Missionary of the Month: March

Mar 2

Our featured missionary this month is Pastor Pete Randall, who serves the Lord at Citizens Church in Canada, with his wife, Kendra. Here is the overview he provided of his ministry in Canada and an update on how they have seen the Lord bless and grow their ministry:

In 2015, our family moved to Edmonton, Alberta to plant Citizens Church from Brandon, Florida (where my brother, Pastor John, planted Calvary Chapel Brandon). I served as a youth pastor there for the better part of a decade and was ordained there. Together with my wife, Kendra and our son, Canon we made the trek to the Great White North. Along the way, our daughter, Esther, was also born in Canada.

For the first six months of this church plant, we met on Sunday evenings in the upper room of a large church that rented out a space to us. There was little to no growth. As you can imagine, starting a church in the middle of November in Alberta, where the sun goes down at 4pm and temperatures range from -20 to 20+, no one even saw our tiny little church sign welcoming them in. We did have a few visitors those first six months, but God was certainly testing our steadfastness.

Shortly after that we began looking for a space that would allow for Sunday morning services. We knocked on a lot of doors, emailed a lot of community halls and churches, and were given only one response, so we walked through that open door. We then moved to a Sunday morning time slot on the west end of the city in a very small community hall. Canadian neighborhoods are very community oriented: children walk to school, play at their neighborhood parks, and play organized sports all within the community they live in. Unfortunately, the space that we rented was not the best of areas and it was not highly visible from major roads. Being that it was a bit tucked away, the people that knew we were there or attended church during this season heard about us from word of mouth or were personally invited. This was a time in ministry where we knew if first-time visitors were coming because it was likely that we invited them ourselves. This was also a time where the enemy sought to discourage from within. My wife, Kendra and I would often chat about how things went on the way home from church, with our two children in the back and a load of tetris-packed-equipment in the way back. Every Sunday was a battle of the mind. “Does anyone even want to come to church? Does anyone want to study the bible? Where are these people Lord?”

Fast forward to Covid. After five years of meeting in that little community hall, we were told we could no longer meet there. Thankfully it was summer, so we were able to do every service outside, but we got A LOT of rain that summer. We had to figure out a lot of what-if scenarios to continue to meet every Sunday with or without rain. It felt like the Israelites following the cloud by day and praying for clear skies. But God. He saw.

Then came fall and cooler temperatures. Canadians are tough, but the promise of outdoor services no longer appealed to many, including us. God told us to open up on our basement to the church. We even called Alberta Health Services to assure no one would be arrested or fined for gathering in our home. We were trying to be all things to all men, and with Covid that was a very tricky balance. It was really a dark time in our province if you followed some of what happened up here during that time. Pastors were being incarcerated for holding church services, yes, that happened. It was certainly a Red Sea moment. But people actually wanted to come and worship in our basement. There was growth. But we knew we needed a building and soon.

We had a zoom chat, of all things, with our leadership team, because house gatherings were banned at the time. One of the couples suggested a historic cabin that they used to work events at. This same couple were the first ones to get saved in our church, and they were even married at this cabin. I officiated their wedding, and Kendra even had this thought many years ago, “Wow, this would be an amazing place to have church someday. But that would probably never happen.” Well, it happened. God opened a door. It was a big door that required a huge step of faith. Our first service was on Palm Sunday of 2021 and we only filled about a third of the building. In my mind, I thought, “Wow, we will be here for a long time. Hopefully we can pay the bills! At least we only signed a six month lease!” But God, again. He has shown Himself faithful. We are now bursting at the seams with over a hundred adults this last Sunday and our children’s ministry growing into three classes. Our son and daughter used to be the only children in kid’s ministry! All this to say, God is faithful. “Church At The Cabin” as we call it, is all God. He built it and He’s grown it. He is so good, and so faithful in every season.

I love this piece of advice that my dad told me once over the phone while he was still alive. I often called him on Sundays, discouraged and downtrodden. This quote hangs on the wall of our home as a reminder each day: “Just accept where you are today. Be faithful in teaching. God will build the church. Don’t count heads, that’s the not the Lord. Just hold on and ride out the storm. Someday this season will be just a memory of God’s faithfulness at some point. Just keep doing what you’re doing and enjoy the Lord.” Wow is it ever true. Now we are praying for a bigger building when and if God sees fit!

Prayer Requests:

Church:

Church Building

Help in areas of staff, eventually assistant pastor needed

Growing pains: changes/needs for ministry

Personal:

Healing of our daughters abdominal migraines

Protection over our marriage and family