In past communiqués from the board, we shared about the excitement of the vision for our church for the next 5 years. It will require faith, hard work and resilience to achieve those dreams, especially in times of challenge. It was once said that challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what counts.
In our April meeting, Pastor Eric reported on the youth ministry. The youth leadership team has been cultivating meaningful relationships with the students, in the context of a welcoming, safe, and authentic environment. They are seeing new faces at their meetings and an upward trend in attendance has begun among the youth. A record number of teens went to the youth conference, Legacy, at Ambrose Christian University in Calgary; this proved to be a highlight for them. The leaders are looking for creative ways to build bridges with the parents to make them an integral part of the ministry.
Pastor Eric also reported on our worship ministry. Great progress has been made in forming teams that work together to raise the bar of excellence in serving the Lord and making improvements in the tech and acoustics. In this latter area, we still have some challenges to address, especially in the front part of the auditorium. Pastor Eric is looking into possible solutions.
Al Fedorak, District Superintendent for the Midwest District, met with the board to report on the activities and finances of the district. With 1/3 of career missionaries retiring in the next ten years, we face the challenge of keeping the vision of world evangelism an ongoing goal of the denomination. To address this challenge, a new resource, Envision, has been designed to give “missional opportunities” to the local church through trips, internship, apprenticeships and global careers. You can get find more information about Envision Canada and explore those opportunities at www.envisioncanada.org
Living Hope continues to support our Global Outreach workers. The decision was made to renew the seamless link agreement we have with Curtis and Tricia Peters for another term. They will be speaking Sunday, May 21st, explaining their vision and goals as they serve in Cuba, while based out of Mexico City. Another couple from Living Hope will also be joining the team in Mexico City this January. These are exciting and challenging days as we “extend our family to regions beyond”.
In keeping with our goal to train younger leaders, a decision was made to offer a scholarship to those students entering post-secondary education at a degree-granting accredited Christian university or college. We look forward to recognizing those students in the near future to commit ourselves to blessing them with the scholarship, and to pray and encourage them as they prepare for future ministry. Please speak with Pastor Kirk about applying for this scholarship (or download the scholarship application).
In April, we received a letter from Fred Dyck to inform us that he will be resigning from the Board of Elders. The Board is considering an appointment to replace Fred and will report on this in a future report.
As together we serve Him and His church, together we will find strength and wisdom from Him (UP), joy as we encourage one another (IN) and victory as we reach OUT.
