Exciting things are happening at Oakville Chinese Alliance Church in Oakville, ON!
As one of our New Ventures supported by the Central District of the C&MA as well as the Canadian Chinese Alliance Churches Association, Oakville Chinese Alliance Church began worshipping together on October 18, 2015 as the Oakville Branch of Mississauga Carmel Mandarin Alliance Church. It became Oakville Chinese Alliance Church under the Central District's leadership and supervision in June of this year.
The story of God's provision over only one year is best told in their own words:
Praise our Lord, Oakville Chinese Alliance Church successfully held our first baptism ceremony and Sunday worship on September 4, 2016!
A senior couple smoothly completed their testimony and baptism. We praise the Lord for leading our hymn-praising, holy communion, Scripture reading, sermon-preaching, offering, family reports and blessings - all these worship activities - successfully! After the worship, we enjoyed fellowship and lunch for everyone!
In less than one year, there have been a total of five people baptized. More than twenty brothers and sisters have transferred their membership and found their new spiritual home at Oakville Alliance. What’s more, eight people committed to Jesus Christ (including the two who were baptized) since June. Moreover, God also keeps leading newcomers to the church and there were already one hundred new families or individuals who had visited our church by the end of August. This not only confirms the great need of the Chinese community in Oakville, but also strengthens our faith and calling from God to plant a new church in this city!
Currently, the numbers of church Sunday service congregation members have been steadily rising to around seventy people. Our church prayer meetings, Sunday School, Sunday worship and fellowship group are also growing steadily. We also recently started discipleship training in our prayer meeting on Thursday nights and there have been about fifteen brothers and sisters participating in the study and prayer meeting in the last two weeks. There, we are united as one and humbly serve one another, praying for the needs emerging out of our church growth and of our congregation members. Not only are we offering our sincere prayers to our Lord, but also building a solid foundation for the development of our church!
Reviewing what we have gone through in our first year, we see how the church has experienced God's amazing grace and might all the way! We are really very grateful!
Please Pray
Facing the fast growth of the Chinese community in the Oakville, ON area and their need for Gospel, they ask for prayer in the following areas:
- Pray for the city of Oakville as a gospel field. May God lead and use the brothers and sisters in our church to share the gospel and witness to the grace of our Lord.
- Pray for a pastor to shepherd and lead the congregation members. Also, pray for an intern or co-worker to lead our youth ministry for teenagers.
- Pray for the evangelistic activities, fellowship groups, prayer meetings, children and adult Sunday school teachers. May our Lord motivate and lead more brothers and sisters to service Him and serve one another.
May this story inspire you who are in the early years of church planting to depend on the Lord!
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Currently there are about 30,000 Chinese in Oakville, ON compared to 10,000 – 20,000 Chinese when the very first Christian church was planted. New houses are constantly being built on both sides of Dundas Street where many Chinese people have made their homes, and the Muslim population in this area is also growing fast. You can learn more about Oakville Chinese Alliance Church on their profile.