Storyline 75 Anniversary Edition

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Rev. P. Magnus (1939-1943) 1939 World War II Begins Gail (Jespersen) Hunter began attending First Alliance Church in the womb. Her first recollection of church was watching her parents (pictured with Gail as a child, bottom left) singing in the church choir and then falling asleep on her mother’s lap. Her decision to follow Jesus came just a few years later, at 8 years old during a Pioneer Girls regular meeting. “I remember hearing the Gospel presented and my heart started pounding and I knew it was what I wanted to do.” Attending Camp Chamisall from her eighth summer on – first at Gull Lake and then at the present site in the Waiparous Valley – became a favourite time of year and a place where her faith flourished. Gail was baptized at 16 and remembers attending the ground-breaking ceremony at the Glenmore Trail location as FAC grew. Music was always a part of the Jespersen family. Gail’s first instrument was her violin, but she found her voice in her late teens and sang her first solo at the Alliance Youth Fellowship Christmas banquet. This led to music ministry through a traveling singing group and over 25 years as a member of the First Alliance choir. Her gift of leadership was cultivated and encouraged as she became the first female president of AYF and later – after marriage to Jim Hunter (thirty-seven years ago) and four children – she became the president of Mothers’ Fellowship as well. But by far the most vivid impression of the Jespersen home while Gail was growing up was the intentional practice of hospitality. “My parents would hunt down people they didn’t know in the church foyer after Sunday service and invite them home for Sunday roast beef luncheon.” She smiles. “There were always people I didn’t know at our dinner table and it seemed normal!” She recalls her mother, Norma, was an ‘amazing cook’ and her father, Stan, could draw anyone out of their shell with his wonderful stories and witty repartee. “Our home was always filled with people and laughter.” It was natural that food and hospitality became the norm in the Hunter household as well – and more than just a way of life, it was a way to support a growing family. From Gail’s Goodies, selling Swedish Tea Rings at Christmas, to a full-fledged catering company where the entire Hunter clan would cook and wash dishes and serve hundreds, Gail turned the fine art of hospitality into a thriving business. But Gail began to realize that it was ‘more than just the food’. A desire began to grow in her to love people through meals and hospitality. In the late 90s, at a course designed to tap into God-given gifts and desires, the facilitator asked, “If you could do anything for God and know you couldn’t fail, what would it be?” Gail’s immediate internal answer was ‘to feed people in the church.’ In her discussion group, she laid out the foundation for food ministry in the church, and the people around her table were dumbfounded; people who had shared lofty ideas of overseas work and large, complicated ministries. The idea was beautiful in its simplicity. “There is no social class or division around the meal table. Everyone is equal,” she says. “The simple sharing of a meal can open the way for deeper spiritual discussion.” Hired by First Alliance Church in January of 2002 to feed the people of the church as she saw fit, Gail began to write the book on food ministry in the church. “Harvest Ministries has two sides of the window. It isn’t just that
1941 We are officially incorporated as “The Alliance Tabernacle” in Calgary with 18 members present. 1943 Now a congregation of 50 people, the church moves to 13 th Avenue we provide meals for other church ministries to facilitate their work, but there’s the inside of the kitchen, too, and what happens there.” People work side by side in a place familiar to all; everyone has a kitchen. Community is created in the middle of the work. The Harvest kitchen is a teaching kitchen; a place where newcomers feel comfortable to enter into service for the first time and learn what it is to be part of a church family. Some will stay there long-term as volunteers and others will move on to other ministry work after a time. Through more than two thirds of FAC’s history, Gail and her family have attended this church, through years of blessing and of trial ... and the plan is to stay fast to that tradition. “First Alliance Church is our church. We believe in the God of our church. We have always felt nurtured and challenged here. This is our home and family.” | Written by Terry Schmidt What legacy does Gail want Harvest Ministries to have? “One of my ongoing passions is for other churches to catch the vision and a glimpse of what food service ministry can mean to their entire church. It brings in so many folks, as volunteers and guests, and also frees up staff and others who are called to minister in their gifted areas.” The Hunter tradition in food and hospitality continues; Gail’s son, Sterling, has been part of the Harvest staff for the past couple of years. “I am pretty thrilled that God moved in my son’s heart to join me in God’s work here at FAC.” ABOVE: 1. early church parade float 2. Sunday gathering at our first location (1 st Street W.)
Page 2 and 3: Three Leaders .... all for JESUS Al
Page 6 and 7: 1943: Calgary population is 97, 241
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Page 10 and 11: • Photos from October 19/20 celeb
Page 12 and 13: 1965 Calgary population reaches 323
Page 14 and 15: “When I moved to Calgary, I was l
Page 16 and 17: September 2005: we move into our cu
Page 18 and 19: (11% INCREASE FROM PREVIOUS YEAR)
Page 20: Fall 2013: We celebrate the ongoing

Storyline 75 Anniversary Edition

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