Diversity: A Cause of Celebration

I live in a small town in Eastern Canada. Coming here almost six years ago was quite a change from the life that my family and I had been living for the past 17 1/2 years. Over those years as missionaries with the United Pentecostal Church, we had lived in a variety of locations on several continents. In addition to living in such compelling parts of the world, I was often privileged to travel even further beyond the areas of my residency.

My first venture into missions took me to a place called “Abak” (pronounced a-BAWK) in south=eastern Nigeria. Though it was considered to be a rural area, it still had a population in its environ of close to million people b some sources. Next I moved to a city called Enugu, also in easter Nigeria, which had well over a million people in its’ core and many more in the surrounding communities.

Our journeys took us to France, where we lived in Albertville for almost a year studying the French language. This amazing town, located in the Haute-Savoie, hosted the Winter Olympics in 1992. Within a short driving distance were cities like Geneva, Lyons, Paris, Chambery and more. It was an amazing time.

We then moved to Ouagadougou (wa-ga-DOO-goo) in Burkina Faso, again a city of about one million people, located on the upper edge of the Sahel, the region the separates the Sahara Desert from the rain forests of West Africa. Life in that city was constant hustle and bustle, as is the case throughout this region of the world.

Back to Woodstock.... I now live in a town that has about as many people as the last neighbourhood I lived in. The entire province of New Brunswick contains less people than any of the cities that I have lived in. We are talking some serious downsizing here!!

Yet as I gaze across the streets of this quaint river-side community, I discover that like most growing towns in North America, the world that I thought I left behind, has moved next door. The faces you will now see in Wal-Mart or in our grocery stores, or checking the mail downtown, reflect a diversity that must be celebrated: especially by myself and the church that I pastor.

We have a burden to reach the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Last weekend that burden was expressed in almost $65,000 being pledged through Faith Promise for the coming year. Our church website regularly is visited by people from every continent on the earth. We support missionaries that are committed to reaching their nations with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We have watched as visitors, representing these different communities have come into our services and felt the mighty presence of God. Last night we had a family join us that had emigrated from a European nation a number of years ago. Not only did I observe that one family member had to translate some of the service for another, I watched as these first time visitors reached out to an responded to the powerful moving of the Holy Ghost.

You do not have to pack your bags to reach the world. The world has come to our doorsteps!!

In a few weeks our church will celebrate an “All Nations Sunday”. It is a time of rejoicing and celebrating the beautiful reality that God is calling men of every tribe, every nation, every tongue, every color and every culture to partake of a universal promise: salvation!!