Dearly Beloved

On September 27th, we introduced and commissioned CPC’s Volunteer Community Pastors. This role exists to enhance and extend pastoral presence, care, and connection throughout our church, with a special focus on Sundays.

If you’d like to talk with a pastor or have someone pray with you, look for the people wearing red Community Pastor tags. We also want you to get to know them, so this fall they’ll be sharing their stories in the Dearly Beloved section of the e-bulletin.

You may have heard us speaking French around the church, and we were probably chatting about how Montreal is going to win the Stanley Cup this year. Yes, we are Michèle Goulet and Benjamin Beauvais. We do not share a last name, but yes, we are married. We grew up in Quebec, where civil law is a little different, but don’t worry, we still love Canada very much.

Our family moved to the Comox Valley in 2019 and has been calling CPC home for the past few years. We have a young daughter and enjoy taking every opportunity we can to explore the outdoors that Vancouver Island has to offer. We believe that family is an important part of God's design for us. The psalmist writes, “Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands.”

We believe that children and youth are shaped much like an arrow, carefully crafted and then sent out into the world with purpose. Intentional mentoring and discipleship of the next generation are critical to further His Kingdom.

We currently volunteer regularly with CPC Kids and the Youth Ministry; we are lucky to have the opportunity to interact with children and youth from many different families. We are excited to now officially expand our involvement with the upstairs crowd as community pastors. The CPC community has been a place where our family has felt welcomed, known, and encouraged to walk with Jesus. We embrace the reality that Jesus meets people exactly where they are. We have compassion for those who are discovering Him for the first time and know firsthand the difference faithful people can make when they simply choose to walk alongside someone.

We are encouraged by the church’s commitment to Gospel Intentionality Together, and Others & Elsewhere, especially the vision of reaching everyone in the Comox Valley. While we may not always be the most outgoing people or natural extroverts, we recognize the importance of building meaningful relationships in our neighbourhoods, workplaces, and communities. Perhaps not so much on the pickleball court, but certainly on the ski slopes, at a crag or wherever our activities take us.

A verse we would like to leave with you is Nehemiah 8:10: “Go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks, and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared. This is a sacred day before our Lord. Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!”

What stands out to us in this passage is not the feast itself, but the reminder that the joy of the Lord is our strength. The people of Israel were grieving over their failures, yet they were instructed to rejoice instead. We believe that message remains just as relevant for us today.

Michèle Goulet & Benjamin Beauvais