Sabbatical Reflection 1: Salt Spring and Mexico.

I was asked by a number of people leading up to my sabbatical to keep you all updated on how we’re doing and what we’ve been up to during this time. This might be one of those things where people say “oh let me see the pictures from your trip” to be polite, but are really dying inside. In any case, I will take no offense when I come back and you haven’t read any of these! However, I thought it was a good idea, and it also gives me a good reason to keep a bit of a journal throughout the process. I’ll try to do this more regularly later on in the sabbatical when we’re doing more traveling around Europe.

The sabbatical officially started on January 1, and on that day our family made a trip to Salt Spring Island to visit my sister and her family. We’ve visited Salt Spring many times, but there was something unique about this trip in terms of what the Lord did in my heart. If you know the island, you know that it is characterized by all kinds of “spirituality”. Whenever we go to Salt Spring, we stay with a missionary there who, as a youth pastor, would lead youth service trips to the island before he experienced a call from God to move there full time. I asked him about signs I had seen on previous visits but hadn’t paid much attention to: something about “shamanic breath healing”. He told me that this was a regular, even weekly gathering that brings together more people on Salt Spring than any church on the island, focused on new-age “shamanic” practices. He told me about another church that had declined, closed, and sold its property to some kind of wiccan group. He told me about encounters with people who seemed to have been possessed by evil spirits. There’s a lot going on “spiritually” on Salt Spring! I also had a lengthy conversation with someone else on Salt Spring Island that delved into philosophy and Christian faith. What was interesting in this conversation is that this individual (and I think this would be typical of others there) had no problem believing all kinds of miraculous events in the Bible (and outside the Bible). The biggest stumbling block for him was the exclusivity of Christ. Believing in giants, in people being raised from the dead, that kind of thing? No problem. But the idea that there is something totally unique about Jesus and that salvation comes from him alone? Not a chance. It struck me as I’ve been doing a lot of reading about early Christianity that this was one of the main objections to Christian faith 2000 years ago as well!

Because I wasn’t rushing back to preach that Sunday, we were able to attend a church on Salt Spring for the first time. As far as I know, there’s really one church on the island that is Gospel-oriented and growing with new believers. It’s pastored by someone who grew up on Salt Spring, served with YWAM for about a decade, and now is serving as pastor of this church. As I looked around that Sunday, I saw many people, including a bunch of young families, that look like Salt Spring residents. The Holy Spirit moved in my heart, and I found myself crying out for this church and for this place to see an outpouring of the Spirit. I thought about The Jesus Revolution movie and what the Lord did in the hippie generation in the ‘70s, and I prayed “Jesus, do it again, do it here!” There are plenty of similarities- people who are already counter-cultural but are seeking a worldly utopia by their own power, disillusioned by the empty promises of consumerist society and seeking a “spiritual” experience. Join me in praying that Jesus would make himself known on Salt Spring Island, and that he would bless Community Gospel Chapel. One of the most encouraging things that happened was that we met my sister’s best friend and her family at the church. My sister’s friend became a Christian recently after watching The Chosen, and her husband and kids have now become very involved with the church community there. I’m praying they would be like the first fruits of a greater harvest!

After Salt Spring, we were home for a few days before heading to Mexico with Carolyn’s whole family. We do numerous vacations with the family, but going international was a first. On the plane trip down to Puerto Vallarta, the man next to me started a conversation early in the flight. The conversation didn’t stop until we were disembarking the plane- 5 straight hours! He was a guy my age, loves sports, has a young family and lives in Greater Vancouver. I heard some of his story and inevitably we talked about Christian faith- inevitable partly because as soon asks me what I do for work, the topic of Jesus is somewhat unavoidable. He grew up with some exposure to church, but it wasn’t a positive experience. He saw firsthand the hypocrisy of people who called themselves Christians but lived like anything but. Now, he’s not against Christian faith or church and believes in some kind of benevolent higher power. However, like a lot of Vancouverites, his mindset is “why become a Christian? What would that do for me?” He’s got money, a great family, a rewarding job, a nice home in a world class city. He’s not currently experiencing a “God-sized hole” in his life. I’ve heard someone else say about Vancouver that it’s hard to convince someone they need heaven when they think they’re already there. What do you say to someone like that? How do you invite someone to trust in Christ when there’s no big earthquake shaking the foundations of their life? I’m so grateful for conversations like this, along with some of the ones I had on Salt Spring, because they make me depend on God. They force me to come to terms with my own evangelistic weaknesses and even in the course of conversation to be begging God for wisdom and direction. In this case, I believe the Holy Spirit led me to encourage my new friend to seek out the identity of this benevolent higher power. He believes this “being” or “force” has provided for him and opened doors for him. I said, if that’s true, wouldn’t you want to know who He is? If someone was giving you gifts, wouldn’t you want to know the identity of the giver so that you could thank Him? I don’t know if I made much headway, but have been praying for him ever since.

Back to Mexico- a year ago our own family did a trip to a resort there and I shared about how underwhelming it was. There’s a reason it was an incredibly cheap deal! Our week this year was very different, mostly because we weren’t the ones paying! It was very relaxing and a ton of fun for our kids. For the Sunday that we were there, we found an English-speaking church within walking distance from the resort. This church only has services from October to April, though they have a year-round Spanish service and outreach in a poorer community outside Puerto Vallarta. I can’t imagine how challenging it would be to lead a church as transient as one like this, made up mostly of snowbirds and short-term tourists. I’m grateful to God that He raises up leaders in all kinds of places. I read in a book recently about how completely unprecedented the Christian mission was in the first century. The pagan world had no real comparison to the kind of passionate drive of Christ-followers to make Him known throughout the Roman Empire. That Holy Spirit-inspired drive is why you’ll even find people who have a vision to start churches like the one we attended in Mexico!

We’ve now been back in Vancouver for a few days and are preparing for the next adventure, the really big one. On Monday we fly to Europe for three months, beginning with Spain. This week has been all about home-schooling with the kids (trying to get as much done now so we can pack lighter next week), working through an extensive to-do list in preparation for the trip, and in my case, getting as much reading done as possible (similar to the kids, this is because we’re packing light and I’m not bringing any physical books with me). The hope is that once we’re in Spain, I’ll have done most of the research needed for my writing projects so that I can start in on the actual writing.

Let’s end it there. This is already about 75% longer than any of you were expecting or wanting. If you’ve made it this far, two huge thumbs up. I want you to know that we pray for our church every day, asking that the Lord would pour out His Spirit on all of you, that He would draw many people to Himself through you, that He would strengthen and heal you and your relationships, that you would be encountering Him and growing in the grace of Christ Jesus. We love you deeply and are so thankful for The Bridge Church. We ask you to pray that the Lord would continue to refresh us so that we are able to return full of joy and energy for what lies ahead for us and our church.