By means of the Giving Tree at Hope Fellowship, sometimes referred to as the Angel Tree, our church deacons asked one hundred people to sign up and prepare a gift for a struggling individual or family in the community.
Today Nelson Mandela is being laid to rest in Qunu, a small village near his family’s property. The funeral is expected to be one of the largest in modern times. In his tribute at Tuesday’s Memorial service, President Obama compared Mandela to Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., calling him “the last great liberator of the 20th century.”
Michael Broersma, our Worship Zone Co-ordinator, has been after me for a couple of years about coming out and watching one of the church league hockey games. “Tell me when Hope Fellowship is playing Zion CRC,” I said. “This Saturday night,” he told me last week. So off I went
A person is innocent until proven guilty. That means that many of the charges levelled at Mayor Rob Ford are only allegations until they’re proven in court. A charge is no longer an allegation, however, when someone actually admits that the accusation is true.
Christina Reid, a new Christian who was baptized at Hope Fellowship Church last year, is actively raising money for her eleven month missions tour to eleven different countries. One of her “World Race” fundraising events is a concert by pop recording artist, Mzz Sarah G. Opening the concert will be Lydia Van Dyk, an amazing vocalist whose pure and powerful voice is well known to us because of her years of participation on various praise teams
Deanna knew that she wanted to start a community event for a charity. Her friend, Kimberly, had a passion for Africa, a place she visited and served on her honeymoon with husband, Jeff. “I went there to change lives,” Kim said. “Instead, I was changed.” Together with their friend, Katie, they started planning an event that would raise money for new moms and children in a developing country.
Journey to Bethlehem Do you ever feel like you're on a treadmill when it comes to Christmas...running fast but going nowhere? The tree, the decorating, the gifts, the shopping, the cooking, the wrapping, the parties, the dinners, the concerts, the movies – the stress, it all goes by so fast, all taking the joy out of a time of year we used to look forward to! This year, let's take some time to take a breath, to make some space.
Last Sunday night’s regional youth service at Hope Fellowship drew about ninety young people from area Christian Reformed churches. They wolfed down hamburgers, hotdogs and casseroles and, after the service, went home with ice cream sandwiches.
As you read this, Chris and Krista Ritskes are on their way back from a demanding but rewarding week in El Salvador where they worked with Speroway (“spero” is Latin for “hope”), a charitable organization dedicated to helping needy children around the world
A number of years ago I heard a medical practitioner tell a class that our two strongest appetites are for food and for sex. I have often thought about her observation and concluded that she was right for obvious reasons: food keeps humans alive; sex keeps the human race alive. Therefore, if we find ourselves thinking about food and about sex, we can blame God.
“The ones who are crazy enough to change the world are usually the ones that do.” Some might think it is crazy to sell all your possessions, pack up a bag and head out for an 11 month, 11 country journey to live and volunteer in some of the saddest slums the world has to offer. But if you were asked by God, would you? A young lady by the name of Christina Reid, a member of Hope Fellowship, has decided to do just that.
It’s that time of year when our boys club, now known as Cadets, has begun collecting coats for kids and there’s a growing pile of winter coats in the church offices. Our high school youth group, and our Advanced Cadets and GEMS 2.0 (Grades 7 and 8), are getting set to spend Halloween going door to door collecting food for several food banks, including the Zion/Hope Foodbank. These efforts have always been welcomed by the community. Once again, hundreds of needy adults and children will be helped.
Have you found your place yet at Hope Fellowship Church? Do you feel connected? Are you getting to know at least a few people so that your sense of belonging is growing, even though there are so many that you haven’t met and don’t know? A recent sociological study about “Religion, Social Networks and Life Satisfaction” discovered that people who go to church regularly and have three to five close friends in the congregation tend to be “extremely satisfied” with their lives.
A few years ago I began hearing rumours of a big motorcycle ride modeled after the Sea to Sea bicycle tour. That rumour has become a reality. Sea to Sea has inspired the birth of a big, loud baby, a transcontinental motorcycle tour called “Shore to Shore With a Roar”
Normally, a fire at a church is not a good news item. But then Hope Fellowship is anything but a “normal” church and the fire I am reporting is cause for joy
Whenever “one of our own” becomes a pastor, a congregation has great reason to celebrate. This week, that’s what happened when Classis Quinte, our regional gathering of nineteen Christian Reformed churches between Ajax and Kingston, examined and endorsed “our own” Allan Kirkpatrick as the new pastor of Grace CRC in Cobourg.
I remember an old commercial featuring a mechanic selling Fram oil filters. He advised people to regularly go to their garage for an oil and filter job, preferably using the brand that he was promoting. His closing line was, “You can pay me now, or pay me later.” My former mechanic in St. Catharines told me about a car with less than fifty thousand kilometres on it that needed a new motor. Why? Since purchasing the car new, the customer had never brought his car into the dealership for an oil change. Marriages are much more valuable than cars.
One of the best things about working at Hope Fellowship in the office is that I am often witness to acts of service that most people don’t have an opportunity to see. I had one of those experiences this week
When we bought our home on Daiseyfield Avenue in Courtice, we were warned that the forest behind our property would give way to development in the future. Three weeks ago, the big equipment arrived and decimated a large area designated Phase I. We watched in disbelief as bunches of trees were bundled onto a conveyor belt and turned into mountains of mulch.
Welcome to our annual Week of Prayer and Fasting In New Testament times, Barnabas and Saul made a point of praying and fasting before they embarked on their mission trip (Acts 13:3). Taking their example, for the next five evenings, starting at 7 pm, we will come together at Hope Fellowship for an hour of prayer to seek God’s blessing and help before we take on the challenges of another church year.
Last fall Pastor Peter wrote about the benefits of getting involved in church life. He said: “In my experience, people who are involved in their church are more gracious about its imperfections than those who are not involved. Spectators tend to be armchair referees; participants, on the other hand, tend to work things through until goals are met or things improve.
The cyclists have finished! Those, who like our own cyclists Joan, Alice and Stan, rode the entire route have now cycled from Los Angeles to New York—a total of 6,178.272 km.
“Canadians Rock!” is what Stan heard from one of his American tour friends. On Tuesday we had a huge party here at Hope Fellowship. Joan, Alice, Stan and Bernice were excited to welcome all their Sea to Sea Cycling to End Poverty tour mates to their “home”.
Last Sunday the cyclists were in Grand Rapids, MI, where the American Christian Reformed Church of America headquarters are located. There was a grand celebration at Calvin College. The cyclists all cycled to the service together and then paraded their bikes around the auditorium before settling into a celebration service. Are you sorry you missed it?
Last weekend, on Saturday, July 27, Alice was stunned by a surprise visit from her sister Jeni and her friend Tom, as well as her niece and nephew, Mandi and Jesse. After working a full day on Friday, they drove thirteen hours from Bowmanville and arrived in Iowa City at 8 a.m. where they stood along the side of the road with a sign that said, “We Love You, Ali.”
On Monday night, the Sea to Sea cyclists’ sleep was interrupted every two hours by passing trains. On Tuesday morning, a powerful storm delayed the start of the day’s ride. On Wednesday, the tour reached the halfway point of the ride. This weekend they’re in Iowa, resting for Week 6 which will end in Grand Rapids, Michigan where a huge Sunday night rally will take place in Calvin College’s Van Noord Arena.
Quick Facts About the 2013 Tour - Expected to be the largest cross-continental bike tour ever. - Begins June 21, 2013, in Los Angeles - Ends nine weeks later in New York City - Stops include Phoenix, Rehoboth, Colorado Springs, Pella, Chicago, Grand Rapids, and Toronto. - 3,900 total miles
This week we received some serious news about Pastor Jake, 63, the pastor of Ebenezer CRC in Trenton who is one of the Sea to Sea cyclists hoping to go the full distance from Los Angeles to New York. According to his co-pastor, Nathan, he is doing okay after some very frightening days
Bernice, a SAG (support and gear) wagon driver on the current Sea to Sea Bicycle Tour, provided us with some insight into her daily responsibilities. “Let me give you a quick idea of what things are like. We get up super-early, 5:00 am; the cyclists like to be on the road by about 6:00 or 6:30 to beat the heat of the day.
We are excited to introduce the Cadet program to Hope Fellowship. Cadets is one of three ministries that comprise Dynamic Youth Ministries—GEMS, Cadets and Youth Unlimited. Designed for boys, the Cadet program parallels the highly successful GEMS program offered to the girls of Hope Fellowship
The forced suspension of the Sea to Sea bicycle tour last week due to the extreme heat proved to be a blessing in disguise. Stan explained, “It gave everyone a chance to regroup. We had been under daily pressure to get out earlier and earlier to beat the afternoon heat, leaving us no time to take in the sights or enjoy a coffee. That feeling is gone now, thanks to three nights in one place.”
Within one day of setting out, the Sea to Sea Bicycle Tour had to say goodbye to two of its cyclists. On Monday, Mark, from Kokoma, Indiana, broke his tibula and fibula bones just above the ankle after an accident while riding his incumbent bike. He stayed behind in California for surgery to insert a rod. His wife, Susan, also cycling, decided to stay behind with her husband. Imagine their disappointment!
It seems that there's been a relentless string of hardship in so many people's lives that we care about. In my darkest days, during Lorraine's last week, I argued with God, as did a whole community of people, about why he would allow this to happen. My faith was truly tested again. I ended up expressing my feelings in a poem that I wrote over the course of a week, a process that proved to be very therapeutic. - Don
Several years ago Purolator came up with a plan to host a “Tackle Hunger Week” across Canada. Each Purolator station was given the challenge to raise funds and collect food. In 2007 the Pickering station collected 100 lbs of canned food and $116.00 but were unsure what to do with it.
Last week, in one of his daily coaching videos, John Maxwell spoke about the word “culture”. “The culture is the most important part of any organization,” he taught. “It’s who you are. It’s your behaviours. It’s the symbols that you have of your organization. It’s the underlying message.
In the early years of Toronto’s Institute for Christian Studies, their professors would present theological and philosophical lectures in supporting churches. When one of these professors came to Willowdale Christian Reformed Church, my Mom decided to go and hear what he had to say. I went too. The professor spoke for an hour. After his talk, Mom turned to me and said, "Why did he make something so simple into something so complicated? I could have said what he said in five minutes."
The annual Synod of the Christian Reformed Church began its one week meeting in Grand Rapids this weekend. Two hundred delegates from every American state and Canadian province will spend hours together in committee work and public plenary sessions, approving the work and budgets of our denomination’s agencies.
The Canadian Council of Churches met in Ottawa last week. During our two days of meetings, Marja and I went for a walk alongside the Rideau Canal. On the way we saw many beds of tulips. Some were done, their petals dry and scattered on the ground. Others were still in full bloom
As many of you know, the past 6 months at Hope have included a process whereby the leadership has wrestled with how we discern “The Next Chapter” in the Journey of Hope Fellowship.
As we watched the terrible tragedy of Tim Bosma's death unfold, Heidi DeJong, Pastor of Westside Fellowship CRC in Kingston had an idea. “A lot of us wish we could be with our brothers and sisters in Ancaster this Sunday,” she wrote. “We are inviting you all to...set aside a moment of solidarity in your services this Sunday. They will be singing ‘In Christ Alone’ at Ancaster CRC. And so will we.
With exactly one month to go before our three intrepid Sea to Sea cyclists fly to Los Angeles to begin their cross-continental ride, Stan, Alice and Joan have met their fund raising goals. Months of grooving, yoga-ing, New Year’s Eve dancing, chocolate almonds selling, letter writing, standing outside stores begging, and all manner of promoting netted them the required $10,000 dollars each ($30,000 total) that all Sea to Sea cyclists are required to raise to help end the cycle of poverty.
Here I sit at our old harvest pine table enjoying left over chicken on toasted rye bread while listening to an old recording of Steve Bell. Am I telling you this because of my exceptional multi-tasking skills? No I’m not, because, if truth be told, I’m not very good at multi-tasking. However I am writing today to share with you that Steve Bell will be performing in the auditorium at Hope Fellowship Church in Courtice, Ontario on October 5th, 2013
This poem is a reflection of things I've been learning lately about the nature of God and his creation. I know that there are lessons to be learned in the 'valleys' of my life. I know that I’ll come through them with a greater understanding of pain, I’ll be more compassionate and empathetic toward those who suffer constantly. And I’ll have more patience for people who can’t move quickly because of the state of their health. I’ll also be better equipped to relate to shut ins and people who choose to be socially isolated.
The Value at the Checkout Line I was really moved by the story of Johnny, the checkout boy who would put his “ Thought of the Day ” in each of his customer’s grocery bags. It made me remember a recent event of my own. It was Friday afternoon and I had just finished work, had a terrible headache and just wanted to get home. The last thing I wanted to do was grocery shop but I absolutely needed a few crucial items for dinner.
This was the long anticipated week when the Courageous Proposals events were held. On Tuesday night, at least forty people showed up to give their input on the three goals – Believe, Belong, Bless – that the leadership has adopted for our church. Another forty plus, including our high-school students, gathered on Wednesday night, with still more to come on Saturday morning. “Dreaming events”, the planning committee called them. Man, did we dream.
“Silence is golden” The truth of this statement was proved when we gathered at Sharon's cottage for a silent retreat, April 6. For some of us, it was an eagerly anticipated event; for others, the thought of an entire day spent in silence was daunting.
As many of you know, my brother Harry has terminal cancer. After this was discovered some weeks ago, I had an idea that I hoped would encourage my brother.
Hemorrhaging Faith - Part 2 The previous issue of The Sun introduced an extensive study on the reasons for the significant exodus from the church by young people and young adults. While this problem isn't new, what has changed is that the primary age of “dropping out” has moved into the high school years, with the university and college years coming a close second.
“But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God” Psalm 146:5. These words, written in Creole, were the first words I saw entering the Mission of Hope compound, my home for the next seven days. Reading this, I assumed it was appropriate for the mission, but quickly realized how abundantly the nation of Haiti lives this passage to its fullest.
How many Hope Fellowship folks own a green shirt because they have volunteered with World Renew’s Disaster Response Services? I put this question to Marie, the regional DRS rep, and Heidi, our Service and Outreach Zone Co-ordinator, and was wowed by the answer.
Hemorrhaging Faith - Part 1 At Hope Fellowship we are blessed to have many teens and young adults as active and regular participants in church life. I’m excited about and grateful for that! I love hearing young people say “we’ve got a great church!” That being said, it is likely that you are aware of the fact that within Christian churches throughout Canada teens and young adults are dropping out of church life at a very significant rate.
Last year, Friendship Ministries , a ministry designed to make people with intellectual disabilities feel included in church, became an associate member of the Canadian Council of Churches. I attended the May meeting in Ottawa where this decision was made and had the opportunity to meet and chat with Nella Uitvlugt from Grand Rapids, Michigan, who was the Executive Director of this wonderful organization.
Often at Christmas time we talk about Easter. We celebrate the birth of Jesus with the shadow of the cross in the background. And then when we get to Easter, we look back at Christmas. So the manger has the shadow of the cross, and we remember Jesus’ birth at the same time we commemorate his death and celebrate his victory over death. Look for that in our services today and again on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Holy smoke! We have a new pope. Sorry, I couldn't resist. White smoke produced by a mixture of potassium chlorate, lactose, and pine resin is a strange, yet charmingly primitive way to announce “Habemus Papem” to the world.
Bob the Tomato, Larry the Cucumber, Junior Asparagus and a cast of other vegetables made an appearance at Hope Fellowship during Spring Break. It happened when Big Idea Productions latest Veggie Tales movie, The Little House That Stood, held its premier on our auditorium screens on Wednesday morning, March 13, at 10 a.m.
Testimonies about God’s work in our lives are often in our Sunday services. On Wednesday night, they were heard in the Youth Room and in the Prayer Room.
Church consultant Jack Tacoma began last week’s Discovery Weekend by reassuring the twenty-five leaders that Hope Fellowship was a very healthy church. Maurice, one of our pastoral elders, immediately quipped, “So why are we here?” Why, indeed?
“I invite you to try Listening Prayer,” Jack Tacoma, the ministry specialist who guided last week’s leadership retreat, told us. “Be still for ten minutes. Then tell each other what you saw and heard as you listened for God’s will.” Our group of seven had been told to focus on “Belonging” while the other two groups focused on “Believing” and “Blessing.”
When you have young people who want to come to church in order to practice for a youth service, you know that something good is happening. That’s the case right now for the group of ten teens that worked hours on perfecting the drama they are performing for us today.
Steve Bell, a Winnipeg based singer-songwriter and recipient of two Junos and the 2012 Queen Elizabeth ll Diamond Jubilee Medal, has been booked to perform at Hope Fellowship later this year on Saturday, October 5.
As of now, there are twenty-one office bearers and zone coordinators who will be attending the Discovery Weekend from Friday evening, Feb. 22 to Saturday evening Feb. 23.
Despite recurring bouts of malaria, a scorpion under her pillow and evenings where the only entertainment was watching geckos catch spiders on their ceiling, Marian Vandermeer still treasures the missionary life that she lived serving God in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The forty guests who stayed for lunch with the Vandermeer family last Sunday heard these, and other stories, as they contrasted their life in Africa as technical support staff for Wycliffe Bible translators with life in North America.
Whenever you plan an event or start a process, it is very important to think about the desired outcome. Take the first Sea to Sea Bicycle Tour in 2005, for example. When we organized it we hoped that it would do three things: give the Christian Reformed Churches a really cool way to celebrate one hundred years of God’s faithfulness in Canada; raise a million dollars to plant new congregations and start new ministries in the next one hundred years; and also raise awareness about an initiative called “Make Poverty History.” The tour accomplished those three goals, and exceeded our desired outcome as some cyclists changed their career paths and others actually met their marriage partners!
Change for Change GEMS (Girls Everywhere Meeting the Saviour) is our club and life group for girls in grades 3-6. It’s something I’m so honoured to be a part of, especially when it has come to our Change for Change fundraiser.
RAD! A cool name for a hip Junior High youth group (It means Reaching and Discipling). Matt, Kathryn, Rebecca, Craig and part-time leaders Jason, and Larry - a team of awesome leaders for whom we’re very grateful.
The “same old, same old” is never a good thing. Not in business. Not in relationships. And not in churches either. It’s important to keep things vibrant, fresh, and exciting. That’s why manufacturers put out products that are “new and improved.” That’s why happily married couples go on dates and intentionally explore novel ideas in the kitchen and in the bedroom. That’s why healthy churches always keep their eyes and ears open to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
It is often said that small groups are the key to feeling connected in a large church. That’s why we urge everyone at Hope Fellowship to belong to a small group.
On December 5, 2005, with a $10,000 loan approved by our church’s Administrative Board, we purchased an inventory of gift cards to start the Hope Fellowship Fundraiser. That loan was paid off in less than 2 ½ years, and since then we have paid $21,000 towards our mortgage.
Five persons just completed the Fall session of the New Members Class and shared their testimonies with the pastoral elders. We enjoyed a terrific small group experience together while getting to know each other better and sharing our spiritual journeys. Spending eight weeks together talking about faith related matters made us feel more connected to each other, to our church and to God.
Whenever we go on a vacation or a trip, I am usually the one who asks for the lightest, smallest or most compact things to take along. “Will it fit in the car? How much do we REALLY need to take along?” On Tuesday, December 18, the elders, deacons and zone coordinators met with Jack Tacoma, Leader - Regional Resource Team, Christian Reformed Home Missions, to be introduced to what we are calling, at least for now, Journey Of Hope: The Next Chapter.
It’s always nice to have quieter days, especially during “giving” season as we have lots of donations to put away and organize for when it is needed. When Nancy came in, we were excited to see her! She had been on the prayer chain.