| November 2016 | Vol 10, Issue 3
|
|
|
|
|
| |
I stand amazed at God's faithfulness in our ever changing world.
I have been reflecting on Psalm 24 and it continues to feed my soul:
1The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
2for he founded it on the seas
and established it on the waters...
5They will receive blessing from the Lord
and vindication from God their Savior.
6Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek your face, God of Jacob.
He is the King of Glory and we seek Him. Thank you for being patient with us and for seeking the Father on our behalf. Your prayers, concern, love and support have carried us in these past months.
Thank you.
|
|
 |
| Prayer Request |
Philip's role at CoH & GFC
Alpha
Neighbors:Brian, Val, Wayne, etc...
Lydia Adjusting to College
CoH Christmas Dessert Theatre
Next Summer GCA
Personal Finances
Grace Fellowship Canada
Renew Church (Ontario Churches)
Grasslands Church, Medicine Hat
Island of Hope, Bow Island, AB
|
|
|
|
Community of Hope has Campus Pastor
| |
Thank you for praying for us here at Community of Hope.
September Pastor Isaac and his family joined our team here at CoH. The Whitings are an amazing family. You can read there bio here:
We have been praying for such a long time and God has answered our prayers. Isaac is our new Campus Pastor and he will be taking on the responsibilities of shepherding and leading our campus here in Strawberry Hill (area in Surrey/N. Delta). Every day I am handing over more and more responsibilities to Isaac. Pray for them as they adjust and assimilate to life at Community of Hope.
They have jumped in and with the loss of our youth director, they have taken on a lot early. Pray also as they discover housing and where they will be living long term. Pray for me as I learn what I need to keep as the visionizing leader over CoH and what I need to give to Isaac as the Campus Pastor. We have so much to learn and the timing of things and when to hand things off is really important. I often want to move faster than is possible, so wisdom, grace, discernment and favour are all wanted at this time.
|
|
God is at Work at Community of Hope
| |
|
|  | | 2016 Park Program | |
This Summer Auburn Grace came and helped us reach into our community with a week long park program Summer Fun in the Park. It was so much fun and we touched so many families. We touched so many families during the week and were able to make some real inroads into our community.
|
| | Pumpkin Patch 2016 |
We had over 170 join us for our annual Harvest Party. We rent out a local pumpkin patch and simply have a great time. So many great conversations and connections back to our church family.
This fall we launched Alpha. It is an evangelistic video series that has been used by millions of people around the world. As we continue to search for ways to reach into our ever increasing secular and pluralistic community (less than 3% going to church in our community). We are looking for entry points for people to discover Jesus. Our evangelistic Bible study is still a fantastic tool to bring people to Jesus, but many are not ready for a bible study. But they are willing to come to have a meal and engage a video and ask questions. We decided to try Alpha in all our community groups (6) including our youth group.
|
| | | Alpha | |
This way our entire church family would be able to experience Alpha and as we launch new Alpha groups in the future they would be encouraged to invite their friends to them. We have 9 unbelievers joining us spread out in several of these groups and 7 new people (some of them believers) who are coming from the community. Pray for their salvation. Pray for those new people to connect with us and continue to grow with us. November 19 we are having an Alpha day retreat. Pray that all the people in these groups would come and that the Holy Spirit would do amazing things in their lives.
|
|
Christmas at Community of Hope
| |
|
| | | Christmas Dessert Theatre | |
We are so excited about our Christmas Dessert Theatre. From the moment we moved into the new space we immediately were thinking of how we could use the gym, kitchen & stage to reach people. Pastor Jason has written an amazing heartwarming Christmas Story along with writing the music to a musical. Our people have been practicing their lines, learning the music and building props and staging for the this event. We will have three shows on Dec 9 & 10th. Pray that our people will invite their friends who need to hear the message of Jesus or need to reconnect with their faith and their walk with Jesus. We are believing God for great things.
Pray with us for our Christmas eve service and for Christmas Day as you know comes on Sunday. It will be interesting to see how that all plays out. Pray with us that God will use these times to help us reach our community for Him.
|
| Family Happenings |
|
| | | Lydia_s Graduation | |
Lydia graduated this year and is now on an adventure. She is off to college and to a new world. Akron Grace has a college extension on their campus and they kindly asked their people to be willing to host students. The Dolan family has graciously invited Lydia into their home. She is now living with them in Akron and going to the Fairlawn campus. She is in a whole new world. I remember asking Lydia what she was looking forward to most about going to college and she told me "having Christian friends and being in a Christian environment." She has been living in a church planters home her whole life and gone to public school where there are few if any Christians. Pray for her as she adjust to working, school, new relationships and a new church culture. She is really blessed to have some many people there loving on her and supporting her. We miss her and continue to pray that she grows in her disciplines and makes those adjustments.
|
| | | Camping with Boys | |
Summer brought travel and with National Conference in Toronto it was a real treat to be with some of our family and I was able to drive to Maine to celebrate the 4th of July and be with family. The boys all went camping for week and the girls recovered from all the travel and ministry done during July and the beginning of August.
|
| | Jeff _ Abbie |
This fall we decided to home-school the boys and help them get ahead in their schooling. Beth is really loving having the boys home and they have done a lot of cool field trips and crazy science experiments. We are so thankful that the boys enjoy each other so much. It really makes it a lot easier. We had the privilege of family visiting the west coast. Beth's sister Abbie and her family were in Seattle for a conference and so we stopped in for a day and enjoyed the Museum of Flight for the day.
|
| | | Stevenson | |
Ana is really doing well with her schooling and is incredibly helpful at church and home. Always serving and helping behind the scenes. She is off to a robotics programming opportunity this morning.
Alissa is investing in her relationships and serves in Sunday School at church. She has been such a blessing to so many. She has been babysitting for a new family so they can come to Alpha and it has been so neat to see as she understand that her service is opening the door for the husband to come to know Christ.
Beth is trying to let go of responsibilities so she can focus more on our home and our neighbours. She is working towards her primary energies in the church going to mentoring, and coaching the leadership ladies in the church and helping to shepherd our community group. Beth has so many responsibilities at the church and helping with our ministry her. After 5 years she is not serving in youth this year. Pray with us as we have 4 people who are seeking Jesus in our Alpha/Community group we are hosting. Pray to for Beth as she is homeschooling the boys and reaching into our neighbours lives.
|
| Grace Fellowship Canada |
Amazing to think that we have been in Canada 19 years and counting. God has been so faithful even through the ups and downs.
This past 3 years has been very full, and at times overwhelming. God's grace has sustained us. With Grace Community having to move out of its home for the past 10 years and relaunching into the Meadowvale as Renew. The Village church in Milton transitioning from its founding pastor and Grace Community & the Village becoming one church with two campuses. Now called Renew.
Grasslands going through a leadership change. Grasslands moving to a new facility (this past weekend).
Oliver transitioning to a church in Bow Island. That church changing its name to Island of Hope and than joining the GFC.
Hosting the FGBC National conference in Toronto and hosting the Canadian Summit. Community of Hope transitioning leadership and CoH moving into a new facility. Renew launching a new campus in Mayfield West... Check video out here:
We were ready for a retreat. The leaders of Grace Fellowship Canada spent 3 days together outside of Calgary to plan and pray and regroup for the years ahead. It was a great time, and we came away with good energy for the future. There is much to be done with each of us holding many jobs and responsibilities, but we are committed to seeing a movement of churches throughout Canada. Keep praying for our churches and the team. Here are the links to our churches: Community of Hope - Renew - Grasslands - Island of Hope
|
|
|
Thank you for praying for us. As we look ahead there is much that God has put in our hearts to do. Pray with me as I learn how to transition my roles. The time goals are: 20% for CoH, 20% for FGBC, and 60% for GFC. This means I will need to learn to give away more ministry and focus on coaching the primary leaders at CoH. I will be traveling a lot more and developing relationships with Canadian Colleges and Seminaries. Building relationships and developing partnerships to gain interns and future teammates to join the movement. I will be giving more time to investing in new communities and networking so we can start new churches and new campuses throughout Canada. I will be traveling to visit our faithful supporting churches. So many I have not visited in over 10 years. We will need to raise new support as we have lost support over the past years as we have focused on pastoring Community of Hope Church.
Learning God's timing as we are believing God for more campuses here in the Vancouver area. But in His time.
For right now we are privileged to be part of a fantastic church that is reaching the lost. We are hosting a Alpha/Community Group with 4 unbelievers who need Jesus. We have neighbours and friends that need the Lord and raising our children.
God is kind to allow us to serve Him. Pray that we might bear much fruit.
Yours for the kingdom,
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
|
|
