May 5, 2019
Dear friends,
Last weekend, approximately forty men gathered at the Capernwray Bible school and conference centre in Chertsey for a retreat that provided spiritual and physical refreshment. It had been six years since I last attended a men’s retreat and I quickly realized how much I missed being with brothers in Christ from several churches. The speaker for the retreat was Frank Cirone, who blessed us with many wonderful insights from God’s Word, some of which I hope to share with you in future blog posts.
On Monday morning, when I went to the radio follow-up office, the light was flashing on the answering machine. A call had come from a brother in Christ who had last phoned me six years ago. When I phoned Pierre, I learned that he recently moved from Ottawa to Nepean and that when he moved from France to Toronto when he was fifteen, people at the Toronto Baptist Seminary (TBS) were very kind to him. Hearing his accent brought back memories of two summers that I spent in France when I was in my early 20s, in a team of young people from several countries with Operation Mobilization. When I was in Mulhouse in Alsace in 1977, there were two pastors in the church named “La Bonne Nouvelle” (French for “The Good News”). That impressed me, as most evangelical churches in France were comprised of less than a hundred people, under the leadership of one pastor.
The senior pastor of the church in Mulhouse was Frédéric Bühler. He told me that he went door-to-door in 1934 in Saint-Laurent (on the island of Montréal), close to where I grew up. Some thirty years after Pastor Buhler shared his faith with farmers, a Baptist church building was erected in Saint-Laurent and Karen and I were married there in 1981. Praise God for faithful men and women who came to Québec to declare His glory!
The younger pastor of the church in Mulhouse was Robert Huser. I remember that he told me that he studied at TBS. On Monday, I learned that Pierre met a man named Étienne Huser in Toronto. Was he related to Robert? After visiting the website of “La Bonne Nouvelle” (LBN) in Mulhouse, I sent an email to one of the two pastors there and was delighted to receive a reply: Robert and Étienne were cousins. It is so neat that we can communicate with brothers and sisters in Christ around the world so quickly. I was also glad to listen to one of the worship services at LBN at: http://lbnmulhouse.org/.
Your prayers and support for the Québec Radio ministry are greatly appreciated. God’s Word is being proclaimed on radio and the Internet. These are days of great freedom to declare that Jesus is Lord. Let us work while it is day, because the night may be here sooner than we think.
Scripture for the weekend: “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21 (NKJV)
Thought for the weekend: “Gratitude is born in hearts that take time to count up past mercies.” – Charles E. Jefferson (from “Minute Motivators for Men” by Stan Toler)
By His grace,
Steve