James & Nikki Bonney
About two years ago while serving as a youth pastor in Southern Indiana, Jesus began to place a desire on both my wife and I’s heart for the city of Vancouver. After much prayer, fasting, listening, and asking Jesus to speak through my dog, I flew to Seattle to meet with a church planter who was planting a church in Abbotsford, BC. During the months prior God was doing amazing things in and through the youth ministry and we saw Jesus save over 40 teenagers in three months. However, after coming home from Seattle and sharing with my wife, we knew Jesus was calling us to plant a church in Vancouver! The morning after making the crazy decision to live by faith and be obedient to our call, Jesus woke me up at 5 am and like Jacob, I began to wrestle with God about how foolish this would be if it wasn’t from Him. After about an hour of crying out to God, I opened the Scriptures to these verses:
You shall be careful therefore to do as the LORD your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess. (Deut 5:32-34)
Though I knew this text was for Israel going into the Promised Land, I knew this was the Holy Spirit confirming our call. After six months of finishing well at the church in Indiana, we packed up all we had and drove 35 hours across the United States with no money, no job, and no security to Abbotsford, British Columbia, where Jesus led us to Church Planting BC. Since we have arrived, we have been assessed and are currently in a two-year apprenticeship alongside other church planters. It is at this time that Jesus led us to Westside Church where we are excited to learn, serve, and do life on mission in Vancouver with the passion to make Jesus known in the city. We are honored and excited to be a part of Westside knowing Jesus planted this church four years ago and is has many people in this city! We believe that the Scriptures align us up to Jesus and how things are, and as the city is changed by the Gospel it will find its end not in created things, but in Jesus. Therefore, our mission is to put our flag down in the city and plant churches until Jesus comes back or takes us home!
