God always comes through!

Hello all, Annita here. For those of you who don't already know, Steve moved to Vancouver on April 15th! It is amazing how God prepared the way for us to find the place where he is now living; He is an incredible designer of plans and it's so exciting to see them come to pass as we trust in Him!

Since December 2009, my mom had been asking people she knew if any of them had a room available for rent or if they knew anyone who did, but no one had anything within our price range ($600/month or less...the metro Vancouver area is quite expensive). We checked Craigslist and a bunch of other websites nearly every day to see if anything we could potentially rent came up, but there was nothing. All rooms/apartments were either within our price range and very far away from the YWAM Vancouver base/Annita's school or started at $700/month and went up from there. We were getting a little anxious but decided to put our trust in the Lord and asked Him to provide the right place for us at just the right time.

On Sunday, March 28th, Steve felt like the Lord said that he would be moving to Vancouver soon so he started to pack his things as soon as he got home from church. At the same time, I felt like the Lord was saying the same thing as well. The following Sunday a man at his church told Steve that he believed the Lord was saying He will provide a place in a way that we would not expect. We thought that was interesting because we also had been hearing the same thing from the Lord...so we continued to put our hope and trust in Him as we waited on Him to come through for us.

In the meantime, my mom had asked one of her friends if she knew of anyone who might have a place. Her friend said that she would mention it to her Bible study group and get back to my mom. About two weeks had gone by and her friend had mentioned it to her Bible study group but had forgotten to tell my mom the news...so we were still waiting. On Sunday, April 11th my mom ran into her friend at church and they talked for a while about life and other such things, but her friend felt like she was forgetting to tell my mom something important. She eventually remembered about Steve and I and told my mom, "I forgot to tell you that I talked to my Bible study group about Steve and Annita and told them that they are looking for a place to stay. Our Bible study leader said that his mom does bed and breakfast and currently has some rooms available." I got his mom's contact information and gave her a call two days later. Steve came over that same day and we both went to meet with her the following day.

Her name is Doreen and she is the sweetest old lady I have ever met. She loves to talk and can go on for hours, so we talked with her for a while. At 89 years of age she is standing tall and has still not retired! She is incredibly strong, does some of her own yardwork, cleans her own house and even makes breakfast every morning for all who live with her! We sat down with her over coffee and delicious home-made banana muffins. We found out she has a strong relationship with Jesus so we explained our situation to her and she decided to only charge Steve $400/month!!! This is an amazing deal...especially considering the fact that she lives in North Vancouver! She also told us that he was an answer to her prayers as well, as she would be traveling very soon and wanted someone to look after the house while she was away (no one else will be there during the time that she is gone). Breakfast is also included in the price and my family always has Steve over for dinner, so that saves us a lot of money every month. The Lord is so good and so faithful as long as we continue trusting Him no matter how bleak the situation looks. He came through for us just in the nick of time and we know and believe that He will continue to do so.

Steve moved up to Vancouver on April 15th and has had a good week so far. He started working with YWAM Vancouver on April 19 and really enjoys it! The first group of MA (Mission Adventures) students will be coming tomorrow and this week will be quite crazy for him! Please be praying for strength physically and spiritually for Steve as well as all the other YWAM staff as they reach out to high school students to spark their interest in missions.

We certainly did not expect to get that good of a deal...especially in North Vancouver!! God is so good and is absolutely BRILLIANT! Steve now lives a 15 minute drive from the YWAM base and can also bike to work a few times a week. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support - we really appreciate them and you guys as well!

As for me, I just finished with my exams last week and am now working on completing an online course in mental health. Once I finish with this course (hopefully in the next two weeks) I will receive a citation (which is like a certificate) and will *hopefully* be able to get a job in the mental health field afterward. Please pray that I do well and will be able to get a job soon.

Keep checking in every week or two, as we will be posting updates as frequently as possible :) Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support - I don't believe we could do this without the body of Christ lifting us up in prayer and strengthening us with encouragement!

-- Annita

PS: I know some of you have been trying to contact us via email and haven't been able to. I now just realized why...the email is actually steveandannita@yahoo.ca not @yahoo.com. Sorry about that! Do send us mail, we'd love to get in contact with you :)

Trusting God to provide

Trusting God is an amazing place to be. Right now I am sitting in my bedroom contemplating what God has done and how I have got to see His incredible faithfulness. As I look forward to what He has spoken to us, and how He is going to take care of us I can only get excited. Four months ago I had just finished leading a Discipleship Training School (DTS with Youth With A Mission, Idaho) to China and Mongolia. We got to see the Lord do amazing things there; it seemed like nearly every day God was putting us in the path of someone who needed to hear more about who He is. Some we got to lead to Christ while others left thanking us for taking the time and effort to come all the way out to Mongolia to share the Gospel with them. I have never been in a country so open to hear the Gospel. The people were very friendly and always invited us in for milk tea (hot milk with copious amounts of salt in it…not for the faint of heart). As I reflect on that trip one thing always stands out to me about it: the Lord told us not to make a schedule but to seek Him and go where and when He told us to go, and that’s exactly what we did. We rented a van and a driver, who we had helped lead to the Lord a few weeks earlier, and went into the least populated country per square kilometer in the world. We drove from yurt to yurt for 3 weeks and shared the Gospel, ate, and slept with the people. There would be times that we would drive for 3-4 hours and not see a yurt and other times they would be all over the grasslands. It was a crazy time of snow storms, sheep and camels that I will never forget. But the most amazing thing about the whole two month trip was seeing God’s faithfulness and getting to share the Gospel with the Mongols, who for some heard it for the first time. All through that whole trip God was teaching me to trust him. Trust is such an intimate place to go in your relationship with the Lord. It requires us to wholly give up our rights and say “ok God, You said to do this and now I am stepping back and letting You take control”. That again is where I am, and it is a good place to be. Annita and I are trusting God to provide a place to live in Vancouver B.C. and the money to live there. When I got back from Mongolia Annita and I decided to get married, so we began to pray about what our future would look like, and where we would live. Over the next few months we felt strongly that the Lord was leading me to leave YWAM Idaho and join YWAM Vancouver in British Columbia. It will cost much much more to live up in B.C but we heard the Lord, so I am moving up there this month. We are trusting God to provide $1200 more per month, but as I said before, trusting God is an amazing place to be! No matter what is going on in our lives, God has a way of always making us dependent on Him, and for that I am thankful…

Steve and the Mongolia DTS team (Zach, Andy and Lucas) with some Mongolian families.