India Mission Team Arrives!

Talked briefly with Sammy and was so glad to hear that the team arrived safely back to Canada! I can't wait to hear all the stories and to hear of all that God did during their time overseas...Check out their website for more info :)

Papers...AHHH!

I have two papers that I have to complete pretty soon. One is for my Old Testament class (on prophecy...AHHH!!!) and the other one is for Systematic Theo. It's pretty challenging to write on something that seems so out of my control. Since next weekend and the weekend after that will be packed with travels (Kingston then Montreal), I won't have any time to study and finish off these papers. I hate procrastinating (even though it seems unavoidable), so I'm trying to get my head around theological concepts this weekend. I'm learning so much at Seminary. It's interesting to hear your thoughts (that you always knew in your head, but never able to fully verbalize into words) come out through the mouths of professors. It's encouraging to hear Tyndale profs speaking on evangelicalism in the biblical sense rather than rationalizing and liberalizing (if that's even a word!) the gospels. BUT, being at Seminary has also raised more questions than anything...I can't seem to think "normally" anymore. Just between this blog and me...I despise pat answers (answers that sound right, but can be completely irrevelant). Growing up in the church all my life, I realize how much fakeness and shallowness that exists within the church walls (and I'm not talking about buildings here...). Let's get down to real and dirty side of who we really are and allow Christ to transform us from the inside to the out...because let's face it, we're all filthy beings who's mercifully been saved by JC. We're not good and we'll never be good on our own. It's only by the power of God that we can ever be good. Why bother faking christianity?! Let's not make Christianity into a mere religion!

Annoying Book...

Have you ever read a book that just makes you really annoyed? Not annoyed in the bad and critical sense, but annoyed because it challenges you to change your ways and die to yourself? Jesus asked us not to attempt great things for Him, but to abide in Him. Reading Bonhoeffer's, Life Together, has made me cringe a lot...not because I disagree with his views, but because there are so many areas in my life that needs to be sanctified.

Being in the Christian bubble, I've come to a point (in my view) in my life where I feel like I'm in a good place...spiritual speaking. It's hard to consider yourself a wretched sinner when you're constantly attempting to abide in Him and serve His people...Bonhoeffer states that unless you consider yourself the worst of sinners (in comparison to others), you'll never be of genuine service to others

Thomas a Kempis states,

Never think that thou has made any progress till thou look upon thyself as inferior to all.

Ugh! So annoying...

Josh and Japan...

Josh came in to the office today carrying a box of his mom's homemade cookies! Always trying to charm the crowd...

He and I were meeting up to go over some of the Serve Asia Quickplace stuff (a great resource for our short-term workers). It's soooooo much better to work in a team and brainstorm ideas together, rather than thinking alone. As we were meeting to discuss and be productive (he has dial-up at home, which has become such a pain when working on website creation)...we got talking about Japan (as usual). You see...Josh has been given the call to head out to Japan as a long-term missionary with OMF. Although he would give anything to go right this minute, he's developing a prayer and financial support base...which has been taking more time than initially expected. It's all in God's perfect timing I guess. Many people might say, "why would you financially support someone going to Japan?!" Japan is one of the most richest countries in the world, with high-tech stuff, materialism galore, etc. It's not exactly the shabbiest place to live (though space is tight). The cost of living in Tokyo is probably more expensive than living in most places in Canada...so why even support such a person? Though the country might have great material wealth, it is spiritually one of the darkest places. A Christian friend of mine was saying that right when he got out of the Tokyo airport, he started becoming really cranky and pissed off for no apparent reason. There's much light that's needed in this deprived country...

Another interesting aspect about this whole situation is that Josh is in a wheelchair. His calling is to help disabled people in Japan to come to know JC as Saviour and Lord. Though it's really not his task of converting anyone (we know whose job that is!), our main task is to share our faith as we know and have experienced it :) Check out his website.

You can be a part of missions in a very special way by being a part of Josh's ministry :)

Pic from JGCT

It was such a challenge for me to share at the Japanese Gospel Church Youth Retreat, but it ended up being such a good time...for me! I don't know about the girls who were listening to what I had to say, but it definitely was a learning experience for me. I was encouraged by the maturity of the youth girls and God allowed me to mesh really well with them (having gone up for just that one session)...

Mr. AZ

Sara got tickets for Steph and I (it was a birthday gift) to see Jason Mraz perform at the Koolhaus. It was overall a great show, but the opening act was a bit too long. The guy (Raoul something something) was uber talented, but he just dragged on and on...by the end of it, we were just bored. Anyways, it was a great time of sister-bonding and good music. It was pretty brutal standing the whole night...the concert started at 7pm, but by the time it ended, it was already 12am!!! I was dead tired (signs of old age?), but it was definitely an experience :) One cool thing that happened was that I made a friend. During the middle of it, my feet were just getting to be painful (standing the whole time, tiptoeing up to catch a bit of the hype), so I decided to go to the back of the concert hall and sit down for the last part of it. I found a seat towards the back at the bar and a girl came and sat next to me. She looked pretty tired from all that standing too. We exchanged looks and started to talk...it was pretty interesting. She also was getting away from the crowd (leaving her 8 friends up at the front). We talked for most of the night and it was pretty cool to meet a stranger who was so friendly. The place was packed with people of all ages (mostly younger), coming to see this guy perform... Prayed a quick prayer that many there would experience God just as they were experiencing the music...