News

Happy New Year to the Chinese members, family and friends of TICC! God's richest blessings are yours in 2012!

TICC family celebrates Chinese New Year with special presentations and Chinese cuisine at Sunday services, January 22 & 29

I attended the healing service this afternoon and was thoroughly blessed. I am going to hold on to this much needing healing. Thank you Jesus

This past Sunday a "concerned" parent notified me that they can't get a Sunday off from church anymore (joking of course!). Their child insists they be at TICC Kid's Club every Sunday, "because it's so much fun"! Let's call that a WIN for the TICC children's ministry.

Big thank you to the TICC children's staff and volunteers who work hard to provide a safe, clean and fun environment  where kids can learn about Jesus on their level!

Have you heard? TICC worship team rocks! Under the leadership of TICC's music director, Natareo Johnson, vast growth has transpired among the TICC worship team over the past several months. The presence of the Jesus is felt in a strong way every Sunday. Incredible new worship leaders have emerged under Natareo's guidance. If you have not already attended TICC for the worship experience, be sure to check it out soon! Every Sunday at 10:30AM and 2:30PM. 

155 families were blessed this Christmas with a turkey from the TICC family. Thank you for your generosity.

A member of TICC had been without a job close to one year. Educated in the field of internet technology, one year out of the technology work force is like an eternity. Trends and technology are changing rapidly. Despite many interviews, the search for a new job seemed fruitless. The longer he went without work, the more he was told his skills were out of date.

Finally, this past week, he received good news. Just one day after he and another brother at TICC agreed in prayer for favor at the next interview, he received a job. The employer told him that his skills were below other applicants, but something about him caused them to hire him!

God's unmerited, undeserved favor found this brother from TICC a job!

A precious member of TICC, who immigrated from Iran, was hospitalized three times in November. Heavy medication and morphine could not subside the pain in her head. Coupled with a hernia that kept her in bed for one month, surgery was the only option.

After prayer for healing at a regular TICC Sunday meeting, the pain in both her head and hernia left. Upon returning to her doctor she was told surgery was no longer needed! Jesus did the surgery!

The Great Gift Giveaway was a huge success! Almost 50 volunteers helped distribute gifts to hundreds of kids from the community. People from all religions joined together at TICC to celebrate Christmas with carols & non-stop entertainment. Plus the crowd sat with baited breath while Peter Youngren delivered a special Christmas message which prompted many to receive God’s gift of salvation for the first time.

Every Sunday people receive Jesus' life as their own in the salvation experience at Toronto International Celebration Church. This past Sunday was no exception. Nine people came forward to accept Jesus' life as their own in the morning service.

TICC will conduct one healing service every month. Healing from Jesus is available every service at TICC, and people are healed every Sunday. One service a month, the entire service will focus on Jesus the Healer. 

The Internet has become a haven for anonymous liars, who operate without accountability. The lies about myself, our church and ministries are too many to itemize. To list them would dignify that which is inherently evil. Grant it, a few statements are by people, who probably have good intentions, but they are just as ignorant and untrue nevertheless. Others make serious lies, which rise to the level of defamation. The worst lies are half- truths; facts are twisted and motivations are imagined.

I do not know who the people are that attack our ministry. Some deceptively pretend to be current or past staff members. Other engage in conversations with themselves, making an entry under one name, only to comment on their own entry under a different name, making it seem there is a big interest in their ideas. Blatant lies by anonymous writers can go unchallenged for years.

I am writing this because people ask me why I don’t respond. To me, it is just so unscriptural to respond to anonymous accusers. When the sons of Korah accused Moses, or when Shimei taunted and mocked David we know the names of those accusers. Moses and David were willing to meet their accusers; that’s my attitude, and the attitude of any man of God.

The only exception to the above anonymity is a pastor of a small church in Europe. I know who he is, and he writes under many different headlines and names. This man has dedicated himself to spread lies. I have tried to speak with him, but to no avail. It is so sad to see a man once on fire for Jesus become obsessed, trying to vindicate himself, by attacking others.

I have many faults and failures, just like everyone else, including the great heroes of the Bible and of Church history. God’s grace has enabled me to be transparent about those flaws before my church and before spiritual friends, like our partners. But you won’t see me share my heart in cesspool of mudslinging on Christian blogsites. Jesus said something about where you share your pearls.

This lying spirit is not new; it has always been at work against the Gospel, through evil rumors, distortions and false accusations. Jesus was accused of being a deceiver (John 7:12), and possessed by Beelzebub, the devil. Paul didn’t fare any better. He was called a “plague”, a “creator of dissension”, and “a ringleader” Acts 24:5.

Earlier this year veteran broadcaster David Mainse spoke on television about bloggers that lie, “You get on the blogs and the blogs are always lies. Half truths are lies. One of the reasons that gossip, backbiting, is in the same list in the Scripture as murder and adultery … because if you don’t have all the facts-- this is why you have editorial controls where there are checks and balances. That’s why an editorial board is in a newspaper. Checks and balances. But on the blogs- I treat a blog just like I treat the rags that are at the checkout counter at the grocery store. I don’t read them. I refuse to read them. They are half-truths. They have not been well researched. The have no editorial control. There are no checks or balances on these, so they are not reliable.” Amen to that.

In one way I am encouraged when I see liars so active in and around our ministry. I know the one, who is really interested that our ministry would suffer setback and loss, the devil. 

Meanwhile Grace Television is reaching people, and in the next 9 weeks we have 3 mega Gospel Campaigns that will reach hundreds of thousands with the Gospel.