Why Vancouver 2 ~ Prayer, counsel & circumstances
Prayer, counsel & circumstances
Several weeks later, a class was cancelled and instead of going to the library to study I really sensed I needed to spend some time praying, so I made my way to the little prayer chapel on campus. It was a very significant time of prayer and I was really moved as I confronted God’s holiness. He reminded me of the passage in Ezekiel and spoke to my heart regarding His call and used some extraordinary ways to demonstrate it. He reminded me of the sacrifice Christ had made for me, and all, a sacrifice that came at great pain and price that I could not experience, but it was made for a purpose that I was to be part of, he explained in detail.
At the end of this significant, unanticipated, prayer time God seemed to lead me to go and speak to a professor at seminary. I really didn’t want to get ‘direction’ from this guy. He is saved and all, but it seemed that he and I were on different sides of the page much of the time. (we have since become friends). However, I knew God’s voice well enough to know that this was from Him, so I soon found myself standing in the professor’s office.
During that conversation I shared with the professor how I sensed God’s call to church planting. When I said that, he asked if I had ever considered Canada, I told him no, but that we had been praying about Asia or eastern Europe until God gave me some direction a couple of weeks earlier, and I told him about how God had spoke through the scripture. Then the professor said he wanted to tell me about how God had placed Vancouver on his heart 5 years earlier and he had been praying that God would use him to direct someone to that beautiful city. While it is a beautiful place, the people were far from God and they needed someone to share the gospel and start churches there. He also said that he had only shared that concern with his wife and a close colleague, never any other students, but that he sensed God was challenging him just then to encourage me to consider going to Vancouver to start a new church. Canada had never been on our radar screen, but as is our practice, Diana and I began to pray and take things one step at a time.
A few weeks later I was having coffee with a friend on campus who had previously lived in Vancouver. As he talked about his experiences, I said “this is interesting, I have been thinking about Vancouver lately”. I shared with him everything that had happened up to this point. He encouraged me to contact his brothers, who were in Canada.
I emailed my friends brothers and some of that was forwarded to a man named Jim, who was a church planting strategist in Vancouver who contacted me. Jim asked me for a bio and when he received that emailed excitedly that he and his wife had been praying that God would send someone from the Hope Network of churches to plant a church in Vancouver. We realized we had a number of common connections.
Several weeks later, we were at a dinner on campus where there was some information about a evangelism class that happened to take place in Vancouver, how interesting we thought. I applied for the class and was able to attend. It was the first time I was in Vancouver. Indeed it was a beautiful city, and I was impressed with the way churches and denominations seemed willing to work together. I also had the opportunity to meet Jim and his family while there.
A few months later, Jim contacted me, he was planning to attend a seminar in the area and wondered if he could stay with us. Then about a month later he did the same thing again. It gave us a chance to get to know one another and he invited Diana and I to Vancouver for a visit.
That next March, Diana and I made plans to visit Vancvouver. We were to go through a Church-Planters assessment process, but for the first time it was cancelled due to lack of participants. We felt it was from God, so to free up our time to see the city. While we were there, we believed God wanted us to move to Vancouver to start a new church and so we made a commitment to Jim that we would do that.
to continue reading check out "Why Vancouver 3 - What we knew and What we didn't"
Several weeks later, a class was cancelled and instead of going to the library to study I really sensed I needed to spend some time praying, so I made my way to the little prayer chapel on campus. It was a very significant time of prayer and I was really moved as I confronted God’s holiness. He reminded me of the passage in Ezekiel and spoke to my heart regarding His call and used some extraordinary ways to demonstrate it. He reminded me of the sacrifice Christ had made for me, and all, a sacrifice that came at great pain and price that I could not experience, but it was made for a purpose that I was to be part of, he explained in detail.
At the end of this significant, unanticipated, prayer time God seemed to lead me to go and speak to a professor at seminary. I really didn’t want to get ‘direction’ from this guy. He is saved and all, but it seemed that he and I were on different sides of the page much of the time. (we have since become friends). However, I knew God’s voice well enough to know that this was from Him, so I soon found myself standing in the professor’s office.
During that conversation I shared with the professor how I sensed God’s call to church planting. When I said that, he asked if I had ever considered Canada, I told him no, but that we had been praying about Asia or eastern Europe until God gave me some direction a couple of weeks earlier, and I told him about how God had spoke through the scripture. Then the professor said he wanted to tell me about how God had placed Vancouver on his heart 5 years earlier and he had been praying that God would use him to direct someone to that beautiful city. While it is a beautiful place, the people were far from God and they needed someone to share the gospel and start churches there. He also said that he had only shared that concern with his wife and a close colleague, never any other students, but that he sensed God was challenging him just then to encourage me to consider going to Vancouver to start a new church. Canada had never been on our radar screen, but as is our practice, Diana and I began to pray and take things one step at a time.
A few weeks later I was having coffee with a friend on campus who had previously lived in Vancouver. As he talked about his experiences, I said “this is interesting, I have been thinking about Vancouver lately”. I shared with him everything that had happened up to this point. He encouraged me to contact his brothers, who were in Canada.
I emailed my friends brothers and some of that was forwarded to a man named Jim, who was a church planting strategist in Vancouver who contacted me. Jim asked me for a bio and when he received that emailed excitedly that he and his wife had been praying that God would send someone from the Hope Network of churches to plant a church in Vancouver. We realized we had a number of common connections.
Several weeks later, we were at a dinner on campus where there was some information about a evangelism class that happened to take place in Vancouver, how interesting we thought. I applied for the class and was able to attend. It was the first time I was in Vancouver. Indeed it was a beautiful city, and I was impressed with the way churches and denominations seemed willing to work together. I also had the opportunity to meet Jim and his family while there.
A few months later, Jim contacted me, he was planning to attend a seminar in the area and wondered if he could stay with us. Then about a month later he did the same thing again. It gave us a chance to get to know one another and he invited Diana and I to Vancouver for a visit.
That next March, Diana and I made plans to visit Vancvouver. We were to go through a Church-Planters assessment process, but for the first time it was cancelled due to lack of participants. We felt it was from God, so to free up our time to see the city. While we were there, we believed God wanted us to move to Vancouver to start a new church and so we made a commitment to Jim that we would do that.
to continue reading check out "Why Vancouver 3 - What we knew and What we didn't"
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