GBC Community Update: Sharing your faith-you have a testimony

Good morning!  It was a great weekend!  The repair café was an amazing experience for us and it was nice to be back handing out carnations for Mother’s Day.  We seem to be hitting our stride in a semi-post Covid world. Key for all of us now is how do we let our lights shine in this context?
 
 
Outreach Update: Repair Café was a HUGE success
Saturday was our repair café run in conjunction with the Guelph Tool Library. This opportunity came to us through our growing relationship with the Junction Neighborhood Group. Both of these are initiatives of our Outreach Team. Andrea Thornton led this exciting new opportunity to connect with our community and let our light shine.  Running from 11am to 3 pm people from the neighborhood and across the city were able to bring in broken items to be fixed.  This was the first time they were able to run this event in this part of Guelph since they never had a location before in run it.
In the end, here are some facts about the day:
10 fixers
-50 visitors plus kids
-60 items received
-85% fixed rate
-we diverted 100 kg of material from the landfill!
 
This was a significant opportunity for us and a terrific connection to make as we built relationship with the Junction team and the Tool Library as well. They have already asked if we would host another event. Praise God!  Thanks to Andrea and the team of volunteers who made this possible and for those of you who prayed for this event.
 
The event even made Guelph Today!  See a picture gallery here:
https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-news/the-fix-is-in-at-guelph-tool-librarys-repair-cafe-7-photos-5342860?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Email
 
 
GBC Family Picnic returns
After a two year absence we are planning a return to the GBC Family Picnic. For those who are newer to the GBC family, this is a fun event held up at the Guelph Bible Conference Center which was suspended due to Covid.  It features a BBQ dinner, mini golf and kids games (plus the always-popular candy scramble!). It’s a great time to come out and get to know your church family better. More details will be coming out soon so stay tuned.  You don’t want to miss this!
 
 
Thought for the Day:  You have a testimony
I’ve been sharing of late some thoughts on outreach and sharing your faith.  Here, to me, is the most effective way- share your story! 
I think the best way to share our faith is to share what God has done in our own lives.  But you don’t have to have an “I-almost-died-doing-drugs-when-Jesus-showed-up-in-a-vision” story in order to have a testimony. Your testimony can simply be knowing that God is faithful and knowing how much He loves you and sharing that message of hope.
Most of you know my story of how I came to be a follower of Jesus (if you don’t, let me know, I’d love to share it with you).  But that’s my story. Your story is your story and yours is as valid and as important as mine is. We don’t want to get into valuing our stories based on the content.   Tell YOUR story and let God work with it through the Holy Spirit.
Whether you’ve journeyed with God your whole life or you’ve walked through a whole lot of pain, brokenness and mistakes, you—yes, you!—can testify to what God has done and who He is.  Share your story with the world around you.  I think this is the most powerful way we can share our faith: to share what God has done in our own lives, and talk about our relationship with Him.
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris