One of These Things Is Not Like the Other …

Hi again!

What was the red colour that caught my eye as I walked past the purple planter that was sitting on our front porch on a chair?  I had planted purple and white pansies there early in the spring. (By the way I recently learned that if you deadhead the old pansy flowers the plant won’t become so straggly and more flowers will continue to appear.  Always something to learn!) Upon further investigation I saw that it was a small impatiens plant that somehow had implanted itself at the front of the container.  What a surprise! Now that it is late summer this unexpected sprout has flourished taking over one third of the planter. It has actually become a very pretty display of flowers.  “One of These Things (Is Not Like the Others)” is a favourite song for young children from the television program, Sesame Street.  My red impatiens is definitely not like the purple and white pansies. 

As a follower of Jesus Christ do you ever find yourself not like the “others” in a group who don’t want to have anything to do with Jesus? This could be at your place of employment, at a family reunion or in a classroom setting.  Their burdens seem to be so much heavier, their lives so much more messed up.  2 Corinthians 2:15-16 reads, “For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.  To the one we are the smell of death; to the other the fragrance of life.”  We probably will never know how much our “fragrance” can permeate throughout that group for good or bad.  Let us pray that it will flourish like my red impatiens.

Your prayers for our ministry are being answered.  A donor provided funds for a new computer for Gary.  He could never have survived with all the needed Milton survey data input and reporting without this new technology. Marion, a summer student, was hired for our government employment program three weeks ago.  She is doing a super job calling into one particular neighbourhood in Milton and recording the results of surveys taken.  She has found about 40 households who were willing to take the survey and some of these interested in hearing more about our church start.  Scott Lockhart will train two more students this week.  Soon, we will be able to move onto the next neighbourhood with the hope of meeting these new friends come November and our official launch, if all goes well with COVID and its limitations it has imposed on all our churches.  Please pray that many will see that they are not like the “others” in our church and will want to change.  Scott is also doing a great job on his Judges series he is presenting on our weekly online service at 10:00 a.m. (or any time after) – facebook.com/hillsidechurchmilton/live.  He is still looking for an apartment and employment in Milton.

Our church supports Thomas, his family and ministry in Myanmar.  He just let us know today that while they were at a church meeting, a wall in front of his house broke which caused severe flooding and damage to his home.  Please pray that this family will find another place to live right away and resources to cover the next step in their lives.

We are very grateful for your continuing prayers and support that sadly “others” do not have to keep going particularly during these stressful days.

Stay healthy,

Wendy

Wendy.carter@kainos.org

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