Richard Froese
South Peace News
A High Prairie church is opening its doors to support wildfire victims and others who want friendship during difficult times impacting northern Alberta.
High Prairie Victory Life Church invites people to the church located on 52 Ave. between 49 St. and 50 St. Mondays to Fridays from 1-4 p.m.
Doing Life Together Open House started May 18.
Everyone of all ages is welcome to drop in and spend some time with others.
Pastor Phil Lutton says the church decided to offer the special program to extend care and love during a difficult time in the region.
“We want to help displaced families and individuals and help them deal with potential trauma,” Lutton says.
“We want to provide a safe place for people to talk or pray and take their minds off the effects of the wildfires for a while.”
During the afternoon, people will be offered friendships, snacks and refreshments, support, encouragement and prayer.
Children’s activities will also be provided.
Pastors and lay people from local churches are are also available to help in various ways.
“We’ve opened this up for all local churches to help out,” Lutton says.
It’s all about helping others, he adds.
“We want to promote doing life together in our community,” Lutton says.
“That’s important to us.”
Doing Life Together is the motto of the church that strives to serve the needs of people and build lives. Open House is one way the church is reaching out.
“It’s the heart of God meeting the needs of people,” Lutton says.
Having the opportunity to show the love of God in all things is important, especially in times of crisis, he says.
“As a pastor in High Prairie, my heart is to help people,” says Lutton, who joined the pastoral staff on June 2, 2021 as assistant pastor before be moved up to senior pastor at the church March 6, 2022.
“We just can’t sit around, we need to help in simple constructive ways as much as we can.”
He notes that local churches working together is an effective way to build lives and community.
“Just like there are many types of people in the world, so, too, God has many types of churches to provide people many opportunities to have a relationship with Him,” Lutton says.
“For the believer, prayer is our link to God – coming together uniting our faith as one people is powerful – knowing the larger impact upon our community from all our church people is crucial.