Canadian Evangelism

Everyone seems to love the melody of Leonard Cohen's song, "Hallelujah." I have taken the liberty of creating my own lyrics, in honour of our Saviours birth. This is me and some of Christ the King, Edmonton's musicians at our Christmas Eve service. I hope you will forgive the quality of the recording. We hope to make a better one at some point. See what you think. Here are the lyrics: HALLELUJAH (CHRISTMAS CAROL) I heard there was a baby boy, w as born this day to bring us joy Salvation and the Holy Spirit to you In Bethlehem this baby lay I n a manger filled with hay While angels sang a glorious Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah The shepherds came and saw that night, y ou, Jesus, of the world, the light The Saviour of all who give their hearts to You They left their fields, they came and saw t he One who would fulfil the law You, only worthy of our Hallelujah Hallelujah, … And wise men travelled from afar, w ith gold and frankincense and myrrh...

I thought this was worth sharing. Best of 2014 - Alpha USA from Alpha USA on Vimeo . Alberta is just one province in Canada, but we are not isolated. What is happening here is happening all over the world. Blessings, John

At the end of the first day of my two day tour of southwest central Alberta. I had a ten o'clock appointment at Crossfield Baptist. It was exactly 8:00 AM when I left my garage at home and exactly 10:00 when I turned off my ignition in the church parking lot, 219 km later. What timing! As I indicated in the title of this post, my day was off to an encouraging start. Pastor Dave Wiebe has run Alpha in the past in BC, and plans to run it here in the spring. Youth Pastor Darrly Siemens ran Alpha for Youth here and was very enthused by it. He is planning to run it again this year, hoping to attract kids from outside the church. So, that is two Alpha's lined up for the coming year. Next stop was Carstairs, at the Church of God there.  I was particularly looking forward to meeting Pastor Harry Hoehne there because he hails from Hamilton Ontario, my own home city, back in the day. He has only been in Alberta a few months, so has not yet had time to change his allegiance from the Tiger...

On the road again early tomorrow morning. I have a 10:00 appointment in Crossfield. Altogether eight meetings arranged so far, in towns in western South Central Alberta - Crossfield, Carstairs, Didsbury, Olds, Sundre and Rimbey. I should be back late Thursday. My friend Karl is going in for day surgery tomorrow on his heart. He is scheduled to be released tomorrow afternoon, but those who care for him are hoping, and will advocate, that they will keep him admitted at least overnight. So Karl and I prayed together that God would bring us both back home safely on Thursday. Blessings, John

I was told today that my writing is too wordy, and I cannot disagree. In fact I do agree, and wholeheartedly so. I love words. I love writing them and I enjoy playing with them. I am reminded of the film,. "Amadeus," where Antonio Salieri, Mozart's rival composer, said of one of Mozart's new pieces, "Too many notes." Well, not that I would ever have the audacity to compare myself to Mozart, but there is one thing we share; like him, I probably won't change my writing style because I'm told I use too many words. I was told that Dr Seuss gave the writing advice, "Brevity, brevity, brevity!" I wonder why he said it three times when one would have sufficed. Blessings, John 

Or, to translate the title of this post as accurately as I can, "quelle surprise!" I have no explanation, but when I checked the stats this morning, the number one audience for my Alpha blog, by page view, and lots of them, is from France. Dieu est bon... tout le temps Merci beaucoup, John

I arrived in Calgary Tuesday evening after an eventful and encouraging day in Lethbridge (see below).  I met my former pastor from Edson Baptist for coffee at a local Starbucks. He is now a teaching elder at Calvary Grace church. Terry is both a theological guy and a car guy, so we always have great conversations. I remember his kids from years ago, but now one of his daughters is driving and his son is married. Holy Moly! Everybody I know is sure getting older! Wednesday morning I wanted to meet with Rob Martin of Eastside City Church on Abbeydale Drive in Calgary. I had spoken to Rob once on the phone, but had trouble reaching him again, so after leaving a number of messages I just decided I would drop in about 9:30 that morning and take my chances. He wasn't there at the moment, so I left a written note and my card with the administrator, who promised to place it directly into his hands the moment he arrived. Back out in my car in the parking lot, I sat for a moment and t...

OK, so what do Lethbridge Alberta, the country of Rwanda, a city in central Mexico and a small town in Southern Ontario have in common? Let me explain.  I came down from my room in the Super 8 in Lethbridge for their free breakfast (one of the reasons I usually stay at Super 8 motels when I travel). I had my iPad with me to plan my day and map out the churches I planned to visit. There was one other person in the breakfast room, a young woman working at her laptop. she looked over and said, in heavily accented English. "I see we are both working." "Yes," I said. "What do you do," she asked. "I call on churches," I replied. This seemed to pique her interest, so I explained a bit about Alpha, how we introduce people to Jesus, and gave her my card. I asked if she knew Jesus or went to church. She confessed that she didn't go very often. Her name is Delhi, which most people would associate with either a city in India or a town in Southern Ontari...

Tuesday evening, 6:15. I'm in my hotel room in Calgary, just arrived from a full day in Lethbridge and a 2 1/2 hour drive. Had a wonderful and encouraging day there today, visiting 6 churches. Westside Community Church is a PAOC church running Alpha for Youth, and having great results. Shaun, the youth pastor, pointed out one problem: many of his youth group come from outside the church, and some are Mormon, so some of Alpha is  "new teaching being presented."  and some of their parents don't like it, so they still bring their kids, but after the video. Made me smile. At Immanuel Lutheran, they had registered for the Youth Film Series, but had not run it. However, by the end of our visit, Kathy there was, "on fire to run it," to use her very own words. The whole trip here was based on a fleece I had laid regarding my next appointment, lunch with John Albiston of Victory Church . I may have mentioned this in a previous post. I had met John before, and had h...