My Second Home-City

I’m in my second home-city this week – Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I first came to this beautiful city more than thirty years ago to lead a collegiate retreat. Then for eighteen years I brought a class of Southwestern Seminary students to Vancouver every summer on an Urban Evangelism practicum. Today, I am on the leadership team for the WestCoast Baptist Association, serving from my home in Fort Worth, Texas and leading numerous Vision Tours and Prayer Journeys to Vancouver. My granddaughter, Whitney, attends a Christian school in Fort Worth. Every year the students are required to participate in a spring mission and/or culture trip. She has been to Guatemala, Mexico and Kenya. This year she rejected all the school trips and asked me to plan her senior-year, personal mission trip to Vancouver. With the school’s approval, we are here, working, serving, and enjoying what one source has named for the past five years, “The World’s Most Livable City.” Yet it is a city of three million people, where less than 2% have any relationship with an evangelical church and 41% claim “No Religion” as their religious preference. It is believed that there are more Chinese in Vancouver than any city outside of China. Vancouver is said to have the largest Indian population outside of India. Hispanics and Persians are entering the city in large numbers. There are over 300,000 university students in Vancouver, literally representing the nations of the world. More than 74,000 people live in the inner-city core – making it the most densely populated area in North America. But, what God said about another city one time, could well be said of Vancouver, “I have many people in this city” (Acts 18:10). Truly, to reach Vancouver is to reach into the entire Pacific Rim and beyond. As far a mission trips are concerned, good choice, Whitney!

Join me this week in praying for the following global requests:
• Continue to pray for the relief work following Japan’s earthquake and tsunami.
• Pray for missionaries who are preparing for summer volunteer mission teams.
• Pray for Pastorless churches in Vancouver, Canada.
• Pray for Vancouver Island with a population of 750,000, half of whom live in the capital of Victoria. The Island is the homeland to more than 5500 indigenous peoples and is the second leading center of occult in the world. A major denomination on the Island is said to be closing 14 of their 59 churches.