Clay Fellowship

Though difficult, it is necessary to be united with the global church. This is what Christian unity means— that we should unite with believers from all nations so that we can sow seeds and reach the hearts of those at the edges of the world. Through the Great Commission, we are all called to the missions field, whether it is here at home or overseas. How can we respond to this calling so that we can engage in meaningful cross cultural relationships and be beacons of light in our world?

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20 (NIV)

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Law’s Trip to East Asia 2016

The East Asia Missions trip experience was one that allowed me to deepen my relationship with a missional God who cares deeply for the unreached. During the months leading up to the trip, I felt so overwhelmed with the fears of everything that could go wrong, especially since I’ve never been away from home for so long and was going to be with the same group of students for 5 weeks. However, I also felt God challenging me to trust him and allow him to lead me. While I was in East Asia, I learned the importance of vulnerability, which unified and brought our team closer together.

We experienced hardships as a team, but we learned to pray and to have faith in our God, who was big enough to protect us. We did a lot of initiative evangelism with the students on the university campus there, where we had the opportunity to enter into spiritual conversations and share the gospel message with them. Each student had a different story to tell, and many of them had their own unique challenges that were preventing them from knowing God. Bob was one student that my partner and I got a chance to meet. We were able to meet up with him to share about God’s grace towards sinful human beings and how he gives each individual the opportunity to accept Christ into their lives. He later prayed to receive Christ and I saw the joyful expression on his face when my partner and I told him that he was now a part of God’s big family. As a team, we learned to give God control during our conversations and to realize that it is only God who is able to change the hearts of the students.

We were merely vessels who God chooses to use to bring the gospel message to others, but we need to do it with love and humility. What surprised me was the amount of missionaries who were already working on our university campus, with the same desire to reach out to the university students there. It showed that our team was merely entering a city where God had begun his work far before we stepped into the country and would continue to work after we leave. The missionary team that welcomed us into the city was extremely hospitable and would always treat us out for food. We got the opportunity to go on prayer walks with them to pray for the people affected by the corruption happening in the country and the rise of materialism in the city.

Lastly, I was challenged throughout the trip to put on an eternal perspective, because what we do and the way we interact with others impacts people’s lives eternally. Please continue to pray that God would break down the walls that are preventing students from knowing him personally and that God would send more workers into the city to share the good news to those who have never heard.

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Tim's Desert Rain Trip

In May of 2016, I embarked on a six week missions trip codenamed “Desert Rain” to a closed country in the Arab world, a place where the culture is unquestionably and overwhelmingly shaped by the Islam faith, where missionaries have been continually expelled and the gospel has been repeatedly rejected, where security is at an all-time high due to threats from ISIS and other radical terrorist groups. At this point, maybe you’re asking – why? Why go to a nation which can only be described as a desert, both spiritually and literally?

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19 (NIV)

More than a little ironically, it is for these exact reasons why I went to Desert Rain – because above all else, it is a place in dire need of the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.

Our ministry was primarily focused on university students - independent, critical thinkers who consider themselves progressive and have a desire to make an impact on their world. Occasionally, we would go to universities and make presentations about Canada as an entry point to meeting students, but most days we would simply stroll along the busy streets, approaching strangers as they passed by and introducing ourselves as exchange students wanting to learn more about their country. The hospitality and friendliness we consistently encountered during these conversations made it exponentially easier to adjust to the many cultural differences, as our newfound friends took us to chaotic marketplaces and welcomed us into their homes for tea. Building a relationship of trust was essential because more often than not, our friends knew next to nothing about Christianity or had misconceptions about what it meant to be a follower of Christ. This led to a fair share of long discussions bordering on debates as we patiently explained the idea of the Trinity or the seemingly paradoxical concept of a just yet forgiving God.

Over the course of six weeks, I was blessed to get to know some incredible people and share the gospel with them for the first time in their lives. One of the friends I made was Rachid, whose slicked back hair and casual demeanour belied a growing disillusion with the Islam faith. Dissatisfied with the false sense of religious freedom permeating his city, he wanted to learn more about Christianity and explore different ideas of who God really is. We had the opportunity to open up the Bible and share the gospel with Rachid on multiple occasions, and although he did not accept Christ in our time there, we left him with an Arabic Bible and more importantly, greater doubts about his current reality.

In the past, bringing up Christianity or the Bible would lead to awkward silences or heated arguments. However, hearing the many stories of open-mindedness and a willingness to go against the grain of society leaves no question that God is working in the culture of Desert Rain and opening up the hearts of students to seek spiritual truth. Extraordinarily, one girl came to Christ in just five meetings with her Canadian friends!

Serving in Desert Rain and being a witness to God’s incredible work has shown me that cross-cultural missions is not without sacrifice and hardship. In fact, Jesus has sent us out “like sheep among wolves”. But as followers of Christ, we are called to die to ourselves and surrender everything to Him. This one girl that accepted Christ did so in the face of government persecution and societal oppression, giving up everything she once knew and believed in to follow Jesus. How do we, as Christians, take up our cross every day and follow Him?

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Vivian's Guatemala Trip

Going to Guatemala definitely felt like the right step in my faith journey. Though God closed a door that summer, He opened so many others to enable me to go to Guate. Now that I’m looking back at the progression from the trip, I realized that many more doors were opened exactly because of what I learned and experienced there. Living life immersed in a different culture allowed me to tangibly hear that the call to follow Jesus means we are to extend beyond mere sympathy when engaging in cross cultural interactions and that Jesus’ love for us allows us to extend this same love towards our global neighbors no matter what country they come from or the community they identify with. This trip left me with more than just memories but rather a passion to encourage others to obey the call to missions, the courage to speak out about the issues of the global church, and the vocabulary to deliver the thoughts God has impressed upon my heart.

In Guatemala, we taught VBS, encouraged the local Chinese Alliance Church, and helped with construction of a home for Roman and his family. Here is a little reflection from my last day: “On the last day of the trip, as the tires pulled away from the curb, my mind ran as fast as the car did- flashbacks to all the wonderful memories made in the quaint little side alleys, the woman selling baby ducks at the end of the street, the little town square where I played soccer and basketball with my students. Instead of feeling unhappy however, I felt a reassuring calmness in my heart knowing that these kids are well cared for here and that God is moving so tangibly in this community.

I went to bed with a feeling of satisfaction and completeness that God has been glorified on this trip- a feeling that supersedes the physical pains in my muscles and the emotional struggles of leaving a country that I've grown to love. As I boarded my flight and looked out at the contrast between the pilots checking the dials and whistles of the control panel down to the ground crew preparing the plane for take off, I was reminded that everyone is called to bear a different, but no less important part of the cross.

Pertaining particularly to missions- while some people may never be called to go on a missions trip personally, they play no less of a role in the expansion of the Kingdom. They can support missionaries financially and also be part of a church that sends missions teams abroad. My hope is that God will stir the hearts of our local community to realize the importance of their partnership with the global church, to experience worship from every tribe, nation, people, and language, and to participate in the reconciling work of the cross that tore down the divisions in our world.

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Vivian's Project Shine

I've taught a lot of students throughout the years but my class in Rongshui was the hardest working group I've ever encountered. English is hard for them and when I was correcting their homework, grammar and spelling mistakes were too many to count. However, instead of feeling disappointed by their lack of English skills, these students tried even harder! They used their breaks and lunch times to ask us questions in English and practiced speaking with their peers in their free time. Day by day, they didn't need us to translate as many words for them in class and I can really see their progress through the time we were there.

Although we were there to teach them English, our students in many ways, taught us more. Throughout the two weeks, we were showered with kindness and smiles- a simpler way of looking at life. Although our students don't have very much, their community and relationships with each other gives them everlasting wealth. They've taught me to appreciate the people around me and to take hold of each moment-- to try my best when I am in a difficult position and to realize how lucky I am to live here in Canada.

At the end of our two weeks, we were able to have one-on-one conversations with our students. During this time, they shared with us their stresses of life, family, dreams, and hopes for their futures. Many of our students were overjoyed that strangers that don’t even know them would fly across the country for two weeks to teach them English. They realize the privilege they have by being in the Project Shine program and feel loved by the time and effort we put in-not only into our teaching but also in connecting with each and every one of them on an individual level.

So at the core of this program is love-- the all encompassing and unconditional love that comes only from our God. What moved my students most was seeing this overflow of love in the way we interact with them and how, by our actions, we mirror, if only by a small fragment the kind of love we experience from our Abba Father. By sacrificing a little bit of time, I had the opportunity to share what my students proclaim as an unexpected and overwhelming kind of love. Through this experience, I discovered more about the world formed by our Creator, grew in my Spiritual journey, and helped introduce students to our amazing God!