Does it get any better than this? "Faith Under Fire" Missions Fest in Alberta February 1 - 3, 2002 Over the three-day conference, the aggregate attendance was 24,000, with people coming from all over Alberta and some from parts beyond. The Spirit of God was evident as several hundreds of people, both young and old responded to the challenging messages of our keynote speakers. Hundreds of people have either responded to take up the challenge to go into mission service or become more involved in prayer and sending out others.

The feedback from people indicates that the speakers and messages have caused many to seek and respond to God in a deeper relationship. Our challenging speakers were: Dr. Billy Kim, Korean Director of Far East Broadcasting, Pastor of a 15,000 member church, and President of the Baptist World Alliance; Nik & Beth Ripkin, Mission Strategists with International Mission Board; Pastor Wagdi Iskander, Arabic Christian Fellowship; and Randy Friesen, Youth Mission International.

As we considered the theme of persecution around the world, the speakers brought new insight to our response for a persecuted church and understanding to loving those who persecute us. Whereas we in North America most often speak of 'living for Jesus', the reality in most of the Christian world is that many face 'dying for Jesus'. After all, even Jesus sent his disciples out as sheep among wolves!

On the Friday alone, thousands of youth were exposed to missions through the Friday Field Trip program and the evening session. The children 'traveled' around to different mission stations and had the opportunity to learn about different ministries and needs around the world. Randy Friesen gave the youth lots to think about on the Friday evening for high-schoolers and Saturday evening for Young Adults. Throughout the weekend, Art Henkel from Born-2-Win Productions, ministered to Grades 1 to 6 where numerous children accepted Christ for the first time!

Various local church and mission representatives expanded the understanding of thousands who attended over 50 seminars with topics (to name a few) ranging from teaching missions to children, unreached people groups, cults, evangelism, persecution to holistic ministries.

The days were full of various ethnic musical groups from local church ministries in the area. The final Sunday night called "Sing to the Nations" included choirs from: Arabic Sudanese Fellowship, Asian Christian Church and Punjabi Church, the Carican Celebration Choir (Caribbean), Congregation Beit Mashiach, Celebration Singers from Russia and the Edmonton Korean Youth Choir and Ladies Singers. This final evening of celebration brought into focus the joy of scriptures in Revelation when we will worship with "every tribe and tongue, people and nation" around God's throne. During the final song of the evening, participants were invited to symbolically lift up the flags of the nations before God.

We closed the conference with Psalm 67:

God be merciful to us and bless us,
And cause His face to shine upon us.
That Your way may be known on earth,
Your salvation among all nations.
Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.

Missions Fest 2003, February 21-23, 2003 - "Get a Job…In the Harvest"