True North Missionaries Journal

We experience physical, emotional and spiritual challenges when we serve, but it is also through serving that we overcome these difficulties in life. We have to keep in mind, troubles and temptations are present in this world. God did not die on the cross so we do not experience tribulation but for our heart to keep the faith and remain hopeful despite the pain. Regardless if we are part of a community or not, actively serving or not, the good news is that God overcame the world and told us to take courage. For us, taking on the mission to evangelize, this is very important. We need courage to obey. Obedience can be hard and painful sometimes, if not most of the time. Hard and painful when it entails loving another person who wronged us or when it requires us to ask for forgiveness or to forgive people. Love hurts, but it is also through loving that the soul finds healing. God overcame the world because He loved us. So amidst the pain and discomfort, when we truly love, healing finds us.

Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum (Let it be done unto me according to thy word). The posture of humility and obedience, trust and love.  Mary’s fiat, to me, is a reminder of the right posture of the heart in following God’s will.

With the right posture we guide ourselves to yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit. We lead our heart to do the right thing regardless how we feel. With the right posture, we find courage to make things right and with the right posture we overcome fear because we are assured of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and with that we too, like Mary, can say Yes Lord, your will be done.

God has ways different on how we do things. I will not say sometimes because most of the time the human mind cannot grasp the wisdom of God. We ask why. Why not me and him, him and her, why not now, and so on…..Things happen and we do not understand why. We do not understand because we are very impatient in waiting for the wisdom of God behind what is happening in our lives.

 

We are all guilty of this at some point in our lives but let us be reminded of the invitation to grace in the book of Isaiah, an invitation to all of us to trust and be receptive to the Lord. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways are my ways, says the Lord. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.”

God loves EVERYONE, not just those who believe in Him. He blesses everyone even the non-believers. So for the believers they will be quick to give God the credit for every blessing. For the non-believers they recognized the instrument God used. We must choose to be patient, to be understanding and most of all to care. Let us show Christ to others by allowing ourselves to be the hands and feet, be an instrument of God through our Christian Life Program.

I had an awesome childhood growing up. I had (still have) the best family who loved me and extraordinary friends to play with in my neighbourhood and school. Although I had amazing people in my life, there were some people who didn’t like me very much. These people went at great lengths to let me know that.

In grade one, I belonged to a grade 1/2 split class. I sat in the front row and loved coming to school because I enjoyed reading, writing, all things to do with art, doing math problems, and learning about science. That was until I started to get bullied by two of my classmates in the upper grade.

I remember on Valentine’s Day one of my best friends gave me a fuzzy heart sticker that lost its stickiness. Regardless, I accepted the gift with gratitude because I loved receiving gifts from her since she often gave me gifts out of the blue. One of my favourite gifts from her was the thickest colouring book I had ever seen. 🙂

Anyhow, there was a girl who sat right behind me. She came to my desk and commanded me to give her the sticker. I said no, so she punched me in the stomach, pulled my hair, and sat back in her seat before my teacher could see anything. I could feel tears swell up in my eyes as the pain in my stomach increased. I don’t remember telling my teacher. Why? I can’t really say. Maybe I was afraid. This girl continued to bully me throughout the school year.

That same school year there was a boy who sat on my right. He often bugged me and teased me. I don’t remember what conversations we had, but I remember he would physically hurt me when my teacher’s back was turned towards us. He would punch me and kick me. I didn’t tell my teacher either.

I remember walking home one day with my sisters. It was a cold winter’s day and the sky was a deep grey. The snow was piled high that every time I took a step, my boots would sink and the snow would press against my knee as I leaned forward. At the edge of a school yard was a hill that my sisters and I would walk up together. It felt like a normal day until I got pushed to the ground.

It was the boy from my class. He began punching me and kicking me. My sisters — bless them — defended me and yelled at him to stop. Eventually he left me alone and my sisters raised me up from the ground. I cried all the way home because I was hurt, my face was covered with snow, and I was embarrassed for what had happened. When I arrived home my sisters told my parents. The next day, that boy was moved to the back of the class.

In the second grade, I remember winning the book fair poster contest. This contest sort of became my thing as I won almost every year after that haha. It was seriously LIFE for me haha. Anyhow, the prize that year was $10 cash to spend on anything at the book fair. After I had received the prize I put it into my pants’ back pocket.

When I decided I wanted to go to the book fair I reached into my pocket, I discovered that the money was gone. I searched and searched everywhere for the money, but to my dismay was unable to find it. I started to cry and my teacher came to me with concern. She talked to the class and said that if they found the money to give it to me right away.

It was a spring day. The sun was shining, but I was sad because it was the last day of the book fair. The money wasn’t turned in, so I couldn’t buy anything. I remember walking home with my sisters and as we were walking over and down that same hill, I heard someone calling out my name. I turned around. It was that same boy who bullied me from the last school year. He was in my second grade class as well. There he was, running towards me on the other side of the street, waving his arms with an envelope in his hands.

He yelled, “Kleah! I have your $10! I’m sorry!”

I was relieved that the money was found, but I felt embarrassed by the situation so I told him I’d get it from him the next day, which I did. With God’s grace, this boy and I eventually became friends.

These are the stories I have about my personal experience with getting bullied. Although I’m now 24 years old I can still vividly remember exactly what went down when I was 5 and 6 years old. Why am I sharing this right now?

I am proud to be a part of CFC-Youth and this entire community of Couples For Christ because at this year’s Regional Youth Conference, we have outwardly made it our business to stand up and empower youth to defend those who are getting bullied. Sometimes we may make jokes about bullying, but there is nothing funny about it when you’re the victim.

I am proud that youth in the Mountain Region have been taught/reminded that it is not okay to bully anyone. One of my favourite moments from this year’s RYC was when our emcees, Jalen and Justine, walked into the crowd and asked a young CFC-Youth from Calgary, named Myka, what he learnt from Karla’s session, Be Bold.

He exclaimed, “It is one thing to be a bully. It’s another to defend a bully.”

The crowd of 400+ youth cheered loudly at what he said. And for good reason. This was a victory in itself because there is nothing good about bullying and there is nothing good about being a bystander. No person, whatever age they are or wherever they are, should experience getting bullied. I say this, not just out of personal experience, but out of love for the youth of today because there are now more ways for them to get bullied.

Cyberbullying is one of these ways. As a person of faith, I learnt that I can’t make excuses and say that youth can avoid being cyberbullied by not being online. The fact is, if they are not getting bullied online, then there is probably a great likelihood that they will get bullied in person. Whichever way that these youth are getting bullied, none of them are appropriate.

It is a blessing to be a part of CFC-Youth Mountain because of the sheer fact that we have all learnt that we need to love as God loves us, to be bold in our faith, and in every situation to defend those who are being mistreated. I was blessed to have a family to defend me and friends who loved me, but not all people are that lucky. Many people are/feel alone and do not have friends. Those who get bullied are vulnerable and deserve to be reminded that God loves them, that they have the same dignity as everyone around them, and that God can and will raise them up from their suffering.

God is so good. Ad majorem Dei gloriam.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
– Isaiah 55:8-9

For anyone who has ever served in the Program Committee at any CFC-Youth conference, you know that sticking to the Director’s tech script and the schedule are key. But what happens when things don’t go according to the tech script/schedule, or to our own plans? What are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to respond?

This past weekend, CFC-Youth Mountain celebrated another victory for the Lord at this year’s Regional Youth Conference. But for myself, the victory wasn’t easily recognized.

After we celebrated the Holy Mass, we jumped right into opening worship led by Yan Fournier, CFC-Youth Calgary HSB Program Head. Everyone was worshiping loudly and with so much joy, but then all of a sudden the power went completely out. The gym was black, the music min could not be heard, the projectors shut off, and everyone was so stunned that they thought it was all done on purpose.

After a few seconds, everyone from the Program Committee looked at their stations and at one another with concern. What just happened? Left and right, service team members and CCs began to scramble, trying to fix the problem. We needed the power to come back on.

For myself, I ran up and down the venue trying to help find the breaker, trying to help in whatever way that I could in letting people know that everything was going to be okay. After five to ten minutes or so they eventually found the custodians and found the breaker. They were doing all that they could to get the power to come back on and right away. I walked around the gym once more and I headed back up to the tech booth area with relief, and stood there watching and listening to everyone worship.

As I was standing and subconsciously singing the worship lyrics aloud, I noticed some things that I hadn’t really recognized at first: 500 people were still worshiping with their whole hearts, but louder and with a greater extension of their body’s extremities; the music min was still playing their instruments and singing, but with greater physical strength, in hope that the people might hear; and there, on the centre of the stage, amongst the sea of darkness, was a single spotlight miraculously shining on Yan, who was still leading everyone into worship, but with greater conviction.

In awe, I asked God, “Why is this happening?”

Immediately I was reminded that His ways are not our ways. They are above us. They are above me. Personally, I realized that I wasn’t fully ready for this RYC. Yes, I prayed daily, went to mass days prior, went to the sacrament of reconciliation, and spent some time in adoration. But God wanted even more for me. He wanted me to be truly centred in Christ and to stop worrying about all the things that were still left undone.  God wanted me to rest in Him, to trust Him, and to be still. So that is what I did. I stood still, I trusted God, I smiled with gratefulness, and I worshipped Him.

In the CFC culture of worship, it is always two fast songs, and one slow song, but we needed to buy more time, so we extended the worship by another slow song. The power was slowly coming back, but it wasn’t complete.

After the worship, we sent the youth and CC delegates to go out of the main gym. After 5-10 minutes or so, the power was back on and everyone in the Program Committee was back on track. Praise God!

Encouraged by the Holy Spirit, I posted on Facebook, “Even if the lights and the power go out, we know that You Lord are the light of the world and the All-powerful. #ONEmountain”

At the end of all of the chaos, we found ourselves 40 minutes to 1 hour behind schedule. However with God’s goodness and grace, we were able to get right back on schedule with the tech script, but this time with a renewed recollection that humility and trust in God are essential in service.

Ad majorem Dei gloriam.