Hey Everyone!
What a weekend! This past weekend the students kicked off
their “Missions Month” with a special visit to Vancouver and Missionsfest. We
arrived in Vancouver on Thursday afternoon and decided to spend some time doing
something that every tourist must do in while they are in the city – bike
around Stanley Park. We all rented tandem bikes and spent some time pedaling
our way around the park and the seawall. We had so much fun with the mix of
sight-seeing and adventure. It was a great time of spending quality time
together and a few even decided to get into the Pacific Ocean! (It’s warm
enough here to still do that!) We then loaded up our vans and went to our
accommodations for the weekend – Ruth Morton Baptist Church. We really enjoyed
our time there, it was a lot of fun to play games together and spend some times
in small groups.
The next day brought even more events and we started our day
at the World famous Granville Island. It was a lot of fun to walk amongst the
market and different stores there. It really is an amazing gem of a place in
Vancouver and you can even see it in many Hollywood movies. The different areas
there really were enjoyable, from the giant toy store to the fresh market, and from
the professional glass blowers to the world music store, all the students found
something to keep them entertained during our time there.
From there we went to Missionsfest in Vancouver.
Missionsfest is an amazing missions conference that started in Vancouver 30
years ago. They really seek to bring incredible speakers in to encourage
missions work. Camp Qwanoes has had a booth there for a number of years, so it
was only natural to bring the students to experience something that we find so
rewarding here. There are a number of big-name speakers that speak in the main
sessions, and there are also seminars that they can attend that are more specialized
to what people may enjoy on a more personal level. Our first main session
together brought us to see Luis Palau speak, and we were all deeply encouraged
by his message.
We spent all day Saturday at the conference as well It was
incredible to meet so many other believers there and see the booths of all of
the organizations that attended. It really made it feel like God was doing
amazing stuff around the world and we were so lucky to be a part of it. We also
had a special stop on Saturday. There were no showers in the church, so we went
to a local pool to get a little cleaner. While the sessions were phenomenal, we
were so happy to spend some time in a shower and pool as well
On Sunday, we were able to bless the church we stayed at and
help with both the children’s/youth programs and the main service. It was great
to see the students leading worship and playing games with those in the church.
This week we have been blessed to have Tim Stabell come out
from Briercrest to teach our Missions class for the week. I know the students
have really been challenged to understand the purpose of missions and what that
should mean to them as they work through the Great Commission. We also had a
special event last night that I will profile next week!
We are so grateful to be in this time of missions focus, and
we ask that you please continue to pray for us as we are getting much closer to
leaving for our missions trips!
Thanks for all your support!
Derek
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