Bits and Pieces – 12th Edition – May 24, 2020

As was expected the Ontario government has ruled that all schools, both public and private, will remain closed until the end of the school year in late June.  The schools therefore will not reopen until the new school year begins in September.  The Whitefield Christian Schools will continue with internet classes until the end of June.  Our teachers have done an amazing job using Google Classroom to continue teaching their students via computer technology.

Toronto church services continue each Sunday on SermonAudio.com.  Adult Bible Class (on 2 Peter) at 9.00am, morning service at 10.00.  The evening pre-service prayer time is at 4.30pm (on zoom), the evening service at 5.30pm.  The Wednesday evening prayer meeting is on zoom at 7.30pm.  All are welcome.  Check with the church for details.

Mrs. Francesca Fernandes, a member of the Toronto church, went home to be with the Lord on Thursday, May 21 after a lengthy illness.  Born in Karachi, Pakistan, in 1943, she is survived by her husband Louis, and daughters Suzanne and Karen.  She and Louis, with baby Suzanne, immigrated to Canada in 1973, settling initially in Montreal.  It was while there she came to Christ in 1978.  She was a faithful servant of the Lord and, although never really blessed with good health since having rheumatic fever when she was seven, she bore her many infirmities with fortitude, and was rarely heard to complain.  The past couple of years were particularly difficult for her as she was very weak.  But it was a mercy that she was able to spend her last days at home with her family.  The funeral will be in the Toronto church, but severely restricted because of the Covid-19 crisis.  The church family assures Louis, Suzanne and Karen of their enduring love and prayer.

The Free church family was deeply saddened by the death of our brother on Tuesday May 19 at his home in Bangor, Northern Ireland.  Up to his recent illness Wesley was heavily involved in the burgeoning work in Nepal and his input and support for that work will be greatly missed.  Wesley was diagnosed with a brain tumour in January of this year and sadly has succumbed to its effects.  He was 68 and is survived by his wife, Carol, and their son and daughter.  Please pray for the Graham family, and also the works in Nepal that benefitted much from his faithful ministry.

A child is born in an obscure village.  He is brought up in another obscure village.  He works in a carpenter shop until He is thirty, and then for three brief years is an itinerant preacher, proclaiming a message and living a life.  He never writes a book.  He never holds an office.  He never owns a home.  He never goes to college.  He never travels two hundred miles from the place where he was born.  He gathers a little group of friends about Him and teaches them his way of life.

While still a young man the tide of popular opinion turns against Him.  The band of followers forsakes Him.  One denies Him, another betrays Him.  He is turned over to His enemies.  He goes through the mockery of a trial; He is nailed to a cross between two thieves, and when dead is laid in a borrowed grave by the kindness of a friend.  He rises from the dead.

Those are the facts of His human life.  Today as we look back across nineteen hundred years and ask, what kind of trail has He left across the centuries?  When we try to sum up His influence, all the armies that ever marched, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned are absolutely picayune in their influence on mankind compared with that of ONE SOLITARY LIFE.  [Attributed to James Allen Francis, Tullylish Parish Church, Co. Down, N.I. about five miles from the writer’s previous church in Tandragee, County Armagh, Northern Ireland].

“Indeed, God turns times of affliction into times of multiplication for His people and His cause.  History provides countless examples.  When has the church advanced most obviously?  When has she taken her greatest strides?  In the day of ease and luxury, when there is acceptance and approval?  No.  She has succeeded most when she has been driven to the fields and the forests, when her name is no more than s term of reproach, when her sons are pursued and persecuted outcasts.  Surely there is a parallel in the experience of the individual believer.  We rarely make much spiritual progress when the winds and the waves favour us.  We often do best when all is against us.” [Rev. Timothy Nelson, Ballynahinch FPC.]