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Joshua Noel

Hello, my name is Joshua Noel. I am 18 years old. I recently completed my first year studying business at the University of Saskatchewan, and plan on returning in the fall. I am looking forward to my second year of teaching clubs and am hoping to see the Lord accomplish great things this summer. Prayer requests: (1) road safety (2) that kids would come to Christ (3) that I would be a good ambassador for Christ

Well, let me tell you. I want to start off by apologizing for not blogging near enough. Sorry Al! I’ll try to do better. Here’s a quick update on the past few weeks and some prayer requests for next week.

Athabasca

I had a lot of fun teaching this club! It ran from 11:30-5:00 on Calling Lake Reserve. There were 56 kids, and they were lots of fun. Best of all, I got to help lead 4 children to the Lord. Teaching with Willard as my partner was a blast! Thanks for praying for the kids in this club.

Fort McMurray/Anzac

This was a great week of 3 clubs with lots of church kids. This was the first time 5 Day Clubs have been held in Fort McMurray. Talking with church leaders after the club, it sounded like they were eager to repeat the process next year. Many of the kids were from solid Christian homes and had already made decisions. My job was primarily to have fun, provide additional teaching, and encourage them in their faith.

Elbow/Outlook

Because of the long weekend, this was a 4 Day Club. It was nice to have a bit of a break at home over the weekend. There were only two clubs in this week and the first one had plenty of adults helping, which made it really easy on me. The kids seemed to be really engaged, and I’m hoping the lessons they learned this week will stick with them in the long term.

Leader/Fox Valley/Burstall/Sceptre

This is where I’m going to be next week. Please pray for 1) Energy – This is going to be 4 clubs with lots of driving, but I still need to give everything I have at every club. Pray that I don’t get burned out. 2) Salvation – I haven’t had many kids make decisions since Athabasca because I’ve been with a lot of church kids. Pray that I would be able to lead some kids to Christ next week. Thank you very much for your prayers!

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Hello everyone. Here is my first blog post of the summer with an extra catchy title (eh Tyler?). Last week I was in Prince Albert, teaching 3 clubs. The first was at a daycare, the second at my billet’s home, and the third a few blocks south of that. Without further ado, the 5 Things…

1. I got to lead a little girl to Jesus! This is what its all about! She doesn’t come from a Christian home, so pray that the Holy Spirit and the Mailbox club would keep her in the faith! Glory!

2. There were lots of kids at these clubs. My grand total for the week was 65 kids in 3 clubs. Of these, 58 were unchurched. The third club had 40 kids. That’s quite a few to handle when teaching alone. 🙂 But it was okay, it went fairly well considering the circumstances…

3. These kids were in some rough situations. Especially at club 2 and club 3. They were living in the roughest parts of Prince Albert. It was immediately apparent that they lacked stability in their homes. Many of them were living in situations involving addictions or worse. We would just have the club in the common area in the middle of the crescent, and all the kids would come when they heard the music. One day when I showed up to club, there were police there looking for weapons dropped in a chase the night before. Another time social services was talking with people during club. Another time there was a domestic dispute and people moving out during club. Another time two people started verbally fighting during club; we had to wait till they were done to continue. I just pray that my short time there was able to at least have a little bit of an impact on this community and the kids living there! Pray that these kids would continue to run into Christian influences and that they would not continue in the lifestyle they have been raised in! Oh these kids need Jesus. We need to continue to share the good news with them and others like them!

4. My first club was at a daycare, but we didn’t have club on Monday. The club hostess who ran the daycare told here daycare clients on Sunday that there was going to be a club going on. One of her clients freaked out because she didn’t want us “converting her kids”. She threatened to pull her kids out of the daycare and otherwise hamper the hostess’s business. Accordingly, the club was cancelled for the first day. I contacted Vangi and my CG Al and asked them to pray. Later on Monday, the hostess tried to talk to this one mom again, and for some mysterious reason 😉 she had changed her mind and calmed down a bit. So we had a 4 Day Club!

5. I got to see some amazing examples of what Christian living should look like last week. My billets were missionaries to Fiji in their younger days, which showed just how dedicated they are to serving God and reaching the lost. Even though they are now quite infirm, they still reach out to their neighbours. They know the name of every kid on their street and where they are at in terms of spiritual things. For example, a young girl walked by their living room window. They told me that she had come to club years ago when she was younger, but had got pregnant at 14 – and now her young son was planning on coming to club this year. It was really a blessing to be able to partner with them in their attempt to continue to build relationships that lead to God. I only pray that every Christian (myself included) would be as willing to reach out as this elderly couple is.

Right now I am in Athabasca. Our club is an afternoon-long VBS at nearby Calling Lake Reserve. The reserve is really nice, and the kids are fairly well behaved. I am with Will, and I’m having a blast teaching with a partner! On Monday we had 3 kids make a decision for Christ. It just never gets old. Being able to lead a child to Christ is one of the best feelings ever! Today (Tuesday) I had the opportunity to lead another boy to Christ. This week I would just really appreciate prayer for the kids, not for myself. That they would have soft hearts and be saved. That those who are Christians would be able to continue in their faith. Pray for the spiritual condition of those who I come in contact with this week. Thanks. God bless.

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