“You probably heard of the mall collapse in Elliot Lake,” wrote Rev. Joan Clubine, associate pastor, of New Life Pentecostal Church in Elliot Lake in Northern Ontario. New Life sponsored its fourth campaign this September.
Finding the Hope | Trouver l’espoir Canadians are receiving the message of Hope in English and in French. Finding the Hope campaigns recently took place in the greater Moncton area in NB and also in French-speaking areas including Dieppe, NB and Gatineau, QC.
It began with a brief phone call and a simple question: How could the churches in Brighton reach our community with the Gospel? The answer to that question—Finding The Hope—spread from one pastor to another. Before long, leaders and members from area churches were meeting to pray, plan and then mobilize for one mission:
The FTH campaign took place last year, but the impact continues. This April, EHC received a letter from a 25-year-old man in a Saskatchewan jail with the words “I need God!” in large bold letters. He asked for a copy of 7 Days with Jesus and for EHC to pray for him.
A Montreal senior was so anxious to receive a copy of 7 Jours avec Jésus (7 Days with Jesus) that she wrote to EHC using what she had at hand—a dinner napkin. The lady, who lives in a retirement home, didn’t even live in the north end, where the Église Chrétienne d’Ahuntsic campaign occurred.
The Moncton FTH campaign, the most extensive in Canada to date, proved that intensive prayer and advertising has a positive impact in making a FTH campaign effective. The campaign reached 85,640 homes. It led to several hundred visits to www.findingthehope.com and over 200 requests for follow up to date.
Two more churches are sponsoring FTH campaigns in 2012: South Portage Baptist church in Nashwaak Bridge, NB, and Living Hope Lutheran church in Beaumont, AB. In Nashwaak Bridge, a rural community just outside Fredericton, the FTH gospel packets will go to people in 833 homes starting May 7.
Eglisa de la Vie Abondante of Cowansville, QC, campaign sponsored Canada’s first French-only campaign. The pastor and congregation have long-term plans to do a little more in their community each year until the entire town is covered. This year they reached 1,127 homes in early March.
In recent weeks, thousands in seven Canadian communities have received Finding the Hope booklets in the mail. Please pray that they will open their hearts to the Lord. Many have asked for follow up material, and pastors tell us new families have come to their churches.
The FTH packets are now arriving in people’s homes. As part of the follow through, on Sunday March 25, 2012, Denys Blackmore, Executive Director of Every Home for Christ, will speak at Glad Tidings Church on Mountain Road, at 9 am and 11 am. At 6 pm, there is a Prayer Moncton rally at
