Testimony Time!

So, today was church. Bussing takes forever. I left around 8:35, shortly after meeting MM's family. (so funny) I got to church at 9:24. CW, my roommate had left half an hour after me and got there before me. I'll bike next week. I had bussed for a reason. I had work immediately after church, like ASAP, so I needed a drive from someone the second it finished. If I had biked I'd have to leave my bike there...

Anyways, I was in a really really bad mood this morning.

Sunday school was cancelled because KK forgot the cheese, T(?) was playing piano and JS was in Hongcouver with his girlfriend, so we hung out for a bit and then went to Starbucks. Talking with JW, I got a free Caramel Macchiato cause they made it wrong for a woman who ordered it.

We got back, set up some chairs, then service started. Guest speaker. Prodigal son. Worship. Still in a bad mood.

I knew I needed to just give it up and ask God to give me a better attitude, but I wasn't...

I was kinda forced to humble myself though, I mean I had to give a testimony. I had written a page, but that was two days ago and it was 11pm when I wrote it, and I'm not good at presenting things, especially testimonies, so I needed the Spirit to help me.

I think it went pretty well. It helped having a translator interrupt me and give me time to think. xP

So, I was thinking, 'dang, I want to share this testimony... I'll have to type it up... >.> Oh! I typed it to begin with! (out of D.Fa character.)'.

Herewith:

"Hey everyone! My name is Dylan and I’m in second year biochemistry at Carleton now and I was blessed to be a part of this year’s VBS to Charis EFree in Scarborough this August. I had just returned to Ottawa for the second time this summer and just a week later I was gone again. I was definitely planning that week as a break, as a relaxing time to refresh and refocus again. I wanted to spend time with my family and friends and I wasn’t preparing nearly as much as I could have. You see, since we were doing the same VBS material as last year when OCBC went to Brooklyn, I had assumed it would be easy, but I was given the role of telling the Bible Stories. I do not normally consider myself someone who can tell good stories, teach people things, clearly explain things and it was a lot to memorize too, so I really did need work. The entire week I spent hours each day working on how to tell gospel centered Bible stories. I still did not feel prepared.

Aside from the preparation before VBS, we also sat down and talked about what our goals in this week were. Our main mission was broken down into a three-letter acronym, UPI. Understand, Provide, and Inspire. Help the children come to an understanding of the gospel, of God’s love and the gift of eternal life through Jesus death and resurrection. Provide each child with their own copy of the Bible. And inspire each child to share what they’ve learned with others. We prayed that God would really use us to accomplish this and to be an encouragement to the church.

Throughout the preparation and the week we saw God answer prayer. I saw God answer prayer in placing me outside my comfort zone and growing me in an area of weakness. I saw God bring the 10 children we were praying for to the VBS this year whether they were church going children, or not, or even if it was their first time in the church, God gathered His children and answered our prayers on Sunday. We saw Him delay the storms Wednesday so we could go to the park and be a light in the community. We saw the children and youth come to a greater understanding of the gospel. We saw every child receive a New Testament. And I only found this out this week, but one of the mothers of a child at the VBS was exposed to the gospel for the first time through conversations she had with him. Also, the youth grew so much that the church even got a new youth worker for them.

Even though we weren’t fully prepared, even though we aren’t there to do follow-up or see what is happening right now, even though we aren’t perfect, God chose to use us, God uses his Spirit in our lives to speak his truths to others, God did so much more than we could have asked or imagined and He is still doing so much.

So, ya, I have been really encouraged by what I have seen happen in the lives of the children, in my life and just everything He is doing through the steps we take in faith. I’m really glad I got to experience this this year and if the opportunity comes up again, I would be really excited to go again.

Thank you for supporting us in prayer and sending us out!

D.Fa
"

And that's a rough copy of it, but ya. God is awesome. He really helped shift my attitude and when I went to work I was ready to glorify God. I worked super hard until 6:30 then I went home for supper, went back to work, came home for pie and now I'm at my house with a large pile of leftovers. lol.

Ttyl.

D.Fa