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! ^_^
