Dear Folks,
This past month, July 10-16, our family of churches celebrated another outstanding year for SERVE…the youth/young adult opportunity to care for a town. In order to have a sense of what SERVE is like, we’ve asked various staff people over the years to share with us their experiences. It is easy to recall with fondness, Ryan Sato, when he was the youth coordinator for the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada. Ryan was followed by Claire McLean, who left us in September. Peter Anderson has been working with the folk in Kitimat, particularly Tim Coleman. Danice Carlson has just taken over as the Interim Coordinator for the youth in the CBWC. As you will know from previous newsletters, she has had volunteer and staff experience at Olivet, First Baptist Vancouver and Grandview Calvary Vancouver, and I’m very pleased she is working with us. I’ve asked Danice to answer some questions that many of us might have about this years SERVE.
Warmly,
In Christ,
Jeremy
1. What exactly is SERVE and how often does it occur?
Once a year in July, youth groups from across Western Canada gather together to Serve a local city or town. The idea is to offer an accessible mission’s trip in the student’s own backyard and connecting students in the CBWC from across provinces.
2. Where was it this year, how many came?
This year it was in Kitimat, BC, with a total of 154 registered participants (students and leaders).
3. How many churches were represented and where were the churches located that sent participants to SERVE?
We had 13 Churches represented, (14 if you include the speaker – Andy Moffat – and his family from Olds FBC). They came from: Kitimat FBC; Prince George FBC; Port Alberni FBC; Jubilee Fellowship (Victoria); Trinity Baptist (Vancouver); Peace River FBC; Olivet Baptist (New Westminster); Community Baptist Church (Swift Current); Broadmoor Baptist (Richmond); Brownfield Baptist; Bonnavista Baptist (Calgary); High River Baptist; South West Community (Kamloops).
4. Our thanks to the host church and all the leaders – and by the way who were all the leaders and who was the host church?
Names you should absolutely know are Tim Coleman, who is the youth pastor at Kitimat FBC. They were an amazing host church – Countless volunteers were regularly at the church moving things around, or prepping meals. The Senior Pastor there (Paul Stade) was also incredibly invested in the project, along with his wife Lynda. Patricia Kuppers organized all the food, and she was amazing.
Also, Andy Moffat was the speaker for the week, and Fraser Campbell and his band led us in worship.
5. What was involved in the work this year in Kitimat?
Projects included a lot of clearing trails – including cleaning up the dyke road, which was a ditch that had been used for dumping for years it seemed! Several groups were painting at different locations, others were doing gardening, and two teams were running programs at nearby camps.