Former Mission Ottawa leaders commissioning Love Ottawa team

It’s been two years now since we gathered at City Hall and officially launched Love Ottawa.  I want to say what a privilege it has been to serve in this city-wide effort since then.  Our team is keenly aware that we are only the current expression of what has been an ongoing work of the Lord under Mission Ottawa, and other movements before that.  The Spirit of God is working powerfully in every corner of Ottawa and our team has had a front seat window to see at least some of it.

It is time also to say thank you to all the people and congregations and ministries who have stepped up to participate in new ways for the Kingdom with us at Love Ottawa.  Every prayer, every word of encouragement and every dollar has been deeply appreciated.

I want to especially thank Kerry Kronberg who took the leap of faith with me for the first half of this journey, knowing that any remuneration would only arrive if she was willing to raise it.  The strong work of networking all over the city and also overseeing our first neighbourhood study in Vanier, continues to be Kerry’s legacy.

In February this year our prayer was fulfilled, when God gave usSarah Jackson to begin heading up Pray Ottawa.  Prayer has alwaysbeen a huge part of the unity effort in our city – foundational to everything else.  Our dream is to live in a prayer-saturated city. You will continue to see many prayer opportunities highlighted on our Pray Ottawa site.  Please pray for Sarah!

What’s the most important thing I have learned in two years? It will take me other installments to express it all.  However I can say, that when we felt the Lord tell us that we needed to build multiple teams in order to multiply the impact, we can say now that He wasn’t kidding.  By His grace many new initiatives have been birthed.  Here’s a list of just 5  of the team efforts that have been working hard this Fall.  Each have their own website.  Rock the Capital, Friends for Dinner, Ottawa Civic Prayer Breakfast, Dig and Delve, and The Big Give.

It is amazing to me that we have well over a hundred pastors, ministry leaders and business people working on various team initiatives.  New teams continue to form around significant outreach opportunities.  I am continually amazed at the uniqueness of the leadership styles and different ways that teams effectively accomplish their task.  I am learning from each group about how God uses diversity in the midst of unity to accomplish His work of loving our city through His people.

From time to time I will be trying to put these learnings down on paper.  I look forward to sharing them with you through this format in the months to come.

Thank you for your partnership in the Gospel,

Richard Long