I arrived here on Tuesday, June 12th, after a week of orientation and
training in Alabama, which I’m so thankful to have been able to attend (even
though it was a week of sleeping on the floor and using porta-potties, lol).
The missionaries we are working with in
Toronto (who are amazing and a huge answer to prayer) picked us up from the
airport and took us straight to where we are staying for the first two weeks of
the summer. It’s right next door to their own home, where their neighbor rents
out their basement for people vacationing in the Greater Toronto Area. We’re in
the Scarborough area, and in the span of about 5 minutes, we can walk from our
door to the shore of Lake Ontario! It’s such a huge blessing to be able to walk
right out the door and see such a beautiful example of God’s creativity and
perfect design.
You may already know that spending
my summer serving in Canada was not my first choice (I had more “adventurous”
places in mind), but simply through the placement process as well as the
preparation to come here, the Lord pointed out some things in myself, and
challenged whether I was really willing to be obedient to go wherever He wanted
to send me, or if I was only willing to go if it was somewhere that fit my
personal preference. Please pray with me that the Lord continues to use
circumstances this summer to weed out my flesh and make me look more like
Him!
Something I didn’t know about Toronto:
there are 57 unreached people groups (2% or less are evangelical
Christian) and 34 of those groups are unengaged, unreached people groups
(no known evangelical Christians, and no one is actively seeking to engage them
with the Gospel) in the Greater Toronto Area. THIS IS BIG. Believers in
Toronto have the opportunity to find these people groups and actively seek to
witness to them and to be light in their communities so that these statistics
can change. For so many years, the only possible way to reach these unengaged
people groups was to journey deep into the bush, or jungle, or wherever, learn
their language and live with them. THIS IS STILL NECESSARY for many people
groups all over the world. But because of how our world is now, metropolitan
areas especially have the potential to reach these once hard-to-reach people
groups in their own cities, and these once nearly impossible to reach peoples
are more geographically accessible than ever before.
This summer, my team and I will be
serving in many different ways- devoting time to engaging students at two
different universities, coming alongside a church plant to aid them in engaging
its community, as well as getting to participate in the beginning stages of a
new church plant in a town just outside of Toronto called Bowmanville. These
are all aspects of ministry that I’m so interested in and passionate about,
which is just further evidence that the Lord definitely knew what He was doing
when He surprised me with Toronto.
The Lord is sovereign and good. He has a
plan and that plan is good too. Please pray with me that I can fully walk in
the authority of His Spirit and be continuously bold to share about the God who
pulled me from my brokenness and sent me back to share with others, so that
they too can have peace and joy in His presence.
My teammates and I are memorizing verses
this summer, and one of them so far that has not yet failed to remind me of not
only why I’m serving in Toronto, but also why I serve anywhere in any context
at all, is Acts 20:24,
I consider my life worth nothing to
me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has
given me- the task of testifying to the Gospel of God’s grace.
Lastly, I hope this encourages you to take notice of the
people around you in your own communities- people who are broken and looking
for a way out of that brokenness. Please send me any prayer needs you have, I’d
love to be praying for you in the same way I trust you’re praying for me and
the team here! There's so much happening here, so if you have any questions
about anything I’m doing here, please feel free to write me and ask!
-Meghan
Toronto Summer