July 10-12, 2009

Friday morning, the 10th, another cool and windy day across the plains and on to the Canadian border. Just like two weeks before we stopped in Pembina, North Dakota before crossing and when we got out of the van to use the restrooms, the wind nearly took the van door off and the air felt cold. I guess that's the way it is most of the time. At least this time it was sunny.

It was a smooth crossing over the border...again and we had only a little over an hour to Winnipeg from there. We ministered at Church of the Living Hope, pastored by Fred Sebastian. He and his wife, Alice are Philippine and have led a largely Philippine-populated church for several years. As a matter of fact, the church name was changed from something with the name Philippine to the name it has today simply because it's Pastor Fred's desire to reach to all people in the city of Winnipeg and not just the Philistines...I mean the Philippines.

The concert was to start at seven o'clock so at six fifty we prayed as a family and asked the Lord to anoint us to minister to at least one. But at six fifty-five I whispered to the Lord, “Why are we here? This doesn't make sense. These people aren't going to like our music and look, Lord, there aren't very many here.” Pastor Fred approached us as we sat in the front pew waiting for the service to begin and asked if we could pray together (surprisingly, we don't have many pastors that request that) and then he told us that he'd get the service started around 7:30. Bobby and I looked at one another and wondered if we'd heard him correctly. Maybe Bobby had the wrong time recorded in his notes or maybe Pastor Fred just knows his people pretty well and knew they needed a little more time to get there. Sure enough by seven thirty we had a lot more people and we got things started with prayer and introductions. I have to tell you we have not had such an enthusiastic group of people in a long time. My favorite part of the evening was the three sweet elderly ladies in the second and third pews who, like teenagers, jumped to their feet and clapped when they heard a song they liked. Once again, God showed Himself faithful and gracious and we ended up having one of the better concerts on this tour thus far. Pastor Fred said that he wanted us to come back in a year so a few days later we recalled the evening in Winnipeg and I suggested to Bobby that the next time we go the children ought to sing a song in the Philippine language. I think Church of the Living Hope might appreciate that.

Pastor Fred put us in CanadInn which is one of Canada's nicest chains. Kids are so funny. Landis went with Bobby to check in and he came back out exclaiming, “They where ties here!” Unfortunately we didn't have time for the water slide but we had a beautiful room with modern décor and a view of the pool and restaurant below.

We had a concert scheduled for Saturday evening but it had canceled and so Bobby contacted someone from Winkler Mennonite Church and asked if, since we were in the area and planned on visiting their church on Sunday morning, could we sing a couple of songs and make our CDs available for sale. The response was positive. The bad news was that we had to pay for a hotel room and little was available in nearby Morden since there was a triathlon competition in town over the weekend. We went to the Super 8 and all that was a available was a large suite. The good news it was HUGE and consisted of sleeping space for everyone, a large eat-in kitchen and jacuzzi. The bad news was it cost way more than Bobby had planned on paying. But...we gotta end this with good news...the good news was we made more than that money back from CD sales the following morning.

Winkler Mennonite is a beautiful church with a large congregation and it's only one of at least three others in that denomination in town. The style of worship and preaching there reminded me a lot of that of Locust Grove Mennonite Church near my home growing up in Burr Oak, Michigan. After church, a gentleman by the name of Dan invited us over for lunch. We gave him a lift to his home since his wife had already gone home to prepare the meal. Dan, his wife and their three handsome sons welcomed us into their home for a delicious lunch. I'm so embarrased that I can't remember Mrs. Dan's name (that's what happens when you blog two weeks after the fact) but she told me that during the preaching that morning the Lord spoke to her and told her she needed to fix us lunch. Since the pastor was preaching about obedience being better than sacrifice, she heeded the calling of the Lord and then wondered, "What will I fix? I don't think I even have enough chicken in the freezer." She left the church as soon as they were dismissed and rushed home to find plenty of chicken in the freezer which she quickly thawed and grilled. Dan said later, "I'll bet there wouldn't have been as much chicken in the freezer had she not been obedient." We were very appreciative for the good food and then moved westward back to Brandon where we had been 2 weeks prior.

Sunday evening we ministered at Bethel Christian Assembly in Brandon, Manitoba and I'm going to make a confession. Before the church service, I was feeling dry and empty. Had I not been worried about messing up my makeup I would have been sobbing. I did have to blink back the tears as I told the Lord that I needed Him to speak through me like never before. I never want a service to be wasted. I always want to serve to the best of my ability and for His anointing to be heavy upon me. But that night I felt like I could do absolutely nothing worthwhile and surely anything good that would be done would be because of Him. I just felt empty.

I went in to the sanctuary with a smile and sat with the kids on the front pew. We were having a good time in music ministry and then Associate Pastor Les, stood to receive the offering. This is when God showed me His faithfulness yet again. Pastor Les told the congregation that he had already made his check out for the offering that evening but before he left his house to come to church the Spirit of the Lord spoke to his heart and said, "This family is worthy of a double portion." So he tore the check that he'd already written and wrote a new one, this time doubling the amount. Can I just say, "God is SO good!" You know, I really didn't care how much Pastor Les was giving in the offering. What got me was when I heard that God told someone else, a perfect stranger, that He will see to it that our every need is met, that as our Heavenly Father He looks at us with admiration and He sees us as righteous through the precious blood of His Son Jesus. This simply broke my heart and I nearly had a breakdown during the offering appeal.