Missions Fest! Jan 31

This last weekend I was able to attend Missions Fest in Vancouver. Having never been to Missions fest before, I really had no idea what would be in store. Overall it was a really great trip, however, I think I may have anticipated too much and not everything met my expectations. I was pleasantly surprised with all the different Seminars that we could choose to attend, there were many that caught my attention…too many as a matter of fact and I could not attend all the ones that I wanted too. The group sessions were very well done, they knew the type of people in the congregation and made it appealing to them.  I was astounded by how big of an event that this was and how many people came both as representatives of their organizations and as someone coming to learn.

There were a great selection of seminars to choose to attend; unfortunately you did not always get what you expected. Plus if you didn’t show up early you wouldn’t get in (learned that one the hard way). I think my standards were a little too high for what I was expecting to get out of these sessions. Being accustomed to the types of classes in the Kaleo program (7 hours a day with top notch professors) I failed to consider that only so much can be covered in a one hour period. As interesting as the stories were and even though there were some excellent points made and the ones leading the seminars were exceptional scholars and well prepared, I was still left with a vague and surface level lesson. This doesn’t mean that all sessions were disappointing, there are the exceptions. One of the main speakers, Louis Palau, had a phenomenal presentation of his message; he was an outstanding speaker and captivated the congregation. He spoke on our “call” to missions, “if God wants to speak to you tonight are you available?”  And how we all have a role to play in missions. My favorite quote was from when he tells the story of why he waited to get involved with ministry, he said “I’m waiting for the call” and his mom responds with “the call went out 2000 years ago” (referring to the great commission Matt 28:19-20). As simple as it was (and humorous in the way he told it) I believe it left us all with something to think about.

It was awesome to see how many different organizations attended Missions Fest. There were around 200 booths that were set up presenting what they do in regards to missions, either cross cultural or within the community. What I found really encouraging were the many different approaches that are being taken which allow all people types to get involved and passionate about missions. Everything from camps to translating the Bible to schools to long and short term missions opportunities and even to rapping preachers! I personally enjoyed walking around and being able to associate myself with different booths such as walking by Briercrest or Camp Qwanoes and being able to say “I’m a student there” or stopping at Peace River Bible Institute and talking with old friends. It was great to see the amount of people at Missions fest and how many people care about spreading the gospel around the world.

My highlights of the weekend actually had very little to do with Missions Fest itself. During one of the seminars I turned around and to my surprise I see my cousin! We are fortunate if we see each other once a year. Thankfully we had the opportunity to go out for coffee and catch up; we shared some stories of what God is doing in our lives and where we believe he is leading us. I was a little shocked to hear how similar of a call to youth and pastoral ministry we have. I found this time very encouraging and made me really appreciate the family that I have been blessed with. Another highlight for me was being able to be a part of the worship team and play on Sunday morning for the church that housed us during our time in Vancouver. We decided to do something a little different and made a new worship team for this occasion which allowed for some of the students who haven’t been a part of a worship team before join in, including our fantastic leader who led worship for his first time that Sunday. With only three practices with people who have never played together before and a lot of prayer it was amazing to see how God used us. During the time of worship I would glance up at the rest of the team and see them pouring their hearts into worshiping God, not making any type of performance but humbling presenting our talents to the Lord. As a result the congregation responded passionately as we sang Praises to our Lord.