Supporting SKMB Churches and Camps in Making Disciples Saskatchewan Conference of MB Churches April 10, 2019 “On Mission Together” Saskatoon Office Call or text: 306-533-6191 Email: [email protected]600 45th Street West, Saskatoon SK, S7L 5W9 Website & Communique Administrator - Heather Filazek Email: offi[email protected]Regina Office Director of Ministry Rev. Philip A. Gunther Call or text: 306-533-6191 Email: [email protected]1639 Wingert Drive North, Regina SK, S4X4P9 Director’s Calendar April 10 -13 — Montreal 21 — Grace Community Church 28 — Grace Community Church May 5 — Winnipeg (NFL Summit) 6 - 9 — Horizon C&S 12 — Glenbush 15-17 — Pastors Credentialing Orientation (Winnipeg) 19 — Grace Fellowship (Warman) Carmel Pentecostal Church 26 — Northwest Community Church, Meadow Lake Please pray for traveling mercies. E xploring W isdom Wisdom is the ability to avoid life’s pitfalls and reap life’s blessings Watch for our DM’s Wednesday Facebook videos on exploring wisdom @skmennonitebrethren On July 5 - 7, we are celebrating our 75th anniversary. I would love to invite you to come and celebrate with us all the great things God has done over our 75 years of camp ministry. Friday July 5, there will be a supper and camp fire along with a time to connect with people and share stories about the camp. On Saturday July 6, people can enjoy skills, games, challenges, inflatables, and many other activities. Saturday evening, there will be a concert by Double Portion. On Sunday July 7, we will host a brunch and worship service. If you need lodging, we have some limited options. If you would like more information or to register, please lists our website: www.westbankbiblecamp.com. CONNECTING FOR MINISTRY EFFECTIVENESS… On April 16th the West Bank Bible Camp director, Redberry Bible Camp director and the the SKMB Director of Ministry will meet to foster ministry effectiveness and partnership.
Transcript
Supporting SKMB Churches and Camps in Making Disciples
Exploring WisdomWisdom is the ability to avoid life’s pitfalls and reap life’s blessings
Watch for our DM’s Wednesday Facebook videos on exploring wisdom @skmennonitebrethren
On July 5 - 7, we are celebrating our 75th anniversary. I would love to invite you to come and celebrate with us all the great things God has done over our 75 years of camp ministry. Friday
July 5, there will be a supper and camp fire along with a time to connect with people and share stories about the camp. On Saturday July 6, people can enjoy skills, games, challenges, inflatables, and many other activities. Saturday evening, there will be a concert by Double Portion. On Sunday July 7, we will host a brunch and worship service. If you need lodging, we have some limited options. If you would like more i n f o r m a t i o n o r t o r e g i s t e r, p l e a s e l i s t s o u r w e b s i t e : www.westbankbiblecamp.com.
CONNECTING FOR MINISTRY EFFECTIVENESS… On April 16th the West Bank Bible Camp director, Redberry Bible Camp director and the the SKMB Director of Ministry will meet to foster ministry effectiveness and partnership.
On The Path Of ReconciliationParliament Community Church (Regina) hosted a workshop on
First Nations people and the Truth & Reconciliation Commission (TRC) recommendations. Eileen Klassen-Hamm (Executive Director of MCC Saskatchewan) and Nick Helliwell (Pastor, Healing Hearts Ministry) facilitated the event. When asked why participants would attend such a gathering, one person stated, “As residents of this province, reconciliation with the First People’s of Saskatchewan is one of the most important moral and spiritual needs for the church to address in our time.”
In 1876, the Indian Act was created to regulate the First Nation’s people. The goal was to assimilate First Nation’s people into European-Canadian culture and life through residential schools with a specific outcome – “To kill the Indian in the child.” The 2015 TRC
report was introduced as a public and formal mechanism of reconciliation between the First Nations community of Canada and the wider nation of Canada. “It is a ‘re-storying’ of what it means to be Canadian,” stated Klassen-Hamm. The TRC arises out stories from 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children who experienced 130 years of great brokenness and suffering because of government mandated residential schools. The TRC contains 94 calls to action and included the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement.
The TRC report has specific calls to action for churches. The church should be a setting where the truth is told about our relationship with Canada’s First Nation people as well as a place to build new relationships the indigenous people. A letter from Anabaptist churches, including the Mennonite Brethren, was shared at the TRC event in Edmonton admitting racism, paternalism and a failure to be the voice of justice for First Nation’s people. As followers of Christ, we must face the truth of our past with First Nation’s people, repent where we have caused hurt in any form, be open to healing from our blindness and seek reconciliation.
Helliwell opened his session by stating that, in his experience, the Mennonite Brethren have been on a journey of reconciliation with First Nation’s people for some 20 years already. Helliwell argued that God is far more interested in reconciliation than we are. The Gospel is a testament of God’s divine work of reconciliation. Helliwell discussed questions like, How can we involve ourselves in First Nation’s culture without compromising the Gospel? How can we give witness to the Gospel without making the mistakes of the past? When we wish to share the Gospel with First Nations people, we must enter into relationship with the whole person and ask questions about their whole life.
Faithful Servants @ Hafford Gospel FellowshipConrad & Lynne Hunchak completed just over 24 years of ministry at the
Hafford Gospel Fellowship. Conrad is an evangelist at heart and gives testimony of many people coming to faith in his ministry. They both give God the glory. Sunday March 31 was their last day of vocational ministry and witnessed him preach his last sermon at the church encouraging the congregation to Press on for Jesus from Philippians 3:12-14. In the afternoon a special retirement celebration was held in their honour. Phil Gunther shared that only God knows how many lives have been and will yet be forever changed because of their selfless and faithful service for King Jesus. Indeed, to God be the glory!
