ON HOW GOD CONFIRMS HIS WORD... June 3, 2012

This morning we will be going to our little church in Brownsburg, Quebec. I love the people who attend. There will be about 22 adults that will gather together to sing and worship the Lord. God put a desire in our heart to start this church in this little country town not too long ago.  We are amazed at how God has led us here to work for Him. We recognize that there have been many faithful people in New Brunswick, Maine and Ontario and other parts of the country who have held us up in prayer and who continue to send finances to support our work. Esther and I thank you!

When we made the move to come to Quebec, Brother Louis Fontalvo, opened his arms to us and gave us the responsibility of pastoring the small English group in his church in Montreal. What a blessing that was! We are forever grateful to Brother Fontalvo for that kind gesture! I will share more about that English group a little later. 

Before our mini-home arrived from New Brunswick, we lived in Sister Fayetta Larsen's apartment for six months.  She had come to the place where it was too difficult for her to climb the three flights of stairs and it worked out that we could take over her rent releasing her from her obligation and providing a place for us to live temporarily. It was all a "God thing" the way it all worked out.

Sister Larsen would faithfully attend our Sunday afternoon services at Bro. Fontalvos church. We loved this dear lady so much! If ever there was a woman who knew how to pray, it was Sister Fayetta Larsen! She was indeed a blessing to Esther and I.

About a year ago, Dwight Larsen shared with me a little history of the Larsen's. Their story is remarkable! To my recollection, Bro. Aksel Verner Larsen was born in Denmark in 1904. Brother Larsen was a missionary in Columbia for 33 years. He was known as Columbia’s first missionary. While there he founded 3 churches and baptized many souls and trained many workers. He knew seven languages! During that time he met a well known travelling evangelist, Abigail Gertrude Staples, and they were married in 1932. It was while they were still in Columbia that a daughter was born and two days after her birth, Brother Larsen’s wife, Abigail, died because of the extremely hard childbirth.  Dwight shared with me that Brother Larsen had to dig his own wife's grave and have the funeral himself! Can you imagine!?  It was years later that he met Sister Fayetta Bernard and they got married in 1940 and had three children.  She was originally from Pennsylvania. It was Brother Burns who encouraged the Larsen's to move to Montreal. They came to Quebec in 1970 to minister among the French. Brother Larsen passed away while living here in Montreal, September 20, 1972.

Fayetta and Verner Larsen

Just before Sister Larsen left Montreal to move to Fredericton, New Brunswick in 1996, she called me aside at the end of our afternoon service. She took my hand and placed a folded sheet of paper into it.  She said this is a list of towns here in Quebec.  Then she explained.  These are towns that Brother Larsen and I would drive through and many times we would stop the car and he would get out beside the road, get down on his knees and pray this prayer, “Oh Lord, Please raise up a people in this town for the NAME of JESUS!” I remember unfolding the paper and briefly glancing at the names of towns.  I could see that there were quite a few.  As she finished talking, I folded the paper and placed it inside my Bible.  I didn’t see it again until many years later about three months after we had started the church in Brownsburg. I was surprised the day I opened my Bible and nestled there in the pages I saw the folded piece of paper. I unfolded it and to my amazement the fourth town listed was the town of Brownsburg! I thought, “WOW! Brother and Sister Larsen were right here in Brownsburg and prayed that God would raise up a people for the Name of Jesus!  

Immediately, I remembered the service in 1995 at Brother Joe Beesley’s church in Fredericton when he called my wife and I and our two daughters up onto the platform.  He said, “I don’t very often do this sort of thing, but today I have to.”  He began to speak over us the Word of the Lord.  In this Word, he said, “The Lord is sending you to Quebec as a direct result of the prayers of Brother Larsen!”  

Today as I look at the towns listed on this piece of paper, a feeling of humility sweeps over me.  I have stood at Bro. Larsens grave on Mount Royal on several occasions and have marveled at the thought that we are here in direct fulfillment of a prayer that was prayed by one of the greatest missionaries of the past century! My, how God has orchestrated this work!  Here’s what the Bible says in Acts 15:14, “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them A PEOPLE FOR HIS NAME.” God always confirms His Word!!  SRR