Today was a super awesome day! Two decisions, and I gave both kids bibles! One girl, her and her sister have been coming the whole week. On Monday they said they weren’t sure if they were coming back, but they’ve made it back every day since! But they never got to hear the end of Zacchaeus’s story… until today! They finally got to hear it! (Praise the Lord) And the oldest one asked Jesus into her heart. She’s from an unchurched family and I gave her a bible. It was so wonderful to see her make that decision. I think she’s wanted to do it all week, and we finally got to do it today!
Another boy in my second club also asked Jesus into his heart. (Woot woot!)
Its sort of sad to think that tomorrow is the last day of clubs… but I’m glad God has let me see him in action. This was such a good summer. Tough, but very rewarding. The best part about being a summer missionary, is being able to see God’s hand at work, and I can’t wait to see and to hear about what God will do on the last day, and I’m very greatful. I can’t do anything without God, with out Him, this would be impossible, but all things are possible through Christ! I can say honestly that it was none of my work, I just obeyed, and God gave me the best steats in the house!
God Bless!
Kids Quotes:
Me: does anyone know what Romans is?Girl: romance? Is like when you’re in a relationship?
Boy: (insert name here) and I promised eachother that we will never EVER get married!… (hostess and I were kinda laughing at this one)
Me: Maybe one day you won’t mind so much. :3
So first of all, I’m teaching with God this week, he’s my only partner… and I’ve come to learn a few things about myself. That I can do actions good, and I can turn the pages of visuals good… BUT WHEN EXPECTED TO DO BOTH AT THE SAME TIME BOTH SUFFER TERRIBLY!!!!
So please, pray for some extra help in that area.
Second- CLUBS!
Club 1: it’s a really fun club, we have some hindu kids coming, and today a group of aunt’s and a grandfather came today. The grandfather didn’t look very impressed, and they wanted to check out the club. I’m a bit nervous as they are going to be sitting in on the club tomorrow, but the kids seem to be really into learning about Jesus. Even if they aren’t happy just pray that the kids will keep coming and that God will take care of them. Also, some unchurched kids have been coming and they are having some problems listening to the stories, and they don’t want to do the songs. (In the middle of ‘let’s get started’ I said, “if you dont stand up you don’t get prizes.” To which they immediately stood up) Not just them, everyone seems to have some problems listening especially at the end. Pray for listening ears!
Club 2: up a few more kids! Most of them younger kids. But they really like the songs *so refreshing from my first club* also they seem really interested in the stories, just pray for these guys to open their hearts up to God.
Club 3: we had more kids! A few a really rambunctious… some who genuinely want to listen. Some churched, some unchurched, its a pretty healthy mix. We had a girl who went to a club last week, but she loves clubs so much, she came back this week! (For stories I swore her to secrecy, so anytime that I have to pause she smiles and says “I know what happens! But I can’t tell anyone.” So cute XD ) Not only, but the unchurched girls came back! Praise! They really want to know how Zacchaeus’s story ends, but every time I get to it, their mom comes and picks them up to go! Please pray that there will be time to tell this story! (And for listening ears)
That’s it for clubs, but also some stuff that’s going on that can best be described as ‘some serious personal biz’. I’m trying my best to keep it from interfering with my job, but it’s difficult because my job is not just the 3 hours a day, in my clubs, it’s all the time after when I spend it with brothers and sisters in christ, and when I am playing with the kids before or after a club. I dont want anything to get in the way of what God wants me to do.
For those who pray, thank you for your prayers.
Over and out! God bless.
After intense examination, I can assure you that I am in fact alive and did *not* drop off the face of the earth for a month. (Vacation, terribly sorry to all of you)
First of all, some intense catch up. My Kamsack week had a total of 6 decisions! God is so great!
But now to the present (or perhaps more recent past)
Assiniboia! What a lovely place!
First club we had 13 kids! So many of them paid attention and did really well, we have some hindu and unchurched kids so please pray, but praise! We had an awesome turnout for the first day!
Second club: we had 8 girls, they also listen pretty good, but a few kids put their hands up for the invitation and didn’t come after, so just pray for their hearts to be opened. (And for the little boy who took one look at us and ran back to his mom saying “I don’t want to go anymore!!!”)
Club 3: I’m told this club will fluctuate… but today we had 4 kids. Some of whom are a tad restless, and some of whom are unchurched and very interested in the stories… but left before they could recieve any prizes or the invitation. So please pray for listening ears and for kids to come back tomorrow.
Also a bit of an extra prayer request, I’m guessing something amazing is going to happen, because some attacks are getting pretty intense. But I know God’s right here with me.
God Bless!
So after my loverly week off, I’m posted in Kamsack! (Woot woot!)
Its the first day and I love all the clubs so far!
VBS 1: we had 14 kids on the first day! It’s so much fun, most of them are churched, but a lot haven’t heard some of the stories before. So far they have all been great listeners!
Club 2: only 4 kids today, but lots of the kids in town are going to the VBS in the morning… one kid is doing both, so I guess he gets double the prizes. (Lucky kid) it was just the hostess’ kids plus one, so prat for some more kids (perhaps not ones from VBS who know the story XD haha)
Club 3: had some trouble finding Keeseekoose, but once there it was all ok. We had 11 kids on the first day and 3 decisions! So exciting! Julia has also given all of her bibles away to this club (such a wonderful problem to have XD) some of the younger ones have problems listening, but many are very attentive.
I’m super excited for the rest of this week! Please pray for energy, enthusiasm, support raising, and awesome (time appropriate) story telling skills.
And praise! Today 3 kids have started their walk with God!
God bless!
So… clubs… yeah
club 1: I get to teach with Nekaelly!!! Fantastic experience. We have had 14ish kids so far. SO much fun (but a bit rowdy. Its good to have two leaders)
Club 2: we had the hostess’ kids (3 of them) all week, as well as two kids who came yesterday from an unchurhed home. They referred to things like ‘a Jesus cd’ or a ‘Jesus story’. It feels like they have been taught negative things by their parents. They could only come for one day, neither of them made a decision. Today we had 3 more Christian kids. It’s funny how it seems to rain whenever one tells the Noah story. I was running low on time and had to tell the kids a 10 minute bible story… not to mention there was thunder. Lots of those kids were little and we’re panicking. I was just about to pray to close when a big drop of rain landed on my hand. I looked up at the kids and said “who wants to help me get the stuff inside?”
Club 3: got cancelled due to lack of interest. There were plenty of kids in the neighborhood but none of them came.
This week is hard, it feels like I can’t get close to the kids, I can’t hang out or play with them. I’m not putting as much energy into it for some reason. Lots of weird stuff has been going on in my personal life, it’s been one incident after another… does this always happen? Does every person who works in missions wake up in the morning and have to deal with new bad things each day? It feels like there’s constantly something wrong. And I’ve only been doing this for a few weeks… I can’t be the only one to face discouragement… but this is the first time for me at this level.
prayer requests:
1. For me to put more energy into my clubs. Maybe to build better relationships with the kids.
2. For more kids to come to the clubs (not just mine, but everyone else’s too)
3. For all the personal things that have been happening to me.
Thanks so much!
God bless.
First week of clubs… WOAH. Okay- that was pretty cool! I got to not only work 4 clubs a day- but also do my own church’s VBS in the evenings… all in all I actually had no life for the past week but it was good (thank you for those who are praying. It is VERY much appreciated). Darren and I were blessed to have many well behaved children in every club, most of them were from Christian families, but it was still lots of fun!
Club 1: Out at Sherwood Forest!
It was LOTS of fun, we had the hostess’s 3 boys there consistently, and some other kids a few other days. On the last day we had a little boy make a decision (yay!) And the kids were all over the prizes. The only disappointing thing about this club was that we couldn’t stay too long and hang out with the kids afterwards because we had to go to our next club.
Club 2: Regina!!
Also lots of fun! This one we got to stay and play games afterwards (which is WAY more fun!) There was this kid, he was the youngest, but he was SUPER enthusiastic about everything, every time we’d sing “turn your eyes to Jesus” he’d get super excited and say “I LOVE THIS SONG!” Even though he (along with most of the other kids at this club) go to church, he accepted Jesus into his heart very enthusiastically on the third day. (yay!!) This club was lots of fun to teach, so glad to have been able to teach it!
Notable quotes:
Kid 1: “Can I bring binoculars?! Or a puzzle? I like puzzles!”
Kid 1: “THERE IT IS! IT’S THE GREEN AND BLUE PARK!” (as we stand a very long distance away from a park)
Club 3: Regina 2.0!!!
This club was interesting as most of the kids there were pretty much in preschool. Most of these kids were grandchildren of one of the ladies at my church, so I got to see most of them twice a day, once at VBS and once at 5-day clubs. This club was also interesting since it was the middle of the afternoon and REALLY hot. Heat+Preschoolers= “water breaks” every 10 minutes. I think they had fun, even though they usually checked out halfway through club. One girl came one day from a household with no religion in it whatsoever. She seemed interested in the stories, and she did ‘pray’ (?) maybe, but I’m not sure. Another kid prayed it out loud, but I’m not sure if he had done it before. So we had… maybe 1(?) between the two of them. Please pray for this girl, she has no background with religion, I gave her a gospel of John, but I don’t know if her parents have taken it away, or what the situation is, but please just pray for her.
Notable quotes:
Girl 1: (age 4 who decided she was going to sit with me during story time started playing around with my arms, then looks back at me and says) “You smell nice today”
Why thank you for noticing small one.
Boy 1: Sometimes I’m funny!
yes. yes you are.
Club 4: Regina 3.0!!!!
Last club, it was THE most chill club ever. Even though we advertised throughout the neighbourhood none of the kids came. But that was okay, because we imported children from a different neighbourhood. They were both went to church and knew lots of the stories anyway (we did have 4 kids one day… both of them were churched too.). We had time before and after club to hang out with them. We had nice conversations about superheroes, drawing, and plants. It was a pretty fun club to teach.
That was it! (also VBS which was pretty good too. the training from 5-day clubs really helped me out at church, God is good!) I’m looking forward to this next week which is a break from this last one. It’s was one of the longest/shortest weeks ever. I’m gonna miss these kids, even though I only got to see them for a week.
God bless!
Hey! This is my first blog post this summer! Also my first year teaching. WOW!!! I’m super excited to be teaching this year (as well as cautiously optimistic). So much stuff has happened over the first two weeks of the summer, but we’re out of the gate and ready to go into the world/province/mission field.
So fun story of my first week (ever.)
First day, three newbies face a block of 20 kids. In my head, I’m thinking ‘uh oh’. We were in an area with a lot of apartments. The town house we were situated in was owned by a ministry teaching English to immigrants. They went ahead and did most of the advertising, and it was crazy how many kids showed up the first day. Interestingly enough most of the kids were from Muslim families. Some of them came up for decision time, but I’m not so sure they understood exactly what they were doing, so we didn’t really mark them down. Some of the kids didn’t even speak English that well, so they might have been distracted too. We were very excited for day 2, but only three kids came (and they were from a church). We tried to understand what was going on, a child told us that someone (either an adult or older boy who everyone looked up to) told all the kids not to come. This was a bit discouraging, but not unexpected. That night, I prayed for a miracle (not really sure what was going to happen, but it felt like something I should pray for). The third day, we had 11 kids. We were really happy to have some of the kids back, but some didn’t stay for the whole time. As the club ended, and some snacks were being handed out, our hostess informed us that Ramadan is going on. (the Muslim time of fasting and prayer) We realised that the kids were going home because they had to pray, but they were having so much fun and wanted to come, some of them convinced their parents (or something like that) to let them come. I guess God did answer my prayer! (BTW face painting is really fun!)
Day 4 was pretty uneventful, but we were finally getting used to things. No decisions. Day 5, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was on bible story (which is the story of Saul) and I wasn’t really prepared to the best of my ability (God answers prayer BTW!!!). There were the two church kids that were there all week, and two Muslim boys. Since I was on Bible story, it was my job to deliver the invitation and I was determined to preach my face off. Apparently the story was good (because God answers prayers. Praise the Lord) and I poured everything I had into that story, and when I gave the invitation I tried my best. One of the boys put his hand up, slowly and unsure, but as I continued he wasn’t wrinkling his nose and he seemed more sure. He didn’t come talk to me afterwards, (I should have said ‘if you want to know how come see me…’ but I didn’t). Andra said I should pull him aside and talk to him, but the boy’s Mom left, and took the two boys with her.
Prayer request- I need more practice.
Other than that, I think the club went pretty good. I’m super excited for the summer and I can’t wait to see what God has in store!
Shout out to my two awesome partners Jenny and Andra!
God bless! Peace out. :3
Kids Quotes: the part of the blog post where Crystal posts funny things that kids have said during club.
1. Kid 1: After learning that when we ask Jesus into our hearts, we are like family with other believers. High fives his friend beside him and with the biggest smile says-
“Brothers!”
2. Kid 2: When asked what would he do with $30 000
“I would buy everyone a minecraft account so we could all play together”
Kids are so funny XD
Have a nice day!
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