Ontario Conference is pleased to invite all members to a virtual day of praise and worship on Sabbath, July 18. After three months of disconnection, we are coming together as a conference. We thank God for the opportunity to reunite in worship and look forward to congregating post-quarantine.

Join us on the 18^th, beginning at 10 am, for a Conference-wide Sabbath School and morning service. As a bonus, you may now join us again at 6:30 p.m. for a musical concert and praise session. Information for joining the service on different platforms, including our website AdventistOntario.org and YouTube.com/AdventistOntario, will be posted shortly. 

“We are praying that as many of our members as possible from across our great province will come together online for worship and to thank God for His leading throughout the crisis,” says Ontario Conference president, Mansfield Edwards.

Source: https://adventistmessenger.ca/news/ontario-conference-virtual-day-of-praise-worship-together-again-as-one

You are invited to attend the 2020 Virtual Camp Meeting: Reflecting the Shepherd hosted by the Alberta Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church from July 17-25, 2020.

Video streaming of programs will be available on all major platforms, including Youtube and Facebook.  The website is: https://www.albertavirtualcampmeeting.ca/.

Programs Include:  Morning and Evening worship services, Sabbath Worship and Sabbath School, Children’s, Youth and Young Adult programs, interactive Prayer Meetings, and concerts performed by Burman University and Featured Guests.

For more information and schedule visit: https://www.albertavirtualcampmeeting.ca/.    

Watch the promo video: https://youtu.be/n1zGAzPIKp8.

Source: https://adventistmessenger.ca/news/alberta-conference-2020-virtual-camp-meeting

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought dramatic changes to everyone’s
lives and daily routines, including the operation of the food bank at the Kendalwood
Seventh-day Adventist Church in Whitby, Ont.

            Before the
novel coronavirus outbreak, the Kendalwood food bank was a place of warmth for
both staff and clients. Routine days began with staff worship and then
preparation to unload and organize goods that would come from the Feed the Need
truck. Staff members were always equipped with gloves as they served and
participated in the regularly anticipated sit-down lunches. In the evenings,
clients would come in to pick up their boxes of goods.

            Clients were
always greeted with smiles and hugs, and an offer to have their blood pressure
checked and receive counsel on health by volunteer nurses. Warm soups and pizza
from Domino’s Pizza were also given. If clients wanted someone to talk to or
pray with, volunteers were available. Birthday and anniversary celebrants were
sung to. Then, COVID-19 came and everything changed.

            On Monday,
March 16, Marcia White, director of the Kendalwood food bank, was given notice
that while the food bank could still operate, logistics were changing by the
hour, so protocols would need to change just as quickly.

            The councillor
of Whitby, Maleeha Shahid, contacted the food bank to ask how she could help. Marcia
communicated the food bank’s needs and Coun. Maleeha provided contacts that
could assist.  Whitby’s mayor, Don
Mitchell, dropped off masks so that food bank staff could protect themselves.
Further, Coun. Shahid not only volunteered her time at the food bank but also
took much needed supplies, such as individual bags for packing groceries,
diapers, oils, rice, and much more. Shahid even helped to promote the food bank
by creating a video outlining the food bank’s needs, which has been posted on
YouTube. Within minutes of the video being posted, the food bank began
receiving items from the community.

            Now the Kendalwood food bank’s new normal includes daily
disinfection of working areas, including tables and railings, by a volunteer.
In addition, the volunteer must restock the disinfecting table at the food bank’s
entrance with sanitizer and masks. Volunteers must sanitize and mask themselves
upon entry, then go downstairs, where they do a thorough handwashing, get their
temperature checked, put on gloves, and finally sign in with their temperature recorded.

            The food bank now
uses different areas of the Kendalwood church to reduce close contact of staff
and establish social distancing. Instead of having clients pack their boxes, food
bank staff pack bags and give them to clients in the order they arrive. The food
bank’s new system resembles a drive-through pickup service. Deliveries are made
to seniors and clients in quarantine.

            In general, all
clients are very thankful that they are able to continue receiving food. The
food bank has noticed that everyone has been more giving since the pandemic. In
fact, the Kendalwood food bank states that it has received the most food in their
entire operational history! And not only has more food been donated, but better-quality
food. The number of clients has increased by 40 percent, but the food bank
thanks God for the ability to supply most of their needs, with 75 percent of
the boxes having perishable food items (fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs,
yogurts, milk, cheese, and butter).

            Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought devastation to many, but it has also brought out the best in many more. 
—Marcia White, director, Kendalwood Foodbank

Source: https://adventistmessenger.ca/news/kendalwood-food-bank-continues-to-serve-in-the-midst-of-chaos

On March 6, 2020, Versacare Foundation awarded $1,420,000 in grant funding to 189
Adventist primary and secondary schools across the United States and Canada in
support of STEM education (science, technology, engineering, math).

            This was
Versacare Foundation’s fifth successive year funding STEM grants and marked the
third consecutive year it funded every school that applied for a STEM
grant. The STEM grant program has provided funding in three categories: 

• $5,000 for smaller schools of three classrooms
  or less
• $10,000 for larger schools of four or more
  classrooms and 12-year schools
• $10,000 for senior academies 

            The many
uses of STEM funds include the purchase of interactive classroom whiteboards,
tablets, or Chromebooks for student use, equipping or updating student computer
labs, installation of 3D printers and related software, initiating or funding
robotics programs, instruction in software coding, and the equipping of
chemistry, physics, and biology labs, and more.

            Versacare
Foundation is the largest independent private foundation supporting the varied
ministries of the Seventh-day Adventist Church with grant funding. A
self-funded lay organization, it is composed of both lay Adventists and present
and former Adventist Church employees. It awarded its first grants in 1990,
totalling $26,000, to five different Adventist ministries. Since then, it has
awarded more than 1,430 grants
totalling over $28,250,000.

            This year
13 Adventist schools in four conferences in Canada received Versacare funding,
totalling $105,000:

Alberta Conference

Mamawi Atosketan Native
School   

$10,000

Parkview Adventist Academy

$10,000

Sylvan Meadows Adventist School  

$5,000

Woodlands Adventist School  

$5,000

British Columbia Conference

Deer Lake
Seventh-day Adventist School   

$10,000

Fraser Valley Adventist Academy

$10,000

Manitoba-Saskatchewan Conference

Riverside Christian School

$10,000

Ontario Conference

Adventist
Christian Elementary School 

$5,000

College Park Elementary
School 

$10,000

Crawford
Adventist Academy  

$10,000

Crawford
Adventist Academy East Campus

$5,000

Grandview
Adventist Academy

$10,000

Windsor
Adventist Elementary School

$5,000

The SDACC Office of Education is deeply appreciative of what
Versacare has done and continues to do in support of Adventist education across
the North American Division (NAD).

            After funding nearly half of
all Adventist primary and secondary schools across the NAD with STEM grants,
Versacare Foundation has ended its STEM school grant program and, for 2021,
will focus on funding STEM training for teachers. 

            For more information about Versacare
Foundation’s grant program, please visit www.versacare.org. 

Source: https://adventistmessenger.ca/news/church-social-closeness

On Monday, Jan. 13, 2020, Ontario Conference president, Dr. Mansfield Edwards, offered words of comfort during a memorial service held at York Region. The service, attended by 400+, was for employee Bahareh Karami, a York Region environmental sciences technologist.

Karami, 33, was one of 176 killed
on January 8 when a plane, heading from Iran to Ukraine, was shot by the
Iranian military. On the 13^th, colleagues and friends, as well as
loved ones streaming in from Tehran, offered emotional tributes to Karami, described
by her boss as a “shining light.”

Edwards’s message, titled “When Life Isn’t Fair,” was relatable and uplifting to the multifaith crowd. Quoting Vance Havner’s book on grieving, Though I Walk Through the Valley, he spoke on the “dark days” we all face, “days of despair and discouragement, when there are more questions than answers.”

Speaking on the “senseless
atrocity” killing Bahareh and 62 other Canadians and causing “dark days in our
country,” Edwards noted, “Human beings—intelligently designed—are wired to
respond negatively to … death.” He then offered a few faith-based approaches to
grief:

1. Affirm your new reality by beginning your
   healing.
2. Pursue your nagging need for answers, as David
   did with God in Psalm 13.
3. Cherish and reinvest in the people God has
   placed in your life.
4. Trust God even when you don’t understand the
   happenings around you.

Edwards, a volunteer chaplain
with York Regional Police, was requested by ceremony organizers to speak after
having handled all religious aspects of the Dec. 6, 2018, swearing-in ceremony
for York Region mayors and regional councillors.

Later, Edwards reflect on our mandate as Adventists. “Jesus after His resurrection instructed us to go into all the world, not just huddle in each other’s company at the expense of our mission. We must be sensitive to the needs of the community [as Christ was].”
—-Christelle Agboka, Ontario Conference

Source: https://adventistmessenger.ca/news/ontario-conference-president-mansfield-edwards-offers-solace-at-iran-plane-crash-funeral