Friday, February 29, 2008

First Prayer Card and Brochure

I got the prayer cards and brochures made up yesterday. Do they ever look sharp! I was able to give away our first set last night on the bus to a father and son, Mike and Tim. Mike lost part of his pinky finger in a bobcat accident and damaged his ring finger a while ago. His ring finger bone keeps getting infected, so he was in Calgary getting a bone scan. I asked him if I could pray for him and he said sure, after that I gave him a prayer postcard and told him to fill it out and mail it back to me when God answers his prayer. He thought that was cool and I gave his son, Tim, a brochure about the church. Tim is 20 and he and his girlfriend are expecting their first son, Lucas, on March 23. Tim has been going to the Pentecostal church in our neighbourhood on and off for about a year. I shared my testimony with both of them and neither of them let on that they were saved. Please pray for Mike and Tim, Nicole and soon to be Lucas.

I also want to congratulate my friends, Nick and Serena Melazzo on the birth of their second daughter, Caitlin.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Prayer Cards and Brochures

We are getting very excited about our first mission team coming up in the next few weeks from Grangerland, TX. We will be prayer walking and surveying the different communities of Medicine Hat. I have designed some "This is how God answered my prayer" post cards with prepaid postage and some brochures that share the vision of Pathway. When I was at Mountainview, we had a little catch phrase. "A view beyond ourselves." Well, I came up with a catch phrase for Pathway. "Because the journey's worth it." Anyway, I'm very excited, and this is how it's going to work:

As we meet people we will survey them and when we are done, we will ask them how we can pray for them. When they tell us, we will write down the prayer request, pray with them there, and then hand them one of the postcards. We will instruct them that when God answers the prayer, to write down how He answered it and drop the postcard in the mail. When they take the postcard, we will give them a brochure that also shares the Gospel and thank them for their time. I will be getting these documents published this week.

We have also been attending Temple Baptist Church for the past two weeks here in Medicine Hat. The music minister, Mike Deibert, graduated from the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary. He and one of my friends who is now an IMB missionary in Africa tried starting a CCSB church here about eight years ago, but nothing came of it. Mike (who works at a North American Baptist Church) has been praying for eight years for a CCSB church to begin in Medicine Hat.

My family has worshiped twice at the Nazarene Church here in Medicine Hat and they have welcomed us and our Georgia Team in to their congregation and have been praying for CCSB work in Medicine Hat. We are seeing that God wants to do something here. Will you please pray that these post cards and brochures will help to start our ministry here in Medicine Hat.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Life With A Four Year Old

I needed a break today because I am working on a presentation for the spiritual formation of families, so I thought I would walk on down to the Greyhound and buy my bus ticket for tomorrow. I already went this morning to drop off a library book and the Greyhound was only a block away, but they were closed until 11:00 am this morning because it is Family Day. When I got home I put my shoes with everybody else's shoes by the back door. All I wanted to do was to put my shoes on and go to the Greyhound, but my shoes seemed to mysteriously disappear. I looked in the bathroom which is by the back entrance, I looked in the living room, I looked in the kitchen, I looked in the bedrooms, I looked downstairs and I was about to look outside. I asked Riley where my shoes were, but he wasn't going to tell me. My wife asked if I'd checked the washer. Apparently I'm not that smart because any logical person would have checked the washer first. Leigh was doing a load of wash and we figure that Riley thought my shoes were a little dirty. So now I am going to postpone my walk to Greyhound for another hour as my shoes dry. So just a word to others out there who have a four year old, if you can't find your shoes, check the washer.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

2 SALVATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you prayed for Rick from my previous blog I want to thank you. I went and had breakfast with him at Zellers this morning. I got to know a lot about him and his family, then he invited me over to his house to meet his wife. I told him I would be there later in the day because Leigh and the kids were at the mall and we wanted to get Riley's hair cut and do some shopping. We got home about 11:45 and had lunch, and I called Rick about 1:30 this afternoon. His wife answered and I asked if I could still come over and she replied with an excited yes! As she was hanging up I heard her say to Rick, "The pastor's coming over now."

I brought my Bible - just in case and we talked and had coffee for about half an hour then I asked if they would like to do a Bible study some time. They told me they would like that and we started the Book of John today. One thing led to another and I ended up sharing the Gospel with both of them and both accepted right there. The coolest thing happened when Rick prayed. He said, "God, I'm sorry for the way I have lived, I am now ready to live for you, will you please make me a better person." I told him and his wife Margaret that God doesn't want to make them better people, He wants to make them new people. Then both Margaret and I saw Rick's yellow eyes from years of drinking turn clear, and that's when he said, "I feel like there is a river running through me." Now Rick is wanting to bring his friends over to his place for Bible study next week. Praise God!

Friday, February 15, 2008

Bus Trip To Medicine Hat

I take the bus from Medicine Hat to Cochrane in order to finish my education. The round trip ticket is so inexpensive that I can't even drive it for what I pay for a ticket. Anyway I left Calgary last night around 8:00 and that's when I met Rick. Rick lives in Medicine Hat and went to Calgary for some heart tests because Medicine Hat's machine was down for service. Rick is about 55-60 years old and looks well weathered to say the least. You can tell his nose has been broken multiple times and when he spoke the "f" word was every second or third word out of his mouth. After about an hour and a half of conversation he asked me what I did for a living and I told him I was a pastor who was starting a brand new church in Medicine Hat. That got him excited and I am having coffee with him tomorrow morning at 9:00 am. Please pray that I can clearly share the Gospel with Rick and that we can meet some more.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Wyoming

If you have been reading our blog for a while, you would note that there were some people from Wyoming that wanted to partner with us. At that time I understood that there were 2 DOM's and 3 pastors that wanted to come up in March. Now I got an email saying that there will be 2 DOM's and 6 pastors coming up with at least for more people in March to see what God is doing in Medicine Hat and how they can partner with us. Leigh and I are very excited about this opportunity. Please pray that God would lay Medicine Hat heavily on their hearts and that I can clearly communicate what the vision for our church is and how they can help impact Medicine Hat with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Tonight

I went out grocery shopping tonight and met a man with a great haircut - ya, he's bald. Anyway he is a Christian and has been going to a Pentecostal church here in the flats for a while now and says that this area is a huge mission field. There are many young families here and it is a heritage area so many young families are moving in. Pray that God would show us how to reach out to this community.

1st Spiritual Conversation

It's not even noon and I have been super busy this morning. I got up at 6 am and had my quiet time, then Riley and I walked in -16 C (3 F) weather to school. We were bundled up nice and warm and we only had to walk 6 blocks. I came home and had a muffin, warmed up a bit and walked to the Greyhound to buy my bus ticket to go back to the seminary tomorrow, then I walked to the library and got my library card and a book by C.S. Lewis. As I was walking back home, I met a lady on a bike. By this time it is abut -10 Celsius outside, with snow all around, and she is riding an old bike. Her name is Pamela and she is getting back together with her ex - I don't know if it is ex boyfriend or ex husband - and she is almost homeless. She is interested in a Bible study but doesn't know when she could start one. Please pray for Pamela and pray that she can get back on her feet and also that she would come to a Bible study.

Friday, February 8, 2008

First Invite

Riley is loving school. He goes there very happy and comes back very happy. Today he came home with a birthday party invitation. We get to go to our first party on March 1 at McDonald's. I am so excited that we get to start meeting people. I have talked with about 10 Hatters since I've been here this week as we are still unpacking, but this will be a great place to make new friends. Please pray that we can develop some great relationships.

Medicine Hat

We have been living in Medicine Hat for just under a week now, and we love it. Both Leigh and I haven't slept this well in almost forever. Take away the extreme wind from Calgary and the extreme heat from Houston and you have the perfect climate in Medicine Hat.

As I have been walking around our neighborhood, I have noticed that even though this is an older area, we have a huge population of teenagers and elementary school children. We have 3 school buses that run straight past our house, so as you can tell, I am getting very excited about this summer so we can do some good block parties and a VBS. Riley is liking his school very much and he said a new word yesterday - Teddy! He loves his teddy bears.

We have 4 mission teams scheduled for this year, the first one comes this month and the last one comes near the end of July. God is wanting to do some great work here.

Monday, February 4, 2008

We Made It!

We finally made it to Medicine Hat. We moved into our new house last night and we are enjoying it very much. The house was built in 1946 and has hardwood floors both upstairs, and in the basement. It is a very unique house. I was going to go back to school tomorrow, but we still have so much unpacking left to do and I can't leave my wife alone with a 4 year old and a 2 year old for two and half days to do the unpacking by herself. It is 9:57 pm here and I am dog tired, so I will be going to bed right now.