For the afternoon we went again to Rock Church, but this time for Dive Deeper. The Tidal Impact organizing team arranged to have a wide selection of workshops for the youth to attend where they learned about and practiced spiritual disciplines. This was stretching for many of the youth - most good things are.

Monday morning we began our morning ministries for the week. After morning prayer, some of our combined team headed off to the the Basketball Camp we are running this week. With Minister JB as head coach, this was a great success! Others from our team stayed at EBC for Adventure Camp.

As you may know, this week is Tidal Impact week! We have a team of 11 youth and 3 leaders participating alongside hundreds of youth and leaders form around the Maritimes. The way that Tidal Impact works is fairly simple - churches in two local areas [in 2017 they are Halifax and South Shore / Bridgewater] host churches from elsewhere. Together local and visiting church youth groups form one team and serve God in the community of the local church. For 2017 are NMBC youth & leaders are partnered with Emmanuel Baptist in Hammonds Plains.

For Christmas in the Orchard this year the children in Sprouts, our Sunday morning preschool group, filmed a video about following the star to see Jesus.

We love new Christmas Traditions! This year we launched a brand new children's program on Wednesday nights for grades 3-5 called The Grove. It's been an incredible new group that the children look forward to every week! This month we started a new Grove Christmas Tradition - We filmed a music video to be shown at Christmas in the Orchard.

All that we have comes from God. We have the privilege and task of wisely and joyfully managing his resources. How do we do this? Like this woman’s example, we are to delight in making much of Jesus with all we’ve been given. What we do with money, whether God has entrusted us with a little or a lot, reveals much about where our heart is (Matthew 6:21). It’s not easy.

Through Christ’s resurrection power in us, let’s reckon ourselves dead to our old, self-serving ways, and instead be committed to believe and assume the best in one another. Let’s take care not to fall into Satan’s trap of rash judgements. James tells us that it’s best to be “slow to speak, slow to anger” and “quick to hear” (James 1:19). The more caring insight and empathy we have for one another, the more trust and goodwill we will have in our church family. There’s an ongoing battle for souls, but it’s this kind of love that will result in better resolutions to the difficulties and challenges we face. Best of all, it’s also this kind of love that will bomb blast the Devil right out of here!

As the sign outside our church this week reads: “If you see someone without a smile, give them yours.” This same principle, in Jesus’ name, can be extended to say, “If you see someone without hope, given them yours. If you see someone without grace, give them yours. If you see someone without love, given them yours. If you see someone without strength (ready to collapse), give them yours.”

As you may have already heard, 40 children last Sunday are now connected with loving sponsors. You have truly made a difference in the world - thank you! We are glad to partner with Compassion Canada (International) in this endeavor as a church. They are one of the world’s leading child development organizations. I love how they are a Christ-centered ministry who work closely with over 6,500 local churches in 26 countries to end poverty in the lives of children and their families.

Tomorrow is our first Sunday back to our regular Sunday schedule so I thought I'd write a quick Saturday night post to make all the details clear... Can't wait to see you all tomorrow! Pay attention to the announcements - there are lots of exciting events coming up!

It’s been awhile since I meandered about music. Music is one of God’s great gifts to us.  This past week I’ve been enjoying All Sons & Daughters' newest album. They are a Christian worship duo (Leslie Anne Jordan & David Alan Leonard) who perform in an acoustic, folk sound. They are very committed to their church where they lead worship.

A few weeks ago we were blessed to have some family stay with us. My six year old nephew has a very inquisitive mind. His eyes never seemed to stop surveying every centimeter of each room he entered. Like a bee tenaciously seeking pollen, he would open drawers, cupboards, closet doors, opening any container he discovered, insatiably looking to pollinate his curious mind. I found myself repeatedly saying to him, “Please, ask me first, before you go opening and taking things out.”