Our last week of camp speaking is over...
It was an interesting week. Usually in NCEM's camps for First Nations kids, they have very few registrations and lots of walk-ons... this year was very different! We had 11 registrations and 11 kids at camp! We had way more staff than campers, but it was a good week nonetheless.
By Thursday I was zonked... Altogether I spoke 32 times in 3 weeks and I was just spiritually and emotionally spent. I was asked to do the devotional for thursday morning and Wednesday night I got back to our room and zoned out staring into nowhere for a while when I remembered I had to come up with a devotional!! Ahhh!! I was spent- nothing left in the tank... spiritually exhausted... when the idea came to me to have a devotional on spiritual weariness! The Lord was good and showed me some stuff really quickly do I could get some rest and it was a blessing to me and hopefully to the staff as well!
By weeks end we did not have any publicly come forward to accept Jesus or decide to Follow Him, no other major public decisions, but the Word went out and it will be interesting to see someday the fruit of the labour!
Tomorrow I preach in North Battleford at Trinity Baptist Church and then off to Calgary for next week for some much needed family time and a Dr.'s appointment for Shar's hip ( and hopefully a surgery date) and next Monday Aug 6th, we fly back to Mexico... it will be very nice ot be home!!
We just found out today that they cut off our phone this month. In Mexico, you need to pay all of your bill by the due date or they cut off your phone right away. I prepaid for July, so likely the fellow who is watching our house made a long distance call or two and we probably owe 50 cents or a dollar. Friends are going to the TelNor store Monday to see what they can find out!!
Please pray as we drive across the prairies on Sunday/Monday. We've run into an issue with our rental car (We can't return it satu. or sun. because it's closed, so we need to come back to s'toon sunday night to return it monday morn!!) Please pray that it all works out and that our needs will continue to be met on this trip!!
God bless until next time!,
Mikke
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
Island Lake Bible Camp, Turtleford, SK
We finishe Week 2 of our camp speaking portion of our trip. We were in Turtleford, SK from Sunday to Friday night speaking to 29 kids aged 11-13...
Things went well- we had a good staff with lots of energy and good hearts... They had a great band with a good chunk of the staff being involved in it- which is great for such a small camp!
Most of the kids were Christians and so we challenged them to not be conformed to this world- but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds- and to be "On-Mission" Jesus Followers. We had 8-10 committ to Missions espescially among unreached peoples, and another 8-10 committ to be missionaries at home and be "senders"- living simple lives and supporting missions!
We had lots of good response and feedback from campers, staff and visitors alike!! It was good to be apart of it.
It was HOT that week... everyone kept saying- "you must be used to this, being from Mexico". It was 30+C almost every day and with humididity it felt like 36+C almost all the time! I kept having to let people know that from January-June in Northern Baja, Mexico is cool and can even get a bit miserable with cold rains! This hot was a shock for us too!! At least we can wear shorts here!!
The boys were welcomed in the program and played games, swam and hung around with all the guys and girls at camp- they had a great time!!
From there whe came to Timber Bay Bible Center- we have only 10 campers this week (!!) instead of the usual 45 or so- so it's a bit different... please pray that I'll be able to communicate things well here in the different setting...
Thanks for praying- keep cool!!
until next time,
Mike
Things went well- we had a good staff with lots of energy and good hearts... They had a great band with a good chunk of the staff being involved in it- which is great for such a small camp!
Most of the kids were Christians and so we challenged them to not be conformed to this world- but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds- and to be "On-Mission" Jesus Followers. We had 8-10 committ to Missions espescially among unreached peoples, and another 8-10 committ to be missionaries at home and be "senders"- living simple lives and supporting missions!
We had lots of good response and feedback from campers, staff and visitors alike!! It was good to be apart of it.
It was HOT that week... everyone kept saying- "you must be used to this, being from Mexico". It was 30+C almost every day and with humididity it felt like 36+C almost all the time! I kept having to let people know that from January-June in Northern Baja, Mexico is cool and can even get a bit miserable with cold rains! This hot was a shock for us too!! At least we can wear shorts here!!
The boys were welcomed in the program and played games, swam and hung around with all the guys and girls at camp- they had a great time!!
From there whe came to Timber Bay Bible Center- we have only 10 campers this week (!!) instead of the usual 45 or so- so it's a bit different... please pray that I'll be able to communicate things well here in the different setting...
Thanks for praying- keep cool!!
until next time,
Mike
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Silver Birch Bible Camp, Loon Lake, SK
After Prince Albert we went to Martensville Baptist Church where we got a chance to speak. They are our sending church here in SK and have been great partners in Ministry! We had a really good time reaquainting ourselves with the folks and sharing the vision for Ministry! Lots were interested in sponsoring kids for school and cleaned us out of pictures. Some are just going to send in money for sponsorships in case there are others who need it! Others decided to partner with us regularly and still others are wanting to come down and assist the ministry in Mexico! Some of the folks in the church have even started a cookbook that they will sell with proceeds going to Grace Children's Home in Tijuana!
Good folks!!
So now we just finished a week at Camp in Loon Lake. We had about 55 kids at camp and a really good staff too. Shane Schiele directed and I spoke. I spoke on following Jesus and what it does and doesn't mean to follow Him. On Wednesday I talked about Jesus sacrifice on the cross for our sins and gave them a chance to respond. 3 decided to follow Jesus for the first time and 15 rededicated their lives to Him! Praise God!
Later in the week we spoke about missions- that following Jesus includes being missions-minded- either by going or by supporting those who go- we had 3 surrender to Jesus for Missions and about 8 say that they will stay home and pray for and support missionaries. For most it was the first time realizing that half of our world cannot even call on Jesus for salvation because they don;t know His Name, or enough about Him to understand why He died for us!
We also saw some slides of Mexican bugs and a video about our ministry in the poor areas of Tijuana and we talked about following Jesus meaning that we will be people who love the poor and who also love those whom others do not- and they could start that at school, at home or at the playground.
Thursday night we had a campfire and about 30 kids gave testimony to how God had spoken to them that week-- It was a great week--Praise God!!
And now we are in Turtleford (Camp ended in Loon Lake Friday night, I preach here tomorrow and camp starts Sunday afternoon) readying ourselves for one more week at camp!
Thank you for praying for us- God is using us to show Himself to kids! He is calling people to Follow Him and we are thankful!! As our partners, this is your ministry too! May God bless you for your partnership!!
Untiul Next time,
Mike for the family
Good folks!!
So now we just finished a week at Camp in Loon Lake. We had about 55 kids at camp and a really good staff too. Shane Schiele directed and I spoke. I spoke on following Jesus and what it does and doesn't mean to follow Him. On Wednesday I talked about Jesus sacrifice on the cross for our sins and gave them a chance to respond. 3 decided to follow Jesus for the first time and 15 rededicated their lives to Him! Praise God!
Later in the week we spoke about missions- that following Jesus includes being missions-minded- either by going or by supporting those who go- we had 3 surrender to Jesus for Missions and about 8 say that they will stay home and pray for and support missionaries. For most it was the first time realizing that half of our world cannot even call on Jesus for salvation because they don;t know His Name, or enough about Him to understand why He died for us!
We also saw some slides of Mexican bugs and a video about our ministry in the poor areas of Tijuana and we talked about following Jesus meaning that we will be people who love the poor and who also love those whom others do not- and they could start that at school, at home or at the playground.
Thursday night we had a campfire and about 30 kids gave testimony to how God had spoken to them that week-- It was a great week--Praise God!!
And now we are in Turtleford (Camp ended in Loon Lake Friday night, I preach here tomorrow and camp starts Sunday afternoon) readying ourselves for one more week at camp!
Thank you for praying for us- God is using us to show Himself to kids! He is calling people to Follow Him and we are thankful!! As our partners, this is your ministry too! May God bless you for your partnership!!
Untiul Next time,
Mike for the family
Visiting Prince Albert
To catch you up, we spent almost 2 weeks in Prince Albert at our friends the Sauers place, speaking at Scarborough Baptist church on the one Sunday we were there. They have 3 kids about the same age as ours and it was a really good time for all of us.
On Canada day mommy and daddy sauers went tohelp their grandma move in Melfort area. So Shar and I had all 3 of our kids, all three of theirs plus their 16 year old Japanese Exchange student! After church we went home and relaxed and then went to the riverfront for the Canada day celebrations. They were supposed to have some ethnic food booths as this was being put on by the multicultural society in Prince Albert. Praise God for filipino people, because without their booth it would have only been hot dogs, hamburgs and bratwurst! So some of us consumed copious amounts of bbq'ed filipino pork on a stick and tiny little egg rolls as we listened to the Country Music bands play all afternoon.
When our Eastern Canadian and Mexicanized ears could no longer stand the endless songs about lost dogs, bad trucks and old girlfriends, we decided it was time to go home and get ready for the fireworks.
Because it stays light out so late here, the fireworks did not start till 10:30pm- so we popped popcorn, got some drinks, bug sprayed us all up and went to the north side of the river (where it is less busy) to be patriotic by watching people blow things up!
We found a good spot- but the access to the river was cordoned off with a yellow caution line and there were some other guys behind the line with a large truck and trailer. Soon the firetruck came. The kids loved that- even shareing their popcorn with the firemen... we looked closer-- we were about 50-75 feet away from the spot they were setting the firerworks off!! talk about front row seats!
It was, without a doubt, the loudest place to watch them! They all blew directly overhead! It was an exceptionally memorable show!
We all survived and after a few minutes we could all hear again :) . The rest of the week went well as we played, celebrated Matthew Sauers birthday with him, talked late into the night and just enjoyed each others company...
Thank you sauers for a great visit!!
On Canada day mommy and daddy sauers went tohelp their grandma move in Melfort area. So Shar and I had all 3 of our kids, all three of theirs plus their 16 year old Japanese Exchange student! After church we went home and relaxed and then went to the riverfront for the Canada day celebrations. They were supposed to have some ethnic food booths as this was being put on by the multicultural society in Prince Albert. Praise God for filipino people, because without their booth it would have only been hot dogs, hamburgs and bratwurst! So some of us consumed copious amounts of bbq'ed filipino pork on a stick and tiny little egg rolls as we listened to the Country Music bands play all afternoon.
When our Eastern Canadian and Mexicanized ears could no longer stand the endless songs about lost dogs, bad trucks and old girlfriends, we decided it was time to go home and get ready for the fireworks.
Because it stays light out so late here, the fireworks did not start till 10:30pm- so we popped popcorn, got some drinks, bug sprayed us all up and went to the north side of the river (where it is less busy) to be patriotic by watching people blow things up!
We found a good spot- but the access to the river was cordoned off with a yellow caution line and there were some other guys behind the line with a large truck and trailer. Soon the firetruck came. The kids loved that- even shareing their popcorn with the firemen... we looked closer-- we were about 50-75 feet away from the spot they were setting the firerworks off!! talk about front row seats!
It was, without a doubt, the loudest place to watch them! They all blew directly overhead! It was an exceptionally memorable show!
We all survived and after a few minutes we could all hear again :) . The rest of the week went well as we played, celebrated Matthew Sauers birthday with him, talked late into the night and just enjoyed each others company...
Thank you sauers for a great visit!!
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Good News on Shar's Surgery
We got some good news yesterday regarding Shar's surgery plans...
Shar is doing well. Still in some pain. She will not be having surgery next week. We will be going to Calgary August 2 to meet with a Dr. who performs another type of surgery that is much more suited to a young person. It will likely last much longer, give her more mobility and give her the option of a hip replacement should she need it in 15-20 years. SaskHealth will pay for it. They should be able to get her in for surgery within a month. It will mean 2 more plane tickets, (one for surgery and back and one for 6 week appointment) but the Lord knows what we need and when we need it- We are praying for seat sales!!
The boys are enjoying their time here a great deal. The family we are staying with has 3 kids close to the same age as ours. They get along well and are like cousins. Friendship will be a struggle in Mexico until they learn Spanish more proficiently, so this is great for them! One of the boys (Caleb's buddy, Matthew) had his birthday yesterday. It sure was nice to be able to be here to celebrate his birthday with him- it has been a long time since we could do that!!
Next Monday we go off to camp for 3 weeks, speaking in churches every Sunday until we go back to Mexico. Plans are changing because of Shar's new appointments in Alberta, which works out great because we did not know where we would go or what we would do that week- it was unplanned by us, but not by the Lord!!
Thank you for praying! God has been active!!
Praise God!
Until Next time
PS- we have been blessed with 2 new Partners and one who is praying about it for our Health Insurance Needs in the fall! Praise God-
We still need 4 or 5 more partners at $50.00/ month for Health Insurance- Thank you so much for praying about this need for us!!
Mike for the Family
Shar is doing well. Still in some pain. She will not be having surgery next week. We will be going to Calgary August 2 to meet with a Dr. who performs another type of surgery that is much more suited to a young person. It will likely last much longer, give her more mobility and give her the option of a hip replacement should she need it in 15-20 years. SaskHealth will pay for it. They should be able to get her in for surgery within a month. It will mean 2 more plane tickets, (one for surgery and back and one for 6 week appointment) but the Lord knows what we need and when we need it- We are praying for seat sales!!
The boys are enjoying their time here a great deal. The family we are staying with has 3 kids close to the same age as ours. They get along well and are like cousins. Friendship will be a struggle in Mexico until they learn Spanish more proficiently, so this is great for them! One of the boys (Caleb's buddy, Matthew) had his birthday yesterday. It sure was nice to be able to be here to celebrate his birthday with him- it has been a long time since we could do that!!
Next Monday we go off to camp for 3 weeks, speaking in churches every Sunday until we go back to Mexico. Plans are changing because of Shar's new appointments in Alberta, which works out great because we did not know where we would go or what we would do that week- it was unplanned by us, but not by the Lord!!
Thank you for praying! God has been active!!
Praise God!
Until Next time
PS- we have been blessed with 2 new Partners and one who is praying about it for our Health Insurance Needs in the fall! Praise God-
We still need 4 or 5 more partners at $50.00/ month for Health Insurance- Thank you so much for praying about this need for us!!
Mike for the Family
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