Thank you for keeping us in your prayers. Thank you for your support each month. You are fondly remembered, whether we spent a short meeting with you or got to know you at your Missions Conference. We appreciate you all.
Here are some happenings since we last wrote. Late September, Pastor arranged a HELP (Help Encourage and Lift Pastors) trip to a nearby city of Orangeville, Ontario, for our friend Daniel Elliot, who pastors Calvary Baptist Church. After church on Sunday, we mobilized many members from our church, including some of our teenagers, and “blitzed” their city, passing thousands of flyers, house to house, for their Prophecy Conference. Praise God, some new families came to the meeting and are being followed up on with the Gospel.
Continuing the theme of “blitzing,” Pastor organized a youth activity where our youth, along with a few adult volunteers, passed out over 3,000 Gospel postcards in a few hours. They really pushed hard and hustled the entire time. The earthly reward for their effort was some amazing pizza, but eternal rewards, though unseen, are assured! Every postcard had a link to www.thejohn316story.com, which I highly recommend if you’re looking for an evangelistic outreach tool. I’m very pleased with the spirit of our youth group. Attendance to youth meetings is up, and their camaraderie is growing. We’ve also added a couple of new teenagers to the youth group as they’ve aged out of the junior department. Their young enthusiasm and joy are quite contagious! My wife and I took our teens to a corn maze near the end of October, and it was a blast to spend quality time with our teens and to encourage them in the Lord. Though we don’t like to admit it, the girls did beat us out of the maze!
Counseling classes are going well. It’s helping me in my own walk with God, which is a huge plus, but it’s opening my eyes to the need for Biblical counselors to help our crumbling society find the truth of God. I’ve recently started my counseling practicum, where I put my training to work. I think it’s going well, but I would ask that you pray for me as I try to help a brother in Christ who has struggles “such as are common to man.” I long to master this aspect of ministry, and I know it won’t come cheap in regard to time and energy. I want to help our teens, to help our community know the love of Christ, and to help my fellow believers grow in grace. The Lord put me on this track, and by His grace, I will go forward for whatever His purpose is. Pray that I’ll learn and grow in this matter. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge . . . .” (Hosea 4:6)
A disappointment has come that I’d like to ask our prayer partners to remember when they talk with the Lord. Sadly, Rudy and Ezzy have decided that they don’t want to come to church or have visits about the Gospel. Rudy is dealing with hurts that I can’t yet comprehend, which justifies his denying of all faiths, and while I will respect his desire for no more invites to church, he can’t stop me from praying for him and his mom! Will you join me in praying for their salvation? Though we are oft turned away when going door to door, there ARE people out there who are searching for hope. Sometimes they find us first, like a Turkish refugee family that has started coming recently. They speak no English, but they come almost every Sunday. Will you pray that we can help them get established? Two members of the household of four were led to the Lord recently by Pastor Johnston. Will you pray for Dilbah (teenager) and Suban (junior-aged) to be saved? Lord willing, we can help them with their English, help them navigate life in the West, and, most of all, help them grow in the Lord. “Brethren, pray for us.” (I Thessalonians 5:25)
Pressing toward the mark,
Brian Hebert
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- Corn Maze with the teens–the girls finished first!
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- Youth Activity – Corn Maze
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- Happy Birthday to me!