On this trip I had the opportunity to hear the experiences of many different brothers and sisters. One night, two from Nepal, Poonam and another boy shared how they grew up in the children’s home in Nepal. They shared with tears how grateful they were to their children’s home parents and that they could know God through them and be loved in God’s family. Their story renewed my vision. I had a strong desire to be the one to change many lives, to help the many Poonams out there. I thought about my living conditions in the Philippines—having to endure the heat, insects and insect bites, etc.—compared to living at home in Vancouver. I don’t want to be too comfortable in my own life and routine back home; I want to be challenged, and I want to live every moment to make a difference, to train myself up to do God‘s will faster. I don’t want to forget the needs of the world; I want to consider this and respond to it with God.
In this camp, I was also renewed about the concept of worship. Every morning, different groups of brothers and sisters would share their experiences. One time, there were second generation Christians who were at their 30’s, some 20’s, teenagers and children. They all shared about how blessed we were to grow up in God‘s family. Afterwards, we also had brothers and sisters who had very different experiences at the time of persecution. My heart felt touched and was thankful to God. I felt God‘s faithfulness towards each one of us even though we came from different backgrounds. I felt God’s faithfulness to this movement, that He led the first generation through persecution but at the end they could still stand firm for Him. He also raised up the second generations not only in one generation, but He continues to raise up brothers and sisters to be able to experience and love Him in different generations. He has never stopped doing His work on us and is faithful to lead us onto the right path. Even with just the sharings, my heart was brought to praise God. I really desired to thank Him, respond to Him and praise Him. I felt this was true worship from my heart.