Exciting summer at Nova Scotia’s Gateway Church

Gateway Community Church, a Mennonite Brethren church in Lower Sackville, just outside of Halifax, Nova Scotia has been involved in some exciting moves of God this year.

On June 1, a team of 60 young adults from Youth With A Mission (YWAM) travelling from coast to coast, did a multimedia presentation called “WAKE” to awaken the pioneering spirit in missions among the young generation. The church hosted the event and billeted the team for three nights.

The next week, the congregation, along with nine others, blitzed their city with random acts of kindness. Over 500 volunteers gave Coke to drivers stopped at red lights, painted children’s faces, gave out cotton candy, cleaned the inside and outside of cars, cleaned up garbage and operated free barbecues. The evening before, they marched down the main street from Rock Interdenominational Church to Gateway praying and preparing the way for the spiritual change to come as they reached out to the community.

Both participants and community were blessed. Wonderful friendships were built inter-denominationally. The events were scheduled to end at 2 pm sharp, and at 2:05 it began to rain, just in time for all to head to the celebration service where they shared stories and praised God together.

Gateway was also excited to send out a mission team for the first time. The Montreal team, composed of families for a total of 25 people, started training in January. Led by pastor Paul and Kathy Francis, they studied different aspects of Christian life. They also had a training weekend with Dave and Rhonda Peterson of Kings Kids Atlantic.

The team spent July 15 to 25 in Montreal. They participated in a weekend festival of drama, kids’ carnivals, music and handing out Jesus films. They encouraged church plants and outreach, and were involved in the kick-off celebration for La Danse, a team of 250 people journeying across Canada to unite the French and English in bonds of love and commitment.

—Jennifer Sinyerd