Life Change

A family started coming to the Centre a few months ago, refugees from an embattled ethnic minority. When they came to Canada, someone connected them with the Centre and with a fellowship made up of people from a non-Christian background. Eventually they began to open up as they saw so many Christians from different backgrounds and countries all loving each other. The husband told us that, when he was young, he always wanted to talk with the Christians in his area, but they wouldn't have anything to do with him and told him to stay with his own people. He wouldn't have accepted a Bible from them at that point even if they had offered. 

When he came to Canada, He saw the love of the Christians he met, for him and for one another, accepted a Bible, and accepted Christ. His wife had had a vision as they were in the airport on the way to Canada, and when someone gave her a Jesus film, she realized who she had seen in the vision. She also accepted Christ. We have watched them change in this time. Their faces changed. They live with a new hope. Not only that, but the husband has become an incredibly faithful volunteer, and has reached out to people from other countries and backgrounds, even setting up a contact for me to talk to. They have practically nothing, but they never complain and are always gracious, grateful, kind, and generous. Being around them is a privilege.

Praises

• Praise God for moving in the Centre and reaching people through the community of His people.
• God provided a week or so ago, and we have rent already for next month, which is a huge blessing.
• Praise God for the way He works in the world. He always works on multiple fronts at once.

Prayer Requests

• Pray for God's protection on the Centre. When He works in a place, opposition typically rises. Pray that we would be wise in our communication with visitors and have discernment to see who God is working in.
• Pray for open hearts to receive the good news.
• Pray for continued provision, not only of funds, but of volunteers and teachers. Pray in particular for someone who could teach a basic computing class.
• Pray for provision for our director and his family so they can devote more time to being in the Centre.
• Pray that God would let me see where He's working and lead me to people who are ready to hear. Pray that I'd have great freedom and a natural witness.

Thank you for your prayers!

-Jennifer

God laughs...

Sometimes at me. Oh, I know my Heavenly Father loves me; He just doesn't always take me as seriously as I do.

Case in point: today I went to the Centre for a bit, just to drop off some salad stuff for tomorrow, and then I got sucked in to the whirlpool of activity in anticipation of our fundraiser. It was a good thing, though; there's a lady whose computer I periodically fix (I am not remotely qualified), and she had come yesterday looking for me, when I wasn't there. Today she started asking me when she could bring her computer for me to look at it, and I told her, no problem, I can go home with you and look at it. She was delighted. I also was delighted; the last time I went home with her, she ended up giving me delicious dinner. So off we went. On the way she began to tell me, with deep and abiding excitement, about molokhiyya, a very famous Egyptian dish, particularly popular in Cairo. She had made some last night, and it was very delicious, and she would feed me that. I was, of course, only too happy to oblige.

We arrived at her house, and I set to messing with her computer while she busied herself in the kitchen. After half an hour or so of sheer frustration, she said I should just come eat dinner. I walked into the dining room, and... there was the molokhiyya. Molokhiyya, I have learned, is whole kidneys boiled in crushed grape leaves, garlic, and a respectable amount of salt. I gulped and thought, She's going to give me as much meat as possible to honor me. Well, thank You, Jesus. I could feel Him laughing.

I know what you might be thinking: Jennifer, you're an MK. You've eaten weird things! Or: Missionaries have to eat a lot crazier things in other parts of the world, you huge whiner. I know, I know. But homegirl didn't grow up eating organs. And homegirl took two years of biology in high school. I know what kidneys do.* So I asked God's blessing and help and grace to eat, and sat down to my full bowl. It was everything I could have imagined. I am now immensely grateful for bread and cheese and strongly flavored pickles. My friend did give me a kidney and some change, and she offered seconds. God has a sense of humor.

What tonight bought, though, was an opportunity. I got to serve my friend in the name of Jesus, and I got to spend time with her. God let me pray with her and share with her from the Bible. Her brother is in Libya with his wife and five small children, and they are running out of food, and he is afraid to go into the streets because of the violence. This morning I read Luke 12, in which Jesus talks about how we are worth more to God than many sparrows, how He will feed us. I got to pray with my friend for her brother, and I was able to open biblegateway.com and share the passage with her in Arabic.

The Lord is good. He works in ways that are sometimes exceeding mysterious, but He is good.

Praises

• Praise God for this opportunity to share with my friend.
• God gave me a good day today and blessed me with encouragement.
• I had a really neat time in Ottawa learning about how to pray for Canada and hearing from God in interesting ways.
  

Prayer Requests

• Please pray for my friend and her brother's family. Pray for the Middle East during this turbulent time. Pray for the rise of rulers who will rule with justice and righteousness.
• My landlord is putting the house up for sale. Please pray for wisdom for me in how to respond to that--do I stay? Move with her? Move somewhere else? Will it even sell?
• Please pray for God's provision for the Friendship Centre. We are under some pressure right now. We are holding a fundraising dinner tomorrow. Please pray that God will move in the hearts of people to give to the Centre, and pray that He will raise up provision in places we don't even expect, just to show His power. Pray that He will protect His reputation in front of the people who have seen the Centre operate.

Thank you so much for praying!
-Jennifer

P.S. Ottawa post forthcoming; I haven't been able to collect my thoughts well for it yet.


*Kidneys make pee. Just in case you didn't know. If you haven't eaten part of a ureter, your life is incomplete.

Let me tell you about Deb...

Vancouver hosts some really interesting individuals. The average day in the Friendship Centre bears witness to this. Inside, we have some of the loveliest people in the world; outside, some of the strangest. One of the sights I have been most curious about occurs on Wednesdays. If I am vigilant, at some point in the day, I may see a slight woman walk toward the SkyTrain station with a longsword strapped to her back. It's the sort of little thing I live for. This is really interesting, because people in BC tend to frown on the idea of owning guns, so a lady with a three-foot-long edged weapon is, well, ironic? Confusing? Counterintuitive?

I've been planning to talk to her for some time, because, hello, sword. Sword = awesome. You can imagine my sheer delight, then, when I noticed her standing at Waterfront Station tonight with a rapier on her back (two swords! Twice as awesome!). She was very friendly. She's been learning the sword for over two years now, and she owns two longswords, a side sword, and a very nice rapier. She's working on her blue ribbon and will test to qualify next month. By day she works with alzheimer's patients; by night, she duels. Her name is Deb.

Why am I telling you this, you ask? Well, as we got on the SkyTrain tonight to head home, three ladies were sitting in the adjacent seats, and one muttered to the others, "This is going to be interesting..." and glanced meaningfully, pointedly at Deb, as if the mere presence of the sword certified her as a nutcase and probable nuisance. I'll be straight up with you; it made me very angry. My suspicion is that Deb's life and friends are probably significantly, qualitatively more interesting than that lady's life and friends. Deb minds her own business, and I didn't hear her denigrate anyone over the course of our forty-five minute conversation. Deb was perfectly pleasant, sincere, kind, and interesting--and yet, in that lady's eyes, she was weighed, numbered, and found wanting, just because of the sword.

I have two thoughts: the nature of my own judging heart, and the problem of responding to human judgment. I definitely judge people. I often actively try not to, but that doesn't mean I succeed. A lot of the time, I don't really know what to do with people, and I let the fact that I am uncomfortable stand as an excuse not to engage them. It's not good, and it's not Christlike. I need grace as I travel around this crazy, diverse city. I need grace and love to reach out to people who are not like me in many ways. I need grace.

My second thought is probably going to be a little meandering (it's after midnight). The lady on the SkyTrain judged Deb and found her wanting just because she was carrying a sword. Something that wasn't even a part of her served to define her in the other woman's eyes within seconds. The lady knows nothing about her. Nothing. This hits me pretty hard, because the Lord's been doing some stuff lately in surfacing areas where I've let the judgment of others dictate who I think I am or should be. If you've had a few significant conversations with me, you've probably heard me mention the movie Mean Girls. It's probably my favorite source of illustrations, second to the Bible. If that doesn't make sense, I probably can't explain it to you; you just had to be there. I'm not exactly sure how Tina Fey got hold of so many details out of my life for her movie, but, when I saw it in the theater with my mom, there were times when I cried while everyone else laughed (though I laughed louder than the rest of the theater when Regina George got hit by that bus). It just resonated so much with me--the cruelty of one's peers. I was weighed, measured, and found wanting many times in middle school and high school, in school and in church. People saw me, made snap judgments, started rumors, and made catty little comments (and some not so catty or little, but shouted from cars as I rollerbladed in my neighborhood). I felt hounded. Worse, I wondered if those things were true, and I weighed and found myself wanting too. Here's the deal: it's like the Bible says--man looks at the outside, but God looks at the heart. I was basing my view of myself on the opinions of people who were absolutely ignorant and unqualified to have opinions in the first place. Think about that. It's like making assumptions about gravity based on the scribblings of a two-year-old. It doesn't make sense in any other arena of life. It's like evaluating the relative dollar worth of something based on whether the dog will pee on it. I mean, really? I've spent years of my life valuing myself based on the casual words of callous and cruel teenagers who have no right or authority to make significant pronouncements about anyone's relative worth, and I am just starting to see the absurdity of that. Only God knows who I really am; may I listen ever harder to His voice. May His opinion reign in me. And in you, too. You are precious, valuable, accepted in the beloved, forgiven, justified, complete in Christ, the apple of His eye. One day you and I will shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father.

Praises

• I'm going to be able to take a trip to Ottawa in February for a prayer conference. The Lord opened the door for this trip up so clearly and beautifully and provided for it. I am terribly excited.
• I have already gotten to witness to several people in my first two weeks back. I have had a couple of situations in which the Lord has given me a lot of freedom to speak out.
• I was very sad in the days leading up to coming back to Canada, but the day I left, the Lord gave me such incredible peace, and as the plane approached the city, He gave me such a yearning toward this place. It is good to be back. I miss my Memphis people, but it is good and right for me to be here now.
  

Prayer requests

• Please continue to pray for my landlord. Pray for wisdom for me to witness to her, and pray that she would hear with understanding, accept, and obey. Pray that she would be like the good soil in Matthew 13.
• Please continue to pray for divine appointments. Pray for boldness for me to step out and speak the truth. Pray that the Lord will help me to speak the truth uncompromisingly, and that His love will shine out even as I do.
• Please pray for opportunities to start ladies' Bible studies. I am not naturally skilled at gathering people. Pray for the faith just to try it.
  

You who are still reading, thank you very much for sitting through this. I covet your prayers.
-Jennifer

Welcome to Canada, it's the maple leaf state...

Hey there,
I'm actually in Canada now, after several months of waiting. I arrived Monday and was granted a six-month work permit. The past few days have mostly been about getting my bearings. Things are complicated here, but I have had a neat time meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends. Part of me still can't quite believe I'll be here for two years. Just to keep this on the brief-ish side, I'll give you one neat thing that's happened:

Tuesday night I ended up at my Iranian friends' house for dinner. We had another guest who was there to get advice about the hairdressing industry in Vancouver. This lady is from Sri Lanka. She grew up Buddhist. Her family has actually dedicated people out of each generation to serve the idols, and she grew up serving many, many idols. Eighteen years ago, she was teaching in a hospital in Egypt, and she was surrounded by Muslims and all of the trappings of Islam, and as she was there, one day she had a dream of Jesus. She ended up turning her life over to Him, and now she is a sold-out believer who wants to go back to her own people once she has earned the money to print Bibles in their language. We were utterly amazed at her story; God has no boundaries. He reached an animistic Buddhist in the middle of a Muslim country, just because He wanted her in His family.

I am really excited to be here in this time. I'm excited to be around multicultural Christians in a deeply multicultural society. God has blessed me with this opportunity.

Praises:

• In the past few weeks two people have come to Christ out of connections with Christians leading conversational English classes
• I have successfully acquired a bank account and a Social Insurance Number
• Many vibrant ministries are working in Vancouver to reach multiple sections of society, and many of them are connecting with one another

Prayer requests:

• I need to get an apartment--the sooner, the better
• I need to get my bearings on how to get around the city without getting totally lost
• Boldness to share the gospel
• SBs have over 1000 volunteers coming in the next two weeks to help with the Olympics. This is taking quite a toll on the team who are coordinating them; pray for wisdom, patience, energy, and comfort for these team members
• Pray that we as believers look to see where God is working and get in on that, rather than trying to do things our own way
• I need to find out where I fit in all of this; I need wisdom to know where God wants me
  

I love you guys, and I miss you--my friends, my chilluns, and my family. Please let me know how you're doing.
-jmay