BBQ Fundraiser

On Saturday, August 25, the Neerlandia ARPA School Group joined their local ARPA chapter for a hot-dog sale at Freson Bros. in Barrhead, AB. The sale lasted three hours in which many people came past. With three ARPA school club members standing at the street corner holding a sign, and the adults running the grill, we were able to witness to many people. The most asked question asked was, “What does the ARPA stand for?” It was a moment for us to raise awareness about what ARPA does with our local community members. These are the members that don’t know about us, don’t know what we stand for, and don’t attend our meetings. There were many people who then voiced their own opinions about what was happening in politics and what they thought of political parties and the government. We received thumbs ups, waves, and many encouraging comments. Several people that didn’t know there was a non-party organization that raised awareness were extremely happy to hear about ARPA. We were able to direct many people to the ARPA Canada website and the ARPA Canada facebook page. All the hot-dogs, pop, buns, and sauces were donated by the Freson. Bros. The sale was by donation. But many people were willing to give because of what ARPA stood for. We had several people come back to give a larger donation because they heard what ARPA was. In three hours we made $622.75. But it wasn’t about the money for us. While this will allow us to hopefully put more articles in the newspaper, the most important part for us was the witness we could be to the community.

Pro-life Parade Float

Congratulations BV ARPA and Smithers Pro-life, whose recent parade float won first prize. Exemplary work and such a positive witness!

Life Hike

Steinbach is a small city in southern Manitoba and every year they host a Life Hike in support of the lives of all human beings. The previous record for attendance was 160 and this year they attracted more than 400 people to their event! Among the attendees was Member of Parliament Ted Falk. Later that same day Mr. Falk post this message to his Facebook page:

Close to 500 Pro-Life supporters attended the annual LifeHike today in Steinbach.

Many Canadians don’t realize that Canada sits among a tiny number of countries, like North Korea, who have no restrictions on abortion. We need to look to our friends and allies across the world and ask ourselves, as Canadians, why our international counterparts afford protection for the pre-born and why we do not.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this great event today!

Ken McAllister, a member of the organizing committee had this to say when he learned the numbers had exceeded 400:

I praise God for the record 407 people who participated in Saturday’s annual Steinbach Life Hike! We will continue to pursue compassion, equal rights, and ethical choices for all living humans in Canada! Thank you to our special guest speakers and our local Life’s Vision Board of Directors.

What a success story! And we praise God too! If you host a similar event in your town or city please share at info@arpacanada.ca.

All Candidates Meeting

On May 24th ARPA Niagara hosted an all candidates meeting for Haldimand Norfolk at Rosa Flora (local business).  The evening was a very successful. We have seven candidates running in our riding and we where blessed to have 5 out of 7 attend the meeting.  We were also blessed to have 100 or so people attend the meeting (which was surprising considering there was a school membership meeting that night)  being a 50/50 split of the local community and our church community. We allowed people to write questions down for the candidates and had very good participation. We had 24 questions written down of which we where able to ask and get answers to about half. The candidates where very open to answering these questions in an informative and honest manner. After the close of the evening the candidates also hung around and chatted with the public.  Overall the evening went off without a hitch! – Chris, Niagara

Speaker Event

David Sweet, PC MP for Binbrook, Elfrida, Flamborough, Glanbrook, Mount Hope, Rural Ancaster, Upper Stoney Creek, Waterdown, spoke on How Christians can Help Those with Mental Illness.

ARPA Hamilton hosted an informative evening on April 12, 2018.

We invited David Sweet to speak to us on Christians helping those with mental illness.

There were around 180 people in attendance.

He spoke of growing up with a brother with mental illness and its challenges. He also spoke of caring for his brother’s child who also had mental illness and the effects on the family. Lara passed away because of suicide in August of 2017.

The audience was gripped with the feeling Mr. Sweet spoke with about his personal experiences.

It seemed that many people could relate to some similar situations in their own lives or the lives of people they knew.

Keith Verburg, Executive Director of the Christian Counselling Centre in Burlington, spoke on counselling and the mentally ill.

Many questions were asked to Mr. Sweet and Keith Verburg.

Youth Engagement

Cole from Ottawa was concerned about the new budget in 2018, and sent a letter to the Finance Minister and to the Shadow Minister of Finance. He received this reply from Shadow Minister Poilievre. MPs love hearing from the youth. If you’re in school encourage your friends to do this with you! Parents, teachers, pastors etc. you can encourage your children, your students, or your youth groups to do the same! You’d be suprised at the response.

Flower Campaign

During a recent brainstorming session with ARPA’s Grassroots Manager, our ARPA Chapter came up with the idea of a flower campaign as a way of encouraging elected officials and bringing them a message. At the AGM we enlisted volunteers to sign up for one of the business days in October to carry out this campaign. Each volunteer visited the office of MP Rachael Harder, MLA Shannon Phillips and MLA Maria Fitzpatrick with flowers and with a handwritten card of thanks and encouragement. A separate group of volunteers went to the office of MLA David Schneider. For Rachael Harder, the messages focused on both thanking her and encouraging her to continue speaking out against sex-selective abortions.

The MLAs were thanked and asked to recognize and honour parental rights in education. (This was before the passing of Bill 24). We had enough volunteers (including a large group of students from Calvin Christian School as shown in the picture) to have flowers and cards delivered each day in October!

We are thankful for the support we received in this campaign! We pray that our messages will have made an impact on these elected officials.

Anne, Lethbridge

Local Chapter Fundraising Dinner

On May 5, the Oxford ARPA chapter held their annual fundraising dinner for the year. The day started out with some challenges as the venue informed us that it had no electricity and probably would not have that turned back on until the evening or next day. Several hours were spent desperately searching for another venue. Fortunately, we were able to find another, and the evening proceeded. A message was sent out to those who had signed up for the dinner, and although our actual numbers were slightly lower than anticipated, we were thankful to have around 120 supporters come out to join us.

This year we invited Dr. Cornelius Van Dam, professor emeritus of Redeemer University as our guest speaker. After dinner, Dr. Van Dam gave a short lecture highlighting the issue of immigration and the appropriate Christian response to immigrants. In a biblically grounded message, Dr. Van Dam demonstrated that immigrants who come to a new nation should be willing to conform to the values of that nation. If they are, then they must be accepted as new members of the state with all of the rights as citizens of the state. However, if they are not interested in conforming to the values of the state, they should not then receive the same rights as citizens of that state. Dr. Van Dam based his conclusions off the way that Israel was commanded to treat strangers and foreigners who came to their land.

Once again, as ARPA Oxford we have felt that this annual dinner has been a success. We thank our many donors for their gifts and our supporters for coming out to enjoy this evening with us and be edified with Dr. Van Dam’s insight.

Andrew, Norwich

Council Elections Meeting

Our local ARPA group hosted an informal evening at my home to encourage people to consider running in the upcoming municipal elections this fall. We wanted to encourage people who have considered such a position to come out and discuss it, and also provide support and encouragement. We had a local christian Councillor who had served in the recent past also come out and he gave us a picture of what such a position entails, answered questions and offered valuable insight. I think this meeting was valuable as it helped us get a better picture of this role, also helped with getting people to think about serving their community in such a manner (not necessarily this year, but possibly in future years), and also helped us realize the importance of supporting those who do serve in this way. A few of the things we learned was that it is important to remain humble and learn from those around you, it takes a fair amount of time as you will also serve on hospital boards etc, and you will have to disclose all your personal finances if you run.

Although such a position involves a lot of day-to-day managing, it is a good way for those who are gifted and interested in local politics to witness to those around them and can be a rewarding way to serve.

Ruth, Bulkley Valley

ARPA School Club Posters

In order to enlist new club members, one ARPA School Club in the Hamilton area designed some creative posters! They had a great response and a strong and active club today. Maybe something worth trying with your Club this year.

We Need a Law flag display

Caroling with your MLA

During the Christmas break my wife and I and a friend had the opportunity to join our local MLA and some of his supporters for his annual Christmas caroling ritual. It was a short and simple event. We shook hands with everyone in the MLA’s office and then went out on the Main Street of our downtown core and sang a few songs outside on the street corners. We went into a few stores and restaurants and sang to the customers. One of the stores was the local ski shop and I saw the MLA checking out some XC skis, so I took the opportunity to broach the subject of winter sports with him. After the caroling was over, we went back to the office and had soup and buns together and were able to casually converse some more. About a week later, we followed up by dropping off some treats and a Christmas card with our family picture on it so he could recognize us. – Austin, Smithers

Christmas Baskets

Our ARPA chapter decided to give Christmas Gift baskets along with a Bible to an MP, MPP, Mayor, or Councillor. Each of us (10 in total) picked a specific person to contact. One of the people who attended our meeting was familiar with the protocol for giving gifts to political leaders and gave us lots of hints on how our gift would get noticed. This was providential.

I picked my area’s MP. I called her office and set up an appointment for when she was in town. When we met I was able to remind her of the time she canvassed at my house before she was in office. The MP said that she went to prayer meetings once per week when she was able to. I was very excited that she was so receptive and open. I asked if I could pray with her and she agreed. She said that she had other prayer supporters, which was great to hear. It was a great experience. – Diana, Hamilton

Invited to Join a County Committee by the Mayor!

Once we had the details on our “ARPA 12 step challenge” I took the opportunity to get in contact with our mayor. He very quickly replied asking to meet him, and it was set up for the following week. Our meeting was great, and we kept the discussion very general.  I asked what he thought his position was on a few issues and his plans and he asked me what I do.

Just before our meeting was over he asked me if I would join him in one of his committee meetings and to give him advice later about it. The committee meeting is called CARE where they deal with Street safety for school zone, road safety at 4-way stops, drugs/alcohol and rehabilitations. They mentioned how concern they are with the legalization of any drugs. After the first meeting, I chatted with the mayor for a bit and gave him some tips on working and hearing everyone out. He asked me to join a committee on behalf of our rural area. I have since joined.

Portraying Parental Rights

When Bill S-206 came out to senate again I took the opportunity to call a few senators regarding this issue.  After our phone calls, I was asked by two senators if I was interested in meeting up during the summer months to continue our conversation.  I had the privilege of meeting these two senators and spoke on various items, including Bill S-206 on corporal discipline.  One senator completely agreed with me as parents need to discipline our children, yet not in a cruel way. The other one I had quite the discussion with.

To make a long story short I explained to the senator that corporal discipline and abuse are two different things and should never be compare. I asked the senator how he disciplined his children. He talked about the one time he did use force on his child and how he regrets it strongly. I asked him if he was angry when he disciplined his child. He said he had done it in anger. I told him this was not proper corporal discipline, where first the child is told what they did wrong, then advised what form the discipline will take, and then hugged and comforted afterwards, even with prayer. I also pointed out to him that because he used force at the time, he too would be considered a criminal under the new proposed law.

He asked me to contact the committee to see if I can be one of the speakers on this issue if it goes so far as a deeper investigation. I am trying to find the committee members so I can contact them. The senator then asked me if I would run for senate office or as an MP, and although I am not with his party he would support me! It was a very interesting interaction.