Oui, allo!

“Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself …”    Psalm 84:3

Yes, we are back home for the weekend and it feels great.  Our motor home is a pleasant temporary abode but very much unlike our Churchville “nest.” We travelled about 9 hours yesterday with stops along the way and shall return to Montreal Monday evening. What a week we have had which you can read about in my journal below. Thank you for all your prayers. It means a lot. We are very tired but very fulfilled.

Richard’s ministry in Myanmar was to have been shut down yesterday but some how he and his cohorts managed to pull together $600 and their landlady has given them another month. All of them are working at a local flower place to earn money which is a good thing. Please continue to pray for their financial stability.

Home Group will take place this coming Thursday at 7:00 p.m. at the Burton home. As we have learned this week, prayer is a vital part of everyone’s Christian life.

Even though Gary and I are away church happens as usual. Chris Burton and Steve Macdonald are doing a great job leading the Sunday services. If you have a concern, please connect with either of these men. Frances Kerr’s brother, Roy Grant will be speaking next Sunday, August 22.

A couple of birthdays will arrive while we are gone – Debbie Macdonald on August 22 and Cassidy Burton, turning 11, on August 27. Congratulations to you both, ladies! Congratulations also to Cassidy and Kaiya Burton for a good season of baseball.

Take care of yourselves this week,

Wendy

 

[1] wendy.carter@kainos.org; garyvcarter@kainos[2] .org; [3] www.fellowshipnetworksradio.org;[4] [5] www.ttcbiblereading.org www;[6] www.dtfbmusic.com; [7] www.gvc.name[8] [9] www.compasscoachinginternational.com;[10] [11] www.myanmar.kainos.org[12]  [13] www.churchcreation.com. This newsletter is always located at blog.heartlandfellowship.ca.[14] It is a summary of our Sunday morning services held at 7777 Churchville Rd., Brampton, ON L6Y 0H3, 905-230-8116.[8]

 

Rapid Change by Gary Carter: Penny Spears said good-bye to her son, Brandon, seven weeks ago as he was attending Camp Borden for the summer. She picked him up this weekend. That time went quickly. The Carters have finished one week of their Mass Personal Contact campaign in Montreal, QC and have survived. That time went quickly as well. Over 150 households want information about the new church starting on Sept. 26 in Saint-Eustache. It is important that relationships be developed with these families sooner than later. Maybe some will be willing to attend a neighbourhood BBQ to learn more. This is a matter for prayer as so many of the people in Quebec have been quite turned off by their previous church experiences. What will this campaign mean to the province of Quebec as a whole? Will there be another church started next year? Time will tell. Jesus said in Matthew 9:37, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.”

 

Another One Hit Wonder by Steve Macdonald: Sargon the Great or Sargon of Akkad is mentioned in Isaiah 20:1-2. So who was he? He lived from 2270 – 2215 BC. His father, Akki, was a humble gardener and his mother probably a prostitute or priestess. Akki had found Sargon in a basket of rushes with the lid sealed. He took him as his son who also became a gardener or labourer. Most likely other labourers became his first soldiers that overthrew the ruler of Kish. Sargon eventually became the King of Assyria conquering the lands of Mesopotania, Iran and Syria. His dynasty controlled this area for over 1 ½ centuries. He was a man from meager beginnings and ended up in greatness.

 

Kingdom Bound by Chris Burton: The Burtons and Macdonalds recently attended Kingdom Bound at Darien Lake, NY. So what does this phrase mean? What does it look like to live for God’s kingdom? Jesus explained it by parables in Matthew 13.

The first parable is about the sower and the good soil (verses 18-23). The seed has fallen on the good soil; we as Christians have heard God’s message and understand it. But none of us are perfect on this long journey. We must look out for all the snares and grow. We can’t stop bearing fruit until the journey is over. The Holy Spirit shapes our lives every day and in turn we must pray for those who haven’t made it yet. By nature we are impure and like the soil we need to be cleansed, fertilized and have our rocks pulled so that crops can grow.

The parable of the weeds (verses 24-30; 36-43) refers to our enemies. These are foreigners or jealous neighbours who might actually go out and sew weeds in your field. Darnel is a look-alike “wheat” that is a weed. The root systems become intertwined and it is hard to tell which is the real deal. Our first response is to pull out these weeds but inadvertently the good will be killed as well. Let them both grow, then pull out the bad, bundle and burn them.

Application: Christians can’t expect to be free from Satan in this world. He will steal, kill and destroy and is the father of lies. His followers, who are not true to Christ, will hinder the work of the church. Weeds do get into the “field” of the church but we must weed our own sin. How are your energy levels? Are you able to weed your own garden plus that of your neighbour’s? God asks us to witness to others, pray for them, help those in need. We are not to be judgmental and condemning others’ sins. We must bear fruit which is the future of a plant. We need to focus on what can advance God’s kingdom. It is impossible to root out all the sin in the church. Time must be spent on developing strong roots. God will take care of the weeding. If grace, mercy and forgiveness were practiced more Christians would not be viewed so negatively by others.

Conclusion: Are you going to be a wheat or a weed? Are you going to bear fruit, love God and love others? See the parable of the sower and get your soil in order.

Communion: Jesus gave Himself to the church. He asked us to water the flowers, His garden, with prayer. We are to remember His instructions. What is your piece of the puzzle? There will be difficulties as the disciples learned. They continued to remember Him with the symbols of the bread and wine. Thomas even made it to India. The Word of the Lord went forward to this day. The harvest is the final point. It does not go on forever.

 

Antioxymorans by Steve Macdonald:

In an effort to expand our knowledge of the English language here are some antioxymorons which are two words with redundant meanings, e.g. we duck down or use a time clock.

It was stated with absolute certainty…

The class was studying ancient history.

The bank was robbed by two armed gunmen.

When the food was taken out of the freezer, it was frozen solid.

The G20 brought large crowds.

When backing up don’t hit anything with the rearend.

The water company had to come and dig down to the pipes.

After digging they left an empty hole.

You shouldn’t run at a pool; you may fall down.

When approached by a sky, back away, far away.

The Ups & Downs of a Mass Personal Contact Campaign, Saint-Eustache, Quebec:

 

Day 1

 

It’s Sunday morning, August 8^th at 8:45 and Gary and I are finally backing out of our driveway in Churchville, ON (near Toronto) in our jam-packed 1986 Toyota motor home. Our regular Heartland Fellowship Baptist church service in our home is about to begin and we are a day late in our departure for Montreal. What was this old senior’s citizen couple thinking? What unfamiliar territory will they be facing?

 

The day is grey and drizzly. After trekking along the 401 for a couple of hours we stop in the town of Cobourg for a Tim Horton’s. It’s too crowded there and after much manouvering of our old “bus” – not the easiest task - we head over to Macdonald’s instead. We do smell a bit of gas coming from the engine as we walk towards the restaurant but we will have to deal with that later. Bruce, a new acquaintance, stops us to chat about the motor home. He has a similar one and loves it. He is someone to e-mail when we return home. Did you know that Cobourg is the cheapest place to buy gas in Ontario? Thanks for the tip, Bruce!

 

Next stop is the lovely vacation spot of Gananoque located on the other side of Kingston along the St. Lawrence River. After a pleasant picnic lunch we are on our way again. The rain falls off and on until we get to Montreal when it begins to pour seriously. Thankfully we arrive in the church parking lot in Mascouche (north of Montreal) where we will park overnight. We meet up with Elaine and Terry Cuthbert (Urban church Planter for the Fellowship of the Quebec Region) who take us out for supper.

 

Back at the church we are joined with Gilles Chainey, the start-up campaign co-ordinator who is filling in for Pastor Ken Taylor, the new pastor for Eglise Oasis. Unfortunately Ken had been booked for a year to speak at a summer camp. He will certainly have lots to learn when he returns the following week. We also learn that Gilles’ wife, Lucy, has encountered some serious heart health issues over the last week. They both need our prayers.

 

After a long day’s journey we are safe and sound in bed in our motor home. There is no TV news to watch. It seems as if we have gone to a foreign land as missionaries having to fight lots of language barriers. French Canadians are very gracious but we need your prayers very much as well over the next three weeks. The gas smell is becoming a concern. Bon Soir!

 

Day 2

 

Oui, allo! The sun is shining beautifully and surprisingly enough Gary and I both have had a good night’s sleep. I get a lovely warm shower in the church but Gary’s is colder than his recent showers in Myanmar. Oh well!

 

Gary works on his database to get ready for training our campaign contactors this evening until I decide to use our microwave and blow a fuse which shuts all of our electricity down. Ooops!

 

After a cold salad for lunch we head to downtown Montreal to find the church where all the contact phoning will take place. The cell phones don’t work in the Mascouche church. Our GPS adapter has quit and we are relying on the city mapbook that Terry gave us. We still manage to get lost but after some help from a friendly Frenchman we do locate Eglise du Coin, situated on a street corner in the busy downtown area with only side street parking. This church was formerly a bank 50 years ago with an interesting high ceiling and large windows. It was purchased from another church at the beginning of this year.

 

Ten minutes from this building we must find another church, l’Eglise Baptiste Evangelique de Rosemont, where we are allowed to park our motor home overnight.

About 4:00 p.m. we return to the “corner” church after much struggling with one-way streets and no left turn intersections. We figure out that we only have 15 minutes to unload all our boxes of campaign gear. Gilles comes out to help.

 

Another surprise – a team from West Park Baptist Church in London, ON is working on church renovations this week in the meeting area we are to set up for training and calling. Oh, my! Our 49 contactors are already arriving and the day is extremely hot. Gary sets off to find a permanent parking spot and returns a half hour later. He had a hard time remembering how to get back to the church since he had to go a fair distance. I had his wallet in my purse so he had no money to pay for the parking. Hope he doesn’t get a ticket. This is a stressful city!

 

Terry arrives a little late as he gets lost himself. After much flourish of activity our contactors are ready at 6:00 p.m. to be bombarded with all of Gary’s information, details and hopefully motivating inspiration. Terry translates on the fly for him. By the time 9:15 rolls around everyone is exhausted but happy that the session went as well as it did.

 

The last challenge of the day is to find the motor home. Gilles drives Gary to find it but they come back 15 minutes later shaking their heads. The motor home is not to be found. They go out again for another half hour and come back “busless.” Then Terry and I go in one direction and again Gilles and Gary go in another. With Terry’s wife’s help from home on the Internet we find it in a municipal parking lot with no ticket in five minutes. Thank the Lord! We make it through that day; however the gas smell is becoming stronger.

 

Day 3

 

Tuesday morning Pastor Rene Frey from his Rosemont church where we are parked graciously gives Gary an office that belongs to one of his pastors who is on vacation for three weeks plus Internet access. What a bonus! I was even able to cook a good lunch in their basement kitchen. We also meet Anthony and Justine Gagne who are staying at the church. They are two of our teenage contactors that we will drive to the call centre each day so that they don’t have to travel an hour and a half by Metro subway and bus. They are super in helping us unload the motor home each trip we take.

 

At 6:00 p.m. we are back at the call centre all set up for the first night of contacting. We have 37 teens with some older adults ready to man their cell phones after some preliminary instructions and practice time with their neighbours. Many are quite nervous but by the end of the first hour’s session confidence is building and at 9:00 we have gained 13 new friends who want information about the new church start. Since some of the cell phones were not working very well and because it is extremely warm we decided to move everyone out to the courtyard to work for the last hour. Near the end it grew quite dark; however there are no mosquitoes or rain to bother us.

 

Gary does find the motor home but also discovers a ticket for $52 on his windshield as he had not used his credit card properly in paying earlier for the parking. Ouch!

 

Laying down at night in our motor home feels so good; but the gas smell is becoming a bigger concern. What other challenges and problems will hit us tomorrow? This is always the way with one of these campaigns. It is an ongoing battle!

 

Day 4

 

Today we must get the motor home fixed. Terry’s mechanic is willing to check it out so we head up to Lorraine just north of the city where Terry and Elaine live. Gary assumes there is a gas leak in a line in the engine as we are leaving droplets of gas everywhere we go which does not help with the fuel efficiency. The mechanic cuts off a piece of the rubber gasline that is damaged and is able to reattach it – all for the price of $19.74 plus brunch with Terry and Elaine. Whew! All labour and no parts to be ordered. Thank the Lord again!

 

We return to the Rosemont church in the afternoon. Gary works on the database for the evening. We arrive at the call centre at 4:30 p.m. to realize that we can’t set up the courtyard until 5:30 when the nursery school is dismissed. The workmen’s skill saws are deafening. However, our contactors are very cooperative and by 6:00 all are ready for preliminary instructions and talking on the phones. The paperwork is even better organized with much help from Gilles and Terry, the supervisors. We have a work tally sheet from every person at the end of each of the hours to be inputted into the computer. It looks like we have 51 new friends. Now that is exciting to all! The reward is a stop at the Dairy Queen on the way home.

 

Day 5

 

The morning finds us both in the Rosemont church office with Gary inputting data from the tally sheets and me catching up on blog time to keep you all informed. By the way, what is happening out there in your world? Stephen Harper might be calling a fall election and we wouldn’t know it.

 

From a knock at the door we learn that Justine’s wallet is missing. When we go out for PFC (i.e. KFC), Gary’s tooth starts aching. Pastor Frey prays for both needs.

 

Gary makes it through his 2:00 radio program with Robin Pifer from our Fellowship. We are back at the call centre at 4:30. Everything is now beginning to work much smoother. The machine is rolling. This evening 27 contactors have made 44 new friends from Saint-Eustache. David Dobson, National Fellowship Director of Communication, who lives north of Montreal, drops by for a visit and is thrilled with the progress and enthusiasm he sees with the campaign.

 

We are encouraged as this is the best group of contactors in a campaign that we have ever led. Many are dialing over 50 calls per night. About 2.5 % are interested in receiving our mailing in the days ahead. Some families’ lives will be changed over the next few months. We are also seeing important changes in the lives of our contactors. One gal said, “I won’t be so shy after this experience!” Another teen is excited because she talked to a man who said to his wife the day before that they should be looking for a church to attend. He wants to be baptized. God, indeed, is working.

 

Day 6

 

Another good night’s sleep - although I do miss our Churchville birds. There are too many noisy trucks and loud motor cycles whizzing by on the nearby street. It is a sunny day once more which means our contactors will be able to call from the courtyard.

 

Gary continues to work on data entry. Justine Gagne comes to help enter the info on the New Friends that have been made who want the mailings. These will be sent out over the next few weeks before the official church launch on Sunday, September 26. Gary is having some problems with his computer. He needs to keep rebooting it.

 

We are back at the call centre but find it is locked. Thankfully, Gilles arrives a few minutes later and 34 contactors show up. They seem rather draggy so Gary rallies the troops and all are ready to start work at 6:00 p.m. Gilles mentions that his wife is doing much better today. The evening’s activities run quite smoothly. Many dial over 70 numbers per hour. Everything is cleaned up by 9:30 and Gary heads off to get our motor home.

 

Terry looks out on the street and discovers there is no place for Gary to park for loading up the gear we want to take with us. The bus stop space is available for only a minute or two. The bus arrives, then Gary follows him in behind but all of a sudden nicks the front tire of a parked motor bike which knocks it over. The alarm system goes off. Gary and Terry lift it up. There appears to be no damage. They wait for a few minutes to see if the owner shows up. No one seems to be coming so Gary and I leave in our motor home. A couple of minutes later Gilles calls our cell phone to say that we must return to provide the owner with our insurance information. He is not too happy as his brand new bike is his idol. After giving him all the information we have available we finally leave. Please Lord, no more incidents with our motor home!

 

Day 7, 8, and 9

 

At 6:30 a.m. we leave our church parking lot for Toronto. It will be so nice to get home for a couple of days for some rest for our weary souls and reorganization of our motor home necessities and computer files. After travelling for 9 hours with stops along the way we arrive at our Churchville home without incident.

 

Upon evaluating the inputted data, Gary confirms that this past Wednesday evening after Pastor Frey and his wife with others were praying upstairs in the call centre, the responses for our New Friends’ List increased from 2 1/2% to 5%. This proves how important outside prayer is. If you want to pray for Saint-Eustache go to [16] www.mpc101.info where you can choose a zone (200 available) of 80 homes to pray for. This is all part of your commitment in deciding to follow Jesus. We very much need your help!

 

We will set out Monday evening to travel half way, stay overnight some where near Kingston and journey the rest of the way on Tuesday. Gilles has set up a meeting in the afternoon with some of the Quebec church leaders for reporting, getting Ken Taylor, the pastor up to speed and preparing for the church launch plus any other future campaigns. What will this next week hold??