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!

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...

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!

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

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!

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!

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