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 wasn't always easy, especially for
Sarah)
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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2008