I remember a couple of years ago when Emily, my eldest, was offered a contract position in Yukon. My first thoughts of Whitehorse were:

· cold,

· dark, and

· bears.

As it turns out Emily spent two years working with wonderful people and gaining tremendous experience. And I was right – at certain times of the year it was very cold, very dark and there were bears!

I remember the first time Emily called me to tell me that she was going hiking that afternoon. My heart literally stopped.

When I could breath again, I asked, “What about the bears?”

“Bear attacks usually happen when people go alone," she responded. "That's what happened to someone last week. They were out running alone and got caught between a cub and a momma bear.”

“Oh, great,” I said, trying to sound calm but clearly the pitch in my voice gave it away.

“Don’t worry, mom, I’m not going alone, there’s a bunch of us going. It’s safer when we go together. And we have bear spray!” (As if hearing that she carried bear spray was going to make me feel better).

She continued, “My friends are seasoned hikers. I promise to text when I get back.”

That was one of many looong days waiting for my phone to ‘ping’.

But there was something about her statement, “I am not going alone. It’s safer when we go together.” Being in community is part of God’s design.

In fact, God is a perfect triune community, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God desires that we participate in that community and know the perfect joy and love shared by our triune God.

But God didn’t stop there. In Genesis 2:18 we read that after God created Adam, God said,

"It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him". God created community.

Throughout scripture we see the importance of community.

Today, in a world that wants us to believe that we can (or should) do it on our own, the truth is that we are not only created for community, we are created to need community. Bottom line: We need one another (1 Corinthians 12). We simply can’t function without one another.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have seen this in action as Amberlea Church has responded to the needs of the community by offering Strike Day Camps. “Thank you” to so many of you who have volunteered your time to help parents in our community find safe, fun childcare for their children. It doesn’t matter what side of the issue you fall on - the need is present and as a community of believers we are responding.

We are responding as the hands and feet of Jesus to serve those in the wider community.

We anticipate the numbers to swell as rotating strikes continue and the word gets out. Please prayerfully consider how you might come alongside. Please contact familyministries@amberleachurch.ca.

We need one another, we need community and like hiking in the Yukon (to ward off the bears), we are better together!