ICYA summer

Well, the next few months will be busy with wedding planning and other exciting things, but I do want to try and keep you updated with what's been happening at ICYA, as well.

We have finished our VBS program - altogether, 80 children came through our 30-hour program, and had a blast! Our staff were ready to do it all again the next week. The kids responded so well to our new format, enabling them to actually HEAR the Bible stories, LEARN the Bible memory verses, UNDERSTAND its relevance to them and EXPERIENCE God in such a fun way! One fun example of this came, after hearing the story of the Good Samaritan, a group of girls (Team VW) decided to write a skit to perform for the group. (Keep in mind, we had a car theme with THE AMAZING RACE VBS curriculum)

One day there was a Lamborghini driving down the road, and unfortunately (though, not surprising), it broke down.

A little while later, a Ferrari went zooming down the road. It saw the Lamborghini, sitting broken down by the road, but was going much too fast to stop, so it just zoomed right by.

A few minutes later, a Kia went driving by. It stopped and looked at the poor, helpless Lamborghini, but didn't want to help. The Kia reversed and went down a different highway instead.

The poor Lamborghini was getting desperate, when finally a beautiful, shiny, freshly painted, pink VW came driving down the highway, saw the Lamborghini and stopped. Thankfully, the VW was prepared with booster cables, and out of the goodness of it's heart, helped re-start the Lamborghini. The Lamborghini thanked the kind VW car and both took off down the highway together. And that is the story of the good VW.


Last week, SERVE finished off with a mission trip to a Northern Reserve, where they were able to encourage and be encouraged by the believers out there. Gem Lake is continuing on. One of their staff, who is allergic to bee stings, had to be rushed to the hospital after a sting. She is alright, but a little shaken. Pray for wisdom for her and her family as they decide what to do, as bees are terrible this year and Gem Lake is far away from ambulance access.

Two of our young men have also been involved in violent assaults recently. One was shot, in the hand, and is doing well, and the other was stabbed in the heart and has finally moved from critical to stable condition, although he is far from out of the woods yet. Keep them in your prayers, please, as well as their families as it seems that such violence is almost accepted as normal. Pray that they will accept God's offer of grace and a changed life, and be willing to make necessary changes, for their children's sakes especially.