Presented to the Alberni Valley Community, 10 August 2024 by Major Michael Ramsay at the Summer Rain Music Festival at Russell Field.
Summer
Rain. How many years has Summer Rain been going on now? We lost a couple to
Covid, right? My first time joining you here was in 2019 when Major Stephen
Court, Evangelism Consultant for The Salvation Army – among others – spoke.
I
think most, if not all, of the messages have been about Salvation. I know mine
have. So... how many people here already know Jesus Christ as their personal
Lord and Saviour? How many people know Jesus as our corporate Saviour? How many
people would call themselves Christian? How many people would say that they are
not or not quite yet or haven’t fully decided yet to be Christians? Anyone?
So for
those of us who are ‘saved’? Why are we saved? For what purpose? What does it
mean to be saved? In the Bible we have salvation mentioned in a number of
different ways – salvation in the future for all of the cosmos, salvation held
for us in heaven, salvation in the here and now and salvation from daily calamity.
I submit that each of us who are saved for eternity have a duty to point
everyone to that salvation; to be available for God to use to help save others
for eternity but also for the here and now. Because there are real things that
people need saving from here and now while we are awaiting the culmination of
our ultimate salvation.
James
2:14-17: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have
faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister
is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace;
keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good
is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is
dead.”
Since
San Group has seen fit to sue the city and as we have just had the
international day to highlight human trafficking, I thought that I would like
to share with you a little bit about some people that the Lord has used us to
save in the here and now that hopefully he will use others to save for
eternity. {Note: unbeknownst to me when I was preaching a Vietnamese womAn whom
I did not know, who is in relationship with these workers has been sharing her
faith with them, was present during this presentation. It was a miracle of God.
We spoke after and met later to follow up}
Genesis
37:17b-28 and 36:
17b So
Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. 18 But they saw him
in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.
19
“Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let’s kill
him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal
devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”
21 When
Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his
life,” he said. 22 “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in
the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him
from them and take him back to his father.
23 So
when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe
he was wearing— 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The
cistern was empty; there was no water in it.
25 As
they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of
Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and
myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.
26
Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover
up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands
on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers
agreed.
28 So
when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the
cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took
him to Egypt...
...36
Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s
officials, the captain of the guard.
We know
the story of Joseph being sold into domestic slavery in the Bible. These things
and things similar still happen today. Jun 26, 2024, 10:18pm, I had a text from
David Wiwchar of the Peak Radio Station: "Are you aware of the Vietnamese
men who are about to be made homeless by san group?"
"No.
Not at all...but we can help" I replied.
I
immediately set to work to try to find out what was going on. David’s wife
works for Kuu-us Crisis Line, so I texted her boss, and asked him what he knew
about all this. He told me that the RCMP and the City were aware of the workers
and that it was one of our employees at the Army who brought this all to light:
I followed up with the employee and let them know that this really is something
that is better left confidential rather than pulling in other agencies. But
since the cat was out of the bag I went to work. I then contacted my boss and the
Modern Slavery and Anti-Human Trafficking department of The Salvation Army seeking
help and passing on the information that I had. At 3:35pm I received this
reply:
Hello
Michael, my name is XXXXX and I'm the Manager of Propel Anti-Human Trafficking
Services. I'm trying to get a hold of you and your case worker XXXXX because I
was asked to help support the 16 [alleged] human trafficking survivors that I
heard presented to your staff yesterday. … With the information I have received
so far I have secured a Vietnamese translator/counsellor who is on standby, a
shelter on the island that can house all 16 survivors (at least temporarily),
and I have an HT specific budget to help with whatever their needs are
including transit to the shelter and clothing. I would love to speak with you
further to get more information and support your team in whatever ways needed!
My number is xxx-xxx-xxxx, hope to speak soon!
And
then after he had contacted me earlier in the day, at 8:30pm that same night,
our Member of Parliament, Gord Johns, reached out to me. He was on his was to
see the workers. He asked me to join him. I hopped in his car. We met a
translator who knew the people just over the orange bridge. We followed her out
to the San Group property on Hector Road. The conditions the workers from
Vietnam were living in were deplorable. There was sewage backed-up. It soaked
the carpet. The men slept on mattresses side by side on this sewage-soaked
carpet. The smell was terrible. There was no heat in the building. There was
apparently no running water. The people bathed and washed their dishes in a
ditch with water running out of a pipe outside. Gord, who has been in derelict
buildings in town – maybe even more times than I have – said that these living
conditions were even worse than the Port Pub that the city had just recently
closed down because it was dangerously unsafe.
We
spoke to the people through a translator. They said they paid between $20
000.00 and $30 000.00 to come here to work for a wage in excess of $30/hr. They
said they never received that wage. They said they were subject to unsafe
working conditions: working with toxic chemicals without proper protective
gear, working long hours, many days in a row. They were afraid for themselves, and
they were afraid for the safe transportation of their family. They showed us
where they lived. They explained to us how they lived. They asked us to help
them flee. I told them we could get them out tomorrow.
On
Saturday, June 29th, 15 of the 16 workers were taken out of town to
a secure Salvation Army facility in Victoria where they could have their
physical, emotional and spiritual care needs met and where they could get the
legal and other counsel that they needed. I checked up on them on Sunday. They
were happy. They were free. Now they were saved for the here and now. Hopefully
they can be saved for eternity as well. As Christians it is our duty to point people to
salvation for both now and the future.
James
2:14-17 again: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to
have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a
sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in
peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs,
what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by
action, is dead.”
This
week we had a funeral for one friend and another friend had a car accident that
write off their car. I have thus been
thinking about Salvation and our spirit and the Spirit of God. The word for
‘spirit’ both in Hebrew and in Greek has the same range of meanings. Hebrew,
‘Ruach’; Greek, ‘pneuma’ bith mean ‘wind’ and ‘spirit’; therefore, we can think
of God the Holy Spirit as the Holy Wind or the very Breath of God.[5]
John 20:21-23:
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending
you.” 22 And with that he breathed and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If
you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven...”
I
remember when I lived in Toronto and was thinking about this very topic- the
Spirit of God and Eternal Salvation- the phone rang. There was a man in the hospital
who had a terminal respiratory illness. He was going to die from not being able
to breathe the air, the wind. I was told he might not live until tomorrow. I
was told he needed a minister and I was told his family wanted a Salvation Army
Officer. I was told he might be ready to accept forgiveness for his sins and
receive eternal life. I ran downstairs, I told my staff, asked for prayer and someone
drove me to the hospital, prayed and I headed upstairs to see the man and his
family. And to make a long story short, this man who was dying of a lack of
breath, accepted the Breath of God, the Holy Spirit and eternal life; so that
even as he dies, yet shall He live. This man accepted eternal life, God’s Holy
Spirit, even on his death bed. Praise the Lord!
What
about us here? Is there any in this place who have never asked Jesus, God, the
Holy Spirit to come into our lives? Are there any of us here who are dying of
an eternal respiratory disease? Are there any of us here who are going through the
struggles of life without taking hold of the comfort God offers? Is there
anyone here who hasn’t prayed to receive the Holy Spirit yet? If so, you don’t
need to wait until your death bed; you don’t need to wait until your dying
breath; you can accept forgiveness for sins and live forever today.
Is
there anyone here who has not asked God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus into their
lives yet? Would you like us to pray for you? If so come up to the front here
and we will pray for you.
Let us
pray
And
for those of you who have the Spirit of God inside of you already – listen to
Him. He wants you to forgive others and help them and point them to salvation
for eternity and also for now.
James
2:14-17: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have
faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister
is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace;
keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good
is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is
dead.”
Let us
pray.
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