Answered Prayer

Let me tell you about my week!

I was seconded to Church of the Open Door (where Matthew & I have recently begun attending) to work with SOAR Heartland (youth mission team from MB churches all over Manitoba) to run a VBS outreach over Spring Break.

I was excited about the idea, as we've worked with SOAR for the last 4-5 years at ICYA, and have had really positive experiences, and our church is set in an area where there is no English-speaking church other than ours, and no decent community outreaches targeting children. It seemed ripe for just such an event. So when I approached my boss to spin the idea of running a satellite program in North Point Douglas - a forgotten corner of the North End - he was quick to agree. I approached my church, as well, and that was a little more complicated, but eventually convinced those with authority to say "yes" that this would require minimal effort from them - the use of 1/2 of the building, and a commitment to pray & be involved in follow up - and everything else myself & the team would look after. In hindsight, I wonder if I wasn't given the "go-ahead" more to be patronizing (since I was so eager!) than out of any confidence of this actually working.

From the start, there were significant road blocks: our church rents out our basement during the week, which is meant for children activities, which left us with a pew-filled sanctuary & one smaller board room to use for our program. I was new enough to the church not to be trusted with keys, so we struggled with making the space kid-friendly (and child-proof) with limited resources. We also had zero children. The four that usually come to church would be vacationing over spring break. The only committed help from the church was myself & one fifteen year old girl. Even the mid-week children's club that we put on had only one child in it, and had been unsuccessful at recruiting more. I had promised to do the recruiting before hand, but was essentially starting from scratch. The team that was coming to help was... not ideal, from the sounds of it. Only 3 actual youth from the church, plus their leader, wasn't enough to pull it off, so they opened the doors to younger youth - three 10 & 11 year olds (running a program for up to 12s!), a team "mom" and two youth from a different city & church... it just didn't sound promising.

But God is amazing! We prayed for 20-25 kids (25 was optimistic, since we didn't think our space would allow for that many). We prayed for team unity & courage. We prayed for openings to meet with families. We prayed for open hearts to Christ. We prayed for relationships. We prayed for church involvement. One of the girls I know from ICYA had recently moved to North Point Douglas, so she helped me pound the streets, handing out flyers & talking to kids & parents. By Friday I had 3 committed kids and lots of "maybe"s. By Saturday, I had 10. Monday, 12 showed up. Tuesday, 21 kids came, and continued bringing siblings & friends until by Friday we had 26 kids come through our program.

Our team was PHENOMENAL! I couldn't have asked for a more unified, prepared, committed & passionate team! I told someone, later, the stats about the team and they didn't believe it - they were so mature, so in sync with each other & us, so willing to do whatever it took to make this the best experience for everyone - I was impressed & blessed by their servant hearts & passion for God. Eleven children came to Christ through a salvation message we presented at VBS! Looking back to the Monday, where we were setting boundaries & stopping kids from bullying & doing a lot of policing, to Thursday where each of us paired up with two or three kids to talk to them about the message of Christ was powerful - we all knew this wouldn't have been possible two days earlier. One girl was near tears - she told me she had come to Christ in that very church, only two years ago, and here she was, leading a 10 year old to Christ not ten feet away.

We held a finale BBQ, and had a fantastic group of parents come to listen to the children perform songs they had learned & watch their children receive an award for attendance, and a prize bag, including a New Testament with a personal message from their favourite leader! Many of the parents stayed so long that we ended up vaccuuming under their feet! Those from the church who stopped in to see us, helped out with clean up & attended the BBQ (about 1/2 our congregation) were so encouraged, overwhelmed & blessed by the success that I feel like we've made real inroads with our congregation for future outreaches. Three different people have committed to following up with these families, through our children's midweek clubs, monthly outreach events & just keeping in touch.

So thanks for your prayers! God showed himself powerful, to exceed even the most optimistic predictions, & I think that's pretty amazing!