Everyone’s heading home tomorrow. We hosted the wrap-up at our place, and were more than touched by the warm feelings and supportive people who we now consider our friends. Of the 40 people who came from Ontario, Vancouver, Ohio, South Carolina, California, Maryland and Iowa, we only knew maybe 8 of them from before. What a blessing to have people we don’t know come from far and wide to dream with us and begin to lay the groundwork for a new church in Medicine Hat!
All told, it looks like we have almost 500 completed surveys. 
Most were done in neighbourhoods across the south side of the city, but with the deluge that hit Medicine Hat Wednesday, Thursday and today, yesterday we elected to take a different approach and sent the teams out to coffee shops and malls to casually engage people in conversation and get a few more done that way. Then, today, before the wrap up a few of them hit the streets in their neighbourhoods again to get a few more done. Such diligence! It will take a little time to analyze the data, but we are looking forward to compiling in a list all of those people who wished to get more information about the church plant, as well as returning the results to those who requested them.
The two service projects we were able to complete touched those we served in a tangible way. From what we saw it meant a lot to them to see a big group descend and bless their socks off with hard work and sweat. My sunburn still itches from Monday afternoon!
So much more happened during this Great Canadian Adventure. Armando Padovan, our Brazilian evangelist from Toronto, met a couple last Sunday who were from Brazil. He continued to chat with them through the week and Thursday night Armando and I attended a party that we were invited to. We met 4 Brazilian couples, three of whom are Christians and really excited to see God work in Medicine Hat, both amongst Brazilians and amongst those who do not know Jesus personally yet. One man at the party actually engaged us with spiritual questions, which resulted in a 45 minute conversation where Armando, myself, and a man named Peter shared the love of Christ with him. I believe he will come to Christ if we can continue to demonstrate love and remain in a position to answer his questions.
Philip and Nathan Bryant were able to arrange several meetings with other church leaders in the community, and were able to confirm many things which I had discovered in the first few weeks in town. And reports came back in to us all week long from our survey teams of people who are very eager to hear more about our vision and see something new arise here.
Again, we haven’t analyzed all the information yet, but two things are very clear: many in the city do not believe there are many choices for young families and youth in terms of church. Also, even amongst the unchurched there is a strong desire for churches to begin to address problem youth in the city. They believe that youth in Medicine Hat do not have many options and need real mentoring, teaching, engagement and outreach by churches. This will be key to address going forward.
More once we get a grip on everything. If you came on the Great Canadian Adventure, thank you once more from the bottom of our hearts for all your efforts. You have blessed us more than you know. We are so excited to build on this base of good will and wisdom that you have built for us.
Tags: Great Canadian Adventure
