Daily Devotional - Wednesday, July 1

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." Ephesians 1:3

Isn't it exciting to know we've been blessed with spiritual gifts! As I read over our devotion for today I've struggled with what to say. Part of me wanted to sing "Count your blessings" while another part of me wanted to say don't forget to thank God for the blessings He's given you but I don't think I should leave it at that. It's hard for me to relate to feelings of a "distant" Father because here, my father has been very close to me and I count that as a HUGE blessing. I think this also has allowed me to look at how much God loves and cares for me and you. Many times I think we may think we're not ready to serve Him in specific areas, or our walk with Christ is not where it needs to be in order to be used but we're God's children and He has prepared us and He wants us to have our inheritance... He's ready so what are we waiting for? My prayer for us today is that we would be ready and willing for all God has in store for us, His children. I'm ready to use my spiritual blessings... are you?

-Anna Grace Baldwin

Daily Devotional - Tuesday, June 30

Garry has said many times, "You're either a Saint or an Ain't". In reading this scripture we see that if we have asked Christ to be our Lord and Savior we are a Saint. So many times it is easy for us to focus on our lives as an "Ain't" instead of our lives as a "Saint".
There is nothing satan would rather do than to remind us of our failures and live defeated lives. You may be thinking you are not good enough to be a part of a mission trip, you have too much junk in your past. Well, that is not true. If we look at this scripture we see that because we are "in Christ" we are set apart- set apart from the world and the things in and of it. This scripture made me realize that I too focus on the weaknesses in my life rather than always remembering that "in Christ" I can do all things.

My prayer for our team today is that even though we are sinners we will KNOW that "in Christ" we are set apart to do His will. We will be excited and wait with great expectation at what God is going to do in and through us on our Montreal Mission. That He will let us move past the past and move forward realizing because of His great Love for us we are Saints and He wants to use us for His glory!

-Cheryl Baldwin

Ephesians study begins with Ephesians 1:1

Today begins a journey of Reflections from our Mission Quebec team as they work through the book of Ephesians as a study journey of preparation for our Mission trip.

As we all are beginning to prepare through prayer and Bible Study our goal is to be "personally" prepared for this Spiritual adventure. As we daily celebrate our salvation "in Christ"we will be strengthened in our hearts to feel and express our security "in Christ". Knowing "whose" we are allows us to live out "who" we are as believers. We will be going to Quebec to share the "Truth" (Jesus) who has given us life, both abundant and eternal. My prayer for our team today is that God will speak to you personally and you will be drawn ever so closer to Him.

I love you Team,
Pastor Garry

Getting Ready for Mission Training

Just like all Mission Partnerships, training is a must. We want to thank the N.C. Baptist Convention and the Metrolina Baptist Association for all their help and support. We will begin our training, Saturday June 27th. Please keep the team in your prayers...The full list along with pictures will be published soon for prayer.

Introductions and Invitations...

You are invited to join a Mission team via this blogsite! Just like most Mission teams, this is a “Prayer, Care, and Share” Team. Our focus on this journey will be to pray, show that we care for the people by doing some projects needed by Churches in Canada, and to share the love of Jesus in creative ways! You will take care of the "prayer" part of the team as you stay up to date and informed through this blog and know how to pray with "insight" from this blogsight. You will be a part of the Acts 1:8 challenge where we go to Eastern Canada to assist in Missions.

The biggest need in Canada is to have committed Christians to come and encourage and share with the people. I have been told by our Missionaries that this is the “most important single item that any team can help us with”. We invite you to join the team by praying for us!

The Mission Journey begins August 9 and concludes on August 17 physically, but it really begins now in prayer and will continue way beyond the finish date.

Montreal is a beautiful, international city with a European feel. It is an urban city with 3.6 million people. The predominant language is French, however most are at least bilingual with English. Montreal is known for its arts community, restaurants, and old world architecture. Montreal has the most university students per capita in North America. It also has the third highest suicide rate in the world. It leads Canada in abortion, depression and divorce. Not surprisingly Montreal is the least churched city in North America with some estimating only 1% Christian. We will also be working outside of Montreal in other parts of the Province of Quebec with some 33 Mission Sites.

We are the fulfillment of a vision for ongoing Mission involvement by the Metrolina Baptist Association Churches and the Baptist State Convention to send 5 teams to Canada this summer.

So begin the journey with us! Pray for the leadership of the team Pastor Garry Baldwin, and Pastor Garry Gates as they do the preliminary preparations. Pray for our Canadian Connection, Jacques Avakian (with the CSSB) as he makes contacts in Quebec. Pray for our first training session June 27th. Pray for the Lord to provide the funding for the teams needs.

Thanks for joining the team!