The end of Bachelorism

I have now officially dubbed this year ‘the year of the Chameleon’. This is not to be confused with Chinese New Year kinds of things, but merely a way to creatively describe what this year has been like so far. You see last year, it was crazy and busy and hard, but it was predictable. Well, to an extent. This year however has been anything but predictable. Just like as a Chameleon walks along and ends up changing it’s colour according to its surroundings, this year has been changing back and forth as it goes on.


Throughout this last while, our team, staff, friends and families have been going through a lot of change. There was a huge staff ‘overhaul’ this year at VTI so there have been a lot of changes that are still being felt as the new staff try to find their place here. Second, Kelsy joined our team a bit later on, and though it’s been great having her here, it was another thing that was changing everything. Then we toured with a new staff member for our driver. That was an experience to get used to as every driver has different tendencies and driving quirks. Probably the biggest change however will be coming up this December over Christmas break. Karina Gradin, my fiancé who has been travelling with us on Encore this year and I are getting married on Dec.28th 1:35pm @ the First Baptist Church in Prince Albert.
For obvious reasons it’s been an interesting ride with the team this year.
In any case, things on team are good now, though we still struggle with communication on occasion. The thing is, the problems we usually have are small things that kind of ‘snowball’ and get worse with time until they pummel somebody. By the grace of God we’re working through it.


This year so far has been spent primarily in Alberta and Saskatchewan working with recruitment. Something that had been a bit of a let down for me we finding out that we most likely would not be doing any ministry in places that weren’t ‘Christian’. I wanted to be able to get out there and do some evangelism with the team… you know, build bridges for the churches in the area. That kind of thing. Well, long story short, we started out this year mainly doing recruitment, but recently it’s begun to change. Especially when we went to my hometown of Prince Albert about a week ago. When we were there, we had the opportunity to go into a Native Cultural school (one that I might add surprised our Christian friends there that we had even been invited), and a school two of my siblings still attend that I went to when I was younger. They had previously never had any ‘Christian’ groups come in per se. But they let us do our programs in both these places and everyone there had a great time. It completely surprised us as to the positive feedback we received. Only God seems to be able to figure out these things. *By the way, we never would have been invited to these places if my parents hadn’t ‘promoted’ our team, so a huge thank you to them for helping to get us in these schools* Another thing that was amazing there in PA was going to one of the men’s jails. We were able to see a few of the guys we had seen last year there, and encourage them to make a difference in their communities.

One man I met there in the jail looked relatively young, maybe 22 or 24. Turns out he was 31. Because he blends so well into the youth culture, when he gets out he wants to start working with youth about drug awareness and helping to get them off the streets. He used to live on the street and told me a good deal of stuff he went through. He lost his two younger brothers, his best friend was murdered outside of his home, his mom died on the street at 45 years old… on and on. It was a very sad tale. What made it interesting though was that he knew the answer to escape it all. He knows the only chance he’s got will come through Jesus. But he has not been able to surrender all of himself. He’s always kept a little back, and that is why he is where he is. It was encouraging to see the potential that this man had. I hope and pray that God will help him to surrender that last little bit so that he will be able to live the life that he was created for.

Being able to see lives like his gives me the energy to keep going and to not give up this work. God is working.

Please continue to pray for our team as we are on tour again. This evening, tomorrow and part of the next day we’ll be doing street ministry. Pray that God will place people into our path who need to hear whatever we will be presenting, and that we will be sensitive to do what Jesus wants of us while we are there.
**The F&F64 team to the Philippines & Uganda left yesterday, and already God is protecting them. One of the girls had lost her boarding pass as they were getting on, and so she couldn’t go. Turns out however, the guy working there at the time, is a good friend of Bruce (our recently retired drama guy who went with us to Russia) and so this guy was able to pull the strings necessary to get that poor last one onto the plane. They should be arriving in Manila within the next day or so. Pray that God would work extraordinarily in both their lives and the lives of all the people they will meet!**

Oh, yes, and lastly, we had a great time in Nipawin. We were there for the Missions Conference and were able to catch up with a lot of old friends and make some new ones. It was great. :) Thanks for having us all you Nipawin people!
***Grandma suprised me with a ice cream cake while I was there... :) That was really special! ^_^

Hark!

It’s been quite a ride since I’ve last left any messages or anything for that matter. If I were vain, or just absent-minded, I’d have to welcome myself here.
It’s been busy. Wow. Our Encore team 15 has 6 people officially on it now. AJ, Kelsy, Karina, Janelle, Rhys and myself. Right now we’re in La Crete, AB. In fact, this is where Karina and I became engaged over a year ago. As such, there are a lot of memories that linger in this place. It was good coming here again.
It’s been a very hard battle uphill this time on team so far however. Everyone has been having troubles with spiritual battles in varying forms. Everything from physical injuries to depression to anger to stress to absolutely whatever. It’s made living desperate some days. Having to be determined when we wake to not succumb to the lies that float around us day and night. It’s been hard. But I know that you have been praying. Had you not, I don’t know how we’d be holding up. But when these times have come, we’ve always made it through. Even if that meant we ‘survived this moment’… it’s always enough for us to get to the next moment… and then the next.
He is faithful that way.
There was a lot of concern earlier this year about how our team would work together being so different. It’s been going well. It’s not without its bumps along the way, but it’s good. This is a nice team.

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of talking and visiting and though it’s been very tiring, it’s been great. Being able to build relationships and make new friends, and to be an inspiration to them and them to me has been great.
I also had a little time to type out some of the song lyrics I had written from this last year and prior to that. That excited me and I hope I can practice my music more this year again.


Lastly, I’ve noticed more than usual a strange craving for Christmas to come. I’m excited for the season especially this year being that I should hopefully get to spend some time at home. ^_^
In the meantime, hello to everyone, and I’ll be doing a little better not to be so much of a stranger. We’re off to do a practice day/youth event tomorrow here in Le Crete. Thanks for your prayers!

Grace and Peace

Don't hide the Candle...

Life is weird sometimes.

I'm back in Alberta out in Water Valley area. In the foothills here VTI has a training centre. We'll be here for the next month at least with the Friends & Followers team that is going to Philippines this year. Karina and myself, as well as 3 others from my team last year are on Encore That makes it Karina, Janelle, AJ, Rhys and myself. This first week we've spent refocusing and trying to get all of our programs up in order.

Getting here in itself was quite an experience. I'm glad God is watching out for each and every one of us. And thank you to all who are praying!!!

As of the day before I had to leave to come here to Alberta, I found out that the ride that Karina and I were going on wouldn't work out. Janelle, who normally goes the same way we would was taking a plane, so we couldn't get a ride with her. The short of it was that we didn't have a ride... I should have been freaking out. However, as weird as it may seem, I wasn't worried. I was saying to myself, 'If God wants me there, He'll get me there...' By 8pm that night, there was still nothing. However, my sister invited two of her friends over to jam with me in the evening on guitar. One of them was also a James that I had gone to school with. Anyways, he went on to explain that he couldn't stay too late cause he had to go to Alberta in the morning.
Alberta?

Anyways, then he was like, 'Well, near Calgary'...and I was like, 'I need to go near Calgary. Just a bit north, to Cemona.'...
He apparently was going to be driving straight through Cremona.
Presto, a ride! :D

God has been good. I have don't have a very complete idea of why I'm here, but I know this is where God wants me. Please pray that I'll be open to listening for God's voice as He leads all of us on the Encore team this year. Also please pray for the Friends and Followers team. They're a little overwhelmed, but they've been really encouraged that we are here to give them advice and to see that we are living proof that one can survive a year of this.

Just a few days ago all of the guys went on a mountain hike like I did last year at this time. Last time we were there, it was extremely hot. This year, it was freezing. In fact, it got so cold on the top of the mountain that we had to leave relatively quickly. When we got down, it began to snow. And snow it did. All the way back until it began to rain. It was a great hike. One thing that I realized while I was walking. A journey to the summit of a mountain and back is like the journey of a life. You have highs and lows and ups and downs, curves, backtracking and lots of things that can get in the way. But what I noticed more was that on a journey like that, if you're living to get to the summit... it gets boring, and long and you get tired of walking. You start to ignore the trees, rocks, sounds and all those other things. However, if you make the effort to enjoy the things around you. To be attentive to things going on, it's exciting and interesting. Time flies by quicker but every moment is worth so much more along the way. And then when you get to the top, it's so much more enjoyable. Doing this, even the way back is more exciting than it would be otherwise, and in the end, it is worth it. All the pain and effort and the joys and memories all mesh into one entity and you can look back and be satisfied.


If we are living for every moment ... living like there is no tomorrow... living knowing that we are here to be the hands and feet of the Son, life becomes worth so much more... it becomes worth so much more... to so many more...
Can you make a difference in someone's life today? Is there someone you can encourage? Something you can do to make someone's day a little brighter?
Don't wait until tomorrow... cause tomorrow never comes...
Do it today.
Live.

Grace and Peace
James

**Oh, and for the record, congrats Tim on being baptized! Way to go man!!! :D

BBQ to DQ

Today I went to the park with some of my friends and did our best to have a hot dog supper. Unfortunately, we forgot a few things along the way... like... How are we going to start a fire? Or how are we going to drink anything if there are no cups and there are some kids here who are sick? Also, there was a miscommunication and neither Karina, nor I brought any hot dogs... we both brought the buns instead. All these things happened at once. And I realized that I had lost my wallet shortly before leaving town, and then I realized that I had to swing by to visit a lady fresh out of surgery and pick up her daughter for the BBQ with my siblings. The wierd thing is that it all worked out in spite of me freaking out.
My wallet was found this evening, YAY GOD! Whoo! (thanks Karina for grabbing it), the girl got picked up my other friends who were coming, and I didn't even know if she had been invited because I couldn't get through on the phone line, and then two of the groups who came brought hotdogs, so there was plenty, Tim found some cups at the lodge, and he had a hatchet to chop with... as well as he went and got wood. Hannah's folks had all the piro stuff in the car by which we could make fires. I had the only pop bottle, which we filled up and Tim put out the fire with it. Nathan's crew brought hot dog sticks, and the Letts brought marshmellows. It was perfect.
Everything worked out exactly right... even after that this evening. I got to hang out with my friends from youth from way back and they treated me to ice cream when I didn't have the money, and then I ran into another old friend who I hadn't seen since he went to Toronto, and we had a good talk. So good in fact that he said, 'Hey, aren't those your friends leaving?'. I turned around to find all of their seats empty. There was like 12 of them. I didn't even hear them go! But then I look up, and facing out of the DQ, are all my friends, lined up and staring at me... all of them...
lol.
I turned to my friend and said, 'Well, it's a good thing I love attention...' ^_^
Yeah, it was all good. THen I hung out with Luke for a bit. I haven't been able to do that in a long long time. And then Karina showed up and she was happy. It was a good evening.

God is good. It's too bad I have to leave so soon... Dave Huston, thanks so much for the sigh....

*SIGH*



Yeah... so below is a current 'letter' per se as of the date this was published. Have a great night. Enjoy your summer! :D

Zdrastvutye! (That's hello in Russian) Thank you for reading this blog. For those who may be wondering, 'Where has that James guy gone?'. I've been serving with Venture Teams International (VTI) for the last year. VTI is an organization that trains young people in the arts (drama, music, illusion, preaching and chalk art) in order to reach some of the world with the good news of Jesus Christ. I had the priviledge to go to 2 locations in Russia, England and Wales, as well as Germany and the state of Montana. In Russia, one of my highlights was going into a school in Northern Siberia. There was a psychologist there who would have preferred to have all the kids addicted to hard drugs then for them to hear the name of Jesus. Hearing things like that opened my eyes again to the need for Jesus' name to be spread around the world. Many of the Church in Russia are 1st generation Christians. Most of them in fact where told about Christ through their Grandmothers. Most of the Pastors we spoke with had been addicted to drugs and alcohol, they had seen their families torn apart. But when they got to the end of their rope, they joined up with a Christian drug rehab center. These places changed their lives, and now they have their families back...the divorced were reunited...the 'chained' set free...
It was like watching the book of Acts unfold. Simply incredible.

This year has helped me realize that I have a passion to see people discipled and trained to be ready to live for Christ wherever they are. As such, I have signed up for the ENCORE team for this coming year. I'd be training others with what I've learned this year and attending missions conferences and Bible Schools to raise awareness for the need of Christ around the world. This year I need to raise about $9000 by the end of the year or about $550 a month. If you feel you would like to be involved in supporting me financially or through prayer, please let me know so that I can send you my prayer letters that are sent out a few times each year. Specifically, it's hard to trust God to provide everything you need. For instance, I was told I had to raise $16 000 by the end of this last year. God has been faithful in providing thus far, but I am still $3000 behind. In any case, it has been an incredible year of seeing God at work. And I know He is faithful in whatever happens.

Please pray that God will give me the discernment I need to be sensitive to how I can be Jesus’ hands and feet to those around me. Also please pray for my family as I know they miss me and I them. This will be another trying year, but I am looking forward to the adventures and misadventures He will bring. I wish I could thank each of you individually and spend hours telling you all the highlights of this year. From Kransnoyarsk to London, from Wales to Great Falls in Montana, God has been working. Thank you all so very, very much for everything. May God give you His Grace and Peace as you continue to run the ever changing race of life. And may you give God praise that he never changes no matter how the winds of time may blow. Yet He is so vast that God will never become any less mysterious, or less adventurous. May you discover the adventure to satisfy your soul forever. Jesus.

Grace and Peace
James Witherow

The Breaking of the Fellowship

Well. I'm back home for about a half a week. After that I'm back to VTI with Encore.
For those wondering, the IMCO conference went great. But the end was bittersweet. For it would be the last time we are together as a team. Friends and Followers 63 is now officially over after completing one of the longest tours in VTI history. Four of us from that team are coming back on Encore, Coralie is joining staff, Bryce is going back to NBC for more schooling.
Karina will also be coming on team.
This year is going to be altogether different, and it will come with it's own challenges and bumps along the road.
However, as it is, I've had very little time to spend with the family. So, I'm off to spend time with the family.
Have a great day. I'll be back soon with more updates!
Grace and Peace
J

Omega...the beginning of the end

For some strange reason I suddenly have a loss of words. This is very strange because in the last few days, I've wanted to talk very incessantly...and so I've been talking a good deal. But I've for some strange reason found it impossible to communicate myself thus far this morning.
My mind is overflowing with interesting and provoking thoughts and I can't seem to get them out. Oi.
The ending is annoying... of anything... Not for Bryce anyways, he loves moving on...
For those who have ever ended anything... Saying goodbye to your friends... watched an amazing movie series... Or whatever, the ending brings with it, this longing... wishing... for it to continue. I even get that after reading a good book. Wierd.
This was thought #1...

Thought #2: Girls seem to view their shoes the same way a Guy would eye a nice car. They argue and coverse about design features and mention how this model compares to other similar ones and how it beats out 'last year's model'. And both shoes and cars are designed to take us to varying destinations... Wierd.

Thought #3: I think we underestimate righteousness... (right living by God's way of thinking) Or perhaps we over estimate it. Maybe we just don't quite get it at all. I find it so easy to wallow around in my comfortable world of semi-righteousness. Things are going so good right now... But as I read through the Psalms, I found that it's not worth it in the end to live like that. The ones who really are living the way God wants will be richly repaid... even if they find it hard now... and those who find it easy now will find just how much they may have been displeasing God as He watched silently. It's been like a cold shower shock to my thinking lately. We need to be doing what God wants of us, whether or not things are going good for us. A lot of bad things happen to good people. And many will hold on until near the end and then give up and freak out. We need to hold on. People like Job and David reminded me just how much we need to be clinging onto God's love and trying to be holy. But it's not to be like one of those... 'Oh, now I have to be holy... ' things. It's like if I know I'm going to be meeting someone special, say Karina, and I notice that I stink... or I haven't got very good breath... I'll go and get cleaned up for her arrival. It's not something I have to do. But it's something I want to do. That is how we should love God. Whether things are good or bad.

Thought #4: God doesn't want sacrifice... he wants us. Broken and willing to be used by Him. That is what is: a) Pleasing to God, and b) Pleasing to us. We find ourselves most fulfilled when God is pleased with us.
.
..
.
This week I was more sick than I've been all year. This nasty flu came and swept through AJ at camp 2 weeks ago, and then at the start of this week Rhys caught it and then I caught it right after him. I'm not quite recovered yet. My throat is still really sandpapery. None the less, I have much more energy then I did before and I'm glad to be able to get around and expend some energy again.
We finished our 'last' sunday service program other than our last 'last' one that's at the end of this week... and of course not counting our last last 'last' program which will in fact be a bunch of program stuff at the big IMCO conference in the middle of August they have once every 4 years. I'm very much looking forward to that for several reasons. One, I get to see my family... Two, I get to let them see our programs stuff... and three, I get to see everyone else, and they all get to see our program stuff too! ^_^ I'm very excited for it.
Anyways, this last sunday, it was really fun. Things went well, and we enjoyed doing our best for God in that program and He was definately helping us to do it. lol, we have this drama where AJ comes in on his knees to find Bryce, Janelle and myself all kneeling in the middle of the stage. He excitedly informs us that he has legs. We all laugh at him for it. I mean, to think of someone actually having legs to move about with? Absurd! Anyways, he rocks our world by telling us that we have legs and then he lifts us to our feet and we all join with him in our excitement. At the end, we want to go tell others, but instead of walking to them with our legs that we have now, we use our knees. We need to be using the things God has given us to use for his kingdom. Now, normally, I just crawl down the stage steps on my knees and go to my seat. But this last sunday, I was wearing one of my pairs of 'smooth' dress pants. ER... trousers. Anyways, so as I was going down the steps, I slipped and went head first down to the floor, my feet stuck in the air. My team thought I was just going over the top with my acting, but lol, if they only knew that I had accidently nearly faceplanted myself into their carpet.
It was fun.
Speaking of fun, I have Onion Rings to finish eating. Have a wonderful day and may you listen for God is the quiet today.
Grace and Peace
James

Cycles of pain... Cycles of joy

I write this, covered in several layers of sweat. Cabin dudes lookin over my shoulder. The sounds of chattering and stomping feet… Mosquitoes biting my bare back.
This was a great week… though I’m very very tired.
I’ve been counselling this week with a guy named Steven. He’s real awesome. At the start this week, I had asked if he could share his story for later this week. I never really grasped how much that may mean. It was a tough week. But a good week. Anyways, yesterday I asked Steve if he could share his story again. The guys in our cabin joined in the interest of Steve’s past. That’s when we got a bit of a surprise. We found out that 2 years ago to the day, Steve had been in an accident in Mexico.
He had been stick fighting with a friend on a short mission trip with metal brooms. They were in this high building and when he held up the broom stick at one point, the power lines were nearby… The 14000V electricity made an arc across to the broom and went through Steve’s arm and then down the building into the ground. This accident left him with a charred arm and clenched hand for a while and he had to stay in the hospital for 7 weeks. It was really painful for him to talk to us about this, because this day was the anniversary. It was really cool to see God work the healing process. It gave the whole cabin a great respect for him. Suddenly I realized why he did some of the things he did.
It was so great to see him telling these kids that God can use even terribly painful circumstances and problems to work out good things in the end.
Things will work out in the end…
That is a comforting thought.
An end to pain and suffering…
An end to bitterness…
An end to endings…
And the beginning of forever…
- July 14th 2007



Another week have camp has begun. This is not the same camp, nor does it feel anything like it. We are at Camp Evergreen and I was quite pleased that I got a free staff T-shirt, that not only fits, but that I quite enjoy how it looks. In large letters, 'Reckless Abandon' in a strong yellowy orange straddles chest.
This week has been interesting in that it is a lot larger than any of the camps I have previously been. They have a lot of staff. In fact, our VTI team's responsibility is only to take a half hour in the evening. Normally, I'd be let down that we don't have much to do. On the other hand, this allows for me to be able to catch up on some very much needed rest and this frees us up to focus on the IMCO conference that is beginning to loom ahead of us with many mixed feelings. It's great as far as the conference goes. But we also realize that the IMCO conference at Briercrest will be our last opportunity to experience as the team F&F63. Bryce will be going to Bible School next year instead of coming back on Encore. Alas, we will cease to be 'Portable Instanity' without him letting us know when we do crazy things.
He will be sorely missed.
As also I have sorely missed many of you all this year. Thank you so much for your prayers. You are not forgotten.

Life is such a strange and fragile thing. We blink and we see moments pass us by that will never return. And to dwell merely on the thoughts such as this as we watch ourselves and others age would only lead to sorrow and hopelessness.
This is why I am so exceedingly glad to know that life does go on. We were never made to live forever in this body. But one day we will. In fact, the very longing for immortality, for joy and a lack of pain is our souls longing for the day that is inevitable when things are set right by the Creator of all things. What a day that will be.

In the meantime, let us show the world to which citizenship we truly belong.

~James

I have returned!

The van smelled like people. Sweating, tired, people. At least it wasn’t 104 degrees like the day before, but none the less, it was really hot. The funny thing is, I didn’t mind the heat. Being in China 2 years ish ago, I learned to enjoy the feeling of having to perspire a lot. It’s weird, I know, but at the end of a long hot day, having a simple cool shower makes a refreshment that we cannot otherwise understand. It is so cleansifying… I know cleansifying isn’t actually a word, but it serves the meaning I wish to convey better.

Coming down here to Montana we were stuck at the border for 3 hours by a crossing guard who I was sure thought we wanted to smuggle in herds of buffalo or thought we wanted to get all the cattle in Montana to start a revolution. As such, we had to wait for a while in the office. While we were waiting, I found after a while I could relax a bit and as such I was able to cheer the others up a little. I even realized that their office was actually painted like their flag. Red, white and blue… weird. We aren’t near as proud of our country. It’s a shame sometimes. One of the main reasons they held us there was that one of our letters of invitation, out of three, was an email print off with no letterhead. As such we had to get VTI to send the border a detailed summary about who we are, what we do, and whether or not we were going to serve juice or hand out markers (seriously….) So, we waited… and waited… three hours in, a different guy came up very apologetic saying that the fax machine had gibbled up and accidentally lost our fax in with another. So they did find it, but had taken a while.
This was our introduction to the U.S. of A.

We did Day Vacation Bible school the first week were there in a town called Ulm…Olm…I forget now… But it sounds like those. It’s just slightly south of Great Falls. Anyways, I immediately realized a couple things. One, they still had mosquitoes south of the Canadian border. And two, that things are a lot more ‘Christian’ in the States. I mean, in Canada, religion has to be carefully regulated and *gasp* to think you could maybe find something ‘religious’ in a store or something?! Oh the horrors. But in the States, ‘Christian’ things are everywhere. Advertisements for example sometimes portray cross necklaces being worn on the advertisement. It was different to see. Other things like that.
Perhaps, one of the reasons it interested me so much was that I had recently been reading a book by Rob Bell called, ‘Velvet Elvis’… It talks about ‘repainting the Christian faith’. Now one of the things he talked about was that by definition, a Christian should be living a better life. You know a more fulfilled one. Or simply a better one. Living life to the full. Using the talents God has given us and just giving a 110% to give God glory in what we do. This is Christian. And there are times where people will sell things that are ‘Christian’ that aren’t. Like, say, there’s this new ‘Christian’ band out but they don’t portray anything good…. Is it truly ‘Christian’ then? Anyways, I was in the middle of a whole lot of thinking and trying to figure out things like that when at the end of the week at VBS I became very upset. Not angry. More depressed. I was looking over my life, my purpose and how I should be living. I realized that no matter what I did, I always seemed to mess up. I’d ask God to help me be a good leader, or to work hard, or to not sin, the typical, but I kept on messing up. What’s with that? It was a very hard time for me. And I was like that for nearly 2 weeks.
Meanwhile we had been doing 2 DVBS programs a day in the towns of Avon and Elliston. The kids were great but I felt awful. But God broke through. I don’t quite understand everything that happened, but I remember driving home one evening and that despair that had been floating above my head lifted and I felt joy again. It was amazing. And it was really great that I was back on my feet just before camp started at Camp Mizpah. We worked with Dave Caroll and his family. It was a great week at camp. God worked there. We were able to share so much about ourselves with these kids and they with us. It was great. We’d be out there at this little fire pit area with an American flag. Out there we saw these kids spill their hearts out to each other. The first night we really started sharing with each other, there was so much pain that they poured out all at once that you could feel it hanging in the air. We sent up a lot of prayers and there was a lot of group praying that was done.
The next night there I was able to share about letting God take us. It’s only from Jesus that we can find who we really are. My problem was I was looking in on myself, and the more I did so, the more I lost myself. The more we look to Jesus, the more we find who we are. It’s weird like that. Anyways, so we had more prayer and praise and it was a great time. I miss all those kids now. It was a great week at camp. I have pics up from all of that. It was great. I had a nasty sunburn. AJ and myself. As such, on swim day I was out there in a full big brown hoody so as to not burn myself any further. They thought was I was weird. But they were really glad I came, especially the guys from my cabin.
So, this last week we had another 2 DVBS programs every day. One in Belt and the other in Highwood. I think that’s right. It’s also somewhat near Great Falls. We had a good time there and the kids were great. We also had a lot more energy this week because of all the helpers they had to assist us in the games and crafts. I enjoyed making tie dye shirts. Hehe.
I realized that they liked it when I spiked up my hair… so I did that a fair bit of the time… Those kids were great. The Pastor there is named Brent, and he would faithfully water down the road every morning. The reason he did so was it would get so hot that the tar on the road would get sticky… I mean, really sticky…. And it would inevitably end up on kids’ shoes and on the church carpets. Therefore, he’d make sure to water the road to try to keep it cool enough not to get sticky. I sometimes got quite stuck later in the afternoons anyways though….
After our fine time there and being able to stay with Ron and Pat Long, we made our way back to Canada in a big ol’ white van.

And now we arrive at where we first found ourselves.

AJ was content all afternoon listening to music and occasionally listening on something crazy that was happening.
Bryce was content all afternoon reading, eating and (when he could get a hold of the laptop) to play freecell. We had a grand time bugging each other and comparing speculative thoughts on varying issues.
He liked eating the cookies.
Coralie and Rhys sat in the front after we got back into Canada, making sure to wave at every oncoming vehicle. What they discovered is that on the main road, roughly 10% of the drivers waved back. On smaller roads near smaller towns, the percentage increased to more than 25%. Very interesting. My theory is that Alberta people are just playing hard to get. Unlike Manitoba who’s licence plate motto is ‘A friendly place’ or something to that effect. Alberta is Wild Rose country… hard to get…beautiful but with some thorns you know? Saskatchewan’s people are always looking to the ‘living skies’ because they don’t want to look at the roads they have to drive on… J
Janelle. She was trying to learn some German and to count the train cars we would see whenever we were stopped by a passing train. Our job was to try to make sure she’d lose count. It was a blast. Hehehe.
Me? I was just thinking over what to say in this entry and trying to make sure that Janelle would lose count of the train cars. It was a great ride back, and this time we didn’t have trouble at the border.

God has been doing amazing things and He helped renew my spirit and I’m eager to get back out there doing my best for Him. So we learned a few things on the way back…
One, people must think we’re weird because we’ve been so overtired the last while. You know how you can get loopy at the end of a long day? Yeah… it’s great.
Two, that God can do amazing things if we are willing to let Him work.
Three, God can use anyone…
Four, bikers are more friendly than the rest of the vehicle drivers.
Weird.

Now today it is Sunday and I'm hoping Karina will be swinging by. We're heading off to Camp Evergreen, near Okatoks, this afternoon. Should be an interesting week.
Thank you all for your prayers!
Grace and Peace
~ James

a journey of epic proportions

Today was a day off. We were in Strathmore... and I desired to get a picture...
But first I had to wait for Bryce to wake up. He woke up near 12... I was up near 10...which I might add was late... very late in fact for both of us. The others had gone to Calgary. Yet we would not be turned... we were going to accomplish this task.
But then there was a wonderful snack. We had to stop for a snack... so we did...
But then we were going to leave and would not be turned...
But first I wanted to see their bird named Kingsley. He is a very beautiful bird, even when he's attacking your ears.
So, after a good while playing with Kingsley, we finally decided we would be ready to go. So we were going to go...
But that's when it began to rain, as well as thunder.
Never the less, we would not be stopped and decided that we would still try to get to Walmart...
Unfortunately, though we had very good directions, I failed to remember them properly, and Bryce and I turned the exactly opposite way.
We did notice our mistake however, and we did our very best to make it to Walmart. We past hills of grass...

Many buildings...

Construction sites...

A Lake...

And crossed a sandy wasteland until finally arriving at Walmart.
And then we had another 5 kms or so to walk back...

It was a good walk, and I got some nice photos out of the deal....we even made it back first try.

So tomorrow, we're off to Montana! Thank you so much for all your prayers... If you thought the above was wierd... you should see us in person when we finally unwind on days off... :D

Grace and Peace...
James

Dandelion Castle

It truely was a epic moment of sorts arriving back here at VTI. We're in the Water Valley area again, in Alberta. When we arrived and came down the hill we were greeted by a field of yellow. Now normally, a yellow field would imply something like, canola, mustard, or perhaps even a large lemon truck collsion with a truck filled with yellow paint. As it was however, this yellow field was of dandelions... I've never seen so many of them. Now I must admit... you can still see green... but if it keeps up like this, you won't in the next few weeks I would say....save for the green of dandelion.
Trekathon, VTI's annual fundraiser was pretty fun minus the absolutely crazy panic in order to get those things in order. But it was good, I didn't get a farmer tan, and I'm almost recovered from the running and biking. I'll try to get some pictures up soon. (We don't have high speed internet here)
For anyone wondering what we've been up to, we just came back from our Manitoba/Aberta tour... we went down to Austin MB, where Bryce is from, and then we ended up after a while there coming back to southern Alberta from whence we had come. Somewhere inbetween all this, we stopped for a bit near Edmonton and then we stayed overnight once in my parent's home in PA. It was real good being back for a little. Thanks Luke a lot for the video work you did! That and the whole Marvel DC thing. heh heh.
God has been working a lot wherever we've been going, and also has been doing a lot in each of our lives individually. For myself, I've been reading more and writing more music and I've been contimplating more significant areas of the Christian life... defining what 'Christian' should look like and how to best be doing what God wants us to do. It's been exciting to see what God is teaching me...
So, that brings us to today... Monday... my Sabbath... I'm enjoying the wind passing through this building and the sun reflecting it's glow off the hill of dandelions... it's all good. We'll be here the next two days planning and prepping and learning. I hope you all are doing well. Thank you for your support and prayers!
Grace and Peace
~J

Ordinarily Extraordinary

Wierd. We find so many things in this world boring. You know, you see the sun go up and go down... You see trees... Love... can love get boring? Does a flame get boring? I know some people who I don't think will ever be bored by flame... in fact, I generally get enjoyment out of their enjoyment for their flame... Pyros...you gotta love em... Wierd. Rhys is a Pyro...and since he's been gone with some relatives lately, I've got to set all the fires! :D

I like fire...

I remember one time when I was real little and I stuck a hot dog stick, a metal one in the fire for a real long time and then i pulled it out and grabbed the end. I don't know why I did it... What I do know is that I never did it again. Because, boy, red things that come out of a fire are HOT! Whoo!!!

We are now in Calgary...and from the amount of looking back on my life you see above, you have probably already noticed that I must have too much time to think right now... In actuality, the last couple days have been the first in a long while that I have not been significantly ill or had a bunch of programs or travelling. As such, all that my mind wished it could have thought about in the last 8 months has now started to spin its way out. I've even started to dream again. I didn't realize that I had stopped until, well, I started realizing I was actually dreaming again. Again, very wierd.

Currently, I am staying in a VTI alumni's home. Her name is Ellen, husband's name is Jack. They're great. THey, like my parents have been involved in some Native ministry as well. That's been real great for a conversation starter. We've been able to relax a bit and now tommorrow we're going to be working with Mustard Seed here in Calgary. It's been really good. Really.

For those wondering, I am still in prayer about my coming year. I would very much appreciate any prayers my way... and thank you to all who have been praying. I want to be sure that I am moving in some way or form for God to direct me, but not moving so sure that I cannot be turned.
Again, thank you all so much...
I know you've been praying

May God grant you His Grace and Peace
~Brother James

Pinky on the Backspace...

I never realized how entertaining Bryce is to watch when he’s typing on the computer. He uses that backspace a lot.... and I think he's one of the few people I know of who spell checks everything... It's a good habit I suppose, that way you won't have as many speeling mistakse... ^_^ Heh, good times on long sunny afternoons. For all those wondering what we’ve been doing or how I’ve been doing, fear not. I’m about to answer your questions.
What:
We’ve been having this missions conference thing where a bunch of mission groups and Bible schools come here to try to recruit us. It’s been really encouraging.
How:
I’ve been sleeping very poorly. As such I’ve been tired and very sore most of the time. I think I’m now on the upswing now… at least I hope so. I’ll find out tonight. In any case, God has his reasons. He knows why everything happens when it happens and He’ll look after everything.


It’s good to be back.
Talk to you soon!

Is there Anybody OuT there¿

It's one of those kind of surreal universes when you get back to VTI after a mere ten days at home. It's so short being on a break that you're sure it's only been a couple of days; and yet so long that anything you experienced so far on this year seems like some distant dream that only exists inside a faded memory. Truly it's an interesting experience.
For all those wondering, Germany was great. I recall having the grandest Easter Egg hunt I've ever had and it reminded me of being at home. That was real nice. Groundstaff was great to hang out with, and in fact I'd go as far as to say they've made up for all the other crazy problems we've had with the groundstaff at troubled airports around the world.
German airports were no problem for us this time around, though in Heathrow, London, we had some issues. This was just because we were allowed <----> that much luggage whilst we realized we had more like <------> that much... It did work out though. I apologize that it seems like it didn't phase us much. I was quite frantic for a while. But I knew that people were praying and I knew that God had been my only hope since ever when everything else dies. As such we trusted God and He didn't let us down. It's not to say He took away all our problems... God doesn't do that... He gives us the strength to get through them. As such, I would love prayer for my year after this one with VTI. Karina and I realized that God wanted us to pospone our wedding for a while, and as such I'm hoping to get more training and experience. Please pray that God guides me, because I feel like I'm quite at odds with myself sometimes when I'm working through things like this. Isn't it strange how things are always so much more impossible when it happens to you? I mean, if it happens to your friend, solutions seem so easy... it never seems that way from the person caught within these conflicting ideas.
With that in mind, look out more this week for people who need to know God loves them. How many people live near your house that have never heard the name of Jesus used in a context of love?


Love your neighbour....
And even more important, don't set up anything in the way of our loving God...
Nothing else will fulfill us.
It's fused as a necessity deeper than DNA could ever show.
Grace and Peace from the training camp near Calgary!
Brother J

That Lantern is never out of 'in'....

Chinese lanterns are great because they never go out of style...

Nor does music. And that is good because we've been able to do a lot of music with Groundstaff the last 2 days. One outreach I know some of you heard about because it was in the Chec Republic. That was exciting. God worked it all out really awesome. We got through the border no problem at all, and then we were able to set up. Before the program started however, we went for a walk to hand out flyers to the youth and kids in the area. We found some down around some the large uncreative buildings that a government at one time used to cram all of their citizens into. We had been taught a few basic words in Chec that basically equated to: Hello (ahoy) Here's a flyer!
Yeah, it was fun not being able to communicate again. As I walked towards these unsuspecting kids watching two older kids play some soccer, I practiced saying Hello...here's a flyer. There were 3 kids I spent the next few minutes with. They wanted to know if it cost anything, and we had fun writing symbols and numbers in the gravelish sand. What we got across was that it was free... But then they asked where it was...and I couldn't explain it for the life of me... Luckily, there were some German girls with us and so one came to help me... And although it did wonders for my moral support, she couldn't explain anything else either. Luckily again, there was another girl that seemed to know a good deal more about this communicating in Chec, and therefore was able to explain that we were in a theatre, 'that way'...
Oh, the joys of finger pointing... ^_^

So, we did the program, and there were only a few people who came who were not associated with the church there though there was about 60 people. What is awesome though is that there were 3 kids who came early at the start of the program and soaked in everything that night...music...art...drama...and the gospel. What they will do with it I don't know, but they each took materials about Christ, including the Jesus movie in their own language. That and they had a chat with the Pastor. Pray that God keeps his hand with them. This city is called Asch, and just like how it sounds in the back of the throat, it's a pretty rough town.
Being on the border of Germany, it's been a center for oppression, prostitution, and all kinds of crime and chaos. In fact it was known a short time ago as being the most rundown city in all of the USSR that had recently dissolved. To be able to bring a little bit of light goes a long way the darker the enviroment is. I hope God will be able to work there in a mighty way in the near future. Pray that God will keep working there.

That brings us to today. We were in a town an hour from Hoff. I believe it's called Saalfeld. Anyways, we had a good time there. We did a youth time and more music worship than I have done in a long while. It was really refreshing and then in the middle of the evening Groundstaff did a concert outreach thing. It was great. We finished it off by doing a good deal more music worship...in total that day it was like 7 hours of programs and music. We even slept there so we stayed up until about um... 1:30ish...and then us guys stayed awake until about 3:00ish...Some of voluntarily and some not voluntarily...It was good though and we apparently made some kind of an impact with the youth we hung out with cause when one of the girls was saying goodbye this morning, she came up to me and said, 'Goodbye funny freak!'...

Then we came home...
for any other pics of the adventure, check out the pics on my multiply site: http://encaitar777.multiply.com
Grace and Peace

Who in the world says, 'Deophobic'?

Apparently, Deophobic is a word that was made up by John Cooper of Skillet. Basically it means to have a twisted misplaced view of God and to be afraid of Him. This word is in a song that we've been working a drama to for use here in Germany. It's been a while since I've been able to tell any of you what is up. We have just started doing programs here in Germany, mainly in schools. It's strange in that it feels a lot like the schools in Russia, but there's a splash of England into the mix.
We've had a bit of time here and there to relax and to reflect on the last while travelling overseas. I should be writing more than I am. Songs that is. There is so much inspiration and I seem to miss out on it most of the time lyrically. It's been fun to expand myself in music. I've been practicing drumming once in a while, and just two days ago I was able to try to play a 5 string bass. It's a lot of fun having a lower string to fiddle with. O.o
It's been a great time here...
We've been staying in a church here and it's packed full of instruments, chairs, tables and chairs... But one thing that I've enjoyed specifically is the interactive prayer room. By interactive I mean that there are stations with visual aids to remind us to pray for specific things. For example, there's a place with Israel's flag, to remind us to pray for the Jewish nation. Things like that. It's been really great to be able to consciencely spend more time in prayer. That's been really good.
Well, I'm going to head out for now... Some of the others are needing the computer. Feel free to check out AJ's webpage as it has the most recent everything on it...(How he aquires time to do this emailing blog stuff I'll never know...)

O.o

Have a great one! May God's grace and peace be with you!
Romans 6:15-23

Vas?

ThaT means 'what?' In German. We're all safe here and doing well. Though I should have gotten more sleep. We went to a youth event last night with a german leader who spent a year in Winnipeg, MB. So now she has this native german accent, and it's so fun to hear her talk. Wow... Anyways, it's all good. We have to go for breakfast now. Thank you for your prayers! Grace and Peace...
J

Implied Meanings

Well, here we are in the last days of the United Kingdom. Wales has been good... :D We went to the ocean yesterday, and that's where these pics are mainly from. Thanks to everyone for your prayers. It's been a trying time here. Always, always busy. And I know it'll be busy in Germany as well. I sure hope God gives us the strength to keep on going. I know He will. ^_*


I'm going to miss all the RE classes. That was one of my favorite things to do here. There are so many misconceptions about Christianity that I am glad to have the classes simply to correct some of the strange things that I've heard. At the same time, it's been interesting to learn more about other kids' beliefs. Everything from Atheism to Muslim. All along the line, the talks have been interesting. It's something I really will miss.

I hope that us as the Church of North America will be able to catch the same passion as the Church here in England and Wales that we've been involved with. They have been hard out for Jesus everywhere we've gone, and it's been so refreshing despite our busy schedules.
Anyways, again, thank you to everyone, and alas, I must be off again. Hope you enjoy the pics. Wow... God is awesome... I have never experienced such a powerful wind...


:D

You can check out more pics at my photobucket link...(the same one with my London pics)

Grace and Peace

P.S.
Happy Birthday Grandpa Witherow! And for anyone wondering, I now have a sister website up for this one. http://encaitar777.multiply.com
check it out! :D

The Attempt to kill Jaimal

http://lastchancetobreathe.multiply.com/

Yeah...check out this link here! AJ, from my team has posted up literally hundreds of our pics! :D

Mock-Tees On March 7

I’m alive.
The sun is shining and the air smells like spring. Roadwork is in full swing, and people are complaining about it. We’re definitely back in England! This is our 2nd last week here in the UK. We just finished our time in Chepstow and now we’re in a town just north of Birmingham called, Walsall. It sounds very close to Warsaw because of the accent. It’s interesting to say! Give it a go if you want… Wool-sool. Interesting. Anyways, we did some open ministry yesterday. We were out in the town square and we did some music to have people stop for a moment and listen and then there were a good number of people out there giving out tracts. It was good, but wow, it can be hard. For those who regularly do that kind of thing. I salute you. It’s hard work. It’s been interesting to think about our time in Russia and the UK so far… I’ve been trying to think of what it will be that I remember most importantly. I think that will be prayer. Prayer has been so important. And we never ever spend enough time with God. I don’t anyways, and that’s something I need to work on disciplining all the more. Keeping my eyes on Christ is one of those extremely simple and extremely difficult things to do. But I’ll keep trying, and I’ll just have to trust that Jesus will give me the patience and discipline that I need… and the passion to spend the time with Him that I should.
We will be doing a few different things here in Walsall, such as ‘improv drama’…making stuff up on the spot. But we’ve never really done that kind of thing. I think it’s because they think we’re like a group that has been here called, Life Force. So we’re either going to have to get better at our improv drama, or, we need to let them know we might be doing things a little different. We’ll see how that goes.
It’s been an interesting time here today. We visited with a good deal of elderly folk. It was really a good time. One lady told how she had very bad memory. Therefore I let her name me something more memorable. Fred. Yup and get this! She remembered James because she was calling me Fred! Weird. That is how my mind works sometimes. I was able to play one of my songs for them, but I played it in two parts. Halfway through the song I got a real bad nosebleed. lol, that was interesting. I was able to fix up my nose before I got blood on anything so that was good. Unfortunately it was rather nasty at slowing down and therefore it made doing any songs we had left and one drama a little more interesting for me. That and I suddenly couldn’t pronounce certain words. Words like time, came out as timeb. Or habby instead of happy. Rhys made sure to remind me of this fact or factb every couple minutes. It was all in good fun ^_^.
But yeah. For anyone who is wondering what we would love prayer for, we need prayer for energy. We’re very tired. But until we completely burn out we’re going to go hard out for Christ! And so long as we are relying on Him for our strength we shouldn’t burn out. For his yoke is easy and his burden is light. He will carry us through the hard times and stay with us through the long stretches. It’s all good. :)
Anyways, take care everyone. May God grant to you His Grace and Peace to you today.
Brother J.

***THE NEXT DAY***MARCH 8***
Today was long and trying. But God was good. We did some drama things with the kids in the school, and they all enjoyed it very much. Coralie was able to catch up on her rest and so we're going to be going at this again tommorrow... with I might add, an extra hour of sleep. :D That will be nice.
We are still as a whole very tired. Fatigued... But we're hoping to be renewed. We'll see how that goes. Keep praying! God is working.
Grace and Peace
P.S. We had a good bible study tonight... I now have many things to ponder as I await the JWs who we are hoping will stop by tommorrow night. (Rhys met them when he was sick here at the house and they wanted to come back with an Elder to talk about some of the things that Rhys asked them about... it should prove interesting. I really hope they come!) O.o

Eclipse

Behold the lunar eclipse. We had a great time watching this thing overtop of Wales here. We had seen a full moon heading out to our last program while we are here in Chepstow, and on the way into the house when we got home, Vicki pulled me back outside to see the moon half gone, and then it kept on disappearing. Soon enough, it had turned to an amazing shade of red. It was something else. Just like the rest of this week. We've been doing RE classes the whole time basically and we've had a couple programs. Last night we were all very overwhelmed and very tired. But God gave us the unity and strength to finish strong. And he did work! I had a good but short talk with a couple of the guys, and everyone there I think was touched by God in different ways. Thank you to all who have been praying. This was one of those time that I got into a lot more detail in my testimony. It was amazing to see how simply telling people where I've come from can help others around the world. I hope God keeps on working as he has been. Please pray that our team can soon be refreshed and be able to get more energy into everything we have been doing. We're all running kind of low right now. Thanks so much for your prayers!
Grace and Peace
¬James

New Pics New Places

http://s128.photobucket.com/albums/p174/encaitar777/London%20Area/
check it out! The other link to get there is over here on the left and it says, OTHER PICS. That will take you to the same place ... yeah.
Off to Wales we go. It's been great staying here with Patrick & Claudette (I hope i spelled that right) and their son, Craig. Take care everyone!
Hi Ho Hi Ho, it's off to Wales to we go...

Behold the Morning

Here I am on our last full day here in Plumstead. It's been a good time here. Yesterday I was able to go with Bryce and Rhys to visit the Prime Meridian. lol, it was interesting to think about who it was who decided to establish the beginning of time here. There were some museums there and many many clocks. We spent the whole day almost wandering around that area. It's a large park with a bunch of museums. Museums I might add, that are free! FREE! That was awesome.
Yesterday evening, I went to the church's yearly talent show night that was raising money for Uganda I believe. I went because there were some kewl guys that we met there the day before that. So, I went and I had heard that they all left, but lol, they were just up in the balcony. Anyways, we all had a great time there and it was kewl to see all the different people from the church there.
I need to go have some breakfast, so have fun and take care.
Grace and Peace

Stars

Maybe I've been the problem

Maybe I'm the one to blame

But even when I turn it off and blame myself

The outcome feels the same
I've been thinking maybe I've been partly cloudy

Maybe I'm the chance of rain And maybe I'm overcast And maybe all my luck's washed down the drain

I've been thinking 'bout everyone, Everyone you look so lonely

But when I look at the stars

When I look at the stars

When I look at the stars, I see someone else

When I look at the stars

The stars, I feel like myself

Stars looking at a planet

Watching entropy and pain

And maybe to start to wonder

How the chaos in our lives could pass as sane

I've been thinking 'bout the meaning of resistance

Of a hope beyond my own

And suddenly the infinite and penitent

Begin to look like home

But when I look at the stars
When I look at the stars
When I look at the stars, I see someone...

***This is a Switchfoot song... When you look up at the stars...heaven...you see someone else, and it is only then you begin to feel like yourself...the way you were meant to be...

It's been quite a ride here lately. We were in Welwyn Garden City last week, and that's about an hour north of London I believe... Now we're technically in London itself. I don't remember the name of the city here or anything. It at one time was a village and it got larger like the other ones nearby, and then suddenly London engulfed them. That's like on this little green Island... O.o

The church here that we are working with is called the Slade Evangelical, I believe. They are very Evangelistic in their approach, and as such, they have a diverse and strong group of believers here that want to see the gospel preached. It's been a real blessing to be here so far. I'm staying with Patrick & Claudia. They've really blessed us in letting us stay here.

I've been struggling in trying to find time. There seems to be no time ...which isn't true... But it all gets soaked up all around us by all the things we have to do in a day. But they have been good things! We've been able to get into a few schools here already, with two more coming up today. We've mainly done short programs within an assembly, but we've had a good number afterward of hour long chances with a smaller group afterward... Part of their Religous Education Class kind of thing. Yesterday for example we did a pure RE class. As such, we flat out presented the Bible and Jesus to them. We had some good questions, but they were typical questions like, 'Will I recognize my friends in heaven if they die at a different time?' or 'So you mean that we have to be born again to go to heaven?'... I enjoyed questions like that... :D Anyways, that was really good for our team and we've been doing better... though, lol, we had a harder time with some of the program items at the Kids Club last night....

We had one of those moments where we were all like, 'What's happening next?!' I asked two people because I couldn't see the board...They didn't know, either. So, I, in a dire effort to kill time gave a wonderful example of what to not do when on a stage. I walked up to the mike and made a popping sound. 'That sounds cool!', said I. lol, it was just one of those nights I guess. When we actually realized what we had all done or not done after the program we had a good laugh... It was even funnier when I retold the story to my billets.

The time here has been good... We'll have to see what will happen in the next while. Keep praying that we will have strength and boldness to make the gospel known... I'm also preaching this Sunday evening... I haven't tried since we were in North America 4 months ago... so I need to get 'back into shape'. May God's grace and peace be with you all!

Grace and Peace

<---One side to the Other--->

This has been a different time here in England... Welcome to English... Welcome to the real world... the one where people can understand you and you can understand them. WOw.

It was a brisk day out when we started up this morning. We're along the coast here in southern England, in a town called Worthing. They've been hovering near -1 degree temperatures and there are many worried that it could snow. Snow here throws life into absolute chaos. This morning, all the vehicles had a layer of ice on the windshield...and it seems Andrew(the youth leader I'm staying with) that he will use anti-freeze in the windshield wipers, pour water onto the windshield, or use other kinds of sprays... But it's not a scraper that he thinks about. I did it after the water and sprays he put on began to freeze... :P

Anyways, today was the first day here in Worthing that we did a program. We were in two schools. Worthing High...and Davisions. Worthing High was interesting. The class of 40 came into the auditorium to find us still frantic and rushing to finish setting up for everything. We started off with some simple questions and some of them began to answer. But then all of a sudden, the dam broke. Out from the gaping hole in the wall, difficult questions began to pour out... wow. On the far side to the left there was a boy who seemed to be a Christian...even if he wasn't...He knew a fair bit, and he was talking positively about Christians and Jesus. On the right side, extreme right, last chair...sat a young man with red hair. I do believe he had some freckles...This boy asked the most difficult questions. Everything from, how do you prove God exists?, to Carbon 14 dating (Evolutionary methods of telling people how old fossils are), to the Gnositc Gospels and why the Israelites killed everyone in Canaan. Oi... They were very polite, but wow... it was harsh. Most of our team just sat out and watched me go at it with the rest of the students...so therefore when it was over, I was worn out... wow...

But we didn't have long, because after that we were off to Davisions, an all girls school. I must say that when we drove in I was already nervous... Girls in small groups can be really intimidating sometimes... I had no idea what it would be like with 300 in one room (which there were)... But it all went well, other than the janitor had no idea that we were coming. It was all good. :)

But then this evening, I had the opposite extreme. After a rushed busy time of watching the family here get both supper ready, and their house ready for home groups, people finally began to arrive. We had a devotional video, then discussed things for a while, and then we prayed. After that we began to chat. I met a few of the ladies and men from the Worthing Tabernacle, where we've been having our base of operations, as it were. Anyways, afterwards, Brother Andrew, an elder in the church here was having quite a debate with a lady named Brenda. The short of it was that since Andrew wasn't a Pastor, but was being paid for doing, 'the job God gave him'...He must ask God for another job because that one doesn't count... He needed another job...
Needless to say, that spurred a good deal of discussion and debate...wow...
On the one side, having a boy who hated the Church, and on the other finding out that we are amoung the 99% of Christians who are wasting our lives because we haven't asked God for a job. It was such a mind thrash I had to sit down. O.o

Anyways, if nothing else, I hope to talk much more with Brother Andrew. He's a very faithful servant and is extremely sold out on loving people. I want to know more about him, so we'll see what happens.

In the meantime, please pray that we boldly declare God's truth... Most of this week will be spent doing evangelism, discipleship and going into schools. We need all the prayer we can get. And may God bless you for your diligence.
Keep your eyes on Christ...
Everything else will follow...
~Brother J

PreEnglandPhotos

Jesus is my Superhero

We're alive and well...for the most part...in England, just east of Wales. AJ has been a little sick lately, and I've been struggling a bit with an occasional cough. We had a crazy bit of time in the Moscow area for those who have been wondering what all happened...

We were 3 hours late getting to Moscow because of a snowstorm... and so we arrived, it was the same reason that our contact who came, 3 hours late, broke to us the news that we had no vehicle anymore... the one we had asked to be there took off to make more money. That's life.... sigh... so we were there in the airport for about 4.5 hours before we left... and we had to pay him 4000 rub. to take us halfway across town... (that's 150 american)... and then when we arrived to pick up our freight, they REcharged the same price we had paid to ship it... it was a 'holding fee'...sigh... then we were dropped off in a dark winter alley with three big german shepherds that were spying us out...The door of the building was frozen, so we couldn't get in... it was midnight...the buildings all around were abandoned... and we to simply hope this other driver would show up so we could pay him 3000 rub....But it worked out and we arrived at the airport...

We were told that at most at the airport in Moscow that it might cost us 1500 American... When we got into line we found out that they had upped the price of overweight luggage (anything over 20kg per person) and that meant if we were to leave with anything it would cost us 6000 american.

Needless to say, we didn't do that. God worked it out so that an offical from the airport came to talk with us when the way was shut. We combined what money we had (because we couldn't take any more money out on the team card that day...due to other issues...) So we delved into our debit funds and came up with enough...2000. But we're here now and safe.

God definately has been watching over the team... all the details. The little ones and the ones of huge proportions. He truly is everything we need.


But wow... I was almost a nervous wreck for a while... I was all trippy for a while... God was so good. In our desperation he got us through... We had no other way we could have come here with our equipment... but God worked it all out...wow...It was like watching a mountain disappear...crazy...!!!!
Praise God... and thank you all so much for your prayers... we had only had 2 hours of sleep in 2.5 days ... but God helped us hang in there... Hopefully I'll be fully recovered soon. :)

We did our first English program today. Two of them for children in a school. It was a lot fun. heh... I'm really looking forward to the rest of the time we're here... it's just too bad that I'm still so tired... I hope all the sleep I can get will last longer in the long run and be worth it in the end.
There is always something going on and so it's too bad that I've not been able to update things here so much.

Keep praying that God will be at work here... I'm eager to see what He wants to do here. Take care!
¬Brother J

the sunset is a sunset...
the archer is an archer... it has something to do with Genghis Khan
and the MIG is a MIG...I think it may be a MIG 19 but I'm not sure... that's all I know.. :)

A Contrasted life...

January 20, 2007
Well, we’re still alive and kicking over here in UlanUde. It’s been very interesting being here. We recently came back from a two day trip to some villages nearby. We had a couple programs, one at an orphanage and one at a ‘house of culture’ in a village of 2000 people. There we saw a strange contrast…those who had a future and a hope… and those who didn’t.
John, right when we arrived at the orphanage to set up began to speak with a little boy who was smiling away…He rolled up his pant leg to show John that his leg had been scarred. ‘My mother did this to me.’ He said. ‘And when my father got home he killed my mother for it. Now my father is in prison… But he was RIGHT for doing that, wasn’t he?’ John didn’t really have a response to that…
On the other hand, you have completely different responses to the same kind of thing. We stayed with a grandmother (bAHbushka) in the village for two nights. It was a nice size for a home there. It overlooked a beautiful little valley that had a fresh spring, and large trees and hills. Oh, it was beautiful. Her husband had built that house, but he was only able to live in it for 6 years. A day came where he went hunting with some other men. Her husband told them where it was safe to shoot, and where it wasn’t. One of the men ignored his warning and when he came to find the animal he had shot, to his horror, it was her husband. He was 38 at the time. It’s strange. When people were telling her to press charges and to make him pay for what this man had done, she refused. She told them, that putting him in prison to pay for the mistake would hurt his family that much more… And he needs to be there to care for them.
When one of her sons was 28, he shot himself.
Her life has been full of hardships and grief and pain… Yet she found strength to go on. She found her strength in Jesus…though she may not have completely understood it at the time.
You see, her father, when she was growing up, was a Christian. But they didn’t have a bible or anything. But he was a God fearing man, and he taught his family the Lord’s prayer and other simple little ditties. She had to put her hope in God… He was all she had for sure.
But she is very very thankful for everything she has. She doesn’t have much… but to her, she is very well off. God has blessed her with a home, he has given her comfort. She has grandchildren now… And she is more than glad to know that Jesus is her Saviour.
For all these people here in Russia. It is so very hard. Life is rough. And especially in this area that is very Buddhist, it’s just part of your accumulated sins from previous lives…You have to pay your debt.
It’s frustrating… Jesus is here…right in front of them when they need him, but so many walk the other way. However…there are a few who see the light. And once they are set in their decision to follow him, nothing…not even death has any power over them anymore. People full of Christ truly are full of his power to accomplish whatever God has set out for them. I want to be like that…I want to have that much of Jesus.

Wowzers Trousers

Well, look at that! Here we are, over halfway through January and into our last little bit here in Russia. It's amazing that the time has gone by so fast. It's too bad, and then again, it's great to know that it's less time to see everyone back home again.
We just had a big outreach program tonight... over 300 came out and I suppose it was the biggest crowd we've had so far. It was really encouraging... But more so, I was glad we were able to share the gospel with them. Here it usually is a long time before a Buryat becomes a Christian simply because the whole worldview of the Bible is very different from the worldview that people here have grown up with and it takes time for them to learn to believe only one or the other. Most may think you can be both a Buddhist and a Christian... it's different. As it is, friendship, love and trust go a long way... but everything takes time.
Thank you all for your prayers.
It's been exciting here... lol, and cold. Yesterday we were out at a village that it was cold enough in the hall we were in that when I was singing, whifts of fog would brush along my glasses' lenses. That was interesting. lol.
Alas... this is Siberia... and now that we're further south, it's sunnier and colder. Weird.
Have a great day everyone!
Take care!

New Land

Monday, January 8, 2007

It’s a bit of a shock to the system today… we have a day off… A day where the only thing really that we’re supposed to be doing is having some orientation from the head missionary here in Ulan Ude, John Wicker. They met us on the train when we arrived a couple days ago. John, Sharron, his wife and his children, Heather-Ann, Matthew and Heidi. Another couple in this area is Leif and Jamie Gustafson. They have been getting us to where we need to be and filling us in on the quirks of this area. Here the population is half Buryat.(boor-ee-at) They remind me so much of the Native People of Canada. Lol, and some even laugh exactly the same! They have fun games and jokes, love to walk and to hike. It’s really great being here. Yesterday we did a program for the local church here. It’s very small, but we sure filled it!

We did a full program set up in an area about 8’x6’… wow… that was a squeeze. That morning I was very sick… blah… But as the day went on I felt a lot better. After the service I met another Sasha who played guitar and Bryce went on to teach him some new chords. This was when we met Elizabeth . She’s a SEND missionary from Germany . She’s doing our registration stuff today if she can. Apparently she’s a master at getting out of problems. John said that she can get off with a warning from police if they catch her going the wrong way down a one way street, and run into a police car when she doesn’t have her license… she says, ‘I’m sorry, I’ll never do it again…’ and they let her off…(I doubt that ever really happened…but I do hear that most things that she gets off with, John always gets in trouble for…but that’s how the law works here sometimes)

Last night after the church meeting, we went to a service in the home of Shannon . She’s the equivalent of Olga if she had been born in the US . But now that I’ve met her…she reminds me a little more of someone else… hmm… Anyways, she was very excited to have us there and so we did little bits of program material and I helped play background guitar for their Christmas songs in Russian… That was fun. ^_^ Apparently we’ll see more of those youth in the next little while. Almost all of them were Buryat. Come to think of it, even the lady who comes in here to cook for lunch and supper is Buryat.

It’s different here. There’s more Chinese influence here. In fact, there’s even a Chinese restaurant on the end of our block… that was surprising.

I’m still very uncertain of what we will all be doing here in the next little while despite our schedule. What I mean is, it’s a little different trying to think of what to expect here. Elsewhere we’ve been in Russia , people have not been very ‘spiritual’…but here, it seems there’s a lot influence from Buddhism and other religions. Pray that God would break down the strongholds and that these people who are truly searching… the ones who are tired of life will hear about the Creator. Jesus.

We’ll see what happens.

Thank you to everyone who is praying…we had a problem free time getting here and God has kept us safe.

We played a couple games last night that were a lot of fun… electricity (you have two lines of people who hold hands behind their backs… on one end is a bottle… on the other a guy with a coin. When he flips the coin and it was heads, the person standing there watching would squeeze the hand of the person next to them… eventually the hand squeezing gets to the end and the person at the very end grabs the bottle. If they get it, then the team rotates one member to the other side. To win, you have to get back to where you started….) That was fun… other was this hand tapping game where you sit in a circle and have you hand on the knees of the people on you left and right. When someone taps their hand, you have to keep tapping and go around the circle. The trick is that if you double tap, then the direction changes… and if you flinch to move your hand, then that hand is out. Eventually you get down to two people… I actually won that game with both my hands still good… that plain shocked me… lol. While I was there I figured out a way to say something is really great….’Superr Ochin Herrisho’…which means (Very, Very Well) As far as Russian goes… it’s being very redundant… like if you were to ask someone if they would like butter for buttering your buttered toast…same kind of deal… Anyways, it’s truly a treat to add some Crazy Canadian to the Russians here who for many of them haven’t felt free in nearly ever. It really is something else to see them laugh. It’s fresh…and it’s new to many of them… I think it’s because it’s fueled by a deeper joy…

I love you all! Thank you for your prayers!

Keep your focus on Jesus!

Grace and Peace

~James