Purpose-Driven ~ Yes we are

A church culture takes a long to time to build. I’ve been thinking about our church culture lately and wondering how we would describe it to someone. Purpose Driven comes to mind. It’s not uncommon to hear the question, “What’s your purpose?” in planning every event or, “How are you accomplishing our purpose?” for every ministry that happens here. Do we get tired of it? NO!!! Because we see God working in and through the lives of people who need purpose and direction as they seek to become fully devoted followers of Jesus. We are all on a journey. Each person’s path is unique. One may find their way to God in a senior’s home sitting quietly with a lonely person. Another finds God in a leadership role of a huge event. Each one finds their purpose and significance as they yield their will and their ways to God. What is your purpose? How is God preparing you to find His way? Will you follow?

If you would like to continue this discussion drop by sometime!

Youth Christmas Banquet

Friday, December 16:

6 – 11 pm    Dress up event.

Served by the Cruisers of MBC

Delivering Christmas Cheer to Martensville Businesses

“It was God’s idea!” claims Lorraine, the leader of the Afternoon Women’s Study Group here at MBC. This afternoon they were busy filling plates with fancy home-baked cookies and wrapping them up in delightful Christmas wrap with a card saying Merry Christmas from MBC. These tasty gifts were then delivered to businesses in Martensville. What a great group of ladies who love God so much they just want to show love and appreciation for their town. Thank you ladies!

BGC Short Term Missions Opportunity in Japan

Imagine one of the most powerful earthquakes of all time that triggers a tsunami so large the odds of it happening are once every thousand years. This all adds up to one of the largest natural disasters in world history. Some of the foreshocks and aftershocks of this earthquake were the size of other major earthquakes. According to Wikipedia, the earthquake moved the island of Honshu 2.4 m (8 ft) east and shifted the Earth on its axis by estimates of 10 – 25 cm (4 – 10 in). The damage caused by the water was far more deadly and destructive than the actual earthquake. The clean up will take years.

You can show the love of Jesus by helping people during a time of their greatest physical, spiritual needs and personal tragedy. If you have two weeks to spare and are not afraid of hard work and  getting dirty, join our TEAM JAPAN! Other teams that have travelled to Japan have distributed supplies, cleaned up streets and homes, and put on community events for adults and children.

TEAM JAPAN
Team Leader: Mas Kobayashi

Mas, is what we call, a repeat BGCC short-termer. He has traveled to serve in Japan numerous times. On his most recent trip (July 2011) he participated in the clean up work. Mas will also act as the team translator.

Travel Dates for
TEAM JAPAN are March 22 – April 5, 2012

Cost for TEAM JAPAN members: approximately $ 1,900 flying from Vancouver, so some will have to add the flight to Vancouver on top of their costs. And this will depend if we can get the same flight cost when we actually book the flights. This covers everything (including accommodations) but your spending money while on a day off inTokyo, and possibly a meal or two.

Team members must be 18 years of age or older. Children over 16 can participate if they are accompanied by a parent. No training is necessary and people with carpentry skills are an extra bonus. Contact us for more information to see if this might work for you. Diane@bgc.ca

 

Women’s Retreat Highlights

The 2011 Women’s Retreat at Beaver Creek Camp was again a huge success! About 40 women from MBC spent a weekend together, getting to know each other, having fun together and relaxing away from home responsibilities. The theme was “Taste and See that the Lord is Good!” We tasted, all right! The food was excellent and since the pallet theme was chocolate, we had opportunity everywhere to taste this or that kind of chocolate. However, we also learned through our speaker Barb Elich that “Taste and See” means so much more in our lives than food. God is good… He’s good to us in so many ways…. friendships, loved ones, how He cares for us, when He leads us, and as he uses all the circumstances of our lives to teach us. Then we heard testimonies from 3 women … some stories we had never known and were blessed through the faithfulness of our God through our very own friends. Whether we were walking, eating, making chocolates, crafting, playing games, or winning prizes, the atmosphere was one of love and friendship. A quote from one of the new-to-MBC women: “I’ve never seen this much love and acceptance in a church women’s group before… I didn’t think it could exist and I’m thrilled that is does.” Our speaker commented about the retreat leaders as she prayed for our group of women, “Thank you God for this generous group who have intentionally planned this time to bless the women of their church.” It truly was a blessing!

This was the 2nd Annual Women’s Retreat. That means there will be a 3rd. I recommend you plan to be there! This is a retreat like none other that I have experienced. What’s the difference? I’ve asked that question so many times, and I think I’ve finally figured out the answer…. it’s in the attitude of the Retreat Leadership Team who strive to fulfill their purpose of creating a place for the women of MBC to learn to love and care for each other in a godly way. They model this value by adding all the special touches they can think of and everyone goes away amazed at their humble generosity and over-the-top extras in decorations and planning.

So, I give credit to God and I praise Him for the work that He is doing through these special women who chose to obey when God said, “I have a plan for you.”

September 25, 2011

Pastor Harv Sawatzky: Encounters with Jesus
Sermon: “What’s Your Deepest Need?”

Majoring in the Minors – Sermon Series 1

Jethro- Pastor Aaron

Building for Eternity – 3 Years later

In Fall 2007, at a Building for Eternity Campaign Celebration Kick-off, our congregation pledged to give $270,000 over 3 years.   Fall 2010 marked the end of that 3 year campaign.   More than was pledged on that day has been donated and we praise God for all He has done.  The stories of God’s provision throughout the project continue in the life of Martensville Baptist.   God is so faithful!   The facility is so amazing!  We are so blessed with this new facility and the church calendar reflects that.   The church is a hopping place both on Sundays and during the week.  Some evenings, we have to carefully juggle all this new space to fit in all the groups who need it!   The plan was to use the facility in every way possible to help people come to know Jesus and become fully devoted followers.  How exciting to be a part of this plan in action! We give all the glory to God!

Making a Difference in Today’s World

What is Fair Trade?

So often farmers, craftsmen, and artisans in the 3rd world struggle to make ends meet simply because they don’t get a fair wage fro their work. Huge multinational companies purchase their products for pennies, sell them for dollars, and none of it gets back to the people who it most. Fair Trade is an organized social movement and market based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries and promote sustainability. The movement advocates for fair wages for 3rd world producers as well as higher social and environmental standards. When you purchase a product with the fair trade certified logo you are guaranteed a number of things:

• The producer received a fair wage in respect to the standard of living in his/her country
• Both the producer & the distributor met the strict criteria of fair trade certification as put forward by FLO International.

MBC exclusively serves Level Ground Trading coffee. Level Ground Trading is fair trade certified and guarantees a fair price per pound to farmers, including a guaranteed minimum when market prices are low.

Learn more about Fair Trade at www.transfair.ca
Learn more about Fair Trade certification at www.flo-cert.net

Fair Trade products are also available locally at a wide variety of stores including:

• Starbucks (Coffees & Teas)
• Costco (Coffee)
• McQuarries Tea & Coffee Merchants
• The Better Good Store (Clothing, footwear, etc.)
• Ten Thousand Villages (Coffees, teas, chocolate, art, furniture, etc.)

When visiting any of the above mentioned stores, remember to look for the fair trade certification logo on the products.

What is microfinancing?

Microfinancing is the supply of loans, savings, and other basic financial services to the poor.

What are they for? Often what keeps poor people poor is the availability of capital; they don’t have enough cash to invest into an endeavor to get it off the ground. However, with a small micro-loan the cycle of poverty can be broken. When a family can get a loan big enough to start up a viable enterprise not only can they pay the money back, they can now become a contributing member of their society and stimulate their local economy.

One of the best microfinance organizations is Kiva

You can also look at World Vision

What is Turn on the Tap?

For 884 million people, having no access to a safe water supply is a daily reality. Every year 1.4 million children die from diarrhoeal diseases transmitted through contaminated water and poor hygiene practices.

Samaritan’s Purse Canada is attacking this travesty by installing BioSand Water Filters in villages throughout the developing world. These simple water filters effectively remove up to 99% of all water borne pathogens, along with particulate matter. The result is water that is safe to drink, cook & clean with.

At a cost of only $100 you can supply a BioSand Water Filter for a village in need, providing a village with the filter, vital health and hygiene education and filter maintenance.

For more information, go to Samaritan’s Purse’s website.

Serving at MBC

Everyone is encouraged to serve in your area of giftedness at MBC.  If you are unsure of what you could do, contact the church and we will help you find the area that is best fitted to your personal gifting so that you can serve with joy and fulfilment.

There are so many ways to serve at MBC.  If you need some ideas, the following ministries give a good start to think about.  For more information, contact the church office.  office@martensvillebaptist.com

Church Facility Care:

• Yard work
• Garden work
• Snow removal
• General maintenance
• Extra cleaning

Contact church office for more information or to volunteer  office@martensvillebaptist.com

Children’s Ministry:

• Children’s Church Teacher/ Leader
• Children’s Church Helpers
• Olympians:  Story Teller, Personal Coach; Games; Music; Registration/Awards
• Nursery & Toddler Room Worker

Email – office@martensvillebaptist.com for more information or to volunteer.

Music Teams:

• Vocalists
• Instrumentalists
• Sound Tech
• Media Shout Tech
• Music Team Leader

Email Pastor Tim for more information or to volunteer.    tim@martensvillebaptist.com

First Impressions Team:

• Cafe 77 (Sunday Morning Coffee) Host
• Greeters
• Ushers
• First Responders
• Church Decor

Contact church office for more information or to volunteer  office@martensvillebaptist.com

MBC Youth:  Grade 6 – Grade 12

• Adult Leaders
• Prayer Partner

Contact Pastor Aaron Dalman for more information or to volunteer.   aaron@martensvillebaptist.com