Bedford, NS (October 24-15, 1997)--The Presbytery of Eastern Canada met in Bedford Presbyterian

Church, and was greatly pleased to have little business and considerabletime for prayer.

Our main concern was for our church planting and the limited resources we have for the work which is crying to be done in Canada. Our small presbytery (5 small particular churches) has 2 church planting missions approved and in train as soon as we can find the right man, a third not far from that and five small groups in smaller centres asking our help to plant a new church, because they have NOTHING in their area which even approaches the kind of churches we are trying to build. Beyond that there remain a

number of major centres in which we see a need to plant churches.

Please be in prayer for us. Canada is an accessible (no language barrier except in Quebec, minimal cultural barrier) but neglected mission field. At most 10-12% of the population could be classified as evangelical Christians. There is no Canadian seminary which satisfies our needs, and it is very costly it is for Canadians to go to study in the U.S. Pray that the Lord will raise up labourers for the harvest here, and that he will provide the resources to support them. The need is great, the cry is before us, "Come over here", and if the Lord does not provide resources we cannot see, there will be no answer to that cry for help.

Dane Lewis is working in London, Ontario, to establish Thames Valley Presbyterian Church; he is just about to move from a home Bible Study to an interim service in larger facilities. We are working with General Assembly MNA in the process of finding a man and funding for a major church plant in the nation's capitol city, Ottawa, Ontario. We are also looking for a suitable church planter to work with a small but keenly committed core group in the Miramichi area of New Brunswick. The base groundwork has been

laid for planting a downtown congregation in Halifax, Nova Scotia. But these are in some sense the easy options.

We struggle with the question of what we can do for a family or two scattered here or there in small centres, hungry for a reformed church with a positive outlook and outreach. We struggle about what we can do for pastors who have seen an end to hope in declining denominations, and would love to join our work -- but we have no place for them. We covet your prayers, your wisdom, your help to build the church in this land of need.

And we rejoice in being part of the PCA, part of a church that takes this desire seriously! Too often we focus on the difficulties, the differences we have, and forget how much there is that holds us together. How wonderful it is to work together with brethren who may differ from us in small ways, but share in the same love for Christ, the same delight in the historic understanding of Scripture with which he has blessed us, and the same zeal to bring the gospel of his grace to the lost in every land! In our small presbytery we have a wide range of approaches and emphases. But we are learning to rejoice that we can work together and know that we are building on the same roots and working towards the same goal.

TE Don Codling, Stated Clerk/Correspondent

49 Nelson's Landing Blvd., Bedford, NS B4A 3Z6

(902)864-1587; e-mail: 76662.3030@compuserve.com