At the Northwest District Conference, I was to present our vision for Medicine Hat, to let the 15 other churches in our district know what it is we wanted to do.  90% of the churches are in the Yakima Valley of Washington State, and most of those people have never been to Canada, let alone Alberta.  I was prompted by God to write this introduction to my message, and I have had many people tell me how thought provoking and poetic it was.  Good thing I can’t take credit for it.  I wanted to share it with you.

Imagine, if you will, our journey through our eyes. Close your eyes if you want.

Picture the sharp spires of the Rocky Mountains reflected on the mirror calm waters of Lake Louise.

As you follow the Trans-Canada Highway past Banff’s idyllic mountain setting, you can see the mountains begin to get lower, like God’s hand is smoothing out a blanket. High Rockies, thick with pine trees give way to foothills and the trees become naturally thinner and bunched on the backs of the hillsides.

You see on the horizon the tall buildings of Downtown Calgary, a city fuelled by oil and teeming with a million Canadians. But yet your heart does not linger there. The road goes on, out into the breadbasket of the world.

Places like the Yakima valley contain farmland between mountain ranges but here, field of grain go out in all directions beyond the horizon. Here and there, steel donkeys bob slowly, pulling oil and natural gas from the earth. The prairie is beautiful and amazing in its vastness.

Suddenly, as you crest a rise, a valley opens beneath you – the confluence of the South Saskatchewan and Seven Persons Creek. The land undulates here, with fascinating coulees and a small city.

A city needing Jesus.

You are home.

Entering the Hat Christmas 2009

Known as the “oasis of the prairie” for its parks and greenery, the City of Medicine Hat is the major urban centre in southeast Alberta and is the southeast entrance to Alberta’s industrial corridor.  Medicine Hat is also the sunniest city in all of Canada!

Population: 61 thousand

Area: 112 square km

Altitude: 721m (2365 feet) above sea level

Sunshine: 2512 hours per year

Geography

The South Saskatchewan River runs through the heart of Medicine Hat.  Ross Creek and Seven Persons Creek also wind through the city creating scenic coulees and steep terrain.  The city os divided into four quadrants and fourteen diverse neighbourhoods.  The east-west boundary is Division Avenue while the north-south boundary is the South Saskatchewan River.  Streets run east-west; avenues run north-south.

Distances from Other Cities

Cypress Hills 66km/41mi

Lethbridge 168km/105mi

Calgary 409km/256mi

Edmonton 608km/380mi

Swift Current, SK 217km/136mi

Regina, SK 478km/299mi

USA Border (Wildhorse) 146km/91mi

Havre, MT 218km/136mi

Climate

Sunset on Highway 3

As Canada’s sunniest City, Medicine Hat has the longest growing season in Alberta (188+ days).  Summer temperatures average 20 degrees Celsius (68 Fahrenheit).  Spring and autumn are generally sunny and mild.  Low humidity makes both summer and winter easier to take.  In winter, a Chinook wind can raise the temperature by as much as 34 degrees Celsius (93 Fahrenheit) in one day, an experience never to be forgotten!  The Chinook is a warm, dry wind that descends the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in winter.

Mean Daily Temperatures

July 23°C (73ºF)

August 22ºC (72°F)

December -8ºC (19ºF)

January -13ºC (9ºF)

Regional Hospital: an accedited 325 bed acute and continuing care facility.

Medicine Hat College: a progressive institution serving more than 2500 students.

Family Leisure Centre: a state-of-the-art facility with large aquatic centre, wave pool, ice arena and much more.

Esplanade: Medicine Hat’s Museum, Art Gallery, Archives and Performing Arts Centre.

Parks System: boasts more than 100 parks, an extensive environmental reserve, and 92km of trails for walking and cycling.

Regional Shopping Destination: largest shopping centre in southeast Alberta including malls, power centres and unique boutique shops in our downtown.

Public Library: a full-service adult and children’s library with collections totalling more than 180,000.

Airport: Regional Air service to Calgary International Airport.

Made in Medicine Hat

Among the products manufactured in Medicine Hat are tires for automobiles and heavy equipment, clay brick, pottery clays, granulated urea and anhydrous ammonia fertilizers, thermal carbon black, catalyst compounds for petrochemical and gas processing, compressors, playground equipment, flour, cereals and feeds, commercial printing and publishing, industrial and military un-manned vehicles and systems.

Cypress Hills

The Cypress Hills rise up to 600 metres above the surrounding prairie, to a maximum elevation of 1468m (4816 feet), making it the highest point between the Rocky Mountains and Labrador.   The Cypress Hills are Canada’s first interprovincial park, designated in 1989, and include provincial parks in Alberta and Saskatchewan and the Fort Walsh National Historic Site.

Approximately 700 species of plants and animals thrive in the park, including 14 species of orchids.  The park protects the Cypress Hills landscape, which consists of elevated blocks of lush forest, wetlands and fescue grasslands surrounded by dry, mixed prairie.

In 2007 the new Cypress Hills Visitor Centre opened in the Elkwater townsite, offering visitor information and a gift shop.  Key park features include the Elkwater townsite (a cottage community sitting at the same elevation as the Banff townsite), Horseshoe Canyon and Reesor Lake viewpoints (offering 100km views on a clear day), over 50km of hiking and cross-country ski trails, lakes, camping, fishing, and wildlife viewing.  Additional services include a 9 hole grass green golf course, Hidden Valley Ski Area, excellent fly-fishing areas, accommodation options and tourist services.

Cost of Living

Utility Costs

Why is it called “The Gas City”?  Vast reservoirs of high quality natural gas were discovered beneath the city in 1893 and continue to benefit today’s residents by providing revenue for the city and helping to keep the city’s utility rates among the lowest in Canada.

Tax Advantages

It’s a great combination.  Medicine Hat’s residents enjoy some of the lowest property taxes and most favourable income tax rates in all of Canada.  On top of that, you won’t pay any provincial sales taxes on any goods you buy.

Provincial Income Taxes

Our personal income tax system is very competitive with low personal income tax rates.  Alberta has no General Sales Tax and the lowest tax rate on gasoline in the country.

At 10 percent, Alberta has the lowest top marginal income tax rate on personal income in the country.  Keeping the top rates low provides an incentive for people to work harder, be more productive and save more.  Alberta’s tax system is not only competitive but fair.   We have the highest basic and spousal allowances in Canada, at $15,435 for 2007.  This means that Alberta residents can earn more money before having to pay any provincial income tax.  A working family with twochildren can earn up to $38,200 before paying any provincial income tax because the Alberta Family Employment Tax Credit will offset any taxes paid at that income level.

City Property Taxes

Property Taxes and Utility costs combined, Medicine Hat has the third lowest average of any major city in Canada, only surpassed by St. John’s, NL and Surrey, BC.

Housing

Moving to Medicine Hat from larger cities can be a pleasant surprise when it comes to buying a home.  The cost of housing here compares with other cities in Alberta as well as other provinces.  Average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment is around $660.

Landfill

The city’s landfill is located 3km off Highway 41A, just past city limits.  Household hazardous waste is accepted free of charge year round.

Local Radio and TV

MY96 – 96.1FM “Today’s best music”

New Country CHAT – 94.5FM (Country & Western)

Alive 99.5FM (Christian Music)

Rock 105.3 “The Hat’s Best Rock”

98.3FM CBC Radio 1 rebroadcasted from Calgary

CHAT TV – channel 6 and 3 – local TV

The pace of life in a big city is a bear – it eats your time, it eats your money, it eats your energy for the important things in life (like God, and family).  One thing that factored into our call to Medicine Hat (though by no means the most important) was making a decision for our family and our own health.  This writer in San Francisco has begun to question his life in the big city and interviews two other people who already have made the decision to choose the smaller town over the big city.  Read their thoughts and consider if this might not be something God has for you.

Big City Blues: Could a More Affordable Life, Away from the Bay Area, Actually Be Better?

She was telling me of a conversation with a lady in there with her new daughter, and how that woman was telling her she doesn’t go to church, has a vague sense of something holy and eternal but very little curiousity beyond that.  Digging deeper, she discovered that the woman was the daughter of a single Mom, and when they went to church when she was young, she was treated poorly because she “didn’t have a Daddy” – both by the other children and by adults in the church.  Subsequently, her mother continued to send her to Sunday school but ceased to go herself because of the people at church looking down on her.  Now, she has much the same desire – she knows her child needs to be instructed spiritually but knows she can’t do it, so she wants to send her to Sunday School – of course, her daughter will value it just as much or little as she does as long as her mother models its lack of importance in her life.

She is not the first person to tell us a story like this.  It is a story that has been repeated so much I seriously question what the heck was up with Christians 20 years ago.  It makes me wonder how much of the spiritual apathy that we are reaping today is the tragic result of thousands upon thousands of people who desperately needed the love of Jesus demonstrated by his body, but were soured. By what?  By  judgemental, sour, unloving people who were sitting in their pews and tsk-tsking the fruits of the “free love 60′s”.  In the meantime, the children of those Hippies, who only had the vaguest sense of church as something important but their parents lumped it into their rebellion, tried to come back to church but were turned away at the door because of sins that they may have not even been aware were sins.

What a disgusting mess we are in!  We are now facing two generations of adults whose experiences with church have been that of judgement and shame.  When Cheryl told me how lucky I was that I was saved in a church that showed real love for each other and the lost, and every church we have ever gone to had done that as best they could, I keep thinking that this is how most churches are.  But they aren’t are they?

I’ve just been working in the last few days on an application for a church planter’s assessment.  In one of the questions they as what makes me so sure that I am called to be a church planter.  Well, this sense of offense, of righteous anger, that so many churches are now continuing this sad trend and people are being driven away from the loving arms of Christ by people who expect the world to REPENT! and be done with sin.  I want to be a part of creating a new body, a body of renewal, that demonstrates this love in such a loud, brash, overwhelming manner to her community that people, even atheists, stand up and point and say, “Now THAT’S what a church should look like!”

It’s a lofty goal.  And if it were simply up to me, I would probably fail.  But I trust that God is in this enterprise, and his will, will be done.

On top of work, of course this is our big “Great Canadian Adventure” Week here in Surrey.  We have 46 people up from two churches – Ripon, CA and Ashland, OH.  They have been incredible servants and we’ve seen some powerful things happen as we serve alongside them.  I’ve been running the Yard Cleanup teams, and the reaction of people to completely free acts of service as big as yard cleanup has been amazing.  I myself have had 3 families tell me they will be at church on Sunday because of this – others I have talked to said there could be as many as 10-15.  Cheryl and I also had the opportunity to speak to the teams about our vision for Medicine Hat.  What a privelege!  More to come in our newsletter, which we will be emailing probably this weekend.

Anyways quick points:

• Thanks goes to Mike Silliman, fellow Grace Brethren Church Planter back east for the encouragement.  Check out his blog – he does good posts that really make you think.
• I found a neat Scripture memory application that I am going to try and talk Cheryl into letting me buy… when we have a moment to actually… you know… talk or something.  Yes, we are that busy this week!
• Just ran across a very good article (as usual) by Jonathan Dodson.  Advice for a 1st Year Planter.  I’ll be reviewing this article next year for sure.

Until next time!