Quebec Alive moments

As was explained in Quebec Alive Moment #23, the Cohort generally meets one Saturday a month for a full day of formal instruction.  Though the course is part of the Cohort program, others are normally able to participate if they desire.  Such was the case Saturday, August 21, with the Gatineau Cohort.  Gatineau is a large city just across the Ottawa River from Ottawa, Ontario, the Capital of Canada.  The Gatineau Cohort has 8 students, but this particular day there were 48 in attendance and more than a dozen of them had to make a 90 minute trip.  The topic of study is Eschatology (the study of the end times) and there are Friday/Saturday classes in September and October and regular Saturday classes in November and December before the course is finished.  Praise the Lord for motivating such a large number of people to commit to this five-month study.  This particular Saturday, like other Saturdays, began at 8:30 AM with singing, prayer and a devotional study.  Then there were 3 sessions of approximately 55 minutes each, followed by lunch, and then three more sessions before ending at about 4:30 PM.  This first day of instruction revolved around the foundational truths of the end times, the time when there will be the personal, bodily and glorified return of the Lord Jesus Christ when both the righteous and unrighteous will be resurrected, the righteous to eternal life and the unrighteous to eternal conscious punishment.  A large majority of those present participated in the various discussions of these truths.  Some of the various beliefs revolving around the actual timing of these truths, such as dispensational premillennialism, historical premillennialism, and amillennialism, will be delved into in the next four months.  We thank the Lord for the strong interest and commitment to this study and pray that both the teachers and students will be filled with discernment, insight and wisdom.

We have highlighted the Lord’s work through the Evangelical Baptist Church of Montreal-North in past Quebec Alive Moments (#13, #17) and how attendance has grown exceptionally fast, from around 30 in September 2006 to now nearly 120 in two services, quadrupling in 3 years.  Much of the increase has been due to the Lord providing servants with evangelical hearts who have been faithfully going door-to-door several times a week in a very poor and gang inhabited area.  Montreal-North is noted for its street gangs and rioting.  There were riots just a few weeks ago and the press had such headlines as, “Living in the Fear of Riots” and “The Spectre of Riots Still Haunts the District”.  Just prior to these last riots, 11 of the youth of the church were trained in door-to-door evangelism and went out on these gang inhabited streets and proclaimed the good news of Jesus to a very spiritually needy people.  One of the faithful leaders of the evangelistic outreach, Jackie Charpentier, had this to say about the group.  “Praise the Lord for the 11 teens who distributed 300 gospels of John yesterday morning [Saturday, June 13, 2009].  Montreal-North is reputed to have street gangs and so we formed our own ‘Evangelical Street Gang’ and headed out to the streets just north of the church.  Guy Lavoie, J-BEQ’s [Envangelical Baptist Youth of Quebec] director for the summer [college] student evangelism outreach group, held a mini-training session for our teens.  They then went out ringing the door bells accompanied by 3 leaders.  They returned overflowing with enthusiasm, having grown in their faith and filled with exciting stories and contacts to pray for.  What a blessed time we had listening to their reports over a delicious Haitian meal prepared with love by Francine and Marie-Murtha. The teens were so on fire!  Those who thought they would never be able to talk or witness were surprised to see that with God all things are possible!  They also learned that results are not the most important thing but rather obeying the commandment to go and share the gospel.  They were thrilled to see their own personal growth.”  Three days after they were on the streets, these new gang riots surfaced.  It was shared that the following Saturday, a person was going door-to-door with some J-BEQers on the opposite end of the island of Montreal and a man greeted them with the response, “you should go to Montreal-North.  They really need to hear your message there.”  This person said in response, “last Saturday 11 teens from Montreal-North went on their own streets to distribute the Gospel of John.”  The man said, “WOW!”  Yes, the man was right in that Montreal-North needs the message, but so do all the neighborhoods in  Montreal.  Pray for fruit to be harvested for the glory of God as His faithful servants go into the world and proclaim the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ.

SEMBEQ’s mission is to help the local church prepare the members of her body for the ministry of the church.  The Cohort program is primarily for the training of pastors, church planters, and evangelists, but its overall mission is to be a tool for the local church to use to make mature, effective and growing disciples of all its members.  It is hoped that the churches will obtain some of SEMBEQ’s DNA, just as the students receive some of their coaches’ DNA.  Well, praise the Lord, that is exactly what is beginning to happen with some of the French Baptist Churches.  In January 2008, the Evangelical Baptist Church of Saint-Hyacinthe began a version of the Cohort program, called the Reserve, for its own membership.  It is less intense and extends over a ten-year commitment, but the structure and vision is the same.  Donald Rodier (see Quebec Alive Moment #29), pastor of the church, states the belief behind the program.  “We believe that God mandates the Church, and specifically its leaders, to equip Christians who have the character of what God asks of men of God in Scripture for being leaders, who themselves (2 Timothy 2:2) will be able to equip the saints for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry and for edifying the body of Christ.”

The goal of the Reserve is to have its students complete two 1.5 credit courses each year for 10 years.  Each of these courses will be taught within the church and lead towards a 32-credit Theological Certificate from SEMBEQ.  As with the Cohort, each student will have a coach who will help with the development of godly character and ministry abilities while gaining the knowledge of God’s Word.  Each student is expected to meet for a two hour session of study 10 times each year.  These sessions involve reading, listening and discussing God’s Word, character and ministry, and time for prayer.  Donald stated, “sometimes we ask them to go to some seminar or prayer retreat in place of a session.  We want to give them our DNA for the ministry.”  Each student is expected to meet with his coach at least every month and is highly encouraged to have his wife present at two of those times.  Currently there are 7 members (see picture) in the Reserve.  Their ministry within the church includes 3 leading a home Bible study, 2 helping Donald with the Reserve, 3 involved in the Sunday adoration time, 1 teaching Sunday School regularly, 2 teaching occasionally, 1 leading the youth group, 1 responsible for the evangelism student group, and 1 leading the music team.  If you add this up you can see that they are involved in more than one ministry in addition to their course work and family responsibilities.

The Evangelical Baptist Church of Vaudreuil is beginning a similar program called the Releve program.  One of its leaders is Benjamin Desruisseaux (see Quebec Alive Moment #31).  Saint-Hyacinthe is planning to begin another Reserve in 2010 and to provide one specifically for women in the near future.  Pray for the leaders and students of both the Reserve and Releve programs and for the additional groups they desire to provide.  Praise the Lord for how He has used SEMBEQ to instill its DNA into the churches it serves.

After seven weeks of door-to-door distribution of the Gospel of John throughout the Trois-Rivieres region, there were five days of Christian celebration (July 29-August 2) in the beautiful Parc Pie XII.  This celebration was called the Festival of Hope and it was a time to reach out to families with the love and message of Jesus Christ.  During the prior seven weeks, each person who received a Gospel of John also received an invitation and information about the Festival.  Each of the evenings provided a concert featuring two Christian musical groups from Quebec and beyond and a Gospel message.  They were held under a very large tent and hundreds were in attendance.  Those in attendance were members of the churches involved, unbelieving friends who had been invited, those who came as the result of the door-to-door, and those who were visiting the park.  One of the nights it was estimated that at least 30% were unbelievers.  Praise the Lord!  During the day there were many activities.  Musical groups, clowns, face painting, large inflatable slides, canoeing, kayaking, volleyball, and cotton candy - all without charge.  There were Christian books for sale and several booths with free Christian literature.  On Saturday moring there was a free breakfast, the Breakfast of Hope, for anyone who wanted to attend.  There was standing room only for the Sunday morning worship service under the tent.  Free hotdogs were provided afterward for everyone.  The Lord was gracious and provided good weather, great organization and leadership, and excellent cooperation and fellowship among all the workers and participants.  We praise the Lord for His work in Quebec, especially these past two months as the love and Gospel of Jesus Christ was presented to many who the Lord had in Trois-Rivieres at the time.  Pray for return visits, a continued passion for evangelism, and for much fruit to be harvested.