Assembly 2025–On Earth as It is in Heaven

We are grateful to have had a chance to connect face-to-face with many of you at our 2025 Assembly in Calgary May 22-24, as well as at the Ordination Examination Council on May 21. There were more than 300 in attendance representing 87 CBWC churches. 

Take a look at some of the highlights from our time together: 

Here is your CBWC Board for the coming term, as voted at Assembly: 

President: Jeff Gullacher, Vice-President of Planning: David Vandergucht, Vice-President of Personnel & Programme: Shannon Barnes-Girouard, Vice-President of Finance: Laurel Auch 

MSR Region: Setri Dzivenu, Allan Santos, Juli Wells 

BCY Region: Richard Currie, Fay Puddicombe , Kyle Turner,  

HRT Region: Lorraine Hernaez, Crystal Peters, Joel Russell-MacLean 

Outgoing President Joshua Goetz praying for new President Jeff Gullacher 

Humans of the CBWC: “Farm Grandpa” Clint Rousell

How does the long-serving Maintenace Manager of a small Baptist church in Saskatchewan end up receiving monthly royalties from YouTube? I recently visited with Clint and Elaine Rousell to find out!  

It all began during the infamous year of 2020. As Asquith Baptist Church wrestled with how to stay connected with their congregation during the lockdown, they had the idea to provide bird house kits, which families could make at home. Amazingly, this ended up connecting with not just the church families but with the whole Asquith community as well. What started out as 75 became 250 birdhouses. The church posted it on their Facebook page, and anyone who wanted one could just reply with the number needed for their kids. People came to pick them up where they were left in a large bird house, so it was basically contact-free. Clint Rousell recorded a video giving the building instructions, and this became his first foray into YouTube “fame.”  

Click here for link to the birdhouse video from 2020. 

Fast forward to 2023. The church was having an issue with condensation and Clint, as the building manager, decided to make a video explaining how to handle the problem. You can watch this video where Clint demonstrates how to install an insulation dam to stop ice buildup in the eaves of the church here.

It so happened that Clint’s grandson, Nicolas Rousell, purchased an old Massey 165 tractor, which needed a lot of work. The two of them spent a lot of time together working on the tractor and videoing their progress. This resulted in a YouTube series which received, and continues to receive, many hits! You can check out the Farm Grandpa YouTube channel here.

Clint reports that the process of taking a personal phone video and translating it onto the YouTube platform is a lot of work. He has relied heavily on his grandson and a friend of theirs, Jan—who also has a YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@saskdutchkid (Incidentally, Jan’s family also attends Asquith Baptist Church).  

May this story inspire you to show up in the world with the gifts you’ve been given. All of us are uniquely equipped to share goodness and love; the possibilities are endless. Ministry happens both inside and outside of the walls of our church buildings and often looks like everyday stuff; even tractors and eavestroughs.  

Two Stories of Hope for World Refugee Day

Hopes dashed and then restored… 

The CBWC has worked with groups outside of our churches for sponsorship when we both have the availability and know that the refugees will be fully cared for upon their arrival. We recently had an Eritrean family who had been sponsored by another organization. Their application was approved, biometrics and security checks completed, and the family was just waiting for their travel arrangements to be made, when the Sponsorship Agreement Holder [SAH] in Calgary withdrew their sponsorship for unknown or clear reasons. The Eritrean family was understandably greatly distraught with this news.  

The co-sponsoring group contacted the CBWC and asked if we would take on their sponsorship and assured us that the funds were in place. We agreed, and on April 26 of this year, the family arrived safely in Calgary. 

The sponsors have helped them settle with housing and their essential needs, and then quickly helped them to connect with a church community for additional emotional and spiritual support.  

It is great that we can partner with other churches and organizations to help displaced persons find a home and new opportunities for peace and security in Canada.  

Faye Reynolds, CBWC Refugee Coordinator 

An inspiring church vision shared for a decade… 

Since 2016, our church has been on an inspiring journey, sponsoring refugees, sparked by the civil war in Syria. This mission began at a Canadian Baptists of Western Canada (CBWC) meeting when we learned about the urgent need to support Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Our elders soon decided we couldn’t ignore this call; we had the resources, and as I told them, I didn’t want to face Jesus knowing we chose a healthy bank balance over helping a family in need. 

Since that decision, we’ve sponsored a Syrian family, two individuals from Ukraine, a family from Pakistan, and, most recently, a family from South Sudan. Our partnership with Refugee Bridge has greatly facilitated these sponsorships by connecting us with families in need and helping us raise funds. 

Our latest sponsorship is a mom named Margaret and her five children: Kodwel, Emmanuel, Mary, Nancy, and Samuel from South Sudan. Margaret’s sister is a member of our congregation. Sponsoring them has been an adventure filled with challenges and joys. 

Early on, Margaret faced arrest in her refugee camp when officials learned she had family in Canada. To secure her release, we had to navigate complex international financial transfers to pay bail. We then relocated the family to Kampala, Uganda, providing housing and covering their expenses while awaiting sponsorship approval. 

Sending money internationally proved challenging. Banks in Uganda primarily serve the wealthy, due to security issues—prompting us to use mobile money transfers via cell phone carriers. Unfortunately, international transfer services repeatedly blocked us after learning the funds came from a church. Frustration peaked until a heartwarming conversation occurred—Margaret’s children affectionately called me “Uncle Mikel” during a WhatsApp call. This sparked an idea; I started marking transfers as money sent to “family,” easing the process significantly. 

Welcoming Margaret’s family at the airport was unforgettable. Church members described greeting them as one of their life’s most joyful and emotional experiences, full of tears, laughter, and hugs. 

This sponsorship journey has profoundly impacted our church, shifting our focus outward. Though our congregation isn’t large, God has consistently provided whenever financial support was needed. Sponsoring refugees requires a one-year commitment, both financially and in helping families integrate into Canadian life. This mission has revitalized our community, particularly our retirees, who eagerly assist with transportation and navigating Canadian bureaucracy. One memorable example was a church member who had just finished chemotherapy yet enthusiastically hosted a Ukrainian refugee, declaring, “I’m not dead yet!” 

Sponsoring refugees has been an incredible blessing, deepening our faith and reinforcing our trust in God’s provision. It reminds us of our calling to welcome and care for those in need, reflecting the heart of Jesus’ words in Matthew 25 “For you fed Me when I was hungry, gave Me drink when I was thirsty, welcomed Me as a stranger, clothed Me when in need, cared for Me when sick, and visited Me in prison.” 

Mikel Laurie, Highlands Baptist Church, Calgary, AB 

The universe in 57 words–part FIVE

By Carolyn Arends

Between January and August this year, we are journeying through these reflections on the Lord’s Prayer, used with permission, by Carolyn Arends.  

The Lord’s Prayer was the theme of our Assembly this May.  

If you missed the first 4 editions, you can find them in past issues of Making Connections: cbwc.ca/newsletters 

PETITION FOUR  

Give us this day our daily bread.  

The phrase ‘on earth as it is in heaven’ acts as a fulcrum in the middle of the Lord’s prayer. The first three petitions keep us focused squarely on God—his name, his kingdom, his will. We pray that heaven may increasingly invade our earthly experience.  

Now, with our hearts and minds calibrated Godward, Jesus invites us to lift up our earthly needs—for sustenance, for forgiveness, and for deliverance—to our Father in heaven.  

It starts here: Give us this day our daily bread.  

WHAT DOES JESUS MEAN BY “DAILY BREAD”?  

Once again, we see Jesus’ genius for packing a universe of meaning into a single phrase. At least four implications can be teased out of this request for “daily bread.”  

Basic Needs  

The Greek word that gets translated as “daily” in the Lord’s Prayer is epiousios. It’s a peculiar term not found in any other Greek literature or any part of the Bible other than the Lord’s Prayer. Its exact meaning has been debated for centuries. Is Jesus talking about actual bread? Or is he employing a purely spiritual metaphor? Given that ousious means “sustenance” and epi is an intensifier, we might say that Jesus is referring to “super-sustenance.” With that meaning in view, Origen and other early church fathers assumed that Jesus primarily had spiritual resources in mind.  

Then, a century ago, an archeological dig uncovered a fifth-century Egyptian papyrus that contained several instances of the word epiousios. As it turns out, the papyrus was a shopping list, and the word epiousios was written next to a variety of grocery items.  

I took a course with Eugene Peterson where he reported this discovery with an immense amount of glee. He asked us to imagine a mother sending her son to the market with the admonition, “Don’t get me that day-old bread; get me the fresh stuff—the epiousios bread!” We can be certain, Peterson concluded, that when Jesus used that word he was referring to something as basic as the day’s groceries.  

So the first thing Jesus is teaching us with this petition is that we should ask God for the earthy, everyday things we need to live—from food to shelter to meaningful work and relationships. If we might wish to operate in a more spiritualized state, the fourth petition cuts through our pretensions and reminds us that we never outgrow petitionary prayer.  

Not only does Jesus teach us to ask God for the basics we need to live, he urges us to do it daily. Like the Israelites who had to rely on God for manna each day, Jesus is inviting us into a rhythm of simple, steady God-dependence. The idea is not to come to him now and then, when our needs exceed our resources. It’s to live every day—every hour, every minute—in a state of trusting reliance on God’s provision.  

For those of us who worry and plan and crave control, Jesus offers a simple training program for a different way of living. “This then,” he tells us, “is how you should pray: Give us this day our daily bread.”  

The Eucharist  

With a request for “daily bread,” Jesus gives us the words to ask not only for the food we need to survive physically, but also for “the bread of life” (John 6:35). “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life,” Jesus told his disciples (John 6:54).  

Then, in the upper room, he taught them how to partake. Every time we gather around the Lord’s table, we’re participating in one of the wondrous ways God answers the fourth petition—by giving us Jesus, the Bread of Life we need to truly live.  

The Eschaton  

The prophets before Jesus were fond of imagining the age to come as a lavish, sacred meal with God. So, reverberating in the request for earthly bread is a third implication—the anticipation of a wedding feast that will never end. Listen to how the vision is cast in Isaiah 25:6–8:  

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples  

a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,  

of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.  

And he will destroy on this mountain  

the shroud that is cast over all peoples,  

the sheet that is spread over all nations;  

he will swallow up death forever.  

Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,  

and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,  

for the Lord has spoken.  

“Give us our daily bread,” Jesus teaches us to pray, “now and forever.”  

Justice for the Poor  

Finally, we cannot pray the fourth petition with our whole hearts without thinking about the world’s poor—those who don’t have enough provision for today. Once again, the Lord’s Prayer draws us out of ourselves and into God’s care for the world, signing us up for the revolution by inviting us to seek practical ways we can participate in the kingdom work of liberating the oppressed and feeding the hungry.  

Suggested song: “Everything We Need (In the Morning, Lord)” renovare.org/universesongs  

LIVING INSIDE THE FOURTH PETITION  

The petition for daily bread reminds us of our profound poverty— what Eugene Peterson calls “the condition in which we don’t have what we need to live a full life.” There are many layers to our poverty—and to God’s willing provision. Consider praying through each of these layers, lingering on the areas where you sense the greatest need.  

1. Physical bread: Basic sustenance so our bodies can operate 
2. Everything necessary for functioning in the world: shelter, sleep, clothing, community, meaningful work, art, beauty, laughter, sustainable economy 
3. Everything necessary for living in the kingdom: the Holy Spir it, scriptural understanding, local church community, courage, wisdom, discernment, justice, the “fruit of the Spirit” 
4. Jesus himself: the Bread of Life 

The petition for daily bread also reminds us of the profound poverty—material and otherwise—that exists both locally and globally. Pray through the list above again, this time with the world’s hungry in view, seeking the ways in which God wants you to participate in this aspect of the coming of his kingdom.  

To download the full resource: https://renovare.org/books/the-universe-in-57-words 

Excerpts used with permission from a book entitled 

the universe
in 57 words
SEVEN DAYS INSIDE THE LORD’S PRAYER
By Carolyn Arends 

This resource has been influenced by more authors, preachers, teachers, and fellow pray-ers than I can credit or even remember. But I am particularly indebted to the following works: Fifty-Seven Words That Change the World, by Darrell Johnson; The Lord and His Prayer, by N. T. Wright; The Divine Conspiracy, by Dallas Willard; Prayer, by Richard Foster; and Eugene Peterson’s “Jesus and Prayer” lectures for SPIR 604 at Regent College. 

 Partner Spotlight: Summer at Hopehill

It’s true: we only get one summer each year. For most of us, it’s a beautiful season of sunshine, flowers, rest, warmth, and relaxation. It’s a shame to miss out on a summer, whether due to too much bad weather, a busy schedule, unplanned busyness. What’s your plan for the summer of 2025?  

Here at Hopehill, we have a few things in store.  

1. Liane Ross, our horticultural therapist on staff, is already working with residents to make good use of our 60 plus community garden plots.  Vegetables. Flowers. Fragrances. Gardens happen because we plan them.
2. Luciano Pepe joins us as a summer intern to work on our property needs—fixing, cleaning, serving, and helping residents. He’s an SFU student. It’s his second summer with us.  
3. We have several outdoor music concerts planned for warm summer afternoons and evenings. Residents love them.  
4. July 12 is our annual summer festival where residents, their families and friends can enjoy hot dogs, ice cream, fun games, music performances, and tons of socializing.  
5. Travelling—some of our staff have family in Alberta, Northern BC, and Vancouver Island. Summer means road trips to connect with family. Many people come here to connect as well.  
6. Hopehill’s mission is to provide low cost, affordable housing to low-income seniors, “in Jesus’ name”.  If you know someone who could be served by our efforts, have them contact office@hopehill.ca.  About 1/3 of our 400 residents are people of deep, vibrant, Christian faith. About 1/3 are like much of Canada—secular, even angry towards the church—and about 1/3 come from regions of the world where Christianity is a western religion, not theirs.  
7. Finally, here is the link to our latest Hopehill update video.

Jamey McDonald 
On behalf of the Hopehill Team
Vancouver, BC    

ACTIVE IN MISSION 2025 IS HERE!

This June through August, we invite you to get active and get creative to raise funds and awareness for food security projects here in Canada and around the world. Whether you walk or run, paddle or pedal, skate or swim, your motion has meaning because ‘to serve a volleyball is to serve a meal’ with Active in Mission!  

Hear firsthand what funds like this can do, from AiM Grant Recipient FBC Saskatoon:

Over the past two years we’ve raised over $155,000—and you can help us do even more. Register your team today and join us in Feeding Hope. 

• Register – Build or join a team of people who will help feed hope in local and global communities. activeinmission.ca/signup  

• Choose a Date – We’re dedicating the entire summer to AiM! Your team can choose a timeframe from June to August that works best for you! 

• Fundraise – Invite your community to support you financially. 

• Get ACTIVE! – Walk, run, dance, bike, swim, rollerblade, horseback ride, or kayak. Take photos and videos and post on social media using #ActiveinMission