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.

Alberta News

March 31, 2010 Posted with the permission of the Edmonton Journal

By Liane Faulder. Photos by Walter Tychnowicz

Church food, for some, means coleslaw and tuna sandwiches. Possibly date squares, on a really good day.Not so at Laurier Heights Baptist Church, Edmonton where a foodie minister named Steve Simala-Grant and his able team of kitchen-savvy congregants (including Red Seal Chef Darryl Attwell) turn church basement meals into something memorable.

Read more after the link.

Alberta News

“These are exciting times and I’m just so grateful for what God has being doing,” says Jeff Dyer, who became the new Chief Operating Officer of the Mustard Seed Society on February 1. As COO, Jeff says he is living “a dream come true,” because he gets to work with an inspirational leader, Pat Nixon, and a top-notch executive team to establish the Mustard Seed Society’s overall direction as it continues on its journey from its early days as a church and food bank towards becoming a core part of Alberta’s plan to end homelessness in the next 10 years.

Jeff announced in the fall that he would step down as the Executive Director at Gull Lake Centre sometime in the spring. Involved at GLC since childhood, working there for 13 years and the last 6 as Executive Director, leaving the Centre wasn’t easy, but it came at the right time for both Jeff and the Centre.

Alberta News

Always on the lookout for interesting ministry ideas, this month we thought Jack Knight’s project to publish a hockey New Testament would be encouraging.

Jack Knight, pastor of High River Baptist Church in Alberta for the past 8 years, has been around hockey rinks all his life, getting to know the players, coaches and scouts. He has always believed that God is meant to be, as he says, “in the arena.” On top of that, his son Corban has been drafted to the NHL by the Florida Panthers. It makes sense that his interest in hockey would combine with his commitment to preaching the gospel: Jack and a team of hockey enthusiasts have put together a Hockey New Testament that will be published soon by the Canadian Bible Society.