full time Campus staff in September. It's not an easy job, but very fulfilling!

Some other interesting things we did Toned our legs walking everywhere- up hills and staircase; tried deep- fried mars bars (crispy, sweet, chocotaly good yum). Saw many people wearing kilts and heard random bag pipers. I introduced week one group to real ceilidh (scottish country) dancing and had a very good time! also went to John Knox’s old house, to St Gilles Cathedral, to an amazing tartan factory, the impressive royal museum (an amazing wildlife and insect collection!) and ate fish and chips!

Stats: 9 students came to Christ and 160 heard a gospel presentation.

Personal Update
I will find out in May which University (likely in western Canada) I will be placed at as a Campus for Christ staff worker. Due to a new and improved staff training curriculum, I haven't had time to start building my support team, which I intend to start towards the end of April. I need to raise my own monthly salary via the financial donation of people who are willing to support the campus ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.
If we don’t tell them the gospel, who will? Lou Leventhal once said, "You might be the only bible a person reads".

*School is almost over! Just a few more weeks and it will all be over! We’ve had an amazing semester...

C4C ministry at SFU:
- Women’s outreach focusing on body image and success. Gail and Marissa shared their struggles with these issues and, using non Christianese language, shared their testimonies. 12 non-Christians came out and 4 wanted to meet with someone for more information and to learn about how to have a personal relationship with God.
- Cynthia (the girl I led to Christ in October) is beginning to really live out her walk with God (she skipped class to go out sharing this week). She regularly attends her bible study, prayer meeting and socials.
-10 students from SFU c4c are going on a missions trip this summer (to the orient, Calgary, Halifax, Zambia, Mozambique and Turkey). They are trusting God to fiance the cost of the trip, keep them safe, and to help them lead people to Christ.

*Thank you for prayers and encouragement! *God is good!

I'm in Scotland!

Greetings from Edinburgh, the land of the kilt. Everywhere I go there are men wearing kilts. That could be because they just like wearing them, or, more likely, because they are expressing their national pride for the Rugby game this afternoon against Italy.

We're going to a ceilidh tonight! I have yet to play my fiddle somewhere authentic...

cheers,
Louise

Scotland!

I'm off to Scotland in three weeks! Not for Scottish country dancing, or fiddle playing (though I hope to get some of that in) . I'm going with Campus for Christ to the Universtiy of Edinburgh where we'll be talking to students there about God and putting on a few outreaches with their christian ministry team. I'm super excited!!!
It's called prject Prodigal Son....
Do you remember the bible story about the prodigal son? He left home with his inheritance and spent it all on the plan to live just for his own pleasures. Then the money ran out, and he was left to eat food worse than what pigs eat. There is a happy ending, as he decides to go back home- knowing he doesn't even deserve to live there- hopeing his father will forgive him. Well, not only does his father forgive him, but he runs out to meet him (something not done in that culture) and puts on a big celebration in honor of his son who returned.

This story is akin to what has happened in Scotland. Generations of God's children who have run from Him to seek satisfaction and pleasure in the world, whose physical wealth belies a deep spiritual need, a separation from their loving Father. Our vision is to help call Scotland back to the loving arms of a Father whose heart breaks over his children. My heart breaks for these people, especially when I think of their rich spiritual heritage. Pioneers like John Knox, George MacDonald, and Eric Liddell have influenced the world from this small but mighty country.
Currently, most students believe that the Church is a thing of the past, that tolerance and pluralism are the paths of the future, and that Jesus is ultimately irrelevant. We may be facing such a scenario in North America in a few generations. In a post-Christian culture, evangelism is not always easy. We will be laying the groundwork for movements of evangelism and discipleship that will transform this nation. If we don’t tell them about Jesus, who will?

Life is an adventure

"Life is an adventure" is one of Mike Woodards sayings. (Mike is our National director of campus ministries, was our director for the Tanzania project and is my new boss.) Mike spoke at our New Years eve Banquet at c4c conference in Calgary (wohoo) and shared a few personal stories from his adventurous life, as a Christian. We were then challenged to write down a step of faith- something to trust God with. I wrote to have faith that God will provide for ALL my needs- specifically finantially, emotionally and physically.
The next day, January 1st, I drove to Winnipeg, Manitoba with my U of M friends- a mere 14 hour drive. Somehow I ended up driving my turn between Regina and Winnipeg- the part with the undivided highway. I was doing fine. Passing lots of cars and big trucks with bright lights didn't bother me, and I was getting used to the roads (so different from wet and rain and mountains and lots of turns). THEN, a big semi decided not to turn for the curve in the road, but to drive into our lane. The side of the highway was completely covered in snow, but I had no choice but to swirve onto the shoulder to pass the tuck. The car started swirving and went out of control. Then, out of nowhere, I decided to pull a 180 turn, which got us back into our lane, but the opposite way, and we backed into the snow bank. Completely shoked were we. (The sleeping beuties in the back seat had woken up a few minutes earlier by Jen taking a picture of them). Before we even got out of the car, a few cars had already stopped and one guy came out with a big shovel in hand. Carmen, who owned the car, wanted to know if she should call roadstar, but the man with the big shovel calmly said, "no, we'll get you out. no problem." And they did. There was no damage done to the car, and within 5 minutes, we were back on the road. We were so thankful for friendly Manitobans- yes, good thing we had already crossed into Manitoba.
Before Carmen started driving, we prayed (and cried) and thanked God for providing men to push us out of the snow bank- about 8 cars had stopped to help us.
God totally reaffirmed to me through this incident that he is totally in control and that I can relly on him to take care of ALL my needs. It was a scary incident, but we were calm throughout the whole ordeal because we knew that God was looking after us. And you know what? if you put your total faith in Him, you too can be assured that he will take care of ALL your needs.
Peace and grace be with you all.

Jamming and after parties

I'm all for after parties and staying up late jamming. I have a reputation of being one of the last one's left playing. It's great fun! Being wakened up by the notion that I'm playing with some relly talented musicians that I rarely get to play with. Fiddlesticks and Ivory, a scottish country dance band from San Fransisco, came up to Bellingham the past two years and I think it was about 4:15 am when we decided to pack it in. And in Victoria last March, we had such a good time with Muriel and Keith. I'm hard core about staying up jamming. So why was it that 2 weeks ago I wasn't jamming the whole time at the after party? I was busy showing my Tanzania pictures and telling stories about what it was like over there to the 'non musician' types. And I was loving every minute.
I guess my priorities have changed. I'd rather talk about God related stuff with people who are willing to listen than play a bunch of tunes that I only sort of know. We still managed to be the last ones to leave the party though- I played with Barbara McOwen, who could also play all night, until Calum came up and told us to stop playing- the nerve!
Talking about Tanzania and seeing the pictures brings back so many good memories and makes me sad as I miss my Tanzania people. I miss project! I'm still having new realizations of things that I learned of project. I experienced and learned so much in a very short amount of time. It's molded me in so many (little) ways.
I don't think that I would have been able to successfully lead Cynthia to Christ or really be intentional about meeting up with her if I hadn't had 3 weeks of campus experience in Tanz. Sharing the four laws, the spirit filled life and just having spiritual converstions just comes so naturally to me now.
Can I hear a "Praise Jesus"? Amen!