Yesterday was a lovely day off! I was craving sleep, exercise and a solid time of devotions. . . thank you Jesus for a Sabbath day! The morning was spent doing that. Sonia lent me her van for the evening- Juliana (her daughter) and I picked up Mark & Tyler and we headed for Square One (a huge mall). But... it was closed at 6pm (on a Saturday)! We were so surprised! It's open till 9 every other day (odd...) anyhow... so we saw "Toy Story 3" in 3D instead... good times. Then we were able to meet up with Doug & Rebecca Friesen for a late dinner. It was so nice to connect and see them! They were out for the Nigerian Church Banquet and some new Pastor ordinations. This summer is a lot easier than previous trips away because of having interns here that are friends and lovely visitors from home spend time with us.

We came to Toronto as missionaries. . . I need to learn how to do that! We joined a small team from the church for their Friday night Outreach. . . As the Intern leader I put on a brave face and encouraged the interns to participate, but honestly I was so scared-- I've actually never walked around a park before handing out tracts. Never been comfortable with that mostly because I didn't think it was an effective means of evangelism. I prefer doing it through relationship and mentoring or putting on programs etc. Handing out tracts seems so unnatural. . . None of us from BC had ever done that before. Thus, perhaps it's not as effective in Vancouver (? or maybe we've just never tried it?), but it seems to be in Toronto. The church here does it quite frequently and enjoys doing it. People pass out tracts all the time while they're shopping or on the Subway etc. Anyhow, it turned out great and I actually enjoyed it a lot! We split up in groups of 2 and headed to High Park (very large). We prayed, walked around and approached people who looked like they would be relaxed enough to talk. Mark and I had some really great conversations with people. We talked to 4 older Croatian Catholic men for about 30min. They were really open to talking; we talked about everything! But we prayed for them after because they seemed to be really set in their ways and I believe only the Holy Spirit can bring true revelation to them. They 'believe' in Jesus but basically also believe that because they worked hard and they are 'good' men they will go to Heaven. The people who will not go to Heaven are those who are poor-- I interacted with a homeless man at one point and they basically said he wasn't going to Heaven because he didn't work hard enough on earth! We had a quite a few points of disagreement, but it was a phenomenal and deep conversation. They really listened as I shared personal testimonies of my personal relationship with Christ- because they'd never heard of those before. They called the Bible good 'children's stories'. We encouraged them to get back into the Word- so I pray they would do that and the Holy Spirit would speak clearly to them. We met some other people who at first thought we were G8 protesters when they heard we were from Vancouver! lol-- then we told them no, actually we're here to tell you that God loves you and desires a relationship with you. We all laughed and were able to tell them a bit about the different churches around the city and what we were doing there this summer. People are a lot more open here to talk it seems. They even take tracts... even I don't t take tracts from people back home! It's still scary to approach people, but once we start talking it's really great to have these meaningful conversations publicly and then pray for them after.

During the summer we have several short-term missions teams coming to Toronto to help with Outreach and Programs. They are mostly from the US. I LOVE that they see Canada as a missions field and are coming here! Yesterday, 2 different teams (both from the state of Virginia) have come to do Outreach. It's a bit more cramped in Sonia's house tonight (15 people living here; many more spread around other homes and church floors); it's great to meet everyone! We all joined together and held a community festival in the plaza after church today. Fantastic day!

Each team performed excellent and powerful dramas and drimes; some shared testimonies; we had guest bands and singers perform. The church worship team did a set- which was well received. The young Filipino church band played (they are PHENOMENAL!! 13-16 yr olds and they are absolutely incredible! I'm def using them at the Youth Explosion event).


Hope 4 tomorrow church has a Performing Arts ministry on Saturdays. So one guy heads up this ministry and is basically the pastor of all these teens and young adults who want to sing and rap and dance and need a place to do it. They practice at the 'Hope Centre' and he finds them places to perform. So they performed at the festival (none of them are Christians yet)-- thus their music was not 'Christian'- but I was so impressed that this happened! Because this event was an Outreach- so it was for them as well. We listened to them and they listed to the church people play and there was interaction. Some people might see it as controversial to give them the mike cuz they might drop some nasty words, but I think in the long run it was a very positive thing


that occurred. I was so encouraged to see them there and even dance around with Canadian flags at the end when the worship team sang the closing song! It was a really neat festival.

Also at the festival.... I helped make a table size Brazilian cake! Sooo yummy! Lol, this 'cake' is not what we think of as 'cake'-- it's like a "Shepherd's Pie". It was layered with bread and chicken and vegetables and more bread and sauce- the icing was mashed potatoes. I designed a Maple Flag out of cut up cherry tomatoes on top. Very neat... we had a LOT of leftover cuz it was so big and so filling.

Tomorrow Pastor Ron and I will be driving around Toronto to nail down a location for our Youth Explosion event. The Interns will be decorating the churches for the upcoming VBS. The US teams are doing outreach during the day and putting on a youth crusade (service) at night. Tyler and I are joining the Hope 4 Tomorrow music worship band practice tomorrow night (excited but nervous about that!). Should all be interesting... :-)