If you have followed the work of Chantelle McIver and Kristi Hopf at the Girls at Risk school in Niger, Africa, you might enjoy this opportunity to hear them speak and to support the school and local village projects focusing on Fulani women.

Who:  Chantelle McIver and Kristi Hopf, International Workers

What:  Food, fun, & silent auction

When:  Friday, April 26 at 7 p.m.

Where:  First Alliance Church, Calgary

Cost:  $5/ticket at the door

All proceeds from the evening benefit the Girls at Risk school and local village projects for Fulani women.

Have you been blessed with a new baby in the past year?  Whether this is your first baby or your fifth, if you haven’t been to a New Baby Brunch at Foothills since your baby was born, we would love to have you as our guest at the upcoming New Baby Brunch on May 8.  Celebrate your baby, get to know some other new moms, and enjoy a wonderful meal and program!

RSVP to Pastor Carla or call the church office to let us know you plan to come.  Childcare is available for older preschool siblings; let us know when you RSVP.

Celebrate this year at DayBreak with us and hear Marie Ens, founder of Place of Rescue in Cambodia.  If you have been part of DayBreak, want to know what DayBreak is all about, or would like to hear Marie’s inspiring words, plan to join us!

BRING A FRIEND!

Tickets available at DayBreak on Thursday, at Reception during the week, and at the Info Centre during weekend services.  Childcare is provided for children registered in DayBreak; drop-in childcare is $5/child.

This is a day of celebration!!!!  Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!

Today, as you consider that Christ is risen, I would invite you to read the passage below slowly and prayerfully.  I would encourage you to consciously just slow down.  Take a deep breath or two and ask God by his Spirit to speak to you as you slowly hear His Words to you.

Colossians 3:1-4

3 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. ² Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. ³ For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. (New Living Translation)

Now prayerfully read these verses once or twice more, using the questions below, to respond to what God seems to be impressing on you.

1. As you read through these verses, what word or phrase seems to be standing out to you?
2. Spend some time just mulling over that word or phrase, paying attention to what emotions and thoughts rise to the surface.
3. Ask God what it is that he wants to reveal to you and thank him for it.

What has struck me most in these days, as I have been reflecting on these verses, are the phrases that I have “been raised to new life with Christ” and that “my real life is hidden with Christ in God.”  I am blown away when I realize that these verses mean that because Christ was raised from the dead, I, too, am raised to a new life–not only sometime in the future (although that is another amazing truth), but here, now, while I live here on earth.  I am not defined by my sin, my brokenness, my mess–but I am intimately joined together with Christ as he sits at the Father’s right hand.  Sounds like something that I need to be paying attention to–this really does make a difference in how I live my life.

How about you? How will the fact that you are already hidden with Christ in God make a difference for how you live your life?

Prayer:  Lord Jesus,  You are my risen Lord and Saviour and today I choose to set my sights on where you are, at God’s right hand, because I know that I am somehow linked with you in that place.  I am loved and I know that because of what you have done for me, nothing will ever separate me from the love of God (Rom. 8:34-38).  Teach me to live my life from the perspective that my real life is in you. 

In the name of my Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Contributed by Ruth-Anne Gilbertson

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