Allting i Min hand

C (G/B Am7) D7 Bm7 Em Am7 D7 G (G7)
C D7 B7 Em C D G G7

Jag är hos dig
när problemen tar all din tid
när ditt liv verkar meningslöst
då är Jag där!
Jag är hos dig
fast du inte kan tro det nu
fast du inte har märkt mig än
så finns Jag där!

Chorus:
Och Jag har allting i Min hand,
din framtid har Jag stakad ut
Jag vet ju allt vad du behöver dag för dag
Var inte rädd; Jag älskar dig!
Du kan lita på mitt ord
Och du skall se hur jag skal leda steg för steg

Var inte rädd
när du inte kan somna om;
när du tänker på nästa dag
du har ju Mig!
Var inte rädd
fastom andra kan glömma dig
fast du känner dig värdelös
Jag tror på dig!

(Chorus)

Tänk vilken dag
när vi möts efter färdens slut
och du ser att den väg du gått
var din väg till Mig;
då ska du se att i din väv
går en tråd genom allt
och förstå att Jag har allting i min hand!

Johan's personal reflections from Toronto

What I've done in Toronto:

• I was supposed to lead games when the occasion arised, but only ended up doing it once.
• I shared my testimony 4 times
• Lead bible study once, though it didn't go so well
• Tried to clean Ivy's kitchen
• Helped making one PowerPoint
• Lead one devotion for our team
• At the Evergreen/Yonge Street mission I was stationed at the employment center. Didn't do anything much except talk a little with some people there, mostly the other volunteer workeers.
• At Fusion Toronto I gave out lunches to a few homeless people, and prayed for one or two of them. But didn't really talk much with them. In the evening I chose to help doing dishes so I wouldn't have to talk with the people who came.
• Went to some youth meetings in the various churches, but didn't really get to know anyone new.
• Listened to the worship workshop, bible study workshop, and the RHCCC Youth Leadership program (how they organize their leader structure)

What I've learned:

• The leadership structure part was interesting, they have multiple "levels" of leaders, and also different other teams like worship team, multimedia/video team, a team for graphical design/posters, etc.
• Don't let Ivy go wild when ordering food
• When sharing about the reason I don't like talking with people, I said that it might be because I have a hard time understanding people because I have bad hearing. But last time we went to Toronto I shared that I had a hard time opening up to people, and that might actually be a bigger problem. I've built a wall around my heart, not allowing myself to get closer to anyone than to a certain point. I'm not even sure if that wall is still there, but I think that even if part of the wall might be gone, I'm so used to having it that I just don't know *how* to get close to anyone.
• For now I asked Ivy's recommendation for a book about relationships with people, and I bought the devotional book she recommended. I guess I'll start on it when I get back home to Oslo.
• When at the Fusion Toronto, the thought of actually having to talk with the homeless people that we were handing out sandwiches for made me feel sick. Not because they were homeless, but because I didn't want to talk with people.
• I'm afraid of talking with people? About God? Would I have been less reluctant if I knew that I didn't have to talk about God at all? Or is it because we were supposed to try and get to know a bit about the people we talked with? What if the pastor told us to hand them sandwiches and then talk about the weather?
• No, I guess the thing is, that no matter what I talk about, I'm just not interested in the answer. I can ask a person about their school or work, and when they reply, I just don't know what to do with their answer. In fact, if I ask something and the other person actually spends a long time explaining/talking, I might even start to get bored and wonder when they'll finish. I'm uninterested in anything in the world around me. That's why I'm so bad at geography, because I simply don't care. And that's also why I hate leading bible studies and being a group leader at summer camp, because I'm unable to want to listen to people.
• I enjoy being with people, but I'm unable to be interested in their lives much. I guess this is what you'd call self-centered... But is interest in other people something that can be learned? Something I can force myself to have? If it is forced, won't people just see that it's not genuine?
• Love others like you love yourself. I know the command. Sometimes I make the excuse that maybe I'm even unable to love myself. But if that was true I guess I wouldn't have tried so much to make me comfortable and have fun?
• So why am I unable to truly turn my focus away from me and towards other people? Or rather, what can I do to make me change? Will reading the devotional book I bought be enough?
• I have to pray that I can have a heart that loves and cares about other people.
• For a long time, I thought that Rev 3:16 strikes me the most, but now I think 1 Cor 13:1-3 strikes me more.
• And yet a lot of times when people describe me they'd say that I'm kind. I guess a lot of times when I can help people, I would and I usually do. Does not this already mean that I do love them? Or am I saying I'm doing it because I expect something in return? Am I expecting people to be my friends, and that's why I help them when they ask? And when people don't ask anything of me, I do nothing for them.
• Can kind actions replace a genuine interest in other people? But no, according to 1 Cor 13:3, it can't... or rather, is interest in other people equal to love? Can I say that I Iove another person if I'm not interested in their life? That doesn't sound plausible either though.
• Maybe what I really need to look into is why I feel uninterested in other people? Is it simply because of laziness? I don't want to be interested because if I do, I'm obliged to help them out? Or I'm afraid that I can't help them with their life trouble, so I don't want to give an impression that I can, by caring too much? But no, that's probably just thinking too much into it.
• Sometimes I think that the only reason I might seem interested in people is because I like girls, so I'm much more willing to try and be interested in whatever they're saying if it's a cute girl. If I somehow didn't like girls either, I feel I would probably never talk to anyone.
• I wasn't tired as often when in Toronto, I think because I actually slept 9 hours almost every day? So lack of sleep is very likely a reason for why I feel tired often back home, when I usually go to bed too late.
• I feel like I'm getting better at not scolding people when I feel they are doing something wrong, by recalling similar bad things that I've done myself when I feel like I might get angry.
• The short movie that was shown before Toy Story 3, Day and Night, also said something similar very well. One shouldn't dislike or get angry at other people just because they are different, like different things or do things in different ways.

Things we can apply to our church:

• We might be too small to have more layered leader structure, but we might be able to have some more "teams" other than the worship team to involve more of the youth in the youth group work. F.ex. website team or multimedia team or something.
• Actually at summer camp we do have a similar leader structure now.
• Maybe we could join some volunteer activities sometimes too in Oslo? I sometimes helped at a soup kitchen arranged by a church in Trondheim. Maybe we could do something similar in Oslo?
• Untill I am able to change my personality, I guess I will try and focus on the practical work as best I can... And try not to get angry at others because I feel that they don't help out with practical work. Because I'm not helping much with worship either.

Vilhelm's personal report

Day 1(Tuesday)  
Sleep

Day 2(Wednesday)  
Get lost in a huge building and met different pastors and co-workers, like counselor Ray(which we thought was pastor Ray, thanks for clearing that up for us Ray, when reading this cause I know you are) and assistant Gloria, youth pastor Kelly Tam, cantonese pastor Hermen, English pastor Fred and Daniel and Ho-mings mom Esther, shu ling worship pastor, pastor Irene and more I don't remember names of. We had a worship workshop where we learnt about practical ways to lead worship. And then we practiced some worship. For dinner we went to pastor Kelly's home were she made us a homemade meal. Really good thanks Kelly and Victor if your reading this.      

Day 3(Thursday)
We went to Evergreen with Gloria. There I met street youth. What I remember the most is that their concerns were different from normal kid, like how to pay rent, get cloth and other necessity with we take for granted. And that they acted somewhat the same way as normal youth in despise their situation, but with some exceptions. 
Afterwards we had a guide that guided us around young-street missions different programs and buildings. I remember the guide told us a story something about how they helped all type of people and that the best way to evangelize through good deeds not word.

Day 4(friday) 
We had a workshop with Ray on how to lead bible study. I learned that bible study is about getting the group to talk and share more than getting trough the bible study it self( which I got to use later in the trip).
Then I went to hong kong it seemed, cause of the cantonese Nexus fellowship. Where we had BBQ, but didn't get to eat cause we had to leave. I think it was to little time and didn't get to know to many people and that is a little sad. They reminded me of my cousins in HK.      

Day 5(Saturday)
Grill and chill, was fun and I talked some people that had been going to the church for a while. Pastor Daniel talked about community and 5 Ts 
Trust, time, tenderness, talk and truth. The order of the words are wrong but the meaning is still there. 

Day 6(Sunday)
Nerves is what I remember from this day. I shared my testimony in front of 70-100 people. What I remember the most is the people there were very in encouraging when i told them i was nervous, which made easier for me to share( if your reading this thank you). When we ate dinner, I talk to Gloria and she asked me and Hanfeng about why Jesus Christ only had to die once for all peoples sin( answer read day 17) I could not answer.  

Day 7(monday)
Wonderland

Day 8(Tuesday)
Prep 

Day 9 (wednesday)
Pray for aunties new church in northern Toronto that she and her husband can can do great work for God there. Amen

Day 10(Thursday)
Canada day got to know people. And met pastor Jim, his wife and son

Day 11(Friday)
Buy bread and groceries for fusion Toronto then go there.

Day 12(Saturday)
Here I learnt a little bit of how to talk to strangers.And that a lot of people need the gospel.

Day 13(Sunday)
Control of the tung (James 3) ivy preach this topic
And pastor andy talked about rut 

Day 14(Monday)
Day off

Day 15(Tuesday)
Read blog I cannot say it any better

Day 16(Wednesday)
Pray meeting thanks for the encouragement from auntie (I don't remember her name)

Day 17(Thursday)
Pray for the ability to do this in my speaking
"Urgent things, say it slowly.
Big things, say it clearly.
Small things, say it humorously.
Things uncertain, say it with caution.
Things that has not happened, don't say it in vain.
Things that you have not yet done, don’t boast about it.
Things that can hurt someone, don't say it.
Distasteful things, say it with focus on the issue rather than the person.
Happy things, say it depending on the occasion.
Sad things, don't say it to every single person.
Other people’s things, say it carefully.
Your own things, listen to your heart before you speak.
Current things, say it after you finish it.
Future things, say it in the future."
And Gloria found the answer to the question in 1 corinthians 15:22, got a follow up question
"was it not two people ,in this case Adam and eve, that caused the world to fall into sin. If not does that mean that if only eve ate of the fruit the world would not fall into sin, if so does that mean that women are less worth then men?"
I think I know the answer, but I want to know what you think.   

Day 18(Friday)
Bible study day 
Today I had lead bible study, which I was not totally prepared for, but as I lead the bible study from the pre made questions I was able to formulate questions that they could apply to their lives, that I had never thought of before I believe that is God working through me. And I got one of the participant to share their testimony, which I don't think I could make anyone do if it was not for God. And thanks to Elin for helping me prepare.

Day 19 Saturday
last day packing talking to people. Saying goodbye to ivy and glen giving them a farewell-gift and 2ball shirt. No one cried until we got to the gate which was just a few steps away from were we stood a few minutes before some of the girls started to cry. It made me feel bad for not crying. And our food went through yeah!  

I hope I didn't make this report to much like the blogs report and that it can give a insight on how I experienced the trip.
Here is some contact info if anyone want to fix my grammar, or just talk.
my mail is : vvilhelm@hotmail.com          

Day 19 (Saturday 10 July)

On our last day in Toronto we started by packing as much of our luggage as we could, before gathering in Ivy's living room for devotion and sharing. Some of the Toronto youth joined us as well. Around 12 o'clock Leon, Vilhelm and I had to leave to visit our relatives. We went with them to a dimsum restaurant for lunch, and then to a Chinese supermarket for some final shopping before leaving Toronto.

When we came back to Ivy's place we found out that most of the other youth had gone to T&T for some final shopping too. They eventually came back, and pastor Jim also came over because he was going to help drive us to the airport. We gave a gift to Ivy and Glen and told them how grateful we were for having us over again. Then we spent the rest of the evening in Ivy's place talking and socializing and finishing up our packing, before we left for the airport, where we had a tearful goodbye as we went to our flight...

All of us are really missing Toronto, although we were pretty tired and slept most of the time during our travels. Thanks to pastor Ho-Ming and his family and everyone at RHCCC for hosting and teaching us, and for pastor Ivy and Glen for hosting us and keeping us busy for two weeks! Thanks to Grace and Shiina and everyone else for helping drive us around! And thanks to God for letting us all have this awesome experience! Hope to see everyone in Toronto again, either there in Toronto or maybe in Norway (or Sweden)?

We will update the blog with personal reflections on what we've learned and experienced in Toronto. Probably after our summer camp though, since everyone will probably be pretty busy during camp.

Day 18 (Friday 9 July)

Some of the Toronto youth came over pretty early today. A bunch of people went shopping for lunch/brunch while others stayed behind to pack luggage and do other work. After lunch we practiced for the youth meeting we were going to in the evening, played through the worship and tried going through Vilhelm's and my bible studies. We went to Rice Paper Viethai Cuisine for another buffet dinner before going to the meeting place for the youth meeting. Due to some misunderstanding we ended up with almost double amount of food before we cancelled the rest of our food orders, and we had some hard time trying to eat up the food we got. Luckily we didn't end up having to pay for wasted food, even though we couldn't finish our gigantic plate of fried tofu.

At the youth meeting we led the worship, had a few games, and each of us in the Norwegian mission team shared a (supposedly) shorter version of our testimonies. It was kinda funny because almost everyone mentioned the SCCC Summer Camp, which was even more apparent now because we all shared our testimonies, instead of just three or so of us like we used to do before. Also I'm not entirely convinced that we were actually able to shorten our testimonies much, because we still used almost an hour for our 11 testimonies. But I guess it was fine.

After the testimonies we splitted up into two groups for the bible studies. I led the university group with Enoch, while Vilhelm led the younger group with Elin. According to Elin Vilhelm did pretty well leading the bible study! I'm not so sure about my leading though, I feel like I got a lot of help especially from Grace who said a lot of things that I probably should have said. The others in our mission team and Helen also helped moving the bible study forward. I feel that I'm just not good at following up on things that other people say... That asides we got a bit of sharing from all of the participants, so my leading aside, I guess it was an okay bible study.

Before leaving we had some group photos with most of the Norwegian mission team (minus Yat Yiu who left after our buffet dinner to visit some relatives) and with the other youth. The Toronto youth wanted us to go with them for some night activities, but we hadn't planned transport for this late so we eventually just went back home to Ivy's place.

Last day tomorrow! Only plans for that day are packing, seeing people for the last time and probably some crying, I think. My brothers and I are going to meet some relatives for lunch. Hopefully we'll still get a chance to see everyone before leaving!

Day 17 (Thursday 8 July)

After our morning devotion we had the communication workshop that we postponed from yesterday. Pastor Ivy shared about how to talk with people, things that we should avoid and be careful of, and what the bible said about communication with people. She also tasked us with finding bible verses about bad things like boasting and gossiping. She also gave us a translation of a Chinese poem. I ended up not taking any notes, but thankfully Enoch wrote down everything and sent it to us, so here is the poem:

Urgent things, say it slowly.
Big things, say it clearly.
Small things, say it humorously.
Things uncertain, say it with caution.
Things that has not happened, don't say it in vain.
Things that you have not yet done, don’t boast about it.
Things that can hurt someone, don't say it.
Distasteful things, say it with focus on the issue rather than the person.
Happy things, say it depending on the occasion.
Sad things, don't say it to every single person.
Other people’s things, say it carefully.
Your own things, listen to your heart before you speak.
Current things, say it after you finish it.
Future things, say it in the future.

I found the Chinese version online, posting it here in both simplified and traditional Chinese:

Simplified Chinese: 急事，慢慢的说； 大事，清楚的说； 小事，幽默的说； 没把握的事，谨慎的说； 没发生的事，不要胡说； 做不到的事，别乱说； 伤害人的事，不能说； 讨厌的事，对事不对人的说； 开心的事，看场合说； 伤心的事，不要见人就说； 别人的事，小心的说； 自己的事，听听自己的心怎么说； 现在的事，做了再说； 未来的事，未来再说；

Traditional Chinese: 急事，慢慢的說﹔ 大事，清楚的說﹔ 小事，幽默的說﹔ 沒把握的事，謹慎的說﹔ 沒發生的事，不要胡說﹔ 做不到的事，別亂說﹔ 傷害人的事，不能說﹔ 討厭的事，對事不對人的說﹔ 開心的事，看場合說﹔ 傷心的事，不要見人就說﹔ 別人的事，小心的說﹔ 自己的事，聽聽自己的心怎麼說﹔ 現在的事，做了再說﹔ 未來的事，未來再說

In the evening we went to auntie Helen’s place again to have our second worship workshop. Hanfeng led the workshop, which this time focused on more practical info like how to prepare a worship session, picking songs, etc. When the workshop ended, he had the Toronto youth practice planning and preparing for a worship session for a given topic, “Forgiveness”. It was a very touching and emotional time for the ETMAC youth when they practiced what they had been taught.

For dinner we went to Tenichi to have a sushi buffet with the Toronto youth, and also with pastor Jim and his family. Gloria also came after a while. We ate a lot and had a good time! Though I think they’re using less mango in the mango yoghurts now? They didn’t taste as sweet as before. But it was still quite good.

At night we went to watch Toy Story 3(D) with the other youth. (Elin won a free movie ticket from pastor Ivy because she found the verses we were tasked with finding. Tore won soda money for trying very hard.) It was a great and funny movie, we laughed a lot during the movie! And some of us might have cried. Possibly.

On Friday we’ll be having some more sharing and cleaning up before heading to the joint youth meeting in the evening, with the youth from NYMAC and ETMAC. Everyone in the Norwegian mission team is going to share a shortened version of our testimony. Also Johan (me) and Enoch is going to lead a bible study for the university age youth, and Vilhelm and Elin is going to lead for the school-age (younger) youth.

I can’t believe we’re already leaving on Saturday, we’ve had a great time with everyone we’ve met! Hopefully we’ll be able to come again, or maybe have some of them come over to Norway for a visit?

Day 13 and 14

Apparently we completely forgot to write about Sunday and Monday, so here's a short summary of those days.

Day 13 (Sunday 4 July)

In the morning we went to a service at NYMAC, pastor Steven's church, because pastor Ivy was invited to preach there. We led worship and pastor Ivy preached her message. After that service we went to the ETMAC, pastor Ivy's church, and we led worship with the adult seervice before going to our youth meeting where pastor Steven preached for us. In the evening we went to eat dinner at T&T.

Day 14 (Monday 5 July)

Monday was our day off. After our devotion we spent most of the time shopping. We went to P-Mall first, where we met up with some of the Toronto youth and walked around the mall with them. Then we splitted up, some of the youth went downtown to shop, while some others went to Ivy's place to relax. In the evening I went with Ivy, Vilhelm and Yat Yiu to fetch Moise at the airport.

Day 15 and 16

Day 15 (Tuesday 6 July)

Today we spent a bit more time on the devotion and sharing in the morning. Because we haven’t set any specific time for having devotions in the morning for this trip, we have been missing devotions many of the days. Some of the time we have had the devotion in the evening instead, but that wasn’t always possible either. But since we didn’t have any activites that we had to rush to get to this morning, we were able to spend a bit more time at Ivy’s place to do the devotions and sharing with the team.

These are some rough notes from the sharing that each team member had:

Tina:

“I think it’s interesting to see that even though we are from different countries and churches, we still have the same God.”

“When I wrote my testimony I was struggling because it was a painful memory for me, but I thought it might help people.”

“Now I feel that I’m having hard time because I still haven't prepared my devotion. I don't really know what the problem is. I believe in God and that He'll help me, but I think the problem is that I think too much. I want to put more faith in God and let him work through me.”

Tore:

“God has been strengthening us as a group. He has been testing us by putting us close together, so that we can see both the good sides and bad sides of people. But in the end, I feel that it’s good that we have learned more about each other.”

“When going to the urban street missions, God has shown us that he loves everyone, no matter how far down they are. God can always reach out to anyone.”

“It's easy to see other people's problems, and ignore our own problems. Pray that we won't just see the speck in other's eyes, but not the log in our own.”

Vilhelm:

“When at the Fusion Toronto, observing the regular people in the streets, I could see people that have everything. Before that, we were serving people who had nothing (when handing out sandwiches to homeless people). In my mind I was thinking: How could the people who had everything not help the people who had nothing? But when I thought more about it, I realized we are just like these people, not doing anything to help those around us, just living our own lives. This helped me realize how little we were usually doing in our normal lives.”

Leon:

“When he said that everyone had to share the testimony at the big RHCCC services, a lot of people were kind of worried. But for me, I don't know why, but I was never worried, even if I had to stand in front of a thousand people. I think that maybe it's a gift from God that I don't feel worried about these things. I think also back when I was studying, I never felt worried about doing presentations. I don't mind standing in front of people and talking.

On one side it's a strength, but on the other side, it makes me have to focus even more on God. Because when you're worried, you'll ask God to help you, but if you're not, you might forget to focus on God. So it's more important to remember to focus on what God wants me to say.”

“While preparing for this trip, I think I'm not very good at delegating work, I like to do things myself. Because I know I can do it, and also because I don't want to burden other people. I get the feeling that people don't want to do something, and when I feel that, I don't want to tell them to do it. When I came here, pastor Ivy said that we should try things anyway. So I want to learn when I should tell people to do things anyway, and when I should not do that. And become better at delegating tasks.

Sometimes when people don't want to do something, I might feel that they won't do it well if I force them to do it, so it's better if I do it properly myself. But maybe I need to trust that when I tell someone to do something, they will do it properly, even if they seemed reluctant to do it.

Also I think I'm very careful about telling people how to do things, because I don't want to yell at people. So I try to tell them things with love. Like telling people to throw their own garbage in the garbage bins. I can help people with things, but I can't keep telling them all the time. We need to be able to tell people when they do something wrong. And we need to be able to accept it when someone's telling us that we are doing something wrong, instead of making excuses.”

Nina:

“My biggest challenge so far on this trip is sharing my testimony in Mandarin. Actually, when coming to Toronto, I thought it would be more stressful. So far, however, things have been pretty all right. But now I feel like I’ve been given a big trial tomorrow.”

“I don’t really know what God wants. I’ve always been in the worship team, but he wants me to be a leader (at the summer camp this year). Grace tells me I shouldn’t be worried, but I don’t know… Being a worship leader is really stressful, and I feel like there’s so much pressure on you, there are so many expectant people. So I actually feel a little relieved that I’m not a worship leader.

I’m not worried about what might happen, but I’m worried about what I should do. Is being a worship leader my calling? I’m praying for a revelation from God about what he wants me to do.”

After the sharing, we went to the Faith bookshop to buy some Christian books, bibles and CDs. We looked around there for almost two hours and in total we bought two boxes of books! We brought the books back to our house before going to auntie Helen’s place to have karaoke, food and a worship workshop.

Elin lead the worship workshop for the youth from Ivy’s church. Most of our team also attended the workshop, which was mainly about what worship meant and that the most important thing is to keep the focus on God and Jesus.

Went home after the sorkshop.

 

Day 16 (Wednesday 7 July)

Woke up early today to go to pastor Raymond’s house for the senior fellowship. We led some worship, and then Elizabeth, Nina and Hanfeng shared their testimony in Mandarin. Even though Elizabeth and Nina were quite nervous because they weren’t confident in their Mandarin skills, I think they did quite well. After the testimonies Tina led a bible study in Mandarin. We also ate lots of food and did some planning for the summer camp video that we’re supposed to make.

After the senior fellowship we went home (to Ivy’s place) and had a devotion. We ended up postponing the communication workshop because some of the guys were going to play football in the evening, so we had some free time instead. Some of the youth from church were also there with us. Around 17.00 some of the youth went to play football while the rest stayed behind.

In the evening we went to the church office for another prayer meeting, and had Tore, me/Johan, Tina and Enoch share our testimony, before we talked about prayer topics and splitted into groups for praying. We prayed a bit for the people who committed themselves to Christ in their discipleship retreat, for our short-term missions team, and also for a sick girl in their church.

After the prayer meeting we splitted up for bubble tea and ramen.

Tomorrow we plan to have the communication workshop that Ivy is leading, and then Hanfeng will have another worship workshop for the youth in Ivy’s church.

Day 11-12

Hola!

We have been away from "Home" for a few days due to the Fusion Toronto, so we have not been able to blog.

On friday we were buying food and preparing for the Fusion Toronto. The Fusion Toronto is a program with homeless people and people who hang out in the street. We were buying food so we could make them a lunch pack and give them out during the saturday. We also prepared for the sunday and worshops we are going to lead during the next week. So the friday was basically only preparing and planning for the next days.

During the evening we went to Fusion Toronto. We went for a prayer walk when we got there. We walked along the streets, while Pastor Jeff at the church we went to, explained the different needs in the streets and the different places we went to. We prayed for each place we went to. It was really a new experience for me. It's really different when you see the homeless people and start thinking of how to help them. There aren't alot of them in Norway, and me myself doesn't really think alot about them, but this experience really twisted my mind somehow.

On saturday we went up early and made the sandwiches we were going to give away during the "sandwich run". We went out in teams of 3 and were sent into different directions around the church. Me and my team went to the town hall park. We saw alot of homeless people sleeping on the benches. We kinda made some of them wake up and we talked with them and gave them a lunch pack. It was really a different experience, to make a difference for someone. To see someone get really happy when they woke up. We prayed for those who wanted us to pray for them. Our group met someone who wanted me to pray for world peace. It really shocked me that he said that. I was asking if he wanted me to pray for something specific for him, and all he wanted was world peace. He was homeless, having a hard time getting food for himself, but all he wanted was world peace. That is really something for us to think about.

I guess I'm kinda confused with myself after this, God has given us a lot, we should use it wisely to keep serving Him. Not waste it for worldy values. There are people who are serving Him, even though they got nothing.

Later one we served meal and helped out with giving away clothes to homeless at the church. We led worship and was listening to a session Pastor Jeff had. We also had a bit of time to chat with the people coming.

I guess it doesn't matter how much I write now about what I have experienced during these two days. It's really something you should come and experience yourself. Pastor Jeff told us during the devotion that to be able to help people, we have to be in their situation to be able to understand their needs. That is really TRUE. An outsider cannot understand all the needs without being a part of it. I guess this applies to a lot of things. Fusion Toronto was a really good experience for all of us!

That kinda wraps up Fusion Toronto, we went for etiopian food for dinner. It was good, and kinda special. I guess I bring you guys if you want to :)

It's late now, sleeeep :)

Noch.

Day 9 and 10

Day 9 (Wednesday 30 June)

Today we finally had the chance to sleep longer. Enoch, Tore and Hanfeng first went on shopping with Ivy, and later played soccer with the youths. While others stayed behind and prepared for the prayer meeting and cooked a typical Scandinavian dinner for Glen and Ivy with pasta, sausage and salad. Later we went to the prayer meeting at church where Minhthu, Elin and Vilhelm shared their testimonies, and led a worship song without any instruments! After the prayer meeting we went for bobble tea at Go For Tea!


Day 10(Thursday 1 July)

1 July is Canadian national day(Canada Day). Therefore we had a day off and went to the beach. God was merciful with us and gave us good weather. We played volley ball, soccer, Ultimate Frisbees and (of course) barbecued . After the beach we went home, showered and went for Japanese ramen. A day off is not complete without visiting an Asian supermarket, so we went to Foody Mart and bought a lot of snacks and went home and watched the fireworks!

- Hanfeng & Nina

Day 5 to 8

Day 5 (Saturday 26 June)
On Saturday we went to the Richmond Hill Grill and Chill, mainly for the worship team to lead some worship. They were going to have barbeque and various acitvites, but because it was raining, there were not as many people as they expected, and we could not be outside for the barbeque. They had some people outside to barbeque the food and bring it in, it was pretty good! We had a watermelon competition, but the only one in our mission team who managed to finish the watermelon at all was Minh Thu.

Preparing for worship. Gloria is with the Sunny side up kids.

After eating we went to the main church building to play dodgeball with the other youth. It was decent fun, played for quite a while before we finished for the day. Jim Chen came by to visit us too with his tiny son.

After the Grill and Chill we went home for a shower and then bought some takeaway from T&T to Ho-Ming’s house to have worship practice. The ones who didn’t practice watched Ho-Ming’s kids and tried to keep them from crying or disturbing those who were practicing. We also played some Street Fighter VI, which is a ridiculously difficult game even on the easy difficulty.

Day 6 (Sunday 27 June)
Today we went to tons of church services! At 9:00 in the morning Leon and Tina went to the Mandarin service, while the rest of us went to the youth service. Then at 11:00 me and Tina went to the English service, Leon, Elin and Minh Thu went to the Cantonese service, and the others stayed for the second youth service. At 11:50 Tina, Elizabeth, Nina and Hanfeng went to Barrie Christian Community Church for a Mandarin fellowship. Tore, Johan, Leon, Vilhelm, Enoch, Elin and Minh Thu stayed behind in our respective church services, and we went up to the office to eat KFC takeaway. The KFC bucket was huuuge! Then we went to Aurora Christian Community Church to share a bit and join their youth and children’s fellowship.

The worship teams from RHCCC were quite good. And the sermon at the English service was pretty interesting. It was about families in the bible, saying how many of Abraham’s ancestor’s families who actually had a lot of family trouble, but in the end God still used them to do his work. I think the point being made was that we shouldn’t be so focused on troubles in our families that we forget about letting God use us for doing his work.

The first youth service didn’t have so many youth, maybe around 30-40 people, but on the second youth service the room was almost full (or so I heard). In both of the youth services we lead the worship and then had three team members share our testimonies to the youth, with Ho-Ming talking briefly to start and finish the services. We later heard from Gloria, a church intern, that one girl went to her to ask about the gospel after the 9:00 youth service, and that girl decided to accept Christ, which is pretty touching!

Aurora Christian Community Church is a “child church” of RHCCC, and was made in an industrial part of Toronto, to acommodate for the famlies who were living there. It was a smaller church and had many young families from China, there were lots of little kids at the Sunday school! The youth service didn’t have so many people when we went, because it was vacation or so.

Barrie Christian Community Church is a small church with mainly Mandarin-speaking Chinese. The church was probably smaller than our church in Oslo. The team members that went there weren’t sure, but I’m guessing that it is also a “child church” of RHCCC, since they sent us there.

After all the church services we went First Markham Place with Ho-Ming’s parents (since Ho-Ming was busy and we needed a ride), and we walked around a bit and then ate at the food court there.

Great food offers at Markham place!

 
Final photos with Ho-Ming’s parents.

Day 7 (Monday 28 June)
We went to Wonderland with Ethan, Scott, Jeremy and Janice(?)! It was superexpensive and they try to extort money from you every way they can. You are not allowed to bring any snacks or food or soft drinks, only water (and candy) was allowed. Additionally you are forced to pay for a two-day ticket, which they called a single-day ticket with an “extra day for free”. Parking costs 10$, and pastor Ivy also accidentally drove to the parking lot instead of the dropoff point, and had to pay 10$ because she couldn’t drive out without going through the parking lot.

It was pretty fun though, they have a lot of rollercoasters, and we took the two water rides which made us completely soaked, making the heat more bearable. Some of us ate a giant cookiewich, which was soft-ice cream layered between two giant cookies, with chocolate pieces on the side. The thing was probably bigger than a Big Mac, and it’s probably the first time some food I bought is bigger than the example they have in the photo! I was the only one who actually ate the whole thing by myself.

At night we went to Maison du Japon for a sushi buffet dinner with Ho-Ming and his family. It was okay, nothing spectacular, but got pretty full in any case. Gloria also joined us for the dinner. Then we went to Ho-Ming and his parents place to get our luggage and to say our final goodbyes, before we went to Ivy’s place.

Day 8 (Tuesday 29 June)
On our first day with pastor Ivy we went to her office to have some briefing about our schedule for our weeks with her. After that we ate at The Dumpling King for lunch, before going to Yorkdale for shopping. It’s a huge mall, but it didn’t really have more stores than “normal European” malls, it’s just that the stores were all bigger. The iPad was still sold out though.

After shopping we went back to Ivy’s place to do a bit of practice and preparation, then we went to Chako Barbeque for Korean BBQ!

Photos 25.-27. June

Workshop with pastor Kelly

The Nexus fellowship

Preparing for Sunday service worship

Eating KFC at church

The youth at the Aurora church

Eating at First Markham Place

Day 4

Today we started off the day with sharing at RHCCC with the staff and pastors. We had worship and shared a few testimoneys and about our church. It went very well, and all the staff were very kind! There are so many pastors at RHCCC that I can't even remember all the names!

Later on we had a worshop with Pastor Kelly, she told us about how the Agape youth group was organized, what co-ordinators there were and so on. It was very interesting, the whole concept of the church sounded kinda like a big business organization somehow. But this is required when they got such a big church!

Later on we had a workshop with Pastor Ray, about Bible study. We learned how we should lead bible studies. Different techniques and values we should be aware of. It was really good! Pastor Ray made me realize alot of things I never thought of. And we will bring all that we learned back to Norway and use it! I'm kinda excited of getting back and lead another bible study now :)

During the evening we split up into two different youth groups! One mandarin/english youth group and another one with only cantonese youths. They were named agape and nexus.

Me myself went to the Nexus one, and we had games and bbq with the youths. It was really interesting. The atmopshere and the people made me feel like I was in Hong Kong! We also shared a testimony after the bbq, before we left church for the day and went back home!

Noch.

DAY 3

Today it was raining a lot at in the early morning. It didn't last long though, and the sun came out after about 8 o'clock, thank God for that!

Our plan for the day was to take the bus into Downtown Toronto to visit Evergreen, which is one of the many centers formed by the "Yonge Street Misson". There, we goto a lot of information about what they do. Their purpose is to help homeless youths and give them hope and encouragement, and show them that there are people out there who cares for them ad wants to help them unconditionally.
At the center they have three departments for the youths, it's the drop-in center where get hot meals everyday, they also get access to computers, telephones (for free), then there is the health center (medical care, dental care, optometry, psychiatry, physiotherapy, child care) and last there is the employment resource center. This is were they help the youths get off the streets by helping them get a place to stay (an apartment perhaps) and educate them and prepare and train them for getting a job.
After we learned about 2 hours worth of information, we were divided into different groups. Two of us were sent to talk to people waiting in line for health care, another two of us were sent to the computer room, another pair were in the entrance welcoming people, and the rest served lunch in the main hall.

After helping out in the center, Lina, a very sweet and friendly lady, took us on a guide to many other buildings that belong to "Yonge Street Mission".
It was amazing to see how much God is working through these people. They give so much just for the joy of giving and helping other people. Knowing that they can help brings them so much joy.


After the tour, we were free to go shopping!!! After a loooong day we retired back to Ho-Ming's place (well, at least us girls) and practiced worship for the session early on Friday (tomorrow).

PS. If u want to know more yonge street mission, this will help u: http://www.ysm.ca/
xoxo

Day 2 - Night

After breakfast today we went to Ho-Ming Tsui’s church, RHCCC, and he gave us a tour around their huge church building. We greeted some of their pastors, walked around in their mazelike basement and had a look at their old and new sanctuaries. We were told that technical equipment in the new, big sanctuary uses 500 Canadian dollars worth of electrical power whenever it’s turned on (or used during a sermon, don’t quite remember)!

Rendezvousing with the girls at the church

Pastor Ho-Ming showing us the church’s emergency exits on the church map. Or is he…?

After the tour we had dim sum for lunch at the Emperor Fine Chinese Cuisine restaurant. It was pretty good!

 
Dim sum!

Then we had a workshop called Scripture-Driven Worship with Shu-Ling Lee back at the church. The workshop was interesting, he taught us a lot that we hadn’t thought much about before! After the workshop he joined us for a bit on our worship practice, giving the worship team some hints and tips. I was playing around with my phone, trying to stream a video on Qik, but it didn’t work. I guess they must have put up some firewall or filter on the church’s internet connection. Uploaded one of the videos to YouTube instead:

After the worship practice we went to pastor Kelly Tam’s house for dinner. Ho-Ming’s family was also there.

Ho-Ming’s kids.

We had a team meeting at their place after dinner, where we talked a bit about our schedule for the week. Then we split up, the girls went back to Ho-Ming’s place to sleep, and the boys tried to go to T&T, but we failed to find the place, and ended up going to a FoodyMart that we happened to pass on our way back home to Ho-Ming’s parents’ house.

Welcome to FoodyMart!

After we got home we were invited out again by pastor Ivy Milanowski, went to Go for Tea for some bubble tea (and cake). Her husband Glenn also went with us. Tried out Peppermint Milk Green Tea, which tasted slightly like toothpaste. According to some people it tasted worse as they drank it, but I guess I drank it so quickly that I didn’t notice. I thought it was pretty refreshing.

 
Having fancy toothpaste tea. Oh the black thing you can kind of see on the back of the standing menu thing is actually a remote control for calling a waiter over to our table.

The weather was pretty hot today, according to Shu-Ling it was usually not this hot in Toronto. Weather.com says it was around 24°C, so not that hot, but the humidity makes it feel a lot worse… Oh also there was a earthquake today! Unfortunately we didn’t notice it, either because we were driving while it happened, or because we were on ground level or outside so it wasn’t as noticable.

Day 2 - Morning

Don't really feel jet-lagged, got up at 7:30 Toronto time. Just a friendly reminder - If you fly Iceland Air Economy class, THERE'S NO FOOD! So on the flight back we shall remember to bring food. Man, what a bummer.

There are lots of swimming pools in Toronto.

Day 1 - Arrived

We have arrived safely to Toronto! Tired and hungry, but safe :) We met up with Pastor Ho-Ming and Pastor Ivy, ate our first dinner at Congee Queen. We write more tomorrow, everyone is tired, we need sleep :S it's 5 o'clock in the morning in scandinavia. Hope we wont jetlagg.. Good night.

E

Day 1 - Flight across the volcano

In just a few hours time we are going to fly to Iceland, the birthplace of the volcanic ash that paralyzed european air traffic not too long ago. Hope for a smooth flight!

Why we're going to Canada

Strike over - Airport security back to normal

The strikers managed to come to an agreement late last night, and so all striking employees are returning to their regular work schedule from Sunday morning. Thank God, we don't need to worry about this for our flight to Toronto at least. Only two days left now!

Strike over (Dagbladet)

About SCCC in Oslo

Tina's testimony (English)

I grew up in a Buddhist country - China, so I have always been open for things about God. In the beginning I went to Church because my mom went to church, and people in church are very nice. And there was a young lady (my leader) who has been very patient with me, and answered me a lot of questions I had about Christianity. So I wanted to get baptised, and I believed that this God loves people, he sent his only son Jesus to the earth and died for our wrong deeds. So becoming a Christian was a decision I made which I felt was right.

17th of May in Norway

Leon's testimony

My name is Leon, and I was born and raised in Oslo, Norway, and my parents are from Hong Kong.

My mom used to take me to church from when I was very young. Norway is a Christian country, so during Easter and Christmas the primary school kids have to either go to church or do something at school, usually involving eating candy, and I always chose to go to church even though it was really boring, because for me being a Christian meant I had to go to church, and I considered myself as one.

Strike causes problems at airports

Because of a strike among security guards in Norway, several airports in Norway are currently expecting long lines at the security control. Hopefully this will only make us have to wait longer in line and won't hinder us in getting our flight. Please pray for this situation.

Store problemer for flytrafikken (VG)

Johan's testimony

Sometimes, I really wish I could just be left alone.

That’s basically what I’ve been feeling for a long time, both before and after I became a Christian. It’s really difficult to be around people. You have to pretend to be interested in whatever they’re saying. You have to try and have some interesting things to say yourself. You have to consider other people’s wants and needs, instead of just doing whatever you want to do yourself.

Enoch's testimony

Before I became a Christian I had alot of questions about God's existence. This world couldn't possible have a God, there are too much suffering and bad things in this world. There are too many unanswered questions about this God thing.

I was born in Sweden and went to church around once a month with my parents, because the church we went to were in another city. I was going to sunday school, playing with my friends in church. All the stories about Jesus was just stories for me.

Tina's testimony (Chinese)

大家好，我的名字叫TINA，中文名字叫孙思佳。21岁.　我也是从挪威华人教会来的。　从来没有来过加拿大，　所以觉得很开心来到这里，有一次短宣的机会。　我其实从来没有在那么多人面前讲过话，也很害怕，可能是因为我是出生在上海，　１３岁才搬去挪威，从小受到的教育就是只听老师的讲话，不像在国外，学校会有很多机会到台上做PRESENTATION。但是我的神可以帮助我战胜恐惧.

今天我想和你们分享我的见证，关于为什么我会信耶稣。我一开始去教会是因为我妈妈是基督徒，我刚刚到挪威的时候并不认识任何人，我妈妈觉得我能在教会找到朋友。我知道有些人会对关于神的事情，或者是对国外的宗教很排斥，但是我没有。在这方面我和开放，所以我愿意去听，去了解他们的信仰。其实一开始我根本听不太懂什么，但是我记得一个传道人姐姐她对我很有耐心，与我分享了她的信神经过，我当时会问她很多关于基督教问题，她对我真的是很有耐心，还有她的好的行为，让我相 信 她说的话。半年以后, 我决定要受洗，我妈妈还劝我等等. 太小, 当时很坚 决 的要受洗, 因为我相信有个爱我的神，为我预备了基督，为我的错死!　

Nina's testimony

My name is Nina, I am 17 years old and I want to share my testimony with you today. I want to share it with you because I really hope that some of you might connect with the situations I've been through, and that hopefully, some of you might want to have a relationship with God.

So long story short: I grew up in a Christian family, went to Sunday school every Sunday and had fun. This grew boring as a became older, shy as I was at the time I took my little sister with me to join the youth group and it's been my family ever since. I became a Christian very gradually. What really sped up the process, was when God at a summer camp spoke to me through music. Music has always been a big part of my life. I play various of instruments and I sing, so when God gave me the task to lead worship in church I took it. And I've been a worship leader and a Christian ever since.

Elizabeth's testimony

Hi, my name is Elizabeth and I’m fifteen years old. Today I want to share my testimony with you and tell you about how Jesus has affected me and my perspective of life.

So I grew up in a Christian family. My parents took me and my siblings to church since I was little, and I attended Sunday school. At the beginning it was fun and I really enjoyed it. They used dolls and stuffed animals to teach us bible verses, and at the end we always got cookies and candies and stuff. But after a while, when I was around ten – eleven years old, it started to get boring. I kind of outgrew the things they did and I thought it was too childish. It led to me always trying to come up with excuses not to go to church with my parents, and eventually I quit going.

Elin's testimony

My name is Elin, and I am currently studying in England. I was brought up in Sweden, and I live in Norway.

As many of us, I was also brought up in a Christian family. I knew about the different stories in the Bible at young age, but did not understand the significance of them or of God.

When I was 12 I was asked to make a commitment to God, and I got baptised shortly after. One of the leaders asked us whether we wanted to be on God's side or our own side, and I choose to be on God's side. It was not until 2005 when I realised how my life had to be changed and how I had to start living my life differently.

Tore's testimony

My name is Tore, I'm 23 years old and I'm living in Oslo. I will share with you how I got to know Christ and how my life with Him is now.

I was born in a non-Christian family - my mother was an atheist and my father a buddhist. My father converted to Christianity when I was about 8 years old or so, and started taking me to church. It was really boring for me as it was a Chinese church and I don't understand Chinese, the only good thing about going to church was that we got juice and cookies after the service was over. After a little while being in the church I started to attend the sunday school, that was a lot better. I met new friends, we had games and story telling from the Bible, but it didn't mean anything to me, and after a while it got boring, my father had to drag me to church. Growing up I did some wrong stuff with my friends, skipped school, set the woods on fire and stole from the store, but I always ended up being caught. It could be a coincidence, but for me it feels like God stopped me everytime when I look back on it.

Our testimonies

The reason we go to Canada is not simply because we want to have fun and eat sushi buffet - We've all had experiences with God in our lives, that make us want to share His love with other people. We go on this mission trip not because we think we are better than other people and so we shall go and tell them what they should or shouldn't do - We go because we have all experienced how God loved us when we were unworthy of being loved, and we want to share how we've experienced Him in our lives. Over the next few days we will share some of the stories of how we came to know Christ.

Only 17 days left!

Only 17 days left before we are going to Toronto! This summer 12 young people from Scandinavian Chinese Christian Church (SCCC) in Oslo will be traveling to Toronto, and work with two churches, Richmond Hill Chinese Community Church (RHCCC) with Pastor Ho-Ming and East Toronto Mandarin Alliance Church (ETMAC) with Pastor Ivy. Tickets are booked, and planning has started. We will be sharing testimonies and meeting new people, and hopefully be good witnesses for Christ!

Prayer requests:

• Focus on God
• Safe travel
• Enough money to cover expenses