Brian and Liz Hebert Prayer Letter: God Has Been Faithful to Me in 2023!

Thank you all so much for being our partners in the Gospel ministry! It’s been a good year, perhaps the best year of ministry life I’ve experienced thus far. As I reflect on the year, I see the patient guiding hand of my Saviour leading me to fulfill my purpose in ways I didn’t know were possible. I’m still learning many things about ministry, the Christian life, and marriage, wherein I didn’t realize I was deficient; but God has been faithful to lead when I’ve been willing to follow. I trust you have found the same to be true in your life; there is no faith placed in God that isn’t rewarded somehow. This year I can boldly say, “God is faithful.”

In November, we had two different Youth Rally/Conferences that our teens took part in. The first was a Youth Rally that a friend and fellow labourer in Ontario has spearheaded as the beginning of a series of regional Youth Conferences. It was a blessing to have Dilbah (mentioned in our last prayer letter) come to this meeting when it’s been otherwise difficult to get her to come to youth meetings. She doesn’t speak English, but she understands love, kindness, and fun—particularly foosball, which she discovered for the first time recently. My wife used Google Translate throughout the meeting, but especially in the preaching. Please pray for her salvation. We had a good turnout for the London Youth Conference, where our newest teenagers made a pledge of purity. We had such a great time being challenged and encouraged in the Lord.

Throughout November and December, we were preparing for our annual Christmas program. This year, my wife and I had parts, which we found to be significantly more challenging than just being the encouragers. We played the part of a mom and dad who were missionaries to India trying to help their three struggling kids cope with the true meaning of Christmas while being homesick on the mission field. Three of Pastor Johnston’s kids played the role of our children, and on several occasions, we had a good laugh about them being “our kids.” It went well . . . I think. The kids did an amazing job! I’m so pleased with the whole production. The Gospel was given in the play and when the message was preached.

Once the play was over, we started the long trek to see our parents for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. It’s always a challenging trip because of distance, but it all melts away when we get to see our loved ones again. There were a lot of card games, a lot of shopping, a lot of laughs, and plenty of tears as we drove away yet again. One blessing of the trip I’ll mention is that my dad came to church to hear me preach for the first time ever! I already had a Gospel message planned for Christmas Eve Sunday, and I’m glad I did, because he heard it gladly. We enjoyed getting to update a few of our supporting churches and to see a few familiar and new faces in each place.

Soul winning and discipleship press on even in this cold season. Please pray for me as I disciple our teenagers, as well as a couple of men in our church. One is a relatively new convert, and the other has been saved for some time but is recovering from a rough patch in his life. It’s such a blessing to see lives restored by the grace of God and to encourage young believers in the faith; I just love what I get to do! Pray for me as I continue to follow up on contacts made this past year. Pray that God opens the hearts of Roozbeh, Ezat, Andrew, Benny, Hamid, Thomas, Joben, Etca, Raymond, Alex, Anna, Slava, and others; pray that a door of utterance would be opened for me to share the Gospel and that they would open their hearts to the Lord to be saved.

Please continue to pray for us as we help the Turkish refugee family. I’m asking God for wisdom about helping them with English. They come pretty faithfully to church, but without someone to use Google Translate, which my wife does as often as she can, they don’t get much out of the services. They understand love and kindness; I just long to help them get connected to the One from Whom we learned it.

Pressing toward the mark,

Brian Hebert