Posted By: Andra Ramstead
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Hey 🙂 (This is about July 27-31 week)
My clubs all went well but on Monday and Tuesday after and before club i was just not feeling it. i was exhausted, i just felt like complaining, and i wasn’t happy. i realized on Wednesday that i had not been spending time with God. yes, i was doing devotions every morning, but i learned that that is not the same as spending time with God.
so on Wednesday i decided to spend time with God. i started waking up 2 1/2 hours early for my clubs the rest of the week so that i could wake up, get all my stuff ready, and then have lots of time to spend with god. even if it was just sitting on my bed in the stillness of the morning after reading my devotions.it really helped me to focus on God.
from Wednesday and after, my week was FANTASTIC!!!! i had renewed energy and joy. i loved my clubs and had a blast doing them. i came home each day happy, and i know that that was only because i made sure to spend time with God each morning.
i titled this entry a fool walks away because no matter how many times i learn this lesson, i keep on having to learn it again. when i spend time with God i have joy and the lords energy, when i don’t i feel weak and unhappy. yet after a little while i start to think that i can do it in my own strength and then God reminds me, “haha no you cant!”
i am a fool a lot of the time, and I’m so happy that god reminds me of that so i can get back on track with him 🙂
P.S my clubs all went amazing! God was along side me the whole time, helping me so much!! Again i had a HUGE club with 45 kids which is one of my biggest fears, but each time God takes away my fear and gives me peace. Thank the Lord!!
Prayer Requests
That I will continue to fight against the Devils temptations. Many days I start to forget how important teaching these clubs are and I start to let myself complain and get grumpy, but I need to decide each day who I will serve. I know that the Devil is trying to hinder me from telling all these people about Jesus Christ.
Posted By: Nekaelly Sandstra
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So this week ended off well, and although I am tired, I have a lot to praise God for!
At my first club, the young boy who had accepted Jesus at the beginning of the week continued to show great enthusiasm for everything and often cheered when I talked about God or shared about salvation. He also did all of his lessons and was very excited to earn the comic book! I also gave him a Gospel of John, because I don’t think he has his own Bible. His mother had brought him to clubs because she wanted him to start learning about Jesus, so I hope and pray that they will find a church to become involved with and not let the learning stop here. This club got to 6 kids, and it was very fun to teach!
Our second club got to 4 kids, but continued to be a struggle to teach because Danae, Abby, and I would often have to make sure that the kids paid attention. However, on the last day, the brother and sister who specifically struggled with paying attention brought a friend- a boy who was unchurched and had never heard much about Jesus. He listened very intently to the entire lesson and raised his hand to accept Jesus!! So Danae led him to Christ, and it was so neat to see how God brings kids to follow Him in ways we don’t often expect. Another encouragement for me is that the one girl who always walked away from us during club showed a great interest in the Wordless book that I brought. I was able to explain it to her, and she mostly understood what I was saying. So that was neat as well, and I hope that she will understand even more as time goes on.
Our Filipino VBS ended with 38 kids!! It was so much fun to teach them all and to encourage and laugh with them every day. Although 35 of these kids were churched, they learned a lot of new things over the week and did very well in paying attention. I was also encouraged to see many of them memorizing verses, bringing friends, and handing in lots of lessons! We also had two decisions!! One was a mailbox lesson decision on Wednesday, and I went up to the girl later and congratulated her for accepting Christ!! The second was a younger boy who had raised his hand after the Bible story, and he seemed to understand as he prayed with me. He was happy to hear that the angels were having a party for him in Heaven!!
All in all, it was a challenging but praiseworthy week for me. I was challenged because (1- I found myself often lacking energy and focus, and (2- I also found myself pressured in different ways over the week- as a Christian and as a person. But my focus always returned to God’s purpose to lead these kids to Christ for His glory, no matter what may try to hinder me. Praise God for what He is teaching me, for the 4 decisions we had this week (5 if you count one from Danae and Abby’s morning club!), and for the many lives that have been touched by God this week, mine included.
- Prayer Requests:
- For me to regain energy and focus over the next two days
- For practice and peace as I go for my license again on Thursday morning
- For Danae and I as we prepare to teach in Regina this upcoming week
Wow, three weeks gone and three weeks to go! God bless y’all! 🙂
Nekaelly
Posted By: Danae Durston
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Hello Everyone,
I am going to put my prayer requests up top, just in case you don’t have time to read my whole blog (I still would love it if you did though haha)
PRAYER REQUESTS:
- For continued strength and enthusiasm as I teach.
- For my next week, as I have a feeling it may be tougher week.
- That the starter in my car wouldn’t give out, AND that my power locker keychain thingy wouldn’t die, as it has a few times but revived itself! haha what happens when it dies is I have to open through my trunk and crawl up to the front to get my door open… I know, probably a comical picture.. haha but please pray it doesn’t die on me 🙂
I am so sorry, it has been awhile since my last post, but as I tell you about my last two weeks I believe you will understand.
Okay, first of all I would like to start with my week 2 when I was put at Echo Lake Bible Camp (near Fort Qu’appelle), Lipton, and Dysart. I was really hoping I would get this set of clubs because I believe camp clubs are like the best and I’ve never actually been to one! I left Sunday afternoon and after getting lost and ending up in Lebret (which is in the opposite direction from Fort Qu’appelle). But, after stopping by a friends house, texting a friend who was near by and knew the way, I made it in time for supper!
That evening I had my first session with the kids during evening chapel so I played some on-the-fly games with them which was super fun! Over all my time at the camp was super fun! I didn’t know anyone my age so I sorta just clung to the kids who I had become close with. The club, overall, was a little hard to handle since I was by myself and had 50 kids ranging from grade 1-6. Haha, after the kids were dismissed I would just lay on the stage for a few minutes to catch my breath. I had 7 sessions with them overall and did games for one and quizzing for the other, which the kids loved!
My club in Dysart was really fun! I only had 4 kids who came on Monday and then 2 for the rest of the week. But the kids were cute and consistent and listened well! I even got to Dysart without getting lost!
In Lipton I ended with 20 kids! This club was really fun and I enjoyed it very much! The kids listened very well and had a lot of fun as well! The last couple days I had 3 thirteen year old boys… It was very interesting teaching to guys that aren’t that much younger than me and are definitely bigger than me haha. Also, I had identical twins who tried to trick me in which one they were haha so that was fun in attendance!
This past week I am in Regina with Abby and Nekaelly, which has been fun! They would teach one each in the morning at 9:30 and then I would pick them both up and I would join them to teach at 1, 3-5, and then Abby and I would teach at 6:30. God really gave me the strength for these clubs since I was absolutely exhausted from the camp (but very tan!!!!) These clubs have been smaller except for the Fillipino VBS which has been SO much fun to be there again this year!!
Over all they have both been very good weeks and have FLOWN by! I continue to not understand where my strength and enthusiasm come from but God brings it out of no where!
Thank you for your time to read this blog post and your prayers, You have no idea how thankful I am. There is not one of us workers who could do this without God and your prayers!
Danae
P.S. I am solid on my standard driving. But please pray for the starter in my car, it’s a little rough and sometimes takes me multiple tries to get it running.
Posted By: Nekaelly Sandstra
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Cool, I can even blog off my phone! 🙂 So this is how my week has been going so far.
Club #1- I started with two kids- one who is the hostess’ daughter and a boy from the neighborhood, who is coming because his mom wants him to start learning about Jesus and Biblical things. This boy accepted Jesus on the first day- Praise God!! It was very cool on the next day because when I started explaining how Jesus came down and died to save us, he stood up and started cheering, “I believe in Jesus!” and did a little happy dance!! Also, I had four more kids today, so this club is up to 6!
Club #2- For this club and the next, Danae and Abby have joined my clubs because their out-of-town club was cancelled. This one is up to three kids, but it is hard to teach because they don’t pay attention well and, for the most part, don’t listen attentively to the stories. So pray that these kids grow more attentive and interest in the club and aren’t as distracted.
Club #3- This is a VBS at the Filipino church, and we are up to 37 kids!!! I enjoy teaching this group and interacting with them by helping with crafts and just talking with them. Even today a group of girls ran up and asked if I would sit with them, and it is very neat to hear the stories and experiences that they share. Our friend Jayden is also helping us at this club, and it’s so great to have many hands serving the kids here!
Some prayer requests:
-That more kids will be open to coming to clubs, especially the first two
-That God would settle the kids down in Club #2 and that they would focus more
-That I would be more confident and empowered with God’s strength as I teach, as I am very tired lately
“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself (Jesus) may be in them.” -John 17:25-26
God bless y’all!
Posted By: Kaitlyn Schmidt
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The weather in Regina the past two days has not been good and I went from having 4 clubs on Monday to having 1 club today. My evening club was given to some other teachers and my two afternoon clubs have been cancelled for multiple reasons. My morning club has one kid but today when I went to the house there was no one home so I waited in case other kids came today but none came. I am going to go back tomorrow and hopefully kids come.
Posted By: Kaitlyn Schmidt
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Well, week two is done! Here is an update:
Club 1:
This club went really well but we didn’t get any more kids and the kittens still came but thankfully the kids ignored them most of the time.
Club 2:
On the last three days only 4 kids came but we still had fun. They said a lot of verses and did lots of lessons.
Club 3:
This club ended with 10 kids and lots of verses memorized!
Club 4:
The 3 girls that left on Tuesday never came back but all the other boys came back!
There were 2 decisions during this club! One boy went to church with his family and the other boy did not.
The second boy I had been praying for since Wednesday. See on Wednesday when I was telling the story of Noah he raised his hand and asked “Is this story real?”. I said “Yes, all the Bible stories are real”. He said “Okay” and then I continued with the story. I could tell by the way that he asked the question and by how focused he had been throughout the entire club that he was soaking all this information up. When I got home later that day I just had this feeling that he was going to accept Jesus as his Saviour by the end of the week so I started praying for him. Sadly that club was cancelled the next day but on Friday is wasn’t so I was able to talk to him. At the end of the club I asked if anyone wanted to accept Jesus as their Saviour and he raised his hand. We talked and he said that he looked for a Bible at home and found one so he could read it. I said that maybe he could go to church with the 5-day hostess and their family. Then we prayed and he accepted Jesus. Please pray that he can get connected to a church and will continue his walk with God.
That’s all for this week. I am in Regina again next week.
Posted By: Nekaelly Sandstra
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So my first full week of teaching 5-Day Clubs has come and gone by very quickly! Here is a brief overview of how it went.
Club #1- This was a larger club that I taught with Crystal. It was encouraging to see these kids being so energetic and excited to hear the gospel! They always came early, so we would play games like Red Light Green Light and Color Tag before and after clubs. Although they were quite rowdy at times, I definitely enjoyed my time with them! Most of these kids were churched, but a few that came were unchurched and probably hadn’t heard much of God before. Also, one of the younger kids made a decision!! God had put it on his heart all week, and he waited until last night to accept Christ with both of his parents!! He also happened to lose his first tooth on that day, so it was a very exciting day for him!!! This club also got to 20 kids, so they got to soak Crystal today with a hose!
Club #2- After three days of no kids, my afternoon club ended up being cancelled. However, on the third day I noticed a couple kids next door and went to invite them. The older one had a fearful expression on his face and didn’t want to come at all, but the younger one came with her mother. She was only 2 years old, but I did a few songs, simplified the story of Noah for her, and gave her a package. Later, the hostess told me that their family have had a lot of struggles and tough situations, so that’s why the boy was scared to come over with me, even though his mother was there. However, it was great that I was able to reach out to them- pray for this family that they will come to know the Lord more as they go through these trials.
For the last two days, I joined Crystal at her afternoon club, which was only a few blocks away. I was very happy to see three of the kids from a club that Andra and I had taught last week! Two of them today- a brother and sister- both raised their hands when I invited them to accept Christ. When I talked to them later, they told me that they had accepted Christ many times already, and I explained to them that they only had to do it once. However, I prayed with them and recommitted their lives to God, which was very neat!! Also today, God gave me some funny inspiration as I taught the Bible story. When I was getting to the part of Ananias, I started thinking, “How can I make this story more interesting?” God told me two words: scrambled eggs. So I made it that Ananias was cooking scrambled eggs for breakfast when God came to him in a vision. From there the joke of scrambled eggs continued into a very great story line, and I had the kids rolling around laughing lots over it!! I mean, there could have been scrambled eggs in the Bible, right?? 😉 So praise God in inspiring my story-telling skills!
Club #3- This was the one club this week that I taught completely alone. However, it was very small. A family with three kids came on Monday and Wednesday, and although they said they would come back, they didn’t come for the last couple days. Tuesday was probably the most inspiring day for me, because although that family didn’t come, the hostess’s grandchildren were there for a visit. So I asked if I could do a small club with the girl. She was very energetic and loved talking to me! As we did the songs and the Bible story, I could tell that she had never really heard about God or Jesus that much at all. However, I was very excited to see God plant a seed into her life! Something she told me out of the blue was, “If you don’t start somewhere…well, you won’t get anywhere at all!” She started here, and I hope and pray that God will lead her further in the future.
I’m also glad that I’m going somewhere too. I knew God was leading me to do something this summer, and although it was hard, I’ve started here. After this week, I’ve noticed how much easier it is to tell the story and be more energetic and understandable with the kids. My leadership and my confidence have also grown this week, which is such an encouragement to me. However, I am exhausted and am happy to have a couple days to rest and recharge for next week.
Praise God for what He’s done this week!! God bless y’all!
Posted By: Crystal Durell
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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.
Posted By: Kaitlyn Schmidt
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So this week I am teaching in Regina by myself. I have four clubs.
Club 1:
For the past two days there have been 3 kids. There has also been two kittens. Now I love kittens but they have been rubbing up against everything and everyone and the kids want to play with them instead of focusing on what I am teaching. So if you could please pray that the kittens will leave us alone that would be great.
Club 2:
Yesterday there were 6 kids and today there were 8. Some of the kids have been to a five day club before so they know the songs and they get really excited and want to do the actions for me while I flip the pages. I think that this is awesome that they want to get involved and it helps me because it is difficult to turn the pages and do the actions at the same time.
Club 3:
This club is an all boy club. There are 6 of them and sometimes they would rather throw grass at each other then listen. However, they are all excited to do their lessons and say their memory verses.
Club 4:
This club is a little difficult to get to because there is a lot of construction going on in this area of the city so traffic is backed up and when I go to turn onto the road to get to my club I can’t always see if there is traffic coming towards me so please pray that I don’t get into an accident on the way to my club. On Monday I had 7 boys and today there were 3 new girls but they left halfway through because they didn’t like it. Please pray that their hearts would be softened and that they come back.
Posted By: Darren Goetz
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It has been quite the week! God has been doing some amazing work in many kids lives and mine as well. I find the theme of faith has been constant throughout the summer so far. There are a few verses that come to mind:
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see – Hebrews 11:1
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it – Isaiah 55:10-11
I realize that I have 5 hours to build truth into the lives of these children. That is not much at all, so hope of these children knowing Jesus one day and faith that God will act is essential.
I taught with Crystal last week in Regina and throughout the week and there were many situations that required me to hope and have faith in the Lord. For example, at our first club on Thursday, this girl came. I told the story and I could tell that she was very engaged and gears were turning in her heart and mind. I was certain that she would accept Christ, however she did not that day. I simply thought that she would come back for the last day and she would accept Christ. Sadly, she did not come on Friday.
That is where the lesson of faith comes in. I have a strong hope that God will save this girl eventually. I will not see it, I will not hear it, but that is why I hope. We hope in being with Jesus in heaven one day. We cannot see it, but we believe it will come to pass and it is the same with this girl trusting in Jesus for me. Another girl was very genuine in wanting to accept the Lord into her heart but was very distracted when she prayed. Hope is needed there as well.
The Lord is very good and he saved a couple of kids throughout the week and I am thankful to see that and it brings much joy.
Hoping is not easy all the time. It can be easy to have unfruitful thoughts that say that these kids were not genuine or that they will fall away. What comforts me is that the word of God is effective and will always do what it accomplishes. Many people say that seeds are planted in these children’s lives and I believe that. I talked to a lady about this verse and she said that these kids will understand the gospel and that is the work of the word of God. They will understand. To choose is on them, and I pray that they will choose life and not death.
Overall, it was a very good week. It was very tiring, but God provided strength to endure through it and joy to continue on strongly.
I am now in Pelican Narrows which is very far north and I will say that the drive up was quite interesting. It may or may not involve some hitchhikers. As we always leave the kids with a cliff hanger in one of the stories, so I will leave you with a cliff hanger in this blog expedition.
Please pray for:
- The kids to come to Christ and be transformed
- Endurance with kids who may not listen the greatest
- For discernment in difficult situations
I am grateful for your prayers
Darren
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