Well, let me tell you. I want to start off by apologizing for not blogging near enough. Sorry Al! I’ll try to do better. Here’s a quick update on the past few weeks and some prayer requests for next week.
Athabasca
I had a lot of fun teaching this club! It ran from 11:30-5:00 on Calling Lake Reserve. There were 56 kids, and they were lots of fun. Best of all, I got to help lead 4 children to the Lord. Teaching with Willard as my partner was a blast! Thanks for praying for the kids in this club.
Fort McMurray/Anzac
This was a great week of 3 clubs with lots of church kids. This was the first time 5 Day Clubs have been held in Fort McMurray. Talking with church leaders after the club, it sounded like they were eager to repeat the process next year. Many of the kids were from solid Christian homes and had already made decisions. My job was primarily to have fun, provide additional teaching, and encourage them in their faith.
Elbow/Outlook
Because of the long weekend, this was a 4 Day Club. It was nice to have a bit of a break at home over the weekend. There were only two clubs in this week and the first one had plenty of adults helping, which made it really easy on me. The kids seemed to be really engaged, and I’m hoping the lessons they learned this week will stick with them in the long term.
Leader/Fox Valley/Burstall/Sceptre
This is where I’m going to be next week. Please pray for 1) Energy – This is going to be 4 clubs with lots of driving, but I still need to give everything I have at every club. Pray that I don’t get burned out. 2) Salvation – I haven’t had many kids make decisions since Athabasca because I’ve been with a lot of church kids. Pray that I would be able to lead some kids to Christ next week. Thank you very much for your prayers!
Posted By: Tiara Stuart
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Hi guys! Guess it’s time for a few updates (my mom is harassing me haha).
Honestly, we have so many stories from these past few weeks. For now, I’d just like to share this story from Moosomin First Nation during Week Two.
The first kids we got at this club were a group of three siblings, who told me on the way that they were tired of social services taking them away from their parents. They were staying on the rez with their kokum and all three had some definite discipline problems. I wasn’t expecting much for verses or lessons from any of them.
On the last day, however, the oldest girl (8) showed up with a pile of lessons we’d given her yesterday. Every one was finished and she’d clearly read through the stories carefully!! I was so impressed, but it was what happened next that really stuck with me:
So all this summer, Jean has been a huge blessing for me. I have a tendency to forget to pray before club, and she is constantly reminding me, both in & outside club, to talk to our Creator. Anyway, on this day Jean was out finishing up craft with some kids, and wasn’t there to remind me to pray before snack.
I began to hand out snack, and all of a sudden I noticed this particular girl, kneeling, her hands folded and eyes closed as she prayed before she ate her snack!! She had never been to church before or had any Christian influence. The only thing I can think is that she learned this from her lessons. I was amazed and seeing this reminded me to pray with the rest of the kids. The transformation I saw in this girl from the beginning of club to the end was incredible!
In total, we had 9 decisions during Week Two. God is so good.
-Tiara & Jean
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: Gwyneth Sichangwa
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Alright so apparently I’m not the best at posting on time. So here’s my last week Friday post I forgot to publish.
Club 1: We only had the one again today but it was still a really fun club. It was actually really encouraging to teach her and a real blessing for me. I haven’t taught many kids where it’s one on one for the whole week, but this club taught me the importance of being faithful with the little things God gives us. Throughout the week people were sad for us when there heard that there was only one kids at this club, but personally I rejoiced. Because this kid came for a reason and Grace and I had the responsibility of pouring into this girl’s life, and we wanted to make sure we were diligent in that. After the club we did some more chalk art and we played hopscotch, but you had to do a dance, sing a song and make an animal impersonation at certain parts in the course. It was so much fun and I was really sad to leave that club, but I know God has great plans for this girl’s life. (:
Club 2: This VBS has been very interesting this past week as we had one 11 year old and the rest of the kids were 6 and under. Since the older child wasn’t there it was a preschool club, so Grace and I cut our stories shorter and hoped for the best. It seemed like the kids were better so we could actually get through the stories fairly well. Afterwards snack we went outside, and the pastor in training decided to do some skateboard tricks to fit with our theme. Even though he didn’t land all of the tricks there were some pretty impressive ones. There was a little girl there and for the sake of disclosure I’ll call her Suzy. Now Suzy was sitting beside me and watching all of these tricks and at a point she told me we should ask him if he could skateboard up a tree. I tried to keep from laughing as this kid went on to then tell me how she has done that before, but it was the only trick she knew. Honestly, the things kids say can seriously make ones day. (: After this we all piled into the church and the same guy began talking to the kids about what they had learned and it was literally dead silent. I felt so awkward because I had been teaching the Bible stories, and it felt like they weren’t getting anything. Everyday I went over the theme verse and asked the exact same questions and only the oldest one there could tell me what the verse meant by Friday. I was pretty sad about that, but Suzy raised her hand at a point and was able to tell him what a 180 with Jesus meant. I was ecstatic that she understood what it meant all by herself. Then at a point she said:
“We have two Fathers. The first Father is God the Father and the second one is my real father on earth.” Then she turned to me and said with the biggest smile on her face: “You know God doesn’t have arms or legs like us but He’s still pretty nice.”
Afterwards the VBS helper in charge told us that he had talked to the mother of the unchurched girl, who had come this week, and she had been concerned that we were trying to get her to make a decision. He explained that wasn’t the case and had a good conversation with her about church and God. So that was encouraging to hear that God had a purpose with this week and that the kids and even a parent left that VBS with something today.
Club 3: So a song that I have really enjoyed has a line that says: “The joy of the LORD, the joy of the LORD is our strength.” Everyday this week I’ve almost just needed to sing that over myself before I headed into these clubs. By just asking God to fill me with His joy truly did bring strength as I interacted with these kids. Today we had 5 kids and a total of 9 kids this week. The club went pretty well as the club went along. They did a great job and were engaged, but not too distracted. Thanks to everyone who prayed for this club. (; However during it I began feeling super unwell and Grace had to take over, but she did a great job holding down the fort. At the end we talked to the hostess because there was a boy who put up his hand after the invitation but went home before Grace could talk to him. Him and his sister said they didn’t go to church but they honestly answered questions like they were church kids, and this wasn’t new to them. Later we found out the their mom had left the church because she was having issues with the people there. And this hostess was trying just to be a friend and to work with her on that stuff. Please pray for her friend because her kids want to go back to church but they can’t cause their home doesn’t want to.
This week has been an interesting week but it has also been a good one. Romans 10:14-15 says
How, then, can they call one the on they have not believed in ? And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ” How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
I honestly believe that every worker we have has been called to this task, and it’s not an easy one. You may feel discouraged, and disappointed about how some clubs have gone so far but just remember that we serve a God who is for us and not against us. And He loves it when people are sharing the Gospel, so don’t lose hope fellow workers. (:
Well that’s all I have for today, and sorry for the lengthy post.
God Bless,
Gwyneth
Hello everyone!
I honestly cannot believe week 2 is over. It went by so fast, and I had an amazing time. It was one of my favourite weeks teaching I’ve ever had, in all 4 summers, and I couldn’t have asked for better billets and clubs.
The entire week was God proving his faithfulness to me, especially on Sunday when I was stressed about not having billets lined up and teaching alone and driving for six hours (the list could go on. I was really stressed on Sunday)…yet every single time, God showed me that he was looking out for me. I made it safely, and my billets were amazing, and my clubs were fantastic. All week I was thanking God for his provision. I had no reason to be worried, because he was looking out for me.
So, a quick overview of Friday. My first club went really well. One of the little girls from Monday came back and two of the kids had finished their “Meet the King” questionnaires already! They were so enthusiastic. When I left they all ran over and gave me a huge group hug and told me to come back next year. And just now, as I was sorting through my lessons I realized that the boy who raised his hand accepted Christ later that day with his mom and marked it on his lesson. Praise God!!
On Friday my VBS had 7 new kids! Our registered total was 27 and they were all excited about earning the frisbee. The second hour of the VBS we had at my billets house in the pool, so we all had a lot of fun. I had quite a few kids that were really excited about doing their lessons and saying verses, and leaving was so hard. I had to go right after the club ended at 3:00, to pick up Anja and Sarah from Good Spirit. So I left right after the club and got to the camp around 6:30, and then made it back to Regina by 10:00.
So all in all, I had an amazing week and God taught me so much in just 5 days. Thanks so much for praying for me, and a huge thank you to Jesus for all the work he did in my life and in the lives of the kids this week.
“For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations, and sing to your name” Psalm 18:49
Posted By: Shamus Westra
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Hello again!
So, this week felt pretty long to me, but God helped me get through it! He gave me the strength to make it through, and more importantly, he provided the kids in the clubs.
Our first club had all four girls who had come throughout the week return, and they were much more talkative. Fortunately, they didn’t get distracted, and two more of them received Jesus! On Thursday, Grace prayed with the girl who made a decision, so yesterday I prayed with them. I was a little nervous, as I do not have much experience leading people to Jesus, but they definitely understood what they were doing! None of those girls go to church, so pray that they would continue to have Christian influences. We also gave each of them a Bible, thanks to some help from our hostess, so hopefully they will read them!
Our second club, unfortunately, despite Grace and I going through the entire neighbourhood, did not have any kids come. There did not seem to be much interest from the people we talked to, which was too bad. Our third club only had 2 kids come for about 20 minutes, so we just did a song and a story with them. All of the kids who came were unchurched, and none of them accepted Jesus, so please pray that we have planted some seeds that God will grow.
The last club had 7 kids Thursday, and 8 yesterday, and these kids remained fun to teach. They knew all of the stories except for the story of the Ethiopian, so teaching the extra story was a little bit more fun. One boy who came the last two days was a mini Gideon Mentie doppelgänger, which was kinda cool! He was even from Ethiopia, which is where Gideon’s parents are from. I told him that he looked like Gideon right before the story of the Ethiopian, and when I asked what they wanted to call him, this boy piped up “Gideon!” All of the kids who were there on Friday did at least lesson 1, with 5 of them completing all 7. One of the girls who completed her lessons also did all 6 verses. She was the hostess’ daughter, and was going into grade 6, so I told her mother about quizzing, just in case they were interested.
Next week I’ve got one club in Sturgeon County, then another few in Edmonton, so I’ll be doing more driving, so please pray that I will be able to stay alert and safe. Thanks!
Posted By: Rose Williams
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My first full week of teaching has come to an end, and it has been good, though I will be grateful for a few days off!
Here’s a report on how each club finished off:
Club 1: This club got up to 26 kids, which was exciting! Mostly churched kids, though some unchurched, really good listeners that were just a blast to teach. This club was my biggest all week, and it really encouraged me to see how much they enjoyed it, and I enjoyed it too. There were no in club decisions, and from looking at lessons most kids had already made that decision earlier though there was for sure one mailbox club decision! She had written, “Today” as for when she had taken Jesus as her saviour! That got me excited, because this girl and her sister, though they didn’t go to church, their mom brought them to the club and stayed the whole time and seemed to enjoy it as well and helped her girls with their memory verses and lessons.
Club 2: This club most consistently had 3, though one day it did have 6, and that day was hard for me because the new kids weren’t really paying attention. The three regulars were churched kids, but they enjoyed the stories and learning more about the Bible. It was great to focus on encouraging some young believers in their faith.
Club 3: The last two days of this club were better than on Wednesday. Three kids at this club, and two girls did seem to enjoy asking many questions about the pictures…. Such as, “Why is there a space portal above Tony’s head?” Me: “He’s reading a book about astronomy. Use your imagination!” Children have a way of taking things very literally… It kept things interesting. And then when I told the story about the Ethiopian they wanted to call him Bob. I humored them and called him Bob a few times.
Club 4: Question: how many kids singing does it take to drown out the stereo? Answer: Only two 10-year-olds, when they loved the songs as much as these two did! This club only got to four kids, but two girls were super excited about it and LOVED singing. We sang all five songs every day and sometimes a few of them twice! I could hardly hear the stereo sometimes! The girls had already made a decision for Jesus before, and their excitement about clubs was really neat to see. They also loved looking at things in my Bible, which was fun.
Every though I only had one mailbox decision, it was by no means a fruitless week. I saw many churched kids who were really excited about their faith and wanted to learn more and wanted to share God with others. It was cool to be able to devote time to answering their questions and strengthening their faith. Pray for these young believers, that as they grow older and face many distractions in life that God would keep them safe in the palm of His hand with their eyes fixed on Him.
Encouragement from this week: I had some kids really excited about doing lessons and learning verses! I had five kids complete the Meet the King book! That was encouraging to see. One girl came for the first time on Thursday, and I accidentally gave her lessons 3-7 instead of the starter package, and she did them all! Another cool moment was a girl who didn’t have a lot of confidence in her memorizing abilities managed to get all six verses! She said that last year at a five day club she was only able to get two. We worked together on it and made up actions for the verses, and then I did them while she said it. She was really excited to find that she could remember things that way.
Next week: This next week I am heading up to Warman and Saskatoon. Pray that driving goes well. I only have three clubs, which I think will seem a lot less mentally draining than four. Also I anticipate not having to spend nearly so much time studying the stories in order to tell them now that I have taught them all before. I think I got asked twice by a kid when telling stories, “How do you remember all this?” If I get asked that again I should say, “God helps me remember so I can tell you!”
My biggest prayer for this coming week is that God would give me joy to teach! A few days this week it has seemed like teaching by myself is an endurance test, and I am “running with perseverance the race marked out for me.” Indeed, I want to run with perseverance, but I want to have the joy of serving for His kingdom while I do it. Sometimes hot days and rowdy children dimish that joy, and then the words of the songs I am teaching speak to me: “When Satan tries to get you down, turn your eyes to Jesus!” Pray that God will give me strength to declare the good news with joy.
-Rose
So this week as flown by so fast! kids at camp are always so much fun to talk to and just be able to get to know. It did get difficult sometimes with their being so many kids at the camp (70 kids!!) and also many workers, so lots of the kids would try to spend time around whats more familiar to them, like their cabin leaders, but me and Sarah were still able to get to know a few of them! It was just so cool to see the enthusiasm that was placed inside these kids hearts. Many of them made it their goal to use up every second of spare time to read and finish their lessons to be able to get more lessons and prizes. Since we were staying at the camp and constantly being around these kids also made it easier for them to be able to come to us with their lessons, there were quite a few times where I would be in the bathroom and they would be waiting for me outside with smiles on their faces and lessons in their hands! They would also come knock on our cabin door wanting to give in their next lessons or say a memory verse (that usually wasn’t off the book mark but from the lessons like genesis 1:1), so after the first three kids that came knocking on our door, we just decided to either sit outside or have our door open.
As a kid I used to go to camp, but forgot about the lifestyle of everything, and going back their and experiencing that all over again was so much fun! Chapel time and a the campfires really brought back so many memories!
Something that sorta scared me upon arrival was that we were asked if we were the speakers. Now I’m 16 years and I don’t think I could say 5 years ago that I was going to be a speaker at a camp. But after a while being known as the speaker began to fade and I got used to it. well, then as we were walking to the beach, an LIT (leader in training) said to one of the kids that was asking about what they were going to do at campfire that night “we’re going to listen to Sarah and Anja preach to us” well Fantastic! I am now a Preacher! who can say they were 16 years old and a preacher? not too many. Join 5-day clubs everyone! easy way to check of being a preacher off your list!
Posted By: Quin Sawatsky
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Hello and welcome to another update with Quin Sawatsky.
It’s been a lot of great getting to know some of the people of Peace River/Nampa, and getting to partner in what God is doing here. These last few days have been a lot of fun getting to build relationships with the kids in addition to teaching them.
Teaching the story about Tony has been particularly fun… At one point one of the Clubs started chanting to try and get me to continue after I had ended on a cliffhanger. I also had a kid comment, “A lot of people die in this story!” Yep. 3 deaths in 5 days of clubs. Tony Rossi lived a tragic life, kid.
So yeah, not a lot to report about specific clubs other than that we had 46 kids total, 9 of whom were from unchurched homes, and I’m praying that God uses the messages of the stories and songs to impact these children to choose to have their lives turned around by Jesus.
On that note: Prayer Requests!
- The 2 girls who made decisions this week. Both of them come from unchurched homes. There is a Christian Mom who sees one of these girls fairly often, so pray that she will be able to continue to teach this girl about Jesus and His love for her. And for the other girl, that God will bring people into her life who will be able to continue to encourage her and teach her about Him.
- Focus. It can be tempting for me to get into the groove of teaching these clubs and forget why I’m really doing it. Please pray that God would keep me focused on reaching these children and giving them the opportunity to ask Him into their hearts. And as I am teaching them how they can grow to be more like him, that I will not neglect my own growth but will continue to prioritize spending time with Him in His word and in prayer.
- Safety. I am planning to drive about 10 hours from Peace River to Saskatoon tomorrow. So if you could pray that I (and Will Persson when I pick him up along the way) will arrive safely so we can teach in Blaine Lake next week, that would be great.
Thank you for your prayers! And thank you for tuning in to today’s update! I’ve been Quin Sawatsky, and this has been the end-of-the-week update. Thank you and goodnight.
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!
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