2013 Stampede Outreach Summary - Part 1

Psalm 29:11-11

May the Lord give strength to his people!
    May the Lord bless his people with peace!

This year we embarked on what would turn out to be the most rewarding, refreshing and rejuvenating outreaches in our whole time as a ministry.

On July 4th, a caravan of camping evangelists showed up in our hometown and snuggled into our back yard to enjoy the fellowship of the Gospel while we prayed, praised, ate and talked the things of the Lord, making the most of our time in encouraging and strengthening one another for the daily work to be given us by our King.
This caravan consisted of two families from New Brunswick Canada, along with two brothers from the U.S.A.
The Osborne family: Jerry & Maria with their young men Andy and Alex who blessed us with such humility and love, not to mention the laughs and prayerful concern for their hosts. What a blessed family indeed who poured out blessings on us all at every turn. The desire to grow in Christ  was clearly seen in this family and will have lasting impact on us for eternity.
The Sippley family: Chris and Paula with their beautiful children Nathan and Zoe. It was such a delight to be blessed by such a joyous family, who shared their joy in abundance, leaving big smiles on everyone's faces. Not to mention their wisdom, humility, love and the beautiful example of what it is to live out the christian life that was clearly shown through them.
Mike Stockwell: Our family and ministry team will certainly miss the unique blessing that Mike brings with his joyful humor, his evident and tangible love for his Savior along with the continuous outflow of exhortation to be focused on the King.
Robert Gray: Robert's humble character, quiet spirit and the sharp focus of knowing Christ, being like Christ and being an example to all those around him of what modeling Christ should look like with genuine passion has certainly blessed us profoundly.

Backyard Fellowship being enjoyed in the "Open-Air Preacher's Trailer Park"



Friday July 5th we set out to start off our mission by loading up with 10's of thousands of tracts to distribute along the parade route. With several different types of tracts we split up into two teams, Team 1 tackling 9th Ave travelling West, Team 2 on 6th Ave going West from 1st Street S.W. Once completed we met at 9th & 9th for a quick debrief before heading off to Stephen Ave.


Riding the LRT down to 1st Street S.W. at the Stampede Parade


The first person we ran across once arriving onto Stephen Ave was "The Whistler."
After he whistled us a couple hymns which were indeed a blessing, he bragged so pridefully about his talent that we challenged him to examine himself.

Here Robert is asking The Whistler if he has truly repented of his sin before God

The rest of the afternoon and Saturday was spent on Stephen Ave which bore many fruits including speaking to a man named Ron who had "walked away" from his Anglican church. He had just been flooded out of his basement apartment and was virtually starting over in his later portion of life. After being challenged to look at his sin, including forsaking the gathering of the Saints, Ron heard the proclamation of the Gospel. He then exclaimed; "That was so Powerful!" He was then encouraged to be a part of a church and since he lives Downtown was pointed toward Calvary Grace Church.

Kevin speaking with Ron before praying with him for God's help.




As Sunday dawned and we were able to rest and reflect upon the two days spent, it was evident to us that this was just the beginning. God was strengthening us and bringing us together that we might share the Good News to many more thousands of souls, persevering in "contending for the faith."

Everyone Knows A Fake!

In an article published in the Calgary Sun with the headline: "City facing conundrum  over preacher who crashed Stampede parade," the world got it right when it said; "Well known to police and bylaw, Pawlowski has made a career out of attention-seeking, ostensibly in the name of Christ." 

 

To the Christian community and more specifically to ministries such as Calgary Peacemakers (CPM), this is an embarrassment to the ministry of reconciliation that the Lord Jesus Christ has commissioned for His church. For true followers of the word, this type of ungodly, self-promoting irreverent behavior spells out disaster in that the people of Calgary at large think for some reason we belong to Pawlowski's sect, or that we endorse it in some way. This is simply untrue and needs to be clarified with the Word of God. 

In the bible the Apostle Peter, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote this to His followers: 1 Peter 2:12-15;  12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution,whether it be to the emperor as supreme,14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

It is terribly grieving to me that Pawlowski while claiming to be a true follower of our Lord, refuses to submit to the word of God and therefore is "Lord of Self" and disqualifies himself from being a truly called minister of Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 3:1-3 

If Art and his followers were indeed being truly persecuted for unconstitutional bylaws imposed on our rights (such as the unconstitutional imposing of bylaw(s) to thwart the outreach that needs to take place outside of the Calgary Murder Mill, for instance), I would have to say he was right in doing so, and am not arguing the point that Christians need to stand up for our rights, but do oppose vehemently the un-biblical, self-promoting, ungodly way in which he is doing it. This is bringing reproach upon God's church and the Lord Jesus whom we adore! Romans 13:1-2;  Romans 12:14-18

In great contrast (only by the Grace of God) the ministry of CPM for the three years we have been preaching in Calgary, has grown to be very fond of our Police and Bylaw officers, regularly being entreated to encouragement and help. In fact yesterday, one officer said to one of our preachers; "I believe every word you've said..." 

Numerous times we have engaged bylaw and city police in friendly conversations and have had no issue with them when asked to move stations or to turn the volume down! This should be the natural way that any true Christian group should respond in keeping with the demands of scripture in submission to local authority. We consider it a great honor to be able to warn people of the coming peril awaiting them (without Christ as Lord), and calling them to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, just as the bible commands us to do. But  doing this with a spirit of humility, preaching the truth in love to a world who is obviously "dead in their trespasses and sin..." Ephesians 2:1-2 

Street church is also a part of the growing trend of "Faith Healers" who claim to have supernatural powers from God to perform all types of healing of which we know by reading the bible, were only given to the Apostles for a certain amount of time to authenticate the Gospel they were preaching while Christ was forming what we now know as the church. Even the Apostle Paul had clearly lost this brief supernatural gift as we see in 1 Timothy 5:23  when he instructs Timothy to medicate himself with wine because of his stomach issue. If he still had his gift, would he have not laid hands on Timothy and made him well as he did with many in the early chapters of Acts? Please visit our dear brother in Christ, Justin Peter's website and video's for more clarity and exposure of this horrendous movement here.  

Yes, God still does and can still miraculously heal if He so chooses, but not through the means of using rebellious men like this to do so, but rather in answer to the prayers of His saints. We also praise God for the many doctors and nurses let alone the technological advances He has allowed us to discover. 

We also thank God for what He is doing in Calgary, and for the public servants that He has placed for us here. May it be that each and every Calgarian hear of the awesomeness of the "One True God" being given opportunity to respond to Him in repentance and faith through His means alone: using humble men and women of true faith in Him to share the life changing Gospel of Jesus Christ in love. 

So Calgary, we encourage you to ignore this charlatan and turn to listen to the beautiful proclamation of truth. 

In love I respectfully implore you in the name of our King!

Kevin St. John