THE PULSE
Compiled by Adam Miller
Ideas, insights, inspiration for you and your church
MY TURN: New directions in Duck Lake
By Pamela Bentley
Our life in Houston is often scheduled to the minute—from wake to sleep. Our kids, Benjamin, 12, and Abigail, 9, have picked this up. They often ask about the day’s agenda before it has begun. So to go to a place like Duck Lake, Saskatchewan, or any place, with a week of days open to whatever God will do was a good opportunity for us to teach our kids (and ourselves) that our schedules and comfort are not what God cares about most.
East Houston Baptist Church corralled a small team, including us, to work with North American Mission Board church planter Jason Johnson. He serves First Nations people through a variety of practical ministries, including sports camps.
From day one of this short trip we realized why God led us to this province where 144 First Nations reserves contain some of the most unreached people in Canada. Johnson showed our small team how something as simple as sports camps can create an atmosphere of openness that makes starting a church possible in a seemingly impossible place.
With no schedules, agendas, video games or kids’ events to distract us, we opened our hearts to several dozen people in Duck Lake. Our two shy kids befriended children their own age, opening doors that would have been much more difficult for adults. And our whole family came away realizing how much we’d been blessed and changed by God because we were willing to set aside our comforts and take up God’s agenda.
Pamela Bentley is a member at East Houston Baptist Church in Houston, Texas.
44 Fall 2011 •
onmission.com
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