early thoughts on Longlac 2007

as a missions trip, my time at Longlac can be neatly categorized into two compartments: the mission and the trip.

the mission portion was an awesome display of the Spirit's power. though we did not personally witness any conversions, the obvious change in the lives of those who accepted Christ last year testified to God's healing presence in them. the plan this year was to continue discipling Raquelle, Duran and Cheryl so that they might grow to become a godly influence on those around them.

the churches that arranged to reach Longlac partnered with a Pentecostal church this year, lead by Pastor Roland. we were given the use of the church to sleep in, as well as hold dinners and worship nights. the pastor, his staff and his family were to observe the teams that came up and how they interacted with the native people the've recently been called to minister to. without any purposeful intention to do so, our relationships, the dinners and worship times all served to bridge the invisible divide between the townspeople (the pastoral staff and congregation) and the natives that sought our company. the relationships fostered will surely aid in the church's ministry to the natives once the summer draws to an end.

a large bulk of my memories from Longlac are from the trip category. any time you go on an excursion with a small group of people, you bond with them in weird and facinating configurations. on the very first night in the town of Longlac, the church threw us a welcoming barbeque cookout with outdoor worship. Lyris, Moyee, Melissa and i quickly engrained ourselves in the congregation's consciousness as "those singing idiots." we sang anything and everything. i have relatively little musical talent, so i belted out melodies to Dan's guitaring while the ladies harmonized; we made a good show of it. this set the tone for the duration of our stay in Longlac.

exercising our immense nerdiness and musical chops, we spent many a night simply singing or noise-making to whatever song Lyris could rustle up on the pinano (it is a pretty hefty repetoire, by the way). inspired by this video we watched prior to leaving for the trip, we decided to sing Pachelbel's Canon in D in four parts. all the singing would've been even better if i knew how to sing bass. i can hit the notes, i just can't figure out which notes to sing unless i'm very very familiar with the song. i've resolved to sit at a pinano and sing intervals in my spare time.

one day we had to go to Rona to gather some supplies. we were looking for a shelf that could serve as a shoe rack. so i sing-songed for a shoe rack. Dan, as a bit of a poke at our incessant singing, said, "why don't you guys sing that in 4-part harmony?" or something to that effect. so i sang "shoe rack" nice and low, and Moyee added "shoe rack" in tenor, and Lyris added "shoe rack" in alto, and Melissa capped it off with "shoe rack" in soprano to form a nice major chord. Pastor Roland, who was with us, cracked up and nearly collapsed with laughter.

there were many more instances of crazy and what not. our team was very fortunate this year to be kindred in the spirit of nerdiness and musicality and humour. i'm sure some of those stories will crop up in a sharing or when we four are in proximity.