MLA Prayer Breakfast Report

We recently held our annual prayer breakfast.  The breakfast is our showcase event and we look forward to it all year.  I'm thrilled to tell you that we had an incredible response from the MLA's with 17 in attendance and a total of almost 150 people with us for that morning.  God has been faithful to us!   I'm including some pictures of the morning that I hope you enjoy.

Our speaker this year was Karen Reed.  Karen had just completed a 15 month role as Executive Director with More Than Gold which was a faith network response to the Olympic Games.  It was an incredible morning as she spoke out of her experience on the power of collabaration. 

As Karen and I were having lunch together with a small group later in the day, one Cabinet Minister came over to thank her for her talk and commmented that 'we all took notes and have been talking about it all morning.'  Given that Cabinet ministers have a lot of things on their mind, it speaks volumes about the way God helped Karen as she spoke that morning.  Some people have asked for a copy of her talk. While we don't have a hard copy, you can view a video of her talk by clicking here.

Here's a picture of Tim introducing each of the 17 MLA's who attended.  What a thrill to have such a tremendous response!

 

On your left is Pastor Dan Cousins from Nanaimo.  Dan is the pastor of Genesis Christian Centre.  He led us in prayer for the 84 MLA's that give leadership to our province.  Here is text of the prayer that we prayed that morning.

We thank you for the leaders gathered in this room who give of themselves to serve our province as elected leaders. We ask that you would honour their willing sacrifice of time and energy as they give themselves to public service. We pray that you would grant them wisdom as they serve as leaders. Help them to discern what is best for our province as we move towards tomorrow. Give them courage to make good and right decisions that are in keeping with Your plans so that all of us will benefit. Fill them with compassion for the poor and weak among us. Help them to govern rightly on their behalf. Grant them Your strength that will enable them to fulfill all that is required of them. May they sense Your love for them today.

This picture was taken as we prayed for the MLA's.  What an incredible privilege to pray with ministry friends and partners along with leaders from the church, business and government with no agenda other than to ask God to bless them as they serve our province in their capacity as leaders. 

We've got some great candid shots that you will find below as well.  We hope that these photos give you a good sense of what it was like to be with us this year.  If you couldn't make it this year, please make plans to join us next year.

Pastor Peter Lewis with MLA Bill Routley and Tim Schindel.

MLA Harry Bloy with Tim.  Harry has attended all 4 of our breakfasts.

MLA Marc Dalton arrives at the breakfast.  That's Barb Schindel behind Marc.

Karen Reed meets Mabel Elmore. 

Dave Hauser (Victoria) and Dave Franke (Duncan) enjoy a moment together.  This was a great morning to smile as old friends found each other and new friends were made.

A group shot taken during our speakers address. As you can see, we've grown a bit.  We had 45 people at our first breakfast.  We had 150 join us this year.  We are very grateful.