“I’ve been doing youth ministry for 10 years. Nothing could have prepared me for that day,” says Mike Olynyk of Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2016, when South Abbotsford Church (SAC) learned two girls from their youth group had been stabbed at Abbotsford Senior Secondary School.
South Abbotsford Church
Some 400 children would go hungry in Abbotsford if not for school-based meal programs, estimates food bank director Dave Murray. What happens when there’s no school? “Dad, it’s up to you to do something about it,” said Murray’s adult daughter Sara Epp. And he did.
Just Spirituality: How Faith Practices Fuel Social Action
Author: Mae Elise Cannon
“I have a dream…” This familiar proclamation invokes sentiments of hope, justice, and dramatic social change.Cochabamba, Bolivia The children come running out of the prison gates with their backpacks on, saying goodbye to the guards, ready to begin their day at Casa de la Amistad,…
My brother and I wander through the bustling old market. It’s a struggle to wend our way through hordes of people, motorcycles, and cars. The aromas of fish, spices, perfumes, fresh fruit, and diesel exhaust combine to create a smell as strange to our Western sensibilities as the shawarmas in our stomachs. Shopkeepers shout out their wares, each trying to outdo the next.
Pioneer evangelist and pastor to Indo-Canadians in B.C.’s Fraser Valley, David Manuel was honoured at Celebration 2010 for ministering to more than a generation of Punjabi settlers in the Valley. Some three decades after Manuel started his work out of South Abbotsford (B.C.) MB Church, a number of congregations in the central valley have embarked on an effort to reach out to the growing community of more than 30,000 Punjabi people, most followers of the Sikh religion.
Some 220 young people from across Canada and the U.S. elected to spend New Year’s Eve at church, repenting of corporate sin. They were responding to a challenge from MB Mission to mark the turn of the calendar in Abbotsford, B.C., by renewing – or perhaps discovering – the call of God on their lives at re:TURN, a conference to inspire 18–35 year olds.
South Abbotsford (B.C.) Church honoured pastor Ed Balzer for 25 consecutive years of faithful service.
“Tia was one of the first sex trade workers to come to our meals. She said she came only for the food. Later, she faced her addictions and sought treatment. Now she wants to come to church.” Norma Neufeld of South Abbotsford MB Church explained how a small idea, sparked by seeing prostitutes on the streets of the western Abbotsford area, became a significant ministry.
The Doxa Band is a P&W team from Abbotsford, B.C. They first got together in 1996 to lead Sunday evening worship services in South Abbotsford MB Church, and over time, became popular.
Hundreds of teenagers rush in through the doors to get the best seats possible before the band comes on stage. Security stands guard at the front of the stage, and…