My overall feelings of the Mission Trip

Hi All..

Is nice to be home on my bed and sitting on my cough relaxing. I came back yesterday arrived on 3:45pm at Terminal 1. This trip is an experience....first of all I got sick in London. It's very tough on me physically and mentally. I was worried that I couldn't be able to do anything. I was really touched by a sister in London Sau Ting who makes congee, and boils soup for me when I was sick, and I felt so touched by my team mates who prayed for me and took care of me during then. God is amazing; he placed right people in right positions. We have nurse, we have people who are caring, and humble servant to take care of me. I'm also blessed I could have strength to be able to visit some local families, talk to some teenagers, and call group members in the Chinese fellowship. Even though they are newly / young Christians, yet their hearts for God, their dedication in him inspired me greatly! The London church does not have an actual church building, but their seeking hearts, their warmness, and their devotion in serving are what I want to take back home from this small church. A lot of those who take charge in worship, administration, AV are people in my age. They are in the range of high school to Uni. They are so willing to serve the Lord. Especially for those visa students, the fellowship brought them to Christ and for 8 months to a year they immediately start serving and devoted their time in the fellowship. A small church does not have all the resources, but the people are willing to give what they have to the Lord. Thank God for this experience and I thank Sau Ting. She is a wonderful sister in Christ... I will miss her definitely~

Day's 3 - 5 Posting for Kevin

Mission's Trip Blog

Day 3: May 17th

What am I "sinking" about?

My group woke up late and so we missed the early bus to Church for the conference. So we had McDonalds for breakfast. But McDonalds didn't have eggs, so people ended up getting "Egg McMuffins sans la ouef."

It was eye opening to hear of the ministry work in Sweden & with the Arabic. There are Chinese people in Scandinavia & there is a yearning for the youth to turn/return to God. Pastor Billy Lo is pretty much by himself in the ministry & is in need of support as well. Pastor L. Mak is reaching out to those of the Islamic faith in Britain and placing himself in a very dangerous situation for the sake of the gospels.

The summary of today's lesson from Daniel 4 was that "Witnessing is more than erecting a building, it involves changing a man's heart" which means it takes hope & patience. Daniel's witnessing to king Nebuchadnezzar took 20 years. This is not only a good reminder for me, but also for those who are missionaries in Europe right now, they may be disappointed in the lack of physical/spiritual growth of the Chinese Church, and are almost ready to quit because of it.

What I have began to notice from the conference is that 2nd generation European Chinese are different from North American Chinese, they have retained their Asian heritage & are now able to serve others through interpreting/translating; even Pastor Dick Kaan's children will end up being Quatre-Lingual (Cantonese/Mandarin/English/French). This has encouraged me to be more diligent in polishing up my Cantonese and relearn French. I see how important it is to be able to converse in the language that is most comfortable with the other person. Even Hudson Taylor learnt Chinese and dressed liked a Chinese to minister to those in China. I also have the sudden urje to learn Mandarin and hopefully I will keep to my language learning when I return to Canada.

During lunchtime, Shirley Patrick & I had the chance to talk to Pastor Dan Tjoe-a-Long's team about their Amsterdam mission's trip the previous week. They gave us good insight into the situation at the Amsterdam Church, as well advice on how to act and what to expect in our stay in Amsterdam. It was quite a relieve for me to have a conversation such as this so that I could prepare myself for the short term mission trip. One of the advices was to be in Amsterdam to observe & listen since friendships need to be built first.

On a side note, Richard kicked my hackeysack away to a neighbour's backyard.

Day 4: May 18th

Today's sermon touched base on the actions of Daniel & his friends. Being possibly the only faithful one's left, they were still strong in their belief's. The stories in the book of Daniel shows that they were often acting in a time of crisis and they had no time to plan, yet they made the right decisions each time because they had prepared spiritually.

Their exceptional faith was shown in Daniel 3:18; even if God didn't save them, they would still recognize God's sovereignty. I see that as something I have yet grasp, so the question I need to ask myself is "In my life, do I allow God to reign over all I do, or do I give up too easily before He has a chance to do anything."

The Chinese ministry in France was brought to light as well. There is a lack of pastors in these Churches. Even today, there has only been 2 French Chinese pastor who was born & raised in France. Language has always been the issue for people considering pastoring in France, & the Church has always had trouble targetting their main audience (French youths) and their parents (Chinese speaking). Usually, the chinese congregation gets most of the support from Church. Yet I see hope as people from Ottawa/Montreal are coming over for short term's missions (Elaine) and for long term missions (Pastor Dick Kaan). Prayer for unity is also needed for the Chinese Churches, their are 13 Chinese Churches in Paris, and except for one (the original one), all the others were created because of Church splits.

I see the French Churches as going through the same phase that MCAC went through in its infancy, hopefully 15 years from now, there will be a strong successful Chinese Churches in France.

Day 5: May 19th

I was impressed by Pastor Jan-Endy Johannesson. He's of Swedish descent, but speaks fluent Mandarin and he and his family are involved in the China Christian Ministries. I had the chance to talk to him afterwards, and he said it took him 3 years of training (every day) to master the language. That is quite the dedication and at 61, he is still going strong in the ministry.

Today was the last day of the conference, Pastor Chan summarized the book of Daniel by saying the ultimate theme of the book is God's sovereignty; controlling all that happens. I had known this going into the conference and knew that Daniel understood God. But the one thing that really struck me from the message was this: Daniel's ministry took place in Babylon for over 70 years. He left his home country never to return. I don't know if I would be willing to make that commitment, and it's possible that Daniel was a bachelor his entire life.

The final part of the conference saw Pastor Chan talk about the importance of finding a good spouse; finding a good wife. He shared how being in ministry, it was good to have his wife at his side to support him. The girl beside me asked me if I had someone in mind, and my answer was "I don't know", I find this topic very confusing...help me...

Because of logistical reasons, I had to leave the conference right after dinner along with the rest of the Amsterdam team. So it didn't give me time to say proper goodbyes to the people I had met. There were some people that I met just on that day and I already had to say goodbye, but I guess that's what Mission is about: leaving things/people behind to minister to others.

It would probably be a while til I would be able to sit down and fully ponder on what I've learned thru the conference, everything happened so fast, and now I'm off to Holland.

KEVIN

Final Thoughts from Pat and Elaine

Our final thoughts were recorded at Montreal Trudeau airport during our layover.

His Words:



Her Words:

Thoughts on Amsterdam

It feels like the week came by and went. I can still remember stepping off the bus and coming to the church that morning ready to play worship and beginning our mission's trip. I'm left shocked how much God's love and prayers are needed for this church. The need for a role model is huge. The people there are so awesome, and open to talk. I wish I had a bit more time to chat with them.

We had a chance to do workshop/study on worship which may have been to advance for the fellowship. The feedback from the older members was that we needed to interact more with audience. A very humbling but true assessment. More than anything else, they need someone who cares for them. Something I'm not the greatest at. Even thought I felt I did everything I could, I'm left with a rather bittersweet feeling. I'll probably get over it, but for now it feels as if I have unfinished business here.

It's amazing how quickly and glaring your weaknesses and inexperience shows up when you're put on the spot. Equally amazing is how everything has changed from this experience. It's been a wild ride that I'll never forget.

Day 2 at St Maur - is this what rejection feels like?

I understood Pastor Nguyen correctly. Today I did something that I never thought I would do: stand at the corner of the Metro and hand out Christian literature. I survived! It's not nearly as frightening as I expected.

The background:
The St Maur church is reaching out to the chinese community by inviting people to come to the church for one night to watch a chinese film made by actors/actresses who became Christians. The film has a Christian message to it.

The task:
Hand out the Chinese Christian newspaper with the film invitation to restaurants owners and Chinese students on the univeristy campus and around the metro in 28 C weather.

The audience:
Mandarin speakers, or people who can read chinese (there aren't too many cantonese speaking people)

First of all, I had to identify the asian looking people. I then had to approach them to figure out if they speak mandarin. I learned how to say "Hello, I'm giving you this newspaper for you to read" in Mandarin. I can barely speak cantonese, let alone mandarin. I felt myself hoping that the person can speak french. Second of all, I need to learn to detect if the person is Chinese. I approached a Korean by accident and a few second generation people who can't read! What I noticed is that the females tend to be more receptive, asking questions, and just being polite enough to listen. The restaurant owners recognized the pastor because I guess he comes by often to invite them to church events. The Pastor indicated to me that perseverance is key with the restaurant owners. If they get used to you coming by, and one day you stop coming by, they will start missing you.

Sure we got a few rejections of people saying that they don't want our stuff. I even found one of our newspapers in the garbage outside of the metro. However, this was surprisingly easier to do than I expected. Is this why God placed me in sales.... to train for this: approach strangers and handle rejection?

I asked the pastor if he is open to having more people come for short term missions and he said Oui! (YES!). Here are the needs:
1. He needs a few people to come for max 10 days to teach the 2nd generation how to lead worship (Only need to know how to speak french and english)
2. He needs someone to look after the 2nd generation full time - long term, for a French Service (need to know French)
3. Likes the idea of exchange of ideas, observation, and stuff so a group of maximum 7 people for a max of 10 days (kind of what I am doing right now - you learn from them, they learn from us)
4. They need mandarin speaking pastors full time, long term and a lot of the churches in Paris

At this point, St Maur church is really looking for people to disciple the second generation.

That's it for me. Tonight I'm heading out to Montparnasse with the locals.

Day 1 at St Maur Church with Pastor Nguyen - observation

Today I went to St Maur church strictly for observation. I arrived and there is a group of old people that meet to study Purpose Driven Life at 11 am. I like watching their interaction because people are speaking in french, cantonese, mandarin and cambodian and they're all joking around together.

We started off by singing two worship songs in mandarin. Then Pastor Nguyen did a lesson from PDL. Afterwards, the old people went to the sanctuary to do some exercise. Afterwards, we all proceeded to have lunch together, followed by a walk outside along the water. When they came back, it was time for tea and biscuits. Then we went back to the sanctuary to watch Showers of Blessings. We again returned for fruit snack and finally everyone went home. All in all, it lasted from 11 am until 3 pm. I love it. They interact like they are a family.

I asked the Pastor how all of this came about because I think it is a genius idea to target the seniors during the weekdays. It turns out that they have a goal to create a retirement home targeted at the chinese seniors. Unlike Toronto, there are no retirements homes strictly for the chinese community, despite the fact that there is a 500 000 chinese community in Paris. Another way that they are reaching out to the community is that they hold a chinese school on wednesdays where they teach mandarin (the kids don't have regular school on wednesdays).

For those of you who went to the conference, a few of the ladies left cambodia during the dark days and refuse to go back.

I spoke to Pastor Nguyen and he told me that the challenge that him and other Pastors face in Europe is that they experience "baptism by fire". That is, as soon as they finish seminary school, they thrown into the deep end without any internship. So basically, you finish your schooling, and then you are handed a church to pastor on your own, eventhough you have absolutely no experience in pastoring a church. It's quite daunting if your only background in working is restaurant or business.

Tomorrow, I think if I understood his French, we are going to be handing out pamphlets and literature at the university? I'm getting sick. Throat is sore, nose is runny............

Completed my assignment at 13th district church

For the past two days, I`ve been helping Pastor Ho with the church library. The background of the church is that it is located in Chinatown. Every week they receive around 80 to 110 people for their service. Languages spoken by those who attend are Mandarin and Cantonese. I learned that the challenges facing the Paris Chinese churches are the cultural differences: Although we all speak the same language, some of the chinese come from Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, China and Hong Kong. Also, there is a lack of `brothers and sisters willing to step up` within the church so the Pastor ends up doing EVERYTHING. In Pastor Ho`s case, the church library has been neglected in that the books are not in order and new books have not been properly labelled and placed onto the shelves. No one manages the church library. Finally, there are a lack of pastors for the Chinese churches. Apparently there are a lot of churches without pastors so the pastors end up preparing multiple sermons and travelling to different services. They seriously lack mandarin speaking pastors. So what you have are cantonese speaking pastors trying to preach in mandarin.

For the past two days, I would show up at the 13ieme arrondisments and rearrange the books or label the books for a few hours and then I had the rest of the day to do sightseeing. Another interesting thing is that I found out that Pastor Ho used to be a restaurant worker and then he saw the need for a Pastor and so he decided to study to become a pastor. He has now been a pastor for 5 years.

Tomorrow, I am off to helping Pastor Nguyen at St Maur church for Thursday and Friday.

I don`t want to return to normal life.