Nigel B.

I have had two incredible OM experiences.  The first was in early 2004 when I spent four months in the Caribbean aboard one of OM's ships.  Some bullet memories: doing customer service with my limited Spanish; getting seasick; meeting 100 new people who are now Facebook friends; visiting schools and hospitals and prisons; seeing people come to Christ; making way too many mistakes; having to say sorry; forgiving others; carrying a zillion boxes of books; watching God shatter a lot of my unhelpful default opinions and habits; being thankful and surprised that God would use me.

After coming home and serving the Lord back here in Canada for a couple years (and paying off some student debts), I was back for a year in late 2006 - as the "gopher" of OM's Founder, George Verwer.  A glorious title I know--"gopher''--and it was in this role that God patiently had me decrease so that He could increase.  It was a tremendous year.  20 countries.  250 meetings.  5,000 new people.  Thousands of moments of God's grace.  A couple of specific memories: visiting dying patients in an AIDS ward in South Africa; seeing two of them come to Christ through my broken witness; sleeping on the floor at Dubai airport; preaching to a small house church in Al Qaeda territory in Northern Pakistan.

A few months after finishing my year of gopherage, I joined some friends in moving into one of Toronto's most spiritually unreached neighbourhoods; and the journey has continued.  While also running a small business (to put bread on the table), it has been a tremendous year: to be at a neighbour's bail hearing after he was arrested before my eyes; to pray for not-yet-believing neighbours; to be there when a neighbour's wife left him.

It's amazing that God wants to use us, isn't it?  As I take a moment to look back, I can't help but thank him, specifically, for OM.  You know what OM is?  Two things, really: inter-church stuff, and taking the church to the world.  It's just part of the mix - God's mix.  So if you'd like to dive into that God-filled mix, OM is one (really cool) way to do it.  Check it out.  Start the rest of your life.  Whatever it is, pray a lot, and then go for it.  And--one last fun challenge--may you have no idea where you'll be in five years.  May it be unpredictable.  May God be the only one who knows.

Tami Zacharias

Although I was very excited to join OM Lifehope in the UK for a year, I was scared at the same time.  It was hard for me to leave home, but I felt God's peace in the decision.  The giant step of faith was completely worth it.

It would take more time and space than this article would allow to express how God changed and stretched me during my year in the UK.  I came from a small town and it was my first time living away from home for more than two weeks.  I had little experience and knowledge in ministry, evangelism and interacting with other cultures.

My year in the UK began with an initial training period and had training times interspersed throughout the rest of the year that equipped me to share my faith and serve God alongside a team of international students.  Our team worked with a church just inside Wales, doing things like children's and youth clubs, door-to-door work, and speaking in schools.

Many of the things we did, especially public speaking, were way outside of my comfort zone.  God challenged me to trust him with everything, especially because I was away from home and all I had ever known.  I began to see things from a Christ-centered global perspective through being introduced to people from all around the world.  The Church was so much bigger than I had thought!

In these ways, and many others, God prepared me for what was ahead.  That year of incredible faith stretching gave me opportunities that I would not have had at home and showed me that God was faithful and trustworthy.  I have kept in touch with a number of friends that I met in the UK, which has been a real encouragement to me.  Even though I have had many struggles since I have been back in Canada, I can look back on my experience and see how God worked, which gives me hope for what he can do in and through me now.

During the year I spent in the UK, God began to give me a heart for youth ministry.  I saw a great need in Europe because many youth do not see Christianity as relevant to their lives.  God gave me a love for them and a desire to spend my life serving them.  When I came back to Canada from the UK, I applied to Providence College to join their Youth Leadership Major program.  I am currently finishing my second year of studies and will graduate next April (2010) with a B.A. in Youth Leadership.  I am excited to go back to Europe with OM to use both my previous OM experience and college education to share the Good News with youth.