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Sarah Vatamaniuck

Hi! My name is Sarah Vatamaniuck. I am from Regina and I'm 17 years old and have just graduated High School. This is my second summer teaching 5-Day Clubs and I am super excited to see what's in store for me this summer. In the fall I plan to go to the U of R for Education. Prayer Requests: (1) That I would stay healthy (2) That I would stay safe travelling between clubs

I am very sorry that I forgot to blog last week but I’ll do a brief overview now. I was back in Regina and I was working with Andra. We had 4 clubs.  

Club 1: It was at the house of a family from my church and I knew most of the kids there already. We ended up having 9 kids and they were a lot of fun to teach because they got really involved with the songs and stories. 

Club 2: When we got there the hostess wasn’t really expecting a lot of kid but we got 2, a brother and a sister who were visiting their great-grandmother from Calgary. It was so much fun because at first they were shy but they loved the club and it was clear they came from a Christian family. They were the sweetest kids but we ended up only going till Thursday because they were going back home. 

Club 3: This club was at healing hearts ministries and I expected a lot of kids. We only had 7 and for the most part they all went the the church. They weren’t the most excited group I’ve ever had and only a couple did their lessons and memory verses. 

Club 4: this one was at my house. I expected quite a few kids but we didn’t get any on the first day. Then the next day we got one (my 4 year old neighbour), and then the next 2 days we had another girl. They were both little so the clubs didn’t go that long an I don’t really know how much they understood the club, but I’m hoping they learned something) we also invited both of then to my church’s VBS next week.

Over all I think the week went pretty good, even though 2 of our clubs ended up being 3-Day clubs! 

Onto this week! I am by myself in Pelly (pop. 350 ish) and I have 1 VBS. We had 2 little girls today, which was surprising for a VBS, I went for a walk afterwards but I didn’t see any kids around so hopefully we’ll have more. One of the girls was from Ontario so she won’t even be here the whole week.

Prayer Request! 
That more kids would come to the VBS

Thanks, Sarah

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The summer is halfway over! Wow time flies when you’re having fun! Sorry I havnt posted recently but I’ll just recap the week.

My club was pretty small but we ended with having 11 registered. Our biggest day was yesterday and we had 9. The kids weren’t to keen on saying memory verses but I did hand out a couple Meet the King books. I never had any decisions but I was told by quite a few of the kids that they had asked Jesus into their hearts but I don’t think some of their families were christians. I had an awesome week getting to know these kids and they were a lot of fun! 

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So when I was telling the story of Zacchaeus I said that I always think of zucchini everytime I say his name, well the next time I tried saying “Zacchaeus” I ended up combining the two word and getting myself really confused. Haha typical me…I can’t talk properly. 

So I’m in Hudson Bay this week and so far it has been pretty good. My billets aren’t here this week so I have the house to myself. My club hosts are really amazing though because they give me lunch, I teach the club, I go back, then they feed me supper later. It has been awesome getting to know them. 

I was quite worried about the club because there is a hockey camp this week and a lot of the kids are there but God provides and we got 5 kids today. They were really sweet and seemed to have a good time. I hope they will be able to bring some friends tomorrow so we can have a big club, since it’s my only one. 

Please pray that these kids would tell there friends about the club so more kids will get to know Jesus.

Thanks, 

Sarah

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Wow…This week went by so fast! At first I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of kids and how to fit the 5-Day Club program with the camp’s expectations but by the end of the week I had fallen in love with all of the kids and ended up having so much fun!

In total we had 69 kids at the camp and about 20 didn’t go to church. Neither Anja or I talked to any of the kids about accepting Christ but around 10 did accept Christ with their cabin leaders and I hope that the message we brought to them may have played a small part in their deciding to follow Jesus.

Because we only taught in the evenings and the mornings we got to spend quite a lot of time with the kids whether it was during meals or beach time and so many of the kids found a special place in my heart. They were so enthusiastic, whether it was to do lessons or memory verses, or their excitement for the stories. These kids made me smile all week long. Although, there were so many kids, I regret not getting to spend enough one-on-one time with them.

At the beginning of the week, I was anxious to go home and I didn’t want to be there due to the lack of confidence in myself but yesterday I was sad to leave.  I think God taught me that I don’t have to be perfect to make an impact on these kids lives.

Can’t wait for week 3!

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So I should probably explain the title first. Anja and I were waiting for the bell to signal the campfire where I tell the bible story but the wide game had gone late so we didn’t know when it was going to ring but we decided to come out and just wait for it. Well no sooner had we left our room when the bell rang and I joked that it was my speaker senses that made us be right on time. So that’s why this post is
titled that way.
I felt a lot more confident today and it went pretty smoothly. The best part of today was how excited the kids were to do their lessons. Not even half actually have done their lessons but the ones who have are so excited and they have done their lessons faster than I thought was possible. Since we never actually leave the camp and are around the kids all the time, they’ve just been giving us lessons and we keep giving them more. We actually had one girl who finished her “Meet the King” questions today! I also had another girl who said she wanted “10 of each kind of lesson!” I’m so glad these kids are enthusiastic about the lessons. 
Neither Anja or I have had any kids accept Christ with us but so far there have been at least 4 kids who accepted Christ with their leaders. So that is super exciting!

I am still praying that we will make some really good relationships with the kids as well as the other leaders. The kids have become more attached to us and I’m glad we are starting to build that relationship with some of them but because there are so many kids and other leaders it’s hard to get any one-on-one time with them. It’s harder to get to know the leaders because they all know each other already and we are new, but for the most part they seem really nice and we have had the opportunity to have some conversations with some of them. 

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So this week Anja and I are teaching at Good Spirit Bible Camp. We arrived yesterday and were completely overwhelmed about what to do. No one really gave us any instructions and no one really talked to us that much. When it came time for chapel that evening it was clear that we were the speakers for the week. We both felt completely uneducated for that role considering most of the councillors were older than us. We didn’t have anything prepared for Sunday evening but we did introduce ourselves and explain the concept of a 5 day club. I asked how many kids knew what a 5 day club was and to my relief a lot put up their hands. I got the feeling that the leaders at the camp didn’t really know how to react to us since we are younger but we have talked to some and hopefully we will be able to feel comfortable around all the leaders. We then decided how to split up the club since there are 2 sessions each day. We decided that I would teach the memory verse in the morning along with Anja who would do the contest and the extra story. The evening chapel is around a campfire so I decided to do the bible story then. Today is the first full day and it went better than expected. Anja and I had been so overwhelmed from yesterday but I prayed a lot and I actually felt I was able to do this considering we would have older leaders watching us. The morning went a bit longer because we had to hand out 68 first day packets but the kids loved the story about Tony and were so sad when Anja left it at a cliffhanger. Since we had nothing left to do until evening we just hung out at the camp. It’s really nice and we had a relaxing afternoon checking out the skills the kids were doing and going to the beach with everyone. When evening came I was actually a little excited about the bible story. About 1/2 the kids at the camp do not attend church and I’m hoping to make an impact on them the week. I told the story about Zacchaeus and the kids were really excited and energetic and asking a lot of questions. When I told them about Zacchaeus giving half of everything he owned to the poor, I asked if they could imagine giving half of everything they owned away. One little boy said, “my house would be clean!” I burst out laughing but he wasn’t wrong, I guess everyone looks at things like that a little differently. 

After feeling totally unprepared and unqualified for this job I now see that I can do anything with God’s help. I am praying that we would be able to connect with both the other leaders and the campers this week and that we would make an impact on these kids lives. 

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Jul 16 | God is Good
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I was praying a lot yesterday and today that more kids would come and God answered my prayers! 

We had one new boy at our first club and at first he seemed really shy and didn’t get up to sing the songs but I could see he bagan to feel more comfortable when we went over the bible verses and told our stories. At the end of our club we have him a first day package and then I asked if he wanted the rest of the lessons since today was his first day and he said yes. So u really hope he comes back tomorrow.

At our second club we had 4 new kids come! I know for sure that 2 of them do not come from a Christian family and I was super excited when they said they wanted to come back tomorrow. We also have all the new kids all the lessons so they would have a chance to win the book. Olivia an I decided that if we could get the club up to 15 kids they could soak us so I hope that is some motivation to bring friends! 

Our thirds and final club needs a lot of prayer. Today again it was just the hostesses boys and they requested we don’t sing any songs today. I didn’t blame them. If I was a twelve of fifteen year old boy I don’t think I would want to be singing these songs either. We ended up just doing the memory verses and stories so it was a short club. I am continuing to pray that more kids would come. We went out advertising last night but none of those kids came. I really hope that the boys are learning things even though they don’t seem super interested. 

Prayer Request: that more kids will come and also that Olivia and I will be really enthusiastic and energetic for the kids (especially in our last club) 

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Day 2 is finished! We need a lot of prayer because 2 of our 3 clubs shrunk to 2 kids and our other club didn’t change. 

Our first club in Sask Beach had the same kids as yesterday, who were all the hostesses kids. It’s a really fun club and the kids are really into the songs and stories and informed us that they listened to the cd on their way to swimming lessons. 2 of them did their lessons and 2 said a memory verse. Hopefully some of their friends will be able to come tomorrow. 

At Olivia’s grandmas club we only had the two Filippio kids who have been accompanied by their 17 year old brother. 2 girls from yesterday had told us they couldn’t come back today because they were going away and 2 other boys also from yesterday didn’t come back, which is really too bad because they didn’t come from a Christian family. The funniest thing from that club was the fact that I found out I have a Filippino twin! (Olivia also talks about this in her blog post today). The 17 year old brother was telling me  how much I looked and acted (and danced) like his cousin, plus our names ryhmed. 

I am praying that more kids will come tomorrow. 

Our last club started out kind of awkward because we only had the hostesses two older boys and we didn’t know how they were going to act with it just being the four of us. But I learned quickly that if we didn’t act awkward they wouldn’t either and we ended up having a lot of fun and the 12 year old even did his lesson and we laughed a lot. Especially at ourselves. When I insisted on singing “Do You Belive” Olivia wasn’t so keen on the idea because of how slow and dramatic it is (that key change though) we ended up laughing almost all the way through it because the boys did not look impressed and Olivia was thinking that we should not sing that song tomorrow or else the boys would not show up ( even though they lived there) because of these wierd 17 year old girls trying to sing this super dramatic song. Another time we burst out laughing was when Olivia was teaching The Little Rascal and she said “Tony stole people” instead of “Tony stole FROM people.” I’m glad this club is fun even though it’s small. I am hoping and praying these boys would be able to bring some friends tomorrow. 

We need a lot of prayer for this week that more kids will come and hear the message we have for them. 

(At this moment I’m making Olivia listen to “Do You Believe”)

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Well we finished our first day! I am teaching in Strasbourg this week with Olivia and we are staying with her grandparents. It is so awesome being here! Our first club is in Saskatchewan Beach and we had five kids who were all the hostesses kids.  Hopefully some of their friends will be able to come tommorow. That was a really fun club. The kids really seemed to enjoy it and we all had fun. Our second club was back in Strasbourg and it was Olivia’s grandma’s club. We had six kids and half of them payed attention but the other three didn’t really, they just kind of wandered around. Pray that these kids would be able to get something out of what we are trying to teach them, especially two of them who did not go to church. Our final club was not too far away and we only had four kids, two of which were the hostesses kids and the other two had just been at our last club. I was a little worried that this club might be awkward with the hostesses kids being older boys (one was 12 and the other was 15). I wasn’t sure how much they would want to participate but they actually seemed to like it a lot. Hopefully some more kids will be able to come to that club as well. It was a really good first day. I am praying more kids would be able to come tomorrow and I know a few won’t be able to come back so it would be awesome if we got a lot more kids tomorrow.

 

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