(I really hope my titles draw you in instead of weirding you out, haha)

Anyways, this week, I get to become really familiar with the Edmonton roads. I have the privilege of teaching with one Grace Konrad, but alas, we live about an hour apart (she lives in southwest Edmonton, I live 30 mins northeast of Edmonton). So, I have had plenty of time to shamelessly rock out in my car to all of my radio jams. I have also had to get up fairly early (unless I sleep in, like I did this morning. Forcing yourself to get ready in 15 minutes is not Shamus-recommended), but God has given me the strength to be wide awake and energetic in all of our clubs.

Our first club is near Grace`s house (which I am eternally grateful for, as it saves me from driving and lets me sleep a little later), and the hostess` only child is about one and a half. So, too young for clubs. There are lots of kids in the area, but apparently most of them sleep past 9, so we could not round up any kids on the first day. Later that day, we went advertising, and we found one girl who was interested in coming, as long as we came and walked her to the club in the morning. We had no problem with that, and she came on Tuesday (the day when I thought a squirrel sitting in a nearby tree was going to attack me while I was telling a story) and Wednesday. This morning, when we went to pick her up, we found out she was unavailable. Fortunately, she had told us about a house where some of her friends lived, and they came this morning. One of these girls accepted Jesus, which was super exciting. She seemed to get distracted while Grace was walking her through it, but there was no doubt that she wanted to pray and accept Him.

Our second club, unfortunately, has had no kids. We have handed out many invitations, tried the nearby parks, knocked on several doors, but sadly, no takers. Some people still seemed interested, so please pray that they would be able to come. There are kids in the area, they just have not come…… yet.

Our third club has had a bit of an odd week. The first day, we had four kids, and on Tuesday, they brought 5 of their friends. But on Wednesday, 8 of these kids went camping, and the other 1 was not at home. So we went advertising, again, but could not drum up any interest. Then today, the one girl who had not gone camping came back, brought a friend, and then we had three kids come whom we had given invitations to. Now the club is up to 13 registered kids. I was glad (as I imagine Grace was as well) that our advertising had paid off. All of these kids have been unchurched, so the club could have a real impact on the neighbourhood.

Due to the four hour break between our third and fourth clubs, and the fact that Grace lives on the west end of Edmonton and the fourth club is in Sherwood Park (which is east of Edmonton), we agreed that it would be easiest for me to drive Grace home and then teach the last club solo (by the way, shout out to Grace and Gwenyth for recruiting Grace to help teach their VBS, you guys saved me a lot of driving (and CEF a lot on gas)). This club has been the polar opposite of our other clubs, because they have all been unchurched kids, whereas this one has had 9 churched kids. These kids have been fantastic to teach, as they are really involved in the club. They know the Bible stories really well (even the story of Mephibosheth, which I had not heard until about a month ago), so the extra story has been fun to teach them. I promised them yesterday that they could pie me if they get to 25 kids, which they seemed really eager to do, but they have to grow a lot over the next 2 days.

This week has been a bit of a struggle for Grace and I, partially because of the slightly inconsistent attendance in our clubs, which has caused us to have to be creative with what we decide to teach, but primarily because of the amount of advertising we have had to do. Neither of us feel very comfortable going up to strangers and talking to them, nor do we feel great about going door to door, and we feel especially awkward going to the park to find kids. Fortunately, God has been good by providing the kids, and he has helped us to feel more and more confident.

Sorry for the novel, but thanks for reading to the end!

Shamus Westra

Hi! I'm Shamus, and I like warm hugs! I'm from Edmonton, just finished grade 12, will be going to University of Calgary in the fall, and am teaching my 4th summer! I'd appreciate prayer that God would give me confidence, and that none of this would be done on my own strength, but only through God's strength.