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The Canadian Mosaic

By David W. Smith, Executive Director of ABWE Canada

In Canada, the foreign mission field has come to us, and as servants of God remain faithful to their call, we are seeing God work among people of all colors, languages, and backgrounds.

In 1998, David and Joan Green from Emmanuel Bible Church in Simcoe, Ontario, coordinated a short-term ministry team to Jamaica to hold three Vacation Bible Schools in ten days. They saw forty children profess faith in Christ, and the Jamaican people greatly touched their hearts. When they returned home, they started to notice many Jamaican men in their town who work in Ontario’s orchards and vegetable farms each summer. The Greens were amazed—their Caribbean mission field was right at their doorstep.

God moved the Greens to invite these men to church. One Jamaican man responded by saying that he had been coming to Canada for sixteen years and believed that the Canadian churches did not want them. A few migrant farm workers accepted the invitation, came to the Sunday night services, and saw the love of God shown by Emmanuel Bible Church. David began to hold Bible studies during the week at a Jamaican’s bunkhouse. A few years later, more men showed an interest in attending, and the church people began providing transportation for them to the Sunday evening services.

Four years ago, the church started a Caribbean Night on a Sunday in September, and it has grown drastically, with 189 Caribbean men coming to the event last year. Several have trusted Christ as their Savior, followed the Lord in baptism, and many have married their common-law girlfriends upon their return to Jamaica.

In the summer of 2005, under the leadership of Pastor Steve Faulkner, Emmanuel Bible Church brought a Jamaican pastor, Kingsley Smith, to Canada for two months. Smith ministered among the Jamaican workers and led seven of them to Christ. The church plans to bring him back for another two-month ministry in the summer of 2006 to help continue this unique seasonal ministry that has transformed a predominantly white congregation into a mosaic of God’s grace.

This story is just one example of the many immigrant populations that make Canada such a multicultural society, presenting a phenomenal opportunity for evangelism and missions. Most Canadians cluster in the south, with 80 percent of the Canadian population living within one hundred miles of the US border. New Canadians are attracted to the major urban areas in Canada, making Toronto and Vancouver the centers of this melting pot. For example, 49 percent of Toronto’s population was born outside of Canada. Many churches in this great city reflect ethnic diversity in their congregations. Vancouver is also diverse with a large Chinese population as well as the largest Sikh population in the world outside of Asia (250,000 with less than 0.1 percent evangelical).

Chinese

There are over 1.25 million Chinese in Canada with the largest concentration (approximately 450,000) in Toronto and another major population in Vancouver (approximately 350,000). The majority speak Cantonese (78 percent), but the Mandarin-speaking population is growing. In the past, ABWE missionaries in Hong Kong have been used of God to train some of the key leaders among the Chinese churches. One of them is P.W., ABWE’s director of International Chinese Ministries, who lives in Toronto and provides leadership to our ABWE outreach. Recently, ABWE approved its first missionaries to the Mandarin-speaking community in Toronto, where there are tremendous opportunities to reach these new immigrants for Christ.

Muslims

In recent years, much has been said about reaching people in the 10/40 Window. As part of His plan, God has brought many of them to North America, and Canada has a door of opportunity to reach them. Over 580,000 Muslims call Canada home. ABWE Canada’s office is in London, Ontario, where over 10 percent of London’s population is Muslim. George King, an ABWE Canada missionary to the Muslim world, has an excellent working knowledge of how to reach Muslims, and he teaches Muslim Awareness Seminars to train believers how to interact with their Muslim neighbors and coworkers. He also operates two internet websites, which provide a safe and anonymous environment where Muslim inquirers can search out spiritual truth without fear of reprisal. George’s Muslim contacts log on from eighty countries, including the US and Canada. One of the websites is an online Bible correspondence school for Muslims, which has over 400 students and alumni. For further information about this ministry contact George at georgeking@abwe.cc.

Filipinos

Canada is home to over 350,000 Filipino expatriates, with the majority residing in Toronto. ABWE’s first mission field, the Philippines, has produced and trained many Filipino pastors who are now leaders in the evangelical Filipino community in Canada. Pastor Elbern Latorilla, a member of the ABWE Canada Advisory Board, pastors Commonwealth Avenue Baptist Church, which reaches out to the international community by providing Bible studies and counselling sessions in the Filipino Tagalog language.

First Nations and Inuit

First Nations and Inuit are the politically correct terms for people formerly referred to as Native Canadian Indians and Eskimos, respectively. Both populations have suffered abuse and neglect, and the suicide rate among them is four times the national average. Poverty and substance abuse is rampant among First Nations people in Canada’s western cities. According to Operation World, there are 2,400 reservations without an ongoing evangelical witness. ABWE missionaries Jesse and Tina Luper and Randy and Debbie Fish have a passion to reach this needy people group in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Quebecers

Over six million people in Canada speak French as their first language. With less than 1 percent of Quebecers claiming to be evangelical, Canada’s French-speaking people are the largest unreached group in North America. In the past, Quebec was a Roman Catholic stronghold, but today, its society has become increasingly secularized with only 25 percent of Quebec Catholics ever attending mass. In the town of Pont-Rouge, ABWE missionaries Tim and Barb Vermilyea and Mark and Jill Billington planted a church, which is now self-supporting. A new work named Credo (creed or belief) began in September 2004, and now more than fifty people attend, including Congolese, Chinese, Hispanics, and North Americans.

By 2010, Canada’s immigrant population is expected to increase by 340,000 a year. Please pray for these international communities on our doorstep, and ask the Lord how you can be involved for His glory in creating a Christian mosaic among all peoples in Canada. Then pray that these new multicultural believers will be mobilized to reach out to the 3 billion people in our world who do not have an adequate opportunity to hear the gospel.

Non-Christian Religions Are Growing
Fastest growing religions in Canada (1991 - 2001)

Religion Percentage growth
Islam  128.9%
Hinduism  89.3%
Sikhism  88.8%
Buddhism  83.8%
No Religion 43.9%
Protestantism 8.2%
Roman Catholicism 4.8%
Judaism 3.7%


Source: 2001 Canadian census