God Is at Work in Red Deer
God is at work in Red Deer, Alberta. Many of you may already be familiar with how God has worked through Harold and Joyce Rust to establish a church in Red Deer. The intention was to plant a church like any other LB church, with familiar faces, and a common language, and perhaps that is exactly what God did. The faces are from cultures that would be familiar to our Lutheran Brethren missionaries. And the common language is that of worship, but now in a new context. It isn’t overseas missions; it is right here in North America. God is at work.
We had heard about how God was at work in Red Deer, and we wanted to see it for ourselves. We also wanted to be part of what God is doing, but we did not know how that might happen. As a youth pastor, I believe it is important to give students the opportunity to serve others. My wife Liv and I had been looking for ways to do just that when Pastor Harold Rust met us at a picnic for LBIM. Harold told us about the unique opportunity The River had for cross-cultural ministry, and that we should consider visiting. We were in. Although we were not sure how we would pull together an international mission trip for the following summer, by God’s grace and his work through Liv’s planning skills, 6 students, 4 adults, and 3 young kids made it to Red Deer fourteen months later.
Our goals for this trip were to be learners, love our neighbors, and be ready to share the gospel. We did this through participating in The River’s worship service, visiting members of the church in their homes, and in running a VBS. The VBS was located in a green space right in the middle of the neighborhood of quadruplexes where the government had placed many who came to Canada under refugee status. We were able to welcome anywhere from 30 to 50 kids from many different nations in Africa and the Middle East. There were a good number from a Muslim background, so who knows how many heard the gospel for the very first time.
If I could sum up what we learned with one word, it would be “hospitality.” Not only were our host families and Harold and Joyce very welcoming, but the culture of the many people we met was to rejoice at the coming of a stranger. As Americans, we were foreigners, and it was those who were foreigners in Canada who welcomed us into their homes.
We went to Red Deer to serve others, but we were so often served. As we were preparing to promote the VBS in the neighborhood, we were invited into many houses for coffee, tea, and even dinner. There was a boy from Syria, that we did not know, who told us we should visit his house. We felt a little strange following him in our white van as he led us to his house on his bike, but when he introduced us to his family, they welcomed us in without hesitation. We later learned that the mother and children were planning to leave the next day on an extended visit to their native country, yet they saw our presence as an honor.
The Scriptures reveal God’s attitude toward the foreigner through his instructions to his chosen people. Israel was to welcome in foreigners, treating them as if they were native born citizens, because they too were once foreigners (Lev 19:33-4). If Israel failed to do this then God would curse them (Deut 27:19). But God’s attitude to the foreigner was not only a reminder to Israel, it revealed his heart for the nations. God’s redemptive plan is offered for all human beings from all the nations (Is 56:1-8). The Church consists of those who are born of God by faith in Christ; there is no Greek nor Jew, slave nor free, male nor female, but all are one in Christ (Gal 3:28). Jesus teaches us to show hospitality to the foreigner as if we were serving Christ himself (Matt 25:35). The Apostles gave specific instructions to earnestly seek to show hospitality (Rom 12:13), reminding the Church how God had visited Abraham (Heb 13:2, Gen 18:1-4). In all this, Christians are reminded that they were once alienated from God, so they are called to show hospitality to their neighbor. It also reminds us that we are foreigners in a fallen world, eagerly awaiting the fulfillment of Christ’s Kingdom.
Our team saw this in Red Deer. We were there to learn, serve, and spread the gospel. Yet unexpectedly, God served us through those we sought to serve. Each of us were challenged to see the foreigner though God’s eyes, and to see serving the stranger as a great honor, as if serving Christ himself. We live in a world that is yearning for true community. Jesus offers himself as not only the model for the Church to follow, but the solution to our alienation from God and each other. God is at work in Red Deer, and indeed in the world.
Shawn and Liv Rogers are co-directors of Senior High Youth Ministry at Good Shepherd Lutheran Brethren Church in Fergus Falls, MN.