Chapel – Becky Cripps
Good morning. It's really nice to be here. This is such a beautiful chapel. And that music and worship music was so beautiful. I feel honoured and privileged to be able to share here, and every time I'm asked to speak, I always say yes, even though it makes me nervous, because I always feel like this is an opportunity to testify to God's goodness. And so that's what I'm going to do this morning. I was already introduced a little bit, you already know I have a husband who sometimes does occasional instructing. And I, he's been a pastor at Capstone Community Bible Church in Etobicoke. So I've been a pastor's wife for 23 years. We have four kids together, one who is university age. He's not at university, though, he chose the route of trades. And I'm also here because of my role as program director, with Muskoka Bible Centre as with the Widjiitiwin program.
Our Widjiitiwin program is a little bit different than other camps. There might be some programs like it, but we're actually partnering with different communities, inner city communities, and bringing kids from those communities up to camp this summer. It's a relaunch, it's all new. And I'll be sharing a little bit from my different experiences in ministry this morning., and I hope for wherever you find yourself, whether it's camp or a student, or in whatever ministry, you find yourself, that you'll gain something from my experience, God will encourage you in some way.
Our name Widjiitiwin which is really hard to pronounce, if you have not been growing up in the camp Ministry of Widjiitiwin. It's actually an Ojibwe name, and it means to help one another. And that's the very thing we hope our program to be. But I wanted to talk to you this morning about how to build relationships in closed door communities. And why does that matter. So you may all be familiar with the Acts 2 narrative of the fellowship of the believers, a type of community that we all crave, but aren't sure how to actually get. Or if God will create circumstances where we might actually get to have that experience. Maybe we've had glimpses in our Christian walk of this kind of fellowship with other fellow believers. So shortly after the day of Pentecost, the day that the Holy Spirit came and was gifted to believers, came the fellowship of the believers. It was the start of the early days of the church, and what we read and strive to be in our Christian communities, this was an ideal, so I'm going to just read it.
So if you have your Bibles, Acts 2, verse 42, to 47. "They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need, and everyday they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people, and the Lord added to their number daily, those who were being saved."
So there's so many exciting aspects to this fellowship of believers,. When I think about it, I just think about the possibility. And I think about my own life and think about how it doesn't quite look like that a lot of the time. What I found interesting when I was really just pondering this passage this week, was how there's a lot of plural language. It says they, everyone was, all the believers, they sold possessions, they broke bread, they ate together with glad and sincere hearts, and the Lord added to their number daily. There was so much unity working together, it wasn't individualistic in any way. And it just feels kind of neat to be sharing about that here, where I'm in a room full of other ministries, and there's so many of us doing the Lord's work. This feels like a very open door type of community in the fellowship of believers in Acts 2, they had everything in common. Although from what I know of human beings, I'm sure their personalities were really different. Their interests, their dislikes, how they were gifted, would have been really unique because God created us all so uniquely, but they had everything in common. So what did they have in common? They had Christ and that was everything. And they were living for Christ in a very passionate way.
So I've traveled a little bit, and when I visited hotter countries, I really noticed the open door type of communities in Cuba, Dominican and Africa. Where it's hotter people are out living on the streets and living with family and friends. And there's this whole communal living outside. And we don't have that luxury here in Toronto. It's a colder climate, so practically speaking, I always tell my kids close the door, so we don't heat the neighborhood, right? That's a classic parental move. We do need to keep our doors closed for practical reasons. But we also close our doors because we live in a more private type of society, we look at our individual needs. We live in more of a closed door community, really. And what I recognize in this passage is that not once is there an "I". It does not say, I devoted myself to apostles teaching, I broke bread, I was filled with awe, I sold my property and gave to everyone in need. That really struck me this week. There are many other passages throughout the Bible that do reference an individual experience with God. So it's not necessarily a bad thing. We each have a unique individual relationship with God, and He's journeying with us and He's speaking to us individually. But when you think about how that might change this passage up, this ideal fellowship, it really hits home that we need each other. We need to be unified in spirit, in mission, in ministry, and that takes partnership in the Gospel. And this sort of partnership is what allows for ministry to happen in closed doors. So I've had the pleasure, I mentioned of being in church ministry for 23 years as pastor's wife, and my husband and I have led youth group together. We've planted a church together, we've actually just gone through two church merges together. And of course, this was not just us. This was with solid leadership teams, and really supportive congregations. And I've also had the privilege of being a missionary here in Toronto with Youth for Christ. I first worked with light patrol, which is a mobile, homeless, and street involved outreach, where we would take this big RV and go and give out meals downtown. It was really fun and really hard actually. And then the last five years I spent in south central Etobicoke as director of a team of outreach workers, where we were doing neighbourhood ministry, and we were reaching out to in the high school and in the community. And we ran a soccer league. We did Brazilian jujitsu outreach, we had a young mom support group and leadership groups. And it was a whole lot of fun and a whole lot of work. As I'm sure all of you can imagine, as you're in ministry, too. And none of this has been on my own. It's always been with a team of people, and everyone using their gifts and their resources. And it's fascinating how God provides just what you need. And I've been having different conversations today. And everybody's talking about recruitment of staff for our camps and being nervous about numbers, and God. Also, I've heard a lot of "but God provided last year and it's in his timing". And it really is as we continue forth in ministry. I also made the mistake of bringing coffee instead of water, I'm not sure if it's a good substitute.
Okay. In my most recent role working with Youth for Christ, I started to really understand the value of partnership between churches, between ministries and between people of peace in the neighbourhood. No matter if they were a believer or not, actually, I could see that God had placed people in our teams' path who were on-board with our ministry vision, and helped us to accomplish it. One person I think of in particular was the principal at the local high school. He really valued our outreach programs. He knew his teens in his school needed more support than what his staff could provide. And so I'm not sure where he's actually at in his faith, but where many public school leaders might have shut down what we were trying to do, he was very open. He gave us free field space. He invited us into the High School to do self defense and share about our programs, which was really neat. And I just I talked about how there's this commonality of Christ. But I do find it really interesting in mission, how God does bring people of peace along as well to help us in the mission to partner with. And this leads me to think of one youth who was part of the high school and part of our programs. And he started with us in our soccer outreach program. And he joined and he came from a single parent home, he had a lot of medical complications growing up, he just was really struggling socially, you could see but he joined our soccer program, and he loved soccer, he excelled in it, he grew confidence, grew friendships. And it was neat to be able to see him at the school on the soccer field. And during COVID, we started through YU, through youth Unlimited, we started to run an online Alpha program, as many of us were trying to reach out to kids and trying to figure out what to do. We thought "they need God right now, this is such a hard time. Let's do Alpha". So that was a next step for, I'll call him Adam for confidentiality sake.
So Adam started joining our Alpha program. And he had been with us for a number of years now. And it was really interesting, because if you've ever taken Alpha, you will have noticed at the beginning of the program, they have a pool picture. And with the pool picture, the water is like you're in a relationship with Jesus. And some of the, there's all different characters in this pool picture. And some of the characters are plunged, they're swimming, they're right in the water, because they're deep in a relationship with Jesus. And some are dipping their toe in the water. Thinking about a relationship with Jesus. There's some who are putting on scuba diving gear, there's, you know, preparing to get in the water, there are some who are like talking to a friend on the outside of the pool, not really interested, but kind of there. And there's some who are sitting at a table doing something totally different, not interested at all in what's happening in the water. And so in the Alpha program, they ask you to choose where are you at in your relationship, it's a really great tool. And I remember Adam, at the beginning of his time with us pointed to the guy at the table who wasn't interested at all. And that really surprised me, because he'd been part of our programs, we'd been teaching him about Jesus. And I was like, Okay, that's cool to know, like, we're gonna respect that. And then over the course of those 12 weeks, we had great discussions about God, Jesus, faith, and all sorts of other things. And at, at the end of those 12 weeks, they bring out the pool picture again. And it was so neat to see Adam chose the scuba diving gear guy, who's starting to get ready. So he was starting to make headway. And Adam, over that time of Alpha, we also had really other great times of fellowship with Adam. He was going to be talking to his dad for the first time. And so we all prayed for him. And that was a really big moment where we could support him. Alpha ended, he ended up wanting to stay connected, because he started to experience that fellowship of the believers. And that is what the Christian body is so wonderful for. And so we had a camp happening at the church. And so we invited Adam to come and volunteer, Adam came for one day, ended up coming for two days, ended up coming every day, and working harder than our paid staff, which was incredible. He loved it. He loved just being a part of that fellowship. And he ended up coming to church that fall, he ended up joining our youth group, starting to volunteer. And this is one story. We have others and we have some who aren't quite this successful, actually, as you all know, too. But I just share that because there was so many different touching points of partnering together. There was the Youth for Christ ministry, there was the church ministry, he could be part of the camp, he, we would connect with him in the halls at the school. So we were all partnering together and he was starting to feel that fellowship of believers and wanting more and more of it. So it's really, really neat, and I think that is a really big way for us to open those doors, is by partnering together with different organizations, different churches, and even people of peace who may not be believers but they're willing to get on board with our mission, because they see something really good happening.
These partnerships have allowed us to bless the youth in our community. So I'm going to share a little bit about Widjiitiwin. A number of years ago, before COVID happened, another partnership with you, in my role as director and youth Unlimited, there's so many titles here. We had partnered with Widjiitiwin. Widjiitiwin is a camp, as I mentioned that I actually came to Christ at when I was 17. So it's meant a lot to me, I met my husband there. And I've been volunteering there ever since. And we started bringing kids from our community, in partnership with the church, and with Youth Unlimited, up to Widjiitiwin, and before COVID, we were bringing 110 youth and as you know, with camp, it's so transformational how transformational that was for each of the kids. But also for our community as a whole, it was just incredible. MBC would fundraise half the cost, because a lot of the kids who were coming couldn't afford it, the church would raise a quarter, and then the kids would be asked to pay a quarter. And if they couldn't, the church would supplement that. So it was this really beautiful partnership in the Gospel to get these kids up to camp. And so now I'm sitting on the other end, because there was a role that was open for Director of Widjiitiwin, and I took it, because I saw the value of partnering with communities and bringing kids up to camp. So I started in my role, and I'm already starting to, based on what I've learned from my neighbourhood ministry experience, I'm already starting to look to open doors for new partnerships. And I just want to share a really neat story that happened just to encourage you not to say look at our, what I'm doing or anything. It's totally just to encourage you to be looking as you're doing ministry, wherever you are, what partnerships can you be forming? How can you fill the needs of what God is calling you to, based on working together in fellowship, as believers. So this year, I knew is going to be very hard in my role. And so I'm praying, and I'm willing to talk to anyone and just let the Lord lead.
And in my first week of work, someone mentioned the name of this horse farm. And then another person name, mentioned the name of this horse farm. So I decided to call up the owner and I met with her. And when I found out where she was, she's actually located, her property backs on to Widjiitiwin. I was like , that blew my mind in itself. So she's a Christian. And her horse farm does equine therapy. And, I actually ended up being half an hour late for this appointment, because I was at MBC. And I drove probably 15 minutes away to a dead end, end because I trusted GPS, and then I called her and she's like, we're right backed on to your property. So that kind of just highlighted to me how close she was. So I was half an hour late, it was very embarrassing. But I came back. And we were just meeting for the first time, and she asked me what kind of kids are going to be coming to your camp. And I said, "Well, we're going to be bringing kids from the city, kids who might not otherwise have opportunity to come to camp." And her eyes got really big. And she said we just started a charity a month ago. And we wanted to bring kids from the city up to our horse farm. But we had nowhere to house them. And it's just amazing, because Widjiitiwin, we have a place to house them, it's a five minute walk through the forest. And she actually offers a need of ours, which is to support our youth in their emotional needs, which was big on my heart going into this. So again, it's just praying, letting the Lord lead. And I'm just amazed at how he's already forming new partners in the Gospel, opening doors. And I'm excited to see what else he has in store.
In Acts two, they were helping each other as they had need. They were supporting each other and all to the glory of God. Living justly is not just about reaching down. It's about the mutuality of relationship and help. It's actually about feeding each other. It's about providing for one another's needs and living out our faith together. And how cool to think that God is is continually giving us opportunity to live in this sort of fellowship and partnership, even in our closed door communities. If we're open to it, we may just find God adding to our number daily. So I'm just going to close in prayer, I'm going to pray from the book of Philippians. Paul prays this to the church of Philippi. And I'm just gonna pray it because I feel like it really matches along with the message I shared today.
"I thank my God every time I remember you, in all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy, because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now. Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to the completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart, and whether I'm in chains or defending, and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I longed for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best, and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Amen.
