On March 16, Ed Stelmach, Premier of Alberta, announced $12 million in funding for the Mustard Seed Society to develop 112 housing units for homeless men and women. The housing grants will provide new supportive housing initiatives in Calgary and Edmonton, as well as expanded facilities at The Mustard Seed’s Mountain Aire Lodge near Sundre, Alberta.

“The Mustard Seed is privileged to have been selected to partner with the province to provide lasting, long-term support and housing for women and men across Alberta,” said The Mustard Seed Edmonton Executive Director, Sam Breakey.

Read more after the link, or go to www.theseed.ca or www.mustard.ab.ca to find out more.

When Maureen Chelemu left a good job in Zambia to become a missionary to Canada, she had no idea where her faith would lead her. While studying at a bible college in Regina, she was invited along on a mission trip to Brooks, Alberta. She slept for part of the journey and was awoken on the outskirts of town by a quiet voice that said “This is where I want you to be.”

Brooks Alberta, one of the fastest growing communities in Alberta, is known as the ‘City of 100 Hellos’ because of its unusually high multicultural diversity for a prairie town of 13,000 people. More than 75 languages are spoken here. Immigrants and refugees from around the world have been attracted by jobs in the meat processing plant and the oil and gas industry. It is a unique setting for Brooks International Gospel Church, one of the most dynamic church plants to affiliate with Canadian Baptists of Western Canada. We share their story of hardship and great promise as an encouragement that God is doing amazing things in our midst through those who are serving him at great cost to themselves. This serves as an example of what Canadian Baptists are about.

To read more about Maureen and Brooks International Gospel Church, click the link below.

March 31, 2010 Posted with the permission of the Edmonton Journal

By Liane Faulder. Photos by Walter Tychnowicz

Church food, for some, means coleslaw and tuna sandwiches. Possibly date squares, on a really good day.Not so at Laurier Heights Baptist Church, Edmonton where a foodie minister named Steve Simala-Grant and his able team of kitchen-savvy congregants (including Red Seal Chef Darryl Attwell) turn church basement meals into something memorable.

Read more after the link.