Back to the U.S. Eh!

Well our time here has quickly come to an end and I write this while we wait for our 3:30 a.m. ride to the airport. We have had many great experiences that have made an impact on us. I want to encourage you to continue to follow the blog as I will continue to post about any follow up reports I receive and members from Teams 2 and 3 should be blogging right here to keep you up to date on Olympic ministry. (I promise pictures will come shortly after I get settled in at home.)


As ready as we are to be home, it is always a little sad to leave a place you have grown to know and love in such a small amount of time. We won't know the results a cup of hot chocolate or a pin will have, but we can pray for the seeds that have been planted. Other teams have had the privilege of being involved with people making decisions to become Christ followers. That is what it is all about. So whether we get to be present when it happens or find out down the road, it is great to hear and see God working in the hearts of people. Not only can you see Him at work in Vancouver, you can feel that He is doing something big and we are grateful to be a small part of it.

As the Olympics continue for another week, my goal is to take advantage of the opportunities that will be present at home when people see an Olympic pin or shirt and ask questions. Keep praying for Olympic ministry in general as soon we’ll turn our attention to the possibilities that London 2012 and Sochi 2014 present.

One of our team members, Christy, will be working with the next teams that arrive on Saturday. We have run into a young lady name Stasia (Anastasia) three times now. We think there is a reason for it and Christy will be the one to find out, so please continue to pray for her.

As I wrote earlier, keep following the blog. There are some stories that have yet to be written, thus they have yet to be read. Here is a brief one now.

I commented on the amazing worship service we had Sunday. The church we have called home for 10 days now is really doing some big things here in Delta, BC. They have already had 21 baptisms this year! In fact they baptized two that morning and will baptize three more this Sunday. The pastor challenged the congregation to have 500 people here for the Easter service. They are not afraid to think big.

They have a wonderful praise and worship band and at times the leader sounded like the lead singer from Pearl Jam. I know that comparison can be interpreted different ways, but as I said, the band is wonderful.

Another church story has to do with where we prepared our hot chocolate and coffee that we served. We worked in the Holy Rosary Rectory at the Holy Rosary Cathedral. Before we left for the last time tonight I asked if we could see the cathedral. One of the priests was kind enough to take us in. Built in the 1930s, it is a beautiful facility. The priest told us how the site was chosen, when the first building was built and later renovated and how the organ had to be removed and refurbished. I knew from hearing similar stories when my high school choir would sing in various churches that this process was not cheap. I looked at the priest and said, “That had to cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars.” “Oh, much more,” he said, “it was at least six figures.” We waited until we left the cathedral to laugh at the exchange and make sure that hundreds of thousands of dollars were still in the six figure range!