Please remember,

“Parkdale EFC”

– our LPD “Church of the Week.”

Thanks to Anna (Ben) Crumback at Sointula Community Church for producing the Church of the Week!

I will always cherish memories of Barney Prestie coming to see Karen and me off at the ferry on Malcolm Island after we visited Sointula Community Church. As he did, always smiling broadly, he would repeat his favourite line, “We just wanted to make sure that you leave.”

Such joking could not mask Barney and Ivy Prestie’s love for the Lord and compassion for the people of Malcolm Island.

Barney and his wife Ivy came to the west coast as newlyweds, and were led to Christ by their landlord in New Westminster. They were encouraged to serve at Camp Homewood on Quadra Island, and while there, they were recruited by a Shantyman missionary to go to Sointula, and challenged to pour their lives into assisting to plant and grow a church on Malcolm Island. They received this as God’s call to them. Delivered by fishing boat with their meager possessions in 1954, they were greeted by three ladies who had been praying for a church to be planted. Barney and Ivy never left, and have  lived and served on the Island for 64 years.

Over the years, Barney has worked at everything from the Sointula Co-Op to school janitor, supporting him and his family while serving the Lord, the people of Malcolm Island  and Sointula Community Church. He has served  as  church chair, as funeral officiant and as interim pastor on several occasions. We are thankful for Barney and Ivy and for their lifetime of faithful service on Malcolm Island.

Though his 94 years of life and almost seventy years of marriage, Barney has enjoyed remarkably good health and he and Ivy have remained faithful in service and encouraging Pastor Ben and Anna Crumback. Just before Christmas, he took a stroke, and on Christmas Day, he peacefully passed into the Lord’s presence.

This Saturday, I will join many from Malcolm Island and elsewhere to pay tribute to, and give thanks for the life and ministry of Barney Prestie. I can only imagine how many lives have been impacted by the life and quiet testimony of Barney and Ivy through the years. They have been been faithful servants and their legacy will live on for years to come.

We, in the EFCC are committed to the, “Priesthood of All Believers.” Church ministry calls for a teamwork of vocational and volunteer leaders. All of us have received gifts to serve, and as Paul Stevens has put it, “God gives gifts to people, and gifts of people to his church.” Barney and Ivy have been special gifts to us all, and we are thankful!
Barney had a heart for missions. Donations may be made, in his memory, to Trans World Radio Canada, PO Box 25324, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1

***

Please Pray for:

• Me (Rob), as my travels this weekend take me from one end of our district to the other – from Delta to Courtenay and Sointula on Friday and Saturday, and over to Mountain View Church in Chilliwack/Sardis for Sunday, and the installation of Pastor Darryn and Kim Botha. 
• Praise the Lord that Darryn and Kim Botha and daughters Katie and Dani, have arrived safely, and will be installed as Pastor at Mountain View Church in Sardis on Sunday.
• Sointula Community Church. Pray for Pastor Ben and Anna and the church family, as they gather on Saturday, to honour Barney Prestie, who, with his wife Ivy have volunteered in the planting and ministry of Sointula Community Church for more than 60 years. He passed away on Christmas Day.
• Brian and Mary Crumback – parents of Ben (Anna) Crumback, as he trusts the Lord through brain cancer.
• Pray for Central EFC in Courtenay, as they are seeking the Lord for purchasing a suitable building to house their church and ministries.
• Praise God for confirming the calls of pastors for Grace EFC (Su Ping), and Coquitlam Chinese EFC (Keith (Hazel) Kwok), and Richmond Chinese (Will and Christine Burgess to English Ministries and Edmond and Grace Fong for Chinese Ministries).
• Pastor Lorin (Jeanette) Bergen of Fort Langley EFC. Lorin is taking a three-month medical leave, and is planning to return in mid-February. Pray also for Associate Pastors, Jon (Emily) Reesor and Jason (Susanna) Lavergne, as they share the ministry responsibilities through this time.
• Christ Community Church in Ucluelet, in their search for bi-vocational pastor.
• Quadra Island Bible Church in their pastoral search.
• The Steveston Project Team – Allen and Hannah Chang, Daniel and Joyce Wong, Steve and Gillian Sharpe. Praise God for a Core Team and lives being touched with the Good News.