2 Salvations At Temple

I will be preaching for the next 10 weeks at Temple Baptist Church here in Medicine Hat until they get their interim pastor in September. I am spending 10 weeks on the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7 and the series title is called, "The Laws of the Kingdom." Today's sermon was Law 1:Character and it was on the Beatitudes found in Matthew chapter 5, and these Beatitudes are really the 8 fundamental character traits that every Christian will have. The cool thing was 2 people got saved in the service!!! I love it when God uses me that way!

Fishing

Riley turned 5 a few weeks ago and his birthday money just showed up from Grandma and Grandpa in TX, so we thought it would be good to buy him his first fishing rod. We were going to buy him the one that shoots the hook out, but the guy at the counter talked us into buying the less expensive "Pixar Cars" fishing rod. I bought a fishing rod also at Wal-Mart and some hooks, then Riley and daddy made their way out to Elk Water to go fishing.

I wasn't even 10 casts in and my new reel from Wal-Mart decided to explode one me. I threw a cast and the crank handle flew right off into the water! The water was so clear from the dock that I thought I could walk around in the water and look for my handle. The water looked to be about knee deep from the end of the dock, so I slid in and realized it went past my waste. So I thought to heck with this, I'll go to the bait shop and see if they have a reel. I bought a $10 reel over there and I am starting to realize that most people that work in Elk Water don't live in Elk Water, they live in Medicine Hat. This is good information since we are looking at starting a church in Elk Water. I think I am going to need to consult somebody who has experience in resort ministry.

Anyway, Riley and I spent about 4 hours on the dock casting our line, but no bites; however, the sound of Riley giggling as he cast his line into the water and reeled it in was well worth the trip. We are going to try fishing over there in a few more weeks after our mission team from Louisiana leaves. We are going to take a well deserved vacation and spend the night camping at Elk Water.

Third Mission team- Sulphur Lousiana

Boy where has the time gone. Jason and I have been in Medicine Hat for almost a year now, ( it will be a year in August.) We have had a mission team from Grangerland, Texas that did prayer walking all over Medicine Hat. And then just a few weeks ago we had one of our sponsoring churches from Rome, Georgia come and help out with Spectrum and that was fun. On July 1, our third mission team from Sulphur, Louisiana will be coming to help with the Canada Day celebrations and we will also be hosting a block party. Please be praying for the mission team. The following are the names of the people that will be coming.

James Bailey
Jim and Linda Milton
Debra Vincent
Adena Vincent
Janet Peshoff

Please pray for safety and good health and no customs problems and that more friendships will be made and for a good turn out for the block party.

God Showed Up

Tonight was an awesome night at Bible study. We started this Bible study with a family about 3 weeks ago and tonight God showed up. I wrote a Bible study about 2 years ago that corresponds with Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life and we started that tonight. We had a smaller crowd tonight with only 4 people, but all four got saved tonight! God is good.

Camping

About a month ago we bought a tent and we have had it set up in the back yard for about 2 weeks now. This has been the first time in a long time it hasn't rained so we thought we would try camping in the back yard. That was some fun. We have the nice big vestibule on the tent and Leigh and I could sit in there and talk while the kids pretended to sleep. Right now in Medicine Hat the sun doesn't set until 11:30 pm and it is back up at 4:30 am, so it makes for a short night of sleep, but tons of fun with the kids.

Approved

I got the call yesterday morning that we were approved to be Nehemiah Church planting missionaries through the North American Mission Board - one of the missionary wings of the Southern Baptist Convention.

This is an exciting time for us now and we are seeing God work here in Medicine Hat. We had a Bible study last Wednesday with 5 non-believers who invited themselves over. God is working in their lives right now and many times when God works in non-believers lives, He turns their lives upside down in order for them to call out to Him.

Deeper Respect

God has a way of opening my eyes to who Jesus is every day, and how Jesus lived while He was on earth. As I walk with the people Jesus would have walked with and loved on, I realize, not in my head, but in my heart, how deeply Jesus loves people. As I minister to people whose families have been riddled with the deep penetrating bullets of sin, I have a deeper respect for Jesus as He said, "Your sins are forgiven - go and sin no more." He didn't tell us to sin no more because we need to get better at not sinning, he told us to sin no more so our lives don't look like a used up target at the rifle range. These were the people who Jesus chose to walk with, to eat with, to share life with, and to give His life away for. I love doing what I do because it makes me live like Jesus, and it makes me love like Jesus, and that is a hard thing to do - walking through the muck and the mire of sin to bring the self sacrificing love of Jesus Christ to people who may end up saying no.

Reflections

I have been re-reading our brochures today and I am so excited that part of our vision is beginning to happen!

1. Pathway will be an active positive influence in Medicine Hat. We will be heavily involved in community service to show the people of Medicine Hat a tangible expression of the love of Christ.

I have mowed lawns, built fences, done other yard work and West Rome Baptist Church and I just finished volunteering at Spectrum this past weekend where the festival had the largest turnout ever at 47,700 people. Now I am preparing to help volunteer with the Canada Day Celebrations with Medicine Hat with our mission team from Louisiana. I asked my new friend, Don, if I could use him as a reference when I sent a volunteer email to the Canada Day board for Medicine Hat, and he knows the guy personally who heads it off and will give us a glowing report. I am also wanting to help out with the Alberta Summer Games in August.

2. Pathway will be a safe place to investigate who Jesus Christ is and will also be a safe place to grow in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

We are starting a Bible Study tomorrow with a family who is disconnected from Christ and they asked if they could come to Bible study with us! God is good! This family must feel safe to ask to come to a stranger's house to read the Bible when it is not part of their daily lives.

What A Week

So our West Rome team just left our house, and we are really going to miss them. They are a bunch a fun people who love God and serve Medicine Hat the way Jesus did, but here are some highlights:

I got to meet some very influential people in the city, and become friends with them. They got to see the difference in us compared to what they see in the stereotypical church. Spectrum had a church there that I am sure they will never invite back because they were all about themselves and what they can take from the community.

We will be starting a Bible Study Wednesday night with all non Christians who invited themselves over for Bible study and I had to give them a Bible because they didn't have one. Now that is a blessing right there.

One of the ladies on the board teaches children with disabilities at the High School and she has stuff ready for Riley, she's not a believer either but the relationship is being built.

I got to play with Jarrod's i-Phone.

I have been asked by one of the members of the board who is not a believer to come over for coffee.

One of the electricians who has been there for the past 5 years since West Rome has been coming up, finally asked, "So, what's up with this Jesus anyway, aren't we all God's children?" That lead to a great conversation between him and Jarrod.

I got to share my testimony with the guy who heads off spectrum.

As I am back in the Canadian context again, I am seeing how fragile strategic relationships can be. This other church in 35 minutes almost ruined 5 years worth of work because they wanted to promote their own agenda first without earning the right to promote.

I got to play with Jarrod's i-Phone.