Advent Devotional

At our church every Advent, the congregation takes part in writing an Advent devotional booklet to read during the season of Advent. I thought that I'd share with you the devotion that I wrote for Wednesday, December 10th.

Scripture Reading - Mark 12:28-31

Christmas is the season when most of us are given cause to remember to be charitable to those who are in need. Many of us give to the food banks, Operation Christmas Child, the telethon…there are many charitable organisations in need at this time of year. It's so very important that we do what we can for our neighbours around us, regardless of their needs. Many people would say that this is the true meaning of Christmas. We read in Mark that there are two commandments greater than all others: Love God, and Love your neighbour. By this, to love our neighbour is to love God, in that we are expressing the Love of God to them, and obeying Him by it. Truly, Christ is the reason for the season, but think carefully what that implies. We have a picture of the nativity that is warm and happy and safe, and we often forget how very great the sacrifice that has been made in the birth of baby Jesus. To be born a man, our Saviour came to live among us. This act alone was a great sacrifice, to culminate with the ultimate sacrifice of His death and resurrection. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ began at His birth, which we celebrate at Christmas.
So often we get caught up in the business of Christmas, in seeking desperately to achieve that warm fuzzy feeling. Christmas is a celebration of Christ and should serve as a reminder to each of us that we too, as followers of Christ, are to sacrifice every day to His glory. Loving our neighbours and selflessly seeking to share the light and love of Christ. Let's make this Christmas more about love and less about wrapping gifts. Don't miss out on the opportunity to share true Christmas Spirit.

Prayer
Dear Lord, this year help me to keep from getting caught up in the selfish Christmas of the world. May this be the Season of Christian love in Your name. Amen.

Windsor United Baptist Church

Howdy all,

It's been a busy week or two - Liz and I had the opportunity to share at our home church, Windsor Baptist, just yesterday. We have been very much looking forward to sharing with our friends and church family. It was very exciting for us to be able to finally answer everyone's questions about just what it is we're up to.

Liz had the opportunity to share with the kids during the childrens' story. She talked about what it means to be a missionary and how we can all be missionaries every day. When we spoke later in the service, we each shared our personal testimonies and talked about how the Lord shook us up and called us to attention of Him. We were able to spend a long time chatting with people after the service. People are excited about the ministry and that is exciting for us. We've been moved by the support and encouragement that we've received from our Church family.

And for those of you who have been on tender-hooks waiting for our next prayer letter... the second edition has just been put in the mail - so you should be receiving that in the next week or two. If you're not receiving our prayer letter and would like to - we'd be happy to send it along, just drop us a line.

We're both still busy working, anticipating the time when we will be able to move to Cumberland Bay and get settled in. I have a line on a possible new job - my current job will be ending on December 5th. This had been a great concern for me initially, but there is a strong possibility of a job doing insulating work for a few months over Christmas and possibly until we move. So Praise the Lord for his provision once again!!

Liz talked with the kids during the Children's Story about what it means to be a missionary.

We shared together for the message portion of the service... and may have run long by a few minutes... oops.

As our new partners in mission, our friends at WUBC
took the opportunity to commission us in prayer.

Fairview

Hi all, The journey continues :0)

This past Saturday evening Liz and I enjoyed sharing in Halifax with our friends Nick and Bev Philips and some of the believers at Fairview. It was a blessing for us to have the opportunity to give our testimonies and share about our call to ministry as well as to chat with some folks after the service. Later in the evening was youth group - and we were invited to hang out for a while... and for some reason there was an inordinate amount of surplus candy floating around...

For all those of you who receive our prayer letter, this week we will be preparing and sending out our next issue - you should receive that in the next couple of weeks. If you aren't receiving our prayer letter and would like to - just drop us a line - we'd love to add you to our mailing list.

Our brand new NCEM and Arrowhead materials table.

We had the opportunity to share some pictures and video from this past years summer camps.

October Update

Greetings friends,

I just wanted to take the opportunity to update you on the happenings in our home. We continue to work daily at our current jobs as we prepare for the ministry. The Lord has been providing for our needs in marvelous ways - we are always humbled when in times of need we lose hope and yet He is there to care and provide for us - as He always does!

In preparing the house to sell - I spent Saturday putting up some moulding in the living room, we have yet to paint the spare bedroom and do a small bit of dry-walling in the basement, otherwise it's ready to live in... we will just have to trust in the Lord to take care of finding a new family to live in our little house.

I found out recently that my job has been extended and I will have employment doing labour work until December 5th. Praise the Lord. We trust that by that time we will have our home on the market for sale and have enough support to go full time with NCEM.

We are preparing to speak this weekend at Fairview in Halifax. Please pray for us as we travel and share once again the outreach of this wonderful ministry that God has called us to.

I'll be working on a couple of brochures and a poster for Arrowhead this week as well - it's nice to be able to use my training as a designer whenever possible. We have a couple of exciting print projects that we'd like to do for Arrowhead over the next few months, so stay tuned. In the meantime, if anyone would like to have information about the camp or NCEM, just let us know and we'd be happy to pass it along.

We're looking forward to a progressive dinner tomorrow night with our Bible Study group, Carpenter's Hands. The fellowship and times of prayer and devotion that we have with our friends are a true blessing to us and we enjoy them a great deal. We'll be hosting the 'soup or salad' portion of the dinner at our place - so Liz is busily preparing some tasty smelling soups tonight... so perhaps I should go and see if I can get in the way...

Blessings for tonight,
Grant

The People's Church

This morning Liz and I had the wonderful privilege of sharing about our new ministry with our friends at The People's Church in Truro. Liz and I attended People's Church six years ago when we lived in Truro - it was wonderful to be with them today to renew old friendships and meet new friends. It was indeed a real encouragement for us to be there on the closing day of their annual missions conference, and we were blessed to be cared for by the congregation in prayer.

During the service I shared a brief testimony of our life since leaving Truro and an update on our call to ministry, I also had the opportunity to show some pictures and video from this past summers camp ministries at Arrowhead.

We were also pleased to be asked to share with the kids during Junior Church. Elizabeth taught a lesson on sin with a wonderful object lesson for the kids illustrating how sin is separation from God and yet we can enjoy freedom through Jesus Christ.

We were excited to be able to use our new Arrowhead display and materials table for the first time today, many folks availed themselves of the various NCEM materials and stopped to chat with us about the ministry.

We did have an exciting start to the day and weren't sure if our car was going to co-operate with us today as it once again began to smoke as we neared Truro. But the smoking subsided and we arrived safe and sound - our return trip to Windsor was without incident - once again the Lord provided for us, for which we are very grateful.

This week promises to be a busy one, I am hoping to get a lot done on the house in preparing it for a realtor to look at, and we will be preparing our second newsletter update to send out in November.

Youth Pastor Bruce Steeves leading the Junior Church song time.

Elizabeth sharing her object lesson with the kids.

Thanks and Thanksgiving...

It has been a wonderful weekend - Elizabeth and I spent Thanksgiving with her family in Granville Beach, N.S. It is always great to be together with family, but there is something extra special about Thanksgiving. We truly have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and sharing with our family was a great reminder to us of that very fact.

The Lord has called us into active service for Him, and for that we are very grateful. We have been blessed in support of this ministry opportunity - the Lord has begun to put in place a
powerful prayer army on our behalf, and for that we are very thankful. He has also begun to build financial support so that we can go and begin this work more actively - our financial support has most recently been reported to us at about 20%, which is a tremendous blessing after just a month or so. For this we are very thankful. The Lord has begun to introduce us to new friends, some are new believers, some are faithful servants and some are desperately in need of the Lord - for these people we are very thankful.

I have been busily preparing our display table, as I have mentioned, we have a few opportunities to share over the coming weeks and are excited to go and do so. So I will be painting and gluing and making a good ol' mess this evening ... should be fun :0)

"Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done." ~I Chronicles 16:8

Blessings this Thanksgiving weekend,
Grant

This is a picture Liz took on Friday of a squash in our garden,
ripe for the harvest.

Lots of Travelling...

Elizabeth and I have been doing a fair bit of traveling this year, and will be doing more throughout the fall as we visit churches and friends and share our excitement with them about this ministry opportunity. Kevin and Marcia are also doing a lot of traveling this fall, visiting friends and family and sharing what the Lord has been doing through the work of NCEM and at Arrowhead. This weekend, Kevin is in Newfoundland visiting believers there and giving them an update on the work. I met he and James at the airport yesterday morning as Kevin was preparing to depart. James is hanging out with us this weekend and will return to Arrowhead with Kevin on Monday. Keep Kevin in prayer as he travels and shares this weekend.

Elizabeth and I will be traveling to Truro to share with the Peoples Church on October 19th at the close of ther missions conference. We're really looking forward to being in Truro again and having the opportunity to meet with some old friends. We will be in Halifax, sharing with believers there on November 1st and will be sharing at our home church in Windsor on November 9th. If your church would be interested in hearing about the work at Arrowhead Native Bible Center, Liz and I would be more than happy to come and share with your fellowship. Just let us know.

Kevin as we abandoned him at the Halifax Airport.