The two women sit. Small talk occasionally breaks the silence, but generally it is quiet. Greenhouse work is monotonous and gives them too much time to think. One of the women, Rose, is an alcoholic, twicedivorced. She is hung-over, tired, and very depressed. She just wants to go home. The other woman is considerably younger. Her name is Alice and she is a Christian - Canadian Reformed. Still only a few years out of high school, she knows that she has a lot to learn about life.

Should we be going to the lake on Sundays? Is watching a movie in a theatre allowed as children of God? Is this type of rock music okay to listen to? While it is good that we ask ourselves what is right for a Christian to do it may be wise to ask another question. This question finds its roots in 1 Corinthians 10:23-24, which says, “Everything is permissible – but not everything is beneficial.
Everything is permissible – but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.”

Love Ottawa! started as a simple initiative by a few members of the Jubilee church in Ottawa to promote outreach into our communities and in-reach within our own congregation. We wanted to bridge generations and bring people together. It rebrands and breathes new life into the concept of a Home Mission Committee, and by God’s grace we have been successful in a number of these projects, and want to take this opportunity to share some of them.

Often our prayers take the form of a grocery list. We name off our desires and complaints
and wait impatiently for God to fulfill these requests. Our prayers can be selfish and centered on our wants, caught up in what we think we deserve or what we think God should do for us. But prayer is not, and was never intended to be, a means for us to use to “get things” from God.