TESTIMONIES FROM TRAINING TIMES

We didn't always know when we sent a team out to visit whether the newcomers were Christians or non-Christians.  I share a couple of testimonies from those visits.  The first was a great compliment paid to us by a Christian couple, new to the church.  This couple appreciated the church's ministry, but they had one criticism.  Their criticism was that Rockyview Alliance Church was too friendly.  That's right, too friendly!  They said that they could not get out of church without people talking with them.  We accepted that criticism.

Lingering in the lobby for fellowship

Though the Evangelism Explosion sessions were times of training on how to share your faith one on one, they were indeed times of spiritual harvest.  Another story comes to mind about a visit which one of our teams made. We usually met back at the church for a very brief time of sharing.  One team, one night, was bubbling over the moment they walked into the room, following their visit.  They told of knocking on the door of the assigned home.  Once the team identified themselves as being from Rockyview Alliance Church, the lady of the house invited the team in.  She said "My daughter is getting married Saturday and she just left.  We've been doing some last minute preparations and we need a break."

After the usual conversation of getting acquainted with these folks, a husband and wife and their son, who was about twenty years of age, the team was able to share the gospel with them.  That night the three of them prayed to receive Christ.  The team also noticed that they had a copy of the Rockyview Review & Preview, a four page tabloid newspaper, which we published a few times and distributed to houses in the area.  The first issue or two, we printed about six or seven thousand copies.  We got up to about 16,000 copies, at the last, and the boys in our church's Christian Service Brigade, with the leaders organizing and going with the boys, would deliver the paper, placing a copy in each mail box.

Rockyview Review & Preview 
Page One - Vol 6 No. 2 - Summer 1983

Obviously they had received a copy in their mailbox, or from somewhere else.  At least that paper prepared the way for them to know something about the church. However, the team said these folks had asked how the church had secured their name.  The team didn't have an answer, so I explained.

A new Christian in the Okanagan Valley, who was a relative of these folks, had written to the pastor of Southview Alliance Church asking him if he would connect with them. Well, Southview Alliance Church was in the far southwest of Calgary and we were in the far northeast part of the city, close to where these folks lived, so the pastor asked if we would call on them.  The rest is history.  To God be the glory!