Dear Friends,
This last week (July 14th) saw the Personal Committee Chair of the board, Marshall Miner, undergo successful heart surgery in Calgary. Marshall and his wife, Judi, are members of First Baptist Cranbrook and are heading home this week for Marshall to continue his recovery. Please pray for them.
There are several of our Baptist Union folk who are heading to the Baptist World Alliance meetings in Birmingham, England, this week. The conference occurs every five years and this marks the centenary of the Alliance founded 100 years ago in Burmingham. Dr. Bruce Milne is a vice president of the B.W.A.. Gary Nelson (a Calgarian originally) will represent Canadian Baptists as our General Secretary. Edna Mae Slade from First Baptist Vancouver will attend. I will also be there as well. We will add more names to the list as the event (which will host close to 15000) gets underway. Please pray for safety and for Denton Lotz, the B.W.A.’s General Secretary, and also for Jimmy Carter and Rick Warren who will be speaking.
For your information, Keats Camps packed out an open house on July 17 with over 342 guests on the M.V. Britannia. Along with campers and staff there were over 650 for dinner that night. Pelican Lake Bible Camp in Western Manitoba has had a 25% increase in attendance over the last year. Over 40% of their campers, this last week, were at camp for the very first time. Thanks be to God.
I have some exciting stories and personal lessons learned from a week of traveling and sharing with this outstanding and gifted cross-section of ministries in the Baptist Union of Western Canada.
On a personal note, I would ask for your prayers as I travel to England on July 20. I am joined by my wife Kerry (our children Jessica and Andrew are on Keats staff this summer) on July 30 as we go to Kenya to teach; Kerry to teach teachers counseling and I to team teach, with Brian Stelck, a group of church leaders. My deepest thanks to the Winnipeg Ministerial who laid hands of me and prayed for me last week. God is gracious and good. We’ll catch up again next week.
Warmly in Christ,
Jeremy Bell