Monday, August 20, 2007

Day 3. Fall afresh on me.


August 12, 2007

I found myself waking up engulfed by my ever-deflating air mattress. After swimming my way out, we headed out for our Sunday in Vancouver. (We found a startbucks on Commercial Drive. It opens @ 5:30. From here on out, we went here each morning, we started to see the same faces. Keep that in mind. This, to be continued :) )

My paraphrase for that morning (the end of of Psalm 84):

God-you give me life and protection. You give grace and glory.
You don't keep any good from your children that have said "yes" to the life you have for them.
My God. How blessed I am to know you!

The night before, we had all signed up for which church we wanted to go to. There were three options, and I chose 10th avenue. To me, this was the combination of the Vietnamese church I grew up in and Rock Harbor, the church that i'm attending now. It was a beautiful picture to me of unity, something that i struggled with, still do, in fact. I remember growing up and just wanting to see a body serving in one accord rather than being discordant and self-seeking. As I sat in 10th avenue, a lot of healing happened for me. An image of unity permeated me in a place where the idea of my two experiences were rather dichotomous.

The speaker, David Wood, spoke on "A Well-Ordered Life." The reason why it wasn't called a "Well-balanced Life" is pretty awesome. The idea of balance is the manifestation of the myth that we can somehow control our lives. The phrase actually connotes the divided life: work/school/family, and the attempt at controlling each aspect completely separate from the other.) St. Augustine said to "cultivate a well-ordered life"... to love the right things, in the right ways, to the right degree.







After we had lunch at Stephos, this Greek restaurant that just gives you mounds and mounds of amazing food, we were headed to Stanley Park. Our whole team was going to bike around the island. As we got into the car, we noticed these two people standing side-by-side, holding a sign that said they wanted money for food. At the bottom of the sign, it said, "And if you want to give us a smile, that'd be great also." We all got out of the van and asked if we could take them to the grocery store for their needs. On the way, Rachel and _______ shared their story. They had lost all their money through some bad interactions and were now force to live in a crack hotel, where Rachel was getting fiercely attacked by bedbugs. They fear leaving the complex-the fear for their lives. We slowly got to see their guards come down, smiles take over their faces, and laughter escape into the loud bustling of the busy street. In one accord, we lifted these two new friends up in prayer. We were blessed by having spent time w/ them and even more blessed when, as we drove away, we saw them share what we had bought for them with a few other of their street friends.

We biked around Stanley Park Island and ended up at one of the beaches for dinner. Gorgeous creation, amazing people. It was really a sight. Over and over again, God speaking so loudly through nature and all His handiwork....and kentucky friend chicken...haha.










After we rode our bikes back into the city, we headed towards another conversation, formation time. We, as individuals, used props/craft materials provided to make something that represented something that has spoken to us in our lives or during the time that we had spent in Vancouver thus far. When we were done doing that in our smaller groups, we all drew timelines of significant points in ourl lives that have made us who we are today. The stories were powerful, and i'm continually reminded that in each story I hear, i see another glimpse, another facet of God's faithfulness.







And in the same words that caught my attention that morning:
God-you give me life and protection. You give grace and glory.
You don't keep any good from your children that have said "yes" to the life you have for them.
My God. How blessed I am to know you!

1 comment:

  1. That looks like a great trip. I love the fact that you all stopped and helped homeless couple.

    So when is the day 4 description coming?

    ReplyDelete

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