Canadian Evangelism

здравствуйте Which means, "Hello," in Russian. At least Google says it does, so I hope it is not some terrible insult. Blogger tracks page visits to this blog, and again lately there have been quite a few visits from Russia. In the hundreds in fact. My tongue in cheek title for this post refers to the current news that the CIA accuses Russia of interfering in the recent American election. Well, if they want to know about Alpha, I'll be glad to tell them everything they need to know, even with no hacking. I'd even come over to do training if they'd pay my way, although the only Russian I know is, "Hello." And that only to write. Interesting indeed. Perhaps we will see a growth of Alpha there. Есус ловес ею Jesus Loves you. Есус ванц то кнов ею Jesus wants to know you Ооо сан кнов хим алсо You can know him too #аттенд Alpha #RunAlpha Blessings, John

Not me; Alpha numbers. I can't keep up. I believe I posted recently that there have been 650 Alphas run in Alberta in 2016, and that I didn't expect many more, as it was so late in the year. Well, I now see that number is up to 677. I don't think I have much to do with it, but it is such a blessing to me to see how many churches have it on their heart to reach out to those in their communities who do not yet have  Jesus Christ in their lives. This picture is from the course-end Celebration Supper at Beulah Alliance in Edmonton, to which their fantastic Evangelism Pastor, Angie, invited Eva and me. Beulah is one of my best Alpha churches (they run, in various contexts and venues, about 30 Alphas a year), and Angie, who calls herself, an "Alphaholic," is not only a very good friend, but one of the most passionate and enthusiastic people I've ever seen on behalf of the Lord. The supper was attended by about 140 people; graduates from their just-completed courses ...

Back from Southern Alberta and to a certain extent looking toward Christmas and the end of the year. I don't have any major trips planned between now and then, but Alpha never sleeps, nor would I want it to. I consider myself to be constantly, "on call." In the last little while I've heard some great Alpha stories and had some encouraging meetings. A story about an Alpha table leader who came to Alpha looking to serve behind the scenes but was thrown directly into the fire, so to speak, and was incredibly blessed by the experience. A story about a couple with a young family, relatively new to the faith, with almost no Christian background or experience who found that Alpha strengthened not only their faith but their marriage as well. A meeting with the Senior Pastor of a fairly large church, influential in its community, whose Alpha attracted 200 guests, and is turning out to be very fruitful. This church is hoping to integrate Alpha into its small group program, as w...

If you have call display what is your reaction when a number comes up you don't recognize; nervousness, fear, annoyance, hesitation? Are you tempted just to avoid answering it - let it go to voicemail? Well, I certainly wonder, when it happens, "Who could this be?" However, in my ministry with Alpha, it turns out as often as not to be a call I'm glad I took. Yesterday, near the close of the day, I received such a call. I answered, wondering, of course, who it could be. It was from a pastor in a town in Alberta. I had met him at a recent networking event. He told me he has a youth group meeting in his church building in which there are no kids from his church! Twenty to twenty-five teens every week. No Christians! He wanted to know if Alpha had any resources he could use for this group. Do we have resources?!!! (Rhetorical question of course on my part 😉) I went over highlights of our Youth Film Series , including some figures showing how successful it has been across...

Youth Alpha Training Summit - RockPointe Church I'm afraid I can't claim a lot of credit for this one. Most of the credit goes to Brent Sellers of RockPointe Church who has stepped up as an Alberta Youth Champion. Much of the credit for the establishment of the concept of Alberta Youth Champions goes to my friend and Associate, Amy Croy. So I come in a bit down the line for accolades. I did, however, deliver the banners and the Big Question Mark to RockPointe in the middle of a snow storm at great risk to my life and person. On Saturday our Alpha Teams hosted the first ever Southern Alberta Youth Alpha Training Summit --a gathering of youth, pastors and leaders, school christian clubs and individuals to prepare to run Youth Alpha in their circles of influence. A message from Brent: We had 50 people present, representing 6 multi-ethnic churches from five denominations, plus representation from several high schools. Our student teams opened the day by sharing their testimoni...

I'll explain the title of this post, which refers to an incident that occurred at 11:30 PM, and work backwards form there through my day (Friday) I hope you'll forgive the flippancy of my Youtube link. It's just the way my brain works. I booked my hotel room for Friday night at a hotel in Innisfail. However, my daughter said she had booked a stay at that same motel and left for another because her non-smoking room smelled of smoke. I thought, "Well that was then - this is now. Surely It wouldn't be a common occurrence." So I booked in, went to my room and everything seemed fine. That is until about 11:00 when I heard the drip, drip of water. I ignored it for a while, but then wondered if I had left a tap dripping in the bathroom, so I got up to check. There was water all over the floor, dripping from the ceiling. I called the front desk and explained the problem. The clerk said he would be there in 5 minutes. I called again after 6, saying also that he should ...

This is the Neighbourhood Church , a street front church in old downtown Medicine Hat. It is rather a new church on my radar, but already I've found a new friend. When I knew I was coming to Medicine Hat, I checked our records and saw this church of which I had not previously been aware, so I emailed to say I was going to be in town. Pastor Michael Fischer replied to say he would like to get together, so we arranged a meeting for between 10:30 and 11:00 this morning. The first thing that came up that indicated Michael was an OK guy was that he loves Alpha. You can see the Alpha posters prominently displayed in the front windows. The second was that he came to Medicine Hat from Hamilton, which was basically my own home town. His church started Alpha last spring by running it on weekday noon hours right there in the downtown. Fantastic! This fall they have been running a Sunday evening Alpha. Plans are for the Marriage Course and more Alphas in the futu...