A Year Off
On July 16, 1999, Sarah and I were married at South Abbotsford Church in front of our friends, family, and many Doxa-attenders who joined us for the ceremony. Months later we noticed in the pictures of the reception that there were faces in that crowd as well who hadn't been formally invited. It was a discovery that delighted us and seemed quite hilarious at the time.
(Vijay and Sarah Manuel,
July 16, 1999)
There were a number
of contributing factors to the decision to end Doxa at
the height of its popularity and success. On a personal
level, I knew that I wanted my first year of marriage to
be a time focussed on my wife. It was important to me to
be free of all the various commitments that came my way
in order for Sarah and I to build a solid foundation for
the coming years in ministry together. Although I didn't
know what the ministry would look like, I knew that it
was what I was called to, and now, we
were
called to. Both Sarah and I had grown up in homes that
had an open-door policy for guests and family. This made
it difficult for us to take a year that was focussed on
the two of us and our growth in the Lord together. Our
families, parents in particular, respected our need for
privacy and the fact that we lived in a condominium made
it easier for us to focus our time together. It was
wonderful and important for us. We both agreed that we
would rather cancel an outing with people than attend
while we were working through an issue. This would train
us to always work on the things that needed to be worked
on in a timely manner and to never pretend
that we
were okay in a group setting when in fact we were
experiencing frustrations with each other. (You can learn
more about this time in our lives by reading the
following article entitled: Marriage and
Happiness, 2005).
In
January of 2000, a tragic accident left three Abbotsford
youths dead (Article: Faith rises out of Abbotsford teen
tragedy,
CanadianChristianity.com, 2000). Sixteen-year-old
Matthew Peters was one of the young people who were
killed. I remember Matthew fondly because he had
brought me his uncle's latest song book & CD from
London, England. His uncle was Brian Doerksen, a local
worship leader who has gained international
recognition for his song-writing and worship leading.
At the time I hadn't met Brian nor did I know anything
about him other than his music which we used at Doxa.
Matthew was so excited for me to meet his uncle and
had wanted to see the two of us leading worship on
stage together. He had even given me Brian's phone
number in England, one evening after Doxa. Sadly, the
first time that Brian and I would lead worship
together would be at Matthew's memorial services in
January, 2000.
(Brian Doerksen with the
Doxa Band, 2000)
Brian called me and
asked if he could put a few of Matthew's favorite Doxa
songs on a memorial CD which featured a song Brian had
written entitled Matthew's
Song. I was asked to join
Brian on stage at the Abby Senior Secondary memorial and
play one of my songs and join Brian on
Matthew's
Song. It was an honour to
be there for Matthew. It was the comments that were
spoken into my life during this time that began the
process to start Doxa again. One lady in particular
encouraged me by saying: I don't know why
God has allowed you this time off from ministry, but
you'll be back soon. It stuck with me. I
knew in my heart that there were still hundreds of teens,
in particular, that needed to hear the Gospel of Christ
through Doxa's ministry.
(Discussing Doxa's Re-Start. Left to right: Rick Porter,
Cam Broad, Vijay Manuel, Chris Douglas, 2000)
I met with our youth pastor team and the senior pastor of
Central Heights Church, Chris Douglas, to discuss the
possibility of starting Doxa again. They agreed that it
should happen, but under new guidelines. There was to be
no loitering in the foyer or outside. I knew that this
would change the event, but I agreed that it would be a
good thing. The next question was that of the band. There
had been so many changes in the past few months that I
knew everyone wouldn't be available or perhaps called
back into this ministry.
I
was at church when I saw Dustin Freund playing in the
worship team. I asked him if he played bass, and he said
no. I knew that he was a talented young man, but there
was something else about him that made me want to work
with him; I believed that to be the Spirit of God at work
in him. Sarah had already agreed to play piano/synth and
to sing, and I had spoken to Jared about drumming again.
The thought of playing in a band without Jared was
actually quite scary for me. We had a musical connection
that allowed me to operate with great ease and peace in
the ministry side of things. Also, I just loved Jared. He
always had a special place in my heart. It felt like
Dustin would be the missing piece to both the musical
side and the ministry side. I was very disappointed that
Dan had declined my invitation to play, but I had great
respect for him and his choice. My commitment was to find
worshipers for the new band and if that meant waiting to
fill Dan's shoes, we would wait. This would make the
electric guitar position difficult to fill partly because
of how good Dan was and partly because of the
ministry-heart requirement.
(Travelling with Jared and
Dustin was always an adventure)
Dustin was a
fantastic addition to the team. He became more than a
bass player to me and Sarah as we welcomed him into our
home and into our lives as a younger brother. I knew he
felt we were like family by the amounts of food he would
consume when at our home. Of course, this was met with
joy as Sarah enjoyed feeding both Dustin and Jared at any
and every hour of the day. Over the course of the next
few years, Dustin and I enjoyed a friendship that comes
along rarely in one's lifetime. To this day I thank the
Lord for Dustin and his passion for doing what is right
and doing it well.
We
started a Monday night service at Rick Hansen Secondary,
where I was teaching, and called it LTCOBY after the
song Love That Can Only
Be You. Again, with no
promotion other than a mention on our very amateur
website, the service ended up hosting around 50 people by
the end of the 8 week run. This is exactly what I wanted
to happen and I thanked God that we had a chance to
worship together free of the crowds of people. This was a
very important training period for my new team. Kevin
Fedrau, who was to be our sound man, joined us at LTCOBY
with his new wife Colleen. Kevin and I had met when I was
singing in the Trinity Western University choirs. Our
friendship was to become a life-long brotherhood that was
strengthened through our involvement in Doxa and a year
of teaching music together.
It
was at LTCOBY that I met Jeff Curnew who volunteered to
create a professional website for Doxa. He had offered a
year earlier but I hadn't processed the request too
seriously. Jeff went on to not only create the website
through his self-edit technology but to handle all our
projector and powerpoint needs for the coming years of
ministry. Jeff's support of God's work has always been an
inspiration to me. If it's for the Lord, Jeff will get
behind it!
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The Doxa Story //
Beginnings /
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Major Moves /
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A New Direction
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Take It To The
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A Year Off /
Doxa Begins Again
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(c) Shikina
Publishing 2008