manner. We ask that you would continue to bless the preaching of your word throughout this country. We pray that many would come out of darkness into marvelous light, confessing faith in our blessed savior. We ask for your grace and your mercy to be upon us now and we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, there's a few men that cannot be with us this morning. Pastor Kirk P uh Kirk Patrick is preaching in Suriri and then Paul Dege Gear left last night. He's one of the men from uh Pinoa, but all the other brothers are here. So, first I'm going to call up either Rod or Floyd from Regina to begin. Brothers and sisters, I bring you greetings from Regina, from Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Regina. Uh just as a report on on who we are and what we have been involved in there. We are a church plant about two and a half years ago officially began three and a half years ago. Um a work there out of uh Gospel of Grace Fellowship in Wurn. uh they sent us they called us as elders and and then sent us up there as a church plant. So we have been officially uh Grace Reformed Baptist Church since November 2022 and uh praise God we've preached through a number of the books of the Bible. Um I guess one thing that we would would say is that it has been um I I use the analogy of an accordion. We have grown and we have shrunk and we have grown and we've shrunk and we've made the the appropriate wheezing sounds each time. Um, so one of one of the uh we've we've had our our low times and our high times and and what I would say is that it is the Lord Jesus Christ um who is Lord of the church. He's head of the church. He's growing the church and he's working in the church. So, we have seen people come and go and we've grieved when they leave and we've rejoiced when they rejoice and so a lot of that comes with um enjoying the times that are good. So, praise God for that. We have had a number of baptisms. We've had a number of new members and we have learned to uh rejoice in those moments. Um, and so we we we pray for all the churches that we uh share with. We pray for you guys usually every Monday and then we rotate through in our congregational prayer. And that means a lot to us. That means a lot to me to to be able to point my people in a town in a city that has basically three uh reformedish churches. Um, we are the weird people in Regina. We our worship is weird and our um organization is weird. Everything is weird about us. And so when people think that we can point to an association and say this is historic, this is something that is not just our deal. This isn't just preference. This is something that is established and convictional and and so what we are finding now and one of the things that we rejoice about is that the members that we have those who are in attendance want what we what we are doing. They want to be reformed Baptists. They want to be confessional and they see the value of that. So praise God for that. and and you help us just by being here, just by doing what you do and uh joining with us in association. So I just praise God for that. Thank you. Next is Jeff from Madison. It's very dangerous having a number of pastors to come up and giving them five minutes. I was joking with you brothers. We should each come up and say now open your Bibles to the book of Acts. Well, I'm from Grace Family Reformed Baptist Church in Medicine Hat, Alberta. We bring greetings and love from our congregation. As just as Rod has said, we we've been praying for you. We we pray for all of the churches we are associated with and those uh brothers who are not associated who are here today like Lethbridge or or way. We pray for you as well. We we love you. We appreciate you and we're we're glad to be associated if not uh formally informally and it's good to be here. I want to thank you on behalf of our church for hosting this meeting, for having these wonderful men come up and to teach us and for providing the links that uh my church has appreciated through live stream even last year's conference as well. I bring not only my my greetings and love but gratitude as well. Um every city has its uh challenges. in medicine had our challenge is uh almost a an apathy based upon a broad evangelical um rel kind of religion that permeates our city that it's it's a shallow um religion that does not want to dig deep into the word and and and when you start to press it um they want to run away because they don't want to to hear that perhaps there's things they don't know or they have to change some things that they are they are doing and that is the struggle we have in medicine hat. There has never really been a reformed church. Uh uh it's a touchstone to point back to where we can say this is what uh we have believed. We are we're new and like Rod said, we are we're very weird. Um everything from the way we practice communion to the songs we sing to the way we order our services. And I'm sure you have felt that weirdness here as well. So you can pray for that. You can pray for our city. Uh we've done evangelism on the street. We have we've encouraged members to do personal evangelism. We have done u we have done street preaching at times and and passing out of tracks and we have been involved in the college has been wonderful. Um we have been there for seven years. Um and again the accordion analogy is very apt. We have grown and and shrunk at many times. And at this point in time we have seen an influx of of of migrant workers who are working at the local green houses, men from uh China, from India and from from the Philippines which poses different different challenges. We none of us speak uh Mandarin or or Indian. So that's hard to to talk with those brothers and we don't have the resources, the confessions and multiple languages to give. We've have not normally been a multicultural or multilingual city. So that is a challenge we face. You can pray for that. And also thank God that that God is bringing them in and they are staying and hearing and seeking membership. And that is that is pretty much it. Again, we thank you as a church for partnering with us and again I share my love from my congregation. Um we we have been a church for seven years and it's as Rod had said it's it's a strange thing and it's wonderful to know that there are many more churches. It's an encouraging thing to lift our hearts to know that not only are there churches that we that we know that are are kind of on the right track in our area, but there are churches who believe what we believe, confess what we confess, and are joining with us in prayer and in ministry even though we're so far away. And I I thank you. Thank you, Lord, Ryan. Well, good morning everyone. Probably a lot of most of you are probably a lot more familiar with uh with me and my church um because we are a church plant of this free grace baptist church here. So, greetings from Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in Armstrong. Uh we've been we're coming up on three years now that we've been uh formally constituted as a church. Hard to believe um just about three years ago that that I was kneeling here and ordained by Pastor Butler and and Mike from Suriri. And yeah, time really does fly. The Lord has been very gracious to us as a church. Um we have we have a lot of we're mainly a lot of younger families, lots of kids, lots of life. Um, I'm just I'm thankful every day for the unity that we have and the love that we share as a church, as a church family. Really truly do function as a family. It's a it's a real blessing that way. It's a blessing as a pastor to to shepherd this flock that is just to see faithful husbands, faithful wives, faithful fathers, faithful mothers teaching their children. The Lord is is working among the children. was truly a a joy to to witness that as well. I often use, you know, think of the of Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones proclaiming a message saying saying live you bones live hear the word this word of the Lord and and you know just that proclamation alone was not you know the Lord didn't work then it was until there was a rattling we we we know but there it wasn't until the spirit came and breathed life into those bones and and I we really see that in our church among the young people the the the youth growing in their sanctification, their knowledge of of of the things of God, the children, you know, learning the gospel, hearing the gospel, seeing God work. It's a real blessing. Um that way, God has been God's been pleased to to bless our church with um with um officers as well. About a year and a half ago, we installed um Braum, who's here today actually, as a as a deacon. And then last October, we installed uh Hunts Croll. Most of you probably know him as well as a as an elder in the church to serve alongside me. That's been a very a real blessing as well to have uh to have him. He's preaching this morning for me. He preaches about once a month. Um so it's very nice to have that and have him there serving alongside me. So we're very thankful to be part of this the association too. Of course, you know, knowing being more connected with free grace and with Siri has been good, but now to just grow that connection with, you know, the brothers from the from the prairies and and meeting some more here at the conference, you know, expressing interest in joining and those, you know, those uh coming together. It's been been a real joy. Um absolutely can can say that. So, um but yeah, praise the Lord with us for his goodness to our church. We're truly it's truly um a blessing to see his work there and and to serve as a as a pastor there. So thank you. So those are the association guys as I said Patrick is at his church in Siri Paul Emil and and Herman in Hanoka um the three men that are I don't know what we call them the grand of the grant I'm sorry are you coordinators or moderators for the the association moderator like you're the vice and then Mike is as moderator moderator and then Ron is the secretary. So those are the men that are doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes. We do get an email um update usually is that once a week two two weeks every other week. So the association churches send their requests to Ryan and then he makes sure that all the association churches get those. So it's a blessing and as the men have expressed, I feel good that I'm not the only weird one in the world. And so now we're going to step outside the association proper and other men that are like-minded with us in terms of professionalism. So first is Kevin Armstrong from Wayburn. I almost said Kevin Wayburn from Armstrong. Well, it is good to be here and every time I hear Armstrong, my head pops up. So the confusion's all around. But um yeah, my name is Kevin Armstrong. I've been uh pastoring in Wayburn now in my current role for 8 and a half years. Uh Gospel of Grace Fellowship is our our church's name. And uh last year when I was here, I was kind of gave a history of how we came to adopt the confession, a brief history of our church. Um and uh um in terms of updates, you know, not everything that goes on makes for a real thrilling uh update, but uh it's a lot of ordinary uh ministry and life of the church, which is good. Uh I can happily say that uh we are doing well. I think the Lord has blessed us through the life of our church with some some calm and peace and unity. At the same time, we have had a lot of people come over the last couple of years and start attending and and and and many join in membership uh who come from all kinds of different backgrounds. Um and so it's a bit daunting at times. We have people coming out of cults to uh old colony Menanites to you know out there charismaticism to you name it uh all come within the span of a few weeks sometimes and uh so it can be a bit dizzying. Um, so just just uh you know, we're working to try to bring everybody in uh together, build one another up into the in the unity of the faith. And uh you know, the word weird has been thrown around a lot. Um and and you know, that's something we have certainly experienced as well. It's not just, you know, we laugh at the at that, but um but it it comes with a certain amount of um you know, it can be hard too suffering feeling like you're on an island and people can be dismissive just because you are you do things odd, you know, and uh it seems weird to me. So I just I'm out and dismissive and and even worse than that, of course. But so we are grateful um to uh to to be I'm grateful to be here. We're grateful to uh hear these reports uh of different churches and to meet brothers and sisters from different churches and and hear uh thank you to Free Grace for your hospitality again this year to to us. Um and uh yeah, we just appreciate your prayers as we just continue in the ordinary ministry of the church. for on Wednesday nights. We've been working through the Baptist Catechism, which has been a great tool for trying to to bring us together, not only for the doctrine it contains, but also some of the hermeneutical questions that arise when people are saying, "How do they get there from some of those texts maybe?" Uh, which has been great to to go through that. and um and and yet this this summer we're going to press pause there and and take some time to uh to teach on just again return to missions and evangelism and church planting and these kinds of things to just again try to stir that in our people. We we've had the privilege of of being uh part of two helping with two church plants uh in in our region kind of an hour each side of us. Um and uh that's been a great help to us. Again, even as Rod was saying, you know, that that that uh this is not just us in our own unique weirdness. Um this goes back uh a long ways and there are others that are weird with us. Um so it's not just that Kevin has unique ideas or whatever. Um so uh we just can we someone the other day said they've been praying for our church and I'm I'm very thankful for that. And if if the Lord puts us on your heart, please do do pray for us. Uh just pray for uh faithfulness. pray for unity in the church. Pray that more would come to be saved um through the ministry of of the church and the people there. And we are grateful. We have seen that we've since we was here since I was here last year. We baptized this couple that came out of uh of a cult. Um and and are are very sound already just eating up everything that's taught and reading everything they can and um and they're bringing trying to bring everybody with them from their uh from that group. and we have more coming to our church from there and they seem to be tracking and we would hope they too will uh come to Faith in Christ. Um and so yeah, we just do do want to see uh the Lord build his church and save souls and um and plant and establish churches. It's a wasteland uh where we are and um so we just really desire to see more churches established and and to to see the healthy churches established and done well, you know. So, uh, we just appreciate your your prayers for these things and pretty well anything else you can think of that we probably need prayer for that. So, um, so just just Yeah. So, thank you. Thank you. Just for the benefit of everybody here, um, Regina populationwise, I'm not about 250,000. Okay. And then, um, Medicine Hat 70,000. 70,000. Armstrong 5,000 in the town, but we serve it a broader area. So, okay. And Wayburn 10,000. Okay. All right. So, for the next brothers that come up, make you know, let us know that not everybody's a native Canadian, so it's good to get kind of an idea of the size population bases. Uh Ryan Casease from Lethridge, Alberta. Uh good morning. Greetings from Lethbridge, population about 105,000. Uh we're about an hour north of the Montana border. Uh and brother Dozal, Dr. Dozal, uh was actually my predecessor. I've been there since 2007, uh with many ups and downs. Uh I think we could say the church is in a good season, and that's all by God's grace. Um I brought my fellow elder, uh Pastor Matt. We brought him on last September. Pastor Nathan uh Coppert uh is still at home. Uh we've lost two elders. One stepped down, one was disqualified. Uh but by God's grace, there's two other men uh we're investing into working through the 1689 with them. Uh and so hoping if it would be the Lord's kind will uh that soon we'd be able to add to our eldership. Uh we were able again by God's grace to plant a Reformed Baptist Church. They're actually a 1689 church 40 minutes east of us in a small town of Taber about 7,500 people. Um, Heart Cry actually helped us with that. Uh, and now we're hoping to plant a church half an hour west of us in a in a town called Fort Mloud, population probably about 7,500 as well. Um, we are weird, but uh, in the trajectory we're a little less weird than some of the other brothers. Uh, so in our in our progressive weirdification, we're we're hoping to catch up and and that's um mostly due to to my own theological reorientation. Um, you know, came out of seminary as a progressive covenantalist. Uh, and then it was about 3 years ago um, pastor or Peter Venhouse and he gave me a wonderful book by Dr. Barcelos, getting the garden right and it kind of made sense to me. you know, I'd read a lot of progressive stuff, uh, covenantalism, not progressive other stuff. Um, and so the church is sort of like a a ship that's turning. Um, and so we're not able to just, you know, drop the the 1689 hammer. Um, but the elders are all on board. Uh, the new guys that are coming on, we're working through that. Um, and by God's grace, we're we're going to slowly try to introduce those things, you know, things like regulative principle. I was a little bit awkward when you're talking about accordians. I'm like, does that fit in the regulative? And the handwaving makes a Baptist awkward. So, I was like, you know, um, but do pray for us. Um, I I don't think there's opposition to it, but it could be new to a lot of people, you know, sort of people coming in because they love the Calvinism. Uh, they think reformed equals Calvinistic. Uh, but now we're sort of referring more to covenantal. We're starting to refer to confessions and stuff. And some people um are a little uncomfortable, but we want to show that these things are healthy. Uh as Dr. Ren has said, safeguards, we want to to show them that these are good and we're not new and novel. Uh but we have a rich historical biblical tradition that we're trying to tie into. So just pray, you know, I wish I could say this is exactly where we are, but this is our aspirations, our hope. I think we're on the right trajectory. Um and so lastly just want to give thanks to the hospitality last year and then this year out of this world and um so just real grateful this has been a real blessing to my soul even just getting to talk to to to the various men. So thank you mention hospitality in our church up in a whole host of ways and they are very much appreciated and very We're very thankful for that service. The next is Peter from Moose Mountain. I heard Ryan pronounce your last name, but I'll let you. Yeah. So, my name is Peter Van Warden. So, um first of all, just a huge thank you for everyone who uh organized and hosted this conference. What a blessing it's been and just such a joy to be here with you all. But yeah, so we're I'm from I'm a pastor from Moose Mountain Reformed Baptist Church. A huge thanks of course to Pastor Ryan. I was part of his church for I forget how many years about eight years where I was discipled by Pastor Ryan. We always had a few, we weren't quite on the same page always, but I was kind of dirty and I snuck Richard Purcella's book just before I moved to Saskatchewan to start a church there. And then I was very happy to hear that he actually read it and it started uh yeah Richard Barcella started a trend in Lefreser which is just amazing and of course pastor Kevin Armstrong they planted us in uh Kisby Arca we're a very small region it's the Moose Mountain region which is why we call our church Moose Mountain Reformed Baptist Church. Of course, our mountains are nothing like your mountains here, but because SC Saskatchewan is mostly flat, even when there's a few hills in the ground, they're called mountains. But yeah, our church has uh yeah, been God has really been blessing us. Um just this winter, our church actually started supporting me full-time. When we started out, both myself and my fellow elder Kevin St. John, we were both working full-time while we started this church plant. Now, this winter, we've been able to support me full-time, which has been a huge blessing for our church and for myself, of course, as well. It's allowed us to do some more outreach opportunities, too. We've uh actually uh Dr. Sam's book, The Mystery of Christ, we've organized I organized a study from it where we took people just from the Bible through the covenants, from Genesis to the new covenant, of course, to the end. And uh it was a huge blessing in our church. And we recently had some people coming from a town about an hour further from us called Woda. And we they uh we had some people coming from there. The church there is falling apart like so many are especially in our region. Most of them uh have completely gone the way of the world. They're gone woke. You know, they don't even have pastors anymore or anybody. But there's seems to be a solid remnant in those churches. So he organized a study. I went there through this whole winter. We've gone through the mystery of Christ. We've traced the mystery of Christ going from Genesis right to the New. And we've had like 12 to 15 people come out and they stuck with it the whole time actually to the point where they were asking for reading readings for the next study. We did it on Monday nights and they wanted text to read to so they could prepare for the next study. So that was a huge blessing. So we're seeing even we might start like a preaching station where we start an evening service over there. That's all up in the air. We've actually just recently had a couple come from another place about an hour away called Kipling. Exactly the same story. And it was just amazing thing where he actually found us cuz he was looking for a reformed Baptist church of all things. He just got saved two years ago and found some things online which is so cool. They're just so much more of an online presence now for reformed Baptists. and he was looking up a 1689 church and he was in utter shock to find one only an hour away from him. So, they started coming. But the same thing, he wants to see a new work done there, too. So, we've been looking at that. But, yeah, God has been really blessing us. We've had some We're having some baptisms at the end of May here. were brand new Christians. And my fellow elder uh Kevin, he got the opportunity to share the gospel with a couple just three weeks ago now who were actually drug dealers of all things in our town and they actually came to church a couple weeks ago and they're wanting to change their lives and it seems like God might be at work in them. So they said they're coming back. So hopefully they're there again this morning. So, there's been lots of exciting little things happening in our region and we appreciate all your prayers. We're definitely uh more and more interested in joining the association as well. We've been talking about that as a church. So, we're uh yeah, just excited to see all that's going on here and we're thankful for all God's blessings for us as well. So, now our church is trying to help a group of people in Brighton, uh, Northern Ontario. Many of people in our church know that our oldest son, uh, moved there several years ago. We refer to him as a traitor. I'm kid young. Uh, but he met a fellow named Dan Mley right about the time of CO at a church they had been at. And so for the last while, Dan and Josh have been meeting with some other people that have come along. And as I said, we're trying to get them some support, some aid, and some assistance. I've asked Dan to come up and share. Good morning. So, uh, yeah, my family and I have come from Dryen, Ontario, and we came on a Boeing 747, and I'm, uh, quite relieved to announce that all the parts remained as a whole during our flight, and so we got here safely. But, uh, I'll give you the the Boeing 747 highlevel overview update of of who we are and, uh, and where we're at. So, um, where we are is if you jump on the the TransCanada Highway and, uh, drive across Canada, when you get into Ontario, about 2 hours past the Manitoba border, uh, you'll you'll know you're in Dryen cuz your senses will tell you we're a a mill town with a a pulp or a fiber mill. Um, and it's about I think about 8,000 as a as a population. And our nearest centers would be Thunder Bay 4 hours to the east and Winnipeg 4 hours to the west. These aren't Wikipedia official stats, but approximate thereabouts. And uh the the whole area, but dried in as well as the whole area is predominantly influenced by u a Menanite background or Anabaptist. So very very Armenian and um an aversion towards um well really Calvinistic sitiology. There wouldn't be a reformed um presence. So it's not like there's been a lot who love the doctrines of the sovereignty of God or or election that were just waiting for the church to to come together. we we were able to lasso enough people who would who were willing to tolerate uh Calvinistic siology and preaching and teaching. We're small in numbers but we have quite a few things which are in place that are very encouraging to have in place. So for example um uh Josh Butler and I are very like-minded and of course we're in the same direction of where we would like to see things go. So that in itself is is very encouraging. Um we we have a small gathering. We're not constituted yet. Uh but we have formally agreed upon the second London Baptist confession as our standard of of doctrine and practice. We have formal affiliation with free grace as our sending or supporting church. And uh we have a name, Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in Dryen, Ontario. And we have now a website and a Facebook presence to hopefully um get more attention and people know that we are here and if if reform people do move to Dryen, which despite the smell, I do recommend it if anybody's looking to move and join a church plant. Um so we're we're trying to get more known. our location, which worked quite well to our advantage previously, is actually quite um out of town, which now is working to our disadvantage because people just don't really see that we're there. Um so, a brief update is uh to be to be brief about it. I can fill you in on more details afterwards, but from the Boeing 747 perspective, uh there's there's a high likelihood that we have a location in town that we'll be relocating to shortly, which will make us seen known. People can walk there, which it's it's uh right on the right on the main road as you come into Dryen and uh likelihood of having a sign up and become more known. So, if you haven't checked out our website or Facebook page, I invite you to do so. and uh by the grace of God just pressing on and trying to remain faithful and hopefully um have an influence of a high view of God and high view of scripture within our community and see God's kingdom advanced despite the smell is the best way not strong I should mention Dan and Brian are both students at IRBS as well. Um they're taking courses and both of these men are their professors. One one shape or another any other Canadian men that are pastors that I just overlooked because uh we'll have to give a report but I wanted to ask an American friend John Tobler. As far as I know, he's driven the Fergus from Iowa to get here. 28 hours. 28 hours. My car may Well, it's a rental car. So, I got I got a 2025 Buick. Oh, I can't even think of the name. Not Infiniti, but something like that. So, it's pretty fancy. Um, so yeah, greetings uh from the Reformed Baptist Church of TMA, Iowa. Um, I'm a pastoral intern there, an elder candidate as of the last year, and the goal is for me to move into full-time ministry over the course of the next 3 or 4 years. Um, so yeah, we moved there in September, been in the role for since June, and uh, we're really enjoying it. It's a small town, uh, about 6 to 7,000. So um and membership is about I would say 20 to 30. So small church regular Sunday probably looks like about 40 to 50 in attendance. So uh that's where we're at. And um you know praise uh praises going on in the church there would be that we're a unified body um and we're growing. Uh we just added a family within the last I would say two to three weeks and it's looking like there's another young family that's wanting to join as well. Um so before we had come we had I think four children in the church and with us and this new family and potentially other family we jumped from four to about 22 kids. So that's an encouragement and um we're dealing with that you know problem right now of what to do with all this you know what to do with our children's Sunday school class all that. So, those are good problems to have. Um, as for prayer requests, maintain unity. Um, with all this, you know, we've got one of the families that's joining is coming from another church. They've sort of outgrown it. Um, so obviously that's exciting, but you know, the challenges that can come with that. Maintaining unity. Um, growth in our love and use of the confession would be another request. Um just similar along the lines of what we heard um from Dr. Renahan in his first session there. That's what I want to communicate to our people. I start in two weeks uh teaching in our adult Sunday school chapter 1 paragraph one of the confession. And um I've done two intros and really my goal is to get them to love it, to use it, to begin to more speak the language of the confession, the language of the creeds. Um that would be my goal there as a young intern. And um so pray the Lord's blessing upon that. Pray his blessing upon the ministry of the word. Um we've got an abundance of it which is good. I'm preaching from John in the morning, Philippians in the evening. Pastor Paul Rendle is preaching from the Psalms in the evening and from Ephesians in the morning. And then we have a midweek study um where we also do teaching there too, similar to what you guys do. So, um, ministry in the community. We have a nursing home ministry once every, uh, once a month that we go to. And then we have a children's Bible club on Tuesday nights that we do. And those have been going on for a while. And if you remember, pray for fruit to come from those, uh, interaction in the community. We're weird like all you guys are too in our community. So pray that that strangeness would be an attractive strangeness to those that are in the community and that we get new converts but also maybe more Christians that are coming and looking for some more meat, you know, now like we're trying to pull people away from churches. But um that would be it. Thank you guys for having me and um I've been blessed not only by the wonderful teaching throughout my time here, but seeing what the Lord is doing and bringing you all together um in unity individually and um collectively as these bodies and here in Western Canada. So, thank you. Um, well, I'd just like to say it's been it's been great to to be part of an association that, you know, just started, but uh prior to that to also have the uh the like-mindedness, the the community, the fellowship, and the gospel. El it's really encouraging uh to you know to have sort of a uh the the formalized signing ceremony that we had that we had yesterday. What an encourage encouragement it is to to look back to you know I Jim's been here since 9697. Uh I came in 2005 and there there was really a a darth at least what we thought reformed Baptist churches at that time to so to be here now where where we've planted uh churches uh and where we've entered into communion with other churches who have also planted churches what a what an encouragement it is and and we praise God for that. Um, you know, for those for those not maybe not from our church, uh, just to, you know, some things in the way of updates. Um, you know, looking back to perhaps the year 2008ish when the the pews the pews also had, you know, some of the pews had tumble weeds going through them. Um, there weren't as many people um, as there are now. And I'll just I'll flip that around. What a joy it is to have such a great congregation that we have now. the pews are filled. Um, praise God for that. Uh, you know, I we're, you know, our morning services, we'll probably see it today. It might, we might have to pull some chairs from up in the fellowship hall to to put on the sides because we have a just a wonderful congregation of uh of believers that that come each and every Lord's day. and you know the coming for the truth, coming for the preaching of the word, uh coming for the the simplicity of uh and the glory of biblical worship. Um and it's just very encouraging Lord's day in and Lord's day out. Um Pastor Butler's been preaching through the Gospel of John in the mornings um and Philippians in the evenings and that's been rich uh with uh biblical theology, with biblical Christologology. Um it's just been a a delight to sit under that preaching. Um we do uh Pastor Butler does a um a Wednesday night Bible study working now through the book of Deuteronomy. Um we do uh each and every Lord's day we either do a prayer meeting before the morning service or a or a confession study. So we work progressively through the confession of faith. Uh Jim and I trade off on that um depending on who's who's available and ready to go. Um, and I think I I mean we'd have to do the count. Maybe Whim can look that up or investigate it or somebody, but we we got to be going through is our seventh time or our eighthish time through the through the confession of faith. And um it's just encouragement to to see people coming wanting to learn uh what we hold those uh you know those uh the the just those sound words that we grip onto as as Christians. And so um it's just a delight to be a part of this church. Um we have uh presently uh two elders and uh two deacons and um you know we're in a season where we have enjoyed by God's grace uh peace. We've enjoyed unity. Um we've enjoyed uh just a warm fellowship in the gospel from from each and every member and those those who attend. Uh very recently we had a ministerial aspirant uh meeting um where a number of a number of young men uh looking to get into the ministry which is which is so encouraging. I mean for you know for a while um you know we had been praying that God would raise up men from from our midst who would um seek the ministry and and be faithful in in seeking that. Uh and we have that now and it's it's such an encouragement. So um you know what a delight it is to have the the prayers of fellow churches. We thank you for your prayers. We thank you for for coming to this conference to uh you know to engage in a like-minded celebration of uh the the truth that we hold together. Uh it's been great to have both doctors Renahan and Doulal here with us uh to bring to us that truth. And um we're we're praying for uh we're praying for you know growth in the association um you know growth in in in our churches and and churches to be planted and and ultimately just that the the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ would prevail uh in this country that that by God's grace through the faithful proclamation of the word of God uh we would see many come from darkness to light to name the name of Christ as as their Lord and Savior. So um yeah for all of us let's just continue in prayer uh continue in faithfulness um and God will bless his churches. I want to mention as well with reference to the association uh Sheldon Andre is here. Where's Sheldon? Yes. Just want to say thank you brother. Uh I think you and I kind of found each other. I think we knew each other before that, but through various iterations of chat groups, you and I kind of linked on who was really confessional and who wasn't. And and initially Sheldon did a lot of the leg work. And uh I I say this in the best possible way. I I know this word does not conote the good intention that I'm going to spin it with, but politically just the the way that you dealt with the various men involved in all of that. You had a gift that I didn't have. So, I just want to recognize Sheldon. I'm thankful that you're here with us, brother. Very, very thankful. Well, let's um close. Well, how about a couple of men pray? Cam, can you pray? And then uh Ryan, can you pray? And then we'll we'll sing us sing a song. Yeah. What's that? I'm looking at you, Ryan. Sorry. Yeah, the Ryan. So, Cam and then Ryan Mal Jars. And then uh I'll pray and then we'll sing a hymn to close. Heavenly Father, we rejoice in your goodness towards us on this day. We thank you that we can behold the glory of your creation. We can rejoice in the redemption There are several churches holding communion together and what a blessed encouragement this is. I pray for the pastors. Pray for the deacons that you would continue to encourage and bless these men. cause the men of God to handle accurately your word and and doctrine and may they be useful in these various communities. We pray for the saints that make up the congregations that they would continue to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Cause us all in this land of Canada to shine as lights in a crooked and perverse generation. Give us that boldness and courage that is requisite that we may hold forth your word of truth. We pray that you would be merciful in this land. We know there is a lot of wickedness and lawlessness. It does look like the days of the prophet Isaiah when men call good evil and evil good. We ultimately trust the power of the Christian message. Christ in him crucified and resurrected. We pray for your blessing upon that word as it goes forth today. We thank you for that sure word of the prophet Isaiah that it will not return unto you void, but it always accomplishes the purpose for which you send it. May you be glorified and may you be pleased to save and may you bless outside of Canada to other tribes, tongues, peoples and nations. We know that you are doing a great work. We have the sure word of our savior who promised to build his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And we rejoice in your loving kindness and in your mercy. We pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Well, let's stand and we'll sing Psalm 145. 145D as in Delta. [Music] Ever bless thy name. Day by day thy throne. Still will thy thy praise. Great. Our God be who his majesty can reach. H to age his works transmitted age to age his power shall teach. They shall talk of all thy glory on thy might and greatness. Well, speaking of thy great acts the story and thy deeds of wonder. [Music] nor shall fail from every treasure. Words by love and [Music] mercy. Words of love passing me. Words of mercy, passing thought, full of kindness and compassion, slow to anger, mast in love. God is good to all creation. All his works, his goodness prove. All thy work, oh Lord, shall bless thee. They shall all thy saints adore. King suffering shall they confess thee and proclaim thy sovereign power. [Music] Amen. Well, remember there's coffee upstairs if anybody wants to have one before we begin at 11 a.m.
