Vancouver Exploration Day

I (Bethany) have never been one to talk to people I don't know on mass transit. When my mom came to visit me the summer I lived in New York, I was appalled when she would talk to everyone she saw on the subway. I am now purposely trying to turn into that person. It is hard to do it in a way since I don't want to bother people. It's a little bit scary too. But if I really think our Story is the most important thing, I need to get out of my comfort zone to talk to people to share.

One of our assignment this weekend was to explore the city and talk to people to learn more about the city. We went out with a friend who is in our internship as well and talked to people on buses and the sky train. We stopped people on the street and talked to people in Starbucks. We asked about things to do in the city, places to eat, places to go to church, and other things.

We explored several stops on the sky train and walked around Chinatown (where we had lunch) and some other neighborhoods. We went bike riding in Stanley Park, which was beautiful. Cities are amazing places--full of life, diversity, activity, and great green spaces. Even though we were in a city of 3 million today, I felt like we were in the wilderness in parts of Stanley Park.

More than just exploring and having fun, though, we had opportunities to share and meet people. On the bus we met a couple of people who are believers--one from Canada and another from Brazil. Our friend was able to share her story with an African we met at the bus stop. Once we got on the bus, our friend and I began talking to a woman who asked us if it had started raining. As we were talking, she mentioned she lives where we do. I asked her if she knows of any churches in our area. She mentioned a couple. When I asked her if she had gone to one, she said no because she goes to mosque.

We kept talking. Our friend asked her what the mosque taught about Jesus. She talked a little about her faith. She was super friendly and said for us to go home with her and she would show us where the churches were that she saw. I was able to share with her that going to church was not something we had to do but that it was something we wanted to do to worship God who provided a way for us to be saved and have eternal life through Jesus. When we arrived at her house, she made us tea and served us some cake and introduced us to her husband. She gave us her number and invited us to come again before giving us a ride home. Pray for more opportunities to get to know her and her family. Pray for us to be able to share the true Story and our stories.

As soon as she dropped us off, we met our neighbors to go out to eat. We went out for Indian food and then got coffee together. We truly enjoyed our time with them and look forward to becoming friends with them. Pray for opportunities for us to share our story and the true story with them.

Jonathan spoke to a Brazilian pastor for awhile on the phone tonight. We are visiting his church tomorrow night. Pray for opportunities to connect with them--for them to help us meet people, especially Brazilians and Portuguese, and for us to be able to help them. Pray this can be a partnership while we are here.

Bike riding in Stanley Park

In a Chinatown park