Welcome to Canada

Now that I've lived in Toronto for a full 2 weeks, I'm clearly seasoned enough to help host a team from America... NOT!  However, the team of youth from 2nd Baptist in Missouri were such an encouraging group, I believe their timing was impeccable. 

For the past 5 days, I've been on my feet from 7:00am-10:00pm and then I immediately crash in the bed with plans for the next day running through my head.  For weeks and months Jenn and Holly have planned the camp I was leading for the week and inviting families in the neighborhood.  There were expectations for success.  The question is "What is the measurement of success?"  Numbers are important but numbers are out of our control.  God sending children to our camp is His responsibility as long as we are faithful to invite.  Believe me, we invited.  But it seems that Toronto has more camps than there are children.  The children not already signed up for camp were not old enough to join the camp.  So, then we ask "what is our goal for the week?"  Answer:  To love people in the neighborhood and invite them to a community that seeks to walk this journey together towards God.  We decided to paint faces in the park.  Every day we had a steady line of children and parents waiting for face paintings and inquiring about who we are and why we would volunteer our time there.  Shallow conversations were able to become more meaningful as we heard people share their own stories.  One boy did come to our camp 3 days this week and now we are able to love on his family in a way that could be life changing.  The measurement of success?  Being used as an instrument of God.  Allowing God to invest in individuals.  Watching God love his people.

I got to help lead a group of youth from the states.  It was fun to see their excitement in the city and be awed by all the city has to offer.  I'm new enough that I'm just as awed.  But in the end, I got to be part of conversations that hopefully help shape their view on the Church's responsibility to love others.  In the states we work hard for God.  Our relationship with God is correlated to the amount of work we do to please him.  In Canada, our relationship with God is correlated to the way we love others because he loves us.