+ Whistler, BC Gathering

The first Gathering held by Watchmen for the Nations was from June 28th to July 5th, 1995, in Whistler, BC, Canada with 2300 people joining together from many nations to wait upon the Lord and seek His face. In this Gathering, God moved among the First Nations leaders to own their rightful stewardship of the land and repent of wrongful stewardship (the worship of false gods). A strong anointing came upon the native people and all those witnessing this moment, to the point that the rejoicing and dancing spilled out of the auditorium and onto the streets.

+ Victoria, BC Gathering

The following July after being together in Whistler, the Lord initiated another Gathering in Victoria, BC, which was highlighted by a deep time of repentance of fathers to the younger generation and a turning of the hearts of these children to the fathers. The night culminated in an exuberant dance for hours between the generations that lasted late into the night.

After God had moved so powerfully in the Whistler and Victoria Gatherings, the Watchmen team expected the church to move quickly into a journey of healing the deep wounds and divisions in the nation. But despite sincere attempts at reconciliation between people groups, breakthrough remained elusive. The team was driven to cry out to God to reveal what was the root issue holding back God's favour from the nation. Why were God's prophetic promises for Canada unfulfilled? And why were warnings of judgment increasing?

In September 1997, the Lord revealed to David Demian that the sin of anti-Semitism, brought to Canada by our European forefathers, was a key to the nation's current spiritual condition. The Lord asked David to call Canada to true repentance, a rending of hearts. (Joel 2:12-15)

During the next few months, the Lord began to reveal information about the history of anti-Semitism in Canada. Information surfaced about the St. Louis ship, which was filled with more than 900 German Jews fleeing persecution by the Nazi regime, before the onset of the Second World War, and which was denied access into Canada. The team also came across the book “None is Too Many” written by two Canadian professors, which detailed more graphic instances of Canada's anti-Semitic immigration policies that prevented even orphaned children from finding refuge.

David and his pastor, Gideon Chiu, soon found themselves traveling throughout Canada, sharing what they had discovered with ministerials and heads of Christian ministries throughout the nation. From coast-to-coast the response from the leadership was the same. They had put their finger on a significant root in our nation and God was indeed calling Canada to repentance.

+ Harrison Hot Springs, BC Gathering

By the Lord's direction, a Gathering was called for Harrison Hot Springs, BC in November 1998. With only a few months notice, more than 600 leaders and intercessors responded and the Lord poured out a spirit of repentance, with weeping and travail unlike what many had ever seen in Canada.

+ Train of Tears

With a mandate from the Lord to "fill the land with tears", on April 13, 1999 (Holocaust Memorial Day), eighty-eight intercessors from across Canada, boarded a train in Vancouver bound for Winnipeg. On this Train of Tears, the intercessors fasted, wept and prayed for three days, asking God to have mercy upon our nation. In His wisdom, God used the train, a powerful symbol of Canadian unity, to begin to redeem the memory of the millions transported on trains to suffering and death in Hitler's concentration camps.

+ Winnipeg, MB Gathering

In the months which followed the Harrison Hot Springs Gathering, David and Gideon travelled to churches throughout Canada and appeared on national Christian TV broadcasts, issuing a call to believers to gather in Winnipeg between June 30th to July 2, 1999 for a time of national repentance. God Himself was making the Canadian church willing in the day of His power. (Psalm 110:3)

With the ground thus prepared, 2300 Canadians came before the Lord in Winnipeg on the Canada Day weekend, June 30th to July 2, 1999, with the sacrifice of a broken spirit and contrite heart of repentance (Psalm 51:17). They were joined by thousands more on July 1st, when David Mainse of Crossroads Communications broadcasted the repentance live for four hours by satellite throughout the nation. Finally, after days of weeping, travail and waiting upon the Lord, many felt a witness that God had received our sacrifice. A memorial altar was built on July 1st with stones brought by the Gathering participants, from their respective areas, as a testimony for generations of how the church in Canada humbled itself in repentance to the Lord. Now it was time to bring to the Lord fruit worthy of the repentance.

+ Friends of the St. Louis Reception and Dinner

As a firstfruits of the repentance, the remaining survivors of the St. Louis were invited to Canada. The 25 survivors and their spouses who responded were brought at the expense of the Canadian church. Without any large corporate sponsorship, hundreds of thousands of dollars poured in from Christian Canadians throughout the nation. The survivors were flown in from Israel, Australia, England, the United States and Canada to Ottawa, Canada’s capital city. They toured the sites of Ottawa, including a visit to Parliament Hill and then they were hosted by 300 representatives of the Canadian church at the Friends of the St. Louis reception and dinner in Ottawa on November 5, 2000. It was at this reception that representatives of the Canadian church repented to the survivors.

Later in the evening, on behalf of the Canadian conference of Catholic bishops and many other denominations, Archbishop Gervais proclaimed the Declaration of the Church in Canada. This declaration expressed the repentant heart of the Canadian church for their role in rejecting the St. Louis and pledged ongoing love and support for the Jewish people. The survivors were further touched, as a group of young people who had taken their own journey of repentance to Israel, shared their story and presented the survivors with their own gift.

Among the many moving speeches and presentations during the night, perhaps none was as personally touching to the survivors as the presentation of a hand-crafted glass sculpture. This sculpture, designed particularly for this event, includes a maple leaf base, from which rise hands that are cradling a star of David, through which the St. Louis ship is emerging.

Something truly miraculous happened during this time in Ottawa. Healing and forgiveness replaced pain and bitterness, and deep bonds of trust, love and friendship were birthed between the survivors and the church of Canada.

+ Israel, Journey of Hope

This moving event was followed by 550 Canadians traveling to Israel in May 2001 on the Journey of Hope. This prophetic journey included public repentance for anti-Semitism and the inaction of the Canadian church during the Holocaust to both Chief Rabbi Yisrael Lau at Yad Vashem (the Holocaust memorial) and to the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rabbi Michael Melchior, at the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament).

The Journey of Hope to Israel had two distinct mandates: to repent to the Jewish people and to go to sites of ancient Biblical power and "call forth ancient anointings for end-time purposes". This was done in accordance with Habukkuk 3:2 "Oh Lord, we have heard of your fame, we have heard of your deeds. Renew them in our day".

While in Israel, the Lord spoke to us that He would now release His favour to help us see the healing of a deep wound in Canada - the division between French and English Canada. In the fields of Gadara, the Holy Spirit began this work of repentance and reconciliation. Years before, through a prophetic vision, the Lord had revealed His desire for French and English to walk in a covenantal union, whereby the two people groups would fall in love with one another, forgo their historical animosities and begin to own the unique destiny of Canada. A new journey of healing was beginning.

The Journey Continues… These efforts have borne considerable fruit in establishing a trusting relationship with government and people of Israel, both in Canada as well as in Israel. The government of Israel invited 20 Canadian church leaders, the Canadian Evangelical Diplomatic Mission, to visit Israel in March 2003 in order to dialogue with government officials on establishing greater linkages between Israel and the Canadian church. In March 2004 His Excellency Haim Divon, Israeli Ambassador to Canada, Shimon Fogel (head of the Canada-Israel committee) and other Jewish leaders visited a gathering of Canadian church leaders in Ottawa, to continue the journey of friendship, love and trust being established.

+ Kelowna, BC Gathering

During the Kelowna Gathering in September 2001, the Lord began working through the hearts of his leaders. The English leaders humbled themselves, kneeling at the feet of the French leaders, declaring that there is no separation between the English church in Canada and the French church in Quebec. The leaders of Quebec wept profoundly and the two groups stood and embraced, singing the national anthem in both languages. Later, in the national open Gathering, Odette Menard, a leader from Quebec shared how for the first time she had felt proud to be Canadian. At the end of the Gathering, a national 40-day fast for French Canada was called to take place October 2001 to November 16, 2001.

+ Charlottetown, PEI Gathering

Between October 2001 and April 2002 a number of regional leadership Gatherings were convened in Ontario and Quebec to continue to seek the Lord for His strategies in the healing of French and English Canada. Then in August 2002, the nation gathered in the birthplace of Confederation in Charlottetown, PEI. There, in front of 1500 members of the Canadian church from throughout Canada, representative leadership of the church of English and French Canada prophetically agreed to "court" one another, in anticipation of an eventual "marriage". The beginning of this courtship was witnessed by a representative of the parent nations, England and France, who came to give their blessing to this union.

+ La Danse Celebration Tour

This "courtship" that began at the Charlottetown Gathering took the form of the La Danse Celebration Tour. From July 25, 2003 through August 9, 2003, 250 members of a team composed of church leadership, Gen Xers, native leaders, youth, children, worship and dance teams, travelled from Montreal, Quebec to Victoria, BC, stopping in a total of 12 cities in 14 days. In each city, teams of local churches welcomed the tour with celebration services and artistic expressions that reflected the city's unique redemptive gifts and cultural attributes. In addition to the thousands of Canadians who participated in these local celebrations, many believers from Canada and around the world, followed the daily coverage on 100 Huntley Street TV program, as well as the interactive La Danse website.

Just before the tour began, it came to light that Sir John A. MacDonald, Canada’s first Prime Minister, referred to Confederation Day, July 1, 1867, by saying " we are about to be united in Holy Matrimony…" Subsequent research has shown that the marriage analogy was commonly used by the fathers of Confederation in describing the formation of Canada. We believe this covenantal union is God's original spiritual design for this nation, and the obedience of the church in reclaiming this inheritance will release a new authority from heaven to deal with the government, by addressing principalities and powers over this nation (Ephesians 6:12).