The countdown has begun....26 days...

Well, the next adventure doesn't seem to far off these days.  The opportunity to head to Paraguay was already in motion before I left for India and so I'm excited it's coming so fast.  Preparation has been taking place in weekly meetings and Spanish classes for the past 3-4 months.  Drama's are being prepared, sermons written and lots of time spent in prayer.  It's been quite the ride!  If you want to follow this trip I'll try and post here and on face book.  I'm excited about this trip because of the possibilities to be mentored in missions.  We'll be heading down with an experienced church planter who will guide and disciple me in understanding what it's like to be a missionary in a cross cultural context.  I'm planning on graduating from SBC this next spring (BA Global Missions) and so I pray that this trip will help direct the next step.

India Summary Video

I love my mom's Ice Tea

Well, we made it home safe and sound after a four day journey across 3 continents. Besides coming down the escalator in Winnipeg the highlight would have to be the hotel that Gulf Air put us up in during our 14 hour layover in Bahrain. Besides the occupied rooms that they checked us into and the unchanged beds, the hotel was probably the nicest one any of us had ever stayed in (see picture at left). Morale was high and we were living it up in the middle east. The flights were uneventful and Air Canada even went up a few notches in my mind with their helpful service. As we landed in Winnipeg I could hardly keep my eyes open, but I was overcome by an incredible sense of thankfulness to God for having His hand in every part of our adventure. I will never view missions and life the same. My previous ideas and conceptions of ministry have been transformed. Seeing God move so blatantly and so dramatically is something that I will never forget. Thank you for your constant prayers. God has used India and the experiences there to change everyone of us. I'm glad to be home drinking my mom's famous ice tea.

Change of Flights

Hello everyone, during our stay in India it seemed that everyday plans would change at the last minute.  One second we'd be heading to the camp, the next second we'd be off to a pastors meeting.  Today's adventure was no different.  We got out of the bus in front of the Chennai airport with flight #67 ready and scheduled to leave in 2 hours.  Five minutes later flight #67 is sporting the cancelled label.  So here we are sitting in Chennai presently missing all of our previously scheduled flights.  We've got new flights scheduled and a fancy hotel to stay in courtesy of Gulf Air.  Here are our new flights:

 

May 13 - 7:35 Am leaving Chennai to Bahrain (11:15 am)

May 14 - 1:15 Am leaving Bahrain to London (6:25 am)

May 14 - 8:30 Am leaving London to Toronto (11:05 am)

May 14 - 17:55 leaving Toronto to Winnipeg (19:28)

So we should be arriving in Winnipeg at 7:28 pm on Monday night (May 14) on flight AC 263Q.

Seya then!

 

I (heart) Apollo

So we've now successfully navigated the health care system in India. A short 1 hour surgery and one appendix later, Jen's feeling much better. Even before we had left Canada Jen had been feeling poorly and so when the discomfort increased during our stay in India, we decided to take her to the hospital. Since there is an advanced health care system here (some would say similar quality to Canada) we felt the best option was to have the prescribed surgery in India. Within a few hours she was recovering nicely from this minor surgery. She had been missing out of some of the ministry opporutnities over the past week, but it didn't stop her from showing God's love to the doctors and nurses in the hospital. She had every reason to complain, but that didn't stop her from continually being postive, even making friends with the nurse that was on duty during the night. She had a great doctor and the Apollo Hosptial took great care of Jen. She has never stopped smiling and God has worked through Jenn in amazing ways to bless our team and our hosts here in India. Kudos to Jen for her attitude, kudos to Apollo Hospital, and kudos to God for watching over her.

Challenge from Rachean

Right now I'm sitting in an Internet Cafe, in a tourist city. Right across the street is a school for American missionary kids and there are white people everywhere. It feels like I'm in Canada right now. It's been great to relax a little and encourage the students. An intresting thing happened to me two days ago. We went on our one and only Hindu temple visit. We spent some time in prayer before hand and really tried to prepare the students for what they would be seeing as they entered this place of hindu worship. We decided that we would go and look into the inner most room where the idol worship was taking place but we would not enter it. Since I'm taller I was able to see into the room no problem, this I found to be very moving witnessing real idol worship. We were taking some pictures of the city from the high vantage point the temple gave us and a small boy who was 12 years old walked up. We started to talk and he asked me if I had seen the god and I said I had from the outside but I had not entered the room. I explained that I was a Christian and I lived by a different standard. We exchanged names and he said his name was Rachean. Turns out his Dad was one of the Hindu priests that was right inside performing the hindu worship! He brought me over to the door of the inner most room and as I looked in he called out to his dad. His dad smiled and waved from the front of the stone face of the elephant, I smiled and waved back, and then his dad called out, "please come inside". Not only was God giving me an opportunity to speak to a priests son, but it seemed that God was leading me to the center of the hindu worship to meet the priest himself. Here was where the inner struggle began. That stone face is no match for Jesus Christ, what do I have to fear? It would be a great opportunity to show that a Christian can stand his ground right infront of this god. But would it look like I was paying my respects to this stone face? The moment seemed like an eternity, but it was only half a second. Everything inside of me screamed "go!" but part of me held fast, "I will be different. I will be different. I will not acknowledge that elephant. I will not even enter." So there I stood shaking my head. As I walked down from that temple high on the rock, I started to wonder did I do the right thing? I feel that I did.

I will always remember the time when a Hindu priest invited me into the innermost room.

Thanks for your constant support and encouragement.

Counselor Training: 1180 down, 280 to go.

Yesterday we split the team into two groups, one headed to the camp to spend time with the kids and the other travelled four hours to a different town to speak at a counselor training session.  I joined the group to the counselor training place and boy was it fun.  We woke at 5am to get ready to leave since we had such a long drive ahead of us.  I'll try and post a new highway driving video tomorrow so that you'll get to see the fun at higher speeds!  Within the first hour Andy is doubled over out the window.  I was alarmed at first since you don't want to stick anything out the window, let alone half your body.  But breakfast was coming to visit him again, so it was best that he did that out the window.  When we arrived at the training site we were whisked inside and up onto the stage where all 360 counselors could see us.  They asked us to share our testimonies and sing some songs.  The most impacting thing about the time was watching the churches leave the training session.  Each church sent four counselors (many pastors said that lots more wanted to come, but IBCM limits it to four so that they can have room for all the people in the training sessions) and the pastor comes to pick them up at the end of the 3 day training.  This is the time where IBCM distributes the funding for the camps and the material to be used.  This camping concept is so streamlined and simple.  It's a surreal picture seeing four counselors and a pastor walking away carrying the bags of material and sports equipment as they prepare to run a camp for 50 kids that next week.

The team is doing well.  We're taking some time to rest tonight and tomorrow morning before we head to another counselor training for another 280 counselors in Trichy.  We're going hard, so please pray that God will sustain our strength.

I continue to update the photo's, so feel free to view those to see more of what we're doing.

Psalm 126

We've kind of fallen into a routine now, wake up at for a 8:30 breakfast, head to the camp around 9:45, spend time singing dancing and hanging out with counselors until 1:30pm.  Then it's back to the house for lunch, then 3pm back to the camp, then 7:30 pm back to the house for supper.  It's been a joy to understand the inner workings of IBCM.  We met with some of the district coordinators two days ago, these men are the men in charge for reaching over 30 million people!  These men are serious, they will partner with thousands of churches, providing training and material to reach the children of Tamil Nadu.  One of the most exciting things about this ministry is that it is slowly becoming self sustaining.  This year 40% of the camps are Indian sponsored.   The plans are in the works for much more.  Next year IBCM will not supply any funding for camps, but will only supply the materials and training for the staff.  Churches take care of the camps themselves.  This ministry is poised to explode, 70,000 kids is just the beginning!

First Impressions

Well it's been a couple of warm days in India.  We haven't had the chance to sit down and write an email, ministry in India is cruising and we are very busy.  It's been a fascinating last couple of days.  Sunday Morning we had a chance to worship with an Indian church in Chennai.  It was great to sing the English version of popular NA songs as the rest of the congregation sang in Tamil.  We quickly visited the place where the disciple Thomas was speared in the first century AD and then it was off to the airport to catch a plane to Trichy where the IBCM office is.  We visited a follow-up program Sunday evening, which consisted of us sitting in front of a 100 kids who were so excited about us being there that they were almost going crazy.  They loved hearing Eric and Lori's testimony.

Driving in India is always an interesting experience, I'll try and post a video to try and give you an idea of some of the culture we saw as we drove.  Today we just got back from a counselors training time with 300 counselors, which was an intense time of singing and dancing while wearing this flower necklace thingy that swings all over the place while shedding rose pedals all over the place.  I met the "Antony" of Nepal who is a very encouraging man who has a heart of gold.  The team from Canada is tight.  Lots of great memories are being made as we spend lots of time together.  One last thought which I never imagined I'd say...but I'm actually loving the food!  Thanks for praying!

London Adventures

Hi all, we're just sitting around exhausted in the London Airport after a really fun day of wandering around the city.   All the flights and connections have been perfect so far and spirits are really high all around.  The time in London was really fun, figuring out the tube train was sweet, speeding through the underground tunnels was so fun.  Everyone is pretty over tired but that makes it more fun as personalities begin to loosen up.  I feel so blessed to be with a group like this, they roll with the punches and are always ready to meet new people.  Andy's idea to applaud the pilot on a successful landing got us a bunch of interesting fun looks.  Please pray for renewed health in some of us, the lack of sleep is causing some sore throats and upset stomachs.  Everyone keeps talking about how they are really looking forward to getting to India.  I'll try and post some pictures about our London adventures once we get to India.

India Bound!

Well, I've been counting down for the last couple of months, waiting and waiting until April the 19th would arrive, and here it is. We're on our way to India! Here's a copy of our Itinerary: (Check out this link to find out what we're doing in India)

1 Air
AC - Air Canada
Flight 264
Booking Code: Q
Date: Thursday, April 19, 2007
From: Winnipeg Intl Arpt, Winnipeg MB - Canada
To: Lester B Pearson Intl, Toronto ON - Canada
Departs: 5:25 PM Arrives: 8:47 PM
Status: confirmed

2 Air
AC - Air Canada
Flight 858
Booking Code: Q
Date: Thursday, April 19, 2007
From: Lester B Pearson Intl, Toronto ON - Canada
To: Heathrow, London United Kingdom
Departs: 10:55 PM Arrives: 11:10 AM Next Day
Status: confirmed

3 Air
GF - Gulf Air
Flight 6
Booking Code: V
Date: Friday, April 20, 2007
From: Heathrow, London United Kingdom
To: Seeb Intl, Muscat Oman, Sultanate Of
Departs: 8:30 PM Arrives: 7:00 AM Next Day
Status: confirmed

4 Air
GF - Gulf Air
Flight 66
Booking Code: V
Date: Saturday, April 21, 2007
From: Seeb Intl, Muscat Oman, Sultanate Of
To: Chennai Arpt, Chennai India
Departs: 10:00 AM Arrives: 3:10 PM
Status: confirmed

5 Air
GF - Gulf Air
Flight 67
Booking Code: V
Date: Saturday, May 12, 2007
From: Chennai Arpt, Chennai India
To: Muharraq Arpt, Bahrain Bahrain
Departs: 4:10 PM Arrives: 6:20 PM
Status: confirmed

6 Air
GF - Gulf Air
Flight 7
Booking Code: V
Date: Sunday, May 13, 2007
From: Muharraq Arpt, Bahrain Bahrain
To: Heathrow, London United Kingdom
Departs: 1:15 AM Arrives: 6:25 AM
Status: confirmed

7 Air
AC - Air Canada
Flight 869
Booking Code: Q
Date: Sunday, May 13, 2007
From: Heathrow, London United Kingdom
To: Lester B Pearson Intl, Toronto ON - Canada
Departs: 8:30 AM Arrives: 11:05 AM
Status: confirmed

8 Air
AC - Air Canada
Flight 257
Booking Code: Q
Date: Sunday, May 13, 2007
From: Lester B Pearson Intl, Toronto ON - Canada
To: Winnipeg Intl Arpt, Winnipeg MB - Canada
Departs: 12:55 PM Arrives: 2:28 PM
Status: confirmed

Spring Update Letter

Hi everyone,

I thought that you would be interested to know that I am heading back to India for a few weeks this May. I'm heading back to the wild world of burning hot curry and crazy drivers. I'm excited to be helping lead a team of ten students from Winkler Bible Camp to the Indian province of Tamil Nadu (southernmost tip of India, right across from Sri Lanka). I'm looking forward to this because it's going to be very stretching. We will be helping with some Bible camps that are already in place there. Over the past 4 years Bible camps in India have exploded in growth. It's been super fun to watch God take a small camp of a few hundred kids in 2003 to an estimated one hundred thousand kids planned for this next summer. Our role as a team will be to help with the staff training of thousands of counselors and to travel to different churches to give encouragement. This is where I'm a little scared. As one of the leaders of the group I am going to be asked several times to preach to large groups. If you could pray for me, that would be a good thing! I feel super privileged to be able to follow God on these adventures. If you want more up-to-date news and information check out www.stevebock.ca. Also I've attached a picture of some of the things that have been keeping me busy over the past little while (click here for description)! Thanks for reading this!

-Steve