“From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens when the waters become
hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?” (Job 38:29-31)

Last Sunday was awesome! After spending a week of going through our personal budgets and reevaluating our weekly contribution, we concluded our annual Pledge Drive with an $850 per week increase to our Church budget! Encouragingly, that is approximately what it costs for us to meet at our current facility! Praise God that through the renewed convictions and generosity of the Church, we are essentially covering one of the Church’s major expenses through our pledge increase! Wow!

In addition to the encouragement of our Pledge Drive, we also saw a new Bible Talk planted at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU)! This exciting new Bible Talk is being led by Nero Cabatuando and Zonya Charles! Fittingly, they decided to name their Bible Talk, “Next Gen,” as they are the next generation, or next wave of disciples to step up and do something for God at TMU! Accompanying Nero and Zonya in this new Bible Talk are Joseph Vella, Ethan Katairo, Lihle Ndlovu, and Osoname Ogedengbe! Let’s be praying for this next generation of disciples at TMU!

In honour of the our newest Bible Talk, I entitled last Sunday’s sermon “Next Gen” and spoke about the generations of Israelites that followed Joshua’s generation into the Promised Land. Sadly, the Bible says, “After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what He had done for Israel.” (Judges 2:10) Because the next generation of Israelites did not experience what the previous generations had – victories and hardships – they drifted from God. Therefore, God purposely left opposing nations in Canaan to fight against His people and “teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience.” (Judges 3:2) God was training the next generation to become what the previous generation had been, and then beyond!

Finally, at the end of our service, we got to witness another amazing miracle – the baptism of Krikor, a TMU student who had been studying the Bible since the beginning of the semester. After wrestling through the scriptures, he finally decided to make Jesus the Lord of his life, and surrender to the icy waters of baptism! Krikor marks the thirty-third baptism of the year for the Church, and the twenty-first baptism for the Campus Ministry! Incredibly, the Campus Ministry has now grown to 39 disciples, with 31 full-time or part-time students! To God be the glory!

With that said, we had a little scare on Sunday morning. As I was getting ready for Church, I got a call from Timothy Kasozi. He told me that the brothers had forgotten to drain the baptismal after Anthony’s baptism the week prior. Since temperatures had been below zero all week, the water had frozen in the baptismal. This was a challenge that I have never encountered before. So as a Hawaii-born American, far from my natural (and warmer) habitat, I did the first thing that came to mind. I called Tony Ventura!

Tony reassured me that he would figure it out and told me not to worry about it. He rushed over to the brother’s household, where the ice-filled baptismal was being stored. Heroically, he and Timothy managed to break through the thick top layer of ice and drain the remaining
water out of the baptismal! Thank you, Jesus!

Then came the second challenge: Tony and Tim had to fill the baptismal bathtub. Typically, refilling the baptismal wouldn’t have been a problem. However, the water hoses at the brother’s household were also left outside all week, and were frozen too. Unfortunately, for this, there was no remedy… at least not one that would come in time. Thankfully, we have an excellent Shepherd! Tony rushed over to the store, picked up a new hose, hurried back to the brother’s household, and got the baptismal filled up for Krikor’s baptism!

As I was thinking about this unique challenge, it occurred to me that this situation epitomizes our entire time here in Toronto. Though it would seem easy to “dunk” people into the waters of baptism, nothing could be further from the truth. Satan is clever, and we have seen him put ice barrier after ice barrier in our way to block us. Just in this last year, we have experienced financial hardships, the continuation of lockdowns during a worldwide pandemic, teacher strikes, family tragedies, and even a disciple being kidnapped by their own family. We have seen persecution from outside the Church, and persecution from an undercover operative in the Church. What a year!

Despite all these challenges though, as we learn from the friends of the unforgiven paralyzed man, who “made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on [down to Him],” (Mark 2:4) there is no physical barrier thick enough to stop us from getting souls to Jesus! And, as I stood there last Sunday, in the middle of a negative five-degree snowstorm, about to watch Krikor get baptized, I couldn’t help but look around and see all of the disciples of the Toronto Church standing there too, happy as could be. I thought to myself about the Church that God has allowed Kelly and me to lead over the last five years, and I thought about how this Church has the heart of those friends mentioned in the passage above!

If you are visiting with us today, I hope you don’t have a barrier of ice blocking your heart from seeing Jesus. I hope you see what I see – a Church that will do anything and everything to break through the hard ice and bring souls to Jesus! I want to especially thank Tony Ventura for his awesome servant’s heart! And I want to thank all of you for allowing Kelly and me to lead you! It has been such an honour and a privilege! Thank you for not just being our friends, but for being those friends!