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June
Newsletter
Just Passin' Through
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| Dear , |
"This earth is not my home, I'm just a passin' through..." We got another reminder of that recently when we heard that Pastor Jeff Thornley had been suddenly called home at the age of 55. We were privileged to be part of the Waldorf Grace Brethren Church for about 18 months as interns and along with the many ministry experiences, we were introduced to the larger Grace Brethren Family. Our relationship with the church didn't end with the internship; Philip was ordained at Waldorf, and it was our Grace Brethren sending church. Nathan was there for a number of years, and as Team Canada formed, Bartley and Sarah interned there as well. Nathan wrote a tribute to pastor Jeff. (click to read) FGBC World also had a post (click to read)
Philip was able to attend the funeral and spend time with friends there; he was reminded again of the influence that can come from one life that has chosen to follow hard after God. Pastor Jeff was certainly human and flawed as we all are, but he has left a significant legacy in the hundreds of people who have come to Christ, been discipled and mentored because of his ministry. Team Canada would not exist as it is without his investment and vision.
We are not promised tomorrow, and we are once more challenged to invest in things that matter for our true home.
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| Prayer Request | |
Summer 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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He is Risen!
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Passion Week and Easter Sunday are always busy, special times for our church family. Every year, we celebrate 1st Century Communion together on the Thursday before Easter; there's just something precious about spending that time together remembering Christ and His sacrifice. We also joined with other area churches for a city-wide Good Friday service and a number of our people participated on the musical side of things, whether in the orchestra or choir.
A highlight of the weekend was hosting a Easter Egg hunt in the theater for the second year. We didn't have much budget for advertising, so people signed up for distribution routes, put up posters and invited friends. We had nearly 200 guests come, and several families stayed for church afterward! Several of our ladies had put together a simple booklet explaining why Christians celebrate Easter and a little gift of seed mesh. It was a very positive time, and we loved seeing the smiles of people being shown no-strings-attached love.
We have found that the time between Easter and the end of school is very much a wind-down time for many people; the weather is getting nicer, and people want to be out enjoying it! The church calendar is getting quieter, and we're trying to make sure that even though there might be fewer programmatic things going on, we're still building into relationships - and now it can involve picnics or trips to the park or beach!
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Family Visit
| The fun thing about being part of a larger church family is that there are always lots of "family" you haven't met yet. Well, maybe you've seen them here and there on occasion, but you don't necessarily get to know them. We got to know more family members over Easter weekend - Jeremy & Nicole Norton and their two little guys were driving from California back home to Alaska (he's the youth pastor at the Soldotna, AK Grace Brethren church). Vancouver is on the way, so they stopped by to hang out with us for a couple of days! Jeremy is actually a Canadian, originally from Ontario. It was great to get to know them better, and since their older son is about Elijah's age, the three boys just had a terrific time together. We're really looking forward to seeing them again this summer when the youth group comes down for a ministry week. And one of these days, we WILL get to Alaska!
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Cha cha cha changes!
| Well, thankfully, nothing like moving or anything like that, but these little people keep growing up on us! The girls are very much excited about the realities of only a month left of school, and Lydia and Ana are already eagerly anticipating attending new schools in the fall. Both of them also just completed the Red Cross babysitting course, and passed the tests with flying colors. We think all their previous experience may have helped!
The weather has finally begun to resemble something like spring; we're loving the sunshine, and having sun until nearly 9 pm isn't so bad. Alissa is thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to get out and play with neighborhood friends. She is also taking over Lydia's paper route. We like the fact that the girls are getting older and we can allow them a bit more independence to go to a near-by park with some friends for a couple of hours. We're also looking forward to a block party in a couple of weeks - it's currently in the planning stages with some of neighbors.
Josiah is potty training and doing very well; now, if he could just stop tripping and smacking himself constantly! The poor kid always seems to be wacking his head or face on something; putting a tooth through his lip was a more recent incident. He's talking like crazy, and doing his best to keep up with Elijah. We had an appointment with a developmental pediatrician to begin looking into Elijah's verbal delays, and got some good reassurance that everything else is normal - he just has speech delays. So now we're waiting for speech and hearing assessments so we can pinpoint what areas are causing him problems.
Home organization is continuing apace; it appears that the light at the end of the tunnel is indeed something other than an oncoming train! Back in January, a kind friend gave us monies designated for a bedroom set for us - something we've really never had in almost 18 years of marriage. About a week ago, we found something we really liked for less than the designated amount, so we have bedroom furniture for the first time in 5 years! Also, Beth now has almost all the organizational pieces required to be able to put things away (just a couple more book shelves to get), and we hope to be finally out of boxes within a few weeks. Boy, will that feel good! |
Medicine Hat Momentum!
| The countdown to launch is on!
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 100 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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It has been a whirlwind of the past month, Pastor Thornley's funeral, Focus retreat, special elders meetings and much more.
God is good and His mercy has no end.
We have had some very difficult decisions to make as elders here at Community of Hope. Our budget has not gone well and we thought the decision to cut $14k out of our budget for Sunday Night programs would be enough, but it was not so we had to make a staff decision and let go of Wes, my pastoral assistant. He did tons of administration for the church and will be a big hole to fill. Here is a link to the letter we sent to the church family:Click Here
In spite of the financial challenges.
God is still at work and doing good things amongst us.
Pray for the Thursday evening bible study that has 3 people that coming and 2 are hungry to know more about Jesus. Pray about another study I see coming together on Saturdays.
We are focusing on the Kingdom Parables in our sermon series right now and we are asking God to open our minds up to understand the kingdom better and to grow our hearts to love the lost more. We believe as this happens we will better hear the Holy Spirit as He leads us into the lives of those who need Christ around us and a whole new level of missional activity will emerge from our church family, bible studies, ESL classes, neighbourhood endeavors, Good News clubs, etc... Pray with us as we continue put His Kingdom first.
We are very excited to have been granted funds for two summer interns! Bronson & Kendra are coming from NBBI and are arriving Friday. They will help us all summer and then Bronson will stay on for the next 9 months to do his 4th year internship with us. Praise the Lord.
We are looking forward to seeing many of you this summer at the GCA and/or at National Conference we are planning a special Team Canada breakfast at National Conference this year and it would be great to see you there.
Thanks for your love, prayers and financial support,
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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