I never wanted to be a missionary. I grew up in the church, and my view of mission work was going to Mexico for a week to build houses for people you’d never see again. Not that this was a bad thing, I just wasn’t interested.

My second year in college, I was going to a Christian university, and one night at our campus church service the school was promoting their annual mission trips available to students. I had a moment where I felt really moved by the Spirit (or was it that I knew a certain girl was going the trip?), and I decided to start raising support to go to India. I wasn’t sure what we would be doing, but I knew I should go. I sent out support letters and raised quite a bit over the amount needed.

India was where I realized that mission work is more than manual labor. Ultimately it’s about forming relationships with others in order to help them into a relationship with Christ. When you frame mission work around this crux, then mission work can happen anywhere. For me, the mission field is Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Vancouver is a drastically post-Christian society. This simply means that the population of Christians in Vancouver is a minority, and it’s so bad that the people of Vancouver are rapidly moving back toward an unreached people group. Currently the Christian population of Vancouver is 3%.

God was calling me into an urban centre to help people into community.

The city is a place where isolation and loneliness run rampant, and hoping in something other than just being a good person until you die is scarce. These people are dying for true community, but are running around trying to find it in all the wrong places.

Enter St. Peter’s Fireside.

We’re a church that meets smack dab in the middle of downtown Vancouver. We are literally one street over from the street known for crazy nightlife, a huge homeless population, and prominent drug use. The moment I set foot in this city I knew that I was supposed to be here. God was calling me into an urban centre to help people into community.

Since I’ve been here, I’ve seen God change lives. My friend Nikolas has found faith again, my friend Laura has found the strength needed to help enrich struggling teens with art in impoverished East Vancouver, and I’ve been able to host house concerts with non-believers who have outwardly spoken about how amazing the community is with St. Peter’s people. These are just some of stories that have happened in less than a year being here.

God has been working, and I’ve been able to witness these stories because Reliant gave me the chance to answer His call. It has not been an easy road to get to Vancouver, but one that is worth the fight. It took me two and a half years to get anywhere close to finished with fundraising. Those two and a half years were full of blood, sweat, tears, moments of failure, moments of miracles, laughter, joy, and despair. The only way I made it through was the power of the Holy Spirit, my support-raising coaches at Reliant, my family and friends, the ministry partners I gained along the way, and at some points sheer willpower to not give up.

Sure, I never wanted to be a missionary, but I’ve since learned that this is exactly what I was made for.