Richmond Park is planting seeds in the hearts of these kids and their hope and prayer is that these seeds sprout and grow as the children keep coming and hearing stories about Jesus, making the connections and knowing that the church is a safe place.

We sat down in the zoom room with Walter Fast, Steinbach MB Church’s lead pastor to ask him how he has seen God at work over the last year. Here is what we heard…

That’s been my encouragement to all Christ followers through this pandemic – John 17 “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” This sense of our unity is meant to be the thing that causes an unbelieving world to know Jesus.

There was something about being together, warm drink in hand, bundled up and having a great conversation. It was a means to be present with each other, which is actually what I love about Christmas.

November 14 marks the end of my almost 3-year employment with MBCM as I choose to make a transition to full-time Pastoral Ministry. In 2019, I took a step in my journey of obedience and helped with a non-denominational Manitoba church plant: New City Church. For the last couple of years, I’ve been serving with the church part-time, and the time has come for me to make a more significant commitment and make my responsibilities there a primary focus.

One of the benefits of working part-time in ministry while also doing part-time studies was working through real-life situations and applying what I was learning in real-time. Rather than situations being something abstract or hypothetical, I had names for the people in the situation.

We’ve seen God at work in the increased level of engagement with new folks. Whether that’s in-person services or people saying they’ve been tracking with us online and looking forward to meeting us in-person. Many folks drive by the new building and are curious about it. There’s a ton of new people accessing the space in our new building because we’ve got a gymnasium that’s open for groups to use/rent.

During this COVID reality, we have experienced differences in opinions and perspectives around the pandemic, but overall, people have been respectful. We continue to find ways to engage in relevant conversations. In our adult Bible School, we are unpacking the book of Revelation with an approach of “let’s be ready” but not getting consumed by all the conspiracy theories.

Revitalize – that probably articulates best what we have been trying to do at Elmwood. Though the theme of ‘Revitalize’ was present to Elmwood before the pandemic hit in early 2020, it still continues through to today. Elmwood MB Church is over 100 years old, but one is never too old to hear the gospel.