A Note from the Leadership Core

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God Dreams for Altadore Baptist Church - As we look to the future of ABC’s place in God’s ministry, the Leadership Core is putting together a ‘Dream Team’ to work with Pastor Judy & the outside research consultant approved by the membership last October. Major focus of this research will be on serving new Canadians (refugees, immigrants) and First Nation neighbours. Applications have been received for the contracted position and we are pleased that the Mount Royal College faculty has decided that our position qualifies as course credit for students in the Policy Studies program. We expect to hire later in April.

Worship Service Support - As noted at the Business Meeting on March 4th, Richard C has been hired to musically support Sunday morning services for up to 3 Sundays per month and Phil D has been hired to musically and/or vocally lead Sunday worship services for 2 Sundays per month. Pastor Judy will serve as the Sunday worship service coordinator. We are blessed with many individuals in the congregation who have various gifts to participate in our worship services.

Facilities Update - Work has been done around the church such as repairing one of the furnaces in the sanctuary, installing shelving in the new storage room, replacing expired fire extinguishers and testing emergency lights, and installing weather stripping around the exterior doors. Note that recently one our renters experienced some theft from the lobby while they were elsewhere in the building; we remind everyone not to leave personal belongings or keys unattended in the lobby or kitchen during the service.

Easter Offering

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We would like to again bless High River Baptist church and their Foothills Growing Project with our Easter offering.  The Foothills Growing Project consists of local farmers donating a portion of their acres to go toward raising funds for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. It is an opportunity for us to come alongside them to help end hunger by giving money towards the cost of seeds and fertilizer which amounts to $250 per acre.  The 2018 Foothills Growing Project is 115 acres and the crops this year include:  30 acres of barley, 58 acres of wheat, and 27 acres of hay.  Last year the Foothills Growing Project raised $50,000 which was then matched by CIDA for a total of $250,000!

Holy Week Activities

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During Lent we journey together toward the cross and remember the death and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This year our Holy Week (March 25 to April 1st) activities are as follows:

Prayer Labyrinth, Wed 28 & Thur 29, 4-7 pm, Gym

Maundy Thursday Communion Service 7 pm

Good Friday Service First Baptist, 11 am

Easter Sunday Service, 10 am, followed by Hot Cross Buns & coffee in the gym

Mission Trip to Thailand

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Dennis Shierman is leading a pastor’s mission trip to Thailand. There will be 6 pastors from across Canada including Pastor Judy.  Dennis and Judy would love your prayers as they go. They will be travelling Mar. 8 – 19th. The trip involves attending the graduation at the seminary in Chiang Rai (the most northern part of Thailand) and the team will be conducting continuing education workshops for the alumni from the seminary, for whom the week of graduation is like a home-coming week. Each of the 3 workshops will be offered twice, once in Thai and once in Chinese. In addition to this, the team will visit some of the churches in Chiang Mai and in Myanmar, as well as some of the social justice ministries that the Thai churches are doing in the region. Conrad and Fiona Kwok, our CBM missionaries on the ground there are coordinating all this and the team hopes to bless them as well. The Shiermans would appreciate prayer for safe travel, health and effective ministry while there.

Praying in the New Year!

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Welcoming a New Year can be a time of celebration, but it is also an opportunity to remember and to plan.  We are looking for volunteers to help us with a 24 hour prayer vigil for our church family and future as we move into 2018.  Please participate in this by signing up for a 1 hour time slot between 12 pm on Dec 31 and 12 pm on Jan 1.  Each volunteer will be given a small list of names from our congregation and a few specific items of praise and petition to guide you as you spend your hour with God.

Advent Giving Opportunities

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This year we, at Altadore Baptist Church, have chosen to share our blessings in support of the children who live at the Alcove Addiction Recovery for Women housing up the street. A Giving Tree has been set up in the lobby, which we will decorate with small toys, books, puzzles, diapers, baby wipes, toques or mittens.  Cash donations are also welcome but envelopes must be clearly marked Alcove, not just Advent.

We will also be giving to the CBM Hopeful Gifts For Change catalogue in the area of Children’s Education, to provide for school fees, uniforms & other school needs. For donations towards this project, please use an Advent envelope or one marked Advent.  Thank you for your generosity.  May God truly be with you this Christmas!

 

Altadore Informal, Sunday Nov 19

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As a continuation of our series on ‘Understanding Our Neighbour’, we are thrilled to announce that Rabbi Osadchey from the Beth Tzedec Synagogue and Imam Syed Hadi Hasan from the Hussaini Association will be joining us.  They are looking forward to helping us gain understanding of our Jewish and Muslim neighbours, and will be answering any of the questions we have. Do plan to join us and please bring an ethnic dish to share during our potluck lunch following our discussion.

Opportunity Sunday

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Sunday, Oct 15th, after the service, in the gym. Thank you to our Ministry Teams for hosting such a great Opportunity Sunday in September!  Some great fellowship and fun was had checking out the many ways that our congregation comes together to serve the Lord, each other and our community...except of course we know that not ALL of you were able to be there!  So we will have a mini version this coming Sunday after church.  Bring your calendars, stop by the table to see all the work God is doing in our church and community and see if God is calling you to serve in some new way.  You will also have the opportunity to sample the dip that won our little contest on Opportunity Sunday. 

Foothills Growing Project Harvest Celebration

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Sunday Oct 22, 10:30 am, High River Baptist Church - Our Good Soil / Canadian Foodgrains Bank project partners have invited us to join them for a time of fellowship, good food and celebration for the harvest!  They will be providing Beef on a Bun following the service. If you are able to bless their feast with your favorite family Thanksgiving dessert it would be most welcomed. Please meet Dennis S & Sharon L at the church at 9:15 am if you wish to carpool with them.  Pastor Judy will be travelling down after our service as well if you wish to join her.

Please note that we will still be accepting monetary and food offerings for CBM She Matters and the Tsuu T’ina food bank up to and including Sunday, October 15th.

 

High River Good Soil Update

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Dawn G writes: It has been a very dry year for us and crop yields are just below average. Having said that we were pleasantly surprised at the yields...during the harvest.  ...To date we have crop sales of $17,000 from 90 acres of the 115 acres [that were] sponsored!!  We will have final numbers when the final canola comes in and we have our final costs in place.  It will still be a very successful project!!  Please plan to join our Good Soil partners for the Harvest Celebration which will take place at High River Baptist after worship on Sunday October 22, 2017.

Thanksgiving Offering

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Our Thanksgiving offering this year will be giving to the Canadian Baptist Ministries’ She Matters 4 campaign. This initiative is raising funds to help with empowering women, through education and leadership training opportunities with a special concentration this year on Indigenous women in Canada and throughout the world. More information about this project can be found on the www.cbmin.org web-site under Get Involved/Campaigns.

As part of our Thanksgiving sharing, please also bring non-perishable food or household supplies as you are able. This year we are planning to support the start up initiatives of the food banks for the Tsuu T’ina and Morley First Nations. Please bring food items to the church on Thanksgiving Sunday, where we will actively give them to God and then others. Please choose from the following items and be sure to check that nothing is already out-of-date. If you aren’t going to be here at Thanksgiving, you can drop off your donation during regular office hours either before Thanksgiving or the week after.

Outreach Update

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Many thanks to everyone who donated $1460 to CBM’s Sudan’s relief appeal, which will be matched by the Canadian Government. 

Our annual budget amount of $700 was sent to Inn from the Cold in May to take advantage of Claire’s Campaign, which was matched by three private donors.  The Campaign raised $1,018,752!  See the poster and note of thanks on the lobby bulletin board.

Family Focused Sunday Services

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Throughout the summer we are going to celebrate families.  On the Sunday of each long weekend, July 2nd, August 6th and September 3rd, we will have an Interactive Family Worship Service. This means that all ages will worship together for the whole service. There will be no Sunday school or nursery, but there will be plenty of interaction together. Please do plan to
join us each Sunday.