I WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN - Part 2

For part 2, I promised to write about 'a leadership opportunity that would change us even more'. This may be hard to articulate but I'm going to try. You could say in many ways that Turkey is the birthplace of Christianity. The seven churches of Revelation are seven major churches of Early Christianity as mentioned in the New Testament book of Revelation. They are all in modern day Turkey. I won't give you a history lesson here, but do some quick web searches on the history of Turkey and you can understand why the strong Christian presence that was once there is no longer. My team and I had the privilege of being invited to lead worship for a Christian conference held in Turkey, where hundreds of pastors and leaders would converge to meet, be inspired and then disperse to various parts of the rest of the world for their work and calling. And so with a couple days to adjust to the time change and get perspective on this wonderful country, we set our minds and hearts to the job at hand for our first week there - leading worship for those people who have already given up their lives to serve God.

It's challenging to describe what it's like to lead music for that many people, in a now decidedly Muslim country, but in the birthplace of the Christian church - who have already truly committed their lives in service of their faith. You could say that standing out for your faith in this part of the world is not without its' risks. Even more-so obviously for someone from Turkey who might be called a convert. Interestingly, however, on our fourth day of the conference we were honored with 2 dignitary visits. Those were the Canadian Ambassador to Turkey, and the Assistant to the Minister of Culture and Tourism in Turkey (hopefully I am accurate on those titles). At the conference we took a generous offering for earthquake victims in Turkey and gave that to the Turkish dignitary. Of course he was thankful, and he welcomed our conference to return again someday. But I risk losing my point! What a tremendous experience, knowing that God dwells in the praises of His people, and therefore knowing that He was there with us in power and presence as we sang. And doing that 'where it all began' you could say...breath-taking really.

It was tremendous to see the development of my own team and how they rose to the challenge of the task set before them, whether on the ground in Turkey or in a support role back in Canada. Part of what I do at my church VAC and Hear the Music is the develop, train and disciple - and I saw that work bearing fruit which was very rewarding for me. About a years worth of preparation went into planning this conference, so to participate in it all coming off, really without a hitch - was a great faith builder and testimony to God's greatness and presence removed 'in the fore-planning'.

I'm not a fan of the word 'awesome' because I feel it's overused, and has lost its' meaning. But it's really the only word I have to describe this whole week of music in Turkey. Awesome because of the experiences I've described above. Awesome because of the incredible production team we got to work with. Both the Turkish and Canadian crews were really the shining stars! Awesome because of new and lasting friendships formed. Awesome because of the leaders I worked with, met and the leadership opportunity it gave take out 'me'. And that's a whole other story. The personal and spiritual growth experience I was given, I am so grateful for.

And so to all of my new friends, and the supporters and pray-ers who made this happen, I thank you. You have blessed me and changed me - and my whole team. Some great song lyrics come to mind now...

There are higher heights, there are deeper seas
Whatever You need to do, Lord do in me
The Glory of God fills my life
And I will never be the same again

(I WILL NEVER BE THE SAME - Geoff Bullock)

I get a bit scared praying or singing 'whatever You need to do, Lord'...I generally add 'in Your mercy' to that! But I am confident of this, that 'He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus' (Philippians 1:6). And God is Good...again He was, and is the one who brings change in us - from glory to glory...never to be the same again.

I WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN - Part 1

It's been almost 3 weeks since I returned from my trip to Turkey. My band stayed a little bit longer to tour the country with a recording artist from Turkey, of the band Storybox. They flew home just over a week ago. Tomorrow night we'll be getting together for a de-brief of the whole adventure and I am eagerly anticipating hearing the stories of what I missed, as well as processing through what God did in us and through us while we were all together.

What's so important to me and the whole team is to say THANK YOU to everyone who prayed for us and supported us. You need to know that in supporting us you were directly involved in real Kingdom activity and that lives and hearts were changed, and will be changed as God's work continues through the seeds that were planted. We are looking forward to HEAR THE MUSIC NIGHT on May 2 at Vernon Alliance church, where we will be able to publicly thank you and tell more of our stories from this incredible trip. I expect there will be a few blogs from me in the near future related to Turkey - which is why I've titled this first one 'Part 1'.

On week 1, we arrived in Turkey, overnighted in Istanbul and caught another flight to Antalya early the next morning. Now a popular tourist destination, ancient Antalya was probably founded around 150 BC and was originally known as Attalia. It was visited by Paul of Tarsus, as recorded in ACTS: "From Perga, Paul and Barnabas went down to Attalia and sailed from there to Antioch after preaching in Pisidia and Pamphylia" (Acts 14:25-26). Our first 2 days in Antalya we spent adjusting to jet-lag and trying to take in some of the history and sights before our conference started. This involved visiting the ancient ruins of Perge, historically known as Perga. This was significant since Perga was founded probably in 1000 BC and the Roman ruins that we saw there probably date back to about 188 BC.

Here is where my faith and my reality came crashing together in a life-changing way. At the ruins we walked the same Roman roads that St. Paul would have walked. We very likely stood where he would have preached his Message to the city inhabitants. I looked around at the hills and mountains, the same landscape that he would have seen as he arrived in the city, and I even had modern day merchants trying to sell their wares to me in the exact area where the traveling merchants would have set up shop 2000 years ago! All of a sudden - I could place myself in the Story. The Story of Faith. The story of the very beginnings of Christianity. There was no magical transcendent moment, but as I look back I can see in myself a true deepening of my faith. This was much more than a sight seeing trip to a very old city. It was a significant moment in my faith journey and I know I won't be the same again.

Before writing this blog, I read 2 Corinthians 4. ^18"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal". I feel like my experience of seeing these ruins enabled me in a new way to fix my eyes on what is unseen. Faith. And I was somehow more 'sure of what I hope for, and more certain of what I do not see'. (Hebrews 11:1). The next day we were back at our hotel doing sound checks and preparing to lead worship for almost 1000 leaders and international workers and I was a different person than I was the day before. God was preparing me for a leadership opportunity that would change all of us even more. That will be 'Part 2'.