Canadian Evangelism

YC Alberta 2016 There's a busy couple of weeks coming up. Starting today, with load-in for YC Alberta later this afternoon, setup tomorrow morning and a couple of shifts over the weekend manning our Alpha booth. When I was in the business world I hated trade shows. I found them so tiring and boring, but with Alpha I actually enjoy them - shows like Break Forth, Missions Fest and YC. Although I am a natural introvert, somehow I put on another face, so to speak, and enjoy speaking, even bantering, with all sorts of guests at these shows. The difference, I suppose, is that these people are family; even those I've never met before. They are brothers and sisters in Christ. Most of next week, starting Tuesday, I'm in Calgary at the Christian and Missionary Alliance General Assembly . Another booth, although apparently much smaller, with delegates not only from Alberta but from across the country. One of the special events I'm hoping to attend there is a dinner for chaplains....

At the recent FCA National conference in Grande Prairie I met a woman from Iran, formerly Muslim, who came to faith in Christ and now pastors a Iranian Church in Canada. She uses Alpha's material to do live talks in the Farsi language. She shared the story of her journey to Christian faith, which was quite fascinating, and mentioned that on the way from the airport she noticed the cab driver had an accent so she engaged him in a conversation about faith. The cab driver in turn asked if he could pick her up to take her to his home to continue the conversation. Obviously, there was concern among the convention delegates with whom she shared about this arrangement, lest she be putting herself in a dangerous situation. We prayed mightily for her safety and tried to arrange someone else to accompany them. The convention was over and I was back on the road before this was all supposed to take place. In any case, she sent me her account of her meeting, which she h...

May 3rd to 5th. Here we are, two old hippies, brothers in Christ at FCA convention Grande Prairie. Me along with Harold from Battle River Ranch Camp. One of us is a biker. Guess which. Delegates came to this assembly from all across, and even outside, Canada. I had a number of interesting conversations. Most knew about Alpha, but a few didn't, and even though my position pertains only to Alberta, I was glad, of course, to help guests from other provinces. One of the things I found especially poignant was that a number of the delegates were from McMurray Gospel Assembly, an Alpha church in Fort McMurray, which was right in the middle of the complete evacuation of the city due to the massive forest fire that virtually destroyed it. They must have been doubly troubled - not only at the destruction of their city, but at being separated from their families during the evacuation. Driving through hell - leaving Fort McMurray Alberta As I am writin...

As mentioned and as promised, here is a post on the Alpha Lab, run yesterday at Foothills Alliance in Calgary. As mentioned, I picked up Steve Mulder at the airport, getting back on the Deerfoot about 1:30 AM. To reach our hotel I had to turn west on 16th Ave, Hwy 1, the Trans Canada. but we got so caught up in conversation that I missed it completely. Perhaps Alberta's distracted driving law should cover in-car conversations as well. The government should legislate complete silence in cars. I think I'll suggest it. Governments seem to want more and more control over individual lives, it may be heading in that direction anyway. But... I digress, and am in danger of embarking on one of my rants. Anyway, we found the next interchange where we could turn around and head back in the right direction. It was after 2 when we finally hit the hay. I set my alarm for 7. Just as the alarm went off, we became aware of a monstrous row out in the hall outside our room. The police were actual...