Dear Folks,
Here are the letters that Jan and I wrote as an introduction to the Partnerships and Possibilities brochure. Some of you may have already received it in the mail. Bob Webber, Jennifer Lau, Sam Chaise and myself collaborated to put Mosaic (the magazine published by Canadian Baptist Ministries) and the Partnerships and Possibilities brochure together. You may have seen the two pieces with the cover letter. The brochure enables us to begin to visualize some of the wonderful breadth of work that we are doing with the Lord and with each other in our local churches. Thanks to Bob Webber, Ceal McLean and Naomi Wakeman for their hard work.
Here are lists of topics covered in the brochure:
- Church Support
- Supporting Pastors
- Residential Camping
- Children & Families
- Urban Camping
- Youth
- Short Term Ministries in Western Canada
- Women in Focus
- Refugees & Uprooted People
- Education
- Church Planting
Here is access to the copy on the web: https://www.cbwc.ca/images/files/ministry_guide/cbwcgivingguide_2012.pdf
Trust that you’ll be seeing this work in your own church soon.
Warmly,
In Christ,
Jeremy
Message From Executive Minister
In the 1980’s, I was asked to do a funeral for a Saskatchewan farmer who had moved to the coast in his retirement. His wife had passed away and his children urged him to travel. He said he had no need to travel. Instead, he set up a newspaper stand on Robson St. in Vancouver, and for over a dozen years John Sanderson sold papers to the world. Or, as he said to his kids “I don’t have to go travelling, for the world has come to me.” John is in fact describing Western Canada of 2011. You will see from the Partnerships and Possibilities Ministry Guide that our God has invited us to a whole array of immigrants and resident Canadians of all stripes, rich and poor, literate and barely so. It is a most exciting time to be alive in a family of churches together, encouraging one another, listening to God and seeing new things in Him bear fruit. You will hear of new churches, ministries of renewal, encouragement around youth, education, camps and children & families, and so much more.
Thanks be to God for His strength, faithfulness and encouragement in these days.
In Christ,
Jeremy Bell
Message From President
Open My Eyes
This summer, our church hosted a Stampede breakfast as an opportunity to reach into our community with a desire to become more closely connected. Approximately 550 people arrived in our parking lot for pancakes and Christian music with a country rhythm. As I looked around me, I realized that I knew very few. It was a very mixed group, with people of many different cultures and socio-economic backgrounds gathered to enjoy the fellowship. This is a drastic change in our neighborhood where only a few years ago the population was largely white and fairly affluent. In the recent tragedy in Norway, the perpetrator was labeled in the media as a fundamental Christian whose beliefs made him hate ‘foreigners’ and that they were deserving of annihilation. We are challenged in these times to demonstrate that as Christians we are not weird radicals hanging out on the fringes of life nurturing our hate but rather we are a people ruled by God’s law of love who desire to bring our neighbors God’s message of hope.
As I travelled extensively in northern British Columbia and the Yukon this summer, one of my projects was to photograph and identify as many of the beautiful and different flowers as I could find. The task was easy because the fields, forests and ditches are filled with a magnificent assortment of exquisite flowers. Each one becomes a wonderful study to appreciate the diversity of color and marvelous design God used to make our world beautiful. And so it is with His people. Each person is uniquely designed and precious to Him, worthy of our time, our love and our care. As our churches seek to engage their communities in new ways,
I pray that God will indeed open our eyes to the wonderful opportunities to get to know our neighbors as special gifts from God and where new relationships allow us to share God’s message of hope and love.
Jan Paasuke