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Anja Petker

My name is Anja Petker, I am fifteen years old and in grade ten. This year is my second year of teaching 5-day clubs. One of the main things I'm looking forward to is being used by God to share His amazing love with children in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Please pray for: • confidence to share Gods word without embarrassment • health • to grow in my relationship with the Lord
Aug 16 | Week 3 and 5
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So couple weeks ago I taught in Yorkton SK with Julia and we really had an awesome week! It started off pretty quite with only a few kids at each club, but everyday more and more kids started coming! Our first club only had 1 kid the first day and 0 the next so I felt pretty discouraged but by the last day we got 6 kids (one of them had the same name as me!) and 2 decisions!! Our second club was in Melville SK and started off quite big and ended off even bigger, we had about 19 kids there and 5 decisions! Our third club remained with a constant 3-4 kids but they loved every minute of the club. 

My fourth week I was at home helping my sister with the wedding so I didn’t teach that week, but last week I went to springside SK, and that VBS was a huge bundle of fun and busy! It was a morning club so I would get up and go teach for 2 hours straight with the VBS group being split into two, then go back to my billets where I would not move for a solid hour afterwards 🙂 I was lucky enough to go to people’s houses for supper and get to know the community a bit. I stayed at one family’s house for the afternoon and spent the whole time cutting and peeling beans, so afterwards lets just say I couldn’t really look at beans for a while haha. On Friday they come and talk to me and give me a container with sugar cookies shaped like green beans! They tasted pretty good but the thought that went into that really made my day! I got to know many of the kids and families in that town and had a lot of fun there! 

I’m exited to see what God will do with me for the last week and please pray that I will finish the last week off by continuing to teach the kids about Jesus and his amazing love for us with great enthusiasm! 

I’d like to say thanks to my awesome cee-gee who has prayed for me this summer, there have been times when all I want to do is quite and not do anything, but after a while of talking to God and waiting, I feel like a new hope has been placed in me. Your prayers and support have encouraged me more then I can say. 

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So this week as flown by so fast! kids at camp are always so much fun to talk to and just be able to get to know. It did get difficult sometimes with their being so many kids at the camp (70 kids!!) and also many workers, so lots of the kids would try to spend time around whats more familiar to them, like their cabin leaders, but me and Sarah were still able to get to know a few of them! It was just so cool to see the enthusiasm that was placed inside these kids hearts. Many of them made it their goal to use up every second of spare time to read and finish their lessons to be able to get more lessons and prizes. Since we were staying at the camp and constantly being around these kids also made it easier for them to be able to come to us with their lessons, there were quite a few times where I would be in the bathroom and they would be waiting for me outside with smiles on their faces and lessons in their hands! They would also come knock on our cabin door wanting to give in their next lessons or say a memory verse (that usually wasn’t off the book mark but from the lessons like genesis 1:1), so after the first three kids that came knocking on our door, we just decided to either sit outside or have our door open.

As a kid I used to go to camp, but forgot about the lifestyle of everything, and going back their and experiencing that all over again was so much fun! Chapel time and a the campfires really brought back so many memories!

Something that sorta scared me upon arrival was that we were asked if we were the speakers. Now I’m 16 years and I don’t think I could say 5 years ago that I was going to be a speaker at a camp. But after a while being known as the speaker began to fade and I got used to it. well, then as we were walking to the beach, an LIT (leader in training) said to one of the kids that was asking about what they were going to do at campfire that night “we’re going to listen to Sarah and Anja preach to us” well Fantastic! I am now a Preacher! who can say they were 16 years old and a preacher? not too many. Join 5-day clubs everyone! easy way to check of being a preacher off your list!

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Jul 21 | CAMP!
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So last week in Ebenzer ended really good, I didn’t have any decisions but I really felt like God did something good in these children’s lives through me, there was 1 kid especially, who was from Alberta came to the VBS and was so exited about everything we did, the songs, lessons, stories, everything, and with his excitement just really helped encourage me as well, this being my 3 week away from home, and home sickness slowly kicking in. As we were about to leave in Friday from the church there was a young 6 year old girl who I really got to know quite a bit, and she was sitting on her bike pouting. I went up to her and asked her why she was sad and she said ‘because your leaving, I don’t want you to leave, when I like people I don’t ever want them to leave’ I don’t remember kids ever saying that to me in the past, so I really felt a huge encouragement through that week, and God just telling me that even though I might not have gotten 5 decisions this week, I still went through with giving up my summer to go share the gospel with these kids and get them exited to know who Jesus is and how amazing His love is!

 This week me and Sarah got dropped off at Good spirit Bible Camp and at first it felt a bit strange because I never thought I would be a ‘speaker’ at the age of 15 and second because there were many leaders our age and just going in to teach and trying to ignore the older ones and put the focus on the kids was really hard. But we made it through the first day and there are already more kids opening up to us and wanting to spend time with us. Even after a crazy 30min of singing really loudly they still found the time to sit quietly and listen to the stories. We tell the bible story at the campfire, which I personally love, and Sarah told the story of zacchaeus and the kids had a lot of fun with it but still understood the reality of how much God loves them. When it was mentioned that Jesus even knew our names this one kid in the second row just dropped his jaw and a shocked ‘whoa’ came out, haha probably my favourite reaction to Jesus love if heard yet. 

As the week goes on please pray that kids will want to open up to Jesus and just really have His love live in them. 

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I have a really fun VBS this week with kids that, sometimes can be a struggle to keep on track, but for the most part are a lot of fun! Today during snack time me and this 9 year old boy were talking and he told me about how he tried what Tony did to catch mice! Not just that he tried but he actually caught a mouse with a stick with cheese on the end in a pot so he could feed his cat because they just ran out of cat food. Unpleasantly he also added how the cat ate the mice… (Which was gross and very detailed making my cookie taste a little bit different from when the conversation began).  

Please pray for calmness of my club, sometimes I can’t even hear my own voice because it gets rowdy and it gets super difficult to tell the story’s. 

I also want to say thanks to my ceegee for praying for me! I felt a strength this year that I didn’t know I had within me.