Hello all,
Andy Neufeld here... Late at night and the kids are sleeping... and I am quickly updating the body of Christ. Today was pretty sweet! Were starting to get into a routine now so that feels a lot better as the weekend was very busy with training and sessions. Today we changed a lot of our strategies and I will say yesterday was quite a surprise for a lot of the youth. The kids from the north end of winnipeg were slightly different I think than they were imagining. It can be discouraging at first. We had a really good team time as a group last night where we talked about the day and what we thought well and not so good. We adjusted some of our strategies and tried to place people where the gifting was stronger and I think the Lord blessed our efforts. One quote I heard from Robyn today that I feel really summed up the mood of the day was: "today I feel like the chaos left and that I could actually rest and simply love the kids and enjoy them". I think a lot of the youth showed a lot of leadership in stepping up and discipling some of the kids when they needed to, but also giving piggy back rides and loving kids as well. Our VBS brought out about 35 kids the first day and I think today there was about the same amount. Today we went around the circle in sharing time and most of the group shared that they felt encouraged and the blessed by the day. That was really good to hear. We also had a session about spiritual gifts and what we felt our giftings were in the body of Christ. It was really cool to talk and debrief with them where they felt their spiritual gifts were and to be able to encourage and affirm them from real life situations that we witnessed throughout the day. Also, I was blessed today to talk to Don Harms (John Harms other son) and was just neat to make the connection. (He's currently working at ICYA)
Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Today, probably more than any other day it felt like the Lord really blessed our team with strength and courage. I was reminded Jesus' words in Matthew 10:14 when he tells his disciples to be as shrewd as serpents (sometimes that means harsh discipline when a kid is distracting the whole group by coming up to the puppet show and dragging down the curtain), but as innocent as doves (sometimes that means just simply showing relentless love that refuses to show anger, and yell at the kid, but love these kids that are just craving attention and will do anything to get it).
Thank you so much for your support. Tomorrow we have a Carnival to look forward to. It is similar to a "kids club carnival" but its outside in a church parking lot with a lot of kids! Looking forward to it. Pray for nice weather :)
Andy
