Elevator Conversations

"We moved here because in our country, people hate us because of our skin color. They are racist. They do not like us because we are dark, like you", The woman explained in broken English. As the elevator reached the ground floor, she looked at Varun and noted, "You are from India, right? Today is Shah Rukh Khan's* birthday. Have a nice day!"

This conversation is just one of many we've had in the past two weeks as we've been intentionally chatting with our neighbors in the long elevator ride down from the 18th floor. We hope to meet this family, who is of the Roma people of the Czech Republic, soon.

As I mentioned back in August, God has been challenging us in many ways. One decision that we've made is to move into a downtown neighborhood that has many immigrants, refugees and a lot of poverty. Our desire is to love our neighbors in word and deed, and to share our hope in Jesus with them.

I'm sure that as we struggle with this and attempt to follow God, we will need lots of prayer and have many stories to share!

*Shah Rukh Khan is one of our favorite Indian, bollywood actors!

Water and Sun

This morning, as I read my Bible, I felt the truth and goodness of God's word just washing over me. I am reading through Proverbs and am astounded at the wisdom of the verses. I realized that for the past week, not reading my Bible hasn't just been a lack of discipline, it's been a spiritual starvation period.

I remember days where I carried my Bible in my school bag, bringing it out to read in free moments. I remember having verses on the tip of my tongue while talking to friends because God's word was so present in my heart and life.

This morning, that love and desire resurfaced.

I glanced out to my porch, where a potted plant is struggling to survive. Despite getting fresh air and plenty of sunshine, the leaves are wilted and withering. I haven't watered it in a week as I was out of town. I wondered how much my own heart is like that: thirsty and struggling.

Although outwardly my lack of time in God's word was only this past week, I know that inwardly I have been struggling to read the Bible. I have been praying for an increased desire and this morning I felt the first stirrings of a renewed yearning for God to speak to me through His word.

YAY!

Life These Days...

Recently, God has been challenging Varun and I with many new ideas, people and desires. Suddenly, we are questions the assumptions we've long held about our lifestyle and goals. There is still a lot that we're praying through and a lot that God has to reveal to us, but God is stirring in our hearts and inviting us to make many choices.

I look forward to sharing with you in the future how we are being led and what changes we'll be making in our life.

Otherwise, it has been a perfectly normal and happy summer. Our trip to India to visit Varun's family was joyful and relaxing, filled with answered prayers and lots of interesting and sometimes awkward cultural mishaps. We have enjoyed the sun, spent time with friends and have been able to see both of our families. This is more than we deserve and we are incredibly grateful.

Why?

"Why did you move to Ontario, anyway?", A friend asked me yesterday.

So many answers flooded into my mind. Varun got a job here. It's closer to my parents and Varun's sister. The west coast was too rainy. God called us here. We missed good pizza and bagels.

On July 23, when Varun got his job in Ontario, we were moving because that's where he found employment. And yet, even then, before we knew where we would live, what I would do or who are friends would be, we sensed God's hand moving. In fact, the week before Varun got a job we both began to have a sense of peace, and a surety that things were soon to change.

And change they did.

In Ontario, we have tons of friends from South Asia. We prayed before we moved that God would give us the opportunity to share our faith and discern if He's calling us to India. Since moving here, we have met more and more Indians and have had really exciting opportunities with them.

Why did God bring us here? I'm still not totally sure, and I imagine that over the next years the answer will become more and more clear. I do know that God DID lead us here, and prepared friendships, opportunities to share our faith and many joys for us to experience in Ontario.

Please pray for boldness and discernment!

Give Us This Day

Last night, as I thought about the week that stretched before me, I wanted to hide. Another week without a job. Another week alone for most of my waking hours. I hugged tight to Varun and went to sleep.

Doing my quiet time this morning, I was struck by the phrase, "Give us this day our daily bread". I know that God provides for us not only physically, but spiritually and emotionally as well. As I prayed the Lord's Prayer, I realized that I have been scorning what God has been giving me: days of alone time, weeks during which to pray, read, rest, organize, dream, catch up on skype. In fact, this season is God's best for me!

As I contemplated what my daily bread might be, I asked God to give me a heart to see His provision today, and that I would be given exactly what I need. This is a hard request for me to make, as I know what I want. I want social interaction. God will need to change my heart so I can see the myriad blessings which surround me.

How many ways I am given my daily bread and fail to thank God!!

A New Season

In some ways, this blog is totally representative to me of another season in my life. When I read through old posts, look at the pictures and prayer requests, I almost feel like this blog should be preserved and tucked into a scrapbook entitled, "Campus Ministry".

And yet. When I see the title I myself put on this blog, I can see I'm not going to get off that easy.

Compelled by Love.

Two and a half years ago, I was compelled by God's love to enter into full time ministry. I spent that time raising support, asking for prayer, moving to Vancouver, getting to know students, sharing the Gospel. You've read my struggles, the times I felt insecure or tired. And together we've prayed and rejoiced.

Today, I'm writing this from our new home in Ontario. For reasons I have yet to fully understand, God has called me out of campus ministry and has brought Varun and I out east. And so here we are. Now that I am out of ministry, I can feel my selfishness taking over. It's tempting to think of my time as all mine. To wake up and plan my days as I'd like to. And yet, I know that God has brought us here not only to be blessed, but also to be a blessing.

How? When? Where? To whom?

In all honesty, moving back east has been hard. Unlike my move to Vancouver, I had no job waiting for me here. I had no staff team to welcome me or a Church home eager to meet me. Together, Varun and I dreamed about what our life here would be like. In many ways, our expectations have been dashed. But in other ways, they've been exceeded.

In this new season of my life, this blog will be a place where I'll reflect on and share stories about how we're living our lives for God, or in what ways we're struggling to do so.

God's Pursuit of Y

This an email that one of my teammates received from a young student whom she had met a few years ago. This student, Y, eventually met another student in our club and finally met God. Here's his journey....

"I just want to thank you, although we have met only once, you were part of my long journey to find Him. I remember you
gave me the book by Lee Strobel called the Case for Christ. Back then I was a hard-hearted atheist and I was thirsty for scientific evidence, and you understood my situation! I recently had the courage and strength to revisit the book and went back on my track to learn and love God. One amazing thing that happened for these past couple of weeks is that I have learned to accept Christ with my heart, and I didn’t have the need and urge to seek for any more evidence. The Lee Strobel book is packed with full of evidence approached in a very scientific way in which I thought would be the perfect book for me.

But now, the book is the last thing I need in this world to prove that Jesus and God really exists. I know this because its Gods work itself to even find myself even going to church regularly and be amazed at how true and holy the bible is. I never had imagined I would turn to God for help, but for some reason I did. I had near death experiences on my volunteer trips, change in friends, got myself into fraternities, and all other struggles and forces in life that hit me hard in the heart. This happened all last year, and the last person I would have thought to even consider for help was God. But really, God is all I had at the moment. I think at this point, I started to let go myself and trust my instinct and life to God, and now for some reason all the things I read in the Bible seems very vivid to me...

I know we don’t know each other very well but I consider everyone in the community that helped me my family now, and this includes you... and countless number of people who have prayed hard for me. I know one day another person will come like I did and ask questions about God. I can assure you that down the road, your quick conversation and maybe provide some sort of book or resource for him or her will eventually guide that person to Christ one day, I can vouch for that! Keep up the good work..." -Y, student at SFU

The Yellow Brick Road

Sometimes I really wish I were Dorothy and had a yellow brick road before me. That would certainly make decision making easier! However, I think that that wouldn't require a lot of faith. As of now, God is showing me just a few steps ahead, and to be honest, that's all I really need to know.

Here's what's happening:

-Campus work: We're done on campus! This next week we have intern debrief and a day of prayer. I also had admin and lots of wrapping up to do. I won't be interning again, so I'm headed off into the big wide world.
-Project: This summer, I'll be going on a project to a country in South Asia. For more information, email me!
- Work: I'll be job hunting and hopefully finding work in Vancouver. I've also gotten into Grad school and am hoping to begin in september. My plans are contingent upon Varun's, so please keep praying for a job for him!

Serving God on campus has been quite an adventure, and I'm excited to see where He's calling me to next. As the title of this blog suggests, it's about me being compelled by Him to share his love. So expect more posts and more answered prayers as I move into a new phase of life!

Planning for Next year

Because March and April were so busy, I'm a bit backlogged in blogging....In March, student leaders and staff got together for a day of prayer, celebration and planning for next year. Students shared their steps of faith and ways God had proven faithful to them. It was so neat to see them holding their posters with stories and drawings illustrating how they had seen God move on campus! One student in my group shared that as she prayed for opportunities to share her faith with her friends, they began to ask her questions about her faith. It's pretty neat to see students who in September were shy and searching freshman, to now being willing to step out in faith and give leadership and vision to others as they take risks for God's kingdom.

Year in Review

How do you measure success in ministry? In people you lead to faith? In answered prayers? In hours spent doing evangelism or hours spent on your knees? How do I know if I spent the past two years wasting my time, or not? These are the thoughts that have been bouncing about my head for the past two weeks. As I wrapped up on campus after two years last week, I tried to assign a total value to my work.

Luckily for me, our staff team went to the Sunshine coast for a time of fun, reflection and relaxation. During this time, I was able to share my concerns and insecurities with my teammates. I have a few thoughts and verses that helped me put my time serving God on campus into perspective:

"Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep." Psalm 127:1-2

-->This reminds me of 1 Corinthians 13...that we can labor and give and serve but unless it is done through God's strength and in love, it's all a waste.

My teammates also reminded me that God has called us to serve Him faithfully, and to trust Him for the results. My job was to pray for the campus, share the good news, lead girls in loving God and learning and obeying His word, share passion and vision...I'm not responsible for the answered prayers or the changed hearts. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6 While this is a famous proverb, the part that jumps out to me is verse 6, that I am to acknowledge God in all that I do. There were moments on campus these past two years that I was tempted to take the glory from God when things turned out well, and to blame Him when things went differently than I wanted. But I'm told in proverbs to acknowledge God's sovereignty when things are good and bad. What a relief!

As a reflection, our team wrote on sticky notes things that were answers to prayer, discouraging/hard, encouraging, steps of faith and characteristics of God we saw throughout the year. As I read through the sticky notes I saw a year of celebration--with over 30 people putting their faith in Christ (in BC alone!), the hearts of parents changed to let their children serve on summer projects, perseverance in the face of discouragement and fatigue and a deepening knowledge of who God is.

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing." -2 Timothy 4: 7-8

I know that as my internship ends this summer, I can trust God to bless the work that I did, love the people I neglected or hurt, and to continue to work in my heart and the hearts of others to draw closer to Him. As Paul says, neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but it is God who gives the growth. Join with me in continuing to pray for spiritual growth of students at UBC and SFU this summer!

"What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers." -1 Corinthians 3:5-9