Victoria UBF (Canada, North America)

August 6, 2012

Around 3 p.m. on Friday (7/27/2012), an hour later than scheduled, we left our house, heading north to Victoria, BC Canada, where Msn. Joshua Park and his family live. As expected there was a lot of traffic on I-5 which made me a bit worried that we might arrive at his house too late.  We arrived at the ferry terminal about 15 minutes after 6 p.m. and took the 7 p.m. ferry.  We were at his house at 9 p.m. He was so nice to wait for us outside his house so that I could find his house easily.

He came to Victoria in 2007 with his family. He has been struggling to support his family. By God’s mercy two years ago he opened a Japanese restaurant.

With God’s blessing, their hard work, good customer service, and their desire to feed hungry Canadians has made their business prosperous despite some competition until a month ago. There was a fire which forced them to close their business, a couple of days before the northwest summer Bible conference. It was such a sad incident. But they thanked God for giving them needed rest. For the past two years they were so busy and exhausted that they couldn’t do anything except running the business. They couldn’t have family time either.  So tired and worn out they couldn’t think properly. He said that his brain seemed to stop working.  So he updated his status on his facebook a couple of days before the fire saying that he wanted to have a month vacation. God answered his prayer in a way they never imagined. He wished to have a month vacation, but God gave them much more then they asked--a couple of months of vacation. They thank God for giving them such a needed rest so that they could spend time together as family, have times to study, and read books.

The next day after breakfast, we headed to the University of Victoria which is about 10 minutes driving distance from his house.  We had a Bible study of Daniel 1. The key verse was Daniel 1:8 “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way”.  We learned that Daniel, a young man with a very promising future, determined to keep spiritual purity by not defiling himself with king’s food and wine. Nobody told him to make the decision. He made it on his own.  To him, not defiling himself,  even with something as simple as food, was more important than his own life and his career. He wasn’t afraid of being different from other peer. When he made a spiritual decision as small as not eating certain types of food, God blessed his decision and moved the official’s heart to show favor to Daniel and his friends. God’s blessings didn’t end there. God gave him wisdom, knowledge, interpretations of dreams, and prophecies. God elected him to be a high official in the Babylonian kingdom.  This is my prayer for our second gen, Joshua, James, Samuel, Isaac, and Joy--that they may not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of their mind so that they may be able to test and approve what is God’s will  – his good, pleasing, and perfect will (Romans 12:2).

Msn. Joshua prays that they may move to a house even closer to the university so that they can have more access to campus.

After the Bible study, we went to Downtown Victoria droving the road by the ocean. After lunch, I wanted to do something fun with my second gens.  We checked paint ball, laser tag, and miniature golf. Among them, only miniature golf had an open spot. It was fun and everybody enjoyed the play. Especially Samuel, the youngest, made two holes-in-one and had the most fun.  After dinner, we played a couple games of mafia. Mafia game is all about pretending you are not mafia.  Sometimes mafia kills other mafia to hide his identity. Someone says that it resembles the world we are living in. People deceiving and being deceived.  But Jesus knows everything as a storyteller in the mafia game knows who the mafia is.

On Sunday morning, I took Msn. Helen Park, Sarah Song, Joy, and Samuel to the nearby mountain, Mt. Douglas.  It was not a high mountain, but on top it gives a 360 degree view of Victoria and its surroundings.  This short hiking gave us good exercise.

We had worship service at Msn. Joshua’s house at 11 p.m. James presided. Joshua Jr. played piano for hymns. Msn. Joshua Park delivered a message based on John 6:41-70.

After that, we had a gourmet lunch. Our family decided to stay a bit longer until early evening. In the afternoon, we went on a gocart ride which was exciting and we played miniature golf again. We had a quick dinner and left Msn. Joshua’s house around 7 p.m.  We came back to my house at 12:15 a.m.

By Abraham Song of Seattle

A previous article related to new pioneering ministry in Victoria UBF: http://www.ubf.org/content/new-pioneering-ministry-victoria-canada