Vancouver residents Keith and Celia Olson benefitted from Missions Fest in a concrete – and unexpected – way, as Celia recounts.

IN January of 2008, Keith and I were students at Regent College. I was studying to be a worship director at a church, and Keith was preparing to teach Biblical Studies at a Christian high school.

We got a random call from my brother, Colin, who said: “Hey, I’m coming to Vancouver for Missions Fest. Do you want to go?”

We had little interest in missionary work, but we decided to meet up with my brother anyway. We sheepishly decided to check out missionary organizations which worked in Japan, since we had some close Japanese friends. That, at least, would give us some purpose for being there.

When we visited the OMF International booth, we immediately fell into conversation with Tony and Pat Schmidt, veteran missionaries in Japan. They invited us to meet with them again to talk about their work in that country. As we talked and prayed, our interest grew. We eventually began to consider a short term mission trip.

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The following January, as we struggled to decide what to do after our looming graduation, we attended Missions Fest again. This time we met with Nancy White, also an OMF International missionary in Japan. She encouraged us to follow God’s leading, even if he asked us to take a leap of faith.  Our resolve was hardened.

We contacted OMF to begin planning a short term mission trip, which grew from a summer trip to nine months. We were happy to discover that the Schmidts would be mentoring us when we arrived in Japan.

A few weeks into our short term mission, we knew that God had been working in our lives all along – to prepare us for living and working in Japan. We are currently planning to return to Japan – as career missionaries.

We are thankful for the part Missions Fest Vancouver played in getting us there.

January 2011