Monday, December 17, 2012

For Aliyah

Please continue to pray for Aliyah Somers. She continues to battle Leukemia and struggle with the effects of Chemo and the various medications that she must take to help her in her fight. Pray for her family, for strength and peace, for wisdom and for energy as they try to comfort her and deal with all of the challenges of travel in the winter.

Aliyah's Bald Buddies, Peter Branscombe, Andrew Ardern, Rob McCready and myself have exceeded our goal of raising $1500 for the family, and shaved our heads to show our support for Aliyah! But they still need our prayers and any financial support that we can give. If you would like to help them out financially, get in touch with us and we can tell you how you can do that.

We had a fun evening shaving our heads, here are a few pictures as evidence that we fullfilled our commitment... (you can see the whole album pf photos by clicking HERE)

The prerequisite "before" pictures.

The ladies had fun sculpting our hair... perhaps too much fun.

 And of course... with the shave!

Our support team!

Aliyah's Bald Buddies.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Snail Mail!

Hello friends! We've finally gotten our prayer letter together and are just about to put it in the mail! We are often asked if we can eMail our prayer letter, and I guess generally we don't. eMailing a .PDF comes accompanied with a host of problems that most often makes that an inefficient way of communicating. So, for all intents and purposes this blog serves as an electronic prayer letter. But, there is something to be said for having something come in the mail that you can read.

The Lord has provided for us in a unique way to be able to afford to send out mailings of our prayer letter, and we really feel that it is a part of our ministry to do so. Although it is our hope to send out four printed prayer letters a year, this has not been the case in 2012. I could insert a host of excuses here, but suffice it to say, with a new baby and managing the various programs and events at Arrowhead, our prayer letter mailings have suffered. So, our current letter is chalk full of pictures and updates from the past months. We will also be including our newest prayer card as well, with a brand new family photo.

We would be more than happy to include you in our mailing, so if you have not been receiving our prayer letters in the mail and would like to simply drop me an eMail and we'll see that you get in on this weeks mailing.

Thanks for your prayers and support this year. We trust the Lord has been honoured and glorified by all that has transpired at Arrowhead and in Atlantic Canada.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Aliyah's Bald Buddies

This past summer Stephen Somers and his daughter Aliyah spent teen week with us at camp. Stephen was our speaker for teen camp, and brought the gospel to our campers and staff every chapel time. Stephen and his wife Selena are missionaries with Pioneers, and work in the Miramichi area of NB with the First nations folks in that area.
 

Recently Aliyah, a beautiful 8 year old girl who is full of life and love, was very suddenly very ill and rushed to the IWK in Halifax. She has since been diagnosed with High Risk Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. The cost of being away from home and work and travel and all that accompanies this is very high for her family. And Christmas, I'm sure, will be especially challenging.

Three of Arrowhead's summer volunteers, who are also members of our local church here in Cumberland Bay, and myself have a real desire to help out the Somers' in a small way. Our goal is to raise $1500 to be able to send to them in time for Christmas. But to do this we need your help.

The four of us, Rob McCready, Peter Branscombe, Andrew Ardern and myself will all shave our heads (Stephen Somers style) for Aliyah and her family as soon as we reach our target. (Yes, there will be photographic proof). We currently have been given $550 (and a huge thank you to those who have given) of our goal and have a couple hundred more promised, so we're almost halfway there. Christmas season can be a difficult time to give, but perhaps that makes it all the more important.

Please pray for strength and healing for Aliyah and for strength and encouragement for her family, Stephen, Selena and Myah.


If you would like to contribute to this initiative, you can send PayPal gifts to solachristus@rocketmail.com. If you do not have PayPal you can contact me directly about sending cash (fawcetts@maritimers.ca). If you're committing to sending in cash, be sure to let us know so we can update the total!

You can follow our Facebook page, Aliyah's Bald Buddies HERE.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Fall Work Week 2012

This week we've had a fantastic week of fellowship and co-labour with some of our friends from Lisbon Falls Baptist Church, Lisbon Maine. This year, Pastor Jonathan Jones joined Paul and Ken for their annual trip to ANBC. They once again blessed us, sharing their skills and abilities in the maintenance and repair of Arrowhead properties and equipment. I'm always amazed at how much is accomplished. It is certainly a blessing to have physical support of this nature at Arrowhead, without it, we would certainly be overwhelmed with the maintenance and upkeep of the property and buildings.


The fellas posing for a rare photo op.

Paul always takes good care of our machinery while he is here.

Ken helped us complete several projects that were outstanding...

... and started some others from scratch.

This week, Pastor Jon was a "Jack of All Trades" and helped us with painting, organizing, cleaning, flooring and hauling brush.

Paul donated a muffler to us for the 4-wheeler.

Mighty men of lumber.

This marks our last major event at Arrowhead for 2012, and with it's conclusion we begin to look to next year's ministries. We will spend the next few weeks completing our office work and begin planning for 2013. Please keep us in prayer, and continue to look here for further updates and announcements about upcoming Arrowhead ministry opportunities.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Christian Action federation of New Brunswick

This past Saturday I had the privilege of speaking at the Christian Action Federation annual meeting. The meeting was held at Skyline Acres Baptist Church in Fredericton. My first encounter with CAFNB was this past summer when we had Marsha Boyd-Mitchell join us for our Discipleship week of summer camp. They exist to help meet the needs ministry and evangelism in New Brunswick, and I was asked to share with them at their meeting about the needs in First Nations ministry in Atlantic Canada. It was a pleasure to be with them for their meeting, I was warmly welcomed and encouraged by their enthusiasm.

Setting out for Fredericton on Saturday morning, I was not sure just how the day would go. I had just come from an all night youth event in Moncton with my home church, Cumberland Bay Baptist, and had slept very little. But the Lord was gracious and kept me safe and lucid until I returned home Saturday afternoon!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

God Never Says Oops

"A man's steps are established by the Lord, and He takes pleasure in his way. Though he falls, he will not be overwhelmed, because the Lord holds his hand." Psalm 37:23-24
God is Sovereign, God is Lord. Through the entirety of scripture we see over and over again, the Supreme Majesty (Hebrews 1:3, Psalm 145:5), Ultimate Power (Psalm 62:11, Job 26:14, 1 Corinthians 6:14) and Complete Authority (Romans 13:1-7, 2 Timothy 3:16) of the God of the Universe. We, very clearly, see through Creation (Genesis 1), the awesome Greatness of God (Ephesians 1:19, Revelation 11:17).
"Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you." Jeremiah 32:17
God breathed into mankind and gave us life in His own image (Genesis 1:27).
"then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." Genesis 2:7
And God was pleased with His creation, He saw everything He had made and it was good. (Genesis 1:31). But not only that, He knew us before the foundations of the World (Ephesians 1:4, Luke 11:50). God has carefully and with purpose, created each and every human being ever to walk on the face of the Earth throughout history (Romans 9:21-24).
"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well." Psalm 139:14
"But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand." Isaiah 64:8
God created us, He created each and every one of us, purposefully, our personalities, spirits, souls, and bodies are of His specific design. We are created in God's image and with purpose. What that purpose is, is entirely under the authority of God.
"who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself." Philippians 3:21
And yet, to spite the fact that we are created in God's own image, and that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, with purpose; there was a tragedy, a tragedy that became the very first act of humanism in the history of mankind. Eve, along with her husband, Adam, the first created man and woman, sinned. It is the lie that Satan told that so often is forgotten or misunderstood, as it continues to be the most aboundingly potent weapon in the devils arsenal (Genesis 3:1-7).
"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:5
The first lie, the serpents lie, is that Adam and Eve might become like God, knowing good and evil. They were already created in God's image, and already had some idea of good and evil, because they knew they were not to disobey God and eat from the tree. The seduction of the knowledge of good and evil was in the implication that Adam & Eve would then become free to choose one or the other, outside of the authority of God. God had clearly commanded obedience, yet there it was, an opportunity for freedom implied. Thus, the great deception, and the fall of man into the bondage of sin.

It is this great lie that continues to burden mankind, to our death. It permeates society, culture, family and church. The idea that we now have the freedom to choose between good and evil and exist outside of the Ultimate Will and design of Almighty God.
"But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ." 2 Corinthians 11:3
Yet, none of this was a surprise to God, He placed the trees in the Garden, He created Lucifer, He created mankind, the Earth and the universe. He has complete and perfect knowledge in His position outside of time (Isaiah 46:9-10, 2 Peter 3:8) and knowing of the fall of man and the sin of mankind, He created us. He was not surprised by the fall, He did not sit back and say oops. All things are subject to Him.

An Illustration.
We're going to explore anthropology for a paragraph or two. It is very clear in scripture that God cares very much about genealogy. It can be seen throughout scripture that there are very detailed genealogies. (Genesis 1:1-31, Genesis 5, Numbers 26:1-65, Nehemiah 7:1-73, Ezra 8:1-15, Matthew 1:1, Luke 3:23-38, 1 Chronicles, Numbers) I've often heard people wonder just why there are such boring passages of scripture and what "practical" application they might have. There is nothing in God's Holy Scriptures that is of no value. God has placed every Word as a way for us to see His Holiness, a way for us to recognize our sinfulness and need for reconciliation to Himself.
"For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen." Romans 11:36
God has outlined for us the genealogies because they are important, they show us how fragile we are and how perfectly sovereign He is, how mind blowingly complex His design for humanity is. As we've already seen, God has designed and created each and every one of us, individually (Isaiah 64:8, Romans 9:21-24).

A generation is generally considered to be a period of time between twenty and thirty years; that is, the period of time between the birth of a child and the subsequent birth of that child's offspring. This then affords every century between four and five generations. For each generation of your ancestry, you exponentially increase the number of direct ancestors that you have - that is to say each generation of ancestry doubles. Every child that is born (with the exception of Christ) requires a mother and a father, so then you have two biological parents. Your father and your mother each have two biological parents, meaning that you then have four grandparents. This is a mathematical and biological imperative that exponentially grows from generation to generation.



In the image it shows that by the time you are four generations back, you have eight great-grandparents. if you follow this through mathematically you will find that by the time you dial back thirty three generations, you have at that point 4,294,967,296 direct ancestors (thirty first great-grandparents), mathematically speaking. This does not account for inbreeding, disease, war, famine or natural disasters. The biggest problem that arises with this mathematical formula is that 33 generations ago was approximately the year 1300, when the population of the world was presumed to be between 360 million and 432 million people. A far cry from the well over 4 billion ancestors that we just came up with.

What this points to is the fact that we are all far more closely related to one another than we may like to think. It also means that every person who was alive on the earth 700 years ago is imperative to our existence. If even one of those people were to have "chosen" differently in their lives, even in a small way, then we would not exist as God has created us, because we would have different ancestors from whom to draw genetic, biological and social attributes - we would be, in effect, entirely different people.

By way of example; a man saves a young girl from being run down in the street by a horse, had he not done so and she were killed, she would never have mothered the man who would marry your great great (etc.) grandmother, making it impossible for you (and dozens of generations before you) to even exist. Yet here you are, by God's Grace and Sovereignty. This means that, if God is the Creator of each and every individual, that it is impossible for us to commit any action that is outside of His design; otherwise there would be chaos and a complete divergence from His Will and Sovereignty. To suggest otherwise is to bow to the traditions of Darwinist evolutionary thinking, survival of the fittest and the serpents freedom.

But God Hates Sin
God hates sin, (Psalm 5:5, Romans 6:23), sin is separation from God (Isaiah 59:2) in His perfection (Psalm 18:30, Matthew 5:48). God hates incest, rape and adultery (James 2:11, Romans 13:9, Luke 18:20). Yet, these things have happened again and again throughout history, in many cases producing children. Yet, these children are not a surprise, nor a mistake to God. God does not gasp in shock at the conception of a child in sin, in fact all mankind is born into sin (Ephesians 2:2-3, genesis 8:21, Proverbs 22:15, Psalm 14:2-3)
"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." Psalm 51:5
As we've seen, Scripture teaches us that God is the Creator of all mankind, even though we are all born in sin. God did not abandon His creation at the fall of man, quite the contrary, he sent His son to come as a substitutionary atonement for our sins. Christ came to make a way for us to be reconciled to God. The sacrifice of Christ at that time in history was not a reactive move on God's behalf, from the beginning it was always a part of God's Master Design (Revelation 13:8).

But, of these children born of rape, incest and adultery, one of two things is true;

One; that God, the Author of all, created these individuals and in His Sovereignty and power choreographed the history of mankind to make possible each and every specific human being to come to conception, to spite mans alleged free will.

Two; that the ultimate free will of mankind allows for each individual to choose with whom they will mate, ultimately allowing that free will choice to cause the creation of new beings, outside the will of God, and aside from His authority and design.

If option two were true, then shortly after creation and then again shortly after the flood the entire world would be populated by beings that God had nothing to do with creating and are not a part of His will or plan. If it were possible for mankind to commit actions outside of the Ultimate Will of God, it would make us "Like God" (Genesis 3:5), which is precisely the serpents deception. God would no longer have control over the creation of individual human beings, their parents would, in whatever circumstance that might mean. Even those children born to monogamous Christian parents, living rightly before God, would be the product of a previous generation that was not. Ultimately leading to an entire planet outside of God's control or Will. If we could parent children outside of God's Ultimate Will, those children would not be purposefully designed and created by God. They would be the random chance of our own alleged free choice.

The great deception of the serpent in the garden would have us believe that these children are the result of the free choice of people to couple with whomever they chose; that the children born of these circumstances are created outside of God's will because of the method of their conception. Certainly God hates sin, but this does not mean that children born of sin are born apart from the authority of a Sovereign God. Scripture teaches us that all authority is God's, so these children must be born under His authority, according to His Word. And, if they are born outside of His will, how could they have been known before the foundations of the World? Their existence would be the result of the authority of the freedom of mankind.

But what of God's Foreknowledge?

God is outside of time, and perfectly and completely aware of all things in all times. yet, the idea of the free will of mankind does not negate His authority to the point that it is relinquished to merely knowledge. If God is simply aware of the creation of individuals and not personally responsible for their creation, He is not Sovereign, nor is He the Creator, nor is He the God of Scripture, nor is Scripture true.

I've often heard young people labouring over whether or not they will ever find God's one person for them; or if they will choose a career that is in His will. Yet, scripture teaches us that we do not possess the power or authority to operate outside of His perfect design. This should impress upon us the importance of seeking Him daily and living with his guidance in every aspect of our lives, but should not make us feel that He is somehow not in control.

We like to assign authority and control to God when it is convenient and not when it is difficult for us to understand in a circumstance. Yet, scripture is the highest authority, and we must find the Truth within it's pages.

But God Wouldn't Cause Sin!
The fall of man, Adam and Eve's decision to live a life in constant and perpetual sin (Romans 3:10, Romans 3:23, Matthew 19:17, Mark 10:18) has left us all in a state where we must choose daily to follow Christ and strive daily (Luke 9:23), by the strength of the Holy Spirit (John 14:16) to live Christlike lives(Philippians 1:27, 1 John 2:6).

"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children." Ephesians 5:1
Our natural predisposition is to self and to sin, God exercises His perfect will in spite of our sinfulness, and this is something we will never completely comprehend (Proverbs 20:24). But Moses explains it rather clearly.
"When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them." Genesis 50:15-21
The actions of the brothers were sinful, yet it was a part of God's design. This truth applies to the massive complexity of the entirety of the Unvierse. Paul helps us understand it as well:
"Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?" Romans 9:21-24
The extent of mankind's "free will" extends only to that which falls under the Ultimate Authority of God's Supreme Sovereignty. Although the serpent would have liked Eve to believe it and would have all of us believe it, we cannot act outside of God's Ultimate Will and design for humanity.
"The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." Proverbs 16:9
"A man's steps are from the Lord; how then can man understand his way?" Proverbs 20:24


Sunday, October 28, 2012

Skype 2.0: The People's Church

Tonight we had the privilege of having a Skype call with our friends at The People's Church in Truro. It was fantastic to be able to chat with them this way and share a short update about our summer and fall at Arrowhead!



Saturday, October 27, 2012

There's Always Skype

We were scheduled to fly out of Moncton at 12:30 on Wednesday afternoon. We got up good and early, packed up the van and got all of our travel necessities ready for ourselves and Ivy and drove to the Moncton Airport. We arrived, checked our bags and discovered that the flight was delayed by an hour. No problem. We had a 2 hour layover in Toronto anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem to catch our flight. So, we went to the cafeteria and relaxed for about an hour as we awaited our plane. No plane arrived, so I checked the board. Our flight was now delayed until 3:35. The friendly airline agent offered to transfer our tickets to the next available connecting flight out of Toronto, which wasn't until 10:00pm Atlantic time, a five hour layover. This change would have landed us in Prince Albert at about 3:30am ATL, IF we were able to get a ride at midnight - which was unlikely, meaning that we would have missed the first half of the meetings. As the camp meetings for Monday had already been cancelled, we decided to call Len and see what his thoughts were. It just didn't seem practical, so we elected to cancel our flights, and NCEM was refunded the cost of our tickets (which was good).

BUT, all was not lost, I was able to take part in the second day of meetings via Skype. Andrew Siebert made his computer available to connect to. With the help of Jonathan Yeo I was able to interact with the meetings and take part. It was great to be able to still be a part of the meetings, and they were very informative. I am always encouraged to see NCEM striving to be as effective as possible in achieving it's mandate and vision as a part of the great commission.



Jonathan Yeo... the face of the PR meetings for me this year... and my voice in the room...

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

ACSI World Concerns Day

Last Wednesday I had the privilege to take part in World Concerns Day at Kingswood University in Sussex, New Brunswick. The Association of Christian Schools International hosted this event for it's schools in Atlantic Canada at the University. It was well attended with over 400 students from Christian Schools in PEI, NS and NB. I was asked to give two sessions and share some of the need for ministry among the First Nations People in Canada. There were several break-out sessions throughout the conference and I had between 30 and 40 students at each of mine.


I had the opportunity to share about some of the History and culture of the Mi'kmaq and Maliseet people and some of the challenges that exist in Cross Cultural Ministry. We talked about Worldview, Chronological Bible Teaching and Church Planting.

It was a blessing to be able to share with these young people in this way. I was excited to find out that one of our campers from Nova Scotia is a student at a Christian School that was attending the conference...


Tomorrow Liz, Ivy and I fly West to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan for meetings. We'll keep you posted as the week progresses!

Monday, October 15, 2012

A Victorian Christmas Tea Party

It's amazing how our annual ladies retreat at Arrowhead seems to come around the calendar year so quickly! And yet, here it is come and gone already.

It was with great excitement and anticipation that I prepared for the weekend. Venus Coté was slated to speak, Crystal Welch and Dianne DeNuke were going to be our special music. Plans were made well in advance, things were coming together. And then, the day before the retreat started, Crystals father was being rushed to the hospital with chest pain. Upon further observation it was a blockage and major surgery would be required. Crystal made the right decision to remain with her family at that difficult time. So, the duet became a solo. Dianne carried on and all were blessed by her beautiful voice and song of praise to our God.

No doubt, some may have come to our retreat especially to hear Venus Coté speak. Our experienced NCEM missionary shared her testimony on Friday night, the first of the four sessions at which she was to be speaking. During the first session, she began to experience a tightness in her chest, and great discomfort. She finished speaking, but afterward it was decided that it would be best for her to go to the hospital to be checked out. She was kept over night and the rest of the weekend for observation and tests. Based on her symptoms, the doctor said it looked like Venus had suffered a heart attack. More tests would need to be done Monday to determine just how severe a heart attack that it had been. Venus told the doctors that people all over the country were praying for complete healing and that she believed the Lord could heal her. And then, a miracle. The test showed No damage to her heart and that she had actually not suffered a heart attack at all. The doctor called what she had suffered, "broken heart syndrome", which mimics the symptoms of a heart attack? Thankfully all that was required for recovery was lots of rest!

Isn't it something how you can make all the plans in the world and think you're prepared, but really God has His own plans in mind!?! Even before Venus left for the hospital Friday night, two of our very faithful NCEM missionaries, Cathy Hill and Gracie Welch, came to me and said they both had messages prepared and were willing to fill in if needed. God had laid on both their hearts these messages and had said that they would be sharing them sometime! And what a blessing it was to hear what God had lay on their hearts They both shared as if they had been preparing all along for that weekend! Certainly God had been!

Our 'theme' was a Victorian Christmas, and so we enjoyed many a Yuletide decoration and even a lovely Christmas tree to sit by. Our Saturday afternoon was spent working on some lovely Christmas crafts, facilitated by hostess extrodinare, Tracy Burgess. She also gave us some great decorating tips on small touches that make Christmas extra special.

We also had our second annual tea. Irene VanAsperen baked us many delicious sweets to go with our tea. She always makes sure we get well spoiled with her goodies!

I would be remiss if I didn't mention all the men that cooked in the kitchen. What a wonderful job they did! Thanks to Todd Neilsen, Zack Neilsen, Justus Neilsen, Jonathan DeNuke, Andrew Ardern, Len Breen and Grant Fawcett for providing such lovely meals. Especially the lovely candlelit dinner Saturday night in which we were served our food! Todd even serenaded us during our desert!

It truly was a wonderful time. But not because of the planning, not because of who was going to be there or what we were going to be doing. Yes, those are all good, but because God is in control. And it was wonderful to see Him work everything out. Although He had nothing to work out, He had it planned that way all along.

The Victorian Christmas Tea Party

the kitchen help

Christmas craft time

special music with Dianne DeNuke

proudly displaying our Christmas wreathes

 
a couple of "cabinet cards" from our Victorian photo booth

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Little Southwest Raised the Roof

The ANBC mini-home... our home... has a (much needed) brand new roof tonight. Thanks to the kindness and hard work of our friends at Little Southwest Baptist Church in the Miramichi. Darren and Tammy Goodfellow came out yesterday and began prepping the roof, the rest of the team joined them this morning! By 3 o'clock a new roof was on and we were packing up!

It is such a huge encouragement and blessing to have the church care for the ministry here in this way. We had a great day working together, I don't think I've ever worked with as much laughter and productivity at the same time!







Friday, September 14, 2012

2012 Eastern Field Conference

This week we were refreshed to be able to be with the NCEM Eastern and Eastern Arctic fields for our annual conference. We all gathered at Greenhill Lake Bible Camp in Greenhill, NB. We were joined by the NCEM executive and Pastor Jake & Ruth Giesbrecht for the weekend, with special music brought by Todd, Eve, Zack, Brooke & Justus Nielsen. It was especially nice to have my mom join us for the week!

Liz and I feel so blessed to be able to serve with NCEM, and gathering with leadership and fellow missionaries is always so encouraging and refreshing. The messages this week, brought to us by Pastor Jake Giesbrecht, focused on 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 and admonished us to prioritize our lives in Christ. In the current climate of our Western culture, the all too common theme among those attending church is self. Humanism is a poison and is overcome in Christ alone.

It's been a challenging year, and a wonderfully rewarding and stretching year in which the Lord has shaped us and taught us a great deal about Himself and ourselves before Him. This conference was a great way to finish up our summer and step out into the Fall! We enjoyed the fellowship and time with friends very much and are grateful for the opportunity to be together.
 
 
The traditional game of Catan.

Liz & Lydia enjoyed a canoe around the Lake.

 We enjoyed a bonfire on Wednesday night.

We had a special visit from Watson Williams, and it gave the guys a chance to catch up.

The Nielsens brought some most excellent music throughout the conference.

NCEM honoured the Welches and Hills.

 Phil got new bifocals.

A group shot of the gang!

Saturday, September 8, 2012

ANBC First Annual Charity Golf Classic


This past Saturday, September 1st, ANBC hosted our first ever Golf Tournament.  The advisory team began planning the tournament this past Winter and thanks especially to Rob McCready and Joel Welch it came off! It was perhaps not as large a group of teams as we would have liked, but it was a successful day, everyone had a great time and ANBC raised approximately $3,000 to help us with our winter expenses.

We will be hosting another tournament next year, perhaps you'll come out to join us. Here are a few shots from the big day!

Baby Ivy came with mommy to cheer on the golfers.

John & Pete.

Pastor Andy tee-ing up!

Peter came within 6 feet of winning this trophy... so close...

Presenting: The winning team of the 2012 ANBC Charity Golf Classic

Presenting: Winner of the closest to the hole, Joel Welch

Presenting: Winner of the Gentlemen's Longest Drive, Jeff Alcorn

Presenting: Winner of the Ladies Longest Drive, Esther Alcorn

Monday, August 20, 2012

Summer Camps 2012: Discipleship Week

Our summer camping season has come to a close. It has indeed been an amazing summer filled with blessings and challenges, often at the same time! We have been so encouraged to be able to be a part of this ministry and all that the Lord is doing here at ANBC!

This last week of camp was a Monday to Thursday camp that we piloted for the first time. We had no idea just how it would look when all was said and done - but we turned the week over to the Lord and He made it into something wonderful. We invited back to Arrowhead ten campers (eight returned) who we felt would most benefit from a week of more focused attention, Bible study and some special sessions about Christian living.

It is always amazing to see how God orchestrates things for His Great Glory! On Monday night we had a bonfire on the beach for everyone, after a time of singing and testimony we noticed that the skies had cleared. They had been cloud covered throughout the day, but just as we were together on the beach God drew back the curtains of heaven and we were able to enjoy some of the Perseid Meteor Shower. We lay on our backs on the beach and anxiously anticipated the next "falling star". The amazing thing about this was that I had planned as a part of our schedule to share "Indescribable" by Louie Giglio as part of the afternoon session the following day. It was a perfect fit that only God could organize, and so the Majesty of God was brought directly to our attention!

Below is the video we watched the following day, if you haven't seen it I think you will be blessed by it.


Indescribable - Louie Giglio from argie muyco on Vimeo.

This week was marked by it's relational aspects, campers and staff laboured together, bunked together, learned together and prayed together.

  Everyone was assigned chores to do, and for the most part everyone chipped in cheerfully. 

There was lots of time for swimming and just hanging out together, which was excellent!
 
Special guest Marsha Boyd-Mitchell joined us from the Christian Action federation of New Brunswick and brought some very practical and scripture based seminars dealing with issues our teens are regularly confronted with; peer pressure, cyber character and substance abuse.

It has been a fantastic summer and we are so grateful for the privilege of serving the Lord here. His provision is sufficient and His work is preeminent. We were abundantly blessed in volunteer staff in 2012, staff with a heart for ministry and dedication to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Families and individuals came to ANBC and served humbly and diligently and that marked the ministry here this summer!