jehovah-jireh

April 9, 2004

during my mission trip in mexico last summer, God called me to join a summer tour with CTI. in my heart of hearts, though i had my share of doubts about financing and other things, i knew that God would sort it all out for me. but as time passed, my fickle heart began to feel and believe otherwise. i worried about how i was going to raise the funding and i worried even more about my summer internship. where was i going to do it? when was i going to do it?

as time drew closer to april, i became more worried. april was in fact, the only month that i could do my internship because i planned to do summer school in may-june and july-august was of course, my missions trip. by february, i decided that i had to take things into my own hands. i couldn't wait for my program to give us the company contact because it would be too late. so i began my process of looking for a company that i wanted to intern at.

a company called burnkit (www.burnkit.com) immediately came to my mind, but i dismissed it as quickly as it came. the reason being was because the company was located in vancouver. so i called another company that i was interested in that was located in london, ontario, but they weren't accepting any interns. so i was stuck. i couldn't think of any other company that i wanted to work for, other than burnkit.

i've always wanted to go to vancouver. i've heard that it's a beautiful place to be. eric loved vancouver. he told me that if i ever went, i would never want to return to toronto. so, a big motivation aside from getting an internship, was for me to find out exactly why he loved it so much. however, there were more factors for me that were on my mind. where would i stay? how would i get around the city? would i survive on my own for 3 weeks in a city that i've never been to and a city where i didn't know anyone?

i decided to give burnkit a call anyways, just to see what would happen. the guy told me they never had an intern before, but told me to send him my work regardless; so i did. a week later, he e-mailed me back and told me that they really liked my work and wanted to offer me an internship position, providing that his partner agreed (he was on vacation at the time). i was stoked. but at the same time, really worried that if i did get the internship, i wouldn't have anywhere to live.

another week passed. i got an e-mail on a wednesday afternoon saying that i was accepted as an intern, so i called the creative director up to finalize the details. that night, i told my parents that we needed to find me a place to live, so we brainstormed people that they knew. thursday morning, my dad told me to book my plane ticket to vancouver asap, so i did. my mom told me that she had a travel agent and that i should go through her to get the ticket. so i did. in passing, my mom asked if she knew anyone who lived in vancouver. she did. in fact, she knew a lady that owned a townhouse and that there was a possibility that she could lend it to us. and it JUST so happened that she was having lunch with that lady that same day. so she told us she would ask her and get back to us. it turned out that we could rent the townhouse from her for the three weeks in april. amazing. in ONE day, i went from not having an internship whatsoever, to an internship with a company i really liked, AND a place to stay to boot.

but, i was also a bit worried about my living on my own for three weeks, especially because i'd be in a whole other province and because i'd never lived on my own before. i half-joked with my mom that she should come with me to help me settle in, but in actuality, it wasn't really possible. she had a lot of work to do, and we didn't think my dad would let her go. so the idea faded away. a few days later, my dad approached my mom with the SAME idea that we had! we decided that she would come to vancouver with me for a little more than a week, and then fly back to toronto.

i also learned that there were people i could go to if i needed anything. tim's brother, josh was there. auntie rita's brother was there. auntie annie (my mom's best friend) had some really good friends who would be there as well.

incredible. simply incredible. all of these events were completely orchestrated by God, because there's no way it could have happened otherwise. God is faithful. He called me to a mission trip this summer and He is showing me how He?s paving the way for it all to happen. He is Jehovah-Jireh, the great Provider. though I still have a long way to go in raising funds, and though my left hand still suffers from RSI (repetitive strain injury), i am fully confident that He will continue to provide everything that I need to magnify Him.

i'm reminded of philippians 1:6, "being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." wherever or whatever God calls you to do, no matter how many obstacles are in your way, or how much difficulty you encounter, know that He will carry it through till completion. know that He is painting on a canvas as large as the universe, and that our lives are knit into a small piece of that canvas.

Posted by Leo Chan at April 9, 2004 12:54 AM