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