Thankfully, no! It’s not over already. I still have one more day here in Kinistino and Birch Hills. I’m so sad that I have to leave later today. The kids have been so fun and the clubs have been fantastic.
Yesterday my clubs were once again really fun. The kids all listened pretty well in both clubs, and I’m really having a good time getting to know the kids, especially in my VBS, since I have an extra hour with them each day.
One specific prayer request for this last day would be that God would soften the kids’ hearts to the gospel, and that he would speak through me and give me the words to say for the stories and especially the invitation. Thank you!
Posted By: Grace Sichangwa
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My apologies for not having blogged this week… One of these weeks, I will end up blogging daily – I know it.
Club 1: At this club, we have had one child in attendance, and it has been so much fun! It’s been a real blessing getting to engage in community with a child who has already made a decision to follow Christ. I must also add that this particular hostess has really reminded me this week of the importance of our ministry mandate as Christians, not just during the five days we have club. I have been very encouraged getting to pray with her not only for our club, but that God would continue to work across our city.
Club 2: This VBS has been quite the mixed bag, to say the least. The kids are great, but they have so much energy that it can be overwhelming trying to keep up with them. However, something really awesome happened today that really reminded me of what childlike faith can look like. We have child in this club, that happens to be the only unchurched. The neat thing with this child is that even though initially she did not seem to show interest in the teaching portion, she really opened up, and began engaging in VBS when she began engaging in community with her peers. However today, there happened to be rain and thunder, which resulted in many distracted children. At one point this child sat in front of a window watching the downpour. At the end of Gwyneth’s story (before she was going to pray), this child announced, “I don’t like the thunder, I want it to go far away from me.” Gwyneth tried to begin her prayer, but this little girl cut her off, and said one of the most simple, but real prayers that I had ever heard before. She prayed something to along the lines of, “Please God, take the thunder away from me. Thank you.” A few minutes later, as we were eating snack, I looked out the window, and realized that there was sunshine, and the rain had stopped entirely. It was such a pleasure to explain to this child afterwards that God had indeed heard, and answered her prayer – the grin on her face, oh man, that was joy right there. Our total attendance is six.
Club 3: We had 5 kids attend today, but this group was pretty hyper. As Gwyneth was telling the story of Tony, one of the children insisted on mentioning this dream they had about Mr. Root, and everybody ended up laughing, and losing focus. I ended up having to teach one of the quickest Bible Stories in my teaching career. Our total attendance for this club was 7.
Prayer Requests:
1. For my stitch – I have to get it removed this weekend, and it would be nice for that process to run smoothly.
2. Driving on the roads – as I looked at my speedometer earlier this week, I have realized that I have driven at least 3,000 since training week, and if I’m being honest, I’m not the most stellar driver.
3. Overall sickness – I feel like a medical basket case.
4. That I would daily make time for personal prayer, and devotions.
5. For wisdom in how to follow up with the children that expressed an interest in knowing more about the gospel.
6. Energy to keep up with the kids!
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.
Posted By: Gwyneth Sichangwa
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Hey just got back from teaching and thought I should update on what has happened today. It’s been a good week and God has shown me lots. One of them is being faithful where He has placed me and just to trust His timing. Lots of the kids who come this week are churched and during the VBS, Grace and I are supposed to take a step back for someone else to talk to the kids about salvation. It’s been a very different change in pace from last week to this week, but I’m glad to know that my job is just to plant seeds wherever I go and leave the rest up to God. (:
Club 1:Once again we had the one girl and she was lots of fun. She finished all of her lessons and has said all of her verses too. It’s been great and I’m sad that we are going to be leave this club tomorrow, but I thankful for the opportunity to encourage this girl to continue living out her faith. After clubs once again we used chalk on the sidewalk and that was just a great way to get to know her better. Grace and I have some Christian CD’s in our car, so we often just play that while drawing. At a point she told me that she knew the song because it plays on Shine FM (the Christian radio station), and that was pretty awesome. So pray with this club that more kids will come for the last day. The family with the 4 girls I talked about earlier haven’t come yet, so pray that there will be nothing hindering them from coming tomorrow.
Club 2: It feels like with each passing day this club seems to get better which is good. So once again we brought our good friend Grace Konard to join the ChangChang experience. Today the kids didn’t interrupt as much, and it went along pretty smoothly. Today it was raining and as I was trying to prayer at the end of the Bible story, one in churched girl interrupted and said how she didn’t like the lightening and thunder. I tried to casually head into my prayer when all of a sudden she just starts praying: “Dear God, keep the thunder far away from me. Amen.” One of her friends even congratulated her on praying which was good, but I was thinking that probably won’t work. Literally, 15-20 minutes later it completely stopped raining and the sun was out. Talk about that child like faith right there. When we went to drop off Grace Konard off at home in the South end, that was where all the rain and dark clouds were. Grace and I had to smile that God answered the prayers of this girl completely.
ChangChang Adventures: After snack and games we went back to the sanctuary, and as we were wrapping up VBS the person in charge wanted to end with prayer. As we were about to pray there were these 2 girls talking in front of me. All week these two have been annoyed with one another and I honestly thought they couldn’t stand each other. But all of a sudden one of the girls said: “I’m going to pray for you.” Normally I would totally agree with this, however she was praying at the same time as the VBS volunteer. It literally sounding like she saying gibberish, but apparently she was praying for this girl. Then when she finished she was so proud of herself for what she had done. It was a pretty funny moment, but it also made me remember the importance of praying for people who aren’t always nice to you. Grace had said that earlier in the VBS and it was great to see them living some of these things out. Especially since it felt like we weren’t getting through to these kids a lot of the time.
Club 3: So this club always seems to be interesting and different everyday. Today we had 5 kids today which brought our attendance total to 9 kids. Today it started out pretty good but the kids get super hyper half way through and we struggle to finish our stories. We have used slower songs and used memory verse games that aren’t getting them too excited but they are still too energetic. So pray that for our last day of clubs tomorrow we won’t have that issue and can still have a fun time teaching these kids. (:
So earlier today I asked for people to pray for Grace and she is feeling a lot better, so thanks to everyone who prayed. Another praise item is the fact that my voice is doing so much better from training week. I still can’t hit those high notes on the 7 Most Important Things song but I was never able to hit them anyways. Thanks for all the support and prayers from everyone.
God Bless,
Gwyneth
Posted By: Jenny Albrecht
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Well to start off, I should probably apologize for blogging less than I should. Of course you have all these other wonderful blogs to read so I’m sure no one missed me all that much. So for those of you who don’t know I didn’t know who my billet would be until I had started driving, and I got a little turned around (I still hold to the fact that GPS’s are dumb, give me maps and signs any day) and ended up arriving later than expected. But honestly, there could not have been a better billet for me. This family is similar to my own in ways that I can’t even describe. While it’s comforting it’s also lonely because as much as they fit me in, I still miss my family.This week has been great so far. Each day I go from a small club to my nice big VBS.
My first club is rather small so keeping the energy up there is pretty tough. For the first three days it was only the hostess’s children at the club which was kind of discouraging, but as everyone knows God answers prayer, and lo and behold today there was another little boy (who really wants a button so he is planning on bringing friends tomorrow!) This really boosted my spirit and I was again amazed at all that God can do.
The second club is a VBS, so it is a tad larger with 24 kiddos. This club is so much fun, and God has to be the one working here because I know I do not have that much energy in me normally. All these kids are precious and I love them all dearly. Learning names proved a challenge until the end of the second day. (I still mess up.) These kids love learning verses and doing their lessons. We have a challenge to see who can be louder saying the verses from memory every day and they absolutely love that. So far it’s 7-6 for the girls. We did have to cut the VBS short yesterday due to weather conditions, but we managed to fit in the Bible story so all was well. All the kids are excited to find out what happens to The Little Rascal though. I also found today that I had forgotten to introduce myself to these kids; I am now Miss Jen apparently.
So far this has been an awesome week. Thank you for your prayer, God bless.
Sincerely, cordially, affectionately,
Miss Jen
Posted By: Shamus Westra
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(I really hope my titles draw you in instead of weirding you out, haha)
Anyways, this week, I get to become really familiar with the Edmonton roads. I have the privilege of teaching with one Grace Konrad, but alas, we live about an hour apart (she lives in southwest Edmonton, I live 30 mins northeast of Edmonton). So, I have had plenty of time to shamelessly rock out in my car to all of my radio jams. I have also had to get up fairly early (unless I sleep in, like I did this morning. Forcing yourself to get ready in 15 minutes is not Shamus-recommended), but God has given me the strength to be wide awake and energetic in all of our clubs.
Our first club is near Grace`s house (which I am eternally grateful for, as it saves me from driving and lets me sleep a little later), and the hostess` only child is about one and a half. So, too young for clubs. There are lots of kids in the area, but apparently most of them sleep past 9, so we could not round up any kids on the first day. Later that day, we went advertising, and we found one girl who was interested in coming, as long as we came and walked her to the club in the morning. We had no problem with that, and she came on Tuesday (the day when I thought a squirrel sitting in a nearby tree was going to attack me while I was telling a story) and Wednesday. This morning, when we went to pick her up, we found out she was unavailable. Fortunately, she had told us about a house where some of her friends lived, and they came this morning. One of these girls accepted Jesus, which was super exciting. She seemed to get distracted while Grace was walking her through it, but there was no doubt that she wanted to pray and accept Him.
Our second club, unfortunately, has had no kids. We have handed out many invitations, tried the nearby parks, knocked on several doors, but sadly, no takers. Some people still seemed interested, so please pray that they would be able to come. There are kids in the area, they just have not come…… yet.
Our third club has had a bit of an odd week. The first day, we had four kids, and on Tuesday, they brought 5 of their friends. But on Wednesday, 8 of these kids went camping, and the other 1 was not at home. So we went advertising, again, but could not drum up any interest. Then today, the one girl who had not gone camping came back, brought a friend, and then we had three kids come whom we had given invitations to. Now the club is up to 13 registered kids. I was glad (as I imagine Grace was as well) that our advertising had paid off. All of these kids have been unchurched, so the club could have a real impact on the neighbourhood.
Due to the four hour break between our third and fourth clubs, and the fact that Grace lives on the west end of Edmonton and the fourth club is in Sherwood Park (which is east of Edmonton), we agreed that it would be easiest for me to drive Grace home and then teach the last club solo (by the way, shout out to Grace and Gwenyth for recruiting Grace to help teach their VBS, you guys saved me a lot of driving (and CEF a lot on gas)). This club has been the polar opposite of our other clubs, because they have all been unchurched kids, whereas this one has had 9 churched kids. These kids have been fantastic to teach, as they are really involved in the club. They know the Bible stories really well (even the story of Mephibosheth, which I had not heard until about a month ago), so the extra story has been fun to teach them. I promised them yesterday that they could pie me if they get to 25 kids, which they seemed really eager to do, but they have to grow a lot over the next 2 days.
This week has been a bit of a struggle for Grace and I, partially because of the slightly inconsistent attendance in our clubs, which has caused us to have to be creative with what we decide to teach, but primarily because of the amount of advertising we have had to do. Neither of us feel very comfortable going up to strangers and talking to them, nor do we feel great about going door to door, and we feel especially awkward going to the park to find kids. Fortunately, God has been good by providing the kids, and he has helped us to feel more and more confident.
Sorry for the novel, but thanks for reading to the end!
Posted By: Gwyneth Sichangwa
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So yesterday I typed out my blog but fell asleep before I could post it. So here’s what happened on Wednesday:
Alright so today was a great day of teaching. Though these long evenings are quickly getting to me, and I’m running low on energy. But the LORD is constantly giving me strength each day when I feel like I can’t do it. Even though it’s only the second week of teaching it just becomes more and more apparent that I need Him to constantly sustain me. With that all being said I’ll head straight into my clubs for today.
Club 1: So yesterday with this club we only had the same one girl come out. But it was so much fun because after club we just hung out for 45 mins. We drew on the sidewalk with chalk and even got in some advertising done. (; We had a path that lead to the club encouraging them to come so that was fun to do. 
However last night it rained and this girl came out and re-drew it after it had finished raining. It was one of the best things I have ever seen. So we taught her again today and that was lots of fun. But the family I had talked about with 4 kids didn’t come today, and they just got back from vacation. So pray that they will be able to join us tomorrow.
Club 2: For this club we recruited Grace Konard to help with crowd control during the VBS. Today it was better, probably because of the double portion of grace. We got through the stories and there were less interruptions. Afterwards we headed to the basement for snacks, and they got rid of the tables to see if that would work better with these 6 energetic kids. It really did but some of the girls thought they should eat their crackers and cheese on all fours. One of these girls mom was a helper and noticed them doing this. She looked really concerned at her daughter and asked if she was licking the floor. It was hilarious. They have been a fun crowd to teach and a little bit challenging, but they’re great kids. With this club pray about the follow up on these kids. Grace and I aren’t supposed to and instead a man at their church is doing that. But he is running half of the things happening at this VBS and has a busy schedule, so pray that can happen as kids have shown a interest.
ChangChang Adventures: So after our VBS we had to go drop Grace Konard off at her house. Now she lives on the South side and there wasn’t enough time for Grace and I to head to the north and make ourselves dinner. So we decided we would use some petty cash to buy some food. However when went, Grace realized she had forgotten the petty cash at home. So we hopped in our car and looked for the closest McDonald’s that wasn’t too far. We couldn’t get to the one we wanted to so we ended up finding a different one. As we walked in Grace had this song suck in her head that talked about the glory of God. We used our small about of cash to buy ourselves some fries. As we were leaving the cashier stopped us and asked if we wanted a smoothie. Apparently, they had accidentally made an extra one. We were so hungry and that honestly couldn’t have been planned better. So we happily took it and sang about the glory of God on the way to our next club.
Club 4: With this last club we had 4 kids today and it started off really good. We do have one girl and it seems like she always has so much energy. Yesterday she was busy doing round offs in the middle of the house and falling on the floor. But at the beginning of club she was more calm than usual. The moment we went to the memory verse everything seemed to turn into a go wrongth. Everyone was hyped up and Grace and I coudn’t focus. So pray that tomorrow that won’t be the case.
For prayer requests Grace has been pretty sore these past couple of days, so pray that we would get back to her usual self.
God Bless,
Gwyneth
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: Rose Williams
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Thought I would post a quick update on how my clubs in Moose Jaw and Caron are going this week. It’s hard to believe only two days are left!
Club 1: This club is going really well. There were 18 kids today! Total attendance was up to 21, so the kids were excited to earn the frisbee! Even though there was a lot of kids, they did super well with being engaged and listening. The older children I talked about earlier are enjoying the club too, I think. The only downside to such a big club is that I start getting confused when taking attendance and giving out prizes!
Club 2: Attendance went from 3 to 6 today, which was good, except that some of the new kids were younger and really had trouble concentrating, which makes it difficult for the rest to stay focused. I said that if they got to 10 kids they could pie me, so we’ll see how that goes. Pray that they would focus so I can get the point across in the other children.
Club 2: This is probably my hardest club… There has only been two or three kids, and they are not really taking me seriously and it is hard to tell the story and get the point across. I’m not entirely sure what to do to help them be enthused about singing and learning stories, except pray!
Club 4: There are two really enthusiastic girls in this club who absolutely love singing songs and doing lessons and memorizing verses, which is encouraging. This club had four today, though sometimes they get distracted during the stories. Pray that they would be able to focus!
I haven’t had any decisions in my clubs yet, though they have mostly all been churched kids. My last three clubs it’s been hard to give an invitation when they kids haven’t been taking me seriously and have been goofing off. Pray that I would not loose heart! Aside from the first club, the other three were difficult to teach today.
Pray that I would have energy! Yesterday and today I had a headache by the fourth club. The heat we’ve had around here doesn’t help along with probably not drinking enough. It’s been tiring to teach four clubs, as last week was my first week and we only had three.
I have quickly been learning the “5-Day Club Teacher’s Prayer.” It goes something like this: “God, please bring kids to the clubs. Help them to focus and give me wisdom as I teach. May your Holy Spirit work in their hearts during club. Please give me energy to show Your love to these kids! Thy will be done.”
-Rose
This week has been going so well, I almost can’t believe it.
Today I was a little more tired, and I didn’t get a chance to review my stories for today, but it was fine. Once I’ve taught a story once, I’m pretty much good to go. Anyway, at my first club, I had 6 kids come back. Two of them are going to their grandparents now so they won’t be back, but I’m hoping that there might be some new ones tomorrow. One little boy raised his hand, and I was kinda surprised because he comes from a Christian home and his grandma is the hostess. So I talked to him after the club and he said he’s never accepted Christ but he prays with his mom every day. I asked if he wanted to accept Christ but he said he was too shy and wanted to do it tonight, with his mom. I told him to tell me if he does. He said he has a bible too, so that’s good. I kinda giggled because this boy is sort of the opposite of shy, but if he wants to do it with his mom, I think that’s great.
At the VBS, there was 4 more new kids! Our registered total is 18, and we’re so close to the frisbee. All the kids are really excited. I really hope that the two more will come tomorrow or Friday because they just desperately want that frisbee. A lot of the kids are unchurched so pray that they would hear the message and respond. Pray that nothing would hold them back. They also really love the Rascal story, so I’m trying to weave the gospel as much as I can into it, since they really listen to that one. They listen to the bible story too, but the Rascal story is really what gets them. So I’ve been doing my best to add the gospel into every part of it that I can. It’s kinda hard at some points but tomorrow when Tony accepts Christ I think that will be a good conversation-starter with some of these kids. They’re getting pretty frustrated with the cliffhangers, but pretty much all of them keep coming back, and bringing lots friends.
Thanks again, everyone!
Hey everyone! I hope your second week is going as well as mine. I’m having so much fun out here in Kinistino/Birch Hills.
My first club in Birch Hills had 7 kids. Two of the little girls who came yesterday will be back tomorrow, and the other should be around again on Friday. They all listened quietly and were disappointed when I left off Tony in a cliffhanger. Every single one of them brought back their lessons and said a memory verse, and a couple of them asked for all 7 lessons today so they could try to finish them by tomorrow so they could finish the questionnaire in the “Meet the King” book before Friday.
The VBS at Kinistino Community Church doubled in size today! We went from 7 to 14 (one little girl brought 4 friends!), so now all the kids are super excited about trying to get the football or even the frisbee. They’re all trying to invite friends and do their lessons and memorize verses. Apparently I’m good at today’s Little Rascal cliffhanger because all the boys groaned and everyone at both clubs were mad at me. In my first club the little boy pouted on the lawn and said, “I don’t wanna sing songs, I don’t wanna hear a bible story. I wanna hear about Tony!!”
It’s great because all the kids are so into it, and I forgot how much I like teaching alone. I’m really enjoying getting to know my billets and the kids at my clubs.
Please pray for more kids at the first club, since some told me they won’t be able to come back tomorrow and all their friends seem to be busy or out of town this week, and they’re really disappointed about that.
Thanks everyone, and especially my CG Elfrieda! I appreciate your prayers so much!
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