The Atlantic region has had more than our fair share of Old Man Winter over the past 8 days! Jelly Bean Row in St. John’s, Newfoundland (pictured above), reflects the current state of emergency unfolding after a day with record snowfall of 75 cm this weekend.
Services for many of our churches were cancelled or offered online for the second weekend in a row. Several Atlantic congregations have adapted to this reality by offering Saturday night services when pending storms are forecast including Blacks Harbour (HC Wilson), Crosspoint(John Symonds), Journey (Matt Maxwell), & SJ1 (Graham Perry). Perhaps an idea worth sharing.
Despite the winter storms, good things are happening…
Several churches (Crosspoint, Deep Water, New Hope, & others) have celebrated baptisms to bring in the new decade over the past three stormy weekends.
Cornerstone (Denn Guptill) celebrated four baptisms in the month of January, including Revs. Deborah & Stefan Gilbert’s daughter Lyra (middle pic above).
The Wesleyan Church of Brazil is preparing missionaries and pastors in training by including opportunities for short-term missions… to Canada!
New Hope (Scott Prime) initiated a long-term partnership with our Brazil mission field a few years ago and have hosted the nine-member team since January 19th (pictured above in snow shoes). This is an exciting development in the maturity of our Brazilian Church leadership – for a brief introduction, the
first three minutes of this link are worth watching. The
New Hope Facebook page has several posts with additional pictures and videos summarizing their activities in the two campuses and community this week. Hats off to Missions Pastor Karen Doucette and
GP Missionary Tom Ensz for their excellent leadership of this team!
District Ministerial (Jan 22-24) in two more sleeps with Keynote Speaker
Jon Wiest and Kelly Jay as Worship Leader! Casual dress is welcome throughout and with more than 220 registered (including kids) we are ready for an energizing time of spiritual renewal as we focus on the importance of Local Church Discipleship Pathways. Plus, there will be a big announcement at the opening banquet – exciting days ahead!
Can’t wait to see how this springboards district-wide after Ministerial as we launch SIX Discipleship Pathway Cohorts in February with nearly 90% of our district churches already committed to participate! Special thanks to our Cohort Facilitators (pastors from eight churches) and to Jon Wiest – for all their preparation to use this virtual learning platform to empower greater
contextual effectiveness in the bullseye of our shared mission to make disciples.
Live Well (Tim Long) held another preview service in neighbouring Tiverton this weekend. Forty brave souls weathered the storm to show up for Dinner Church. Tim shares the strategy for this event, “We sent out surveys to the community this month and of the ones received last night, half of them indicated they had no church, agreed to us being their church, want us to hold more services and would like to learn more about God and their own faith. We shared our plan and vision and challenged them to commit by giving, praying and serving. Alpha is launching in March and we are pumped about what God is doing. One local fisherman asked if it was okay to bring us an envelope filled with cash to help with this vision!”
#kingdommultiplication
World Hope International (Canada) has been based out of the Atlantic District office since August. This week, Executive Director Tanya Nace and her team held a multiple day meeting addressing a variety of transitional and end-of-year matters following a very positive and encouraging conclusion to 2019.
Points to Ponder:
- Prayer is real work. Praying is vital work. Prayer has in its keeping the very heart of worship. (E.M. Bounds)
- Wins are the molecules of results. They must be recognized, collected and communicated – early and often – to track progress and energize volunteers to persist. (John Kotter)
- Inviting people to a journey of faith often begins by inviting them into your life. (Pat Steeves)
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Unleashed emails. To learn more about General Conference 2020 click here:
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It is with great excitement we invite you to Uprising Conference on February 21-22, 2020 at Crosspoint Church in Fredericton, NB. Conference registration is $45, and a catered lunch option on Saturday is available for an additional $15. We are so thrilled to welcome Rachel Wilson as our conference speaker. We are looking forward to hearing her share insight around our theme this year: RECONCILE. Crosspoint Worship will be returning once again to lead us during each session. ONLINE Registration is now open!
Join hundreds of men from all across the region at Valley location of Kings on May 1-2 as we seek to find, define, and empower the Y God has placed in each of us. In doing so, may we know life to the full and may those around us reap the benefits of knowing men who truly embrace our Y. Register HERE – Cost: $85.
