Field Notes

https://youtu.be/KxapPSr8Ens Raised in Saudi Arabia in a deeply religious Muslim family, Dr. Joktan memorized the Qur’an by age thirteen before

On the streets of the Downtown Eastside — among addiction, loneliness, homelessness, and cultural fragmentation — youth teams from around the world are discovering that ministry is less about having answers and more about learning how to see people.
“Their presence is very impactful,” says Isabella Gertzen of YWAM Vancouver.
Rather than sending students into the city simply to preach, the ministry trains them to listen. Teams prayer-walk neighborhoods, share meals with strangers, hear stories, and learn how to engage people with dignity and compassion.

What started as a humanitarian mission has grown into an unusual alliance between church, state and hundreds of Filipino volunteers determined to reach isolated villages with practical care and hope. Sometimes, they witness things they still struggle to explain.

“Just by changing the mindset of the way they farm, we can increase yields by three to four hundred percent.”
For Steve from Tearfund Canada, real transformation in Africa does not begin with foreign aid convoys. It begins with local churches, local farmers, and simple agricultural techniques capable of tripling harvests without fertilizer or expensive technology.

For more than a century, the Gideons placed Bibles quietly into hotel rooms around the world. Today, under the new name ShareWord Global, the mission remains the same — but the method is changing. As public institutions become less accessible to Christianity, the organization is now training ordinary believers to become “the new hotel nightstand”: carrying Scripture, sharing testimony, and practicing relational evangelism in everyday life. For Tony Froese, the Gospel was never meant to stop with us.

What does a man on fire looks like…? Meet David Block, a freed and humble man, transparent to a fault who calls us to leave everything behind. “Come, all you who are weary and heavy ladden…” these are the words of Jesus.

“They would hold secret English camps in the forests while communism still ruled Eastern Europe.”

What began as conversational English lessons became something far more dangerous — and transformative. Decades later, International Messengers Canada is still using language, hospitality, and radical love to reach people wary of religion but hungry for connection. From hidden camps behind the Iron Curtain to refugee schools in Beirut, the Gospel continues to travel quietly through conversation, trust, and human relationship.

Jews: An Unreached People Roai Stanley grew up between two worlds: Israeli and Canadian, Hebrew and English, Jewish identity and

“I have no idea what he prayed… but he was crying.”

In a small meeting room beside the Port of Vancouver, a Chinese cargo officer prayed to Jesus in Mandarin while a Canadian chaplain listened without understanding a single word.

Years later, that same sailor would send back video of his baptism, his family gathered around a Bible player, and news that his son was now learning about Christ. Sometimes the Gospel travels the oceans one ship, one sailor, one family at a time. Lighthouse Harbour Ministries are there.

“When artists find a home, they stop running.” In the crowded casinos and neon-lit streets of Macau, a quiet movement is gathering around dinner tables, guitars, and wounded hearts led by Chien-Chien S*.

“Forty-two percent of Canadians are functionally illiterate,” according to Kerry Joe of Literacy and Evangelism Canada.
Not overseas. Not hidden in some distant developing nation. Canada.

“If you really want to start ministry… you can do it in three days.”
For decades, missions often moved through large institutions, lengthy pipelines, and traditional structures. But according to Erwin Van Laar of Great Commission Foundation, something radically different is emerging. Across Canada, the U.S., and beyond, independent missionaries, church planters, and unconventional pioneers are stepping forward — not waiting for permission, but responding to what they believe is the direct call of God.