Sunday was my last real free full day to hang out with friends in the Vancouver area. I went to Hannah Wong’s church, Burnaby Alliance Church, and it was really neat to meet her family, some of the people in her congregation, and tour the building. John and I woke up late, so we ended up getting picked up by Hannah’s mom at the SkyTrain station later than we had originally planned. The service was good to observe. It really helps me to understand more about how growing Chinese churches function. There’s always going to be a stage when growth won’t always be super pretty.
After church we headed to lunch at a missionary couple’s home. Their names are Randy and Margo Hoffmann and they’ve had much experience in Muslim nations in the past. I won’t bother to go too much into detail, but the lunch barbecue was pretty much just sharing the passion for reaching the Muslim world, about our experiences on NAP, and their experiences with their organization. I also met more students from the SFU/UBC campus ministry, I think. If they weren’t involved with the campus ministry, they knew Jill through church. These people included Steve, Heather, Jordan, and Sharon, apart from those who I had met before. Nothing beats hanging out with other people who are passionate about missions and building into others’ lives. Yet again, meeting new people is still pretty awesome.
It was very hot on Sunday. After lunch we lounged in the Hoffmann’s backyard and chilled out because there was a nice breeze at one side of the house. Vancouverites rarely have air conditioning because it is usually not this hot. I came at a very unusual time. We went back to John’s place and chilled there some more, before visiting Jill’s home, checking out the sites from the top of Burnaby Mountain (the same one that SFU is situated on), and stopping by Hannah’s home. The rest of the afternoon was spent at John’s home before we got back together with Jill, her sister Grace, and their friend Paulman. We headed out to an Indian buffet.
Paulman is an interesting guy. I found it really easy to connect with him. Our group decided to take me to Whiterock Beach, which is kind of a boardwalk along the south end of town. In the end, however, I somehow took the map and navigated the vehicle to Whiterock. Heh, I guess none of them really knew about using an urban map very well.
Since then I’ve been working at the Langley office of Campus Crusade for Christ, Canada. They’ve got me settled into the marketing department at a desk in a cubicle-ish area. The people are really cool, mostly casual attitudes but work-casual dressed usually with collared shirt and slacks and shoes. I have never been working in such a professional environment and it is really cool. Kind of moving from warehouse, to bike service area, to Black’s retail, to Mississauga office, to Langley headquarters. It’s a very eye-opening experience.
Matt Campbell’s place is also pretty sweet. I get to stay in Clarke Glover’s room, as he is away in Ireland. I’ve gone shopping for groceries with Matt, watched a couple movies with him, showed him the Guelph “A Reflection” DVD. On Monday I was taken out to lunch by Dan Lum and Tracy, which was so cool, to be able to ask big questions and small questions about joining staff and technical stuff.
If I get anything out of these two weeks, I think it will be the satisfaction from picking peoples’ brains.