We have had quite the summer up here in Canada, to say the least! In our last letter, I mentioned that the church celebrated its anniversary with a big day that had a lot of visitors. I followed up on Danny Pellegrini, one of those visitors. I got to visit with Danny for a while, getting to know him. Then I got to witness to him, and he was wonderfully saved. Danny has been coming to church pretty faithfully ever since. Later that same week, I got to lead another man named Otto to Christ on his front porch. Soul winning has produced several prospects, for whom we’re praying to be saved.
We’ve seen our youth group grow numerically and spiritually since I last wrote. Tony and Paul, the two young men who were led to the Lord by another one of our teenagers, have been meeting with me weekly for discipleship and have yet to miss a meeting! We’ve recently had some great conversations about the Christian life that have encouraged me greatly in their growth for the Lord. One of the families that I invited who came to the Anniversary Sunday has started coming regularly as of this writing. That family is Iranian and has a truly remarkable story that I can’t fully explain here, but they left Iran years ago, leaving Islam behind as well. We rejoice that the teen son of that family recently got saved after Pastor Johnston witnessed to him. I am now meeting with him weekly to go through discipleship. Ain’t God good?! Liz and I have been busy with our teens, taking them to different conferences, preaching meetings, and youth activities that we pray will help them grow in the Lord. One of those meetings we went to was a Teen Event (VBS for teens essentially) put on by another independent Baptist church in our area. This event was our first opportunity to meet a teen girl named Flora, who is the sister of one of the ladies who attends church now. Flora is in an exchange-student program from China. She knew basically nothing of the Lord, but she decided to come to this week-long event anyway. We’re still praying for her salvation, and we’re hoping that the messages she heard, as well as the memory verses she learned, will make a difference. At the end of August, we had a joint teen activity for our guys with another Toronto-area church, Metropolitan Bible Baptist Church, to play a soccer match against them. Soccer is a common interest among our teen guys, and we’ve used that interest recently to build a stronger fellowship amongst our young men. Ultimately, it led to this idea of joining up to play soccer with a good church with a faithful track record of training young men. The event went smoothly, with all of our young men, and even a couple of visitors, coming. Several good things happened: we heard good messages, the young men bonded well, and I didn’t die from running and refereeing the game!
I’m truly blessed with a wonderful wife. She is not only the love of my life, but she’s also a great asset and helpmeet to me in the ministry. God has used my wife in amazing ways this summer. A little Iranian girl named Melody has started coming faithfully after my wife invited her family to come a couple of months ago. Melody’s mom was saved recently after hearing the Gospel at church. Recently, Liz was asked to start a children’s Beginner Bible Class to accommodate a growing need in our midweek Bible study. It’s been a joy to see her plan out lessons, visit her kids, and love on them for the Lord. Melody comes every week, along with several other children who belong to some of the newer families that are growing in Christ. We praise the Lord that she also saw someone named Jessica get saved.
Thank you for your support and for helping us live out our dream on the mission field. I feel spoiled and privileged to serve the Lord here in the Toronto area. Please pray for our youth ministry to grow and for God’s leading and power to serve. I’ll be starting up our winter teenIMPACT program once again to teach and train our youth in various ways. Pray for our part in the ministry team. We want so much to be a blessing and help to Pastor Johnston and Gospel Light Baptist Church. Pray for Glauber, Mohammed, Bahar, Ping, Jim, Jianmin, Lee, Emma, Joseph, Al, and others we’ve witnessed to and are trying to continue to visit in hopes that they will call upon the Lord for salvation. God be with you till we meet again!
Pressing toward the mark,
Brian Hebert
