BBQ at Urban Promise

The Market Place and the Discipleship groups were invited to host a BBQ for the families of Urban Promise children on Friday, July 21, 2006 at the Urban Promise site at 11th Ave and Victoria in Vancouver. Our task was to provide the food and music for about 200 people from the families of the Urban Promise children.

We gathered together at around 4:00 PM to unload the food and drinks. Tables and BBQ stoves were set by the sidewalk area. 200 hamburger buns were sliced and 10 watermelons were cut. At around 5:00 PM, we started to cook the hot dogs and hamburgers for the crowd to come. At around 6:00 PM, Bruce from Urban Promise gathered all the families around the BBQ area to introduce us – friends from ECBC – and said grace. There was a long line up for the hamburger and we were all busy serving people with hot dogs, chicken wings and samosa.

While the families were enjoying the food and settling down on the lawn, Roland started to play his saxophone to entertain the crowd. Some of us made use of the opportunity and started to connect with the families. Pastor Ko developed a rapport with four Vietnamese families and shared his stories about his missions trips to Vietnam. Other members were talking to different families and we shared our faith with them. Although many families were not Christians, they were impressed by what we had done. It was also encouraging to learn that some families were Christians and they go to churches regularly.

As we were packing and cleaning up, some families came forward and thanked us for our work. We also received positive responses from the director and staff of Urban Promise. They asked us if we can come again on another occasion. Praise our Lord for giving us the opportunities to go out to the community to share our faith with the families of Urban Promise children.

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! --Luke 10:2-3