La Belle Province

As I write this (not to be confused with post this) I am sitting in Montreal at the home of Donald and Lorraine Gingras. They are the leaders of a ministry called "Heart Cry for Quebec Missions Centre" which seeks to make disciples in the province of Quebec, and more specifically the city of Montreal. A group of 10 of us from Bonavista Evangelical Missionary Church, my home church in Calgary, have just spent the past two weeks in this province serving the people here. It's been an interesting 14 days as we've seen God use us in so many different ways. We've traveled in mini-vans more hours than I care to remember, and eaten more than I normally would in a whole month, but it's been a true pleasure to be here, and to allow God to speak, encourage, act, serve, and love through us. I will share with you a couple of the highlites of this trip, and also the way God has been speaking to me personally about the people of Quebec.
The day after we arrived, we immideately left for Quebec city. This was just a short pit stop towards a more rural region 4 hours east of the city. Although the purpose of that long trip was originally unclear to me, it didn't take long to realize that God had a purpose for our being there. When I first felt led to go to Quebec with the church, I originally felt it was to encourage the people of this province as well as the church which seems to struggle due to a variety of spiritual reasons. God did not take long to confirm that purpose. What we encountered in Mont-Joli (a town in the rural region) was a church with many new believers that were struggling to find a sense of belonging, christian community, as well as facing serious spiritual warfare. Many people in the area, as well as in the whole of Quebec, come to know the Lord in a genuine reconciliation with God and then fall away from Him (or backslide if you prefer the term.) This is seen due to a variety of reasons and I listened to stories that included persecution, discouragement and spiritual attack from within the church, lack of community and discipleship etc. Though ultimately each person is responsible for their standing before God, these factors often make it easy for a new believer to become confused, blinded, and led astray. This type of thing was rampant in the region. As well, we witnessed a number of women coming to the Lord while their husbands were not yet believers. We had a chance to pray with our brothers and sisters there, eat with them, join their house church and eat with them. We also shared our testimonies and were welcomed into their homes. We heard from many of them the they were very encouraged, uplifted, and spiritually challenged by our visit. Interestingly, I know I felt the same way.
The following day, we headed back to Quebec City to stay with a family that we had met with on our pit stop two days prior. This time we had the oppurtunity to join them in a very special celebration. It was the 8 year anniversary of the death of their second daughter (whose testimony I will share on a latter blog.) It was an intense and emotional time for all of us, as Diane and Andre (the parents) shared the life story or their amazing 5 year old daughter. Many of the team members were deeply touched, and God used this little girl's life to begin breaking down walls in one of our team member's heart. It was both humbling and beautiful to be able to share in that moment as well as be able to pray together and encourage one another in the Lord. We were also able to help this family with some house work and again, though our purpose was to be a blessing to them, we also felt blessed to meet such wonderful brothers and sisters in the Lord there.
The following day we returned to Montreal where we have been ever since. Since Donald and Lorraine's ministry is based out of here, we were able to join with some of their contacts and strengthen some relationships they already had. We were also able to help establish new relationships in different communities where house churches are. We did this by practicing what Donald and Lorraine call 'Love in Action.' This means painting, cutting crass, roofing houses, etc. for people in various communities. It was incredible to see how amazed people were that we were helping them. It was then much easier to engage in conversation with people as we had established a positive relationship.
Though there is much much more I could tell you about my trip to Quebec, I will wrap this up. If you would like to know more, please ask me about it. After being in the province, and meeting the people there, fellowshiping with the church, and hearing about people's stories, I am convinced that Quebec needs much more prayer. The prayers of people, churches, and the nation will be the starting point for ministries there. It is also needed as spiritual warfare is very present and aparent in that province. Please pray for Quebec!