Richmond Hill Baptist Ministers at Penticton

Acts of Kindness, Prayer Walking, Surveys, Outreach Efforts

College Students from Richmond Hill Baptist Church, Calgary, Alberta, Minister with Abundant Life Christian Fellowship, Penticton, British Columbia

Between July 10-18 a mission team from Richmond Hill Baptist Church in Calgary served "on mission" helping Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in Penticton, British Columbia.

In the picture is our team:

Dillan Moorman (son of Pastor Ken), Nathan, Mel, Laura, John (back), Charlotte, Shelby(front) and Mark David.

During this week, our team paved the way for a much larger team coming from the States the following week. Our ministry involved a variety of outreach efforts including

Handing out newspapers and water bottles on the beach, acts of kindness that helped initiate many discussions and helped introduce many people to the church.
Handing out hundreds of invitations to "concerts in the park" that were scheduled for the next week.
Prayer walking in Osoyoos and in Kelowna, praying for new church plants there.
Surveys on the street in Penticton
Video survey asking people on the street opinions on various faith issues
Working with Leo and Ruth Ann Rebutoc helping them with outreach to college students in Penticton. This involved:

inviting people to and participating in a beach volleyball event,
prayer walking and meeting administration at the Okanagan University College campus in Penticton
helping with a Saturday evening outreach oriented coffee house/worship event.

Participating in small group worship and Bible study times each day

Following are some individual reports from students involved.

My experience in Penticton on our Mission trip was for sure a mountain top experience.

Our college group attended a college retreat weekend in Cochrane at Bow Valley Church early this year and this is where we first started to consider a mission trip to Penticton. One of the guys in our group pointed to a picture on a board about mission's opportunities and said "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we could do something like that?!" Suddenly I asked "Why not?" Now that I think back to this quick response I can think of many things that stood in our way, but we knew that if God really wanted us in Penticton, or anywhere else on Mission, it would be possible. A couple weeks after the retreat we had contacted Abundant Life Christian Fellowship Church in Penticton and started to train and plan.

Our church had never sent a college group on a mission's trip before our trip this summer to Penticton. So everyone was really excited about this exciting new step. Our church, Richmond Hill's Baptist Church is amazing. I was overwhelmed by the amount of support we received from our church family and the CSBC. Each of us got the opportunity to speak in front of the church, have members pray for us and received substantial financial support . I know that I will never forget the encouragement the people here in Calgary and Cochrane gave to each of us as we set off for Penticton.

A mission trip is really an amazing thing, which is hard to explain. The effect is like no other experience. Throughout the week we did many different kinds of outreach. My favorite outreach tool we used was newspapers. The church had bought hundreds of newspapers and put a sticker with the churches information on it and early in the mornings we would walk around the town and beaches giving people free newspapers. Something as simple as a newspaper really started up some amazing conversations. One day we were handing out newspapers and one lady saw my cross necklace and asked if Jesus was Lord of my life. "Yes, He sure is," I said with confidence. That was another thing that was really amazing about the mission trip, the confidence that we had to just go up to strangers. We also handed out water bottles on the beach, helped out around the church, visited home churches, prayer walked, street interviews and invited people to Christian events.

The Pastors at Abundant Life Christian Fellowship were awesome. We really got to know Pastor Ken and him family throughout the week. Our own mission team also grew closer through all of our experiences as well.

God was working in Penticton this summer and we were able to come and join Him. I love to tell about our experiences that we had on this Mission Trip, but so many things happened throughout that one week alone that I don't know if I could ever totally accurately describe it all. missions will always be close to my heart. I am sure that every day I am called on a mission.

Thank you to everyone who made our summer mission trip possible.

God Bless

Laura Cruikshank

My experience on trip was more of an opportunity to see how God is at work. Rather than being called a missionary I feel I was more of a servant. The fact that we were a small group also helped a lot as it felt like we were the group that paved the way for others to come and that we spent our week laying down foundations. I feel God used me this week to bring me closer to him and reveal more of what he wants from me and us. Doing God's work is not what we did but rather.....God did his work through us. We were merely the vessels that he used to begin and continue his work within the BC interior. I feel that I got to see how God can use us in BC without the totally in your face approach that we sometimes tend to use. The whole relaxed atmosphere of the tourist life was a lot easier to deal with. Talking to people was not always easy but I know God used us in ways we may not see now but one day we will be able to say "God took us there to begin something". I hope and Pray that we will continue to be a part of reaching the people here at home within our borders.

Mark David Martin