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GOD STRENGTHENS US THROUGH THE GOSPEL

Romans 16:25a (ESV) “Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ,”

With a one-hearted voice we thank and praise God for blessing our Montreal-Ottawa Easter Bible retreat which was held on March 25-27, 2016 at L’Ermitage Ste. Croix in Pierrefonds, Québec. As we got together we realized that Montreal and Ottawa UBF, with Pastor Samuel and m. Rebekah Lee, have been working together for the gospel in Eastern Canada for 20 years now! God brought 60 attendants to our retreat and we prayed that God would renew our strength to live for him and evangelize the campuses. M. Melissa gave us a short, epic, spirit-filled introduction to the theme of the conference. Since human beings are often weary, vulnerable to temptation, stressed with challenges and tired from carrying out long-term commitments to God we all need strength. How does God strengthen people? It is through the gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, and that is what we heard and received through the retreat. On Friday m. David gave us a beautiful message from Isaiah 52:13- 53:6 called, “Jesus Suffered For Our Healing and Peace.” Sometimes our lives are like wounded soldiers or athletes with a bum knee but Jesus heals us because he suffered and died in our place as our substitute. After the message we had interactive sharing and then an event called, “Beautiful Exchange”. During this event we had open prayer with worship music. We put up a wooden cross that the HBF group had made that week. Everyone wrote down one sin they wanted Jesus to forgive them for on black paper. Then people went up to the cross and pierced the paper onto nails that were in the place of Jesus’ hands and feet. After that some of the leaders tore up the black pieces of paper as a sign of Jesus’ forgiveness. Many of the attendants including myself were deeply moved by remembering Jesus death for our sins in such a vivid way. 

On Saturday morning s. Marcel gave us powerful message on John 2:13-22 called, “Destroy This Temple”. S. Marcel showed us how the love of money and legalism weaken our relationship with God but Jesus is offers freedom from fear and loss by his promised resurrection. We meditated, wrote and shared reflection testimonies on this passage. In the evening, s. Rita and Joshua shared very gracefully about how they connected and were strengthened in relationship with God by this message. Also on Saturday evening m. Pierre gave a wonderful message called, “The Name of Jesus Made Him Strong” from Acts 3:1-16.  We learned that nothing in this world can compare as a source of strength than Jesus’ name. J-E-S-U-S. Many of the young people really liked m. Pierre`s message and we prayed that Jesus name would be made known through each one of us.   We heard wonderful life testimonies from b. Emmanuel (Carleton) and s. Althea (U. Montréal) that left us amazed at God`s work in their lives. To complete the evening Luke jr, Steven and Johnny served us with worship by their praise band.  

On Sunday morning s. John gave the message, “The Triumph of Life” based on Matthew 28:1-10. In one way or another we are all headed for disappointment, but not when we really take in the good news of the Risen Jesus. When the news of Jesus’ resurrection really hits us we have no disappointments and we become messengers like the women at the tomb.  To complete our conference many of us shared a communion service. Many of the attendants and co-workers thanked God for the wonderful theme of the gospel that we shared and many of us felt new peace and strength. I also really thank God for bringing b. Ken from Ottawa who served us with heavenly harp music as well as the HBF orchestra and all those who served the conference with music. Truly the beauty, power and strength of the gospel is unending and I thank God for his presence with us this Easter weekend.