Quebec Alive moments

Our May 11th posting (see Moment #18) introduced you to the distribution of the French Gospel of John during a seven-week time span, during June and July in the Trois-Rivieres region.  This was done in conjunction with the 375th birthday of the city of Trois-Rivieres.  The week following the distribution there were five days of celebration, called the Festival of Hope, at one of the city’s parks.  Today’s Moment will focus on the distribution and next week’s will focus on the Festival of Hope.

Trois-Rivieres is so named after the fact that as the Saint Maurice River enters the Saint Lawrence River, it is divided by two islands, thus giving the appearance of three rivers.  For the outreach the region was divided into seven sectors.  Each week a different sector was targeted and a specific church was responsible for managing the door-to-door distribution.  During the seven-week period over 100,000 copies of the Gospel of John had been distributed and more were planned to be distributed during the Festival of Hope celebration during the eighth week.

People from the various churches from the Trois-Rivieres region were the main participants, but those from other churches in Quebec also participated along with people from British Columbia, Ontario, New Brunswick, California, and New York.  Each morning they (see picture) met for worship, a message and prayer.  Afterwards, the prior day’s distribution as well as directions for the current day were discussed, again followed by prayer.  The group then had lunch together and spent the afternoon distributing door-to-door in their assigned locations.  After about 4-5 hours, they returned for dinner together and then some went out for additonal distribution.  There were many different responses at the door.  Some abruptly closed the door, some respectfully closed the door, others listened for a short time and then declined to receive the Gospel of John, and some showed interested in receiving the material.  There were some excellent times of discussion and some were interested in having a return visit.  There were occasions when we were greeted by a brother or sister in Christ, which was a blessing and encouragement for all.  When no one answered the door, a copy of the Gospel was left.  Also, included with the Gospel was a bookmark with information about the church that was overseeing the distribution that week and a brochure about the Festival of Hope activities being held at the end of the seven weeks.

When final information and analysis about the distribution and Festival of Hope celebration is available, we will post it on Quebec Alive Moments.  Pray that the ground was cultivated, seeds planted and watered, and that return visits will generate fruit for God’s glory.

Matthieu Giguere is the tenth and last cohortist we will be highlighting for a while in these Quebec Alive Moments.  In 2002, Matthieu was completing his Bachelor Degree in History and was serving in his church, the Evangelical Baptist Church of Terrebonne-Mascouche, when the elders asked him to consider being trained for eventual full-time work in the church.  Matthieu had concerns about his adequacy for such work and prayed, putting several concerns before the Lord. The first concern was that he was engaged to be married to Lydia and wanted her to be enthusiastically supportive.  His second convern was whether he really was “good enough” for such responsibilities.  A third concern was that he wanted to be sure that the church was supportive of this training.  The Lord responded with clear answers from His Word and through circumstances, and Matthieu, who was now married to Lydia, accepted the challenge and in February 2003, was voted by the church to be a worker-in-training.  He finished his history degree in May of that year and then in July began his training to be a full-time worker in his church. In January 2004, he became part of the SEMBEQ’s first Cohort and has now completed his six-year commitment to the program.

His church has been supporting him with their prayers, encouragement, ministry opportunities, and the coaching of his pastor, Louis Bourque.  The church has also provided financial support so that Matthieu can concentrate on his training.  Matthieu’s experience in the Cohort has been very valuable, particularly the mutual motivation, encouragement and friendships.  He says, “Our meetings are always centered on the Word of God.  We can help each other in more difficult times and fight together for God’s glory even if we are living far away from each other”.

Matthieu is now the youth pastor of about 100 youths.  He indicates three elements that are very important to him for his ministry for the Lord.  (1) The importance of humility and submission to God.  (2) The importance of being trained, to serve, and to be attached to a local church.  (3) The incredible blessing and encouragement provided by the coaching of workers-in-training.

He and Lydia now have two daughters, 3-year old Eliane and 3-month old Annabelle.  Pray for them as they faithfully serve their Lord and Savior in the Terrebonne-Mascouche region.

Karl Fortin was working as a chiropractor and a servant-in-training at his church prior to becoming one of the original cohort members in 2004.  He had an aspiration to be doing the Lord’s work as a full-time pastor and felt that the cohort would give him the training to accomplish this.  The coaching and ministry aspects of the cohort have been extremely valuable in developing a deeper dependence upon the Lord and a walk that serves and honors Him.  All this has catalyzed the work of the Holy Spirit upon his character and ministry abilities.  The process has been very engaging and demanding, particularly when added to church ministry, family life and secular work.  Looking over the past six years has shown Karl the absolute “necessity of coaching for any real ministry training.  Christ put so much emphasis on character that a classroom [alone] will not suffice to make a proper servant of the Lord.”  Karl continues to be coached and is coaching three men himself.

Currently, Karl has become a pastor and is now the president of the counsel of elders in his church, which is considering to plant a church which he would be responsible for.  He still does his chiropractic work, but hopes that in two years he can be full-time in the ministry and faithfully serving in the church implantation project.  All this he hopes to do while completing his academic and practical training at SEMBEQ and rear his four girls into faithful disciples of Christ.  Pray for him and his wife, Naomi, as they undertake these responsibilities while serving their Lord in Quebec.

Before Benjamin Desruisseaux (see the summer 2008 issue of Quebec Alive) joined the cohort in 2004, he was the teens’ pastor and taught the teens’ Sunday school, but he “was alone, not progressing in his spiritual life, doing what he thought was good and right.”  As he tried to help the church as he was, he realized that “he was awkward in his service and had many gaffes in his ministry.”  He truly thought that the Lord had called him to a leader in the church, but he knew he needed more training and preparation and therefore joined the cohort.

During these past six years his involvement in the cohort has shown growth in his spiritual discipline, leadership ability, and much improvement in his preaching, teaching and evangelism abilities.  His ability to communicate and counsel have also increased.  Now, he is one of three pastors and his major responsibilities are in the areas of  prayer, evangelism, church planting and leadership training.  He teaches the adult Sunday school, is responsible for the new “releve” program (similar to a cohort for a church) along with one of the other pastors, and preaches every 6-7 weeks, and is coaching three men.

In thinking back over the past six years, Benjamin remembers how hard it was to go through this training in the cohort while balancing his responsibilities with his wife, four children, church and personal time with the Lord.  It required sacrifice, particularly for his wife, but was definitely worth it as it provided the needed growth and friendships which developed.

Currently, Benjamin supports his wife, Veronique, and his four children with his part time pastoral position and outside work.  The church is proposing he become a full time pastor to help establish and apply a vision and goal to move the church to a greater reaching out to bring the kingdom of God to Quebec.  Pray for Benjamin and his family as they continue to serve the Lord in Quebec.

In 2000, Nick Cotnoir (see the summer 2008 issue of Quebec Alive) began serving in his church as a part-time servant-in-training while working on his mechanical engineering degree. In 2003, after he had just begun his work as a mechanical engineer, he was approached by the elders and his coaches to consider the cohort.  He was extremely busy at this time since he was newly married and was in the process of building a house.  Nick states that “prayerfully and with the help of my mentors, I was profoundly convinced that this was the will of God for my life.  I was already in a process to be trained as a Pastor, but the cohort had several advantages that encouraged and facilitated this process.  My expectations were mostly to work in a more intense and direct manner towards this goal of preparing for ministry.  I also expected to work with a group of men and to feed off each other.”  Therefore, he joined this first cohort, saying it “was a logical step…but also a much larger commitment”, and, by faith and the grace of God, he was able to withstand the very busy first year of the cohort.

During the time Nick has been progressing through the six-year program in the cohort, he has taken on more and varied responsibilities within the church.  He is thankful for the Lord’s provisions and says that “by God’s grace, I have been placed on the Island of Montreal where the number of believers in less than 1%.  I am serving in a church in the Western part of the Island and it is a great joy to be here and to work in His Kingdom.”  Nick is no longer working as a mechanical engineer, but is now a pastor along with a pastoral  team of elders and other workers-in-training, three of whom are in cohorts themselves.  He says he loves serving the Lord in any way he can and he especially enjoys “visiting people to encourage them and to share the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Today, Nick, his wife, Martha, and their three children are serving in this church which is now in a transitional phase, desiring to emphasize the witnessing in their community on an individual and corporate basis.  Nick says “we have several projects ongoing: a youth center that we should finish shortly to open to the community, and we have also planned open-air evangelism in a town nearby during the summer.  I therefore see myself serving in a church under expansion (in numbers and spiritual maturity) and with many new challenges.  We are training new leaders to serve our church and to be able to plant other churches.”

When Nick thinks back over the past six years, he remarks that ”this program has brought structure to my training in many ways.  Working with the same group of guys for all these years has been a rich blessing and many profound friendships outpoured from this experience.  We are all in this together and will work in God’s field for many years to come by God’s grace.  We desire to encourage and build up one another and to see our ministries bear much fruit for the Kingdom.”  Pray for Nick, Martha and the family as they reach out to the people on the western part of the Island of Montreal.