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.

Hej from Stockholm, Sweden !

( For you non-Swedes, "Hej" is pronounced "Hey" and means "Hello" in Swedish! )

Felix & I arrived safely & soundly in Stockholm on Monday night with the rest of our team. Alas, the rain from our days in Paris followed us too! However, today it is the complete opposite - sunny, bright & breezy. Praise God for His beautiful creation!

It's completely gorgeous where we are staying. We're at a youth hostel that started in the 16th century as a farming community, turned into a Christian summer camp retreat site owned by the church and then sold to the city to become the hostel it is today. We're right next to the waterfront! It's a complete change from the hustle & bustle of the urban landscape of Paris.

We've all gotten a chance to SLEEP (as in sleeping in :D), rest, relax and be refreshed by the surrounding nature and each other's presence. We bought groceries from the nearby grocery store - the Swedish language never ceases to amuse me. Everything seems expensive because Swedish Kroner is the Canadian Dollar times SIX! Then we cooked (actually, more as in Head Chef Ray cooked) a satisfying dinner of spaghetti, soup and salad.

Please keep Felix in your prayers as he was feeling the onslaught of a nasty cold last night. Please keep me in your prayers as I found out that the Bible study I'll be co-leading is being advertised as in CANTONESE. (Eek!) Please keep the rest of our team in prayer as we keep learning about each other and about the Swedish-Chinese church here, as well as the youth ministry led by Pastor Billy Lo.

The key word of this missions trip is FLEXIBILITY.

We're going on a prayer walk today! Should be interesting. :)

Thank God for this experience

Hey~Ya, I haven't been posting in this blog and this is my very first time. Finally I get to go online, and able to update my part of the trip. It has been really blessed for me to be able to come to this mission conference. I have been meeting many devoted young people who are passionate about God. Through seeing them serve, talking to them, I really open my eyes and given me great strength to continue my path in serving Him, and giving my life to Him. I really appreciate the French church for their hospitality, their warmth, enthusiasm and they are so alive. U can see their "FIRE" burning~~~~ I also enjoy talking to other people who comes from other parts of the world, we are all so young and they are already have such a heart for the Lord. The conference was great, and Pastor Thomas Chan sermons on the book of Daniel is inspiring.

I have just arrived to London yesterday, and will be joining the local church @ Harrow "London Chinese Alliance Church" and participate in their ministry. Anyhow, I''ll tell u more next time. Here are some of our wonderful pictures in Paris.

I survived!

Today, I went to the Paris Chinese Church in Chinatown in the 13th district. I thought I was going alone but I bumped into the Swedes from the conference and they were attending as well. My first impression of the church is that it is like a typical Chinese European church - lack of space, cramped, lack of resources. We are talking maybe 5 rooms (size of an MCAC classroom and some are half that size), possibly six at the most. The sanctuary is about the same size as the MCAC fellowship hall, maybe half that size. You will see it on my youtube video.

So what was my mission project? I had to teach Sunday School in French to the kids.

Task: Teach an English kid's song, go through the "Wordless Book" (Yellow means heaven, Black means sin, Red means Jesus' death and resurection, White means purity and cleanliness, Green means new life), tell the story of Zacchaeus' encounter with Jesus, and then to a craft involving constructing caterpillar and butterfly to demonstrate the transformation that Zacchaeus goes through after he meets Jesus.

Time: 1 hr

# of students: around 20, and their parents also sat in, ranging in age from 3 to 10

I assume it went well because the kids answered my questions. They even remembered my name. I found them more well behaved than the Canadian students ... et ils sont tellement mignons. (and they are so cute!) This is a picture of them doing the craft on the benches - there is not enough room in the classroom for tables so the kids sit ont he ground and work off of their benches. I am happy to say that my french did not fail me so THANK YOU for ALL your prayers.

In the afternoon, I attended a music evangelistic event held at the church. The choir actually had quite a few pastors and pastor's wives and they were singing loudly - it was a very humbling experience as I looked around and saw that despite the lack of resources, they still manage to pull off an amazing special music evangelism event. I mean, some of the singers in the choir were classically trained, and some are normal people who sing off key.... but you could tell that they were all singing loudly for the Lord. It was beautiful.

Tomorrow is my free day and then I start working for the pastors on Tuesday.

One other thing to note is that languages are starting to get very mixed up in my head. I have to think of who I am speaking to before a word pops out of my mouth. For the Swedes, I speak to them in English, or Cantonese or some ugly hybrid of Chinglish. For the French Aunties and Uncles at the church, I use French, Cantonese, or some ugly hybrid of CantoFrench. For the 2nd generation French at the conference, I use English, French, Cantonese, Frenglish, CantoFrench, Canto-English.

May 20th 2007

Greetings friend,

This is a random compilation of the thoughts of Richard following the conclusion of the conference and the silence that precedes the storm of missions. Please forgive me for anything that may be repeated by the others, we had a lot of shared sentiments. Also forgive me for any grievous spelling/grammer errors, I have had about 3 hours of sleep.

On the Conference:

Despite my earlier skepticism, the conference was amazing. It turns out the only thing that the church here is bad at is the posting of information on their website. Everything was well organized from the motivating worship to the inspiring speaking. The worship team was very enthusiastic and the congregation could really get into the singspo. The speakers varied on topics, explaining the various mission opportunities for the 2nd generation Chinese students. Thomas Chan the main speaker kept things relevant and in context, even going as far as to saying that one of the weaknesses we face today is lack of Bible knowledge (go P. Nelly).

On Weather:

It is raining today.....and the day before...etc. so on and so forth. I'm thinking that sunny Paris was propaganda. However the weather couldn't dampen our spirits, we get more chances for fellowship.

On Friendship:

I have met many new people and heard very heart-warming stories. Many of the youth here are recent grads with ideas for a very missions-oriented future. Some of them offered new games, some various views on scripture and Christian living, but all of them offered friendship. It reminded me of the importance of fellowship with Christian brothers and sisters. Nothing seemed to emphasize this more when Kevin left with the Amsterdam team (Pat and Shirley). Despite being only away for a week, I'll still miss you. bro.

On Christian Living:

With the conclusion of the conference and the increasing anxiety as the mission start date approaches, I am striving to keep myself spiritually ready. I like to plan ahead, so this is definitely a test that God designed specifically for my growth. Even with the unknown rapidly approaching, I feel a sense of tranquility. I know God can use in London, if I let him. A theme that came up during the conference was the idea of fitting into God's plan and not forcing God to fit into our plan. The idea is a simple concept but infinitely hard to put into action. This mission trip has been a large step for me in that direction.

Praise the Lord.
-Richard

a slice of eleasa's reflections so far

^{Our successful head shot from down below!}

So salut! Eleasa ici. I haven't given any updates at all since arriving in Paris, France, and now thanks to Pastor Tim and his laptop and his purchase of WiFi access here at the ETAP hotel, I can sit down and pour out some of my thoughts & feelings.

There have been so many sights & sounds & smells that have pervaded my senses the past 6 days. I've really loved being in this city. There's the rich history, culture, architecture and life that's so evident here, with all its renowned landmarks. But there's also a world of people in this city.



The first International Missions Leadership Conference has come to an end, and it was an amazing(ly packed) 3 days. Each day started off with an early morning 45-minute bus ride to the St. Maur Chinese Alliance Church in a suburb of Paris, and was crammed with joyous worship led by a team of the local French-Chinese teens, sermons from Pastor Thomas Chan, workshops from Christian leaders in the missions field, testimonies from young Christian leaders, short random showcases of talent to glorify God (videos, solos, a music performance by the kids!) and delicious Chinese meals cooked by the faithful kitchen staff.

I truly thank God for how diverse and creative He is. Whether it's the ways in which He can touch peoples' hearts, to convict, to move or the people He has created and brought together. One of the coolest things was meeting Chinese people who speak French instead of English, besides Canto/Mandarin. There are so many children & teens & students here who are easily tri-/multi-lingual - something that is rare in Canada, at least from where I've been. At the conference, Canadians connected with Europeans from France, England, Norway and Sweden to learn and to be challenged to act upon our convictions in the field of missions. We bonded over food, over laughs, over conversation, over board/card games, and especially during the night-time excursions to several infamous Paris tourist attractions (including the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe & Champs-Elysees, Sacre-Coeur in Montmartre, Notre Dame & the Louvre.)


^{With new friends Esther & Alison}
It was amazing to learn that the steering committee of this conference was completely composed of French students & young adults, led by Pastor Dick Kaan. Their obvious passion and devotion to God shined through in the organization of such a conference as this, with over 140 people. It's significant when you realize that 300 is the size of the largest Chinese-Christian congregation in Paris. And to think that there are 1 million Chinese in France! One of the coolest things was worshipping in music with them, because their worship team displayed such an abudance of joy that obviously had sprung from within, from a neverending Source. All the Canadians agreed that the worship team was so upbeat & energetic - and none of it was forced.

One of the greatest privileges at the conference has been learning from Pastor Thomas Chan (from Montreal CAC). He is a great teacher and preaches with authority. During the conference, he preached 6 sermons on the life & book of Daniel.

Out of all the things I was convicted of from his sermons, was one lesson of the perspective of missions as a PROCESS, reaching on both a group basis & an individual basis. Oftentimes, we think of short-term missions as an opportunity to make a huge impact on the people/church there right away. But what is more important are the relationships that we build with the people or church there, to begin a discipling partnership, that we may build each other up with lasting effect. To not only give of ourselves, but to learn. Not to only be doing, but to be receiving as well. As for the change of an individual person's heart, only God has the power to do that. We trust Him

Missions is also WITHOUT BORDERS. During this conference, Chinese people came from France, England, Norway, Sweden, French Guyana, Suriname, Canada and even the U.S. My language prowess was tested as I spoke much more Cantonese than I had ever spoken at one time before, since most of the European students speak Cantonese more fluently than English. We learned from a Chinese professor who speaks Arabic, an Englishman who is completely bilingual & speaks fluent French, and a Swedish missionary who speaks Mandarin. Here, people are pastors' kids, missionaries' kids, non-Christian family kids, students, teachers, working people. This conference wasn't a world unto itself.

Finally, a last big lesson for me was more like a challenge. Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego say something profound in response to the command to bow down to the gold image of King Nebuchadnezzar.

"O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." (Daniel 3:16-18)

Will I still be able to put complete trust in God's sovereignty and His timing and plan for my life, even when He says "no" or "not this, not now" to my personal prayer requests? Can He depend on me to be a woman of integrity, to remain rooted in His Word, to submit to Him and obey His commands, even upon rejection for what I had thought was God's plan for me?

That remains in my heart to be pondered upon for now.



I can say so much more about the individual people I've met here & how I've been blessed by them, but I think those things are better left asked of me personally, face-to-face. And of course, a lot of things happened OUTSIDE the conference, which can ALSO be spoken of beyond this blog. :)

Felix & I leave for Stockholm, Sweden for our missions trip tomorrow at 6-ish pm. Please keep us & the rest of the MCAC-ers in Europe in your prayers.

Bonne nuit!

Mission's Trip BlogDay 1: May 14, (Mostly just on the travel experience into Paris)

My first trip out of North America in over 11 years, I was very excited to be on an airplane once again. But not before going throughsome difficulties; going through metal detector 3 times because Iforgot to take off my belt.I packed very light for this trip, (1 school bagpack + 1 slingbag). People questioned my decision to bring so little, but the way I sawthings was that this was going to be a missions trip, so I did notneed to be in my comfort zone; only bringing what was necessary (mypocket pc for ex to write this post :) Before boarding the plane (after finally passing through theaforementioned metal detector), I received great news that I wasaccepted to a job position at the taxation branch for the provincialgovernment. Finding a summer job was initially the biggest obstacle for me deciding to come to Europe, so I thank God for answering myprayer and being so faithful and provident.The plane trip was very enjoyable, I didn't nap on Air France becausethe entertainment system was so good. The 4 of us watched movies & played "Who Wants to be a Millionaire". But this also meant I wasgoing into Europe w/o sleep from the previous night.After arriving at the airport, we were picked up & driven to thehotel. Car's in Europe are very different (very small & compact) and the traffic was very dangerous (motorcycles driving inbetween lanes).But we did arrve safely to our Hotel & proceeded to unpack.We spent the rest of the day getting our bus passes and travelled to"the island", Chinatown & Notre Dame Cathedral. The group consisted of the 4 of us from MCAC Pastor Tim Wai and his wife Christina, PastorJones from Jubilee AC with Esther & Allison. It was an interestingexperience riding the confusing yet comprehensive Metro system.The youth & adults of the St. Maur's CAC was very welcoming &hospitable helping transition into Paris less difficult for us.Everything so far had gone smoothly and Eleasa's mischlefs made forsome good laughs (I'm sure she would write about it).I also got along well my roommate for the conference. His name isMoise Che from French Guyana who is studying @ Dalhousie.During prayer time at night, God spoke to me & made me aware of this: Just as the book of Daniel was about God being in control despite thecircumstances, so now I am in that situation in Paris & laterAmsterdam where I don- know what to do but God is still in control ofeverything. Day 2: May 15,The conference was not to start until 5pm on this Wednesday, so it wasmostly another day of touring Europe with the group. I had agood/uniterrupted night's rest after pulling an all-nighter the previous day, so the tour of Paris by bus was enjoyable.Because of a National holiday the next day, bus services wereinterrupted as the police force (along w/ their horses) practice theirparade route. Hence, we arrived half an hour late; missing registration and late for opening ceremonies...but made for some goodtimes travelling.The St. Maur's CAC is smaller than MCAC, but it was homelynevertheless & it was awesome to see all the people there serving in all different aspects & seeing the 2nd generation French speakingChinese Christians & their enthusiasm for God & excited about theconference.The conference had people from all over. I had the chance to talk to people from other parts of Canada as well as a group of people fromNorway & Sweden (who had brought along a Norwegian trovel edition ofSettlers!). It was a good opportunity for me to step out of mycomfort zone & talk/fellowship with new ppl. After the Opening Ceremony where Pastor Tim Chan had given an introduction to the bookof Daniel (timeline of the book: 1234 875 96 101112).At certain points during the day I was untalkative which led to somelonely times, this showed me that I still had a lot to work on in terms of just relating & socializing with others in general. Thisrelates back to king Nebuchadnezzor & how even though he had acceptedGod above was truly God he still ended up having pride issues which hindered his relationship with God. By this. I mean thatNebuchadnezzar's pride issue was not settled with over night...and myquiet/shy nature will not change overnight either but I must continueto keep working at it & not be disappointed. Unfortunately, fellowship back at the hotel was cut short due to afirealarm which sent us all outside for a while.Before going to sleep, I finally had the chance to meet up w/ Pat &Shirley to talk & pray about thq upcoming Amsterdam mission's trip. It was our first meeting together, but this was a good start to ourpreparing for it.

-Kevin

May 18th - losing track of days

Picture taken in front of Sacre Coeur Basilica - we went in during the service and it was beautiful. Sometimes, I wonder if our protestant churcbes are not acknowledging God's holiness and reverence as much as the catholic churches.

Yesterday the message that really touched me was based on Daniel's friends refusing to bow to Nebuchadnezzar's idol and they basically said "our God is able to help us but even if he does not, we still will not bow to the idol". The speaker emphasized that God is not accountable to us and that the "victory" occurred not when the guys came out of the furnace alive, but the victory occurred when they refused to bow down to the idol.

Yesterday there was a talk on postmodern, modern, state and religion and although I must confess I kind of "fell asleep with my eyes open", I was speaking to one of my new French Christian friends and she was amazed by how popular Chinese Christian Fellowships are in Toronto, especially since they occur in the universities. Also, they made a point that it's easier to invite a French person to Sunday service instead of to a private home fellowship thing. I think I find the opposite true in Canada....at least from my experience.

May 16th and 17th recap

Lack of Internet because it is too expensive. Using it at the church. Very cool meeting Chinese Christians from around the world. My roomate is from Nunavut. What? There are people there? I've been a lot of the French locals as well and doing the cheek to cheek (faux kiss) greeting. It is counter-intuitive for the reserved Chinese Canadians. A lot of nervous laughter. Richard is fine with it.

So far, we've been learning about Daniel's quiet witness to Nebuchanezzar. It took at least twenty years for N. to recognize God's power. This spoke to me because a lot of time, I give up on witnessing to particular person after a short time like 6 months. I hate the attention span of a fruit fly

As I write this, the french locals are practicing for worship. Worshipping with people from around the world is awesome. We've been singing french worship songs, worship songs translated into french, swedish song, chinese song. It's awesome to see us all praise the same God in the same language.

Crowding onto the local bus is quite funny but I feel sorry for the local townspeople. They must think that all of China has moved onto Bus 111.

I've had the opportunity to share with my roommate and to pray with her. It's amazing to meet someone who chose to give up everything to become a tentmaker in Nunavut. Also met someone who gave up a $150,000 job offer to go into seminary. Some people would call them crazy but they are simply following God's calling.

My french..what can I say? It's quite funny. I met someone who jsut took the fireman's test and I couldn't remember the word for fireman (pompier) so I called him a "combatteur de feu". I also couldn't remember the word for glasses (lunettes) so I said "fenetres pour les yeux".

Prayer requests? language as always.....and to be an effective witness to the kids.

Prayer Luncheon pictures - Sun. May 6, 2007

Thanks to Auntie Kitty for taking these pics!









Group pictures!

L to R: Shirley, Elder Tomy Leung, Rebecca, Pastor Nelson, Richard, Kevin, Pat, Elaine, Pastor Simon, Eleasa, Felix

This is only the start of great things to come...!

Welcome to the blogging home of MCAC's short-term missions team to Europe! This is the place where you can keep up-to-date on the latest stories, sights, lessons, challenges, and tidbits that each of the 8 of us will be experiencing during the trip.

All of us will be first attending a training conference between May 16-19 entitled "Do You Speak Babylonian?" in Paris, France, with Pastor Thomas Chan as the primary speaker. We will be studying the book & life of Daniel.

Afterwards, we will be splitting into 4 teams to minister to 4 different European cities' Chinese Alliance churches as a part of the post-conference missions trip, for about a week.

Elaine - Paris, France
Rebecca & Richard - London, England
Shirley, Kevin & Pat - Amsterdam, Holland
Felix & Eleasa - Stockholm, Sweden

So I guess some of us might start sharing a bit about ourselves & what happened that led up to saying "yes" to God's calling for this missions trip. OR we could share any specific prayer requests/follow-ups to the requests made at the Sunday luncheon/meeting.

And we'll for sure try to be updating during the trip itself. With photos too possibly? Depending on how much computer/internet/uploading access we get while we're over there. :)

With anticipation & expectancy in Christ,
eleasa

Hello!

Welcome! Props to Eleasa for setting up the Board.