Posts by Ryan Seow

Over the past two years, Lifespring has been on a journey of learning about refugee ministry. Through a trip to Türkiye, Family Weekend last summer, refugee dinners, and work in sponsorship, God has been leading us in ministry among and with refugees. Over the past couple of Sundays we’ve introduced our mission team that will be traveling to Greece in October (watch the full description here, or at the “watch message” link below). In the devotion this week I provide…

While our theme this year is fruitfulness, I’ll admit that I’ve never been very successful at gardening or growing any kind of plant, much less fruit. Since Theresa and I live in a condo townhouse, most of our growing is limited to a few planter boxes on our patio. Last summer, we finally took the opportunity to try to plant a few things in these boxes. The biggest investment we made was to plant two hydrangeas in one of our…

What a blessing to have Leona as well as Frank and Sue share with us on Sunday. From the updates about Thailand to learning about fruitfulness and weeds, it was a packed and rich day full of highlights. First, we had the opportunity to hear from Frank and Sue, who served as pastors in Peace Gospel Church in Thailand for many years. Last year, Arthur and Leona traveled to Thailand on a mission trip that included a visit to Peace…

To all the moms and women in Lifespring who serve others so generously and in countless ways – we want to wish you a Happy Mother’s Day. I think for many of us, as we think back on our own spiritual journey, we can name women and spiritual mothers in our lives who made an impact on us, prayed for us, and nurtured our faith. So for all the ways that mothers care and serve and love, we want to…

Bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing that comes from heaven. 4 God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless in God’s presence before the creation of the world. 5 God destined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ because of his love. This was according to his goodwill and plan 6 and to honor his glorious grace that he has given to us freely through the Son whom…

We were blessed last weekend to have Shawn and Adib from the Jesus Network come and share with us about their journey in working with refugees. As you may know, Lifespring is sponsoring two refugee families who are currently in Turkiye. We are just at the beginning of our journey as we learn about sponsorship and how to do it well. Shawn and Adib have experience with sponsoring over 50 families, and had plenty of wisdom to share with us.…

From now until June, something I’m doing is helping the candidates in our church prepare for baptism. Baptism is a really significant moment in our spiritual lives, one where we make a public profession of our faith by participating in something that we have done since the very beginning of Christianity. Even Jesus was baptized in Matthew 3:13-17. You may remember your own baptism and what that was like. As we get closer to Easter this month, I think about baptism…

“There are different spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; and there are different ministries and the same Lord; and there are different activities but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. A demonstration of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good.” – 1 Corinthians 12:4-7 If the phrase “It’s in you to give” sounds familiar to you, that’s for a good reason. You can thank the Canadian Blood Services, who use that as…

This March is Grandparents month, and we want to celebrate everyone in our Grandparents generation who have been such a blessing to my generation and the generations to follow. To everyone in our Grandparents generation–we appreciate all that you’ve done and continue to do, and the important role you play in our lives and in the life of our church. Thank you! We were blessed to hear from Pastor Anita this week, who reminded us about the power of words.…

“Christ is just like the human body—a body is a unit and has many parts; and all the parts of the body are one body, even though there are many.” “But as it is, there are many parts but one body. So the eye can’t say to the hand, “I don’t need you,” or in turn, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.” Instead, the parts of the body that people think are the weakest are…

What a good message from Abby on Sunday. She shared wise words for our journey of fruitfulness this year, and hopefully you had a chance to hear her sharing. I appreciated the two points that we reflected on at the end of her message. Often, we can find ourselves investing our energy, time, and effort into things that are ultimately unfruitful. Our life groups are going through a series called Don’t Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table. The…

During one particularly busy week this past December, I had an opportunity to participate in three city events. First, Neighbourlink Willowdale had their annual appreciation event, where Gabe and I had a chance to chat with Lily Cheng, our city counselor in Willowdale who we hosted a bbq event with over the summer. Second, I got to be a part of Toronto’s first Christian Heritage Month Celebration, which was a worship and prayer event held at City Hall. Third, Lifespring…