Northwest Trio: Anchor Baptist Church

Pastor Ben Turner
Burnaby, BC Canada

With the Turners (except Brianna)

We enjoyed a wonderful weekend with Pastor Ben Turner and his family at Anchor Baptist Church. This church was celebrating their 8th anniversary on Sunday and we were priveledged to be with them on this big day. In preperation, the church handed out 15,000 flyers throughout neighborhoods. Meeting up with the Pastor and some church members Thursday evening, we helped distribute many flyers in a local neighborhood. It was great to see so many of the church members involved in this effort and getting the Gospel out to their community.

Friday, Pastor Turner took us out to a delicious Chinese lunch before going to visit and sing for some shut-ins. We met some wonderful ladies from the church and enjoyed talking to them about the Lord. It was such an encouragement for us to hear these ladies talk about their love for Christ and burden for lost souls. Later that afternoon, we joined the Turners and Lesters for a barbeque. The Lesters are a family that recently returned from the mission field of Australia. They will be joining the Turners in their ministry at Anchor Baptist for a while, working with the deaf and starting a university ministry. Saturday, we passed out some of the last flyers and helped the pastor clean the church bus, as well as our own van and trailer.

The anniversary Sunday began with some of the members setting up for the service. The church has been meeting in a community recreation center for the majority of its 8 years and has to set up its own auditorium and sound system. The church usually averages around 130 on Sunday mornings and we were all praying that the Lord would use the flyer distribution to bring many first time visitors to the service. During the Sunday School hour, we were able to sing a few songs and Bro. Derrick encouraged the people with a message about "The Fullness of Christ." When the morning service began, we were amazed to see how people kept coming in and the ushers had to keep bringing out more chairs. By the time we got up to sing, they were almost to the back wall. The Lord truly blessed the service and used Bro. Turner as he preached about "A Journey of Faith." There was a fellowship afterwords and the pastor announced to the church that there were 30 first time visitors with a total attendance of over 220! It is so exciting to see how the Lord is working in this church! We pray that He will continue to bless these wonderful people as they serve him. Thank you, Pastor and Mrs. Turner for taking great care of our group and allowing us to be apart of this special day. We enjoyed our time with you so much and are thrilled to see what the Lord is doing through your ministry. Keep up the good work!