Families
for Christ Community – Vancouver,
Canada
.
– An interview with Bernard De Mesa, senior
coordinator of the community
When was your community
started? – What inspired you?
In the early 1990s, a few couples who had moved
to Canada from the Philippines came together to
form an informal prayer group. Sensing the need
for a more formal direction, in September 1993,
the group went on a pilgrimage to a Catholic
pilgrimage site in Portland, Oregon, for a whole
day of prayer and spiritual discernment. Having
been soaked in the Spirit, a prophecy surfaced,
“Before you bring the good news of salvation to
others, start with your own families. You are my
family in Vancouver. You are families for
Christ.” It was then that they decided to adopt
the name “Families
for Christ Community.”
Where are you located?
What kind of area is it?
Between the alpine attractions of the
resort town of Whistler to the north, the farms
and vineyards of the Fraser Valley to the East,
the Pacific Ocean to the West and the border
leading to Washington State to the South – you
will find our metropolis known as the Greater
Vancouver area. It is composed of several cities
and municipalities with Vancouver being the
focal point. Our members are spread out over
this Greater Vancouver area with the widest
distance nearly 60 kilometers between some of
our members. The area is largely residential
(single detached houses and townhomes) with a
few highly urbanized pockets (high rise condos
and offices). There are also several green
spaces (parks, lakes, forests, farmlands) easily
accessible from all directions.
What is the cultural
make-up of your community, and how many
members do you have?
We are an immigrant community. Most, if
not all of us who are 40 years old, or older,
were born and raised in the Philippines – making
us a predominantly Catholic community. Our
members have been arriving in Canada over the
last 25 years, some even as recently as in the
last five years. Most of us are now Canadian
citizens.
University
Christian Outreach in Vancouver
We presently have 120 members in 11 men’s
groups and 14 women’s groups. That includes our
young professionals who are also assigned to
men’s and women’s groups. Age-wise, we have a
wide range. Some members are grandparents and a
few couples are in their 30s with children. But
most of our adult members are in their 40s and
50s. Our young professionals are mostly in their
mid-20s. Our university-aged children serve in
University Christian Outreach (UCO) and our high
school children are in what we call the Young
Ones (YO) Group, while the grade schoolers are
in the Young Believers (YB) Group.
Being an immigrant community, our members are
in a variety of professions. Many of us had to
reinvent ourselves and our careers to adapt to
our newly adopted country.
How often do you meet,
and in what configurations?
Our regular activities include:
- Community assemblies twice a month.
Simultaneous with these assemblies, our
children will be having their own activities.
- Men’s groups and women’s groups meet twice a
month.
Other activities are:
- Men’s breakfasts four times a year. This
year, we introduced the joint breakfast for
men and women.
- Acts of mercy. We visit nursing homes and
work at food bank distribution
- A Lenten retreat
- A summer picnic and Christmas celebration –
great family events for us.
What do you as a
community feel the Lord is saying to you?
What particular strength or call do you feel
you as a community have been given by the
Lord just now?
In recent years, especially last year
and this year, we have sensed that the Lord is
calling us to be bolder and to step out of our
comfort zones to share his good news with
others.
What areas of community
life or service do you feel are a focus for
the community, things you as a community are
working to strengthen or take new strides
in?
Our mission is to bring families into a
deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. We
envision a dynamic community of Christ-centred
families across Canada. We sense the need to
strengthen our efforts at bringing others to
know Christ – both at the personal level and as
a community. This means having a stronger
conviction to share our faith with others,
including family and friends outside community
and co-workers. We then have to create more
opportunities to support our members in bringing
others to experience our way of life – such as
the men’s breakfast, women’s teas, and Life in
the Spirit seminars where people can hear the
good news in an informal setting and ask
questions. Acting with more boldness to invite
people to these things is a challenge for us,
considering we live in a very secular society.
Visiting
the elderly – part of our Faith in Action
with Seniors outreach
Why is it a help being
part of the larger network of communities of
the Sword of the Spirit?
First, it gives us great comfort to
know that we are not alone in this spiritual
battle – that we have brothers and
sisters-in-arms across the world fighting the
good fight of faith. This leads us to the second
point – this reminds us that our community and
our efforts are part of God’s greater plan. And
third, this network offers a great sharing of
resources – from teachings to best practices to
logistics.
If people in your area
wanted to contact you, what’s the best way
for them to do it? Do you have a website?
And which meetings would interested people
be welcome to attend?
We would like the men to experience the men’s
breakfast as a means of being introduced to our
community. Or families can join us in our summer
picnic and Christmas celebration. If they are
familiar with community life, they may want to
attend a community assembly or one of our men’s
or women’s group meetings. Although most of us
are of Filipino background, our community
language is English, and we warmly welcome
Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike.
[This
article first appeared in The
Sword of the Spirit website Features
page.]
See related articles on Christian communities
in the Sword of the Spirit:
- Krist
Kiran Parivar (Family
of the Rays of Christ)
Community in Pune,
India, by Luke Lobo
- Disciples
on Mission in the War-torn City of
Aleppo, Report by André J. Codouni
- The
Antioch
Community, London, UK,, by Andy
Pettman
- Community
of Nazareth in
Dublin,
Ireland, by
Brendan Lynch
- Triumph
of the Cross, by Jeff Smith
- Thirty
Years Jerusalem: God's call to
covenant community, by Sam Geleyn,
Leuven, Belgium
- Seattle
Community
- Word
of Life: a community of disciples
on mission, by Jon Wilson, Ann Arbor,
Michigan, USA
- The
Work of Christ Community, by
Jerry Munk, Lansing, Michigan, USA
- Once
No People, Now God's People:
How the People of God community
began 25 years ago in Coraopolis,
Pennsylvania, USA, by Connie Maletta
- Called
to Community: How the
Community of the Risen Christ began
in Glasgow, Scotland 25 years ago
- What
is
the Sword of the Spirit? Some
questions and answers, by Jerry Munk
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