March 2011
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March
Newsletter
Perspective (Grab a cup of coffee and/or tea and sit down - this is going to take a while to read through, but it is written from our hearts to yours.) Thanks for reading and praying |
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| Dear , |
As I've watched the unfolding of the realities of the catastrophic earthquake/tsunami in Japan, suddenly, my sore throat, children who had to be reminded, for the eleventy millionth time, to do their chores and piles of laundry paled.
The reality is that tens of thousands of people were swept into eternity in an instant, and likely the large majority of them into an eternity apart from God.
It drew into sharp focus the reality of why we are in Canada thousands of miles from our families, doggedly working through years of accumulated stuff and wresting with our schedule - it's all about opening our lives to those who don't know Jesus and may not have tomorrow.
We owe you, our faithful prayer warriors, an apology for neglecting to include you in what God has been doing here. Life is always busy, but when the essential things get crowded out by the urgent, we're deceived. You are a vital part of the work God is doing in Canada, and we ask your forgiveness for neglecting to communicate over these past months.
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| Prayer Request | |
Easter Outreaches
New Leaders
Personal Financial Support
Medicine Hat Core Formation
GCA Medicine Hat 2011
Getting to Know Neighbors
Getting our Home Organized
Ministry Leaders
Personal & Spiritual Health
Outreach Focus for Church
New Church Planters
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Four Months in Four Paragraphs (maybe)
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God is so faithful!
November brought our couples retreat in Whistler, BC. We had a great time with Ted & Elise Adomanis and are excited about the conversations opened between participants (and some who didn't come, but still got the books and are working through them). A Family Feud game night brought more touches with people who we want to bridge to Jesus; one family who came with us (and has participated in several other events) found they knew others there, and it turned out that Ana is in the same class as the son of a family brought by another friend! Also, Beth started working with the Creative Arts team and helping with the weekly video announcements - Philip sometimes thinks she's having a bit TOO much fun, but people are getting into the service on time!
December was filled with opportunities for outreach. Once again, community groups "adopted" church families to help them have a good Christmas, and we partnered with the Salvation Army to help needy people in the larger community. Our Awana Christmas Party was very well attended, but Caroling in the neighbourhood was a bit of a bust as very few people answered their doors and it was raining steadily - well, we made memories and the hot cider and cookies were yummy!
Pastor Jason wrote and put on a terrific Christmas production called "The Christmas Holdup" which combined live and video activity very effectively. We were reminded that our battle here is not physical when, after a flawless run-through in the first service, there was catastrophic software failure at the climax of the show during the second service for which we had nearly 200 guests. The play was also performed at Cedar Grove Church twice for Christmas Eve. At one of the services, a woman approached Philip to tell him that she had attended last year's service with a family member, enjoyed it and started to attend the church. After a couple of weeks, she realized that Philip wasn't the pastor there, but liked the church, so she continued to attend. She came to Christ and was baptized in the fall!
January was quieter; there was a very successful Awana sponsored skating party, a very fun, very muddy ice blocking party outreach (sliding down bare/plastic covered hills on... blocks of ice!) and some travel for Philip to fellowship with other Grace Brethren pastors at the Southwest District Focus. A big thing for the church family was the beginning of our church-wide study of the "Experiencing God" materials by Henry Blackaby.
February bought our Ladies' Weekend; financial realities for many in our church forced a re-thinking of the cost/location of the event, moving it to the church office. We were very pleased with the outcome of all the juggling! The planning team did an amazing job of flexing to adapt, and the 20+ women who attended (including the 8 who participated in the Great Optional Indoor Campout of 2011), had a great time together exploring the theme of "What's Your Pattern", building off of the Romans 12:2 injunction to not be conformed to this world. We examined generalities of how we conform (and found an uncomfortably large number!), and dove into two specific areas in which we often look more like the world than Jesus in taking revenge when wronged and speaking unkindly.
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Opportunity
| One thing that's been fun over the past few months is seeing how God is bringing back relationships that we feared might be dropped when we moved last June. A woman who was on the school PAC with Philip last year e-mailed him to ask if he would do her father's funeral; as she explained the family dynamics, he was very grateful that he had recently experienced his own father's loss and navigated the hurt of those in his family - it gave a whole new depth and empathy as he walked with this family. Since the funeral, D has asked Philip to do her wedding and pre-marital counseling with her and her boyfriend, as did one of her nieces!
Also, a family we've know for about 4 years has come to every outreach event we've had the church since November; mother and daughter (bringing a visiting grandmother), even came to the Christmas program - the first time they've visited the church. Our daughter Ana is one of their daughter's best friends. Please pray with us that they would be able to attend the same French Immersion school in the fall - Ana is almost certainly accepted, but the other girl would be out of area. At the November event, it turned out that they knew the family that was running the event because of school district connections! The son of another family in our church is a good friend of their son was attending, and to top it off, the next night, they were to be having dinner with a strong Christian family from another church who we know has been intentionally investing to see them come to Christ! God is surrounding this family - pray for J, I and their children, T & Y!
God has been giving leads into the local pre-trial center (jail). Because of one contact who was invited to Community of Hope, other young men have come with questions about Christ, and a request to start services there. Out of those relationships, we did a service for the still born baby of one of the men and his girlfriend. Our hearts were broken by the devastation sin has wrecked in those lives; their stories of what they just considered normal brought us to tears. Because the girlfriend is Native, it was also yet another touch into the virtually unreached First Nations peoples all around us. We have seen a few come from that people group, but there is so much hurt, so much baggage, so many chains that will only be broken if they surrender to Jesus.
And we've not even scratched the surface of our neighborhood; open doors are all around us. Warm weather is coming, and the October-March hibernation is ending; we are being more and more challenged to order our lives so that we have maximum availability to walk through those doors. Pray with us that we will choose discipline and focus to free ourselves to serve. |
Treasures
| Our life is so full that I find I don't have much memory of various events - they all merge together. When I realized that, I first found it disconcerting, but decided that it was what it was, so I would purpose to enjoy things as they came, and not worry about whether or not I remembered enjoying it! That might also explain why I so enjoy pictures...
It's been fun to watch the kids growing - so much is happening so fast. We have three who are asking the big questions of life, and two who's biggest question is whether or not they can watch bulldozers today. We had a very nice Christmas - spoiled by grandparents and friends - but our most fun was seeing the delight and effort they put into making/selecting gifts for everyone else. It's just a joy to watch your kids loving on each other.
We've had several bouts of illness, but thankfully nothing that a few days rest or a round of antibiotics couldn't knock - the throwing up, though.... Beth was VERY grateful that only 3 of the 7 of us came down with that one! In the midst of everything, we were blessed that a friend was willing to stay with the kids for 3 days so we could have a get-away, just the two of us. We had a lovely time in a beautiful floating home on the Fraser River (with swans who came for breakfast!). Short, but refreshing and just what we needed.
We didn't get much snow this winter, but one little bit we got still brought down a tree branch that took out the lines to our house at 7 am, so it made for an adventure day of no power/phone/internet. The live lines fell across the house, and we had to evacuate - but since that meant breakfast at McDonalds and hang time at the office, the kids were OK with it. We must confess to being a bit disappointed that they got things re-connected so efficiently - the girls were all ready to have hot dogs over the fire in the fireplace for dinner and candles!
Lydia is maturing into a lovely young lady. She's enjoying youth group, and having to navigate the realities of people (even Christians!) who may not share our values and standards. It's been such fun to watch her work hard to do the right thing, ask the right questions. Yes, there have been some challenges as she flexes her wings, but we've been praying God gives us openings to confront her on things that would really be harmful later on - and He has! She is very faithful to help with our preschool class on Sunday mornings, and Cubbies on Sunday nights - she loves those little people! She was very excited about picking courses for Secondary School (Grades 8 - 12), and chose Japanese as her language when she registered several weeks ago.
Ana just turned 11 and is now only about 4 inches shorter than mom. It's a rather strange feeling when you realize that they can pretty much look you in the eye! We had a lovely green birthday, and then she and mom went skating. We love her sincere heart; she's always willing to help, and rarely asks for anything for herself. She is very excited about the opportunity to go into a French Immersion program for school next year; she's got a tremendous memory, and was trying to make up her own languages when she is tiny, so we think this will be a good fit. It is truly an immersion environment; only safety instructions will be given in English.
Alissa is learning how to focus her considerable energies and creativity; we were so pleased with the fact that she place first in her class for her science project, "Mold's Bread Buffet" and then received a silver evaluation at the District level. We were very impressed with how much time the evaluators took with each student, and I know it was an encouragement to her. She had worked very hard and we were happy to see her energies and efforts rewarded!
The boys are doing well - it's such fun to watch them playing together since Josiah is now old enough to be a buddy. That means there are often "puppies" rampaging through the house on all fours - anything Elijah does, Josiah does! And the way they get each other giggling... Josiah (who turns two on St. Patrick's Day) is very eager to enter the family conversation! However, as his speech has progressed, it has become obvious that Elijah has some marked delays. We would appreciate prayer as we pursue assessments and testing to see how we can help him gain verbal skills. |
And the Name of Our Newest Canadian GBC will be...
| ... Grasslands Church! Bart and Nathan were in Medicine Hat in November to work through a variety of things for the church formation with Oliver (Shane's first name which he is now choosing to use). Things are coming together for the team; Bart and Elizabeth and their family relocated to Medicine Hat in January and are settling in there. To contact them via e-mail bblair@gbcanada.ca.
We are also thrilled that God is calling others from Community of Hope to join them; a family of four and a young woman will be moving to Alberta at the beginning of June!
You won't want to miss out on GCA Medicine Hat 2011! It will be held July 31- Aug 6, 2011; we'd love to have 300 people come to make lots of noise in the community and shower people with God's love. Check out the website for all the information/form you'll need to get started. www.canadianadventure.org - Please download this bulletin insert / flyer and have your church get onboard today! |
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"God is at work and He invites us to join Him, when we join Him we will have to make major adjustments in our lives in order to obey Him. or We cannot stay where we are and go with God." These are some quotes from the "Experiencing God" study we are currently doing and is Mr. Blackaby ever right. Last fall I made a huge adjustment to my life and spent every Saturday starting at 7 am and returning after 10pm traveling to and ministering at Mukilteo. Sadly pastor Ray Feather died last summer and God really laid it on my heart to go and help out for at least four months. We are still praying that God will send a church-planter there to help re-establish this church. But what an adjustment it was and with it came cost to me and to others. The time and focus away from family and CoH became evident by November. Christmas Day, we went down as a family to minister there for the last time. Pray for Grace Fellowship, Mukilteo as it is currently struggling with under 20 people and pulpit supply.
In the past year, the busyness of life and tyranny of the urgent had started to take away some healthy patterns in our family life like a nightly Bible time. We would almost always pray before bed, but it was hurried and mostly a blessing from dad. Sadly as I thought about it, we lost a lot of time that we can never get back discipling our children to know God and to seek Him. So it has been huge fun to make this time a greater priority and to let the girls choose their favourite worship songs, via youtube, and for us to sing, read a chapter a night and each individually pray about what God has on their hearts. How beautiful to hear prayers for classmates to come to know Jesus, and for courage and wisdom on how to introduce Jesus to their friends. We are overwhelmed with God's goodness that our children would want to follow our precious Saviour and make Him known to the lost and dying world around us.
Resources - personal/coorperate - they all are God's and we are stewards of them, both physical resources and people resources. Wow - is God ever screaming this message in our ears right now! As a church we have struggled since December to meet budget. In our January meeting as a Leadership Team we saw this, but could not see what God was asking us to do. It was obvious God wanted some changes, but what and how and why? We decided to keep the course in faith as we pursued God together as a church. We purposely choosing to do the "Experiencing God" material to focus all of us on the question: "God, what do you want?" Well, when you ask God questions, be ready for Him to answer and for Him to make you change directions and trust Him in big ways! He is God and His ways are best. What God revealed to us was that we had organized our church for development and growth. In doing so we had over tasked our best workers for the past three years to make things operate, but we failed to remember that we were in one of the most difficult and unreached parts of Canada. The work here is going to be slower and require much more personal engagement, so we could not expect fast growth to back fill the workers needed to really implement the ministries we were undertaking. Personal engagement - how could we require, encourage, demand or even ask our key people to take time to engage their unbelieving world when we had them so busy working in the church? Now don't get me wrong - none of the programs that we were doing are bad and if we had more people and fewer people doing double duty we would love to see them exist, but the truth remains. If our best people are too engaged with church ministry, they will have no time for the lost. Our people resources were being overused and God was getting our attention through finances - our inability to afford our Sunday Night program - and the rental of the space, Awana program and adult classes needed to change. But how and what and why? God... So April 17th is the close of our Sunday Night programs. Wow - will our people really take this extra time to engage the lost in the world around them? Will we as leaders help equip/coach and hold them accountable to do so? Will our people work together to use the gifts/creativity/resources that God has given them to work the harvest fields? Or will we move to mediocrity and fill the open space with emptiness and fluff? Can you tell I need your prayers to trust God, and to love and believe for the future? We desperately need to make time to touch the lives of the lost around us. Pray for us in this endeavor. Personally, Beth & I are waking up to the realities of choosing to live on a single income in one of the most expensive areas in North America. In the busyness of starting the church, we'd not been as vigilant as we might have been and God has been showing us that now is the time for us to get this under control and eliminate debt from our lives. It has put a stranglehold on our ability to be as generous as we want to be with the church family and limits so much of our other functionality. Yes, we still give our tithe and beyond, but that has always been the starting point for us. Now it is the ending point which has been painful and frustrating. But natural consequence is the best teacher and God is showing us that if we get our financial house in order we can do so much more for Him in the lives of those around us. Pray for us in this matter. Do I get a second job? Does Beth? Do we open a small daycare? How will this detract from our ministry? Big questions for a big God! We have a great and loving God who has called us. He is able. 1 Thess 5:24 Next week we are hosting District Conference at our church. It should be a great time. Dr. Randy Smith is coming up and we are really looking forward to see all that God will do over the weekend. We will be having a baptism service on that Sunday evening the 27th. Four people are getting baptized; three are new believers and we praise God! May we bear much fruit! The days ahead require faith and obedience. We desperately want to see the lost around us come into a relationship with the living God and find hope in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Thank you for reading this book... Thank you for praying for us. Please consider coming this summer to Medicine Hat to help with the new church plant. This is a critical juncture your prayers, financial support and personal help will make a huge difference for the kingdom and the work here in Canada. Please make use of the links at the top right of our newsletter to view family pictures, check out our website and other items.
God is good and we are delighted He chooses to let us take part in His master plan!
Philip, Beth, Lydia, Anastasia, Alissa, Elijah, and Josiah Bryant
You can support us by sending a gift to:
GBCanada USA, P.O. Box 836, Charlotte Hall, MD 20622
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