“It’s just a nice evening with fellowship.”

Craig Macartney
Spur Ottawa Writer

East Gate Alliance Church is hosting a free concert featuring local worship artist Colin Bernard. The concert is taking place this Friday, December 18, starting at 7 p.m.

“We’re taking all the chairs out of the sanctuary and putting in some tables with candles, so it will look like a Bistro,” says Bernard. “The purpose is just to have a nice evening together with fellowship and to celebrate Christmas. It’s an opportunity to listen to some music, sing some Christmas tunes, meet some new people, and have a good time.”

Bernard says the Christmas Coffee House will have a relaxed atmosphere, complete with free coffee, apple cider, hot chocolate, and goodies.

“It’s going to be really fun. The first hour is music from my album and some new [music] we haven’t made public yet. The second hour we’re going to read the Christmas story and sing some carols.”

The Christmas Coffee House was not intended as a fundraiser, but Bernard says the church decided last minute to accept a free-will offering. The money raised will go to support a Syrian family they are sponsoring.

“When I heard about the Christmas Coffee House I thought it would be a natural opportunity,” explains Peter Hartgerink. “Initially this was completely separate from the refugee sponsorship, but it seems like a natural fit with Christmas because of the story of Joseph and Mary being displaced.”

Hartgerink is spearheading East Gate’s refugee sponsorship initiative, which is a partnership between the three churches that meet on the East Gate campus. The churches are sponsoring a Christian family who escaped Syria three years ago.

“It’s a father, mother, two daughters, and a grandmother. One of our church members met them on a mission trip to Jordan,” he explains.

“When everyone began talking about sponsoring refugees, I started praying about how to respond. The same day, my friend, who went on the mission trip, had to pull his car over to the side of the road because this family was on his heart so strongly. He called his wife and said, ‘I think we need to do something to help this family.’ She responded, ‘that’s funny, because Peter just emailed asking about the church sponsoring a refugee family.”

The churches are finalizing their resettlement plan. Hartgerink says the sponsorship process usually takes about six months, but because of the current climate, it could be much faster.

“We’re within a couple of weeks of formally applying to sponsor them,” he says. “We’ve been told there is every chance they will be accepted.”