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The after many months Bergen Update
- cristynhogue
- Sep 9
- 9 min read
Family Update
It is an understatement to say our summer since Scripture Camp has been filled with a great deal of sorrow and lamentation. We have experienced more than one death this summer, as well as several other setbacks that led us to step back from various activities, such as writing support letters and connecting with all of you. With that, we want to express our gratitude to those who have continued to support us financially in our mission to bring the Gospel to Northern BC. A huge thank you also goes to those who have offered encouragement, whether through prayer, bringing us food, or being a shoulder to cry on. During seasons of lamentation, we cannot overstate the importance of community—especially when you have a toddler running around naked as you try to wrestle him like an alligator to get a diaper on. Parenting itself can be exhausting, but parenting while navigating the complexities and tragedies of life is an entirely different challenge. With that, we have two separate updates on IVCF and Village Missions ministry. But first...
Financial Update
We have done what we can to raise support before the fall ministry season begins. At the start of the summer, we were informed that our financial need had increased due to Cristyn receiving a raise (Wahoo!), but this meant she had dipped to 50% of her support and needed to spend time fundraising (Booo!).
Currently,
Cristyn is at:
65% monthly support and 70% of her overall yearly support for 2025.This means Cristyn will still need to fundraise throughout the school year. Financial support is something we have prayed for together as a couple, and it is exciting to see the numbers increase week by week. And we want to invite you to join us in those prayers to see our support hit 100% this year.
If you are interested in helping, you can click the link below or contact Cristyn: cbergen@ivcf.ca
InterVarsity Update in Prince George - Cristyn
Wow! It has been a crazy couple of months since Scripture Camp. We raised nearly $10,000 to send 14 students and 7 volunteers to Thetis Island and support our ministry for the fall season. This is the most we have raised, and almost every student received a scholarship thanks to your generous support! Our time at Scripture Camp was a time of students wrestling with the Lordship of Christ, discipleship, and the work of the Holy Spirit as we studied the book of Luke with students across BC. New friendships were formed, and students encountered Christ. I was blessed to work alongside our BC interns by emceeing and assisting with worship throughout the camp. It was amazing to help support the next generation lead and challenge their peers with the Gospel.
Afterward, we had a short break before I boarded a plane to attend our Campus Ministers Conference. It was an encouraging time. I'll confess, I cried a lot as I processed my grief. It was after Scripture Camp we recieved the news of the first death we had to walk through this summer. I was able to help with worship again at Pioneer Pacific, joining IVCF staff from across the country. It was such a gift to learn from and lead with this team. We led the staff in songs in French from our Quebec friends and in Spanish. I taught the staff a song from my time at Bible Camp and led worship during communion. Despite everything going on in our lives at the time, it was encouraging to break bread and drink the wine with such close friends and sing "Yet Not I but Christ in Me." We talked a lot about the ministry and the importance of providing students with opportunities to encounter Jesus. It was undeniably clear that through much joy and prayer for one another, we encountered Jesus as a staff team. There was plenty of laughter that week amidst my tears.
Throughout the rest of the summer, I spent a lot of time rethinking how we have done things in the North, specifically with our leadership team. There is no doubt that our student leaders at UNBC have been one of our strengths as a fellowship. However, last year, I spent time talking to many of the students, reading up on the challenges Gen Z faces, and considering how we can help students encounter Jesus, cultivate Christ-centered lives, and radiate the love of God to others.
That time of prayer, workshopping, bouncing ideas off my coworkers, and refining resulted in a new leadership structure! It will be a new challenge to implement this year.This year, we have six leaders, and we have a returning leader, Taylor, stepping into a role called Campus Associate. This is a part-time job for a student to work alongside me in campus ministry!
But there is more to just these six leaders and Taylor that hopefully I will be able to explain at a later date! So far, I can say as I have excitedly pitched my new plan to the students they have been kind enough to get into this car and new destination I've set for the year with excitement and a bit of trepidation!
Along with leadership, fourth-year students, grad students, and alumni have excitedly started a new initiative called the "IVCF Grandparents." This will be a group of students trained in how to disciple and mentor other students, equipping them to take those skills to their local churches as they transition from the IVCF community into life with the local church.
While this new season will present new challenges, we were given a strong start to the year thanks to our first-ever student leadership conference. In late August, I drove six students to Abbotsford to join other students who had said "yes" to leading their peers on campus. The conference, called EQUIP, was for students and led by students.
EQUIP was a time to train student leaders in BC together, rather than apart in their different fellowships. Not everyone could attend, but it certainly jumpstarted our planning for the school year! We also had a workshop with Seth who is IVCF Canada's social media guy. He did a great job in helping the students see how they can use social media to help students encounter Jesus and tell stories. And the students have really taken what he talked to us about, the result of which you can check out on instagram!
The content that they have been making has been amazing! I will admit, a social media presences is something we lack in the North, but Seth certainly help us to dream and make it possible It was our first year hosting EQUIP, and the feedback has been positive from the students as they begin the school year.
We are now in the middle of what IVCF calls NSO season (New Student Outreach). September is a busy month with meeting new students and restarting our weekly ministry. Already, I can see how the momentum that started last year is carrying on into this year. There is an air of excitement among the returning students, and of course, nerves are high for the new students.Overall, there is a lot of hope that the Gospel will be preached again on campus through our words, actions, and character as a student fellowship.
Next week will be a big one for the Prince George fellowship as we have Clubs Days, Leadership orientation and our Kick Off BBQ all in one week!
Would you pray for us as we connect with students this month?
Village Missions Update - Pastor Brad
It doesn't take long for me to look at my life and recognize that my family and I live a different kind of life, blessed beyond compare, but often pretty out of the ordinary. This morning, my wife Cristyn and I passed our son off to a homeschool girl from down the road so that we could pray together, and so that Cris could go to a meeting and I could go to the church to start work. We spent half an hour in prayer, and then I walked across a parking lot to get to the church, where I spent 20 minutes on the phone with a friend planning an elk hunting trip that will take all of the next day(though if we shoot an elk in the first few hours of opening day, it will be much shorter Lord willing). Where is that hunting trip taking place you might ask? A mere 40 minute drive from my house and church. What is the physical blessing in this? Elk meat rich and plentiful, but the spiritual blessing is much more, as spending hours in the woods naturally leads to opportunities to talk about the deep things of God. We may not have a coffee shop to meet at in Nukko Lake, but the tree stand often works just as well or better at creating opportunities to share the good news of Jesus Christ (and don't worry about Cris, Grandpa and Grandma Hogue will hopefully help her with Luke in my absence)
Later today, I will be sitting in the church basement planning a congregational meeting with our leadership team chairmen and church elder Henry. We do these twice a year in addition to our AGM. What often looks and feels mundane and perhaps somewhat routine, is something that we are praying might draw our congregation into the mission of raising up our children and young people to know the Lord, and also in reaching out to the people around us. Henry and I prayerfully meet once or twice a month in order to prepare for leadership team meetings and to pray for one another. Sometimes those prayer requests are for the sick and the dying, other times they are that God would protect the youth group in some crazy game they play with school bus's and periscopes(ask me about this and I'll tell you some of the coolest youth group games in existence today). We will talk about Sunday school and bible studies, and plan for the future with great hope knowing that God is doing good things in our little church on the side of Chief Lake Rd.
Last Sunday, I preached on adultery of the heart, and next Sunday as we continue in Matthew 5 and the sermon on the mount, I'll preach on divorce, to a congregation of people who like my own family have experienced the pain of divorce, just as I preached last Sunday to a congregation of people, many of whom I know have been hurt b y adultery in the heart and in the hands. Though the content makes me tremble knowing that what God's word says isn't always received even by people who are called by His name, I know it is my job to preach it well, presenting both God's law and God's grace as I shepherd and teach His people seeking to do so humbly remembering that I must preach as though I am preaching the very words of God.
This morning as I write this I texted a fellow who showed up at church the other day, talking about how he needs to go to AA, and how he's trying to win back his family, I baptized his girlfriends kids a couple of summers ago so I know his family well. The Lord has put me in his life, now I need to be faithful and be God's hands and feet there.
Finally I look ahead towards the weekend where by God's grace an elk will have been shot, and a sermon will have been written, and God's kind and good will will have been lived out, and I know that it will be a further blessing to work on Luke's bedroom making it ready for him as we prepare to see him grow into a two year old in November.
He will need his crib replaced with a big boy bed, his changing table replaced with a book nook, and the hole in his wall where he has slammed the door knob through the dry wall fixed and replaced with a door stopper so that as he grows bigger and stronger it won't happen again. Cris and I have plans for a date night to go see a play at the local theatre, She is working hard to keep our home in order, and to continue to hold forth the word of life at UNBC and for Luke in our home. It can feel overwhelming, but today it all feels right, like God in His plan is letting me see the truth of Proverbs 16:9 “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” All of these things, I'm planning on doing as a Village Missionary Pastor, and husband and father, could all go the way of the dodo if someone dies, or if an accident happens and I need to go be with a family, or if I come down with the flu, but I know as I seek to preach the word, and love the people, even that would be in God's good plan. This kind of life is unexpected, it's strange in it's diversity, but it fills me up, and gives me joy every day. If all of these things happen or only some of them, I trust that I can stand on God's promise of directing my path, and If I fail in these things, I will be able to fall back on the grace that He so richly promises in Christ Jesus. What a gift it is to share a week like this with you our dear friends and supporters. Your prayers mean so much and they with your financial support keeps food in our belly's and hope in our hearts. May God remind you of His path for your life too.
Amen.
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