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Villiages Missions Update
This Autumn ministry report from Cristyn and I feels like it's on the precipice of something joyfully new. In case you didn't know, Cristyn is in the last weeks of pregnancy. She has a big belly, our son inside is as active as a sufficiently caffeinated squirrel and we are just waiting to start the hard and good life of parenthood. I'm sure that any future missionary letters will be full of pictures of our baby so be sure to look forward to those! As far as my work with the church here in Nukko Lake goes we have had quite the busy start to our fall and winter seasons. A harvest party (pics included) that we invited our community to, and youth group game/bible study/devotional nights at the church have characterized a lot of our energy in the September and October months and prepping for our firewood delivery service to the elderly and those at the poverty line in our community is starting to ramp up. With an eye to the future of biblical knowledge in our church, we are partnering with our parent organization Village Missions to prepare to teach something called the contenders discipleship initiative, a program designed to bring Bible college-level training to out-of-the-way rural churches, and also to train new Village Missionary interns and Missionaries who haven't had the benefit of Bible school training. Lord willing this will start in January. We have the interest of around 6 people in our church and we would covet your prayers for the work of God through the faithful teaching of His word to impact the lives of the students and their families.
On a quick side note, it might have been a while since I talked about what the point of what Village Missions is. Rural Canada and the US is in a spiritual crisis. You might not think of rural Canada as a mission field, after all it is a Canadian church tradition to support missionaries in far-off locales like China or Uganda, but the spiritual crisis is very real here in our homeland. Over the next 10 years, Canada is forecast to lose 9000 churches, and many of those are in rural communities. Adding to the mess is the fact that though 7 million people live rurally in Canada, it is not desirable for pastors to move there, many small towns are suffering economically and their churches can't afford to pay a full-time pastor and many denominations are focused on urban environments where their churches can grow and sustain much larger congregations. But God does not forget about anyone, whether they live in a big city or a tiny hamlet, and we believe that a Gospel-preaching church and the people who live and work in these forgotten places deserve to be loved and served just as much as Vancouver or Montreal.
Our mandate as a rural church missionary organization is to Preach the Word and Love the People. VM (at the invitation of small rural churches) finds and places a qualified pastor to live and serve full-time in the community, and then helps with financial support as well as support from a District Representative who will visit each missionary twice in a calendar year.
Amazingly in the United States, VM has been active since 1948 and are now in their 75th year. In Canada, we have been operating since 1968 and combined Village Missions is able to support Gospel preaching church's in over 200 small communities that otherwise would have no church presence whatsoever.
So all that to say that your continued prayer for and financial support of Cristyn and I here in Nukko Lake, Prince George, BC remains vital to the completion of the great commission to make disciples of all nations. We are going to the forgotten and the lost who may never hear about the Gospel except that there are faithful congregations and faithful missionary pastors who stand in the gap.
Earlier I brought up a list of the activities that we as a church have been focusing on. We have a very strong motivation to keep busy with the work of the church, seeking opportunities to present the Gospel to a lost community struggling with the effects of sin. But recently I was talking with one of my deacons about the nature of all the work we do to reach people and he alongside me had been convicted by God to remember that we could do 100 events and reach out to 500 families (numbers we haven't ever reached) and it would all be for naught unless we were following God's lead in doing it. Our church is small, our congregation doesn't number even a fraction of the people that we are trying to reach, and yet I am hopeful that this little country church like my fledgling family if led by God, is on the cusp of something joyfully new. We will seek to preach the word of the good news that comes through Jesus Christ and to love the people with the same love that God gives us, and we will seek to do so in the will of God. Thank you for making it possible for myself and Cristyn to serve and do so with the joyful hope of the growth of our family, and also the family of God!
God be with you all!
Pastor Brad
Intervarsity Update
This Fall has been an exciting one up at UNBC and CNC. It certainly has been busy
preparing for maternity leave but with it has come many blessings. September began with a leadership retreat. The goal of the retreat was to grow confidence and equip the eight student leaders with evangelism, and leadership skills as well as build a foundation of prayer as they take on leading the fellowship for the year.
We then had Clubs Days. It was a great day...minus the pre-mature labor scare that landed me in the hospital while the student leaders took on the task of connecting with new students on campus. (Turns our, he is just a little crazy and was causing me some pre-mature labor symptoms cause he was moving around so much)
Bible Studies on campus have started strongly. We have four student leaders and a camp staff from Nesslake Bible Camp help lead this year. We went from seven weekly to an average of fifteen! It has been encouraging to the students as they work through the book of Ephesians. There are students there where this is their first Bible Study but they are curious or new to the faith. Our hope is to have one Bible Study a month after our community dinner at CNC which the students are currently aiming to have running in November.
But the highlight of this ministry season was our Fall Retreat we renamed, Gather and Scatter Weekend. The goal of Gather and Scatter was to have an opportunity for the student leaders to take on leading a short retreat and express their vision to the rest of the student body. As a team, I lead them through a prayer exercises and the vision for the year came from Romans 1:16, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."
The weekend was quite the undertaking to prepare in my third trimester! But, this is where I felt the hands and feet of our community from the students but also Lakes Community Church rally around student ministry. While I had organized much of the weekend the students took front and center stage taking on worship leading, Emcee, talks and much more. We where also very blessed to have Josiah Barton come and lead the group in spiritual direction on Saturday morning.
The weekend was filled with encounters with Christ and Gospel-centred conversations.
We had students from all different places in their faith from Muslim to Catholic to New to Rededicated and many continuing in their walk in Christ.
I had taken on the last session on Saturday which focused on the challenge to students that the story of the Gospel is a great responsibility to hold and we are called to share it with others. The session focused on God's desire to see all saved but it also felt a bit like giving last words before leaving for maternity leave. I had given the students each a candle to represent the power of the Gospel, a light in the darkness but also it was a beautiful image seeing the candles lit together as I also wanted to emphasize we still need to meet together, to share our stories and be encouraged by one another.
Afterward, our students had time to share how Jesus had impacted them over the weekend. One of my Exec came and shared. She had been through a difficult time before the weekend with bad news after bad news. I had been walking through with her and inviting her to bring these problems to Christ as a friend even as it was difficult for her in that season. She shared this and how impactful it was to listen to “What a Friend We have in Jesus.” Afterward, one of the students came up to her in tears and expressed, “I never thought of Jesus as a friend before. Thank you for sharing.”
There were many other stories from that weekend I praise the Lord for.
Quickly here are a few more items of praise:
Our Muslim friend heard the Gospel on the last night and made a meeting with the other campus minster to talk more about Jesus.
Our guest speaker, Josiah, did a fantastic job of leading our students in group spiritual direction. It was a highlight session for many students. Many expressed how they had never encountered Christ with that level of honesty before.
We were able to give all the students float plane rides thanks to our friends from church!
The student leaders were able to walk away with build confidence they can run a similar event while I am away on maternity leave.
I’m currently writing this 3 days away from maternity leave. It has been a time of praise, thanking God for all that he has done this semester while also grieving leaving these
students. Watching them lead during Gather and Scatter was a moment that left me praising God for how he has been shaping these young people to be future church leaders. There are many stats in recent studies grieving over the state of Gen Z from mental health issues to an epidemic of loneliness but we have a God that wishes to be a great light in the midst of a great darkness. And I can see Him build that hope into this next generation.
If you would like to keep up with what these students are up to, I would encourage you to follow the ivcf.pg Instagram page. Keep them in your prayers. I believe God has quite the adventure in store for them this year!
Family Update
As for myself, the current plan is to leave for maternity leave on November 6th and return to campus ministry on November 28th 2024.
That being said! Due to our duo missionary life we’ll still be writing updates about our ministry. As you can read, God has been up to much in our lives and ministry certainly does not stop with Baby Bergen on his way!
While my time on campus as been put on pause, our Northern Missionary life has not. We certainly rely on your financial support, prayer, and your helping hands.
Since Baby Bergen will be coming around Christmas time and Brad is the only Pastor at Lakes, we are in need of your prayers this Christmas season.
Baby Bergen's due date is November 27th. I seem to have tripled in size since starting maternity leave and can tell he is ready to see the world soon.
With that, I'd like to invite you to pray for us in a couple of ways:
Pray for our time of transition as we ready our home to welcome Baby Bergen
Pray for the safe delivery of Baby Bergen (I think I'm an appropriate level of fear and trust in Jesus but labor is highly unpredictable! I'm feeling pretty prepared for whatever may happen although not excited for the pain)
My sister has an operation on November 17th and a lovely lady in our community has one on the 24th. Pray these go well!
Pray for Brad as he enters Christmas ministry with a newborn (O Lord have mercy!)
Would you consider praying about supporting us monthly or increasing your support over the month of November? The rise of the cost of living has us looking at our need to continue with our fundraising but having a new born has us trusting that God will provide for us.
AND A HUGE PRAISE! We had a scare with Olive around thanksgiving. She had gotten into something toxic which damaged her liver. We really thought we were going to lose her that weekend but I truly believe God healed her and her blood work came back normal at the start of the month.
That's all for now!
Our next update will be our Christmas Cards with cute Newborn pictures and a financial update.
Love, the Bergens
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