Trust God

Greetings from Canada! The past couple of days has been an adventure to say the least. Friday things started off well from Knoxville and the fun began in Detroit. When Ashlee and I arrived we found out that the airlines had over booked our flight to Montreal and were told that we might not have a seat. The next flight to Montreal was Saturday morning at 10am so we were in a bit of a bind. After about 10 minutes Ashlee received a seat on the flight but I was still waiting. After talking with the people who would pick us up and finding out that they wouldn't be able to come get me the next day, we basically told the airline that I had to get to Montreal on Friday and if they couldn't do it then to please find another airline that could. It's amazing what those words will do because I then immediately received a seat assignment and we flew to Montreal.

After getting to Montreal, through customs and immigration, more fun arose. I went to go pick up my luggage and after watching every piece of luggage pass by me twice I went and told a person at the Delta desk that my luggage may have been missing....turns out it was and it was put on another flight to Montreal and would be arriving 2 hrs later in the night. So I had to go through a ridiculous process that sent me to a customs person and then back to the Delta desk. Luckily my luggage was delievered on Saturday afternoon and everything was still there.

As for the first couple of days, it has felt kind of lonely. I have met some friends but so far haven't really been able to actually spend a significant amount of time with other males like I have at home. I know this will change in the upcoming days because the students are not back from break at the University but so far it has taken some getting use to. My apartment is in the basement of a house so it is underground and it gets dark really easy and very early so that is something that will take getting use to.

As we have learned about the culture here, it has brought it home that I am no longer in the "Bible belt." Citizens here were oppressed by the Catholic church and because of this they have rebelled against it and don't want any part of religion or church. The people of Quebec are in the top 20 most unreached people groups in the world. To put this in perspective, 40,000 of the 7 million people here claim to be a true follower of Christ. That is .5% of the population.

Our leader was telling us about his family and their journey to Quebec and something that he talked about was "barefooting." This basically means that you are dropped off in a place and trust God to provide and work. He wants us to experience this for ourselves and in a way this is what I was asking for. What is it like to live and serve for a significant amount of time away from home and loved ones? Luckily our town is small and everything is within walking distance and those times will be good for thinking and prayer. This morning while walking to Ashlee's apartment I acknowledged the fact it was just God and myself on this journey in a way during some thought and prayer. In these first couple of days I can't see yet what the purpose is until students begin coming back and I begin to get in the routine of what I'll be doing but I do know one thing....I just need to trust God.