First Week Down!

Well, we finished our first official week of ministry, and though it was a little difficult and frustrating at times, God always knew when we needed encouragement, and he would put someone or something in our path to do just that! He is really working in Vancouver, and it is so obvious to our entire team. The type of ministry we are doing here is very difficult! It is a lot of trial and error, and just letting God lead us when we don't know what to do. This week we have seen God work in so many situations, and it is a sweet reminder that He will never leave our side even during the most difficult times.
We have done so much this week, a week where we didn't know if we were going to have plans from day to day, but God provided opportunities for us to share his love with the people of Vancouver. We are working on two college campuses (UBC and SFU) and it is very difficult to reach the students because they live in such a dark, lost place. Just to give you an idea, there is a huge sign up on the SFU campus that says "There is probably no God, so stop worrying and just live your life". We prayed for God to reveal to us just how dark, and lost this place is, and he is doing that more and more every day. As hard as it is to see, we needed to be broken. We need to see how desperate these people are for the gospel, so we can be more bold in reaching them. We passed out waters to the students at SFU the other day, and invited them to a Potluck/Lifegroup meeting that happens every week at the park near campus. Before we even started passing out the waters, we met a man in line at the grocery store who was a little curious as to why we were buying all of their cold water, and we started a conversation with him. We invited him to the event later that evening, and he showed up!!!! He was an old Indian man, and was very passionate about his poetry, and he brought plenty of copies along for everyone to read. We were able to build a relationship with him that evening over a game of frisbee, and he asked a lot of questions about Christianity, and the church. We hope that we can continue to build on that relationship over the next few weeks, so be praying for Shiraz!
We are also helping another church plant in the community where we are living, and we decided to buy a bunch of flowers, and pass them out to moms leaving the grocery store. We were unsure of how receptive people would be, but God provided us with so many opportunities to share with people, and many of them were men who we were not even giving the flowers too! It was a much needed encouragement for the team! We are going to continue to do things like that weekly here, and hope that more doors will be opened for us.
This coming week we are going to be busy! We are moving into our new place tomorrow, and have a three day festival at SFU that we will be a part of. We are also going to spend a lot of time at UBC this week, hopefully passing out free gifts to the students, and hopefully we will get a good response and an opportunity to build relationships with students on campus. Please be praying for this opportunities this week. These campuses are huge, and it is difficult to know the best ways to reach people, but we know that God will open up doors if we ask Him! Thanks for the support, and prayers =)