Author Archives: Duane Masters

We had an amazing day at the summer carnival this year.  We had between 900 – 1000 people in attendance with a little over half of the people from the church and a little under half from the community.  The weather was perfect.

That in itself was a miracle.  There can be no doubt that God held back the weather for us.  The weather report for the day was rain, rain and more rain … all day long!  When I looked out the window of my house in the morning, it was overcast and primed for a huge downpour.  But we had lots of people praying for the rain to hold off untill our event was over, and that is exactly what happened.

As we started to set up for the event, the clouds started to go away and the sun started to come out.  We even had a nice little breeze to keep the mosquitoes away.  Then as we neared the end of the event, we could see the clouds rolling in.  After the even was all done and we were just loading the last box into the vehicles to leave the site, the rain started to come down, and it came down hard.  It was like God had the weather on a stop watch for us.  He cleared the skies just long enough for us to set up, have the event, and tear down … to the minute!!

We did have some soggy grounds to deal with from the rain the previous few days, but we made that work.  We had a fabulous time.  We had more activities than ever before.  We brought in more bouncers, had family portraits being taken, and even had caricatures being drawn.  We gave away a whole bunch of plants to people as well as several bikes.  Our hairstylists were amazing!!  I cannot say enough about these amazing ladies who worked tirelessly cutting people’s hair.  Of course, there was lots of food for everyone.  And just like last year, we gave away some rides on a hot air balloon as door prizes.

All in all, it was a huge success.  I want to express my gratitude to all those who volunteered and made this event a success.  Can’t wait ’til next time!

On Saturday April 7th we had a huge Easter Egg hunt and pancake breakfast at the church for our community.  It was incredibly successful.  We had seating for around 150 people in the Mult-Purpose Room, and that is how many people showed up.  Every seat was full in that room.  The food was amazing and the volunteers did a fabulous job.

After the breakfast was served, we had a special guest appearance by Batman and Robin in the Bat Mobile.  The kids loved it and cheered when they entered the room.

Of course we invited everyone to our Weekend Easter Services and I was excited to see several families come back to take in one of the services that weekend.

Next it was time for the Easter Egg Hunt … and the kids had a blast.  We had around 2000 Easter Eggs placed all over in the grass area around the offices.

There were Easter eggs everywhere, filled with candy.  We even had some golden eggs that kids could redeem for an extra prize.

At the end of the day, the kids who found golden eggs came back into the building to the Kidz Rock registration area to collect their prizes.  The looks on the kids faces with the golden eggs was amazing.

All in all, the event was a huge success.  Not only were we able to serve our community in such a tangible way, but I know several families came out to church that weekend because of this event as well.  We could not have done this without such amazing volunteers.  If you were one of the volunteers who helped out with this event, thank you so much!

Now it is time to start planing for the summer carnival … more info to come …

February 20th was our first-annual Winter Carnival at the Westridge Community Centre.  We had no idea how many people to expect so we prepared to have enough food to feed a little over 200 people.  Turns out, we had about 200 people show up.  It was an incredible day!

We started off by serving lunch to the community.

Then we started into the several different activities for the afternoon.  We had face painting, sleds, snow painting and several other activities.

Of course, the the sleigh ride was the big hit.  There was a huge line of families eager for a ride with the horses.  The kids were even allowed to feed the horses carrots while the next group was loading on.

We ended the day with a presentation by a local magician as well as our Family Rockz! team.  We had the adults sit on the chairs, the kids sit on the floor at the front, and even still there were a bunch of people standing at the back because there was not enough room for them.

After the presentation was over, we sent everyone out for a candy toss on the outdoor ice rink. The kids had a blast!

It was such a great time and we had an amazing group of volunteers.  It is so great to be part of a church of people that are willing to serve the community in this way!  I can’t wait for next year!

-Pastor Duane