Home and missing Calgary!

Dear Family and Friends,
Well as most of you know, I'm now back home in Ontario, got back last Monday...and it's somewhat bittersweet.
It's so good to be back with family and friends here - I've missed them, but at the same time it's hard to leave the family and friends I've come to know and love in Calgary over these past 3 months. Actually, I think it's almost harder to leave them than it was to be away from my family here. These are the people I've lived with, eaten with, studied the Bible with, sang worship with, been changelleged in the faith with, prayed with, ministered with, laughed and cried with, shared every detail of my days with and grown with to a whole new level in my walk with God-- for 3 months...a whole 1/4 of a year!
No wonder we formed such bonds...we truly are brothers and sisters in every sense of the word. But, as much as it hurts to be apart from them, I'm blessed to have had this experience. Not only did I gain 25 amazing new brothers and sisters in Christ, I gained a whole new passion for seeing Christ proclaimed in this world- for seeing Him receive the worship, honour, power and glory due Him. I grew in my faith to a place where I can trust in God for anything because I know just how great His love for me really is and how good He is. I've been challenged to step out of my Christian bubble and meet and befriend people who need Jesus- after all it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I've been challenged to stop wasting my life on the petty things of this world and live for something meaningful- something eternal- that is Christ's kingdom! Though going back to school in September will be trying as I actually have to put into practise these things I hope to accomplish through Christ, I know I can only do it through His strength and through the accountability of other brothers and sisters around me (another one of the many things I learned this summer).
This whole note to say, I hope to write more soon about all the things God has taught me this summer- so that you too may be built up and spurred on to see His kingdom come,
Until then,
Yours in Him,
Emily

God is working- part 2

Sorry its been a while. It always takes longer than anticipated before having time to sit down and type. So here's part 2...

Lots has been happening and is yet to happen in these last 3 weeks! I can hardly believe we've only got 3 weeks left here together in our tight little community- goodbyes are going to be hard!

Work is going well, still extremely trying but God is definitely giving me the strength to get through these last few weeks with optimism and genuine love for my co-workers. If nothing else (and there is much much else) I've learned just how much God loves these women and how sinful and judgmental my heart is when it isn't being controlled by the Holy Spirit!

My co-worker Natalie, whom I've had many opportunities to hang out with- and even had some great convos about God with- quit at the daycare we were at (for many reasons, but mainly it's a very difficult place to work- drama-stress and more drama!) But she has gotten a new and better job in Calgary which I know will make her much happier. So right now, I'm a bit discouraged as she was the only one I'd every really had convos with other than my boss Sharon. I'm just trusting God that He'll still make a way for me to meet up with her and talk with her more. I've really come to love her and we have a great friendship which is so encouraging, but I really want to share the full gospel with her before my time here is up, so she knows exactly where I stand and what means the most to me. Please pray that I would be bold in doing this and depend on God for the timing and words to speak his truth in a loving and genuine way.

We're planning a coffee house for Tuesday July 29th to invite our co-workers to. The theme is soul cravings- which looks at what our hearts really desire - love, relationships, satisfaction, joy- and how all these things can be found in Christ. I'm going to invite Natalie so please pray that she'll come and through it she'll come to better understand how much God loves her and wants her to know Him- and God willing she'll accept His gift of salvation. Pray for the night in general as well as I'm sure its going to be a great night!

Jesus Loves you has been going great, hard to believe we only have 2 more Tuesday nights there. I've definitely learned so much through this opportunity to share God's love in such a practical way for these women and children, and it's something I want to continue to do upon my return to Ontario. I think so often we (I know I do anyways) get so caught up in our own lives that we fail to see the soo many hurting people around us just crying out for someone to love them and share God's love with them.
Tonight we had the opportunity for 2 girls to share their testimonies in the women's time after dinner and there was lots of great discussion around God and the girl's story, which is very exciting and encouraging as well as motivating for our last few weeks. Next week 2 more girls will share and the following week another girl and I will share our stories and how Christ plays such a huge role in our lives. Please pray for all of us as well as the women who will be there, that we would speak words of truth in clarity and love and that the women would be open and able to relate to our stories.

Thats about all, other than our training which has been going great, I've learned so much this summer I don't know if I'll ever be able to remember it all let alone apply it to my life. Thank God for journals! Can't wait to share all I've learned with you upon my return so you too can be built up to strengthen your relationship with God and better reach those around you. I know I'm really excited to apply these things and grow closer to my heavenly father and allow Him to mold me to become more like Christ.

As these last few weeks fly by I'm taking some time to see God's beautiful creation out here in the west. This weekend I'll be camping in Banff with Sarah Roy, a friend from my home church and the next weekend I'll be camping with a bunch of girls from project. I'm really looking forward to some great bonding time with these girls before we all head home. Please pray for safety and a great time of refreshing, bonding friendships and connecting with God through His creation- and pray we don't meet anyone of his big brown creations aka BEARS!! haha

Our last weekend will be debrief (camping yet again) to reflect on all thats happened (and still will happen) this summer and how were going to take what we've learned and make it part of our campus ministry this coming year and our lives in general. I hope to update more in the coming weeks to keep you all up to date on what God is doing in these last few weeks here- I think and pray it's gonna be BIG!

I'll be coming home on August 4th and look forward to seeing and/or sharing with you!
Thanks again for all your prayers and support- its so encouraging to know I'm not in this battle alone. I thank God for each and everyone of you!
God Bless,
Emily

God is working – part 1

These last 4 weeks have been soo busy it’s been hard to find an minute or two to sit down and write this…but the time is here! And there’s so much to tell!!

Let’s starts where I left off last time, the second weekend of June was our relaxation retreat up in the mountains in Kananaskis at a wilderness camp called Blue Bronna. It’s a Christian camp up in the mountains with no electricity, running water or heat…and it was cooold up in them mountains! We spent the weekend learning from the word with a couple who work for one of Power to Change’s umbrella organizations (like Campus for Christ is) called Leader Impact which seeks to build up business leaders to effectively share their faith in their workplaces….which is our main goal this summer. We also spent a lot of time enjoying God’s great and beautiful creation, from sitting around the campfire singing praises to God as the stars shone above to horse-backing riding in the majestic mountains that rose high above us on all sides- it was a much needed rest and time to re-connect with God and remember the reason we all came to Calgary in the first place- to glorify God by knowing Him more and making Him known to others.

This was also the last weekend the staff members were here with us in Calgary. They passed on their roles, words of encouragement and any leftovers in their fridges and cupboards. So now we are entirely student run which is definitely a stretching experience for all. The staff have all gone home to rest and prepare for September when we all return to campus.

Work is going well, some days are still very trying, but God is teaching me how to depend on Him and persevere through it. Jackie (the other girl on project who works at the daycare) and I have had so many opportunities to hang out with our one co-worker Natalie…praise the Lord! It’s so neat to see a relationship forming between us and see her opening up to us more and more. One night we went to see the second Narnia movie and afterwards we starting talking about the Biblical imagery and got into a full blown discussion about the existence of God and why there’s evil in the word. God was definitely working through us as many “arguments” she had we were able to give her a biblical truth and she was often speechless and lost in thought afterwards…it was neat to see God working on her heart during those times. Since then we’ve hung out once and sometimes even twice a week, going shopping, out for dinner etc, God hasn’t come up a lot during those times, but I’m trusting he is still working in her heart and using our actions to be a witness to her if not our words. God is growing a deep love for her within my heart- I know it’s God because at the beginning of the summer I was slightly afraid of her cool and hardened exterior- but now I’m able to see past that, into her internal where there is so much hurt and dissatisfaction- I long for her to know Jesus the way I do and for her to experience life to the fullest. I’m praying a big God-sized prayer that by the end of my time here I will have the opportunity to share the Gospel with Natalie and she will come to saving faith…won’t you pray with me??

The Jesus Loves You ministry we’ve been helping out with has been going great. God’s been teaching me a lot there as well. One of the things we’ve been focusing on is just loving those women and children the way God does. But, in order to do that we must first be able to see and love ourselves the way God does. It’s been amazing to look into His word to see just how very much He loves us and really understand what Jesus’ death should mean to us. That is, that through His death God sees us as whole- like His son Jesus- not lacking in any way! Isn’t it funny how one of the biggest lies we listen to is that we’ll never be good enough to be used by God- it’s the easiest way Satan can make us complacent and have little or no impact for God’s kingdom- When in fact God promises the exact opposite (see Hebrews10:14, Philippians 4:19, Acts 1:8 and Ephesians 1:19-20) – that through Him we’re made whole and can be used by Him to impact eternity!! Exciting or what?!?!

More to come very soon!

Long time no talk

Sorry It’s been so long since I updated last, thank you all for your prayers, I’m over the strep throat and onto a cold. Haha, but no complaining here, at least I can go to work with a cold!

Where to start? How about work. Work has been going well. I went back a week ago Monday and have really enjoyed spending time with the kids and loving them and seeing them as God’s precious creations. Co-workers are a bit of a different story- Don’t get me wrong I enjoy working with them and they are nice people and I do love them- but they gossip like crazy! Some days it drives me bananas! I’m trying to look past it but it seems they all come to me with their complaints about others and I’m kind of at a loss as to what to do. I usually just smile and walk away first chance I get. Please pray for me – that I would stand strong and not let their complaints and gossip affect how I view my other co-workers and that I would have to courage to stand up for my fellow co-workers and speak words of love when others gossip and that I wouldn’t seem judgmental when I do.

Last week we started helping out at a few new ministries downtown. I’m heading up the team working at the Jesus Loves You Society. It’s a ministry for poorer single moms and their children which provides dinner, clothing and food bank type services free of charge. I’m really looking forward to connecting with some of the mothers and sharing God’s love with them. As some of them are ex-prostitutes, ex-drug addicts and such it’s a very humbling and stretching experience and I’m really learning how to love people unconditionally the way God does. After dinner there is childcare provided while the mothers have an informal Bible study. I’m also looking forward to using the practical things I’ve spent 3 years learning in university to be able to serve these women, their children and ultimately God.

Funny side note about how small this world really is. I’ve been attending Varsity Bible church here in Calgary for the past couple weeks and this Sunday after the service the pastor came up and started talking to me and the 3 girls I was with. After small talk about where we were from, what schools we attended etc. It turns out the pastor attended the university of Guelph and lived in the same residence as I did our first years. Furthermore that is where he ended up accepting Christ. But the world gets a little smaller still…turns out he was born and raised in Carleton Place, a small town about 30 mins away from my home town! Neat! We had a good chat about our towns and university- just what I had needed – a little taste of home. God is so good to provide-often in the strangest and coolest ways!

I can hardly believe it’s been almost a month since we arrived in Calgary- it seems like just yesterday and at the same time it feels like I’ve known these people my whole life. The community we’ve built here is amazing- I wish it could always be like this- whole apartment buildings of Christians, living and growing and ministering together day after day- what a different world it would be. I’m so thankful for the many friends and brothers and sisters I have met through coming here. Though we will be living together for a couple more months, sadly our staff will be leaving us at the end of next week. As their time comes to a close they are passing the baton to us students to continue the vision and goals of this project. As such, I have been asked to head up the workplace evangelism training nights on Thursdays as well as the group ministering at the Jesus Loves You society. I know this will be a stretching position if I allow it to be. Please pray that I would be a humble leader and look to God for strength and wisdom to lead and that He would teach me amazing things through this experience.

Thank you again for your prayers and support. I couldn’t be here without you. I know this is going to be a summer to remember as one where I took tremendous leaps of faith and grew closer to God. I pray the same for you wherever you may be,

Blessings

Em

Prayer Please

Well, this week has kinda been a downer. I've been home all week with a sore throat and ear aches. I went to the walk-in clinic yesterday and He thinks I may have strep throat. He gave me some antibiotics but I'm still in a lot of pain- plus I really want to be at work! Please pray that I would heal quickly and that I would rest in God and see what he is trying to teach me during these long days and that I would be well enough to go back to work on Monday.

On a brighter note, the weather is beautiful out here...in between the random rain storms haha. This Sunday is Calgary's Lilac festival, so if I'm feeling better a bunch of us are planning a trip downtown to see what's happening there and hopefully get some lilacs for the kitchen table!!
Oh and more exciting news! Another girl on project got a job at the same daycare as me the other day...so now we'll have twice as much of an impact for Christ...exciting! Please keep our co-workers, especially Sharon and Natalie in your prayers.
God Bless,
Em

Week #2

So much has happened this week that this post may turn into a novel…so I apologize first off, I'll try my best to keep it short.

Work;
Work has been going great….I’m realizing how exhausting it is running after 6 toddlers all day…but have been sleeping like a rock at night. It’s so rewarding to see those children grow because of the effort you put into helping them learn. And the tiredness is so worth knowing I can love those kids the way God loves them, even if they have no idea yet that He loves them and wants them to grow up to know Him.

In terms of conversations, this week brought some good ones. One day Sharon asked me about how Christians can forgive people who hurt them, so I got the chance to explain that all people are sinful and hurt people at times and that it’s through the power of the Holy Spirit that I can forgive those who’ve hurt me, because I need to remember I’ve hurt people too and that I have no right to judge others for their actions- only God can do that. Though I still don’t know exactly where Sharon is at in terms of her faith, that was a very encouraging conversation and I know there will be –God willing- many more to come.

Another co-worker and I had an interesting conversation this week as well. Natalie is 30 years old and just moved to Calgary to work at our daycare 1 month ago. She seems very shut off from the rest of our co-workers and almost bitter about life in general. I was really scared to talk to her as I wasn’t sure she’d want to talk to me in return. However, one day we had lunch together and we just sat in silence for 20 minutes eating our lunch- I knew God wanted me to talk to her so I started some small talk about what her old daycare was like, where she was from etc. We got talking about why she moved to Calgary and she really opened up to me. She started telling me about how she moved here because she felt trapped and lost in Toronto and needed to find herself and discover what she was supposed to do with her life. WOW – all that from small talk! The conversation didn’t go too much further as our lunch was over, but the rest of the week she seemed much more open to me and talked with me more as we worked. Please pray for Natalie… we would have many more opportunities to talk and that Spiritual issues would surface in our conversations and that she would come to know Christ loves her and died for her.

We had a nice little outbreak of pinkeye at the daycare which led to some overtime to disinfect everything in the daycare, but which also led to some quality conversations with many of my other co-workers. All of them know now that I’m in Calgary with a Christian group-so hopefully that will open up some interesting doors – please continue to lift my co-workers up in prayer.

Weekly low-down;
The evenings were packed with our Monday night weekly meeting/ build time where we learnt about studying the Bible inductively.

Tuesday night we went to the Mustard seed (the street ministry I mentioned earlier) for a tour of their facilities- it is an amazing building with so much to offer those less fortunate. A very eye-opening experience for sure. Odd how the people God specifically tells us to care for are often kicked to the curb because though we want to be God’s hands- we don’t want to get them dirty. God definitely stirred in all of us a passion to reach the less fortunate with His love and message of salvation. After all the first shall be last and the last shall be first.

Wednesday night we have Bible study small groups- we’re studying the book of Daniel and learning how though he became part of the secular world by becoming one of the King’s trainees he still did not put “fitting in” above God or do anything that would negatively affect his relationship with God.

Thursday we have outreach training- learning how to be the most effective witness in our workplace as possible.

Friday we have fun night bonding- We have really become a tight knit community living here in the dorms all together- I’ve made some amazing friends here and I can’t explain what a blessing it is to know and live with these brothers and sisters and learn from one another and grow in our relationships with God together- it’s truly amazing-and I know already that it’s going to be very hard to leave in August.

Saturday my roommates and I went to a little town called Canmore close to the Rocky Mountains to do some hiking and walk around the town. The mountains were beautiful! I'll upload a few for you to see. They're just like a postcard- it’s hard to believe how so any people can look out their backyards to see such majesty everyday and think the view as well as themselves exploded into being. It just spurs me on even more to make sure people have a chance to know the truth, and that God will get the glory He deserves.

I pray all is well with you, thank you for your continued prayers and support. Drop me an email anytime at emferrier@gmail.com if you would like anymore info etc. God bless you all for helping me serve here in Calgary.

Love in Christ
Emily

First Week Happenings

Hard to believe it's been almost a week since arriving in Calgary! I arrived on Monday morning just before noon. From the airport me and another girl on the same flight took a cab to the Rocky Mountain Bible College dorms where we will be living for the next 3 months.
The first 3 days were filled with orientation, training, ice-breakers and of course an "amazing race" to orient us with the city of Calgary. I can't believe how big this city is! It took me an hour to get to work Thursday and an hour and a half to get home because of rush hour. I take the CTrain downtown and take a bus from there to work. That brings me to work. I'm working full time at a daycare in the South of Calgary. It's a small daycare with only about 25 children but it means I get to interact a lot more with my co-workers than I would at a larger daycare. It also means I get to work with every age group which is nice- I especially enjoy working with the toddlers- and I've made some new 3 year old best friends already :) In the afternoons I go to work at the after-school program in a public school just a few blocks away-which means me and my boss work alone, just us 2 and the kids- allowing for some good conversations.
My boss' name is Sharon-She claims to be Christian but is obviously far from God right now or at least pretty confused about having a real relationship with Christ. My first day at work she told me she thought God was calling her to go back to church (after not having gone for 25 years) She also mentioned she wanted to buy an English Bible so she could start reading it again-and asked me to recommend a good translation. Praise the Lord! After one day of work I have already mentioned to each co-worker that I am a Christian here with Power to Change for the summer and have had a spiritual conversation with my Boss about God-with the promise of many more conversations to come. Please pray for Sharon- that we would continue to have great conversations at work and that she would come to know Christ if she doesn't already.
I'm working with a lot of older ladies (all over 5o) which was a challenge at first especially since all of their favorite pastimes seem to be gossiping about our co-workers- it was really hard to love these women when all they seemed to do was talk poorly of others. At first I was really upset and wondered why God would have placed me somewhere with no one else my age and where everyone seems to be so bitter about life. But, today I realized how much God loves these women-and how I am no better or different than them-other than the fact that my sins have been forgiven through Christ's blood because of faith- and as an ambassador of Christ I need to love these women with Christ's love because I'm too sinful to be capable of loving them on my own- a very humbling realization.
And I've also realized that even after only 2 days of working with them, they all seem to be confiding in me and enjoy talking to me -which may not have been the case if they hadn't all been so much older than me. So God has been teaching me a lot these past couple days - How His plans are so much higher than mine (Isaiah 55:9), how incapable I am of being used by God unless I'm filled with the power of his Spirit (Ephesians 3:16-18), and how much God loves his people and desires for them to know him (John 3:16 and many others)

Tomorrow will be our first day of community outreach- which I'm very excited about- we will be partnering with a street ministry called "the mustard seed" downtown which seeks to help the homeless with job searches, meals etc. while sharing Christ's love with them. We will also go out to the city in pairs and ask people if they're interested in talking about Spiritual issues-and hopefully have the chance to share the Gospel with them if they're interested.
We will also have the chance to reach out in different ways that God has laid on our hearts - I believe God is laying families on my heart (oddly right in my field of study, haha). I would love to be able to reach families and children with Christ's love and be able to share the Gospel with parents so that children will be brought up knowing how much God loves them. So, please pray for that, that God would give me wisdom and creativity in how to reach families here most effectively for Him.

So, a lot has been happening in my own heart and in the hearts of the people around me- and all of it only through God's mercy and grace on His creation. If you could, please pray for our outreach opportunities, my co-workers Sharon, Natalie, Irene, Fay and Ruth, and finally as Paul once said to those who supported him as you do me and as recorded in Ephesians 6:19
"Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel..."

Working to bring Christ the Glory,
Blessings,
Emily xoxo