Saturday, March 8, 2008

You finally were the one to go Selma.

For my eight years as pastor Selma Ferris has responded to every death in the church with "I should have been the one to go!". Last week she finally went home to be with her Lord. This was the deepest longing of her heart. She loved her family, her friends and her church. She diligently used the time He gave her on this earth to labor in prayer and witness for him. When she would ask "Why didn't He take me instead?" We all knew the reason.

WHBC has lost a great prayer warrior. It has also lost an example of how to live the Christian life. Selma was saved in her forties through the wordless book. Her Bible was underlined, circled, dated with the dates of classes and messages, and most of all well read. She "encouraged" her children and grandchildren in their devotions, and that encouragement was fortified by positive and negative consequences. She was burdened for the lost of the whole world and over her sixty years of earthly service to the Lord she prayed for scores of missionaries and laboured to see her family make professions of faith. She was a hard worker despite not being in good health for much of middle age. She hated to be idle and was often crocheting, praying or reading her Bible.

Some have called her a giant, and in many ways she was. But the Bible never speaks well of giants, their accomplishments are credited to their strength. Selma would never want to take the credit, she would want it to go to her Lord, and so it does.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Bible Reading Updates

In the future I will try and update the reading schedule on Saturday nights.

Monday, January 28, 2008

WHBC's Got Talent!




If you missed the talent night you missed some great fun. Jerry Burns and Mark Frost MC'd with a steady patter of one liners and funny stories. Musical numbers were mixed in with comedy and a poetry reading to make for a very enjoyable time. We even had a juggler!

After the talent dessert seemed like an anti-climax (and you know how well I like cherry pie and ginger cookies :)

I am looking forward to seeing this on the schedule again, and seeing more of the hidden talents in our church family, and hopefully we will see some of that talent used in ministry during the coming year.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Why I am sold on Sunday Afternoon Visitation

We have had a Sunday afternoon visitation in each of the past three months. In each of those months the Lord has done something as a result.

The first visitation resuted in a fair contact starting to attend the church.

The second visitation resulted in a man asking the Lord to save him, and has been attending since.

Yesterday in the evening service a man was lead to the Lord during the service. Now this man's profession was not directly related to visitation, as the previous two events were, but I believe that the Lord will reward WHBC for our efforts to reach out with the gospel. Even if we do not see direct results from visitation ministries I believe strongly the Lord will give us "souls for our hire".

I want to thank all those who have gone out to visit, even in the cold and snow, and encourage others to make plans to be there next month on the third Sunday!