Vancouver Prayer Walking Mission Trip, June 12-17

Our Mission Trip ended last evening when we landed back in Dallas at 6:35 p.m. Our luggage didn't seem to want to to leave Vancouver (weather 50's, 60's & low 70's), so it came on a later flight and we didn't see it until late morning today. Other than that very small frustation, the rest of the week was pretty near perfect!

Trisha Beavers, Barbara Borth, Rubye Dacon and June Morris spent several days working with The Bridge Church in Vancouver, British Columbia. This was our sixth year to go and help Pastor Jerry Conner and his leaders prepare for their Summer "Reach for the Goal Sports Camp". We arrived Thursday evening, June 12. We stayed at Triumf House on the Campus of the University of British Columbia. It is a guesthouse that was built for visiting nuclear physicists from all over the world. Triumf is the nuclear research facility on the campus. We are certainly not nuclear physicists, but when the guesthouse has openings, they allow Vancouver visitors to stay there.

Friday morning was spent preparing packets of Sports Camp brochures and posters that we later delivered to nine local elementary schools. After completing our deliveries, we organized crafts and supplies for the church's upcoming Vacation Bible School. As we walk around the city, we always carry a supply of Pastor Jerry's "business cards" and Reach for the Goal Sports Camp brochures that we can offer to the young families we encounter (Vancouver is a beautiful city and the climate is wonderfully mild, so lots of people are out walking with their children and their animals.) We pray for divine encounters and God always provides! The encounters begin on the airplane when we leave Dallas and end on the planeride back. We even gave out a Bridge Church card and a brochure on the flight from Vancouver to Denver. God's presence and guiding spirit were all around us. Many times when we took a wrong turn, we would soon learn there was a reason God wanted us to go that way. Once our "lost" took us to the field where the Sports Camp will take place so we were able to pray there. Another time, it took us to a park filled with young mommies playing with their children where we were able to invite them to Sports Camp.

The church is in a good place right now. Lots of young couples and a few singles have joined in the last year (very international - people from Iran, Syria, China, Korea, Newfoundland, First Nations Inuit Tribe, Vancouver, the Eastern Provinces of Canada, England, and a few from the U.S. - just like it's going to be in Heaven!) The church website (bridgechurch.ca) receives more "hits" than any other church in the area - that is the way most of these young people find out about The Bridge. Because the church worship service meets in the Vancouver Museum and Planetarium which is close to the water, lots of folks are out walking on Sunday mornings. The Sunday we were there for worship, there was a beautiful kite festival going on outside the building. One young family flying kites (have only been in Vancouver for three years - from China) wandered in during our after-service luncheon and ended up staying to visit. They are planning to come to worship next week!

We had wonderful experiences with The Bridge Church members. On this mission trip, Pastor Jerry wanted us to spend more time getting to know his people. He said several of them were amazed to know that people from as far away as Texas cared about their church enough to pray for them. They couldn't understand our prayer-walking team's commitment to give a week of our time to come and pray for their city. They certainly can't understand our commitment to pray daily as individuals and to gather twice a month to pray as a group throughout the year. Three of the nights we were there, young couples invited us into their homes for dinner. On Friday night, we were invited to share a meal with four young couples and two of their children and prayed. On Sunday evening, we prayed with two of the chaplains on the University of British Columbia campus, attended their Sunday evening service and shared dinner. On Monday evening, we were invited to dinner with the young family who is heading up the Sports Camp; then on to a meeting with six of the church families who are heading up a new outreach to strengthen attendance and commitment at Sports Camp. They will be hosting 3 or 4 Children's Saturday Play Days at local parks (Our own Jim Witt sparked the idea with Jerry!). The team wanted us to pray with them and we were honored to do so. Awesome trip!