Our Canadian Conference

We pulled into the church’s parking lot Thursday night, just before dark. The border crossing went smoothly. I had pre-filled import paperwork ahead of time, and all that was left was one form, which had to be done on their computer. We were grateful for how quickly everything moved along!

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Manitoba definitely has more daylight hours this time of year than we experience in Kansas. Friday morning, we awoke feeling refreshed after a solid night’s sleep.

Here  are some aspects of being in Canada that I especially enjoyed this weekend.

    • When we were out walking and passed a sweet older couple, the man remarked, “It’s a lovely day.”
    • The Canadian accents, along with some who had German and Russian accents. Canadians also have great voice inflection.
    • Signs in French.
    • Quaint town names such as St. Jean Baptiste.
    • Hometown restaurants, bakeries, speciality shops, etc.
    • Friendliness, generosity, and Canadian hospitality.

God is very gracious to us, and it was again exciting to see Him work. Set up went smoothly. I don’t know how the time went so quickly on Friday, but before we knew it, it was 5 pm. This business session was our first time giving it in Canada, and it went fine. There were several business owners, but most were just interested in entrepreneurship and home businesses. After that, we moved into the sanctuary for the concert and Be Inspired! The younger five added an acapella Holy, Holy, Holy to their repertoire. I know I’m biased, being their sister, but I thought it was beautiful. They invest much time in practicing and refining their music, and they bless many families through it. We enjoyed meeting blog readers and making many new friends.

On Saturday morning, it was cold and windy. Since the end of February, we’ve been in winter, spring, summer, autumn, spring, winter, spring, and winter (all in that order). The bus’ heaters kept it nice and cozy, though.

The Saturday sessions ran smoothly. God has such clear purposes in every location He brings us to, and we know He will use the words spoken for His work. This weekend, the number of young people outnumbered the parents, which was unusual. In addition, they were very attentive, which is a delight.

We had many opportunities to encourage brothers and sisters in Christ. May the Lord bring fruit for His glory.

We also heard many incredible stories: a young lady who was in a severe accident five years’ ago, but her life was spared, and she is a living testimony to Him; families that have immigrated to Canada and overcome hardship, including learning another language; and families that began life in Manitoba with virtually nothing.

Thank you for standing with us in prayer. God works above and beyond what we could imagine or think.

Delighting in Jesus,
Sarah

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Practicing Friday afternoon.

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Taking the coat-rack route to the next session. That’s one thing about being up north: they have tons of coat racks, another sign of the cold winters.

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Fellowship.

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Dad’s room was full.
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There were many babies and little children at the conference.
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I walked out of the sanctuary and grabbed this picture.

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Jesse saying good-bye to someone.

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“Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done,
and thy thoughts which are to us-ward:
they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee:
if I would declare and speak of them,
they are more than can be numbered.”
Psalms 40:5

6 thoughts on “Our Canadian Conference”

  1. Thankyou for blessing us up here in Steinbach Manitoba. We trully appricated the words of wisdom shared.

  2. Dear Maxwells,

    I am so glad that you had such an enjoyable and fruitful time in Canada and that you were kept safe. I particularly appreciated the blog this morning as I have been wallowing a little in self pity and feeling overwhelmed, and this reminded me that the Lord does work in our lives for reasons beyond our control and understanding. It also reminded me that many others experience hard times and that turning to God is the only way through. Thank you for sharing and I keep you in my prayers.

    I also want to wish Teri a Happy Mother’s Day. I thought of her on Sunday when my family were treating me.

    Love, Cate N.

  3. Thank you for this report and photos on your Canadian conference. Looks like you all had a very good turnout of folks–especially lots of young people. 🙂 I’m sure many hearts were touched by your messages and music. Continued prayers as you travel and work for our Lord.
    Love, Mrs. Patti 🙂

  4. Sarah; Your pictures are fantastic. Have you ever thought of taking family pictures? You have a true gift capturing your family and your conferences. Everyone looks so relaxed in your pictures which is not easy to do.
    You really are an excellant photo-journalist capturing events.
    >>>>>>>>>>>
    Cathie–
    Thanks for your kind comment. I love capturing photos for the blog, but I haven’t made it into a business. My time is filled to the capacity with other projects, so I prefer to keep the photography with sharing our lives with you all, which I delight in doing!

    Sarah

  5. So glad ya’ll made it safely. We sang that song at church this past Sunday, and it is still one of my favorites. I have been humming it and singing it in my head all week.

    Love you all!

    In Christ,
    Lori

  6. Thank-you so much for comming to Canada. I had an extremly blessed time at the conference. You all did a great job with the youth sessions and it is greatly appreciated.It was just what I needed at this time in my life!
    >>>>>>>>>>
    We loved coming and the hearts of those who came.

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