Posted By: Janessa Robertson
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UPDATE!
So last week (August 10-14) was awesome because I got to teach in Regina which meant I got to sleep in my own bed for a WEEK. It was also pretty awesome because 9 kids gave their lives to Christ in my two clubs and VBS. The VBS was actually at my home church, which was also pretty cool to get the opportunity to teach. The kids in the VBS were so attentive and interactive- I really enjoyed being able to teach it 🙂
This week I’m teaching in Calgary! I have family in Calgary so I get to stay with them. This week I’m teaching 2 clubs and a VBS.
My first club is kind of crazy… it has 30 kids aged 2-7. The majority of the kids sit and listen but there are a handful of 2-4 year olds who are little less interested. I would really appreciate prayer that they would listen (even if it doesn’t look like their listening).
On Monday, my second club had the hostesses 2 kids (who were age 12 and 13) and then one boy who was 10 who really didn’t want to be there. Today when I got to their house the hostesses decided that the club should be cancelled because of lack of interest.
In the late afternoon I have a VBS and I absolutely love it. The kids are so sweet and funny- it’s definitely an awesome club to end the day with. One kid actually cried when I didn’t finish the Little Rascal story… He was very worried about if the blood poisoning will get to Tony’s heart or not. Another awesome thing about this club is that today 2 sweet little girls gave their lives to Jesus!!!
I’m pretty tired and almost looking forward to being able to sleep (I can’t even remember the last day i slept in haha), but through my devotions this week God has really been emphasizing that He isn’t done working through me, so I need to finish strong. And really, that my work isn’t done as soon as Friday night hits. My job of reaching the lost extends into my regular life, too. Evangelizing and reaching God’s children isn’t a 9-5 job. So I’m looking forward to reaching out to the people God brings across my path as I head into my 2nd year of university.
PRAYER:
- Energy
- That my large 1st club will listen and sit nicely
- That the children who have come to Christ this summer will grow in their faith
- That God will continue to soften the hearts of the children and parents
PRAISE:
- I have had the opportunity to lead 41 children to Christ this summer
- I have had safety on all of the roads and highways (and there’s been basically no gravel roads)
“Whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” Colossians 3:23-24
Thank you all so much for your prayers, especially to my CG who has been praying faithfully for me every day this summer!
God Bless,
Janessa
Posted By: Kaitlyn Schmidt
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Wow the last week is here! This summer has gone by so fast.
This week I am in Moose Jaw. I have two clubs and one VBS. The first club has only one kid and my second club has two kids so please pray for more kids to come. I have done a little advertising and the hostesses have done some phoning but so far nothing has come from it.
The VBS so far has a total of 21 kids and I know that more new kids will be coming tomorrow! This VBS is awesome and so are the kids. Please pray for more kids and that they will learn something during the VBS.
Posted By: Felicia Oostra
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Well, here I am! It’s the last week, and I can hardly believe it! Honestly, this summer has gone by like a whirlwind.
Last week I taught in Lethbridge/Bow Island area. I had three clubs – one in the morning, afternoon, and evening. I drove more than two hours every day, which was actually quite enjoyable, and I got the chance to billet with a really kind family.
My first club had an extremely young age range. The kids who participated were between two and five years old, and there were only six or seven of them throughout the whole week. It was fun but of course a bit challenging. I had actually requested to teach this club because I knew the hostess, and as I plan to attend university someday there, I enjoyed driving in and out of the city. The club was obviously condensed, and sometimes we finished within 20 or 25 minutes. Haha!
My second club was in a little village called Burdett. Several of the kids came from Mexican Mennonite backgrounds, and the week started off well. Nearer to the end, there was more distraction and fewer kids began showing up each day. It’s hard not to get discouraged by that…but the club hostess and her husband were very sweet people, and there were definitely a few very eager kids attending. It was also pretty hot out, which might have caused some of the distraction. Thankfully we had a tent to have club under, which was a HUGE blessing.
Finally, my third club was at my billet’s in Bow Island. This was in total usually the largest club. The kids were quite eager to listen and learn, and I found that after teaching the Bible story twice before that day and the extra story once before, I was a lot more comfortable with it and could carry the details even further. This club also had a few Mennonite children, both Mexican Mennonite and Holdeman Mennonite. This was a pretty new experience for me, but I found myself quite drawn to these kids. My hostess had told me at the beginning of the week that these people are very good at keeping the rules…but having a relationship with Jesus…maybe not as much. One of the oldest girls at the club really caught my attention. As the week went on, she became more comfortable with me, and she actually helped listen to verses on the last day, etc. Though she was thirteen, she seemed so much older, and I really hope to stay in contact with her. I actually asked if we could write letters to each other. She seemed quite open to that. My hope for her is that she will understand the truth of Jesus’ love and that that will in turn free her. I believe that if Jesus doesn’t free her, she will seek to free herself and rebel. Please pray for her and her family and for the billets living in their neighbourhood. Pray that they would continue to have an effective witness. While I didn’t end up praying with any kids this week, pray that something these kids heard would stick with them. God is still working, even after club week.
Well, this last week I have the opportunity to teach at a VBS just a few minutes outside of my hometown. The first day went pretty well, but I would so appreciate prayer for this as well. It’s easy to think that because this is the last week and that I’m pretty sure many of these kids are churched, that I don’t have as a big of a witness. But God is faithful. He is able to do mighty things in any and every situation.
Pray also for a lady who was going to host a club this week. She had to cancel due to doctor appointments and hospital visits, etc. Pray for healing and no other problems for them. Pray also for the kids who would’ve come to the club. I actually taught this one last year, and I pray that even though they couldn’t come to this club, God would still have his hand on them.
Thanks so much for all your prayers.
Without prayer, none of this would be possible.
Posted By: Grace Sichangwa
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I can barely believe that it is already Week 6. This summer has been hard, and filled with hard work, but God has been good. It has been so encouraging to rest in Him, knowing that He supplies all that is necessary for His work… Today was rather eventful. Here goes… (And yes, I posted 2 blogs tonight in order to make up for my lack of internet last week).
Club 1: I had taught in this neighbourhood earlier this summer, so Gwyneth and I decided to be prepared for repeat kids. We had gone advertising with out hostess the night before, and it seemed fairly promising. The kids came gradually as the club progressed. We initially began with three kids, and thinking I was so clever, I brought the Do What’s Right visual. In the middle of explaining the song, half of the visual comically fell out of the book… To be honest, I wasn’t too sure if it was a sign of what was to come for the rest of the day, haha. The total attendance for this club was 6.
ChangChang Adventure: While we were waiting for the next club, we decided to wait in a parking lot. I tried to park into the tight lot, and I underestimated the amount of room that I need to turn. As a result I technically had my first collision 🙁 I scraped the back end of the car 🙁 As I have learned from my vehicle issues in the past, I immediately called Mr. D, unsure of what to do. I began to write a handwritten note with my number on it, and I saw the owners of the car come. I spoke to them, and showed them where I had impacted their car. Clearly in this situation God was at work, because after I explained to them, I could not believe their reaction! They looked at it for a bit, said it was okay, and told me to have a good day! Ha! God is awesome, clearly even when I am not. After this, we headed to the next club…
Club 2: Gwyneth had taught a few of the children in this club earlier, and these kids were a blast! They were full of energy, but as a result, time seemed to constantly run out. It was encouraging to hear Gwyneth share about the different things that she had seen God do in the lives of the kids in the past – it is awesome to get to watch what God is doing in these young hearts. Out total attendance is 10.
Club 3: After a real time squeeze in arriving on time, Gwyneth and I ended up making it to this club (Side note: Praise the Lord for Google Maps for Smartphones!)…. and man, I have experienced tough clubs, but this one was tough. The brokenness that I could sense from some of these kids, was crazy. I knew it was going to be a tough club, but it was realized fairly soon. When I mentioned a Bible, and showed it to the kids, most of them had never seen or heard of a Bible before…. This club was tough. It was a real learning curve. But at the end, one of the kids explained, “Club was fun. It was kind of boring at times, but pretty fun.” I’ll take that review, haha! Our total attendance is 7.
Club 4: This club was out in Sherwood Park, in a park near our host’s home. We arrived, and for the longest time, it seemed as though the only people visiting the park were dog walkers. At one point, I noticed a boy playing at the playground, but since I had no invitations, I thought it might be weird to this child if I tried to invite the child (especially since no parent was in sight). With about 20 minutes to go, a boy walks into the park, and asks if we are having a 5 Day Club, and that same boy on the playground… well, apparently they were brothers. It was encouraging to have club with these boys. Our attendance for this club is 2.
Prayer Requests:
– Praise the Lord that my mistake while driving worked out well. However, I could use prayer for concentration and focus while driving – I know I’ve covered at least 6K since training began.
– For the kids in Club 1 & 2 that have attended prior. That they would be continue to learn more about the Father throughout club this week, and that the Holy Spirit would give Gwyneth and I wisdom in how we can facilitate that.
– Club 3; overall we just need wisdom in how to teach, and run this club effectively. Pray for the Holy Spirit to open the Spiritual eyes, and ears of these little children. Many of them have never heard about God before.
– I had been suffering from some head pain, and irritation since my accident, haha. Prayer would be appreciated that the Lord would give me protection, and healing.
– Overall energy, passion, compassion, and Holy Spirit awareness as we finish off this summer.
Praise be to Him! The One who alone refreshes, and sustains!
(Funny story real quick, behind the title: The 10th song on the 5 day clubs CD is called “Finishing Strong”, and I don’t know, I just can’t stand the sound of it. But it has a good message about fighting the battle to the very end and so here we are on our last week and so I thought it would be an appropriate song for the week)
I can hardly believe it, it’s the last week of teaching! This summer has gone by so fast and God has done some incredible things…entering this last week is exciting and kind of sad at the same time.
First, I’ll apologize for not blogging much last week. My laptop was having trouble connecting to the internet at my billets so it wasn’t always working properly.
Last week was awesome. I stayed with my billets from week 2 again, and that was lots of fun, to spend more time getting to know them. We went on lots of adventures and had a lot of fun. As for clubs, my first club ended with 25 kids, my second club had 26, and my VBS had 5 registered by the end of the week. Needless to say it was a pretty crazy morning with 51 kids, but it was lots of fun, and both hostesses were encouraged by the good turnout we had.
This week I have a club in Lebret and a VBS in Balcarres. It’s a bit of a slower week than what I’ve had so it’s nice to have some time in the morning to relax and have some time off. The club is at the house of some friends of ours, at 3:00. This afternoon we had 10 kids, 7 of which were my hostess’ children (and that’s a mix of biological, adopted, and foster kids. They’ve got a really neat story.) The kids listened pretty well…actually I hardly heard a word from them the entire hour. So that was nice, they were really well behaved.
I was super excited for the VBS in Balcarres, because I taught it last year, and they requested me back this year again, so I was just so happy that I get to teach it again. It was just as awesome as I had hoped it would be. I think last year we had like 15 by the end of the week and today we already had 17, and they’re expecting more later this week. And the kids kinda remembered me and I remembered most of them so it was just so much fun to reconnect with them.
I’m really happy with how this last week has started out, and even though it’s bittersweet, I’m excited to finish out this summer really well, so please pray that I would do that. That I could stay strong to finish off my last two clubs with enthusiasm and strength and I wouldn’t start relying on my own strength now, but that I would allow God to carry me to the end. Thank you so much everyone!
Posted By: Gwyneth Sichangwa
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Hey so last week was a fun time of teaching. Sorry I didn’t really post, but I thought I should give a quick conclusion before talking about my clubs today. At my first club last week I had a mail box decision there as well which was super exciting. It was a good week of teaching that was super exhausting, but to know that 2 new names are now written in the Book of Life makes it all worth it.
This week the ChangChang’s are back to teach one last week in Edmonton. We have 4 clubs and I seriously have no energy left, so please pray for strength, energy and just patience with the kids.
Club 1: This club is on the exact same street of a different club Grace taught a couple 2 weeks ago. We decided to bring in our extra story from last year Pilgrim’s Progress. It was great that the kids are engaged so please pray that we can continue to encourage these churched kids in their faith.
Club 2: At this club I had a great surprise when the girl I lead to Christ last week came. It was so awesome to see her understanding and growing even in that short amount of time. Continue to pray for this girl and just that Grace and I can continue pouring into her life. The kids we do have are very energetic so pray that they will calm down for tomorrow. There are also lots of unchurched kids so pray that their hearts will be soften and receptive.
Club 3: This club had 7 kids but during the club there were 3 that left. But these kids were all over the place and it was very hard to get through the small amount we did. But during the club all of the kids asked us what a Bible was. I was a little shocked by this so we just went through a verse and the Wordless Book. The one girl there said that it was fun but boring at some points. I was glad that for her first time being exposed to Christianity she was excited for tomorrow. Pray for these kids as we continue to just plant seeds at this club.
Club 4: For this club we are in the park and for the first 30 minutes or so we didn’t have any kids. As we waited there was a boy who came and talked with the host’s son, but didn’t want to stay the moment he knew it was Christian. Please pray for this boy and that he will come to know who God is. But with this club there ended up being 2 brothers with our host’s 2 kids. We didn’t have time to go through a story but it was a good time. So pray that more kids will come and that we can continue to encourage these kids.
God Bless,
Gwyneth
Oyy, I am exhausted after today. And it’s Monday.. Haha. I’ll be honest; sometimes the thought crosses our minds: “why did I sign up for this again??” But you know what? It always ends up being a huge blessing at the end of the week to see these kids leaving knowing more about God or even taking their first steps as children of God.. Seriously.. It’s worth it!
This week I have 2 VBS’s and 2 backyard clubs in Canwood and Prince Albert. The first VBS had about 25 kids and they were super pumped about being there and loved club which is awesome! The second VBS had 9 kids that pretty much compared everything I did to what the worker last year did haha so I may need to step up my game a little..
The third club only had 2 kids, the host said the kids in that area won’t come even if they are just sitting at home so pray that the Holy Spirit will lead them to come to club!
The fourth club… Oh the fourth club haha. It had about 20 kids that were soo distracted by everything. It really was a challenge to get through both the stories and have more than 4 kids paying attention at a time. BUT! Those 4 kids that were glued to the stories all accepted Jesus as their Saviour today! Praise the Lord! You never know what God is doing through all the chaos in these kids’ lives; even when it seems no one is paying attention we just walk by faith that the Word of the Lord IS working and IS moving and IS bearing fruit for the Kingdom of God. Oh yes and the same worker that taught club 2 last year also taught this one and the kids here didn’t fail to remind me numerous times of how much fun it was last year and just how amazing the teacher was lol.. It’s all good though.. A little bit of pressure to make club crazy fun is good 🙂
Thanks again for your prayer support this week, It always means a lot to have prayer warriors standing around us claiming victory for us and for these kids!
Posted By: Grace Sichangwa
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I feel like I have not blogged in forever. My apologies, I did not have internet for a week, and to be honest, I think that might have been a good thing. This past week was phenomenal. If I were to be brutally honest, it is not very often that when I reflect on teaching that I can tangibly reflect on the fact that God not only blew away my expectations of ministry, but also of who He is personally. He was so awesome throughout this week.
As most of you probably know, I have this slight propensity to get lost. I had been so proud of myself for my writing out the directions prior to leaving (shout out to Google Maps), and most of the way I did very well. However, there was one point where I had to turn at a Junction, and according to the directions that said Google gave me, I had a couple of turns that I needed to make, but according to Google there was some distance between each turn. In practice, this was not the case… HOWEVER, I did not know this, and so I turned right onto this gravel road – this roadway was treacherous, unstable, and I was getting pretty scared of the roll over possibility, BUT I was sincerely believing that God would bring me to Thorhild on this terrible road. To cut an incredibly long story short (and a couple of phone calls to my billet for directions later), I stopped and parked in Egremont, where my billet had to drive me to the location. It was a moment that truly reminded me of this verse:
“ For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12)
I’ll try and do a collective summary of how both of my clubs went this week:
Thorhild: I taught this club during the morning of a camp. It was crazy, it was hectic, and it seemed like bandaids were being used like they were going out of style, haha. But it was awesome, because He is awesome. I don’t have the correct number of statistics, but I do know there was a mailbox club decision! 🙂 For most of the week, I felt so ineffective in my efforts as a teacher, but I had a great awareness of two things:
1). When the enemy robs me of my joy, I am a less effective servant.
2). As a Summer Missionary, and a believer, there are two different ways that the gospel is preached: through our words, and through our actions.
I was so determined to teach my lessons the way that I had intended for them to be, but God greatly humbled me in my approach to His work. As the week progressed, I realized that these kids (that seemed tough to teach on Monday), are such precious, gems to a good Father. After talking with my host, and billet about this club, I learned that more than half of the children were unchurched. As the week progressed, I felt this urgent burden for the children to know the reality of the gospel. Since during the week, I taught the Extra Story to the whole group, after I finished on Friday, I explained the Good News to them. Later on, I had brought out some chalk, and during the lunch period I spent time with the kids while they drew pictures. Earlier I had drawn a picture of a red heart on the ground. One of the boys began coloring over it with black chalk, and sarcastically I protested his coloring over my picture. This boy preceded to explain how he was completing the picture because my heart is indeed dark with sin. As we joked about the heart (and as I desperately looked for the white chalk), I was so encouraged in hearing these words from these kids because even though church, and the things of God were a new concept to them, they had learnt something about the greatest story every told. 🙂
Boyle: I knew I was in for a good week when on the first day, one of the boys explained to me that he knew how to herd sheep – and that he could herd 100 sheep at a time. I restrained myself from making Biblical jokes, and continued with club, and man were these kids fun! They were all churched, and I know our intention is to reach the unsaved child as well, but I felt so encouraged by the opportunity to encourage, and edify children in House. While I was explaining how Noah was 500 years old at the time that he began building the ark, one of the kids explained, “That’s as old as my grandma!” Haha! Afterwards, it was neat to see the children’s excitement in seeing the facts about the story from the Bible directly. It was refreshing and encouraging. What a fun week with energetic kids! On the Friday, I was heading out from Thorhild to Boyle, and as I was packing up, I locked my keys in the van. And to add to it, the spare keys were in Edmonton… with Gwyneth. Up until this moment, I had not seen this many men entertained by my struggle, haha. Nonetheless, I am very grateful for the country hospitality they showed me, by breaking into my car, and retrieving my keys for me. Finally, I arrived 45 minutes late, and fortunately the host and the kids were extremely gracious to me, and we had club.
This week was exhausting, and draining in every sense, but my soul was so refreshed by Him.
Prayer Requests:
– For Thorhild. Working with the children and families in this area is like a brand new mission field. Pray that the church members, and leadership team would continue His ministry.
– For Boyle, that these kids would continue to seek, and hunger in their discoveries of Him.
Posted By: Sonnie Fellwock
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Hello, so i figure I should sum up the end of last week and then dive into the first day of this week.
So by then end of last week I had 49 kids on my attendance sheet in Mossbank, and 7 on my Assiniboia one! It was such a great week! I was able to stay with a billet I have stayed with previously and was able to meet some of her family. I was able to teach a small club in Assiniboia that I grew to love dearly! We had a fun time battling mosquitoes, and then battling the distractions that inside seemed to pose. My Mossbank club had 23 kids on Friday who were eager to each shove a plate of whipped cream into my face! This was my fourth year teaching at Mossbank and I have loved every minute of it!
This week I am in Meyronne, Woodrow, and Lafleche. I stayed with this billet a few weeks ago so its nice to be back in familiar territory. As soon as I arrived last night we were off and running. Haha it feels so normal to just jump into whatever my billet is doing when I am here! So many adventures! Well this morning at my billets place we had 6 kids. It was great! We had a fun time singing. I even ventured to sing Garbage in, Garbage out. Most of this kids are younger and not amazing at reading yet, and they already know GIGO so I thought it would be fun to wing it!
My club in Woodrow did not have any kids. The Pastor worked so hard polling people to see when they would be around and trying to arrange the perfect week. I really want there to be kids this week! I was praying and reading my bible whilst waiting for kids when the Pastor came to visit. We chatted for a while and then his sister dropped in with a friend, so we toured the church, and they made me teach them a song! Then we all went to his place and had dinner. I had a lot of fun.
The Lafleche club had 13 kids today! We were all inside because the mosquitoes are awful! But the kids were great! Even though there are some older boys they still sing the songs… probably because their moms sit in on the club and make them! I am excited to see where this week goes. But also sad because its the last week…
Prayer requests:
~That the Woodrow club would have kids.
!And that the Mosquitoes go away.
General
I want it now, I want two!!!!!!!
1st little story on our last week club. Accidentally Tiara and me has been pumping the kids to do their lessons… a bit too much.
Then…look at the picture here!
So here there happen to be a little girl C decided to cry sadly because she could not get the meet the king without working on lessons. No matter what we do, she was just crying and crying… Eventually Tiara did some lessons with her. That was a really cute little girl, she did get the book after she was helped with all the lessons, and the good thing is…the book talking about Jesus is worth it to cry for it!
Things we could not do this summer
& little cute surprise!!
So on our 4th week Tiara and me got into some car situation so we could not finish our clubs on pound maker and little pine reserves. But we just could never forget before Thursday we had so many kids and how much fun they had, and then all of sudden we could not even go back.
So we planned on going there on last Saturday, but on Saturday we had a bad thunderstorm… We had to accepted what happened and we tried everywhere there was even a little possibility of having them coming inside… there was not even one place that would work.
So we had to went and inform the kids we were sorry we could not have our make up club this day and handed out some snack and gospel of John to them.Just to give them a little bit of memory of 5-day club.
We went to the kids and spent a little bit of time in the car, as some kids are waiting for me and Tiara to finish our cards for those girls who asked Jesus into their hearts, so this little girl, K, has been helping us all the time, she was a bit bored and she grabbed my Bible and asked,”can I color?”
Of course! What ever we could still do for you just go right ahead! Okay I did not say this… sounds too sad, this girl was just happy that even the weather was bad we still came.
And then… I did not see my Bible till all of them left… and I opened my Bible…
what was that cute kids’ writing of ” I Love you” in red pencil crayon?
That was sure a surprise.
Even if we did not manage to have a nice party there, we were so happy in these occasions we really reached this little girl. On last Monday we went back to pound-maker and we met her first because she was just walking on the Road when we were there! And again on Saturday K spent lots of time with us, K said she is not going home, she wanted to go wherever we go even if we told her we were leaving North Battleford.
We are sad to say bye to her, but happy for what God has done for her in her heart.
Pie Highlight
POOR ME: “OK… Guys… you just Pied me before and you came line up again…”
Last Friday was just PIE PIE PIE PIE PIE PIE and PIEPIE and PIEPIEPIE and PIE and PIES… too many pies.
No whipped cream in the store…so…
Icing pies! A boy actually did some artwork on my face…
Awesome everybody did not escape from it! Since it was everybody so no kids pictures to post, aha!
Conclusion
I thank God for His own work in kids’ hearts. The kids will never had that joy, Tiara and me will never feel the joy of working with Him, if He is not among us.
It is going to be all different without our Lord and Savior. I enjoyed being the “special Chinese girl who wrote their names in Chinese” and Tiara was sure an awesome role model for them, and I know in other cases God also make club time so special for the kids and for us as well. That is His own work, we just need to be there and be used!
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