I’m currently reading “Under The Unpredictable Plant” by Eugene Peterson. Speaking of the reality of churches
and ministries he writes “Propagandists are abroad in the land lying to us about what congregations are and can be. They are lying for money. They want to make us discontent with what we are doing so we will buy a solution from them that they promIse will restore virility to our impotent congregations. The profit-taking among those who market these spiritual monkey glands indicates that pastoral gullibility in these matters is endless.”

The most influential person [to] talk to you all day, is YOU. So you should be very careful what you say to you. -Zig Ziglar

I had the privilege of speaking at the Graduation of the “Broken Vessels”, the class of 2010 of Northeast Christian College on May 3.

Included in the class of 2010 was Charlotte Thomson from here at West Island. Congratulations to Charlotte on her accomplishments!

Sunday, April 18th was a great day of services here at West Island.

In the morning there was pretty much a full house and a great spirit of worship and praise. Following the service we had an unexpected baptism – Andre decided it was time to follow the command of Scripture and be baptized – not that evening but immediately. So into the cold water he went – what a great decision. Congratulations Andre!

The service at night had a good crowd and again a great atmosphere. The prayer time at the end was outstanding!

Don’t forget that next Sunday morning is Kids Konnection service – the children will be in the sanctuary for a special children’s service.

Cameroon

Eleven received the Holy Ghost on Easter Sunday at a Youth Crusade.

In a local church crusade, a young girl was delivered from evil spirits. She was in church the next day with nine family members who also were delivered, and decided they wanted to live for God. 

Five were baptized in Jesus’ name at a local church.

A little background:

In August 1982 the Riddick family arrived in Cameroon working with an oil company.  While they worked for the oil company, God allowed them to start the first United Pentecostal Church in Buea, Cameroon.  In 1986 the Riddick’s returned to the States and were appointed as full-time missionaries. Since then the Riddick’s have been active in ministerial training, church planting, evangelism, and building projects.  Terry Riddick has served as coordinator of the Africa Impact Team, a mobile evangelism unit built for all types of terrain.

They operate both a portable Bible school and a full-time Bible school teaching both in French and English.  The first regional missionary sent from the West Africa Sub-region is a graduate of the Cameroon Bible College and is now serving in the country of Equatorial Guinea.  Bro. Riddick also serves as the field superintendent of the UPC of Cameroon and oversees 36 licensed Cameroonian ministers.

The Riddick’s have two sons who grew up in Cameroon.  Rusty was an AIMer and later an intermediate missionary to Cameroon.  Rusty and his wife, Adriane, are presently living in Marshal, TX, and assist Rev. Daniel Lewis, Sr in the church there.  They have two sons, Todd and Ryan.  Danny, the younger of Terry and Cheryl’s sons, and wife Christy also reside in Marshal, TX.  He is the father of twins, Nicole Dianne and Nathaniel Lynn.

This past weekend we were blessed to have Charlotte Thomson, Trent Walker and Brent Isaacs representing Northeast Christian College with us to minister in the services. They did a great job leading in worship, ministering in music and song and preaching.

I came across an interesting article from the National Post titled “Putting Abortion Advocates In A Box”. It’s an interesting argument.

You can read the article here

From the email desk of Missionary T.W. Drost - General Superintendent UPC of Mexico

BIBLE SCHOOL 2010 IN MEXICO CITY.   Here is a picture of students this year 2010 in one of the Mexico City Bible school formats:

This is of the Tuesday night Bible School classes, which are held every Tuesday night from 7 to 10 pm.  We have a total of 161 students there - not all present the night we took the above picture.  It has four levels, which takes one full year to cover each level.

    Below is a picture of the fourth level students, who will be graduating in November 2010 - the three brethren with tags are some of the teachers.  We have a total of 14 teachers in all of our Bible School formats in Mexico City.

    Besides the Tuesday night Bible School classes, we also have another 47 students on Saturdays, from 9 am to 12 pm.  Then, in July, we also have a VERY intensive Summer Bible School, where last year, we had 71 students (also four levels of classes), and this year there will be more.  That format is with interns that come from other parts of the country, also.  So, in all, we anticipate over 300 students in "The Wanda Drost Pentecostal Ministries Institute" - Mexico City.

    In the rest of the country we have eight more Bible Schools.

CENTRAL DISTRICT STATISTICS.  In our monthly Pastor’s meeting, this past week (May 2nd), the Pastors in the Central District (which is only Mexico City) reported 260 baptized and 364 that received the baptism of the Holy Spirit during this past month of March.  To God be the Glory!

2011 NATIONAL CONVENTION.  The UPC of Mexico has it’s National Convention every two years, with Zonal (Regional) Conventions during the alternate years.  This past month, our National Council (General Board) decided that we would have our National Convention 2011 in the Sports Palace (Palacio De Los Deportes) in Mexico City, July 29-31, 2011.  It was also decided - each District Superintendent promising so many from their District - that our attendance goal will be to have over 15,000 at that Convention.  Yes we can, and will!  Why not plan to come and be part of revival?

    Please pray for continued revival in Mexico!

Our service on Good Friday concluded with a Baptismal Service.

Congratulations to Nicky, Casey and Vida on this great decision and step of faith and obedience!

We just finished up a great Easter Weekend and while the weekend is past the effects of it are sure to be lasting.

On Friday night (Good Friday) there was a good crowd including Pastor & Sis. Coleman Price and their family from Faith Apostolic UPC in Cornwall, ON. The choir blessed us with a great song of thanksgiving for the cross and the sacrifice of Christ which fit in well with the Communion service.

Following the prayer time at the end of the service there were three water baptisms. Congratulations to Vida Osea, Casy Fournier and Nicky Fournier as they have embarked on a new life of faith!

On Sunday things started moving at about 7:30 AM as volunteers began to load the truck to get the gear to Lindsay Place High School for the setup. By about 9:20 AM the sound and video was ready for the sound check and the auditorium was filled with the sounds of praise.

The service began with praise and worship led by Gordon Laborde who, as always, did a superlative job. The Choir, Signing Team and Stick Drama team also exceeded themselves in their presentations. Our skit suffered some equipment problems and at the last moment we drafted Nathasha to fill one of the main roles due to the sickness of one of the main characters. Kendon, Jomo and Nathasha did a great job in getting the message of Easter across.

My subject was “You Can’t Stop The Light” – the inevitability of the resurrection and the power of that same light, the life of Jesus, to shine into our darkened world today and bring light.

A new attendance record was set for our church – with 206 in attendance for the service and close to 240 in attendance for the weekend.

Thank you to everyone who invited guests, made a special effort to be in attendance and of course to all of our team who worked so hard to make the day a success. To the more than 40 volunteers who sang, served and worked so hard – Thank You!

You can view pictures from the Sunday Service on our main website. More will be added from the Good Friday service in a day or two.