News & Updates

Following is an announcement from Lynn Lawrence.

To all our wonderful church family across Canada and the world:

It is with great sadness that I share with you that my husband, Dennis Lawrence, lost his battle with cancer last night, Wednesday December 7, at around 6:30. Although Dennis' health had been declining slowly, he was home and reasonably independent up until a week ago, even attending a Pastor's meeting of churches in the area we have our services in Montreal. The change between Wednesday and Thursday was dramatic and he entered a hospice centre on Friday. During the last few days of his life Dennis was surrounded almost continually by his whole immediate family, including my mother, and his sister, and we were able to be there with him as he drew his last breath.

It would be impossible to summarize the last 37 years in ministry, but I know he loved it, and all the people he had the privilege of working with and for. He loved the people God gave him the chance to serve.

It is also impossible to adequately express our appreciation for not only the thousands of you who prayed for him, but also the hundreds that took the time to tell us, some repeatedly, that you were praying regularly for Dennis' healing and peace. All that prayer and love held us up often during his 20 month illness. Please share with your churches how very much we appreciated all the cards, letters and facebook/e-mail messages of love and encouragement. Dennis will be greatly missed by all of us I know.

Lynn

Our hearts go out to Lynn, their entire family, and the congregation. Dennis was a wonderful example of a faithful, passionate and dedicated servant of God and his people. His loss is our loss, and he will indeed be sorely missed.

I should mention that Al and Dorothy Nordstrom have recently moved to Kelowna from the Edmonton area. Al will continue pastoring the Grand Prairie, Alberta congregation from Kelowna. With their son Jonathan working for WestJet, Al and Dorothy are able to get plane tickets at a very low price, making this workable. Bob Millman will be looking after the Westlock and Evansburg Alberta congregations, as well as his current pastorate of Edmonton. Bob has been helping Al out for some time with Westlock, so this seems to be a natural transition. We greatly appreciate Al and Dorothy's continued willingness to pastor the Grande Prairie church, and Bob's willingness to take on Westlock and Evansburg.

Joe's update for the week follows. I should mention that the two conferences referred to in the Africa update were funded by our GCI Canada Mission fund. Generous contributions to this fund have made it possible for us to extend this help to our African brethren.

In Him, Gary and Wendy