On a HOLY MISSION

“The men’s things/bodies are holy even on missions that are not holy.” (I Samuel 21:5b)

David and his men are fleeing from Saul and they are hungry. So David goes up to Ahimelech who is a priest of God at that time and asks him if he’d have anything to give them to eat. Samuel tells David that he’s got nothing, apart from some consecrated bread. So Samuel asks David if his men are “elligible” to eat that bread, mainly, if they have kept themselves from sexual relations with women. So David replies that they always keep themselves hoyl, no matter if the mission they are on is not holy.

It makes me think. Do I allow myself to behave in an “unholy” manner when I am found in “unholy” places or with non-Christians? Because I am in places that don’t have much to do with God-stuff, like university, the streets, the métro, stores or because I am with people who maybe aren’t Chrsitians like classmates, homeless people, etc. Do I allow myself to have lower standards, because that’s not so bad, I’m not with Christians anyways? And do I suddenly lift my Christian standards only when I am in church (I sing and I look good, I am nice to people), when it’s communion (it’s the only time I actually feel “sorry” for my sins) or when I’m asked to do Christian-type of things like door-to-door evangelism or go to youth group? Am I all the sudden on a “holy mission” because I stepped into a church building or am surrounded by Christians so I need to consecrate myself and behave properly?

No matter where I am and who’s around me, I am still part of God’s army, I am still his child. The way I behave on “holy” and “unholy” missions should just be the same, my standards and values should remain the same. I am always on holy missions.

14$ was sent just today to Gospel For Asia so they can provide their missionaries with winter clothing in South Asia. Purchasing these articles is was cheaper right there in their countries, so that’s why we send money and they send it to the mission field. Thanks for those who gave. Next month’s money will go toward winter clothing again, so please give, no matter how much it is. Please go check the page “Bank for Native Missionaries” on the top of this page to know more on the why and the how you can and should be involved in providing help to your brothers and sisters in need.

Happening in South India

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Back to the Country

As you might have noticed, I was away for a week. I went to Saskatchewan, actually to Bethany College and spend some time with friends out there. It was so good and it felt as if I had never actually left Saskatchewan and Montréal and university was just a dream I had. I laughed at so many people who felt the same way too and had to look twice to realize that it was not normal that I was around. Anyways, I think it was really refreshing for me to go back and be out of Montréal and see good friends. We didn’t do anything super exciting but I enjoyed just being able to hang out with friends and talk to people I hadn’t seen for a long time, help out in the kitchen and bug Lisa for chocolate. I had fun. I didn’t want to leave last night, but I had too. Leaving people I love is always tough on me, but eh I am back now and I desperately need to go to bed. I couldn’t sleep in the plane overnight. By the way, when I went out of Saskatoon airport, it was snowing!

In Class

I find myself in a classroom again and I am not sure why exactly I am here. I feel frustrated because I don’t find meaning in what I am supposed to learn. When I look around me, I see a bunch of people, about 75 and the majority is probably going to hell, maybe everyone. What are they doing here? They are learning about various methods to teach a second language. (…) I don’t know, but to me, it does not make sense, at all. These people are all going to hell maybe tomorrow, maybe in 30 years and what they are doing to learning about language teaching. Shouldn’t they be gathered together to learn about Jesus, that there is a Savior for them? No there are learning on something that will give them a bachelors degree of some sort, that they will use later on in life. In life. I am frustrated a bit, feeling that this situation makes no sense to me, but I know that for them it’s the way life is. I have felt this strong feeling of meaninglessness as strong as right now. What am I supposed to do? I thought of walking down the auditorium and proclaiming the good news of Jesus, but I know I can’t just interupt the teacher like that, can I? But these people are all sleeping and they don’t even know it, they’re dreaming, who’s going to pinch them? There is a time for everything under the sun and I guess right now the time is for one-on-one relationships, speaking of Jesus to individuals I rub shoulders with. I don’t like the idea of a slow process, I want everybody to wake all at the same time and realize their need for Jesus.

I know this is a mood of mine and it’ll go away. Is that mood good? I think it is and I hope it remains with me so I am always seeking to speak about Jesus with actions and words, words, words.

I am going to … Saskatchewan for a week and won’t be bak until October 27. So this page shall remain has it is right now for a little while. Have a good week y’all.

Native Missionaries: 10$ as of today, Thursday October 19, 2006. Please consider giving a buck of two to help our brothers and sisters get warm clothing as they bring the Gospel to unreached areas of the 10/40 window.

On the Street

After writing a midterm tonight I walked home feeling a bit frustrated because it hadn’t gone the way I wanted it to go. So it was dark and raining pretty hard, the wind was strong, almost like a Saskatchewan wind. A supposedly homeless guy was sitting in a store entrance way so he wouldn’t get wet and even though I was listening to music, I heard him ask for change from people around me… or maybe he was talking to me, but I didn’t notice. Anyways. I walked a few more steps, but then realized I had some left over cachews from my very healthy supper. So I went back. “Are you hungry?” said I. Obviously he said yes. So I gave him my cashews. I don’t know why but he seemed to be touched in some ways. I have given bits of food to beggars before, they were all happy about it, but not like this guy, he seemed to be impressed by the act itself, not so much about the food he was getting. But anyways. I left. Then I felt like I hadn’t really given him something to chew on. I had hope and he didn’t. So I went back and asked him if he knew God. He said no. So I said, do you know Jesus. And he said “I know of him”. We didn’t talk for more than 2 minutes, but he was saying that religion was a depressing thing for him. Because according to him, the more you grow old in the faith, the more you were tempted. And he didn’t want that. I told him what I thought: that I’d rather had a hard time on earth for 80 years and then be free from sin, than to live an ok life for 80 years and go to hell. That was about it and I left.

I think it’s interesting to listen to what people think of “religion”. It’s impressive that people on the street can say things like this guy said. I think I forget that people have backgrounds and … yeah I am surprised. Anyways, I think I should be spreading the name of Jesus in the thoughts of people around me, any occasion I have.

Tired

I probably should be studying right now, but I am not because I don’t feel like it. Do I ever feel like studying anyways? I guess, I’ve been studying all day long and I’m a bit tired of it. Just so you know I rested on Sunday. I didn’t do anything school-related. I don’t feel as if it was healthy, but I guess if I keep on resting one day a week from school work, it’ll make a difference to what I will look like at the end of this semester, or year, or at the end of my bachelors -if I get there.

Could you tell me, how does someone is supposed to be encouraged? When things are just blah. Because that’s how I feel right now. I know it’s just a mood and I’ll get out of it, probably tomorrow. But I just wonder sometimes, “Gabe, why are you living at your grandparents?” it’s free, but that’s about it. I don’t really know how to decribe life here because there is no life. If you think I should get a life, come by here for a day and you’ll say my grandparents need to get a life. I mean, it’s different because they’re older, but still it is so desperate. They’re just waiting to die and I don’t know how I am fitting in this frame. I am not fitting. I guess is goes against my beliefs and thinking. I cannot stand people who don’t have a reason to live. Well I can stand them, but it annoys, frustrates me. And the fact that my grandparents have such a bad relationship I feel out-of-place. So I have been a bit discouraged there last couple of days. Sometimes I think “these are hard times” but they aren’t. Who am I to dare to think that this is sufering, oh man,  I am pretty bad. I sometimes confuse suffering for Christ’s sake and just having a bad couple of days, and I “spiritualize” my, oh so tough life of suffering at my grandparents! But even as I know that it’ll go away and that this is no way hard when compared to true suffering… I’m still not encouraged (by the way, I do know that true suffering is not just physical). Anyways, please don’t feel sorry for me, I’m leaving the “country” for a week on Friday.

I have been sending out a survey about teacher motivations… thanks for all who answered, you did it really quickly! I am opening a little survey here on this blog, would you tell us (I say us because people will obviously read your comments) what you think about people who don’t seem to have anything to live for, they’re just living, without a hope that leads their thoughts and life decisions?

Bank for Native Missionaries: 10$ as of Monday October 16 2006.

GREAT

I am really happy right now and I feel relieved. I have no friends around so I guess I’m turning to this blog to express my joy. This week is the last week before reading week and I am using this reading week as a break and I’ll be out of the “country”. Having no desire to bring homework with me, I must be done homework and essays before I leave, this Friday! This means writing a 20-page essay in two weeks instead of three and lots of reading… which is duable. But in addition to these things I still need to do this week’s homework. But on top of that… I have to study for two courses because of midterms on Tuesday and Wednesday. I felt a little overwhelmed, especially that I knew I would need a lot of study for these two courses. So, since I’m a nerd I made sure I was using my time properly this weekend to study and get things done. I don’t know why, but I got mixed up somehow. I thought my midterm was Wednesday, but it is not, it’s in November!!! SIGH. It feels really good and as if I was totally done studying now… which is not the case. But still, I am really happy of my discovery, I would have felt so discouraged if I would have gone to class on Wednesday night and find out it was a normal class. I am sharing with you a few random pictures. 

Oh by the way, I am looking for a laptop…

Break Time

I did not think my posts here would reflect so much on my little university life but it is part of my life now and 80% of my days are focused on attending classes or doing school-related work - so it seems as if I do not think so much about anything else. I find it good to be so busy with school because I can relate (at last) to many Christians whose lives are busy, so busy that they say they do not have much time to read the Word of God or pray or go to Christian meetings or read a good Christian book. Now I understand them better, but I do not necessarily want to go with the flow and think that it is true: there is no time for God because I am so busy. No I need to make time for Him, everyday. I am glad I continue, day after day to meditate on His Word and pray. These days I always feel like I want to skip my quiet time with Jesus because it would give me one more hour or so to do homework. I would like to concentrate on school alone. Well it is not what I want to do (oh man this is not an essay for university I can actually use contractions, I’m bad!) because doing homework is usually no fun. But I would accomplish much more by using God’s time to work on ressearch and the like. But that would be unhealthy and wrong for me. There is always more homework to do and more books to read anyways. If I would exchange my time with Jesus with something else, than I’d be walking alone, on my own. And I know it is God who has called me to be here at university, so why would I want Him out of my day? I would be a fool.

I was not going to write on this topic tonight. All I want to do is to take a break from essay writing. I am rather proud of myself, I’ve written almost half of it so only 10 pages left to write, I am really encouraged by this. I want to keep my focus on God and I hope I will take my Sunday totally off. I like to say that even when there are deadlines to meet and always more work to do, one needs to stop from all those activities for a day every week. When one isn’t really busy it’s easy to do. But when one’s in university and it’s mid-term… it’s different. I hope I will practice what I preach this Sunday. Keep me accountable eh?

Native Missionaries: 10$ as of Thursday, October 12, 2006. THANK YOU! This month’s monies will be given towards purchasing winter clothing for GFA missionaries.

Winter’s Comin’

If you live in Québec you probably noticed the red and orange and yellow leaves floating in the wind and that are everywhere on the ground. If you live in Saskatchewan, you probably noticed the yellow leaves too… if you’re from anywhere else in Canada, I am sure you’ve been feeling that summer is away and… winter is ahead. Just walking to university today, I was a bit cold and wondered why I wasn’t wearing warmer clothing. I’ll be getting my scarf and mits out pretty soon. This change of seasons and the temperature getting colder does not happen only in Canada my friend. I am not saying you are dumb, I just want you to think about something… CLICK HERE

Bank for Native Missionaries 0$ as of today.

Shame on Me

I am taking a break from « homeworking ». So instead of thinking about teachers’ motivations to teach and my outline, I’ll think about my little life again. It is gorgeous outside, how I wish I’d just go for a walk and take pictures of
Montreal in the fall. I love this season and this weekend is just perfect. I could go right now, but I don’t have much time in between now and the time I’ll eat supper. Thanks for the explanations Gabe. I wasn’t really smart yesterday and the story I am about to write can make me look a bit stupid or sinner. But that’s what I have on my mind right now. It’s been a while since I’m thinking to buy a new laptop. This one I am using is getting old and recently has been behaving weird. I am so scared it would die with all the information and pictures and etc. I’ve got in it. Since two weeks or so I kept having problems with the Internet too and Sympatico was telling me that my computer was the problem, and I can’t get rid of it (problem). So yesterday morning, I couldn’t use Internet, I was sick of rebooting and blab la bla, which didn’t work anymore anyways. So I went to Future Shop and I came home with a new laptop. I just felt weird about it all. It was a lot of money and my old laptop was still working, often frustrating me. I knew I had prayed about a new laptop, but that morning, I did not really take the time to sit down, take a breath and think about what God wanted. I just felt as if I had chosen to buy myself this new laptop without God in the picture. I hated the feeling. So this afternoon I return the laptop to the store. I feel much better now. You’re right, all I got is an okay, frustrating, slow laptop. But I know I’ve done the right thing. It bought the other one because I was frustrated and I just wanted to have a better one. I know that I will have to get a new one sometime soon. But I will have the right reasons to do so, and God will be in the picture.  

Yeah, I am immature and quick to fall into temptation. But I’m learning eh. That’s what is important. I thank God He didn’t allow me to feel good about this situation, that He helped me understand my motivations and why they were wrong.

By the way, the picture is a price that I got in one of my classes…. neat eh? 

Native Missionaries: 0$ as of today! Please Give!