Reaching Out

Scott Lockhart, our lead pastor at Hillside Church, and his family are all excited. They decided as a family to sell hot chocolate to their neighbours outside of their home two Saturdays ago from 10:00 – 2:00. Their young daughters went door to door handing out coupons for free hot chocolate beforehand. To their surprise, by the end of that day about 50 people had showed up – some even coming through word of mouth. They repeated this outreach activity last Saturday with Chrissy, Scott’s wife, adding some of her homemade crafts to sell. Not as many showed up due to less advertisement but still the day was worthwhile. Some of their neighbours are becoming more familiar to them, which is a good thing, wouldn’t you agree? Today, being Hallowe’en, they will do it again. Please pray that new long-lasting friendships will be made in their neighbourhood.

Inch by inch your prayers are being answered. Scott is now on the Heritage College and Seminary’s Student Outreach Committee where his influence is growing week by week. The last two Wednesdays he has ventured out with some students to talk to people on the street to find anyone interested in hearing about God’s love for them. These students are learning from Scott firsthand how to have normal conversations with strangers which they never have done before. His experience from knocking on more than 1000 doors is helping to build their confidence. One gal in particular has mentioned she wants to learn more from Scott. Now he just has to get her and her friends to come to Milton to join him in door-to-door knocking to tell the residents about our church. This coming week is Outreach week at Heritage. Scott will be speaking on this topic at an open session for all students Monday. Please pray that God will give him the right words to say to capture these students’ attention so that they can realize how important it is to reach out to whichever community they find themselves in for the positive development of their future ministry.

Jesus’ great commission to his disciples after his resurrection is found in Matthew 28:19-20. He wanted his disciples to make more disciples wherever they found themselves going. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” He didn’t tell them to wait for the people to come to them; they were to take the initiative to reach out. This necessary activity is very hard but still very rewarding particularly when talking with people who are interested in listening to an encouraging message of hope.

I mentioned some time ago that through a health test, it was found that Gary has an aortic aneurism. He finally has an appointment with a specialist on November 18. We would appreciate your prayers on his behalf. Thank you!

God’s blessings to each one of you,

Wendy