Stories of Hope

  To what extent do we tolerate violence in our own lives? It’s easy to point fingers at the gun culture in the United States and the problem of gangs in Toronto. But how willing are we to own our part of the terrible problem that everyone is discussing again since the latest tragic shooting spree?

  As a visiting nurse in our community I see a lot of interesting cases and interesting people. There are lot of patients with complex problems.   As nurses we try to bring our patients a warm smile and comfort them but sometimes we leave feeling sad and discouraged. Sometimes if I have a long drive in between patients I have a good cry and then regain my composure for the next visit.

  I’m not used to getting to work early, especially on Monday mornings, but on Nov. 26 I was here at Hope Fellowship before 8:00 a.m. But instead of heading for my desk and turning my computer on, I went to the sanctuary and started setting up chairs and tables – and ballot boxes and voting stations.

  I remember the discussion like it was yesterday. In fact it was March 2009, and we were in Mymensingh, Bangladesh. We were wrestling with the question, “What will we do when we get back to Canada?”

  Is a simpler, more meaningful celebration of Christmas possible? Absolutely. But you have to want it enough to take the necessary steps and face the criticism that may come your way.

  Twenty-some years after the Hope/Zion Food bank began providing food to needy clients in Oshawa, things are still being tweaked to make it as good as it can be. The latest “tweak” happened last week when Pastor Dan Zylstra came up with the idea of providing a worship service before the doors open at 11 a.m.

  Late September/early October the conversation begins every year—October is Pastor Appreciation Month. What are we going to do this year? After much discussion and thought Stan, the chair of our Administrative Board, came up with the wonderful idea of a “verbal bouquet” to offer to Pastor Peter and Marja.

  On August 27th, 2011, Hurricane Irene struck Hyde County, North Carolina. Jason was home watching the storm as it took the shingles off his house. While assessing the resulting water damage, Jason discovered that termite infestation required the house to be completely torn down.   Distraught with the knowledge that he and his wife Connie could not afford to rebuild his house, Jason turned to his pastor for advice. Jason’s pastor told him to pray to God and tell God that he expected a blessing.

  The One Year Bible that we distribute at our church divides the sixty-six books of the Bible into 365 sections from the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Psalms and the Proverbs. Each day’s readings include a calendar date in the margin, solving the problem of what to read each day. It’s a wonderful tool for reading through the Bible in twelve months. But it’s also a dangerous tool, confronting us with less-than-favourite scriptures that can scare us away from God’s Word.

  This past year we have volunteered in Hyde County, North Carolina and in Schoharie, New York, both times cleaning up the results of flooding from Hurricane Irene. One just can not fathom the amount of water that she produced.

  Every year in October a Day of Encouragement is held in Ancaster, ON. It’s not just for leaders, but for everyone who feels that they still have something to learn on their journey of faith.

My First Trip to China   Several months ago I felt a pull to travel to China. My friend Chuck, whom I'd met in Argentina about seven years ago, had invited me numerous times to visit him. This year I felt that God was nudging me to go.

  It was almost four years ago that I watched a crew from Classic Touch Cabinets wrestle the Info Centre through the doors and into place. Since then it has drawn many people to its counter and proven to be a huge blessing.

  It was Friday August 24th 2012,the fourth anniversary of our 15 year old son Geoffrey's passing away after his battle with cancer. Jody had taken the day off and I was home after finishing my week of working nights. We would normally use this day to reflect, remember and eat his favourite meal at the grave.

  There have been times in my life when I could not give thanks and did not feel like singing or praising God. At such times, the sight and sound of seemingly healthy families and happy worshipers was like salt in an open wound. Realistically, I always knew that there were others in church who were also in pain. But when you’re down, you don’t necessarily want to be with people who seem to be up!

  Thinking about Thanksgiving brings visions of turkey, stuffing, veggies and that oh-so-good home-made pie. It sounds delicious!!

  Hey everybody, I have been in San Pedro, Belize for almost 5 weeks now. It’s hard to believe how quickly time goes by here and how much I’ve learned in the short time I have been here. I can already start to see and feel God working in my life, challenging me in difficult situations that can make me feel uncomfortable or self-conscious.

  By now the Creator’s Sacrifice has been viewed by many people and celebrated in two mid-week services. Many school age children have also come through Hope Fellowship to see them.   Not everyone, however, has been thrilled with Ovide Bighetty’s paintings.

  There are many ways that you can evaluate a congregation’s health: Worship attendance. Volunteerism. Small Group participation. Community service. And charitable giving to causes and the operating budget.

  In my experience, people who are involved in their church are more gracious about its imperfections than those who are not involved. Spectators tend to be armchair referees; participants, on the other hand, tend to work things through until goals are met or things improve.   What’s the difference between a spectator and a participant? Commitment.

  This week, our son Josiah, 15, reached a major milestone. Two years after surgery to remove a huge tumour, Josiah underwent extensive testing at Sick Kids Hospital and heard the good news that there has been no change!

  I love leading the New Members each year. It’s a great small group experience for those who are new to the Christian faith or at a place in their lives where they want to be baptized and/or profess their faith in church and take a public stand as followers of Jesus.

  So, are you ready? Are the clothes set ready for Tuesday morning? Back packs packed? New lunch containers ready to go?

  When the call went out a few weeks ago for volunteers to help out at the Boots and Hearts Country Music Festival, the people of Hope Fellowship responded with great enthusiasm.

  They are here! Almost two years after we first heard about the Art Show entitled The Creator’s Sacrifice, the paintings have arrived at Hope Fellowship.

  On Monday, July 30th at 8:45 am ten high school students (and four adults) entered into the St. Jane Francis Catholic School. Waiting for them were 60 students from the Seeds of Hope Day Camp. With only four student volunteers who “knew the ropes” from last year, there was some trepidation and nervousness.

  Have you ever had an idea to start something and then after you’ve completed all the planning, it never got going. This happened after our small group decided to start a Community Garden in Courtice.

  What did you think about the rain that fell on Tuesday? A neighbour told me that he was on the 401 when the storm hit, and he could barely see. A summer version of a winter white-out!

  Have you been enjoying your summer so far? For some people, seeing back to school stuff in the stores is exciting (sing with me “It’s the most wonderful time of the year”). And for others, as we start to see colour in the trees, see the days getting shorter and the sun starting to move south again, its not quite as much fun. There is joy to be found in every season, and I hope that you have found some in this summer as well.

  My ears perked up when I heard that one of our young people had requested a ticket from her parents to the upcoming Boots and Hearts Country Music Festival at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (Mosport, Aug. 10-12) as her birthday present. They perked up even more when I heard that Crystal, her boyfriend Brian and Nicole are on the festival’s Street Team, responsible for talking to the public about the exciting events going on during the concert weekend and handing out free stuff.

  In 1956, Loren Cunningham, a twenty-year old Bible College student, relaxed on his bed after a gospel quartet singing engagement in the Bahamas and asked God to speak into his mind. He was given a mental movie of waves crashing every shore that morphed into kids his age and younger covering every continent. Four years later, as a newly ordained pastor in Los Angeles, he led a group of young people on a mission trip to Hawaii and founded Youth With A Mission.

  On Friday, July 27, Celebrate Recovery (CR) will host a Benefit Concert

  I had an incredible experience on Canada Day 2012!

  Having had their lives transformed by accepting Christ themselves, members of the Christian Reformed Church of Sierra Leone (CRCSL) are now taking the gospel to others in southern Sierra Leone.

  Whenever Rev. Paul Mpindi leads rallies or training seminars, he is surrounded by a group of prayer warriors. And now the team of prayer partners has expanded to pray weekly—and sometimes daily—for Perspectives Réformées en Centrafrique (PRC), the ongoing mission work of Back to God Ministries in French-speaking Africa.

  A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend Synod , the annual week-long meeting of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. Many decisions were made that week, not all of them easy.

   Last Saturday, while Krista was acting as host for a rental we had here at Hope, a well dressed gentleman came through the doors with an unusual request. He wondered if the church could help him buy some infant formula for his baby grand-daughter.

Dear brothers and sisters at Hope Fellowship, Greetings from Abuja, Nigeria!  I just want to take a few minutes to say a BIG thank you for your donations towards my support!!

  Weather-wise they got everything, according to Rod who did the Ride to Conquer Cancer last week along with fourteen other Hope Peddlers and almost five thousand other cyclists. On Saturday they dealt with rain and wind; on Sunday they faced blazing heat. But they all made it, including Jeff, who sported a yellow flag as a cancer survivor, and John, who rode on his son Geoffrey’s bike.

  I LOVE THE LEARNING CURVE. God has given me the ability and hunger to learn about technically challenging things. I enjoy learning activities where new skills are mastered each time you do it.

  I think my heart has been broken. No, I’m sure it has. Last weekend I was given the opportunity to attend a Truth and Reconciliation Conference, an ongoing effort to grapple with the fall-out of the Residential Schools that our Indigenous People were forced to attend for more than a century. It’s an ugly story.

  Every child is a miracle, and the safe arrival of Lillian was a miracle as well, for it could have been a very different story.

  Last week, in Ottawa, at a meeting of the Canadian Council of Churches, the Board of Governors was informed that 1,000 young people from the Christian Reformed Church were converging on Sir Wifrid Laurier University in Waterloo to spend the long weekend worshiping God, being challenged and strengthened in their faith by various speakers, and reaching out to the community. “One thousand young people! Wow!”

  Trinity United Church was the site of the first Mayor and Community Leaders’ Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, May 24. It was a glorious spring morning as the auditorium filled with church and business leaders, as well our Mayor Adrian Foster and our local MP.   Our speaker was Mr. Mel Finlay, the National Director of Nation at Prayer, a non-profit, ecumenical organization that “exists to pray with elected representatives and to call Christians to pray for all elected representatives at every level of government” ( nationatprayer.ca ). In his speech he challenged everyone to honestly ask themselves three important questions.

  Our prayer co-ordinators, Connie and Jackie, and their prayer team come together faithfully on Wednesday nights to offer up intercessory prayers. By this we mean prayers that intercede or make requests on behalf of others.   One person for whom intercessory prayers were lifted to God was a little girl named Camryn, who went to Sick Kids Hospital to receive a bone marrow transplant from her dad, Ray.

  I’ll be calling my Mom later today to wish her a happy Mother’s day. “Every day is Mother’s Day,” she’ll reply, reminding me that moms need to be treated with respect and love every day of the year.   She’s got a point. One day of special attention will never make up for three hundred and sixty-four days of neglect.

  Have you been praying for someone to come to faith in Jesus, (or even just been praying for someone?) Often we don’t get to know how our prayers have been answered, but sometimes we do have an opportunity to hear.

  Job was only three years old when he saw the news about the earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of Japan, but he knew that he had to do something. He decided that, when he was older, he would volunteer to help Japan rebuild. A few months later, when Job heard a presentation at JAM City by Simon and Danielle about their family’s year-long serving adventure around the world, Job’s vision expanded to include other countries where help is also needed.

  The April 15 Hopeful Story about our High School Ministries efforts to clean up the ditches around the church on Bloor Street and Trulls Road, as well as the experience of GEMS Sunday, made me think of another youth member of our church who is making a difference for God.

  Heidi McLaughlin, the featured speaker at our recent “Beauty Unleashed” conference, told the participants that she asks God to give her several words each year to guide her. Then she invited the women to join her in this spiritual exercise and prayerfully ask the Lord for several words. After they “heard” them, she invited people to write them on helium filled balloons and release them as messages sent up to heaven.

  More than half of the 180 women who attended last week’s “Beauty Unleashed” women’s conference were from other churches than Hope Fellowship. All were treated to a beautiful sanctuary and stage that was transformed from elegant black and white (the morning) to an explosion of colour (afternoon) in less than twenty minutes while everyone “grooved” outside under the direction of a Zumba instructor. Grace and Colleen, a worship team from Mississauga, ended the day with a powerful version of “I Will Rise” which segued into a balloon release that filled the sky with messages meant for God.

  For the season of Lent we were challenged to a “40 ways in 40 days” Lenten journey. Each day we were asked to list one blessing. We followed this theme as part of our worship services too, and the following was read on Palm Sunday, the week before Easter. It’s a great reminder to look for blessings in some of the things we take for granted every day.

  It’s always nice to get a head start on something. And that’s what our neighbourhood got when our young people roved up and down the roads on Wednesday collecting twenty bags of garbage and litter, two weeks before Pitch-In Canada Week.

  In the Bible, Jacob worked and waited seven years for his dream girl. At Hope Fellowship, Elizabeth (Lisa) worked and waited a dozen years for her dream job. That job began this week when she started her chaplaincy work at Strathaven and Marnwood Lifecare Centres in Bowmanville for Durham Christian Homes.

  Every year, our youth participate in the 30 Hour Famine weekend. It is the world’s biggest youth fund raising event and the money raised is used by World Vision to combat hunger.

Buzz Words :    For an entire year, the Administration Board took the first thirty minutes of each monthly meeting to discuss Eric Swanson and Rick Rusaw’s book, The Externally Focused Quest. Hope Fellowship’s leadership came away from this study with three words and two phrases that we want everyone to embrace. The purpose of this column is to introduce these new (at least to us) buzz words and phrases to you.

  Did you know that we have a Safe Church Volunteer Data Base? It is a list of the 110-120 persons who volunteer with our children and youth and it helps us make sure that every person’s police check is current.

  My wife, Krista, and I started Lent this year in the Central American country of Guatemala. We spent a week in and around the capital, Guatemala City, serving as part of a Medical Team with the Christian relief organization Speroway. While there, we were able to provide basic medical and dental care to nearly 5,000 people while leaving behind medication, food and a few comforts such as clothes and toiletries.

  We were well into the new VeggieTales Movie, Robin Good and His Not-So-Merry-Men, when one character said to another, “What’s the matter? Your face is as long as a boring sermon!” There was a burst of laughter around me and I felt many adult and young faces turn my way. Ah, the peculiar burden of being a preacher!

  Last Wednesday, eight people – five women and three men – met with our pastoral elders to profess or re-affirm their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was an amazing evening as they praised God for leading them through some very difficult situations to a more hopeful place. I wish you could have been there to hear each story.

   On Wednesday, March 14, at 10 a.m., Hope Fellowship will offer a morning movie event aimed at families looking for something to do during March Break. It will feature the newly released VeggieTales movie, Robin Good and His Not-So-Merry Men. Popcorn and drinks will be served in the foyer after the movie. Admission is FREE! And we encourage you to get the news out far and wide!

   Have you ever been on the receiving end of a random act of kindness? It’s a wonderful experience, as Hope Fellowship’s staff discovered on Thursday when we walked into the Prayer Room for our weekly prayer time. There, on the couch, beside two batches of muffins, was a large, hand-made poster that shouted, “Thank you, Hope Fellowship staff!”

  On Jan. 20, we joined eight people from Bowmanville and were privileged to experience a world just beyond the resorts of Dominican Republic. There are far too many stories to tell, but we hope to give you a glimpse of what we experienced.

   Hope Fellowship is privileged to partner with Sheila Dykstra, Education Consultant/Specialist in West Africa in her mission work through Christian Reformed World Missions. Sheila expressed how she feels about her mission in an article written by Marie Cooper:   “Christian schools acknowledge Jesus as Lord over all creation”, says Sheila Dykstra. “Every corner of creation belongs to Him and our entire school curriculum is a study of God’s creation, be it science, math, English or music.”

   On Sat. Feb. 11, several people from Hope Fellowship travelled to Brighton for a GO! Missions conference. For Rebecca, one of the women who attended, a global mission conference proved to be a setting in which she gained some deeper insights into herself and how God wants her to relate to those he places in her path. 

  The celebration dinner that followed the purity retreat gave beautiful insight to what the weekend was about. Parents were invited to watch a video by Pam Stenzel. The video was informative, challenging, funny and, most importantly, inspiring. After the movie we went into the atrium which had been transformed beautifully into a banquet hall.

  Endings are often disappointing. A vacation can take so much preparation and end so quickly. So why would we take a month off as a family and go to Nicaragua? A few of our reasons were adventure, curiosity, travel, awareness, restlessness, and a chance to bond. We prayed and asked God to open or close doors.

  In December, the Personnel Committee met with staff members to present an overview of the proposed Health and Safety Policy. The Ontario Health and Safety Act mandates that organizations that employ at least six people must have health and safety policies, as well as workplace violence and harassment policies. One of the requirements of the policy is to appoint a Health and Safety representative to regularly conduct risk assessments and to ensure that safe practices and equipment are in place. Knowing that our zone coordinators are already very busy, we somewhat apologetically asked for a staff member to volunteer for this position.

  Before services and between services there are always joyful noises in the foyer of the church. That’s awesome. Lots of chatter. People grabbing the opportunity to catch up with each other. A happy, hopeful scene!

  I called Emma to get an update on all the clothes and goods that they received from our church family last Sunday for the flood victims in the Philippines, including those in her extended family. When I asked how she was doing she said, “The sun is up and I’m good.”

  The Banner is the Christian Reformed Church’s monthly magazine. It is available free to any Hope Fellowship household that requests it. At this point, sixty-plus households get it directly mailed to their home. Evelyn, our office administrator, chatted with the publishers and they discovered that in Canada it is more economical to ship issues in bulk to the church than it is to ship them to individual homes. Therefore, in the future, this is the way The Banner will make their way to us.

  Three years ago (almost to the day) I had the opportunity to visit Mindanao with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC). I visited projects and met with people that we are supporting with our offering today.

  Eight days before Christmas, on December 17, Tropical Storm Washi dumped a month’s worth of rain on Mindanao Island in the South Philippines in only a few hours. Forests, denuded by logging, could not soak up the water. Surging flash floods combined with a high tide caused widespread flooding. More than twelve hundred people, still asleep in the shantytowns lining the riverbanks, drowned. Many thousands of adults and children were left homeless.

  The next New Members Class is set to start this Wednesday, January 11, from 7-8 p.m. It will run for eight sessions and focus on everything you need to know to be a follower of Jesus and a member of Hope Fellowship Church.   Have you been thinking about taking this class? Do you feel something nudging you to take your faith more seriously? Are you ready to make a public stand for Jesus and to strengthen your sense of belonging at Hope Fellowship Church? If so, this class is for you.

  Angels and demons in hand to hand combat. A red dragon waiting to devour a newborn infant. A standing ovation for Christ’s victory over Satan. Not your typical Christmas Eve service! But those were some of the elements that made Christmas Eve at Hope Fellowship both disturbing and powerful.