Living Hope RPC started in the Stringers’ living room. When we read the Bible and prayed and sang the psalms, I had to sit on the floor because the adults needed to sit on the sofa and chairs. Pastor Stringer kept telling us not to despise the day of small things. So I tried not to.

A few months later Pastor Kiernan started to preach. We all got to sit on lawn chairs in his dining room. He used the kitchen table because he didn’t have a pulpit. It was OK because someone had cleaned it.

Then, in 1998, we moved to a larger room in a Bible College. That’s when some people started to become Christians. However, that hasn’t happened very often since then. Pastor Kiernan says that makes him sad. He keeps telling us that we’re supposed to “bring the peoples of Toronto into the worship of God.” He says that is more important than our houses and cars, even our most favorite toys. It must be very important.

When we were at the Bible College some interesting things happened. There was a woman who stood in the hallway for many months. Then she stood in the doorway for many more months. Then she came into the room and Pastor Kiernan helped her to become a Christian. I think she was afraid of us for a long time.

One Sunday night a visitor came to our church. Pastor Kiernan asked him if he had a favorite psalm he wanted to sing. He thought Pastor Kiernan was asking him to sing a song all by himself. So he started to sing, but it didn’t sound very good because he didn’t know how the song went. That made me laugh.

Eventually the Bible College room became too small and we had to move to the place where we now worship. It’s a school cafeteria but you would never know it. We put up a curtain to hide the place where students get their food and put the tables where you can’t see them. It’s the best place we’ve had so far. Pastor Kiernan tells us to keep praying that we’ll be allowed to use the gym. The gym has basketball nets.

Lately, some large Christian families have joined us. Pastor Kiernan told me that he’s happy that our church is getting bigger but that he really wants the Church of Jesus Christ to grow. He says he wants to plant so many churches in Toronto that we get to have our own presbytery. I’m not sure what that means, but it sounds neat. I asked him where all the pastors are going to come from. He said we have to pray for them just the way Jesus did when He got the twelve disciples. He said that’s how Steve Zink came to our church. Steve is studying to become a church-planting pastor in Toronto.

Some people have also had to leave Living Hope. Pastor Kiernan says that sometimes God moves people to a different place to serve him. I don’t like it when my friends have to leave. I don’t think Pastor Kiernan likes it either.

The other night Pastor Kiernan was preaching from Haggai 1:12-15. He asked us to promise to pray every day for the rest of the summer for God to move into Living Hope and move us out to make friendships with the world. We hope these people will come to our Discovery groups that start in September. Pastor Kiernan says these groups will introduce people to Jesus Christ and our church. I hope he’s right.