Alberta News

Gull Lake Centre is celebrating its 90th anniversary on August 13 and invites everyone to join them as they rejoice in all the good things that have come out of nearly a century of camping. This celebration starts at 2 pm at the Centre and will continue into the evening.

Steve Roadhouse, Gull Lake Centre’s new Executive Director, says the party will be a celebration not just of the camping ministry but will be an opportunity to “thank God for his continued blessing and for providing time and time again so that camp could continue to run and people could be invited into relationship with God and with others.  We are so thankful for what God has done year after year, summer after summer, memory after memory. We serve a very good God.” 

Gull Lake is expecting to welcome as many as 730 campers and more than 50 students to their Leadership Training and Discipleship (LTD) program this summer.

Click the link to read more.

Alberta News

Photo courtesy of thglobeandmail.com

Southeastern Alberta was drenched with 150 mm of rain on the Father’s Day weekend, followed by another 30 mm a few days later. The rains have raised the water levels of the rivers and caused more than 600 families to evacuate their homes. It closed a 60 km stretch of Highway 1 between Medicine Hat and the Alberta-Saskatchewan border.

Damage to homes and farmland is expected to be in the millions and six communities have been declared disaster areas. The extend of the damage will only become known once the rain waters recede.

Fortunately, Heights Baptist, the Canadian Baptist church in the area, is, as its name implies, on high ground. ”We’ve not been affected at all and haven’t had any calls from members of the church or the community for help,” said Art Hildebrand, the senior pastor at Heights.

The intense rains in the semi-desert area around Medicine Hat are highly unusual. Medicine Hat is the sunniest city in Canada with weather that is usually very hot and dry.

Alberta News

On March 16, Ed Stelmach, Premier of Alberta, announced $12 million in funding for the Mustard Seed Society to develop 112 housing units for homeless men and women. The housing grants will provide new supportive housing initiatives in Calgary and Edmonton, as well as expanded facilities at The Mustard Seed’s Mountain Aire Lodge near Sundre, Alberta.

“The Mustard Seed is privileged to have been selected to partner with the province to provide lasting, long-term support and housing for women and men across Alberta,” said The Mustard Seed Edmonton Executive Director, Sam Breakey.

Read more after the link, or go to www.theseed.ca or www.mustard.ab.ca to find out more.

Alberta News

When Maureen Chelemu left a good job in Zambia to become a missionary to Canada, she had no idea where her faith would lead her. While studying at a bible college in Regina, she was invited along on a mission trip to Brooks, Alberta. She slept for part of the journey and was awoken on the outskirts of town by a quiet voice that said “This is where I want you to be.”

Brooks Alberta, one of the fastest growing communities in Alberta, is known as the ‘City of 100 Hellos’ because of its unusually high multicultural diversity for a prairie town of 13,000 people. More than 75 languages are spoken here. Immigrants and refugees from around the world have been attracted by jobs in the meat processing plant and the oil and gas industry. It is a unique setting for Brooks International Gospel Church, one of the most dynamic church plants to affiliate with Canadian Baptists of Western Canada. We share their story of hardship and great promise as an encouragement that God is doing amazing things in our midst through those who are serving him at great cost to themselves. This serves as an example of what Canadian Baptists are about.

To read more about Maureen and Brooks International Gospel Church, click the link below.