Part of the challenge Pastor Philip has laid on me back in September was to plan an outreach activity for the church to participate in every month.  It was difficult in the fall with so much going on but I led a yard team in September and a leaf-raking team at the beginning of November.  All through that time I was thinking about how great it would be to do a hot drink distribution at a soccer field once the rain and the cold set in.

I got my chance today.  It feels right now like the most successful outreach I have led so far.  First, we had a massive turnout – I had 13 people turn out at 8:30am on a Saturday.  That was tremendous.  Second, I was tipped by one of my team members about asking Starbucks for containers that we could use for drink distribution, but it turned out that they not only supplied the containers requested, but they also gave us coffee and a coffee backpack!

Two families stepped up and brewed the coffee and hot chocolate for us.   We picked up the supplies, set up a cover, and set to work!  We set up adjacent to an artificial turf field in North Delta, and the temperature was hovering around 7 or 8 degrees Celsius (40-45 Fahrenheit) with a misting rain.  Over 2 hours we served close to 160 cups of hot chocolate and coffee.  We had a lot of encouraging and positive feedback and several people stopped to ask us details on our church.

I was most blessed by the enthusiasm and the smoothness with which we operated.  They made it easy for me to feel comfortable in leadership.  What a blessing they were!

I learned a lot about what is possible when you step out in faith.  I learned that Starbucks has coffee backpacks that hardly ever get used!  We will be using them again!  I also learned that people are pretty open at such spaces when they can see we are serving them without asking anything in return.  All profitable things to know.

I think back on the Yard Teams I led in June, and how one of the last homes we approached was a couple’s home – they were renting and the landlord had just a couple days before advised them that if they didn’t immediately clean up the yard they would be evicted.

They had a lawnmower, but it was broken, and both of them were working so they had not had time to deal with the problem.

Then we showed up.

Flash forward to yesterday. I am going out by myself, to canvas about 8 square blocks of North Delta to line up some yards for my team, rained out last weekend, to serve. After getting a lot of no answers (whether they were home or not I may never know) and a few “no” answers, I was wondering if I would be able to line up enough homes for the teams. I had already caught myself trying to do this on my own strength – the first house I went up to I sounded (to my own ears) like a blithering idiot and was not at all surprised they turned me down. I then spent the next hundred feet or so walking to the next house praying about Moses. See, I remember from Phil’s Exodus series (check out gethope.ca to listen to it) that when God spoke to Moses out ofthe burning bush, he wanted Moses to go alone to Pharoah. Moses felt that he had a speech problem and couldn’t communicate effectively as God’s messenger – not realizing that when the Lord of the Universe says “do it” he is going to make sure it goes the way he wants it! When God allowed Aaron to accompany Moses, it was a concession, but God’s desire was that Moses would allow his God to be his strength.

So, my conclusion was that God wanted me to go in my own strength, and allow him to speak through me. So I prayed that God would give me the words even though I knew in my own words I would screw it up.

Of course the next house said yes.

Ok, done with that prayer digression.

Back on topic. Divine appointments. So I go up the block and go out to the main road, 112th. I find a house halfway down that looks a little shaggy so I knock. This time I have been praying. I was worried about how I would present, and how I would overcome objections – all the typical sales stuff. Then this older East Indian lady opens the door and just says yes. I am like, that was too easy.

We come back an hour later and her husband comes out, with a friend of his. His friend is a Christian, from Edmonton, who goes to a church called “New Hope Community Church” – almost the same name as ours. They tell me the story – the couple had just moved to this house a few weeks before. Their old house had a landlord who took care of the yard. They had no equipment at all, and had only been in Canada for 5 years so this whole yard thing was completely new to them. He asked me for advice on what kind of lawnmower to buy. We got to talking some more and he had been to church while in school in Bombay. He was very interested in why we were doing this. I shared with him that Jesus had done so much for me in my life, I felt it was important to show my love for him by serving and loving the people that Jesus loves. What an opportunity! They asked me for more information on where and when we met as a church and said they would be out to church on Sunday! What an amazing time!

You just gotta do it. God takes care of the rest.

We had to do a little promotion at church to get our team together. Cheryl and I built this nifty little video to run during announcements on Sunday morning. I thought you might enjoy it.

Our first day was Wednesday, and it went well. We served three houses with one team in 2.5 hours, which doesn’t sound like a lot but the people we worked for were very grateful. The first lady, her name was Fatma, and she was a Muslim woman, was extremely grateful and called the next day to thank me and the team again for our service. We may go back to visit again on Saturday to help with a bit of her backyard too.

Another young woman later that night tried to offer us money for our work. I actually half wonder if this sense of expectation of a “catch” is what held back so many people from saying yes to us. We just told her we are doing this as a service to the community, to show Christ’s love. In retrospect, I thought more about it and in the future I will offer this analogy – when someone gives you a hug, you don’t feel obligated to pay, right? Think of it as a hug for your yard.

Now, coming up on Saturday which will be our second service day, the skies are clear right now. But it is forecast to rain tomorrow. Pray that we get a window of dry weather, otherwise we could be challenged tomorrow. And also pray for our park ministries that are running this week, that we would bear fruit in our community!

On top of work, of course this is our big “Great Canadian Adventure” Week here in Surrey.  We have 46 people up from two churches – Ripon, CA and Ashland, OH.  They have been incredible servants and we’ve seen some powerful things happen as we serve alongside them.  I’ve been running the Yard Cleanup teams, and the reaction of people to completely free acts of service as big as yard cleanup has been amazing.  I myself have had 3 families tell me they will be at church on Sunday because of this – others I have talked to said there could be as many as 10-15.  Cheryl and I also had the opportunity to speak to the teams about our vision for Medicine Hat.  What a privelege!  More to come in our newsletter, which we will be emailing probably this weekend.

Anyways quick points:

• Thanks goes to Mike Silliman, fellow Grace Brethren Church Planter back east for the encouragement.  Check out his blog – he does good posts that really make you think.
• I found a neat Scripture memory application that I am going to try and talk Cheryl into letting me buy… when we have a moment to actually… you know… talk or something.  Yes, we are that busy this week!
• Just ran across a very good article (as usual) by Jonathan Dodson.  Advice for a 1st Year Planter.  I’ll be reviewing this article next year for sure.

Until next time!

We are beginning the wrap-up of our Awana year and that has been an incredible experience.  I think I can safely say that both of us have grown to love the program itself and how it teaches our kids key spiritual disciplines alongside building a foundation for their faith and heart for evangelism.  I fully expect to see great things next year with all our leaders having a year under their belts and feeling comfortable, and kids returning understanding what is being asked of them, and even more intently reaching out to their friends and neighbours.  Shane Schneider’s leadership has grown so much in the last year, and we think he and his wife Laurie will take Awana to a whole other place next year.

Last Monday I had the opportunity to meet with a young man named Seth (follow the link to his Facebook group), who has been burdened with a heart for church planting.  He is currently touring Canada, connecting with churches and organizations who are seeing God move in this fashion, and seeking where God would have him serve.  We are praying for him to find his place (although it would be REALLY cool if he found his way back to us to join our team!)

Philip has had me organizing some things related to he Great Canadian Adventure here in Surrey.  We will be having fifty people from two churches in the USA come up in two short weeks from now, for a week of service and love on our community.  I have been working on arranging a couple of Senior’s Appreciation events at nursing homes, and I will also be organizing the service teams to do yardwork in a couple of target neighbourhoods.  There is much much more in store for that week.  But this is all run-up for me, because once that is over with, I will be working on plans for the 2010 Great Canadian Adventure, to Medicine Hat!  Stay tuned for more on that, and how you can join us for a week of foundation-building in Medicine Hat!

I’ve been truly blessed with my service in our Discovery class on Sunday mornings.  I am taking a family through a study of the Gospel of John and have been so excited to watch their excitement to learn about Jesus and the Bible and what it means to follow Christ.  We had them over for a barbeque on Thursday night, and found out that she is a fantastic singer and he play guitar!  They may have thought we were joking about guitar lessons but we’re pretty serious!  Last Sunday we were talking about what baptism looks like at our church, and I told them about the baptistry at Sunshine Ridge we have used the last couple of times.  They were thinking something much more literal, and told me they wanted to be baptized in the ocean!  Given our leanings toward practicing as closely to New Testament as possible, I think they will fit right in with us!

So now you are pretty close to up-to-date.  We will have our next newsletter out in a few days so stay tuned, and please keep us in your prayers!

I recall one event we did, giving out bottled water on a fairly hot day, went over ok (though on the cooler days not so well).  One objection I actually heard several times was that people are beginning to be turned off bottled water – mainly since the popular perception is that Vancouver’s water is some of the finest in the world – superior to water filtered from the Ohio River, or whatever nameless source that Coca-Cola uses for its “Dasani”, or Pepsi and its “Aquafina” brand.  One thought that occurred to me (that we still haven’t followed up on) is ameteur soccer in Vancouver runs all the way through the winter.  Kids and their parents will be standing in grassy fields in February, with the temperature just above freezing.  I think handing out coffee or hot chocolate would be very well received in the parks, have value and demonstrate a servant heart for a community.

I think outreaches like this need to have weight – value to the recipients.

The whole week was a tremendous effort.  Everyone contributed in many ways.  I come away from this week thinking that this shouldn’t be a summer only thing.  We need to be doing this more often.  At the same time though, I realize that there was a massive drain of energy as well.  I mean, I was gone from home every evening this week.  It meant tons of things in my family’s life were put on hold to do this.  As I mentioned before, I was physically, emotionally and spiritually drained.  How do you balance this thing called the Christian life?  How do you love on people and demonstrate in real ways God’s love without burning up your candle and leaving behind ashes?  That’s some thing I will be wrestling with for a while.

Sunday will be exciting too, to see if there are fruits of our labour that walk through the doors at 10am.  If there aren’t, I won’t be disappointed though.  I know that the Spirit works at his own pace, and there will be people who were genuinely touched by us this week, but need time to reorganize their own thoughts about Christianity and what that means to them.  If you’ve lived your life believing that Christians are hypocritical jerks who judge and hate (as we are coloured too often in popular culture), but then encounter genuine love and compassion, and receive gifts with no strings, it would take time to deal with and sort out where the lies end and truth begins.  Every touch like this that happens brings the harvest closer to us.  It’s definitely fun to watch.

The numbers of people coming were much higher because a grocery store is much busier.  It was a different type of people than in front of the pet store with all these spoilt little toy dogs coming in and out.  We were also right in front of a liquor store so that was fun.  Robert was there with me and he is a machine when it comes to meeting and establishing conversations with people.  I was blown away with his gifts in that area.  He had several conversations with a couple of homeless guys and encouraged them to come out to our new street ministry starting tomorrow night.

We also had several other positive conversations.  Many more people were asking us why we were doing what we were doing.  It was great to bear witness to God’s love for everyone.  One guy promised to come this Sunday to our church.  Another lady said she was glad to know where we were so she could come and volunteer and help out.  I don’t know what that means, but if she comes to church that will be amazing.

At one point I wound up doing some runaround work, picking up more water to hand out and dropping off team members.  I was grateful for that opportunity to exercise more administrative and organizing muscles.  Despite my fatigue at the beginning of the evening, it was altogether important that I was there and working, for my own development.

Still it was a good station.  I was with Rachel, and she is a sweet girl, not afraid to speak up and offer to people.  She actually kicked me in the butt to get out there and offer, even to people who were intently ignoring us.  Hey, it’s free.  If they say no, then they say no.

Speaking of saying no, several people did.  One lady told us she doesn’t drink from anything plastic.  I think she’s a little deluded, as it is unavoidable coming into contact with food or drink that has been in contact with plastic.  I’m willing to bet she doesn’t buy the one-liter glass bottles of milk for the same price as 4 liters.  And unless she buys her meat from the farm direct, it’s wrapped in plastic at some stage.

Another guy told us he objects to bottled water as local water is great.  Rachel reminded me there was an article in the paper the other day talking about this, and how the municipalities in Southwestern BC are all working to put bottle water sales out of business.  They just started the initiative, but I think this too is shortsighted.

The reason bottled water sales took off in the last few years is twofold: first, there was a rash of water quality news stories after Walkerton, ON had a whole bunch of people come up sick from drinking local tapwater.  Even 2 years ago the local reservoirs faced extreme runoff conditions that caused the GVRD to announce a boil water advisory.  People may get all noble about not buying bottled water, but the next time there is a little silt or “smell” in the water, they’ll all be buying it again.

The second reason is because of the bad press soda pop has been getting.  Vancouverites are very health concious, and buying water instead of a Coke is much better for you.  Yes, you can get water for free from home, but when you’re out and about and want a cold drink, it’s just convenient to nip into a store and buy a bottle.  The alternative is to carry a bottle with you everywhere (made of plastic by the way – glass would break) and fill it up from the taps of whatever store.  The downside of course it the water wouldn’t be cold.

But I digress.  Working in front of a pet store meant we got to see a lot of cute dogs.  I am not a dog person – I think they all stink.  If they didn’t stink, I’d probably like dogs better than cats, but I can’t get past the smell.  However, they can be cute, and owners love their dogs getting attention.  Especially since most of the toys that came in and out of the store were groomed.  If you are a dog owner and you pay for grooming, you love the attention.  Or maybe you love the attention so you pay to get your dog groomed.  Meh.

Lots of people turned us down, but lots of people accepted.  I think that some thought we were employees.  Others thought we worked for Nestle and were giving out free samples.   Others were sure we were deceiving them by saying it was free and tried to find the “catch”.   I liked telling people, “It’s free” then when they turn it down say, “It’s going to go to waste!”  Perhaps I was having a little too much fun.

I ended up seeing one guy who came to the car was the day before.  That was neat.  It seems kind of silly to hand out free stuff, because it really doesn’t mean all that much to most of the people who receive it.  But I think it did two things that are positive – it raised awareness in our church’s existence out of the theatre (though I would estimate that only one in ten that took our water and cookies inquired of us enough to find out about the church); and it showed people that some churches really are interested in other people.  Most churches have a fortress mentality – whether they admit to it or not.  People over time become more interested in protecting their own holiness than allowing others to enter in.  When we get out on the street and just smile at people and give stuff away, it makes people think twice.  That’s what Jesus did – he gave away bread and fish to thousands.  Those people didn’t all believe in him as Lord, but it did something to some of them.  Didn’t Paul say something like, “I become all things to all men, that I may win some”?

How many free bottles of water is one person’s soul worth for the Kingdom?

After a bit, Philip needed me to go help with the signs on the street.  I was to encourage people to come in to get their cars washed.  The first couple of seconds I needed some direction, but quickly found my own way.  What really began to sink in for me as I “worked the street” was the eyes of people as they drove by.  Rarely do you get the opportunity to see into people’s lives through a 1.5 second glance.  I worked to make eye contact with people.  So many simply refused, despite my silly antics.  They just kept their hardened eyes straight ahead and refused to let the light, the fun intrude on whatever dark place their minds occupied.  Some waved.  Some said no. and kept going.  Some I think simply didn’t believe my sign that read, “FREE CAR WASH”.  Some I had to talk to as they stopped for the light.  “Really?” they would ask.  “Yeah, really!  We WANT to wash your car!  Come on in!  Have a bottle of water!” I’d reply.  Often they did.

I don’t want to make it more grim than it was.  I think most people who ignored me were simply too wrapped up in their own troubles to see what was right in front of them.  When I later switched to the other street, another detail struck me: the number of people driving by with cel phones held up to their heads.  I was shocked.  It wasn’t 1 in 5.  Not even half.  For a stretch of 5 minutes, almost every single driver passing me was talking on a cel!  I literally could not believe what I was seeing.

We as a culture are way too busy.  I mean, it’s beyond sanity now.  The people we are trying to reach with the gospel have been enslaved by urgency.  They have no time to think, let alone consider God.  I am at an utter loss as to how to break in to people past that tyranny.  Technology arises to “make our lives easier” but it doesn’t.  It makes our lives busier.  We deceive ourselves that we are being “freed” but really we are shackling ourselves with more and more chains.  First the cel phone, which was supposed to help by giving us ready access to calling people.  But now we can’t think for ourselves.  Even I am guilty of this – it’s easier to just phone my wife from the grocery store rather than think about what we need to remember to keep a list.

Then Blackberries, but now we’re not only calling people, but texting people and emailing people, and receiving email all day every day every minute.  We drive our cars because we don’t “have time” to walk anymore.  The idea of taking more than 20 minutes to get somewhere renders that somewhere unreachable without a vacation – but we can go farther now in 20 minutes than our grandparents travelled in half a day.

God needs to break in.  I don’t know what it will take – but it may be something big.  Change brings opportunity for the gospel. Change may be the only chance left to reach the largest part of North America with Jesus.  In the meantime, I think our job is to equip the saints to be ready to give an answer, when people begin to ask why this big something had to come.  And come it will.