WORLD CHRISTIANS

Dear Friends,

I served in several small rural Anglican Churches for over seven years. We lived in Eganville, the “largest” community in the area. A week or two before we left Eganville to return to Ottawa, my wife was in the small grocery store near our house picking up a few things. The woman serving her said, “I hear you are moving to Ottawa.” Louise replied, “Yes, but I have mixed feelings about the move. We love living in Eganville.” The cashier responded with surprise, “I think you are lucky. Who wouldn’t want to move away from here? I’d love to be able to move away.”

Friends, I do not know if you love living in Ottawa-Gatineau, or if you cannot wait to move away, or if you wish you could move away. But while we live here, we are to seek the best for our city, praying that it will prosper and thrive. We are also to pray that the Lord will use us in evangelism here – sharing humbly and clearly that the Lord Jesus Christ is God’s provision to make a person right with God and urging people to believe this good news, receiving Jesus by faith. Ottawa is our mission field. We are to be “Ottawa Christians”.

But we are also to be “world Christians”. Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations …”. See the full text, Matthew 28:16-20. The word translated as “nations”, can also mean “all people groups”. There is no conflict; we are to have seamless concern for evangelism to every people group in Ottawa and every people group on the planet. At Messiah we have a special concern and relationship with the following. Please pray for them!

1. B.C. is a missionary from our church. He serves in *S**. He works in translation among several unreached people groups.

2. P+J are missionaries from our church. They serve in C*NTR*L *S**. They engage in market place ministry, university ministry, and support local churches in their discipleship and evangelism efforts.

3. Steve and Stella are “hybrid missionaries”. They left Messiah and now work in Egypt. Stella has a senior position in Canada’s Foreign Service. This opens doors for them to live in countries like Egypt. It also frees up Steve (who has two PhD’s!) to teach in local seminaries and to support local churches and para church ministries in training, discipleship, and evangelism.

4. We have a close relationship with Norm and Audrey. They serve in Angola. The heart of their work is as medical missionaries. They are also involved in a local church and a church plant.

5. We have a close relationship with CMJ (The churches mission to the Jews) in Israel. James Lunney from Messiah is on the Board of CMJ and Aaron Eime has been to Messiah several times. This is an important ministry of evangelism and discipleship in Israel.

6. We have teamed up with several other local churches in Ottawa and, through

Compassion Canada, have adopted a region in Guatemala. We will hear more about this in the months to come.

Please pray that the Lord will deepen and expand our partnership in ministry with

Christians and other people groups around the world! Pray we will be “Ottawa

Christians” and “World Christians”.

George+