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.
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
Posted By: Will Persson
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So I didn’t post at all about my clubs last week, so I feel a recap is in order.
My first week of teaching EVER was great! I was blessed to be teaching with a veteran, Shamus Westra, and also to have great, engaged clubs! I loved all the clubs and was blessed to start off my teaching experience with easy, well-behaved clubs.
Club 1: This club was a VBS and started slow but quickly picked up speed. By the end of the week the kids were energetic and really seemed to enjoy being at the club and hanging out with us. This was also the biggest club, however, and was the hardest to keep quiet and under control. Despite being a bigger club, many (if not all) of the kids had already accepted Jesus into their hearts. So I took this club as an opportunity to further disciple the kids and try to give them another godly influence to look up to. My favorite memory of that club was the Extra Story. This year, the extra story is the life and conversion of Tony Rossi, the man who started Tropicana®. This story can get a bit bland, so I put cliff hangers at the end of every day’s portion of story. By about the third day, after I told the kids that they would have to come back tomorrow to figure out what happens next in the story, they all screamed “NOOOOO!”,”Tell us the rest!”, “You’re so mean!” So I took that as a job well done.
Club 2: This club was much smaller than the first, only about 8 kids. However, this club tuned out to be my favorite club by the end of the week. I knew this club was going to be good when the kids started running from a block away to get to the club. This club had some struggles (the road next to the house was very busy, people were mowing their lawns, not very much shade) but the kids really enjoyed the club and by the end of the week they were just as enthusiastic as the VBS. Almost all of them completed all their lessons, and they seemed to have a good knowledge of the Bible, so this club I also saw as an opportunity to disciple the kids in their walk with God and provide a good role model. There were a couple kids that were not churched, and did not accept Jesus as their Savior but the Lord brought a verse to my mind;
“being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” – Philippians 1:6
This verse just really encouraged me in saying that even though I may not see the final product now, or ever for that matter, I have planted the seed and Jesus is ultimately the one who makes it grow.
Club 3: This was the hardest club to teach. The kid just seemed to be all churched and were not nearly as enthusiastic as the first two clubs. And being the last club of the day, I was already tired and I was getting hardly anything out of these kids. But God gave me the strength to push through the temptation to “just get through” the club and actually make an impact on the kids. And it paid off. The last two days of this club were great! The kids, who at first seemed very unresponsive, were elated to see us and could not seem to get themselves off of us. This encouraged me tons and showed me that we cannot rely on our own power to teach these clubs, but rather lean on God and get our strength from him.
So that was last week AKA my very first experience with teaching clubs. Now this week, I have only one club to teach, and it’s on a reserve. Now, I’ll be completely honest, I was a little worried because I didn’t know what to expect. But this club was absolutely amazing! We had about 20 kids and they were all very engaged and seemed to have a great time. And best of all, I got the extremely awesome privilege to introduce three of them into the family of God! It was so incredibly encouraging! A great way to start the second week!
My biggest prayer this week would to be able to effectively teach these kids the Gospel story, relying on God’s strength to speak the words He wants me to!
Posted By: Nekaelly Sandstra
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Yay, I finally get a chance to blog!! 🙂
I guess I will start with last week. I got back from Bible Quizzing Internationals last Monday and found out on Tuesday that I was teaching with Andra. It was a challenge because (1- I was (and am!) still recovering from Internats, and (2- I didn’t know the stories or songs or the verses very well; I have only read through the stories. So for the first couple days I watched and learned from Andra how to run the clubs, and I also did actions during the songs. On the last day, I taught the Bible story for the first time, which was challenging, but I trusted God that He would give me the words to say and speak through me when I didn’t know what to say. And he certainly did 🙂 We had a range of 5-10 kids at each of our clubs, and it encouraged me to see their enthusiasm and the many decisions that were made to believe in Jesus!
One very neat moment from our last club of the day was when it started to rain as we were about to start the Bible story. So we took a moment before the story to pray that God would hold off the rain until the club ended. Almost immediately, the rain stopped, and it didn’t start pouring again until the kids were inside and Andra and I were just getting into the car!! It was so neat to see the kids’ amazed faces and to see God making Himself known through His power and sovereignty!
Today was definitely a tougher day for me. I didn’t go to my morning club (Crystal took it for me) because I went for a road test at 8:30am. I did very well driving-wise with my lane changes and turns; I even nailed my parallel park! But I had a picky examiner who took marks off for little things, including for turning on a yellow light when I was already in the intersection, which I was taught to do in Driver’s Ed! Oh well…it was my first test, and I did pretty well even though I didn’t pass.
My afternoon club was pretty uneventful because no kids came. Even though both the hostess and I had done a lot of advertising, there are not a lot of kids in this neighborhood and they are usually busy doing other activities in the summer. I walked to the park and found only a mother and daughter playing there, so I explained the club to them and gave them my last invitation. Please pray that God will soften the hearts in this neighborhood and that kids will come tomorrow!
In my third and last club, a mother with her three kids came, which I was very excited for! However, the stereo only lasted one song before it shut down and wouldn’t play anymore. I figure that it was the plug-in, because the stereo worked in the afternoon and when I checked it afterwards at home. But instead of worrying about that, I moved on and did the verses and the stories with them. Since we had a few extra minutes at the end, I was able to bond with the kids by throwing the frisbee around with them in funny ways. Considering that it was my first club by myself, I think I did well, but I know I will get better as time goes on.
The story of Job came to mind as I went throughout the day. God allowed Satan to test Job and see if he would still trust God despite any hardships. Well, Satan, you may try to keep me away from my license, but that won’t stop me from going to speak in the name of the Lord to those kids. You may keep kids from coming to a club, but I won’t give up that easily on them. And you may break down my stereo after one song, but you can’t break down my faith or my God! You want to stop these kids from hearing about God, but I assure you that I will fight to share the gospel to them and to save their souls from you! You may give me a busy schedule, lack of rest and relaxation, and not let me have much time to prepare for these clubs, but I am finding my strength from God and cannot be stopped!!
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” -2 Corinthians 4:7-9
I am excited for this next week as I have a morning club to teach with Crystal, which also gives me time to reconnect with her 🙂 I also have an afternoon club and an evening club. Please pray that I will have more rest and energy to put into 5-Day Clubs, because I have found myself getting tired more easily. Pray also that more kids will come to the clubs, that I will have more confidence and boldness as I teach, and that I will easily recall the stories as I am learning them. Finally, please pray that we continue to defend ourselves from Satan’s attacks on what we are doing to proclaim the message of the cross to the world.
God bless y’all!!
Nekaelly Sandstra
Posted By: Grace Sichangwa
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Indeed this is a rather late update to last week, but here goes!
To make a long story incredibly short, on Sunday Morning I had an “unexpected” incident, involving my face, and a fire extinguisher at a gas station. As a result of this lovely encounter, I ended up going for a stitch (not stitches… just the one). Needless to say, it was one hectic Sunday. In retrospect, it felt like a real Proverbs 16:9 kind of a morning – I had fully intended to be involved in my church, and set out with my day, but oh no things changed. Fun fact, I am a pretty intense stress crier – there is nothing cute about it, and as a result of my connection with this extinguisher, said crying, and hyperventilating ensued.
As a result of hitting my forehead on said extinguisher, I was quite frankly miffed. In reflection now, I can completely recognize that God’s protection in this situation is beyond my understanding. I didn’t actually see the extinguisher before I hit it (because my head connected as I was standing up), and as a result I can honestly say that God was so good to me in this situation. Thanks to His protection I was fortunate to not have broken my nose or injured one of my eyes; I connected with the top of my forehead despite my lack of physical vision in this situation. Things could have been worse but He is SO good.
I’m going to pull a 180 (don’t worry, there’s plenty more where that came from) with this post, and put the prayer requests right here!
1. That I would not be rigged in how I study my stories, and prepare my lessons – that I would allow God to take His rightful place in that process.
2. I am grateful for God’s protection today, but also for the rest of the summer that God would continue to protect me from anything Satan might throw my way.
3. I have a praise! Since my sister shared my prayer request for my head, I am doing significantly better! Aside from feeling lightheaded in the afternoon, I am currently showing no signs of concussion! Thank you to all who prayed for me, God is awesome! 🙂
Again, Gwyneth really summarized everything up very well. Last Friday was a reminder of the importance of faithfulness, the joy of Christian fellowship, and the power of our God. I’m just going to summarize Club 4.
I was on my way to Club 4, and I was not really sure what to expect from the kids. All I knew was that I really wanted to end well, encouraging these children in the process. I began organizing lessons, and one of the kids tells me, “Can I call you Jerry?” Now, I never refer to Mr. D by his first name, and I had only met these children this week, so I was genuinely weirded out by the coincidence. After I explained to them that was the name of my boss, they spent the rest of the club alternating between choosing to call me Georgia (due to their amusement with my Southern Belle accent), and Jamie Grace.
By the end of club, I realized that time had truly escaped me, and I needed to begin the Bible story. Even though the kids knew the story, I was encouraged that they willingly listened – and then the discussion about the lesson became very profound. As I was describing (in a kid friendly manner) the fact that Saul did not intend good for the believers, the kids brought up the idea of choosing to pretend you were not a follower of Christ should Saul appear, and also fear about ISIS. And to take it further, while I was explaining to the children that God desires for us to show love to those people that seem too far gone, one of the children explained the issues they had with a bully.
At this point, it seemed hollow to share that God desires for us to love those that are hard to love, but it is the reality. And further, I realized it was a great honour, and a privilege to be in the moment, sharing with these kids that when you choose to love as Christ does to those who do not deserve it, it just might be that it is apart of His plan for the salvation of that individual. I know I left that club feeling encouraged in knowing that God knows scary, bad people – and for reasons unbeknownst to me the same love He demonstrated for me to receive is available to even the worst of the worst. He love is strong enough to change even the hardest of hearts. What a privilege it is to serve such a good Father!
Posted By: Gwyneth Sichangwa
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There’s a song that I really like called ‘Wonder’ by Amanada Cook. A part in the song says
“May we never lose our wonder, may we never lose our wonder. Wide eyed and mystified may we be just like a child, staring at the beauty of our King.”
This past week has really left me in more and more amazement of God. Of who He is and everything He does for us. It’s been a great way of starting out the summer, and I’m excited for what God has in store for tomorrow. So here’s what happened on Friday last week.
Club 2: This club has been a tough one to teach because the kids were constantly distracting one another. Friday was the same and I always hate being that teacher making rules and telling them to stop all the time. The club felt like it was dragging and I was sad that’s the way we would end our week of clubs. But as we were leaving, one girl who came later in week said that she really enjoyed the 5-Day Club and wanted to invite her friends next time. I was shocked cause I felt like we hadn’t accomplished anything that week. I found out from Grace after the club that she was the first new person to come to that club in 2 years she’s taught there. It was awesome to see how excited she was about her faith and really growing in her relationship in God.
Club 3: This club has been super fun to teach, and we have really enjoyed our time there. In all my years of teaching, I have always wanted to teach a farm club so I was ecstatic to find out we got one this year. At this club we have had 2 mailbox decisions and 1 decision there so that was really awesome. Now there was older boy there and the hostess’ grandson. At the beginning of the week he put up his hand after the invitation but we couldn’t do follow up with him because we always had rush to the next club. We saw his lesson and he put down that he was talking with his family about doing that. Grace and I were pretty excited and we knew that God was in complete control of the situation. So we got follow up done and we were super happy about that. We also challenged the kids that if they got 25 lessons on Friday they got to pie us. In the end they got 37 lessons so that was something that the kids enjoyed. We told them to make a line in front of the teacher the wanted to pie and in the end I got 8 kids out of the 10! It really was a privilege to get to teach such an awesome group of kids.
Club 4: So we had 13 kids and with this club everyday always seemed different. Friday was a really relaxed day and the kids were more excited for the stories than they were for the songs. At a point they were literally chanting to have a story, so I told them the Bible story. We challenged them to get 30 lessons in and one girl told us that she stayed up until midnight to finish all 7 lessons. (What makes so cool is the fact that we got to lead her to Christ the day before). In the end they also got to pie me. For some odd reason kids love to gang up on me and that’s what they did. After cleaning up we gave the hostess the Bibles for the kids that needed them. It was a great way of concluding clubs.
Thanks to everyone who has been praying for me this past I really appreciate the support.
God Bless,
Gwyneth
Posted By: Crystal Durell
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First week of clubs… WOAH. Okay- that was pretty cool! I got to not only work 4 clubs a day- but also do my own church’s VBS in the evenings… all in all I actually had no life for the past week but it was good (thank you for those who are praying. It is VERY much appreciated). Darren and I were blessed to have many well behaved children in every club, most of them were from Christian families, but it was still lots of fun!
Club 1: Out at Sherwood Forest!
It was LOTS of fun, we had the hostess’s 3 boys there consistently, and some other kids a few other days. On the last day we had a little boy make a decision (yay!) And the kids were all over the prizes. The only disappointing thing about this club was that we couldn’t stay too long and hang out with the kids afterwards because we had to go to our next club.
Club 2: Regina!!
Also lots of fun! This one we got to stay and play games afterwards (which is WAY more fun!) There was this kid, he was the youngest, but he was SUPER enthusiastic about everything, every time we’d sing “turn your eyes to Jesus” he’d get super excited and say “I LOVE THIS SONG!” Even though he (along with most of the other kids at this club) go to church, he accepted Jesus into his heart very enthusiastically on the third day. (yay!!) This club was lots of fun to teach, so glad to have been able to teach it!
Notable quotes:
Kid 1: “Can I bring binoculars?! Or a puzzle? I like puzzles!”
Kid 1: “THERE IT IS! IT’S THE GREEN AND BLUE PARK!” (as we stand a very long distance away from a park)
Club 3: Regina 2.0!!!
This club was interesting as most of the kids there were pretty much in preschool. Most of these kids were grandchildren of one of the ladies at my church, so I got to see most of them twice a day, once at VBS and once at 5-day clubs. This club was also interesting since it was the middle of the afternoon and REALLY hot. Heat+Preschoolers= “water breaks” every 10 minutes. I think they had fun, even though they usually checked out halfway through club. One girl came one day from a household with no religion in it whatsoever. She seemed interested in the stories, and she did ‘pray’ (?) maybe, but I’m not sure. Another kid prayed it out loud, but I’m not sure if he had done it before. So we had… maybe 1(?) between the two of them. Please pray for this girl, she has no background with religion, I gave her a gospel of John, but I don’t know if her parents have taken it away, or what the situation is, but please just pray for her.
Notable quotes:
Girl 1: (age 4 who decided she was going to sit with me during story time started playing around with my arms, then looks back at me and says) “You smell nice today”
Why thank you for noticing small one.
Boy 1: Sometimes I’m funny!
yes. yes you are.
Club 4: Regina 3.0!!!!
Last club, it was THE most chill club ever. Even though we advertised throughout the neighbourhood none of the kids came. But that was okay, because we imported children from a different neighbourhood. They were both went to church and knew lots of the stories anyway (we did have 4 kids one day… both of them were churched too.). We had time before and after club to hang out with them. We had nice conversations about superheroes, drawing, and plants. It was a pretty fun club to teach.
That was it! (also VBS which was pretty good too. the training from 5-day clubs really helped me out at church, God is good!) I’m looking forward to this next week which is a break from this last one. It’s was one of the longest/shortest weeks ever. I’m gonna miss these kids, even though I only got to see them for a week.
God bless!
Posted By: Mikaela Sawatsky
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Hey everyone!
It’s time for my first blog which I’ve been putting off for forever because blogging isn’t exactly my thing but here it goes.
I’m going to take a quick look back at the first club I ever had which was during training week. On the Wednesday of that week I taught the Bible story and had the opportunity to lead one little girl to the Lord. And honestly for me that was one of the most exciting moments of my life knowing that I had just shown this girl the way to salvation and I knew from there on that I was going to love the summer.
This week was our first official week of teaching clubs and it has been so fun. We only ended up having two clubs because for our last club no kids ever showed up which was kind of discouraging because we advertised to a lot of houses where children lived but none of them ever came. But that same day in our first club 2 kids, a little boy and a girl asked Jesus into their hearts. It was so incredible to see the joy on their faces and in their hearts.
This first week has been incredible and I’m so excited for all the rest to come! Here are a couple prayer requests I would have.
– That I would not neglect my own relationship with God even in the business and craziness of teaching.
– To always be praying for the kids in the clubs as well as the clubs themselves.
– That God would use my weaknesses and turn them into strengths for his glory.
And I think that wraps it all up! I can’t believe that one week is already over! Until next time!
Posted By: Shamus Westra
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Hello again!
So, our clubs finished super well! Our first ended up finishing with 14 kids, and this was a super fun group. They were super attentive when we were talking(even if they were easily distracted), and it was lots of fun to hang out with them after we finished teaching. I was super grateful for the nearby park, because it let them burn off some steam when we were done. One girl in this club was super sassy, and there was another one who asked if there were unicorns on the ark. They were all great kids.
Our second club ended up getting no new kids after the first day, but we were still able to have lots of fun with this group. The hostess has had this club for a few years now, and all the same kids keep coming back, so it’s good to see that they’re enjoying it!
Our third club ended up growing to 11 kids by the end of the week. These kids were pretty quiet at first, but it ended up being a really fun club!
We had lots of churched kids this week, and even the unchurched kids seemed to already be saved, so we didn’t get any decisions this week, but we both knew that God still did some work through us. I felt exhausted all week, but Will and I both noticed that we didn’t feel tired while we were teaching, so praise God for that! Finally, I would appreciate some prayer, I have seasonal allergies, and even if I took my medicine I still seemed to sneeze a lot this week.
Thanks!
Posted By: Quin Sawatsky
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Time for another quick update!
It’s been rainy these past couple of days in Wetaskiwin, so there have been fewer kids at showing up at the last few clubs. While it would have been great to have more kids, the Clubs have been a lot of fun to teach… having kids super excited to sing songs, and even cheering when we get to telling the story.
What I really wanted to share about was Club 3. I had come away from the club yesterday being pretty discouraged, because almost all of the kids were doing their very best to disrupt the club, and it was worst when I was trying to do the really important stuff, like getting to the gospel message of the story, or explaining the Bible verse. Many of these kids come from non-Christian homes, who don’t often get to hear about the Bible and Jesus. So my billets and I prayed a lot about this club.
Today, when I went to the club, there were just 4 kids, and 1 of them ended up leaving. However, we ended up having a good club with just those kids. And after hearing the story about Saul and how God spoke to him, one of the kids asked why God doesn’t speak to us today. So we got to have a really great conversation about how God does speak to us through the Bible, through those little voices we hear telling us to do the right thing, and so on. So thank you for your prayers: kids asking genuine questions about God is a huge praise item.
Additionally, I’m going to be driving most of tomorrow to do get to my next club location and do advertising. I would appreciate prayer for both of those, for safety on the road and for boldness and joy as I go door to door in Peace River and tell them about the clubs.
Thank you for your prayers!
Quin
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