I've made it! I'm alive, and it wasn't all that bad! I've been in Vancouver for a little over 24 hours now; and since I had a final thoughts before leaving, I'm going to jot down a few initial thoughts after arriving.
First and foremost, I have to apologize to my family because I don't usually take the time to say a good heartfelt goodbye - I'm bad at it, and I really just don't like it. It's not that I don't care enough to say a "proper" goodbye, I just prefer things to be quick and painless. I've seen many families hug it out and sob for hours, but I'm really not about that. Sorry if you disagree with me, it's just not my style. And quite frankly, I'm a guy and I have an ego to protect whether I like it or not. The crying in public thing... nah. Finally, I just don't believe in saying the type of goodbye where it seems like we'll never see each other again.
When I landed, I was pretty tired, as I didn't really sleep much the night before leaving. As you can tell from my last post, I really was not feeling well. But thanks to being so joyfully greeted by my cousins, I was able to get excited pretty quickly. We went to Aberdeen, because it was close to the airport, for supper, and then we got back to Jon's place to get settled in. It's amazing how much more at ease I am just because I have family here, people I know and can trust. I never had that in Calgary, so settling in was difficult. I feel right at home already.
I didn't go to Newbern this morning because I wanted to take the opportunity to visit another church one last time before I'm basically stapled to the one I work at.
Over the next couple days, I hope to get a couple things sorted out before starting work and moving into my place. There's not a whole lot that I have to apply for or transfer over from Alberta; the only actual things I need to get changed is to apply for a BC health card and a new driver's license. Other than that, I think I'm pretty well set and ready to begin.
The first thing I'll need to get over as soon as I can is that I'm not here in Vancouver for vacation anymore. When I landed, the flight attendant was doing her usual thing by talking through the intercom, and the part that I caught was: "if Vancouver is home, welcome home!" I thought to myself, yeah, this is home now. And I'll need to keep reminding myself this over the next while because everything seems way too surreal now. Also, this is the third time I've come to Vancouver in the last three months - the feeling is familiar. This city has always been a place I associated vacation with. However, this has all changed now as I learn to adopt it as my new home.
About my job, I've already been asked two or three times today at 5 Stones of how I feel moving down and starting my first pastoral job. I thought about it each time and I really didn't have a feeling I could give an answer to. I'm not really feeling nervous, not overly excited, not anxious, not much. So, I guess if I really had to give an answer, I'd say that I'm feeling quite relaxed.
I have to thank God for allowing me to feel this way, because if I take the time to look at what's in front of me, I have every reason to be freaking out. But as I told one of the people that asked me about how I feel today, it's probably better that I don't feel anything as opposed to being overwhelmed by the culture shock and the task that's laid out in front of me. Another word that came to mind was "suppressed." All my thoughts and emotions seem to have been surpressed since arriving. I think that there's a good chance I will feel the effects of them maybe a month later or a couple months later, but as of now, I really do feel a peace inside of me.
Not only that, but I already feel that drive and passion begin to burn inside of me, telling me that this is what I need to work on, this is where I have to go, this is what I need to do to get there. Let me be the first to tell you, with what I've been challenged with in the first 24 hours of being here, I'm going to struggle the crap out of it. But you know what, this comes with the cost of being a disciple, and I'm okay with that. My end goal is to be like Christ, so I don't really care what hurdles are in the way, I know I have to get over them even if there are times I don't want to.
So to sum it up a little bit, I feel good. I feel encouraged, excited to be starting a new journey. I feel challenged, knowing how I need to shape myself to be in the position I need to be for this job. I feel blessed, being given everything I need, from family to resources. And, I feel thankful, having come this far in my young life because God has called me here.
When I move into my place, you can look forward to an MTV Cribs syled tour of my suite! It'll be awesome.
Monday, September 29, 2014
Saturday, September 27, 2014
If These Wings Could Fly
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." - Wayne Gretzky
Yes, I'm going to open with a cliche, cheesy quote that everyone knows and yet always seems to get wrong.
People always tell me how they are so excited for me and how where my life is going would be fun or amazing. While I don't necessarily disagree, I always let my timidness get the best of me. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this (probably have, given that I lack a filter sometimes), but everytime I've left home, beginning with my internship to UrbanPromise back in 2008, I've been depressed the week leading up to leaving, and the week after leaving. So, yes, everytime I've had to leave for Calgary, when I left each week during AIA, when I left for Saskatchewan, I've had extreme difficulties dealing with my emotions. Over time, I've learned, not by choice, to hide it all inside. It's not anxiety, though there is some of it, that gets the best of me, I think it's just that people are usually scared of uncertainty and I'm no different. I like being comfortable and being in a place where I can let down my guard - who doesn't?
Therefore, I apologize for the overall negative and sad tone of this blog post.
This past week, I've had trouble sleeping again; and even when I did sleep, my dreams were so vivid and so strange that I would wake up feeling like I didn't sleep at all and very confused as to what my dreams were even about. I wish it didn't have to be this way, but there's no turning back now. On top of this, I've been second guessing my decision to move to Vancouver literally every day. I don't try to, but I always find myself asking why I couldn't just find a church in Edmonton and explore the church that caught my attention here. The voices tell me that, yeah, I should've just found a church in Edmonton, NEAC even, and then I could do my thing all while being able to be at home and being close to my friends and family. And while I agree that I could've taken this "easy way out," it's not what will grow me the most. I would love to come back to Edmonton to be a pastor in the future, just not now.
Tomorrow, I say farewell to the place I call home. I've mentioned that I never really found Calgary to be home; and Saskatchewan got close, but I wasn't there long enough. Edmonton raised me and I'm who I am today because of this city and the people I've known. This city is, and probably always will be, home for me. I'm not sure how long into my new life in ministry it will take for me to be comfortable to call wherever I'm at "home," so it'll be interesting to see where this goes.
To all my friends and family, thank you.
I love each and everyone of you more than you know and I'm so grateful that I've had the honor to know you in my lifetime. I'm probably the worst person when it comes to describing and showing appreciation because I've always been shy. Every night, I wonder to myself why God has chosen me, in many regards, to be so blessed and filled with an abundance. I see so many of the people I care about that are seemingly so much less fortunate than I am and ask God, why can't they have what I have? I am no more deserving than anyone with anything that God has given me, but I know that he loves each one of us the same and nothing could ever change that. There are people far more capable than I am, and I do often wish for these people to be doing what I'm doing instead of me. However, we're all called to fulfill God's will in our own unique way, and no matter how I feel at the end of the day, I am thankful that this is the path I have.
Even though I leave, this is not goodbye. I would love, more than anything, for you to come visit me in Vancouver if you have the chance. I made it to this point of my life because of you, and I still need you to help me move forward. Without you, my friends and family, I am nothing.
So here we are. As life goes on for everyone, I begin a new one. To answer your questions of my impression on this move: yes, I am beyond scared. But underneath that fear, there is an ocean of excitement, determination, and feeling of adventure.
I attended a chapel service at school a couple years back, we had a guest speaker. I remember his challenge to us: when given two choices, pick the harder path. I have no idea why, but that challenge has stuck with me and is now paying dividends. I've picked this church, where the task for me to take this church to where God wants it to go is overwhelming. But if these wings do indeed fly, it will be purely because of God's grace. I've picked the hard road because I know that it will challenge me even further to place my faith in God, trusting that he will deliver and change lives. Everything that I might be able to accomplish will be because of God's strength, not mine.
There you have it, my final thoughts before taking off tomorrow evening. Thank you to everyone in what you've done for me in my life. As I go to this new place, I am representing you in what you've made me into and the place that I am from, and I hope I do you proud.
~ Hope to see you soon.
EDIT: By the way, if you are a regular on my blog, I'm slowly pulling back from my social media. Not to say that I'm on the Facebook or Twitter all day long, but I've started for about a month to retract the amount I put up on these social sites. As of now, I'll probably stick to updating on this blog and on Facebook. You'll still likely see the odd picture on Instagram, but other than that, I'm removing myself from the internet to focus my attention more on the real life interactions. Thanks.
Yes, I'm going to open with a cliche, cheesy quote that everyone knows and yet always seems to get wrong.
People always tell me how they are so excited for me and how where my life is going would be fun or amazing. While I don't necessarily disagree, I always let my timidness get the best of me. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this (probably have, given that I lack a filter sometimes), but everytime I've left home, beginning with my internship to UrbanPromise back in 2008, I've been depressed the week leading up to leaving, and the week after leaving. So, yes, everytime I've had to leave for Calgary, when I left each week during AIA, when I left for Saskatchewan, I've had extreme difficulties dealing with my emotions. Over time, I've learned, not by choice, to hide it all inside. It's not anxiety, though there is some of it, that gets the best of me, I think it's just that people are usually scared of uncertainty and I'm no different. I like being comfortable and being in a place where I can let down my guard - who doesn't?
Therefore, I apologize for the overall negative and sad tone of this blog post.
This past week, I've had trouble sleeping again; and even when I did sleep, my dreams were so vivid and so strange that I would wake up feeling like I didn't sleep at all and very confused as to what my dreams were even about. I wish it didn't have to be this way, but there's no turning back now. On top of this, I've been second guessing my decision to move to Vancouver literally every day. I don't try to, but I always find myself asking why I couldn't just find a church in Edmonton and explore the church that caught my attention here. The voices tell me that, yeah, I should've just found a church in Edmonton, NEAC even, and then I could do my thing all while being able to be at home and being close to my friends and family. And while I agree that I could've taken this "easy way out," it's not what will grow me the most. I would love to come back to Edmonton to be a pastor in the future, just not now.
Tomorrow, I say farewell to the place I call home. I've mentioned that I never really found Calgary to be home; and Saskatchewan got close, but I wasn't there long enough. Edmonton raised me and I'm who I am today because of this city and the people I've known. This city is, and probably always will be, home for me. I'm not sure how long into my new life in ministry it will take for me to be comfortable to call wherever I'm at "home," so it'll be interesting to see where this goes.
To all my friends and family, thank you.
I love each and everyone of you more than you know and I'm so grateful that I've had the honor to know you in my lifetime. I'm probably the worst person when it comes to describing and showing appreciation because I've always been shy. Every night, I wonder to myself why God has chosen me, in many regards, to be so blessed and filled with an abundance. I see so many of the people I care about that are seemingly so much less fortunate than I am and ask God, why can't they have what I have? I am no more deserving than anyone with anything that God has given me, but I know that he loves each one of us the same and nothing could ever change that. There are people far more capable than I am, and I do often wish for these people to be doing what I'm doing instead of me. However, we're all called to fulfill God's will in our own unique way, and no matter how I feel at the end of the day, I am thankful that this is the path I have.
Even though I leave, this is not goodbye. I would love, more than anything, for you to come visit me in Vancouver if you have the chance. I made it to this point of my life because of you, and I still need you to help me move forward. Without you, my friends and family, I am nothing.
So here we are. As life goes on for everyone, I begin a new one. To answer your questions of my impression on this move: yes, I am beyond scared. But underneath that fear, there is an ocean of excitement, determination, and feeling of adventure.
I attended a chapel service at school a couple years back, we had a guest speaker. I remember his challenge to us: when given two choices, pick the harder path. I have no idea why, but that challenge has stuck with me and is now paying dividends. I've picked this church, where the task for me to take this church to where God wants it to go is overwhelming. But if these wings do indeed fly, it will be purely because of God's grace. I've picked the hard road because I know that it will challenge me even further to place my faith in God, trusting that he will deliver and change lives. Everything that I might be able to accomplish will be because of God's strength, not mine.
There you have it, my final thoughts before taking off tomorrow evening. Thank you to everyone in what you've done for me in my life. As I go to this new place, I am representing you in what you've made me into and the place that I am from, and I hope I do you proud.
~ Hope to see you soon.
EDIT: By the way, if you are a regular on my blog, I'm slowly pulling back from my social media. Not to say that I'm on the Facebook or Twitter all day long, but I've started for about a month to retract the amount I put up on these social sites. As of now, I'll probably stick to updating on this blog and on Facebook. You'll still likely see the odd picture on Instagram, but other than that, I'm removing myself from the internet to focus my attention more on the real life interactions. Thanks.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
The Good Note
B-flat is my favorite key in music. There's just something about the way the frequencies of the notes resonate in your ears when you hear a song played/sung in this key. I'm not sure where I developed the particularity towards such a strange thing in music, but I've always had these sorts of quirks. To make me sound even more like a dork, and to give some contrast, I find the saddest key to be D-minor. You can define what "sad" means in this case.
As I sit here listening to Jason Mraz's new album, "Yes," I'm basically counting down the days until I leave. Speaking of Mraz and music, I will be attending his concert in Vancouver at the end of October. To say that I am excited for this is a severe understatement.
Touching on the topic of Vancouver, I'm every bit as reluctant as I am nervous. I'll be on my own now, and given who I am and some of the things I've struggled with in my life, I question every day about whether or not I'm ready to be doing this. Confidence has never been a strength for me, and so I'll always doubt myself and somewhat return to the things that I know and am comfortable with. However, the fact that I feel this way about moving to Vancouver is the very reason I need to do it. Time and time again in my life where I'm forced to step out into the world, I grow. And this is where the excitement comes in. I'm a bit of a visionary, so I'm always picturing myself in certain cases where I'm making an impact around the people I'm with.
Even though I'm someone that doesn't have confidence, I do have confidence in the fact that I'm being taken care of. During my week of coaching with AIA this past summer, I was my usual self being timid on the first day as I am trying to catch up to the other 4 coaches and finding my place on the team all while needing to perform - meaning that I had to actually teach the kids how to play soccer and teach them about Christ. I forget when I mentioned that I am a pastor, but after the first drill, one of the volunteers, an older lady, comes up to me with a big smile and says to me, "coach Sunny, you're going to be a great pastor! I just know it." I think she could see that I was completely caught off guard by the comment so she explained to me why she thinks so. And after she told me, I could openly admit that I wasn't even aware that these little things I was doing within the first couple hours of camp would be noticeable. So I concluded that this was only possible because of the people that have raised me and grown me. I managed to pick up on habits, attitudes, etc., from people that have shaped me into being able to do such things that can draw such a comment. That volunteer made my day, and I was so incredibly grateful.
So, coming back to the Vancouver thing, I have no doubt that God will take care of me. I just have to battle my weakness of being afraid of things. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm super stoked to get to know these people and help reshape their church. I'm a big picture guy, so I'm also eager to see the potential that is in these people and how we'll be able to get there together.
Due to circumstances, and I might even lean toward them as unfortunate, I really haven't been serving in church since the end of my internship. I definitely feel terrible about it. During my last semester, I said that I'd take a break because I was really tired, so I did. Coming home for the summer though, I always felt like I could contribute, but I didn't. Other than helping with worship a couple times and volunteering during the week of soccer camp, I haven't done anything to help my home church.
It's a little sad on my part to think that everything I had done and accomplished for God before bible college is now basically vanished. To me, the generation is mostly turned over. So I start to question many things, the latest being whether or not I've overstayed my time at home. Admittedly, it's a little difficult for me to do much knowing that I'm just going to leave again, so I can't really commit. But the thing that pains me the most is to watch those who are serving now basically having to relearn everything that I learned when I grew up serving. It puts a bit of a salty taste in my mouth because this indicates that I may not have completed my job in passing on what I had going for me. I've gone from "the guy that plays guitar and leads worship" to "oh yeah, he's Justin's/Sarah's older brother." Instead of being engulfed by service, I'm left a bystander.
I'm not okay with this because I'm still way too passionate about my home church. I want so badly for my friends and family to have a fire the size of the freakin' sun for God; and instead, it seems more like we're shivering in the cold while someone tries to restart the fire for us. So, what this means for me going forward, especially into Newbern, is that I have to make sure that God's work through me is at least as close to finish as possible before I leave. I am as determined as I've ever been in my life to be so passionate about Christ and the Church that it infects the church and community I'll be working in. I don't want to end up leaving due to selfish reasons, only when God calls me elsewhere. I have absolutely no idea how to get there or if it'll happen the way I envision it at all, but I'm all-in.
It starts with me - this is my good note.
As I sit here listening to Jason Mraz's new album, "Yes," I'm basically counting down the days until I leave. Speaking of Mraz and music, I will be attending his concert in Vancouver at the end of October. To say that I am excited for this is a severe understatement.
Touching on the topic of Vancouver, I'm every bit as reluctant as I am nervous. I'll be on my own now, and given who I am and some of the things I've struggled with in my life, I question every day about whether or not I'm ready to be doing this. Confidence has never been a strength for me, and so I'll always doubt myself and somewhat return to the things that I know and am comfortable with. However, the fact that I feel this way about moving to Vancouver is the very reason I need to do it. Time and time again in my life where I'm forced to step out into the world, I grow. And this is where the excitement comes in. I'm a bit of a visionary, so I'm always picturing myself in certain cases where I'm making an impact around the people I'm with.
Even though I'm someone that doesn't have confidence, I do have confidence in the fact that I'm being taken care of. During my week of coaching with AIA this past summer, I was my usual self being timid on the first day as I am trying to catch up to the other 4 coaches and finding my place on the team all while needing to perform - meaning that I had to actually teach the kids how to play soccer and teach them about Christ. I forget when I mentioned that I am a pastor, but after the first drill, one of the volunteers, an older lady, comes up to me with a big smile and says to me, "coach Sunny, you're going to be a great pastor! I just know it." I think she could see that I was completely caught off guard by the comment so she explained to me why she thinks so. And after she told me, I could openly admit that I wasn't even aware that these little things I was doing within the first couple hours of camp would be noticeable. So I concluded that this was only possible because of the people that have raised me and grown me. I managed to pick up on habits, attitudes, etc., from people that have shaped me into being able to do such things that can draw such a comment. That volunteer made my day, and I was so incredibly grateful.
So, coming back to the Vancouver thing, I have no doubt that God will take care of me. I just have to battle my weakness of being afraid of things. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm super stoked to get to know these people and help reshape their church. I'm a big picture guy, so I'm also eager to see the potential that is in these people and how we'll be able to get there together.
Due to circumstances, and I might even lean toward them as unfortunate, I really haven't been serving in church since the end of my internship. I definitely feel terrible about it. During my last semester, I said that I'd take a break because I was really tired, so I did. Coming home for the summer though, I always felt like I could contribute, but I didn't. Other than helping with worship a couple times and volunteering during the week of soccer camp, I haven't done anything to help my home church.
It's a little sad on my part to think that everything I had done and accomplished for God before bible college is now basically vanished. To me, the generation is mostly turned over. So I start to question many things, the latest being whether or not I've overstayed my time at home. Admittedly, it's a little difficult for me to do much knowing that I'm just going to leave again, so I can't really commit. But the thing that pains me the most is to watch those who are serving now basically having to relearn everything that I learned when I grew up serving. It puts a bit of a salty taste in my mouth because this indicates that I may not have completed my job in passing on what I had going for me. I've gone from "the guy that plays guitar and leads worship" to "oh yeah, he's Justin's/Sarah's older brother." Instead of being engulfed by service, I'm left a bystander.
I'm not okay with this because I'm still way too passionate about my home church. I want so badly for my friends and family to have a fire the size of the freakin' sun for God; and instead, it seems more like we're shivering in the cold while someone tries to restart the fire for us. So, what this means for me going forward, especially into Newbern, is that I have to make sure that God's work through me is at least as close to finish as possible before I leave. I am as determined as I've ever been in my life to be so passionate about Christ and the Church that it infects the church and community I'll be working in. I don't want to end up leaving due to selfish reasons, only when God calls me elsewhere. I have absolutely no idea how to get there or if it'll happen the way I envision it at all, but I'm all-in.
It starts with me - this is my good note.
Friday, September 5, 2014
This Time's For Real
School was basically wiped out of my mind, so it was strange to see so many people with backpacks on the streets going to and from school. Life is busy again. For the second time in my life, I'm sitting at home while everyone's back to their routine. Though I must also say that as time has passed, more and more of my age group is moving past the school stage.
Now I've joined them.
First things first, I got the job. My official start date is Oct 1, and the move in date to my new place is also Oct 1. Let me tell you about how it all went down. EDIT: I'm the English Pastor at Newbern Memorial Alliance Church.
Well, when I got to Vancouver, I wasn't prepared for the weekend (and that might be an understatement). Thankfully, my cousin picked me up from the airport and I got to have a good chat with him over supper before heading back to my hotel. I was scheduled to attend the youth group BBQ on Saturday night, preach Sunday morning, then have the official interview after lunch on the same day.
So I spent most of my Saturday preparing for the sermon, and thankfully, what I preached on was a lot of what I needed to hear myself. The area that my hotel was in was rather noisy, especially with construction going on, so it was tough to keep focused; there was also an Eskimos game that afternoon on TV. While I made decent progress on my sermon, I had to take a couple hours to go meet the youth.
A few things that surprised me about the youth: they are extremely tight knit, and they speak amazing Chinese. The latter is probably a Vancouver thing, so I'll let it go. They're all really nice and polite... in most senses. After we ate, we were to have some kind of sharing thing, in which I would be sharing about myself and my spiritual journey. So the part-time pastor that was there started talking after we gathered to sit in a circle, but the kids wouldn't stop talking. I was a bit baffled as to why it took such a long time for them to settle down. However, when I started talking, and because I'm the new guy, they all listened pretty well, I think. Overall, it was a good night, the kids are really nice. The group's only about 10-15 big, but I like that size; I can work with that.
The next morning, I got to the church, and as expected, the congregation is young and small. What blew my mind, though I don't know why, was how insanely traditional their worship structure and format was. It's strange because I was told that this is a more traditional church, but maybe I didn't expect it to be that traditional in the sense that I haven't seen such a traditional format since I was a little child. Ultimately, I think this was what held me back the most from being excited about the job. As for the sermon, it was pretty good! It went a lot better than I expected, and from what I heard, it seems to have been received well too.
After the service, I sat in on the adult Sunday school class. Before the class even began, I knew what I needed to address first in this church: DO NOT, EVER, WATER DOWN YOUR COFFEE! That was such a crime, I almost cried. Instead of topping off their cups with coffee, they filled it with hot water - sad days. All jokes aside, these adults are really awesome and it was fun to listen in on their conversations about several things.
Moving ahead to the interview, and to put it quite frankly, it wasn't much of one. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, it only lasted about 45 minutes, most of which I answered questions that I already answered when I met them the first time. I didn't really get to ask any of the questions I had for the church, but I guess that's okay; I'll find out the answers in due time.
Originally, I thought it'd take about a week or two for them to get back to me with an offer or decline in my application. However, they contacted me that very night to give me the job. I was so caught off guard that I wasn't ready to accept it. I was still trying to recover from the exhaustion after preaching, and here they basically throw the next several years of my life at me, saying, "come! Come now!"
I wasn't ready.
So after having talked it through with a few people I highly respect, it ultimately came down to me and what was holding me back from accepting the job. When I talked to the senior pastor on Wednesday morning, something hit me. During the conversation, I was reminded of how I felt when I originally went to Saskatchewan to do my internship and how it eventually turned out. For some reason, this feeling of reluctance to accept the offer felt the same; so without hesitation, I immediately accepted the job during that phone conversation. I had asked for a week to pray and decide, but I knew then that this job was for me.
Skipping ahead, because this post is already way too long, I got all the details figured out, and all that was left was for the move down to Vancouver. When I accepted the job, my parents immediately began helping me find places to live. This being Vancouver, everything is beyond ridiculous in terms of rent. And with what I am getting paid, there's literally no way I could live comfortably given the position I'm in. I won't tell you how much I make, but I'll let you know that I make even less than starting/new pastors in Alberta. The C&MA has guidelines given out to churches to let them know roughly how much pastors should be paid, but it doesn't account for the cost of living and all those things. I really don't want my salary to influence my ministry here, so I'm going to try to make as small a deal of it as possible, but I do feel like it will affect me in my work if I can't even afford to meet my basic needs.
With that being said, on Sunday, my parents and I had basically given up on finding an apartment for the time being because everything was bloody expensive and way over my budget - even the crappy places. However, my flight randomly decided to get delayed by about 2 and a half hours, so we managed to arrange a last minute visit to a house with a 2 bedroom basement suite. We got there, had a nice viewing and a good chat, found out that that family is pretty new to the church as well and attend one of the Alliance churches not too far from the place. They were nice enough and understanding enough to see my job and took the rent down to $920/month when they could've easily charged over $1000 for the place. So I signed away my lease, at least for the first year. My ultimate goal is still to have my own apartment (renting, of course), but I'll make do with what I have for now. $920/month is still almost half my take home salary for the month, so that tells you how much I make and how, if you've done the rent/mortgage thing, that almost half your salary on rent is WAY too much. But, it's the best that we could do, and I know God always provides, so I'll stay faithful in this regard that things will ease up a bit.
Finally, to wrap things up, I'm super stoked to be starting a new life down in Vancouver. I'm ready for the culture shock, the burnt/undercooked meals, the independent life that awaits me. Of course, there's also stress that comes with it, but I'm going to focus more on what excites me, and that is the ministry that God has placed in front of me for the next few years.
Feel free to talk to me, send me an email, or give me a call if you're interested in knowing more. I've really only covered the surface of things, so if you're interested, I'd love to chat.
Now to plan out the things I need to do before leaving.
Now I've joined them.
First things first, I got the job. My official start date is Oct 1, and the move in date to my new place is also Oct 1. Let me tell you about how it all went down. EDIT: I'm the English Pastor at Newbern Memorial Alliance Church.
Well, when I got to Vancouver, I wasn't prepared for the weekend (and that might be an understatement). Thankfully, my cousin picked me up from the airport and I got to have a good chat with him over supper before heading back to my hotel. I was scheduled to attend the youth group BBQ on Saturday night, preach Sunday morning, then have the official interview after lunch on the same day.
So I spent most of my Saturday preparing for the sermon, and thankfully, what I preached on was a lot of what I needed to hear myself. The area that my hotel was in was rather noisy, especially with construction going on, so it was tough to keep focused; there was also an Eskimos game that afternoon on TV. While I made decent progress on my sermon, I had to take a couple hours to go meet the youth.
A few things that surprised me about the youth: they are extremely tight knit, and they speak amazing Chinese. The latter is probably a Vancouver thing, so I'll let it go. They're all really nice and polite... in most senses. After we ate, we were to have some kind of sharing thing, in which I would be sharing about myself and my spiritual journey. So the part-time pastor that was there started talking after we gathered to sit in a circle, but the kids wouldn't stop talking. I was a bit baffled as to why it took such a long time for them to settle down. However, when I started talking, and because I'm the new guy, they all listened pretty well, I think. Overall, it was a good night, the kids are really nice. The group's only about 10-15 big, but I like that size; I can work with that.
The next morning, I got to the church, and as expected, the congregation is young and small. What blew my mind, though I don't know why, was how insanely traditional their worship structure and format was. It's strange because I was told that this is a more traditional church, but maybe I didn't expect it to be that traditional in the sense that I haven't seen such a traditional format since I was a little child. Ultimately, I think this was what held me back the most from being excited about the job. As for the sermon, it was pretty good! It went a lot better than I expected, and from what I heard, it seems to have been received well too.
After the service, I sat in on the adult Sunday school class. Before the class even began, I knew what I needed to address first in this church: DO NOT, EVER, WATER DOWN YOUR COFFEE! That was such a crime, I almost cried. Instead of topping off their cups with coffee, they filled it with hot water - sad days. All jokes aside, these adults are really awesome and it was fun to listen in on their conversations about several things.
Moving ahead to the interview, and to put it quite frankly, it wasn't much of one. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, it only lasted about 45 minutes, most of which I answered questions that I already answered when I met them the first time. I didn't really get to ask any of the questions I had for the church, but I guess that's okay; I'll find out the answers in due time.
Originally, I thought it'd take about a week or two for them to get back to me with an offer or decline in my application. However, they contacted me that very night to give me the job. I was so caught off guard that I wasn't ready to accept it. I was still trying to recover from the exhaustion after preaching, and here they basically throw the next several years of my life at me, saying, "come! Come now!"
I wasn't ready.
So after having talked it through with a few people I highly respect, it ultimately came down to me and what was holding me back from accepting the job. When I talked to the senior pastor on Wednesday morning, something hit me. During the conversation, I was reminded of how I felt when I originally went to Saskatchewan to do my internship and how it eventually turned out. For some reason, this feeling of reluctance to accept the offer felt the same; so without hesitation, I immediately accepted the job during that phone conversation. I had asked for a week to pray and decide, but I knew then that this job was for me.
Skipping ahead, because this post is already way too long, I got all the details figured out, and all that was left was for the move down to Vancouver. When I accepted the job, my parents immediately began helping me find places to live. This being Vancouver, everything is beyond ridiculous in terms of rent. And with what I am getting paid, there's literally no way I could live comfortably given the position I'm in. I won't tell you how much I make, but I'll let you know that I make even less than starting/new pastors in Alberta. The C&MA has guidelines given out to churches to let them know roughly how much pastors should be paid, but it doesn't account for the cost of living and all those things. I really don't want my salary to influence my ministry here, so I'm going to try to make as small a deal of it as possible, but I do feel like it will affect me in my work if I can't even afford to meet my basic needs.
With that being said, on Sunday, my parents and I had basically given up on finding an apartment for the time being because everything was bloody expensive and way over my budget - even the crappy places. However, my flight randomly decided to get delayed by about 2 and a half hours, so we managed to arrange a last minute visit to a house with a 2 bedroom basement suite. We got there, had a nice viewing and a good chat, found out that that family is pretty new to the church as well and attend one of the Alliance churches not too far from the place. They were nice enough and understanding enough to see my job and took the rent down to $920/month when they could've easily charged over $1000 for the place. So I signed away my lease, at least for the first year. My ultimate goal is still to have my own apartment (renting, of course), but I'll make do with what I have for now. $920/month is still almost half my take home salary for the month, so that tells you how much I make and how, if you've done the rent/mortgage thing, that almost half your salary on rent is WAY too much. But, it's the best that we could do, and I know God always provides, so I'll stay faithful in this regard that things will ease up a bit.
Finally, to wrap things up, I'm super stoked to be starting a new life down in Vancouver. I'm ready for the culture shock, the burnt/undercooked meals, the independent life that awaits me. Of course, there's also stress that comes with it, but I'm going to focus more on what excites me, and that is the ministry that God has placed in front of me for the next few years.
Feel free to talk to me, send me an email, or give me a call if you're interested in knowing more. I've really only covered the surface of things, so if you're interested, I'd love to chat.
Now to plan out the things I need to do before leaving.
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