Well, I guess that’s it for this week. Sarah and I had so much fun together and with our three clubs.
Our first club was definitely my favourite. The kids were so into it, and even the hostess’s in-laws who were visiting decided to stay a little longer so they could hear the end of A Little Rascal.
Quite a few of the new kids from yesterday came back today for our second club. We did a draw for the hackey sack and the kids were really excited. They also were asking really good questions during the memory verse and bible story. It was great to see them so engaged.
Our last club was pretty much the same as all week. The two boys came, and we decided to skip the songs/contest and just go over the verses and stories. They enjoyed that so much more, and I even talked to the 15 year old boy about teaching a little bit. So who knows, maybe there’ll be another teacher next year!! 😛
Next week I’m dropping Sarah and Anja off at Good Spirit Bible Camp, and then making my way up to Kinistino/Birch Hills. I would appreciate prayers for safe travels as that totals to just over 5 hours of driving on Sunday afternoon.
Thanks again to everyone who prayed for us this week!
Posted By: Janessa Robertson
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It was such a fun week full of learning curves! A huge plus to teaching a preschool club is how you don’t need to use the song visuals, as none of the kids can read. With how fast the songs are this year I was really happy to be able to toss aside the visuals.
The kids this week were so awesome, I love getting “flowers” aka dandelions and notes from them! At the start of the week the kids were really shy and super quiet, but by the end of the week as soon as I would pull into the farm I would hear “SHE’S HERE!!!” and then see a stampede of kids running towards my car! 🙂
On Thursday, one little girl tapped my leg and said she wanted to tell me something, so I bent down to get on her level. She just stared at me for a solid 10 seconds with a straight face and then a HUGE smile came on her face and she said “Teacher… I had fun today!!” This is one of the little girls who asked Jesus into her heart this week! In total I had 6 decisions- Praise the Lord!
I’m going to miss these sweethearts so much, but I am really excited for the new bunch of clubs coming next week!
Praise:
- 6 Kids accepted Jesus this week!!
- No car/ travel troubles
- The kids all sat so nicely and listened really well (especially for only being 2-6 years old!)
- I was able to book 4 new clubs this week!
Prayer:
- More willing club hostesses
- I’m starting to get sick, so that this weekend will be restful so that I can stay healthy
- For God to be softening the hearts of the parents and kids who will be coming to my clubs in the Weyburn area next week!
Blessings,
Janessa
Posted By: Grace Sichangwa
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I apologize for not blogging yesterday, but I’m hoping that you will extend me…. GRACE! (badum, ching! Don’t worry, there’s plenty more where that came from).
So the title of my blog comes from a song that I have been listening to lately, and I love the chorus:
“For we trust in our God, and through His unfailing love, we will not be shaken.”
I have come to realize that holding onto any part of myself, and to my own comfortability is such a hindrance in allowing God to work through me. Throughout this morning, I just continued to sing this chorus, and I came to realize something in the process – when I lack in trust, I do indeed feel shaken. It’s crazy to think that when I allow myself to trust, in spite of my own anxieties and vulnerabilities, His power is perfect. Ironically enough, it is in those moments when I feel the most shaken, but choose none the less for His will to be done, that I feel the most secure, and at peace. What a Saviour!
I feel like Gwyneth has really summarized everything beautifully (so feel free to check hers out 🙂 ) But I did want to talk about Club 3 & 4.
Club 3: There are very few moments in my 5 years of teaching where I have been at the point of tears, but today was that. One of the children, who had raised her hand for the invitation daily, had written in her Mailbox club lesson that she had accepted Christ. Gwyneth and I were able to follow up with her on that, and the pure childlike joy that she had about accepting Christ nearly brought me to tears! I was so glad that in this moment we had the opportunity to rejoice with those who rejoice! Instead of crying, I explained to her how the angels in Heaven were rejoicing too because she was now a child of God, and the smile that she had on her face… It truly put into perspective the importance of having a childlike faith, she was full of pure, undeterred joy.
I’m excited for this club. And we might even get pied tomorrow, so we’ll see how it goes.
Club 4: I had arrived at this club yesterday, and I felt such a joy in spending time with these kids. However, I really struggled today with teaching. I don’t know if it was the rain or being indoors, but everything was such a distraction. Fun fact, one of my greatest fears is spiders – I cannot stand them. And conveniently what do I see crawling on a wall during my story? You guessed it, and as a result even I began to lose my focus. I could really appreciate prayer for this club that God would give me wisdom in how to effectively love these kids, but also go through the lesson as well.
Prayer Requests:
– Attitude – that I would love all of the kids that I teach authentically
– That I would have a strong awareness of His voice throughout my ministry. I feel constantly distracted.
At the end of the day I can sincerely say that God is good, and I am eternally grateful that it is not my ministry that will transform the lives of these children – it is solely Jesus.
To the One who was and is to come.
Posted By: Rose Williams
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Hello! This week, starting on Tuesday, was my first time ever attending and teaching 5 day clubs, and it was really fun! It’s been an exciting learning curve because I wasn’t at training, so there’s a lot to catch up on, but I think I am getting the hang of it and today I taught the Bible story portion of the club. It’s been a whole lot of fun to teach with Danae and Jenny this week, and they have been great for bringing me up to speed.
We’ve had three clubs this week, two in the morning and one in the afternoon. One of them ended today because it was only a four day club, so tomorrow we’ll just have two. There had eight decisions for Christ so far this week, praise the Lord!
Next week I will be teaching all by myself in Caron and Moose Jaw. I’m a little nervous, but I think it’ll be okay as long as I can figure out how to hold up the visuals for the songs and do the actions at the same time! Prayers would be appreciated for energy as the lst few days I have been getting sleepy for the afternoon clubs, and next week’s clubs will be a lot more tiring since I am teaching whole club by myself and not just a story or two.
Thank you for your prayers!
-Rose
Posted By: Sonnie Fellwock
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Well this week has been fantastic! I love Swift Current, and I love seeing kids that I taught last year, as well as meeting new kids! I have been struggling with fatigue that past few months and it has been getting better, but I have still been napping almost daily. I really hope I can survive the 5 club days next week.
Yesterday after teaching Noah all the kids were asking questions about rainbows. One of the older kids asked how to get to the end of the rainbow and I told him that it was impossible. I said no matter where you are you can see the ends of the rainbow, but because rainbows are perception based you can’t actually walk to the end of the rainbow. Well then he asked what I meant so i delved into the explanation of how the sun shines through water droplets and separates into all the colors based on what degree the sun enters the droplet at. And so wherever you moved the sun would shine into different droplets and the rainbow would move if you moved. Oh those kids were confused, but I loved how knowledge hungry they were! They are so eager to learn anything we teach. It is so encouraging. Today at the morning club one of the girls that came yesterday wanted to catch up in lessons with her siblings who had came on Tuesday so I gave her the first two lessons. Today after club I handed her the packet of five lessons and she wandered off. But all of the sudden she appeared in front of me again with the biggest smile on her face. I was just about to ask if she needed anything before I left, when she blurted out that she had accepted Jesus into her heart, at home last night doing the lesson. I gave her a huge smile and a high five. Then I quickly prayed with her. I ran out to my car and grabbed a bible and scribbled a message for her. She seems so sincere. I am really happy for her. Her brother came up to me and asked me to help him accept Jesus in his heart. I shook my head at him, and told him that he did it last year. He said, “I know…” and I told him that we only need to do that once. I explained that once you have Jesus in your heart he doesn’t leave. He seemed pretty happy with that explanation.
My afternoon club had a decision yesterday. She was a pretty little gaffer so I was not sure how sincere she was. Today the little one was excited to proclaim that Jesus was in her heart and that Jesus loved her. She is a handful but such a joy. I really hope that she is able to fully understand what she did one day. Her and her sister do not have the greatest home life and the few weeks they spend with their aunt a year is about all the exposure to the Bible or church that they get. My heart really breaks for them. But I am confident that God is working in their lives. My afternoon club was a little rowdy this afternoon, but we survived.
I hope everyone has survived week one of teaching and that you aren’t too tired.
Posted By: Gwyneth Sichangwa
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Alright so today was a great day of teaching, and I’m sad that the week is coming to an end. I’ve really enjoyed the time to get to know these kids and just encourage them in their walk with God.
Club 2: So for today it was a little chaotic to be honest. We started about 20 minutes late doing Bible verses at the beginning. Grace and I thought we could catch up on time and weren’t too concerned. But the kids were laying all over the the couches and distracting one another. Grace had to do the Wordless Book because they couldn’t focus long enough for us to finish the Bible story. They are a great group of kids but pray that they won’t be distracted. The good thing was that during the club one girl, who didn’t talk to us really, totally opened up today and participated in the club more than usually. So that was really cool to see.
Club 3: There were 9 kids today and we had to move to the garage because of the weather. These kids are the best, so we decided to tell them that if they finish 25 lessons as a group they could pie us. They seem pretty eager for it, so tomorrow we see if they can do it. So yesterday I blogged about how we were struggling with follow up during this club and then rushing to the next club. So today we finished club and we talked to one girl who had put her hand everyday so far after the invitation. She had made a mailbox decision during the week and we wanted to make sure she understood what she had done. As we talked to her you could just see the excitement on her face and how pumped she was about her decision. My favorite part of the conversation went as followed:
Grace: “Did you know that the angels in heaven had a party for the decision you made?”
Girl: “Really? They had a party for me?!”
She had the biggest smile I have ever seen and you could just sense the joy. Afterwards we had a boy who put up his hand and I went and talked to him. He understood everything and he just had never made that decision for himself. So we did that and that was really awesome. I’m excited to be back there tomorrow.
Club 4: Grace Konard came back to teach with me again so that was good. Yesterday the kids only wanted to hear the Little Rascal extra story and it felt like club dragged until that happened. It especially felt like that during the memory verse. Well today it went along a lot better and the kids were pretty attentive during the club. At a point in the club one girl put up her hand and said: “Teacher, why do you wear the same pants everyday?” I had to laugh at the question a little but she was dead serious. I explained that I had worn shorts the day before, but I think she’s convinced that I only wear the same pants everyday. As I was teaching the Bible story I got to the invitation and a boy spoke up and said:
“Why do you do that everyday? Asking if we have accepted Jesus. What’s the point ?”
I explained to him that not everyone there had made that decision before. The hostess was in the back sitting with the kids and she began to ask each of the kids if they had done that. Everyone there is Chinese and she was able to communicate with the younger kids what I was trying to say. So after club Grace and I sat in a circle with 5 kids. One of the mothers was so excited that she brought out her camera and recorded the whole thing. I have never had that happened before but I just decided to go with it. (: The kids were pretty excited and we gave the oldest one in group a bible. After talking to the hostess I found out that all of those kids, who made a decision, didn’t have Bibles so we will be bringing those tomorrow. One of the little girls even gave me a hug later, so it was a great day of teaching.
I’m really sad that this week is soon coming to a close, but I know that God has all of these kids in His hands. I’ve honestly been so blessed getting to be apart of these kids lives and leading some of them to Christ.
God Bless,
Gwyneth
Posted By: Jenny Albrecht
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Hello again,
Well this week was fantastic, we had 8 decisions this week which was awesome. Apparently I have to watch my use of big words like “awe struck” next week, but other than that the stories were wonderful. It’s so cool to be able to teach these kids Bible stories (and extra stories) that can get them interested in Jesus. My partners, Danae and Rose, have both done excellent jobs at teaching stories and verses and the like so I have to admit next week teaching on my own is a scary prospect. I am so glad that God put these two partners in my life this week. They have been awesome.
Not only were my partners amazing, each club had some amazing kids. The kids this week were the kindest, well behaved (mostly) children I’ve met. I love all of them dearly and almost hate to go tomorrow.
Sincerely, cordially, affectionately,
Jenny
Posted By: Danae Durston
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Good evening ladies and gentleman,
As we are wrapping up on the first week of the summer I am reminded again that my strength comes from Christ alone.
This week was really fun! We started the week with four clubs and are wrapping up with three due to a cancelled club for lack kids. Tomorrow we only have two clubs because one of ours was a four day club. We had 16 kids in one, 11 in the other, and 4 in the last. So overall they went great! It’s been super fun having two partners, Rose and Jenny, and we’ve been having a blast. I ended up getting pied in the face at the four day club today so that was fun! My vision was only slightly modified for a few minutes. 
This is going to be a very challenging week ahead of me as I am teaching in Lipton, Dysart, and Echo Lake Bible Camp. But I am very excited!! Just a little nervous about driving standard on gravel, but hey! “Slow and steady wins the race.” That shall be my motto this next week. Prayers would be appreciated for me as I am alone and driving around and teaching at the camp which will be around 30 kids I’m told. Also, prayers for energy would be awesome! I am going to be teaching in the morning at the towns and then I am at the camp playing games with the kids in the afternoon and then teaching in the evening. But I also feel like this is going to an amazing week and I can’t wait!
Thank you so much for taking your time and reading my blog and also for your prayers! I truly believe us, as workers, couldn’t do it without them!
Signing off,
Danae
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me
-Philippians 4:13
Hey everyone!
Thank you so much for praying!
Our first club had 1 new little boy who showed up this morning. He was pretty shy so it was hard to tell if he was really enjoying himself, but he listened well and saw that the other kids were participating with enthusiasm. I’m praying that he’ll come back tomorrow and open up a bit more. He doesn’t come from a Christian home, so pray that our message will take root in his heart.
Our second club had 4 new kids. Four!! That brought our total to 10 registered, and some of them seemed pretty excited about the hackey sack. We told them that if they could get to 15, they could soak us (I’m not all about the pies, but I can easily do cold water). Some of them also seemed pretty excited by that idea so hopefully there’ll be some more kids showing up tomorrow too.
The third club had the same two host boys as always. We were about to start today when the older one said, “Maybe, we could do just the stories?” Sarah and I laughed and said “You sure you don’t want to sing Do You Believe?” And they both said “No!” I had just been about to suggest we cut out some of the songs, so we decided to skip everything except the memory verses and the stories. So our club was short, but I don’t blame the boys for not wanting to sing some of those songs. They were asking questions about Tony and when he lived though, so I think they really do enjoy the stories.
Please continue to pray for more children, especially at the last club, and thanks again to whoever prayed for more kids today! God definitely answered our prayers with our 5 new kids today.
Posted By: Gwyneth Sichangwa
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Today was a good day of teaching clubs. But sadly our first club got cancelled because we had no kids today. We advertised all over and we even went over to a park to see if we could have club there. However no kids showed, which is pretty sad. But it helped me to remember even more that God is good and faithful no matter what happens in life. (:
Club 2: During this club we had 6 kids once again, and they all have given us their lessons so that was cool. So Grace was telling the kids the Bible story and explaining how long the boat was. As the kids were amazed at a boat being the size of a football field and a half, one boy spoke up: “But God is bigger than that!” It honestly made my day hearing him saying that and just understanding how great God is. Afterwards we did the song ‘Do you Believe’ which is a very slow song. As Grace was explaining the meaning the boy fell on his knees in front of us and said “Yes! Yes I do believe!” Haha, that’s what every teacher wants to hear during their club. (;
Club 3: During this club we had 7 kids and it was so much fun. They are more quiet kids but they still aren’t afraid to get into the stories and songs. So after the club we got a lesson from a girl and made a decision through the mailbox lesson! We are pretty excited about that, and clearly God is doing His work. With this club though we are having a hard time trying to figure out how to do proper follow up with these kids. We are always having to rush out to our next club which is a struggle and we want to do our best following up. So prayer the Grace and I will be able to figure a way to make sure that happens.
Club 4: So for this club today I had to teach it by myself today because Grace Konard had an appointment. There were about 10 kids today and it felt a little chaotic at points. But it was still a good club. I didn’t have my attendance sheet because we have been using Grace’s stuff all week. So prizes afterwards was a challenge, but I managed.
For prayer requests, my voice is continually getting better, so thanks to everyone who has been praying for me. Also pray that the LORD will continue to guide my teaching and that I will have God’s heart for these kids.
God Bless,
Gwyneth
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