We just wrapped up a great weekend here at West Island!

On Friday we celebrated with Karl as he marked one year of sobriety. Congrats!

The Men’s Breakfast on Saturday was well attended and once again our chef, John Massicotte did a wonderful job. There was an incredible amount of food to go along with the good time of fellowship.

Saturday evening we began our Leadership Training/Intro. To Ministry which was followed by another Spirit drenched time of prayer.

Sunday we were blessed to have Bro. & Sis. Mark Noel, Sam and Zoe from Geary, NB with us in service. Bro. & Sis. Noel met here at West Island while Bro. Mark was serving here as an Assistant Pastor.

The day was capped off with a water baptism – congratulations to Philippe and our signing translators who so capably have translated information about baptism through ASL.

On Wednesday evenings we have been taking a look at the Works Of The Holy Ghost – how He works in our lives to shape us to be more like Him.

This week our subject was “faithfulness”, one of the fruits of the Spirit which carries with it the idea of reliability and loyalty. While the fruit of the Spirit are the products of His working within as we yield to Him we also should be aware of areas of our lives in need of change.

Some areas to examine ourselves in regards to faithfulness are:

1. Keeping our promises (Ecc 5:5)

2. Honoring marriage (Heb. 13:4)

3. Using our talents and abilities (1 Peter 4:10 NIV)

4. Managing our time (Eph. 5:15-16)

5. Standing by our friends (Prov 17:17)

6. Managing money (Luke 16:10-13 NLT)

7. Being our best at work (Col. 3:23 NLT)

8. Committing ourselves to the church (Rom 12:5)

1 John 4:4

4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

Calling all couples!

Tomorrow night we are going to be showing “Fireproof” – a movie about relationships that comes highly recommended. Following the movie there will be refreshments served downstairs at the church.

It all starts at 7:00 PM at the church. If you didn’t sign up you are still welcome to come and be a part of a great pre-Valentines evening!

This weeks verse is:

Romans 8:1

8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

This morning we had our first Men’s Breakfast of 2010.

Previously we had been holding them at local restaurants but, at our last meeting of 2009 decided to make the switch to have it at the church.

Our chef, John Massicotte did a great job with the preparations and cooking the food. With bacon and eggs, sausages, home fries, pancakes and toast there was more than enough food to go around.

Our subject for the morning was “The Rat Race” and the traps that we so easily fall into. Meeting at the church we were able to use the video projector for part of our teaching.

We also discussed future vision for our Men’s Ministry with a vision to build men fully committed to Christ, their families and their brothers.

It was a great way to start of the year as we concluded the meeting with Br. Thornhill leading us in the song “Bind Us Together” and prayer.

We’re believing that God is doing “greater things”!

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to do a unique duet with Susannah Vanegas.

We sang “Who Is The King Of The Jungle” in Spanish along with the requisite actions. She did a great job – I was there more for moral support.

We’re on Day 2 of our 5 day Daniel fast as we continue to ask God to move in us as individuals, in our church and in our city. Fasting is about disciplining ourselves and as Paul talked about in Corinthians, bring our bodies under subjection.

While the Daniel fast allow all the food that you want, it limits the types of foods and removes caffeine, sugar, dairy, meat, processed foods and solid fats (to name a few) from the diet. In their place are substituted vegetables and fruits along with a variety of other healthy foods.

The common consensus last night and again this morning in the Bible Study seems to be headaches and sleepiness as our bodies adjust to the absence of caffeine and sugar in particular. From some reading that I’ve done it seems that this is a part of the body “detoxing” from some of the foods that we eat.

This is the first time we as a church have had this kind of a fast and we are expecting the prayer and the discipline involved to produce eternal benefits.

“People judge you by your actions, not by your intentions. You may have a heart of gold, but so does a hard boiled egg.”
– Anonymous