Wayfarers’ Church
“Tell us a little bit about the Ardern family.”
My name is Andy. I was born and raised right here in Nova Scotia. Fun fact: I grew up in a lighthouse in Tatamagouche. I became a Christian at age 8. Kayla and I met at New Brunswick Bible Institute and got married in 2011. We have four kids: Norah, Jude, London, and Gemma. Before planting this church in Spryfield, I pastored in Cumberland Bay, New Brunswick for 7 and a half years.
“Can you share with us your call to plant a church in Spryfield?”
The call to church planting for us actually goes back to when we were dating. Kayla and I came on a one-week missions trip here in Halifax at PAXnorth Church to work with the urban poor and learn more about church planting. While I had a love, eagerness, and interest for church planting, God led me to pastoring in New Brunswick. After that ministry finished, we began looking for our next calling. PAXnorth was looking for a church planting resident to plant a church out of them and so I came on staff on February 2021. As we worked with PAXnorth, God clarified the calling to plant a church in Spryfield. It’s been so helpful to work under a sending church who has given training, resources, and affirmed our calling. I wouldn’t do it any other way.
“As you’ve begun to build out your team and do life in Spryfield, what needs and opportunities have you seen arise?”
Spryfield, although it is part of Halifax, is an interestingly unique community. A 2018 study showed that 48.2% of kids in Spryfield live in low income. That’s the highest number in HRM by 10%. Many Nova Scotians will think of Spryfield as a community of drug violence in the 1990’s and 2000’s. The community has moved away from that violence, but there still are the shadows lingering of addictions and poverty. We have many newcomers to Canada in the community, so there are lots of ethnic and religious minorities in Spryfield. The largest Sikh temple in Atlantic Canada is here in Spryfield. While there are many unique needs, situations, and sins in Spryfield, the solution to all these problems is Jesus.
“If you were to dream about what you want to see God do in the next 10 years through Wayfarers’ Church, what would that look like?”
By God’s grace, my dream is that our church would grow with both Christians and those far from Jesus in Spryfield attending. I pray that Jesus transforms the lives of those in Spryfield, whether, upper or lower class, multigenerational Spryfielders or newcomers to Canada. Our church, Wayfarers’ Church, is making Jesus known faithfully still and a growing disciples. I also pray that our church is, directly and in collaboration with other churches, is planting more churches, specifically in Atlantic Canada.
“How can people be in prayer for you, your family, and Wayfarers’ Church?”
Thanks for asking. Pray for me that I would be faithful in all the work that needs to be done between now and out Grand Opening this fall. Pray with me that every day my joy would be in Jesus. That I’d be fearless and faithful, following the Spirit in evangelism.
Pray for the family that they would continue to have joy in Jesus on this planting journey. Pray for the salvation of all of our children. Recently, our boy was in hospital unexpected for a few days because of Lyme disease. He’s doing really well recovering but pray for a full recovery. Pray for chances to share Jesus with neighbors and friends here in the community.
You can pray for Wayfarers’ Church in a few ways. Pray for our whole team as we share Jesus and invite people to know him. We’ve had small groups going for a while, do hang out events, and have been having monthly services for the last few months. We will keep repeating these efforts in faith until we have our Grand Opening this September / October
One more thing to pray for coming right up is a community cleanup on Saturday May 6th. Originally we were going to host our own street cleanup in Spryfield, but this week I found out that there is another one being hosted by an individual in the community. Rather than competing, we're going to partner with her and her crew and hopefully rub lots of shoulders with neighbors. We also will host a bbq at the end of the clean up. We could use your hands for picking up the trash, and even bbqing if you are interested.
If you’re interested in helping out or would love to grab a coffee and chat more about what we are doing, send me an email: friends@wayfarerschurch.ca
