And the Word became flesh and blood and moved into the
neighborhood...John 1:14 (MSG)
Speaking of neighborhoods, that's exactly where we spent
our day! After saying goodbye to the
Mission Team from Malta, TX who left today (along with the two teams from
Mississippi), we made our way to the church offices...after our obligatory stop
for coffee at Tim Hortons. Once there, Matthew, the associate pastor of Le
Contact, the church executive assistant, Julie, and a church member and
aspiring pastor, Michael met us and we all shared in a devotional and prayer
time focused on servanthood and meeting the needs of those around us, which
perfectly captured the purpose of this entire trip.
And then the walking began! The church had made up around 1500 flyers
depicting an action shot of the praise band and a ton of information about the
church, their website and their Facebook page. Yesterday volunteers had cut out
and prepared the flyers for distribution and with Michael as our local guide we
began canvassing the neighborhoods around the church and the town of
Repentigny, finally placing the last flyer late in the afternoon. Along the way we learned about Michael and
how this church, Le Contact reached into his life of drugs and emptiness and
provided hope and life just over a year ago. He is a changed man, so on fire
for The Lord that he brought his mother and sister to Christ as a well, getting
to baptize them himself this past Easter. His exuberance was infectious and
truly made the day fly by.
Tonight we closed the day with a second devotion,
centered on prayer and how the early church used prayer. Reading in Acts about
the power displayed by the Holy Spirit in answer to those true believers
reminded us all that we should be ready for tongues of flame to appear, rooms
to shake and people's lives to be miraculously changed by going to God with His
Will as our guide. Let us be so bold as to expect that each of our prayers will
be answered as powerfully.
Blessings,
The Montreal Missions Team
