BH's concluding report for Halifax Project 08

The Herald - Final Report from Ben Harrison for Halifax Project 08

Dear Friends,

God definitely blessed this summer’s mission activities in Halifax. I was fortunate to have the experience of serving again with a group of dedicated students as we lived side by side in an atmosphere of ongoing evangelism and discipleship.

Through our weekly team meetings, we covered many important topics such as how to love by faith, strategies for how to live in the world while not being of it, the art of listening, and the characteristics of leaders (various types). Our Wednesday night inductive bible studies took us through 1 John. It is helpful to realize that our ability to love others comes because God first loved us (1 John 4:19).

Serving on the same mission project for the second straight year held some difficulties as I struggled to identify and continually accept my role. After serving as one of the student directors leading the project last summer, my transition into being a bible study group leader this summer involved the challenges for me to grow in an area where I am not as comfortable leading and to accept having less direct authority. I continue to learn the importance of delegating by inviting and encouraging younger Christians to step forward to serve God instead of constantly “taking more onto my plate.” I, along with every student on project have gained a faith that God can use us in new ways.

I worked part time at a Foot Locker store in Halifax for the second consecutive summer. Through prayer and having spent a longer period of time with my co-workers by this summer, I saw greater opportunities to speak with my coworkers about my faith. With the aim of doing evangelism, my team organized many events such as a concert, a Jesus Film showing, and a discussion night about hope based on viewing various types of media. Despite our best efforts to promote and put on high quality activities, attendance was continually lower than we hoped. We took faith that those who needed to be at the events were there, and we learned that events are often not the best tool for seeing people come to know Christ as Saviour. Instead, it was through our intentionality to develop relationships with non-Christians that we saw many opportunities to present the Gospel to the extent that we surpassed the goal of Gospel representations that we had set at the beginning of the summer!

It was through ongoing relationships that two students did make decisions to accept Christ this summer. Here are their stories.

Jack is a Korean student spending a year in Canada that constantly hung out with our team since early in May. He would drop by to eat with us, went to church with us, came to our Bible study even when he had very little grasp of English. Finally, the Friday afternoon at the start of August as we were preparing to leave for our debrief retreat, Jack accepted Christ as his Saviour. I had the privilege of starting to go through some follow-up materials for new Christians with him during the first half of August as I remained in Halifax.

Hiromi is a Japanese student that our team met the second weekend of project. We decided to invite some other students from the floor upstairs over for dinner and Hiromi was among these students. Over the summer a good friendship was struck up between Angela and Steph from my team and Hiromi. Finally in mid-July those two girls were able to share the gospel with Hiromi over coffee and she accepted Jesus that night.

God has given me a passion to reach these international students and I hope that I will continue to find ways to reach this group. God really seems to be moving among them. I see a key role for the Church here in Canada to make strides to love the international students and the new immigrants among us. This may mean housing students when they come to Canada to study, or to volunteer with an organization that helps immigrants settle in Canada, or even to hire a new immigrant when they apply for a job. We can love them in numerous ways.

Going forward, I will be finishing up my Master of Library and Information Science Degree in
spring 2008 and I continue to investigate full time ministry opportunities with Campus for Christ / Power to Change for the next year. In the short term, as I finish my studies I am coordinating the prayer ministry and leading the graduate student ministry of Campus for Christ at UWO. Incorporating grad students into our student movement is really just beginning and poses unique challenges, mainly with continuing momentum when so many of the graduate programs are so short in duration. One challenge in my life that I am now recognizing is to avoid spiritual pride (2 Cor 3:5) after serving on mission trips and with the campus ministry for five years. Entering this fall, I realize how much more I need and can depend upon God.

While this summer’s missions activities are “over” our relationships with non-Christian friends made this summer hopefully will continue. Many seeds were sown this summer and with God’s help we will persevere in prayer for our friends and develop the patience to wait upon God to cause growth (1 Cor. 3:7).

Thank you for partnering with me to see the Gospel impact the world,

Ben Harrison
1 Corinthians 15:58