Saskatoon Part 3: Church Hopping

Saskatoon Churches:

This summer was my first time actually away from my home church, OCBC. So, at firs I was excited about 'church hopping' since I always meet the new first years and it sounds like fun when they do it, but really it sucks. haha. With a million churches to check out and after a month of hopping from one building to another meeting some people and not meeting so many others I ended up attending three churches more than once: Saskatoon Chinese Alliance Church (SCAC); The Connection at Emmanuel Baptist Church (EBC); and Saskatoon Chinese Christian Church (SCCC).

Never got a really good picture of SCAC. >.>

SCAC felt like home, a church that was a family with kids running around and grandparents lovingly watching. It was trilingual services, which was awesome and I learned a bunch of Chinese. xP. I didn't even actually plan to attend their services while I was in Saskatoon, but after I met YF and he asked to go to a church with me I googled Chinese churches and found it. I miss everyone from SCAC and I don't know if/when I'll be back. A large number of the congregation are teenagers still seeking and aren't Christian yet. Pray that God would continue to speak through Pastor WK and that more of the regular attendees would accept Christ as their saviour.

EBC after service

The Connection was an evening service at EBC. I ended up here both because a friend went to the morning service and because I wanted to seek out as many congregations outside of Sunday morning as possible, so that I could try as many as possible. xP. It was also actually really close to my house. I actually had a bit of a problem with this congregation. I was trying to see how welcoming people were and so I didn't really introduce myself to people while I was church hopping. The first time I was at EBC no one approached me until the very last second like 15 minutes after service ended. > .> I kinda hated that. The church should be welcoming, and I got pretty angry for a while. But God really spoke to me through that time and I got to spend time with the new pastor and he explained about the history of the congregation and stuff. Pastor CL is doing a series on loving others over this semester. Pray this church grows in showing Christ to others.

SCCC's building was shared with another church

SCCC is an amazing church. Although only in Mandarin, this church has members of all ages who seek to glorify God in their lives. I actually went there the first week, but left because it was all in Mandarin. haha. Little did I know PG (my coworker) went there, and in August after their main pastor left for BC they were having an English pastor give some messages. I got to go twice and see like 11(?) people get baptized! Later Holy Spirit led me to a Tim Hortons one night and I got to talk to a couple guys from SCCC the last day before I left. haha I got to encourage them to trust in God for more and seek after Him because He is always faithful. It was sweet. XP. Pray for this church's continuing ministry to the international students and local Chinese community as well as the search for a new pastor.