The churches are lot quieter today as well!  The More Than Gold volunteers are back at their jobs or in school.  The Fusion teams are not planning for an afternoon carnival. Athletes in Action are taking a brief break from organizing neighbourhood athletic youth camps.  The large screen TVs in church gyms are being dismantled.  Bibles, brochures, DVDs, and pins are being packed away (at least until the beginning of the 2010 Paralympic Games).

The members of the Metropolitan Vancouver churches that participated in the Olympic outreach efforts are to be commended. The Christians who traveled to Vancouver so that they might share Christ’s love through words and deeds are to be applauded.  The fruit of their efforts, in terms of conversion growth, may never be measured in this world, but one cannot help but think that heaven is going to be that much more populated because of the “seeds” planted at the Vancouver 2010 games by these devoted disciples.

We hope you have benefited from reading the daily posts of this blog.  We have attempted to provide you with a snapshot into the outreach efforts of three Lutheran congregations in Metropolitan Vancouver.  We thank the members of these congregations for their efforts.  We know the Lord will bless the sowing of His Word!

St. Paul writes, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.  Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:8-9)

Our brothers and sisters in Christ in the Metropolitan Vancouver Area have provided us with an example worth imitating!  Our prayer is that all of you will imitate them!  We pray you will use your God-given resources — as individuals and as congregations — to share the love of Christ through your words and deeds. May you think first and foremost of those people in your community who do not yet believe in Christ as their Saviour and seek ways to dwell among them for the sake of sharing God’s gospel.  May you not only proclaim to your community, “come and see” but, with renewed vigor and boldness, may you “go and tell” the Good News of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension in your homes, schools, neighbourhoods, workplaces, hockey rinks, playing fields, coffee shops, and malls.

May the Holy Spirit empower you through His Gospel to be alive … to be Christ’s witness in word and deed … throughout 2010 and beyond!!!

As Don sat in his office, he sensed someone was outside his door. He opened his door to find a man wandering the hallway. This man was looking for the pastor. Don explained the pastor wasn’t in, but that he (Don) was a full-time worker at Trinity.

The man asked, “What is Lutheranism’s relationship to the rest of Christianity?” After taking a few moments to answer the man’s question Don went on to present how Lutherans recognize that all people have sinned and cannot, in any way, rescue themselves from their sin. Don also shared how God loved every person in the world so much that He sent His only begotten into the world to suffer and die on Calvary’s cross thereby rescuing all people from the curse of sin and death.  Don said, “Everyone who trusts in Christ as their Saviour receives God’s forgiveness and the certain hope of life everlasting in heaven.”

This man listened with interest and admitted that he did not have a church home but would like to find one. Don told him more about Trinity and Trinity’s worship times and encouraged the man to bring his family. The man expressed interest in having his children baptized. Before he left, the man had given Don his name and phone number.

Just when you think the work is all over, you discover that it’s not over! Reflecting on his opportunity to share the Gospel, Don said, “If this was all that our Olympic outreach achieved…I call it a smashing success!”

Please pray that this man and his family will return to Trinity (or some other Christian church) to learn more about God as their Creator and Christ as their Saviour!

This large screen viewing of Canada’s victorious hockey game was a great way for members of Trinity to connect with neighbours!  God-willing, these relationships will be nurtured in weeks and months to come and these neighbours will come to Trinity to worship Christ our Saviour!

Three girls from Fusion went throughout the neighborhood and put up posters and handed out leaflets to the evening concert by Laurell Hubick. These young ladies chalked the sidewalks and the steps for advertising.  They did a great job!

Throughout the two weeks, Bethlehem invited the community to watch the Olympics on the large screen television and were prepared to host guests every evening but unfortunately, the response of the neighbours to Bethlehem’s invitation was minimal.  They had two neighborhood guests watch for 2 to 3 hours.  On another evening one of the members brought a mother and her 2 children for a couple hours.

Kelti’s music and Mark’s message both pointed to God’s love and the fullness of life that His love can bring to those who believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

To learn more (and to hear) Kelti’s music you are encouraged to check out Kelti Malone’s website.

You can learn more about Mark Washington at Athletes in Action and at the BC Lion website.

The Thursday evening concert is posted at Trinity’s website.

See previous post

The members of Prince of Peace continue to share the More Than Gold pins with people that they meet. They also plan to have one more mass distribution of the pins planned for Saturday. Please pray that the pins will lead people to want to learn more about God’s love and forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

* Trinity Lutheran Church’s Chinese Choir and their Praise band, InChrist;
* Richmond Baptist Church’s Praise & Worship Team;
* Richmond Presbyterian Church’s Worship Team
* World Harvest Church’s Praise & Worship Team

Those in attendance were also treated to Graeme Stager’s outstanding presentations on Trinity’s Pipe organ. Mr. Stager is the organist at Richmond Presbyterian Church.

Many comments were made by those in attendance:

“What a delight it is for the Body of Christ to get together for one purpose: to give thanks to God for the wonderful things He is doing in Richmond!”

“It was great to hear songs in the Chinese language.”

“I had never sung a song from a hymn book before, that was kind of neat.”

“WOW! What a beautiful sounding organ!”

The concert culminated with the worship leaders of each praise group singing one final “hymn”, as they sang, “Happy Birthday” to Pastor Harold while being accompanied by the organist! By the way: does anyone have an idea of how old Pastor Harold is?????