Time for this week’s wrap-up post!

Club 1
I’ve really enjoyed teaching this club in Myrnam… the kids have all been super into the stories and songs.  I had the privilege to lead two of them in asking Jesus into their hearts!  However, many of these children are not from Christian homes, so please pray that God will continue to bring people into their lives to water and grow the seeds which He has planted.

Club 2
This one has been a rollercoaster the whole way through… although we had no kids attending the first two days, two kids came on Wednesday, which was encouraging in itself.  And then, on Thursday, after we had started the club, a couple kids came in and joined us… and then a couple more… and more and more until we had 14 kids in the room. I don’t really have any explanation for this sudden explosion of kids other than that God was at work, so praise Him for bringing the kids to hear about the good news of how He came to save them.  The last day, we were down to 6 kids, but one of them wanted to ask Jesus into his heart, which might have been more difficult to do one-on-one if it had been as noisy and chaotic as it had been the previous day… so again, I’m trusting the whole thing was God-orchestrated.  Again, please pray that God will use the messages of the songs and stories to impact and change these kids’ lives, and draw them into a personal relationship with Him.  As Philippians 1:6b says, “…he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” So I am trusting that God is going to be faithful to continue drawing the children from all of the clubs closer to Himself.

Club 3
Teaching this reserve has been quite an experience… On the last two days there was about one kid who actually wanted to listen and here the story and generally participate, while the other three children just ran around the gym, tried to steal prizes, and generally raised havok.  I’m not totally sure what all of them got out of the club, but I just tried to teach the children who were actually willing to listen. So I’m praying that God will take what they did hear and use it to impact them… for example, when I was explaining what missionaries were, one of the kids responded, “missionaries hate Indians!” I could totally understand where that comment was coming from with the completely tragic history of how the church mistreated the First Nations people. My response to this boy was “Because I’m coming here to tell you about Jesus, I’m kind of a missionary, and I don’t hate you.  I actually like you guys!” So I pray that God will use little things like that will open these children’s eyes to how much He loves them and desires for them to know Him.

Once again, I would really appreciate prayer for focus and energy in this last week of clubs.  Pray that my heart would be softened more and more so I can love these children like Jesus loves them.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for praying.

-Quin

Since I apparently forgot to give a wrap-up post for last week, here’s the quick version: One of the clubs had to be cancelled, unfortunately, due to weather and hostess’s business with renovations, but the other clubs went pretty well, and we had another boy ask Jesus into his heart–Praise the Lord! There was a lot going on with weather and other things getting in the way of the clubs, but it was a good week overall.

Now, on to this week’s clubs:

Club 1
This club has had a pretty good turnout… there were 11 kids the first day, and 10 today (one of whom was new). Club 1 is a lot of fun to teach because the kids really get into the stories and songs, and I get to do snacks and games and just build relationships with the kids, which is always a good thing.  Also, although the club is in a church, there are a lot of kids from unchurched homes attending… Please pray that God will speak through me at this club to speak the words they need to hear, and that He will soften their hearts and draw them closer to Himself.

Club 2
To be honest, this club has been a bit discouraging… I met a local Christian, who told me where all the children lived, and we even went to some of the acreages outside of the town to advertise, but there were no kids either yesterday or today.  There’s some kids getting back from vacation and there’s a possibility they will come tomorrow, so please be praying about that. I don’t want to diminish the fact that this can all be a part of God’s plan… I had some decent spiritual conversations with some of the locals… but I would really like to be able to reach the kids here! Please be praying that God would soften the hearts of the parents so that they would allow their kids to come, and that God would give the kids a desire to come and check the club out.

Club 3
There were no kids at club 3 yesterday either… today I went advertising around the neighborhood, and half an hour after the club was supposed to start today, I had pretty much given up hope that kids were going to show up.  However, it turned out there was a group of them who had been waiting for me to open the gym doors, where I had been expecting them to come in through the front door.  In any case, it was a case of God showing me not to give up hope too easily!  So we had a super-short club with the 4 boys who showed up.  They were very high-energy and very low-attention-span, so we pretty much just got through a song, a Bible verse, and the Bible story.  However, they seemed to enjoy playing games afterwards, and said that they would invite a friend.  Please pray for me, for wisdom as to how to best teach this club, and that God would use what little I am able to say to them to really impact their lives.  Please pray that these kids would enjoy the club and bring their friends so they can hear the life-changing news of Jesus Christ, too.

That’s all from me today!  On an overall note, I would appreciate prayer for energy to keep on teaching these clubs, and for continued focus on living completely sold-out and surrendered to God and His will for me as I do these last couple weeks of clubs.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for praying.

-Quin