Testimony

Youth & Spirituality A Seat at the Table

Every few years, the Pentecostal World Fellowship chooses a country to host their event. In 2019, they chose to hold it in Canada. I remember sitting with our PAOC general superintendent, David Wells, over coffee a couple of years ago. He shared his heart with me, and with tears streaming down his face, encouraged me that the younger generation must not give up. He asked me to be one of the speakers for the conference, and in that moment, I knew in my heart God was up to something. When the time...

Youth & Spirituality A God Who Cares

I grew up in a dysfunctional family where my father was not very present. He was unfaithful to my mother and, in spite of his careless attitude, was quite strict with us. He didn’t want us to cry, because for him, it was a sign of weakness. He probably had this mindset as a result of his time in the army. Because of all this, I think, I quickly started getting into trouble as early as elementary school—fighting, robberies, armed assaults and so on. As the years went by, it got worse....

Youth & Spirituality Victory, Layer by Layer

I remember the night I asked God to bring me back to Him. At just 18 years old, I was on tour with an indie rock band, but this night seemed different from any of the others before. Unlike the lively bars, venues, and festivals that had become our normal, my band played the show at a youth drop-in centre. Five teenagers sat on the floor watching us, blinking behind thick mascara, their faces expressionless as they hugged their own legs. I nailed every note, pulled the same moves, and struck ever...

Meditation Not Just a Christmas Lyric

When the furnace dies on Christmas morning in Southern Alberta, you do your best to find extra slippers, blankets and sweaters to outfit all 21 of your visiting relatives. While you’re waiting for the furnace repairman, you hit up the Boxing Day sales for several space heaters, eat ridiculous amounts of Christmas baking to warm up the inside, and reminisce about the lack of central heating in the “good old days.” At least that Christmas I could find the charm in the chaos becau...

Youth & Spirituality @themovementya

I have the best job on earth. I partner with millennials to bring Jesus’ love to our world, and I must say they are my hands-down favourite people. The prevailing narrative is that they are lazy and entitled, but every generation has the potential to be misunderstood. The Holy Spirit is stronger than every brush anyone is painted with, and I refuse to vilify them. Like the generations before them, God says they are set apart, powerful and—with the Holy Spirit—unstoppable. In Oc...

From Our Bible Colleges - Part 2 The Holy Spirit at work in the lives of students

The Holy Spirit at work in students’ lives We invited 22 PAOC-affiliated Bible college students to share what the Holy Spirit is doing in their lives. As part of our centenary celebration, we have been sharing those testimonies with you over the course of two magazine issues and posting some of them over social media. Part 2 is reflected in the current issue and features students from Summit Pacific College in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Vanguard College in Edmonton, Alberta, Institut Bi...

From Our Bible Colleges - Part 1 The Holy Spirit at work in the lives of students

The Holy Spirit at work in students’ lives We invited 22 PAOC-affiliated Bible college students to share what the Holy Spirit is doing in their lives. As part of our centenary celebration, we’ll share those testimonies with you over the course of two magazine issues and post some of them over social media over the next few weeks. Part 1 is reflected in the current issue and features students from Horizon College & Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and Master’s College &a...

25th Pentecostal World Conference Join us in Calgary, Alberta, August 27-30, 2019

Registrations are picking up for the much-anticipated conference in C-Town in just over four short months. Here are some details that can help you or the friends you share them with to join the growing sign-up list. Register at 25pwc.org. Can you share a bit of the history surrounding the Pentecostal World Conference? In May 1947, 3,000 delegates convened in Zürich, Switzerland, to participate in an international conference for Pentecostal ministers, theologians and leaders. Key ministers o...

Everyday Thoughts Addicted to the Right Thing

Dramatic life changes can have modest beginnings. Just walking across a room was all it took to start a conversation that changed Brian Chudy’s life. In March 2018, Brian came to North Pointe Church a broken man. His home is a stone’s throw away from North Pointe, so when his wife strongly suggested he seek out help for his drug addiction, the closest church seemed like a good choice. He just had to walk across the parking lot. Brian and his wife showed up 10 minutes early for North ...

Perspective God’s Unexpected Voice

A couple of days after we buried our stillborn baby, God spoke to my wife. It was Krista’s first time returning to the grave after we’d buried Avery. As the van rolled up to the cemetery gate, a song started playing on the radio. Krista sat in the vehicle and listened as the artist declared that God does not abandon us in our sorrow. As she began to cry, the lyrics went on to assure her that God holds our tears.1 She hadn’t been asking God to speak to her. God’s voice cam...

Seven Questions Seven Questions for Rev. Michel Bisaillon

Q1: Your bio on the PAOC website is interesting. You were working at the National Bank before attending Bible college and going into full-time ministry. What led to that major life and career change? My mother left home when I was four years old. My father, however, was filled with love and devotion for his two children and secured full-time custody of us. All of this was not the norm in Quebec at the time. During my teenage years, I lived in a town near the west end of the island of Montre...

Your Story A Royal Wedding

On May 8, 2018, I received a message from a longtime friend, Shelley McAmmond, congratulating my wife and me on 37 years of marriage. Her message also included a request: “Our son, Tyrel, is engaged to be married. He and his fiancée asked me to contact you to see if you would consider performing their marriage ceremony this summer in Saskatchewan.” There are three activities that, as a pastor, I am truly honoured to do: baby dedications, weddings, and funerals. But this reques...

Everyday Thoughts Immanuel Every Day

“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel … ‘God with us’ ” (Matthew 1:23). The holy wonder of the Incarnation is the good news of Christmas, but Immanuel is more than just the baby in the manger. It’s more than a 2,000-year-old miracle. Immanuel means more than God being with us in some abstract theological way. Immanuel means God with us right here and now. If Jesus has really done this—brou...

Vitality Matters Supernatural Gifts for Ordinary People

Most Pentecostal and charismatic believers have witnessed incidences of abuse and misuse of spiritual gifts. These include everything from strange physical displays to condemning, threatening or manipulative “words from the Lord.” Such abuses can cause believers to fear valid supernatural demonstrations and, in some cases, to develop disdain for them.Improper and unwise demonstrations of spiritual gifts have contributed, in a large degree, to a downward trend in their use. &ldq...

Your Story Love Never Lets Go

Phyllis Ryan Fisher was born December 19, 1947, in Toronto, Ontario. Her mother was a loving and resourceful woman who, during those postwar years, either cared for Phyllis herself or left her in the care of wonderful people who “adopted” her into their families. Although Phyllis was an only child, the “moms,” “dads” and “sisters” she collected along the way enriched her life and helped mould her into the lady she grew to be. This small-town girl l...

Our Story No “Do Nothing” Option

The town of Slave Lake, Alta., gained international attention on July 6, 2011, when William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, came to visit. Seven weeks earlier, a devastating wildfire had swept through the town destroying 40 per cent of its buildings and forcing all of its 7,000 residents to evacuate. Many left with nothing more than the clothes they were wearing. Asthe world watched these two representatives of an earthly kingdom tour the town, representatives of God’s ki...

On The Issue In Need of a Good Samaritan

In November 2013, Brock Harrison was going about his life as a new dad and speechwriter for the leader of a political party when it hit him. It presented innocuously enough as panic attacks. Sitting down at his computer brought sudden and paralyzing physiological discomfort. He had experienced the odd panic attack in the past, but they were periodic and easy to shake off. These were different. He was physically unable to work. “Fortunately, I never experienced the desire to end my life,&rd...

Seven Questions SEVEN QUESTIONS FOR: VINJELU MUYABA

Vinjelu Muyaba and his wife, Kathryn, are lead pastors of Lighthouse Fellowship in Wetaskiwin, Alberta. They have a great love for the community they serve. Having grown up surrounded by poverty in Zambia, Vinjelu brings a fresh vision for reaching a needy and broken world. They have nine children: Million, Esther, Francis, Seth, Lexsina, Taliah, Elizabeth, Chawezi, and Hezekiah. Q 1: Tell us a bit about your family … and your nine kids! I come from a ver...

Everyday Thoughts Door to Door:

“I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest” (John 4:35b). As I rounded the corner on my alternate daily run, I could not help but notice them. They were paired up, two on one side of the street and two on the other. Middle-aged, modestly dressed and book in hand, they were going through this prestigious neighbourhood knocking on doors. They were not selling anything. They were Jehovah’s Witnesses doing “door-to-door” evangelis...

Lifestyle Minding the Mind

Our nine-year-old son would not swallow his dinner. He cried, coughed, and then ran to the bathroom to spit it out. It wasn’t my cooking—not this time anyway. It was anxiety. He had learned choking safety tips at school that day, and for the rest of the week he was consumed by the fear of choking. It startled us because we weren’t dealing with the typical childhood fever or scraped knee. We were trying to comfort a child whose mind was not OK. As parents we strive to keep...

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Editorials

From the Editor Telling Our Stories

From our General Superintendent The Myth of the Omnicompetent: A Leadership Reflection

From the Editor Closing the Gap

From our General Superintendent "Fix Your Gaze": Jesus at the Centre

At Work in the World

Mission Global BAM

Mission Canada THE BLESS MODEL

ERDO CONTINUING A LEGACY