My mom said something very profound the other day- and it helped me re-focus my vision for this missions trip.  I was reflecting on the difficulty of my job: caring (as a nurse) for people that are frankly not that easy to care for.  There are the patients that don’t do anything for themselves and just ring the call bell for ridiculous things- irritating everyone.  There are the patients that scream at us, yell at us, swear at us, hardly let us take their blood pressure, leave without completing their needed medical treatment…..there are those with deformities, disabilities and ugly conditions… the alcoholics and drug addicts, the depressed, and poor, the homeless and hairy…..how difficult it is to care for them, touch them, love them?  How much easier it is to care for the family that says “thank you” all the time.  To care for the family that gives you a card, honours the work you do, and well….are from middle class, well-to-do families.  But who is it that Christ ministered to?  He loved the unloved.  He touched the untouchables.  He healed the lepors and social outcasts.  He forgave the sins of whores and prostitutes.  It is my Jesus who loves like that.  I was talking to my mom about how I wanted to be like Mother Theresa “you see, she loved the social outcasts…she cared for the un-cared for…she touched lepors!” and my mom wisely said “you know who that is don’t you?”  And then the light went on and my soul was flooded with a new and profound love of my savior.  “It was Jesus!”  It was Jesus living through her.  It was Him- the greatest at compassion and love, the greatest at mercy and care.  He is who I want to be like- at my job, on the street, and on this missions trip.  “Lord let this trip not be about us and our glory.  I don’t want credit for leaving this life of comfort to serve you- how can I not go?  Your love compels us!  It is your love, dear Jesus that compels us.”

 Isn’t it incredible that Jesus loves us- messy humanity, like that?  I’m so thankful that I know this Jesus- and may all who read this blog come to know Him.  He is the only one who truly loves  (without reserve, with reckless abandon, all the time, in every way)….

to the ‘least’ of these we shall go with the love of our savior compelling us!

After talking to Pastor Jim, our pastor at Home Church, about our missions trip to Burkina Faso, he decided to google the town we were going to - Mahadaga. He happened to come across a site from someone who had been on a missions trip to Mahadaga, probably with SIM. He posted a number of pictures, including pictures of the medical clinic, the terrain around the SIM compound, and the church. It was really cool to look at them, and I think it’s started to make the idea of the trip a little more real for me. I can actually picture a bit better where we may actually be going now. If you’d like to check them out yourself, go to his site here.

Another cool thing about this is the fact that the guy who posted these pictures, Scott Weaver, is a computer science professor from a college in the states. So, I’ve been able to e-mail him and find out his thoughts on what computer infrastructure and work is like over there. That’s been quite interesting, and helpful!

Receive a ridiculous amount of immunizations    (check)
Get passports updated with current, (but still awkward looking) photos   (check)
Practice spelling Burkina Faso’s capital city (O-u-g-a-d-o-u-g-o-u)  (check)
Speak french while alone in the car  (check)

……………………….

Oh boy, there are a thousand of other things on our checklist that we still haven’t gotten to before our missions trip, but at least we are on our way!! After sending out all our prayer letters we have been in the process of working out the agreement between SIM and Power to Change, and informing our Church about the impending trip.  Our pastor, wanting to renew our Church’s mission, was excited (praise the Lord) to have us preach at Church about missions. Pray it goes well!!!  We’re excited to share what we learned at the Perspectives course we took and inspire others to the call of missions.  We’ve been reading some books too such as “Jesus Says Go” sent to us by SIM and preparing for our orientation in the end of August. There are a lot of other books on our “to read” list for this trip including “Let the Nations be Glad” by Piper, “The Book that Transforms Nations” by Loren Cunningham and a book on the life of William Carey.  We’re not sure if we should save these intense reads for our trip or read them before- we’ll see how much time we get!!!

Needless to say- we have wills to write, support to raise, a house to pack, a car to lend out, and many other little details that will no doubt consume our lives until we leave in late October (Lord willing).

Please continue to pray for us that…

-each of these steps will go smoothly

-that my surgery (Shannon) in early September will go very well.

-that in this last month of  my work I will be more courageous and bold to share Christ with my co-workers and patients!

We will continue to update this blog and send e-mail updates to those who would like them as well as written updates as time goes on.

With love
Shannon & Jason

Back at the end of June, my sisters Cheryl and Karen flew out to BC to visit Shannon and I. After touring around Vancouver a bit, we drove to Kelowna, then on to Banff National Park where we met up with Chad and Mel. After transferring Cheryl and Karen to them, Shannon and I continued our trek, camping our way through south-eastern BC and northern Washington. To check out the pictures, look at the Picasa web album here.

I finally am getting a chance to post the MRI picture of Shannon’s knee, in case any of you wanted to see it. First, though, here’s a link to a site that shows an MRI of a normal ACL ligament. As you can see, the ACL goes diagonally from the lower left to upper right. Behind it is the PCL, another ligament that crosses it in an X from upper left to lower right (although in the normal MRI picture, it is a little hidden). Below is Shannon’s MRI. You can see the PCL clearly, but the ACL is totally missing!

I’ve been thinking about God this evening. I’ve seen God in a number of ways before - as a Father, as my Rescuer, as the Almighty Creator, and more. And, as I think about those things, it reminds me of how great our God. But, my heart was thrilled in a new way tonight.

Have you ever watched Braveheart before? I don’t know about you, but I’m incredibly inspired when I watch leaders like William Wallace. He had a big vision, and called men into it. He challenged them to make incredible sacrifices, and to be a part of something bigger than themselves. That excites me - I love that kind of leadership!

Actually, I’m incredibly privileged to serve under a leader like that at my job. Leonard, the president at Power to Change, is an amazingly visionary leader. I get inspired every time I hear him speak. He speaks simply and humbly, yet calls us each into a mission much larger than ourselves. He dreams big, and challenges us to pour ourselves into something that really matters.

As I was thinking about this, I realized that my heart longs for leadership like this. I long to be called into a mission that is bigger than myself, that will outlast my own life. I desperately want to pour myself into something that will make a difference.

And suddenly, I realized that GOD is that kind of leader! I was blown away as I thought about it. I don’t know that I’ve seen God in that way before. And yet, He has a huge vision for drawing all peoples of the earth to Himself. He is leading the charge in a mission that is mind-bogglingly huge, that has been going on for over 6,000 years, and has involved literally millions of people. He is incredibly creative, and although He never changes, He always surprises us with the new directions He takes in this mission. He is orchestrating events, people, and even nations, as He continues to unfold His plan.

Not only that, but He calls us into this mission! I heard a statement today that stuck in my mind: if you are going to pour out your life into something, why not pour it into a gold goblet - not a paper cup. And yet, that is what so many people are doing. They are pouring out their lives into something that will crumple and vanish. But our Leader calls us into a mission that is truly worth pouring out every last drop of our life’s energy for. He is a King and Lord who is worthy to be followed!

God, may I be a good and faithful follower.

Shannon and I have been in classes all this week. We’re taking a course called “Perspectives on the World Christian Movement” (www.perspectives.org) which is taught all over the place. It gives biblical, historical, cultural, and strategic perspectives on missions, and it’s fantastic.

The course started for us about a month ago when we signed up. Since the course is so intense, they expect you to do all the readings and quizzes ahead of time. Shannon and I worked on them together, and they were a huge amount of work. There are 15 lessons, and each one took us between 4 and 8 hours to complete! But, the readings are so good. And this week, we’ve been getting a variety of speakers - at least 2 every day - discussing the material from each lesson, telling stories from the mission field, challenging our assumptions, and stimulating our thinking.

One of the biggest take-away lessons for me so far can be summed up by a quote from John Piper - “Missions exist because worship doesn’t.” Let me unpack that a bit.

First, I’ve been impacted by the centrality of worship. Worship of God is the goal. He’s created us to worship, and to bring Him glory. It’s not because God is insecure, and so He needs us to tell Him how great He is to feel ok about Himself. God desires our worship because He alone is worthy of our worship! And, He knows that we will only find true joy, satisfaction, and fulfillment when we give Him glory. After all, we will always worship something, whether it be family, material possesions, career, or something else. But all of those things will en-slave us to them, and will let us down at times. Only God is a worthy object of our worship.

Second, God doesn’t just want me to worship Him. He wants to be glorified by people everywhere around the world! He’s created each nation, language, tribe, and culture uniquely, and He desires that each one would bring Him worship in their unique way as well. The story of God’s plan to bring people from ALL nations to worship Him is throughout the Bible, starting with the promise to Abraham in Gen 12 (”through you all the nations will be blessed”), through the Psalms, through the Prophets, and culminating in the great commission: go and make disciples of ALL nations.

And that is why missions exists. It’s purpose is to proclaim God’s greatness and glory throughout the world, in places where He is not yet worshipped, so that people will be drawn to Him and He will receive the glory He deserves.

That’s one of the main nuggets that I’ve taken away. But, there have been many more, and I’m still processing much of what I’ve heard. Maybe I’ll share a few more thoughts that come out over the next weeks. Oh, and I’d highly recommend this course to anyone who is committed to seeing God’s purpose in the earth go forward, whether you are thinking of becoming a cross-cultural missionary or not.  

Guess what we got today?

They’re sleek and fast… 

New bikes! We’ve been wanting to get new bikes for a while, since it’s one of our favorite ways to exercise and explore. We’re hoping to enjoy some long bike rides this summer!

One pastime Shannon and I enjoy is looking up fun YouTube videos, and sharing them with others. We both found this one hilarious, and quite cute, so I thought I’d share it with you all. It’s a 3-year old girl explaining the story of Star Wars Episode IV (apparently after seeing it only once!). Just click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBM854BTGL0

Oh, how I enjoy time to get away from the regular routine, to relax, reflect, and hang out with people! Shannon and I needed some time like that, so we planned a trip over to Vancouver Island from Feb 29 to March 3rd. We stayed with Chris and Judy Gytenbeek and their 4 kids, who now live in Comox. They used to live in Langley and go to Home Church, and we got to know them pretty well - especially when we babysat their kids for a weekend!

Anyway, they are a great family. They love the outdoors, are adventurous, and keep family as a top priority - things Shannon and I connect with really well! They are also quite laid back and relaxed, something Shannon and I aren’t so good at. But, being on the island for a weekend certainly helped.

One of the highlights of our visit was going skiing / snowboarding at Mount Washington. We rose to a beautiful, sunny day on Saturday morning, with 5cm of fresh snow on the hills. It was fantastic being outside all day, taking in the incredible vistas from the top of the chairlifts. (I managed to pull off a few fun jumps too, without hurting myself!)

God definitely used this trip to re-energize us, but also to slow us down enough to reflect. We spent quite a bit of time hanging out and talking, especially about missions. Chris pulled out his old slide projector and dusty slides and gave us a great tour of his time in Africa before he and Judy were married. We also got to hear from a missionary from India at their Sunday morning service. We talked about our thoughts, plans, and dreams for what we’d love to do. But, we were also reminded that this life is more about our relationship with God then about what we do. How hard it is for us to get that through our heads! I’m always so concerned about what I’m doing, and about how productive I am. It’s so hard to let go of that, and to realize that all my running around might not be what God really desires most.

If you want to see more pics from our trip, check out the online album.