HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We want to wish HAPPY NEW YEAR and GOD’S RICHEST BLESSINGS for 2012! It’s been quite a week here in much rainier Vancouver. It rained almost nonstop for about 6 or 7 days, so today’s partly cloudy skies were a welcome reprieve. With Chara’s parents visiting this week, we did a few things we wouldn’t do on normal weeks, including a trip to Whistler on Monday. I really didn’t want to pay the $106 for a lift ticket and I was also coming down with a cold, but for all who know me well . .  . yes I did get to go skiing at much cheaper Cypress Mountain once I recovered from my cold, which turned about to be a great time! Here are some pics I took at  Whistler for your enjoyment, and we look forward to hitting the ground running ministry-wise as we enter the final few weeks of training! As always, thanks for your continued prayers!!!

Merry Christmas!

Greetings, intercessors! Hopefully you are having a wonderful time this weekend worshipping our Lord Jesus Christ, the only One with the ability to cleanse sin and restore us to the Father! We have just gotten done with a full week of training and ministry here in Vancouver, learning more strategies for evangelism as well as hearing some lectures from the person widely considered to be the father of the modern church planting movement! Believe it or not this week, we have found people not wanting to talk as much as in previous weeks, but one notable encounter was with a very kind senior citizen named Laura. She comes from a Catholic background and had just experienced the tragic death of her husband and niece. She kept saying, “they are in heaven, right?” to which we responded about the glorious hope of all those who trust in Jesus. We shared the Gospel with her, but it may just take some time for it to sink in and make sense to her. Pray for the Holy Spirit to enlighten her mind and heart, as it is exactly for people such as this that Christ was born, died, and rose again! May the rest of your Christmas be blessed and we’ll continue to look for those who need to hear!

Encouraging week!

Intercessors, thank you so much for your continued prayers on our behalf. We have been hitting a little bit of a dry spell lately, attempting to turn conversations to spiritual matters but not really getting much response. Yesterday, we decided to go to Walmart after class to do some shopping, and met A, a 40 something Muslim from Africa on the bus. What an excellent conversation. We were able to share large portions of the gospel with him. He said that he believes in Jesus, but his issue is one of trust. It is important to remember that anyone can "believe" in Jesus, but unless that belief expresses itself in trust, there is no salvation. Pray for A, as we will continue to followup with him. We had the opportunity as well to go snowshoeing at Seymour Mountain this past Saturday, so here are some pictures to get you in the Christmas spirit!

I

Week 7 Recap

Greetings, all! Another great week of spiritual conversations here. As far as training, we had some very good generalized church planting training on Monday and Tuesday, followed by more training on conflicts with colleagues and supervisors on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, we went to a store called Russian World near downtown to look at Matroshka dolls and visit a lady we met at one of the craft fairs we have attended. She lived in Novosibirsk a long time ago. We continue to throw out spiritual "seeds" here and there and see how she responds, but nothing yet. David also went with a team down to Hastings Street, which is where the homeless and drug addicted hang out. He and the team engaged several people with the gospel. Here is a list of a couple of other good conversations we had:

M -- from Africa, met on sky train, was reading a religious book and is a Christian. Invited her to plug into the small group we attend.
I -- Russian World owner (see above).
A -- college student from India, we talked to her a little about Christmas, and she has just started celebrating Christmas. Is interested in possibly learning more about Christ once she is on 2 week Christmas break.

Thanks for all the prayers!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Greetings friends! We send you very rainy Thanksgiving greetings from Vancouver! Aside from some inspiring messages on church planting earlier in the week, we have been getting into the holiday spirit, venturing out yesterday and finding a small Christmas tree (pictures to come soon!)

Here are some of our encounters this week. You might want to pray that God will give us further encounters with these people and that He will work to prepare their hearts for the gospel:

C -- met on sky train, Muslim
V -- Russian, met on bus, is looking for work, gave our contact info
C -- met at food court in mall, Muslim exchange student, gave our contact info

We are so thankful for all your prayers! Hope you get plenty of turkey and time to be thankful for all God's blessings, for without Him we would have nothing ;)

Week #4 Recap

Well, it's hard to believe we have finished week # 4 and are making our way into week #5. We are continuing to try to followup with each of the people below and we have a few new people:

V -- manages Russian store, orthodox

J  -- lady from Europe, met at ESL class at library, seeking spiritual things

Our training this past week focused on how to begin and sustain a church planting movement, which seems to be very good training especially for when we arrive in Russia. Despite the relatively cold weather and driving rain, we decided to go to an ESL conversation circle on Saturday at our local library. It was a great place to make some new friends and we even got to interact with the group in some spiritual dialogue. Stay tuned for more next week!

Week #3 Recap

We had a great time of ministry this week. God has started to lead us to some people who are interested in hearing more about spiritual things. Here is a list of first initials that you can pray for:

K –  met on bus, Hindu, has read the Bible and is interested in hearing more.

S – dealing with suicide of her daughter and raising her grandson. Was not interested in talking spiritual things at the time but seems like she may be interested in further conversation.

J – young lady who works in mall, interested in further conversation.

H – comes from Catholic background, interested in further conversation.

B – met in gym, Catholic and good conversation about salvation by works versus grace, seems interested in further conversation.

We had a chance to meet with one of our new Russian friends who has been here in Vancouver a couple of years. It was great to work on the few phrases we know and hopefully we were able to help him with his English a bit.

In other news, we went to Grouse Mountain yesterday on our free day. In our attempt to save $60 ($80 total to take the gondola but we only wanted to pay $20 for the ride down) we hiked up a little less than 3,000 feet in an hour and a half.

I think we got the rest of our exercise for the year. Was it worth it? You make the call!

Week 2 Update

We have made it to the end of our 2nd week here in Canada. We have found it quite interesting getting into a schedule the past 10 days, but basically our typical day involves several hours of class time and the remainder of the day out engaging people in conversations (and always looking for opportunities to turn the conversations to spiritual topics).

Our main prayer request at this point is that God will lead us to those He has prepared to be receptive to the gospel. Right now, we are talking to quite a number of people per day, but very few have expressed an interest in hearing more about spiritual things. You can help us immensely by agreeing with us for the Holy Spirit to continue to direct us to those who are thirsting for the living water only Christ can give! 

And finally . . . our living room!

Another view of metro area from our apartment . . .

View from our apartment . . .

Greetings from slightly north of the border!

Friends, we have arrived in Canada and are doing well. We got settled in on Tuesday and took the sky train around the city. We probably walked about 6 miles as well and talked to about 20-25 people (give or take a few). We were able to share at least parts of the gospel with several people as well, so we're off to a good start! Pictures will be forthcoming, we got some good ones before the rain moved in and will post shortly!

Vancouver or bust!

Greetings friends! We are just a few days away from departing to Canada. We would have written more these past 3 weeks or so, but our lives have been a little boring. We were able to fit in some visits with parents and a few friends, but most of this past week has been spent in packing for Canada and Russia. Of course, we have had a few witnessing encounters as well, and although no decisions were made, we are thankful to God for every chance to share. Stay tuned and we will keep you posted on our first few days in Canada starting next week!

A Few Pictures of ILC

Well, we finally uploaded a few photos to our blog. Below are a few photos taken around the International Learning Center (ILC).

 We actually stayed in the African Village. There are other villages but somehow we ended up in the African Village.

 Above is a photo of our Quad. We stayed in Quad 23, and Apartment C of Quad 23.

Another picture of the Quads.

There is actually a lake on the ILC as well. If you have spare time, you can check out fishing rods. And, on one weekend, chickens were killed by the lake (a practicum for those going to places where that is necessary).

Back in Texas!

Well . . . it's been quite an interesting past week. We wrapped things up in Virginia, said goodbye to quite a few people, and flew back to Texas. Good news: We get to see our dog. Bad news: No internet or phone. I am actually writing this post at McDonald's! We'll be working on a few things during the next few weeks, not the least of which is packing for Vancouver and Novo. Be in prayer that we will use this time with wisdom and will have plenty of evangelism opportunities here in the metroplex while we are around!

Week 8 Recap

This week was quite interesting as we are beginning to wind things down here at orientation. We started the week with a seminar in “Pioneer Evangelism,” considered one of the best cpm strategies around. We also had a heavy focus on language learning. On Thursday we took a trip to Wash DC. Our team was comprised of 8 people, and we learned quickly how easy it is to get separated.  When our metro came in, Chara stepped on and then the doors closed before the other 7 of us could board. One of the ladies in our group yelled to her the stop she needed to get off at, and we were able to track her down, but the experience still makes us laugh. We did have the opportunity to share with a Palestinian couple who run a pita stand as well as a homeless man close to the National Mall and are praying for them to come to know Christ. We also went to the Russian Cultural Center and an Eastern European restaurant as well. Training ends next Wed, and we will be back in Texas next Thurs. to prepare for our next training in Vancouver. We ask for your prayers that we will finish strong and keep our focus on the Lord, even in these days of transition.