Abomination turned to blessing and opportunity
I know that for some of you it will be hard to believe, but Street Church was invited to the opening of the Peace Bridge here in Calgary and we were asked to set up a promotional tent for this event. We gladly took this opportunity!
You see that is where the church should be, right in the middle of the community. Every day we are presented with occasions to let the people all around us know that Jesus, God, rose from the grave, paid the price for our sins and that His love endures forever. We brought banners and flags and Centre Street Church brought the tent, bibles and other Christian materials. We had free drinks, snacks, comic books and DVD’s. In short, our booth, at times, was the most crowded place at this event and there were countless opportunities to share the gospel and the volunteers had many occassions to pray with people and share their personal testimonies. The name of Jesus as King was lifted high, the flag said that Jesus Christ, God, is the only way to heaven and on top of this we displayed the Israeli flag showing people that we, the church of Jesus Christ, stands with God’s chosen people.
Churches booth with volunteers and Christian materials with drinks and food:
The atmosphere was very inspiring as people kept coming to ask questions and receiving material about Jesus. It showed that there is a hunger for the truth in this city. We are living in a society where the majority of people do not know what is right any more, where the truth is hard to find and many are looking for it in all the wrong places. For those that came (a few thousand people attended this event) and were really seeking the truth, it was right there, presented in the open and some took advantage of it. For that we are grateful to God for choosing this group of people (volunteers) to bring His mercy and hope to everyone that was open to receive it.
Then came the opening of the bridge, and that was the sad part. This bridge was controversial from the very beginning, pierced with corruption and bribery, a project that was not really needed except to satisfy some political egos and to line some greedy pockets. So they started with a curse and for the opening they invited a native chief to bring more curses (they called it a blessing). Together, the native chief and politicians were throwing some kind of brown looking substance (it looked like sweet grass) as a symbol of the native blessing.
I was right there and was able to tell the mayor, politicians and the chief that what they were in fact doing was an abomination to God and not a blessing and that it was instead a curse upon the land. When the church is ready to forward the kingdom of God then with willing people God can turn the evil to good.
Art Pawlowski putting the curse under his feet:
So right then we took the Israeli flag and Jesus is God flag and decided that in the name of Jesus, we will march at the front of the procession with the politicians and we did just that. One of the flaggers was Dave Huges carrying the Israeli flag and Nyle Piroux was carrying the Jesus is God flag. They did an amazing job as ambassadors for Jesus as they carried their banners lifted high.
Then came children with the Chinese dragon costumes and they crossed the bridge along with homosexuals, men dressed as women and one woman that was dressed like a ‘devil’.
Then we decided that it was time for the cross, Jesus is King banner and the ten commandments to go forward and reclaim what the enemy had cursed. We marched across the ‘Peace Bridge’ proclaiming that Jesus is the ‘Prince of Peace’. We were singing, clapping and waving the flags. As Dan was leading us into the worship and hundreds of people were watching us you could actually sense the victory.
Church crossing ‘the Jordan River’ (the Bow River):
That is what the church is all about, reclaiming the ground and possessing the land and fearlessly moving forward the kingdom of God. Enough of this hiding in the trenches called ‘churches’. We the children of the living God have the power and authority to receive every promise for every situation that is placed before us from the Throne of Grace. We are the head not the tail and this Saturday, the head of the serpent was crushed under our feet.
Once again what the enemy meant for evil God has turned around in this situation to bless many with His mercy. And even in the end we received an e-mail from the city’s recreation department thanking us for cleaning the park and actively participating in this event. The volunteers walked around the various booths cleaning up all left over garbage as a blessing to the coordinators of this event. We came to bless and because of it God rewarded us as well with a blessing.
We are very excited to announce that we received comic #3 and it is already on the website-front page, enjoy it.The story is based on actual events of the Street Church volunteers. If God puts it on your heart to help us put this comic book into print please contact Art at [email protected] or call 403-607-4434.
Through these simple stories God is really touching lots of lives. Underneath we will include the first five pages of comic #3 to give you a little taste of what to expect. Enjoy it and be blessed.http://www.streetchurch.ca/home
Joyful Prayer and worship meetings every Tuesday at the City Hall at noon
When we think about our prayer and worship meetings at city hall we have to remember that it is an absolutely wonderful gift from God to this city of Calgary.
Muse about this event and marvel. Every week at noon a group of Christians come to the heart of the city and lift their voices to the living God, Jesus. What a blessing! what a privilege! I must tell you that when you see and hear those that come to these meetings with no personal agendas and without man made divisions you know this is the body of Christ in action. One mind, one heart and one purpose to bring a spiritual awakening, a revival if you will, to Canada. To read more click here …
Calgary officials-formal request Please consider this letter as a formal request to utilize Calgary’s City Hall Atrium. Since your formal application is completely unconstitutional, demanding citizens to give up their rights in signing a law abiding contract with the city prohibiting them from exercising their freedoms such as, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of conscious etc., we have no choice but to submit this formal application for the use of the public space inside City Hall. To read more click here …
God bless you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
Live today as though Christ will return tomorrow,
Artur Pawlowski
