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Faith That Works

The Pilgrim Church of Leamington, Ontario, was started back in October of 1999. At that time most of them were from the Old Colony Mennonite background. God began to stir in their hearts in such dramatic ways, that they were looked upon as strange people. They started having Bible Studies and carried their Bibles to church. Most of them were converted in a local Mennonite Church, though the plan of salvation was not clear. God has been working in their lives ever since, conforming them more and more into the image of His son, Jesus Christ.

In October of 1999, the group started meeting in homes. At this time, there were about 6-8 families. Just prior to this, they were introduced to Charity Gospel Tape Ministry and tapes started circulating among them. This only added fuel to what God had been showing them in His Word. A request was made for Gospel Meetings the last week of October. Brother Mose Stoltzfus and Brother John Ray Nolt preached for an entire week and many souls got converted, even some that thought they were saved, praise the Lord!

After these meetings, Brother John Ray Nolt was asked to take oversight of the little group as they tried to find their way and base their lives on the foundation of Christ. The newly founded church set out to build on a Biblical foundation, with Brother John’s help. An Elder was ordained on July 21, 2002. Currently the church is made up of about 14 families and a few single youths.

This article was compiled from a sister’s meeting where they all studied about the true faith that produces works. The following paragraphs are the declarations of their faith, and what they desire from God. —The editor

By Faith...

...Sister Ann Bergen trusted God in providing for the family and meeting their needs during the four months her husband did not have a job. She had a real peace about it that can only come from God.

By faith she believes that God can bless her with heaven-sent revival after feeling tired and discouraged with her present state of mind. By faith she chooses to daily die to self and yield wholly to Christ.

...Sister Eva Wolfe, when tempted to follow the lusts of her flesh, “the old man,” slays him and grinds those evils passions as the dust of the streets.

By faith she is pursuing an all-or-nothing relationship with her heavenly bridegroom.

By faith she, when coming before God each morning, surrenders her will in exchange for His and walks in it.

Through faith in Jesus Christ Sister Helen Banman is saved. “By faith I choose to walk with God; the choice is made. The Lord has won my soul. I have decided to follow Him all the way, believing He is able to keep me. My goal is to face trials and temptations by faith, just to believe that no matter what happens I may choose where to stand, on the solid rock of faith, or bow my head in discouragement. By faith in Christ I have the power to go on. By faith and not by feeling I choose to serve the King. I choose to read His Word, pray to Him each day. Without Him I am a failure, and a mess. But with Him all is possible. I want to grow and go on BY FAITH!!!” “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7).

...Sister Helen Enns comes to God, trusting Him to help her in child rearing, believing that He stands behind her as the Chief Teacher and Instructor and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him and heed His counsel.

Through faith she shall continue fighting in the spiritual warfare, taking up daily the whole armor of God, knowing that God has prepared for her a better country—a heavenly one.

By faith she shall keep her home orderly as is pleasing to the Lord, not with eye service, but doing the will of God from the heart (the daily duties of dishes, baking, laundry, cleaning and tidying), knowing that she shall reap a reward if she faints not.

By faith she will submit to her own husband as unto the Lord, knowing that God has divinely appointed him as her head for leadership, protection and spiritual growth of her family (just as Christ is the head of His church).

By faith she will take captive every thought and bring it into the obedience of Christ, occupying her mind with only virtuous and praiseworthy thoughts.

By faith she will endeavor to edify the local body of sisters, submitting herself to them, exhorting them with uplifting conversation, making an effort in getting to know them personally, praying for them daily, knowing that our spiritual combat is not only an individual matter but also a corporate one.

...Sister Justina Peters when she was called to go into courtship in which she should after receive a husband and a son who was not her own, but whom she took as her own, obeyed, not knowing what lay in store for her. And God said to Abraham, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee” (Acts 7:3). By faith she claimed this verse before she was married. This was and is her confirmation that she did the right thing. God gave her His blessing and is with her. He is going to bring her into the land of promise flowing with milk and honey.

By faith she walks with God in the fullness of the Spirit. “[Jesus is] full of grace and truth.. . . . And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace” (John 1:14b, 16).

...Sister Luella Dyck is a mother. By faith she rises each morning to see young faces. By faith she endeavors to teach her children true lessons of kindness, and shares with them wisdom the world can’t destroy. By faith, in service to her family, she gives of herself and tries to excel in the work of her hands. By faith she strives to teach them—by example, word and discipline—to work for the Lord, to be living sacrifices for the Lord, and to love as Jesus loved. By faith she shelters them from evil to keep them pure for a holy God to use.

By faith she is a wife. By faith she sees her husband as her earthly lord, giving herself to reverencing him without the need for him to earn it. By faith she defers to him, happily yielding judgment to him, safely trusting and resting in his authority, finding peace and freedom inexplicable. By faith she submits to him, yielding herself to his admonitions and advice, allowing him to sanctify and cleanse her by washing her in the water of the Word, so that he can present her to himself as a glorious, spotless bride.

By faith she is a woman. By faith she seeks to be adorned with a meek and quiet spirit. By faith she shall be covered with shamefacedness, sobriety and discretion. By faith she veils her head as a sign to the angels. By faith she clothes herself in modesty and dignity, leaving alone the fashions of this world and the costly array that displays the pride of the flesh.

...Sister Margaret Buhler and her husband are training their children for the Lord, knowing that if they do it for His glory and honor, it will not be in vain. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Pr. 22:6).

By faith they trust the Lord to watch over and protect their children when they cannot.

By faith she is learning that God’s ways and timing are perfect, “being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in [me] will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).

By faith she trusted the Lord to give her the grace she needed to get through her third pregnancy and postpartum period, and more fully learned to rest in Him. And He said to her, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9a).

...Sister Margaret Fehr was born again and stepped into the water to be baptized, knowing that she would lose friends and family who believe that a “second baptism” brings damnation to Hell. She believed that God would give her new family and friends in Christ. Thereby, God has since touched every heart of her family members and friends, causing them to look into the Scriptures more deeply.

By faith she has been set free from demonic visions that she had since childhood. By faith she rebukes them each time they wish to return, fleeing to her God for strength and putting on the whole armor of God, that she “may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Eph. 6:11).

By faith she received an anointing and was healed from a skin rash of more than ten years.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).

...Sister Mary Friesen has been praising our wonderful Lord Jesus that she has been feeling physically better, and believes that her trials are for her good. Through faith she has received strength from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to continue to go on without murmuring about the circumstances that He has allowed to come her way through carrying this reward in her womb.

By faith she believes God’s promises about child training, continuing to seek Him for more wisdom. By faith she trusts that He will show her areas of her life that could be hindering her from seeing progress in training her son Zephaniah. By faith God has been revealing answers to her concerning her need to be a more submissive wife.

By faith she believes that God is doing a work in the lives of her extended family. Not seeing what God is doing in their hearts, she believes that they will be saved.

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).

...Sister Nellie Wolfe puts up her shield of faith when those fiery darts come. By faith she resists the devil and he flees from her. By faith she presses on to higher ground. By faith she is growing spiritually. By faith she is a witness to her family and friends. By faith she praises God throughout the day. By faith she knows that her Savior liveth. By faith she waits on the Lord.

...Sister Rebeccah Joncas conceived and bore five children while the world scoffed and said, “What will she do if her husband leaves them?” The world calls them a burden; by faith she sees them as blessings. By faith she received strength to forsake feminism, crucify her flesh, and come into obedience to her husband. Now he is the leader she always dreamed he would be.

Through faith she left behind her distorted view of God and false religion, smashed her idols, repented, and was born again. By faith she continues on as a servant, leaning on the one true God.

...Sister Sara Klassen trusted that God would provide a house for them in three months time. The price of the home went low enough for them to afford to buy it.

By faith she believed that God would spare the life of their son Rob when he was a very sick baby.
By faith she and her husband prayed, asking the Lord to give them children. God heard their prayer, and in six months time, they conceived their first child. It was a miracle because her body was not well enough for pregnancy.

...Sister Sue Dyck did not worry about the labor near the end of her pregnancy. She trusted that, when the day would come, God would help her through. By faith she strives to discipline her children, believing it will give good results. She does not do it because she enjoys it, but because God’s Word says so. By faith she did partake in communion even when her flesh did not feel like it, believing she would be blessed because God’s Word commands us to do it.

...Sister Susan Bergen trusted Christ to lift her out of the miry pit of sin, set her feet upon a rock, and give her a new song of praise. Now through faith, she is pressing on toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. She is also seeking God daily to cleanse her from self and sin, and to fill her with His Spirit so that she will be ready for His service.

...Sister Susie Klassen presses on in her walk with God, knowing His Word is truth. By faith she chooses to not grow weary in well doing, knowing that God is well pleased in this, and believing that for surety she has a mansion in Glory waiting for her if she faithfully endures to the end. By faith she trusts God to pour grace upon her life as an elder’s wife and mother of two.

By faith she and her husband serve in the ministry which God has given them, shepherding the flock with God-given wisdom from above. By faith she prays for her husband, believing and seeing that God gives him wisdom, grace, understanding, boldness, and a love for their people.

By faith she believed that God would provide a home for her and her family when their landlord sold the house and they needed to move within two weeks’ time. By faith she trusted that God had a plan and purpose for their move to Leamington. The selling of their house went so fast; it was of God. She believed that God would victoriously bring another sister in Christ through a deep depression, and He did.

...Sister Tina Fehr accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as her Savior and the Lord of her life, and was born into the kingdom of God. Through faith she is dead to sin and alive unto Christ Jesus, pressing on to higher ground. By faith, being yet inexperienced in marriage and child rearing, she received of God a husband and three small children. Through faith she loves, serves, and cares for them, laying down her life for them as Christ laid down His life for her (see John 15:13).

By faith, after having gone through a deep struggle of rebellion and doubting God, she repented, trusting God to raise her up, uphold her, and place life back into her spiritual legs and feet so that she could walk again for His honor and glory (see Ps. 145:14).

And what shall we more say? For time would fail us to tell of our daily victories during trials and temptations, of weaknesses made strong, of instances of submission and giving of ourselves, of holding on to the promises of God, of testifying of His goodness and faithfulness, of striving to live righteously before God in a world which does not understand us, of looking on and pressing on to a heavenly country, the New Jerusalem, where we will see our Jesus face to face. All this we do BY FAITH.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1

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