Summer Fun!

Summer is a busy time for our churches! Many host week-long VBS programs and day camps for kids in the church and community. One such program is ZAO, Leduc Community Baptist’s Day Camp.

We run 2 weeks of full days with roughly 80 campers (Grade 2 to Grade 7) and 25 volunteer staff each week. It is a great community outreach in Leduc! So many campers have never been to ZAO or church before. A typical day at camp consists of chapel, snack, Bible Ex (Bible verses and sharing of the Gospel), Skill Track (crafts, woodworking, rockets, sports, photography this year), lunch, activities (waterslide, go-karts, bubble balls, canoeing, gaga ball ), and chapel to end the day. Over half of the campers learned their Bible verse (Psalm 121) in the first week! So awesome! It’s our first camp since 2019, and we are SO GLAD its back!

If you have pictures from your summer camps please send to jhanger@cbwc.ca. We would love to share them! 

In the Making Connections April issue, we announced two special opportunities exclusively for CBWC ministers and lay leaders. We’ve received positive feedback from your CBWC colleagues excited to have Carey Theological College be a part of their journey.

For this month, we are spotlighting three Carey graduates who currently serve as ministers in CBWC churches across Western Canada. It is our privilege to provide these students with high-quality theological education and walk alongside them as they pursue their calling. Read on to hear about their Carey experience.

Carlee Turner
Degrees: Diploma in Ministry – 2021, Master of Divinity – ongoing
Location: Kelowna, BC
Current Position: Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church Kelowna

What brought you to Carey?
As a pastor at a CBWC church, I chose Carey based on the affiliation. It has been such a cool blessing to get to know so many people in the CBWC network.

What was your favourite aspect of your time at Carey?
Listen, the courses and profs were amazing but man I made some stellar friendships. Even though we’re distant, it feels like a pretty tight-knit community.

What do you intend to do next?
I’m already pursuing my M.Div. at Carey, and I love my call to FBC Kelowna. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

How has your degree helped you in your ministry?
My Diploma has enabled me to become more confident in my giftings and grow and stretch myself as a leader.

Troy Taylor
Degree: Master of Divinity – 2022
Location: Lethbridge, AB
Current Position: Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church Lethbridge

What brought you to Carey?
Carey offered online courses at a time when other schools did not, and was able to offer substantial financial aid through the denomination. Online learning allowed for greater diversity in classes, including instructors and colleagues from around the world.

What was your favourite aspect of your time at Carey?
My favourite times at Carey were the deep dives into specific books of scripture, as well as learning original languages. These were specific, felt needs that Carey was able to meet for me.

What do you intend to do next?
I already have the position I need. I will continue to do the odd course as continuing education, but want to settle in for a while to the goodness of current life with church, family and community.

How has your degree helped you in your ministry?
My undergrad degree was in business, and was getting old. This degree prepared me for ministry by filling in some of the gaps in my understanding, allowed me to orient and prepare spiritually for the next season of my life, and gave me an opportunity to be refreshed.

Mark Doerksen
Degree: Doctor of Ministry – 2020
Location: Winnipeg, MB
Current Position: Heartland Regional Minister, CBWC

What brought you to Carey?
I was a pastor in the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada, and doctoral program at Carey was accommodating, affordable, and I knew some of the instructors, as well.

What was your favourite aspect of your time at Carey?
I was able to do a directed study course that involved international travel, through an organization that our denomination has partnered with for a long time. I was also able to take a course on Missional Theology with Darrell Guder, a leading missional thinker for our time.

What do you intend to do next?
My main response to this is that I want to keep growing in understanding Baptist History and polity, and to see that understanding help our churches.

How has your degree helped you in your ministry?
I had great opportunities with my course work, my knowledge of Baptist History increased significantly, and my writing project helped me in my current work.

We trust these personal stories give you a glimpse of the rich and varied experiences of our academic programs at Carey, ranging from diplomas to doctors. Your partnership with Carey allows us to provide affordable theological education to pastors and ministry leaders, which empowers them to live out their calling in a way that honours God and touches peoples’ lives in a Kingdom-meaning way.

Remember, if you aren’t ready to commit to a full degree, we have a streamlined application process that allows you to try a few courses with us and to experience getting to know our faculty and students with whom you’ll be learning alongside.
Read more about how Carey is innovating theological education to make it more practically achievable, personal, and accessible for everyone, by visiting our website carey-edu.ca/about-carey/.

SERVE 2022 

SERVE 2022 wrapped up on July 9th with over 11 churches and 140 participants attending the in-person event in Nelson, BC!

It was an amazing time as people from all over Western Canada came together to bless a community and show the Lord’s love in tangible ways. One person, Yvonne Brazeau, did not have a group of her own, but came from Kelowna to help FBC Nelson host. It was her first experience with SERVE, and it was filled with many positive moments.

“The teens who attended were the biggest highlight. They had so much energy and just a heart for helping the community. My role was to help do all the shopping, as well as providing the evening snack. It was amazing coming into the curling rink, where everyone was staying and where all the meals were served, with a van full of food supplies and having the teens offer to help unload. This was after they had a full day of working in the community. One teen was even disappointed that the van was empty saying, ‘But I came to help!’”

Yvonne shared that another highlight was hearing stories of how groups went above and beyond what anyone expected of them. Like the one group who went to a senior lady’s home with the task of cleaning the tops of her cupboards. The lady was moved to tears when the kids not only completed that chore, but also cleaned her cupboards, her fans, her porch and all the windows.

There were many “God moments” too. Yvonne said it was incredible seeing how people were praying and seeing God answer those prayers in practical ways.

“I would love to go again,” Yvonne said. “It was a tiring week, but I had so much fun. And my faith grew as I saw how God drew the right people there to bless the community!”

Check out some highlights of SERVE 2022, click HERE!

New Name, Same Vision

Cailey Morgan and Cam Roxburgh take a stroll down Memory Lane, celebrating 30 years of Southside Community Church.  

Cailey: Southside began as a BUWC church plant in 1992 in the Edmonds area of Burnaby. Along with Cam and his family, my parents were part of the inaugural leadership team.  

Cam: It is hard to believe that it has been 30 years! Our vision from the beginning was to plant a church that planted other churches. It was never just to grow bigger and bigger—with many driving from miles away—but rather to have an impact on the immediate neighbourhoods in which we lived and to which God had sent us. Little did we know how wonderful the journey would be.  

Continue reading on the Church Planting Blog…

Linda Ferguson- Bonavista Church, Calgary AB

By Jenna Hanger | Originally posted on Facebook on Thursday, July 28,2022

Her teenage years were tumultuous––at just fourteen, Linda classified herself as an alcoholic, and she was troubled with depression. When she was seventeen, Linda overdosed on pills, and her mom arrived home abnormally early, just in time to help her—a moment Linda credits to the Lord now, as she looks back. Around that age, she got together with Ian, her future husband.

In University, Linda studied cell biology and worked in cancer research. After her daughter—Jayne—was born, she was offered a chance to work with her professor, developing experiments to go into space. Linda told him she couldn’t. She felt she needed to stay home with her daughter. With big tears in his eyes, he said, “You are doing the right thing.” His daughter had passed away at twelve years old the previous year, and he regretted not spending more time with her.

It felt nice to be affirmed in her decision to focus on her family instead of her career, but just three months in, Linda was hit with severe postpartum psychosis. It was quite a distressing time for her and for Ian. Nothing seemed to help. She visited a psychiatrist twice a week and was on medication. It got so severe they were considering shock-therapy and institutionalizing her.

“I really wanted to die. It was so intense. I had thought that, maybe if I could regain the peace I felt when I went to church when I was young, it would help.”

In desperation, she and Ian decided to go to church. They planned to blend in and get out quickly after the service, but the Baptist church they attended had only six other adults, so sneaking in was not an option. They were enthusiastically welcomed and soon became part of the community. The pastor, whose wife also struggled with depression, asked Ian if they could meet to pray for Linda. Ian, who was not a Christian, agreed to. When the pastor began to pray, Ian saw white flames all over the room. Later, he understood it to be the Holy Spirit. It filled his heart, and he gave his life to the Lord. From that moment, Linda’s depression lifted. Her psychiatrist was astonished and asked Linda to share her experience with his class of 500 students at University.

Ian got baptized after that, and over the years they welcomed two more babies––boys named William and Andrew. After Andrew was born, Linda experienced severe hemorrhaging. When she was released to go home, she couldn’t move without the bleeding starting again.

“I think it was the devil just trying to keep me down, because at that time we grew our church––there was only like 12-15 people and before we knew it, we had over 100 members. So, we were working really hard for the Lord and here was me, unable to move out of bed,” Linda shared.

“Every night, I would wake up at 3 am with a sense of doom. And just feeling I’m gonna die. It was like evil surrounded the room. You could feel it. And one of those nights I woke up, and I just said, ‘Jesus.’All of a sudden, the darkness lifted and I could see the face of Christ in front of me. I thought, ‘That’s it, I’m gonna be fine.’ I got up the next day and was fine.”

 Not long after this, an opportunity came up for Ian to work in the space industry and move to Montreal. They arrived there on June 14, 1985. Linda started working for the Quebec Association of Baptist Churches, mainly with youth. She went back to school and took Family Life education through Concordia. A lot of the focus was on how to help people get to a place where they feel good about themselves.

 “As a Christian, I would make sure I read Christian books, as well as secular books, all about that journey. Neil Anderson’s book, Victory over the Darkness, really helped me understand that as Christians, we are sinners—but that is only part of the equation. We are sinners, but we are saved by grace. And if that doesn’t lift your esteem, nothing else will.”

 Self-esteem was something Linda struggled with, but she wasn’t alone. She discovered that many Christian women had the same roadblock in their lives. So, she developed a program called Christian Women and Self-Esteem. They expected to have six or seven people show up and were astonished when over 30 women came.

 “One woman said to me ‘I don’t know why we have to have this, we are Christians. We shouldn’t be bothered with self-esteem.’ And I said, ‘And how do you feel about yourself?’ and she just burst into tears,” Linda said.

Linda really valued her time working with women and youth in Montreal. At the time, Montreal had one of the highest suicide rates for teenagers in all of Canada. Linda felt that because of her past, she was able to identify with the struggles that young people were going through. When she was speaking at a Youth for Christ event, she had a moment of clarity about some abuse she suffered at the hands of a relative, and all her struggles as a teen suddenly made more sense. It was a time of growth and healing that came straight from the Lord.

 As their journey progressed, Ian’s role changed and they ended up moving to BC. There, Linda did some schooling with Carey Theological and was ordained in 2001. Two months later, Ian died of colon cancer.

It happened quickly. In April, he was diagnosed, and by August he had passed. It was a terrible blow for Linda as she was forced on a journey to try to understand grief and unanswered prayer.

 “Looking back on it, I didn’t have to worry about him, cause I knew where he was going. It was just the rest of us that were left—and trying to wrestle with that one in my head was quite difficult,” Linda said.

 When she was offered a position in Bonavista Baptist Church, she took it in 2003. The move was healthy, as BC felt too burdened with grief and reminders of a painful time.

 “It was a lovely church to go to, to learn who I was, myself again. Because when you have been married for a long time––when you have known someone that long—you can’t imagine yourself without them. So, I used a lot of the techniques I learned gaining my self-esteem again and renewing my understand of my place with God.”

 In 2004, the day before Christmas Eve, Linda was walking into Starbucks just as a man named Ross was walking out. They got to chatting and ended up talking for four hours that evening. It became quite clear the Lord placed them together––Ross had been through some hard times and Linda was still grieving. They had much in common and after three years of dating, they were married.

 After a time, Linda started working at Altadore Church, where she had the opportunity to work with women in rehab. She learned that a lot of things they were journeying with were mental illness or childhood abuse, and usually these things went hand in hand with addictions. Linda was so interested in that work, she pursued a Masters in Counselling Psychology—which meant taking a step back from ministry for a while. After she finished it, in 2018, her mother died and she had to make a trip back to Scotland. After she returned, it was the beginning of what Linda described as “four years of hell.”

 It started as the flu, but developed into a rare infection called Guillain-Barre syndrome. Within four days, Linda was completely paralyzed, except for one little strip on her face. She couldn’t walk, couldn’t feel, couldn’t do anything. With treatment, the syndrome should have cleared up within a few years, but it became clear early on that her condition had turned chronic. She ended up not being able to walk for 3.5 years. The journey has been a long one. At one point, they had put a central line in so she could get treatment three times a week, but the line became infected and she nearly died. During COVID, she was told that to get sick would be a death sentence.

 It was a very tough time. Linda struggled with depression as she had to learn how to be the one accepting help, instead of the one giving it. One thing that significantly helped was journaling, which is a tool she learned about while counselling.

 “I have five different books full of ranting. It’s a way to release fear and tension. When you aren’t able to do much yourself, there’s a lot of fear. I told myself, ‘God knows what’s going to happen, and I know where I am going, so why am I fearful?’ That came out of a lot of wrestling.”

 While she has made progress and is able to walk with some assistance, she probably won’t ever drive again or be as healthy as she once was. She isn’t letting it stop her, however.

 “When you read books like Pain: The gift nobody wants by Paul Brand and Philip Yancey, you realize how valuable pain is. A good lesson is that pain—in every aspect of our lives (emotional pain, physical pain)—if we’ve given it to God, He can use it and make something powerful out of it,” Linda shared.

 Linda’s colleagues and friends appreciate her for her keen intellect, articulate faith, and her compassionate insight into the hurts and hearts of all who come into her orbit. The youth and young adults she has mentored are better people because of her ability to speak the truth in love. With her gentle emphasis on the love part of that equation, hard conversations result in growth and change in individuals and deepened connection between the mentor and mentees.

Linda is a beloved teacher and retreat leader whose sharing of God’s healing love through the story of her own life draws others to her to share their stories and open their hearts to receive God’s love into their own places of pain.

She now feels that she is on the right track with her health and desires more than ever to be useful again in ministry. She has a heart for women and counselling, and is yearning to use her skills and abilities to serve the Lord and further His Kingdom.

Honouring Layne Daggett

Layne Daggett, a former CBWC Chaplain, Pastor and interim BCY Regional Minister passed away on July 15, 2022. Just ten days prior, the Vancouver Airport Chaplaincy honoured Layne by naming the new post-security Chapel facility “The Layne Daggett Prayer Room.”

A plaque which reads: Rev. Layne Daggett, VAC Founder and Chaplain 1983-2013, Refugee Champion, YVR Employee friend, “Flying Without Fear” Instructor, including Layne’s favourite verse, Zephaniah 3:17, is mounted on the wall.

Rev. Dennis Kirkley (YVR Chaplain) and a few others, presented gifts to Layne’s daughters—Dixie and Sharon—who represented him at the dedication as he was unable to attend in person.

Dennis writes:

The Vancouver Airport Chaplaincy (VAC) was initiated with YVR Airport Authority by Rev. Layne Daggett in 1982, and officially opened a chaplain’s desk in the domestic terminal in 1983. Over the years, Layne built a team of board members, associate chaplains and reception volunteers that, in 1996, moved to a new Chapel facility in the International Arrivals Building. Layne became well known throughout the airport as a friend of employees and a helper to passengers, especially those arriving as refugee claimants, needing love and practical support. He was famous for carrying his ‘office’ (laptop computer) with him everywhere and for running an incredibly useful Thrift Store near the terminal for over 15 years! In addition, Layne founded his “Flying Without Fear” course that enabled hundreds of people to board planes successfully, many after years of great trepidation.

After 40 years of exemplary service, Layne became VAC Chaplain Emeritus in 2013, relinquishing his cherished ministry to me. That year, YVR Airport Authority gave Layne rousing accolades at a wonderful farewell party, and they have recently shown their deep appreciation for Layne by dedicating the new post-security Prayer Room to his name and legacy.

What can we say, but that Layne Daggett was a “Man for all Seasons”—greatly loved and appreciated by all who knew him. We honour his founding and leadership of the Vancouver Airport Chaplaincy. Certainly he has shared his life verse to the fullest, “The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. (Zephaniah 3:17)

On behalf of the Chapel Team,

Dennis Kirkley

This additional Chapel facility is now open in International Departures, in a beautiful BC scenery atrium that features the Prayer Room, a Quiet Room and a Yoga Space, for both passengers and employees.

Please be in prayer for Helena and their four grown children & families as they grief the passing of Layne.

Banff Pastors & Spouses Conference

Pastors and spouses: join us in Banff this November to explore and learn together—to rest, to worship, to dine, and to dream. Featuring speakers Dr. Anna Robbins, Dr. Josh Coutts, and Dr. Joel Thiessen! 

Earlybird registration now open: cbwc.ca/bpc