THE GIFT OF A MISSION'S TRIP TO THE FAR EAST

A dream came true, during our pastoral days at Kamloops Alliance Church.  Since we never made it to the mission field, but ended up in pastoral ministry, we still had a deep love for missions and the work of our missionaries.  We had said to one another, many years earlier, that we would much prefer to visit a mission field rather than some exotic resort or beach.  Well, that happened.

One Sunday morning in the late fall of 1988, Helmut Allert, the chairman of the elders' board, at the Kamloops church, stepped up to the podium and asked Leona to please come to the platform and join me.  We had no idea what this was all about, but soon found out.  In October, a few weeks earlier, I had mentioned, one Sunday morning, that it was the 30th anniversary of my pastoral ministry, having begun October 26, 1958 in Lac La Biche, Alberta.  Apparently a couple of members were listening.  So, having called Leona to come join me, the chairman told the two of us that the church was going to send us on a C&MA missions trip to the Far East as a celebration for our thirty years of ministry.  We were blown away.  A dream come true.

Elders' chairman telling Dan & Leona about the Far East missions trip

This missions trip was planned and organized by the C&MA  national office.  We flew out of the Vancouver airport on a Tuesday afternoon in mid February for a sixteen day trip to the Far East. 


We left Vancouver on a Tuesday afternoon, flying along the British Columbia and Alaska coastlines and then south to Japan.  It was about a ten or eleven hour flight and sunshine all the way.  As we were about to land in Japan, the sun was beginning to set, only to find out that it was no longer Tuesday but sunset Wednesday. We had lost a day, but we got it back when we flew back home, leaving Tokyo at supper time on a Thursday and arriving back in Vancouver at 9:00am that same day.  Well, so much for that experience.  Probably many of you, who are reading this, know from experience what that is like.  This was a first, and last, for us.  Our first night was spent in a hotel near the Narita airport, Tokyo.

 Our hotel at Narita airport, Tokyo 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
OTHERS WHO HAD INPUT INTO MY SPIRITUAL & PASTORAL JOURNEY There are many people on planet earth that have heard the gospel or the scriptures explained from only one person.  It may be the single lady missionary that visits their village.  It may be the one program in their language airing from a Christian shortwave radio station.  There are undoubtedly millions of Christians whose biblical knowledge and learning has come from very few individuals or limited sources. I don't know why I have been so abundantly blessed or privileged when it comes to having biblical input from so many.  From my early years to  the present, I have personally heard hundreds of Christian leaders, pastors, evangelists, missionaries, Bible college professors, musicians and Christian business people who have helped, encouraged, challenged and convicted me in my spiritual journey.  It was always a thrill when I had the opportunity to hear some of the days outstanding Chri...
Read more
Image
ADDITIONAL MINISTRIES PASSED ON TO ME Dan in his first office at Sevenoaks Since Sevenoaks Alliance Church had grown from about 400 to 2,000 under the leadership of Pastor Bill Goetz, secretaries and pastors were scattered all over the church building.  Rooms which had been designated for other purposes were made into offices.  My first office was tucked away under the balcony of the youth centre.  My desk was immediately under the balcony risers.  Padding had been placed over my desk, lest I hit my head on a riser when getting up from my desk.  My room was quiet, out of the way, with hardly anyone ever walking by my door.  Al Runge was pastor for four months, before he ever found my office.  Sometimes when I needed a 20 minute power nap, I would stretch out on the floor and I was never ever discovered. I learned early in my years at Sevenoaks that I should never point out a weakness or a need in the church, as I would be asked to fi...
Read more
Image
 EAGLE BAY CAMP   Eagle Bay Camp - Shuswap Lake I had only been in Kamloops about six or seven weeks when I joined several other men, one Saturday morning, and went to Salmon Arm, BC to a storage place to retrieve camp equipment and stuff that had been used at the C&MA camp at Arrow Lakes campsite. For a quick review let me say that in early 1964, when I was pastor at the Vernon Alliance Church, we six Alliance pastors of Revelstoke, Kamloops, Vernon, Kelowna, Penticton and Oliver got together and agreed to rent Maple Springs Bible Camp for ten days.  This camp was on a hillside a few miles west of Peachland, BC.  Our first year for a camp program was July 1964.  That year and several succeeding years, we operated a teen weekend, which usually dovetailed into the Canada Day weekend or close to it.  We had a teen camp from Thursday supper time to Sunday afternoon at which time we began a children's camp which went until the fol...
Read more