Youth Alive

The count down is on, we are all excited to go to Newmarket Ontario.  Bags are being packed, and final prep work on lessons are being done.  Our Teens are going to help Pastor Kalbfleisch and Cornerstone Baptist Church put on a Vacation Bible School for the children of Newmarket. The theme for this year is going to be SeaQuest: diving for God’s Treasures.

Please pray for us as we travel to Newmarket, and minster for the week, ask God to help us do our best for His honour and glory.

Day 1

What a start to a great day, last year’s missions trip on the first day I used the word that was not supposed to be mentioned to a certain lady.  Of Course I will not go into all the details…..  This years start to the missions trip I thought that I would turn over a new leaf. I mentioned to the teenagers a more exciting word.  “”””BABY””””  Please pray for Mrs. Walsh as she will be greatly missed on the missions trip this year 😦

~ Pastor Walsh

After the exciting news we all loaded onto the bus, van, and van.  We set off on our adventure.  The traffic was great, we made good time and did not get lost.  We arrived in Newmarket right on time at 11:16.  That is when the day started to change for the worse.  The Bus has 2 alternators on it, apparently on has not been working for a while, and after the trip with the Air conditioning on the second alternator stopped working.  So we went and got a set of booster cables, and boosted the bus.  After a couple times of boosting, it was apparent that the problem was getting worse.  So Mr. Wiedrick headed for the repair shop to get it fixed, it stalled 1/2 way there, but arrived safely.  The repair shop had one alternator, but not 2.  The Girls did a wonderful job turning the church into the underwater adventure.  The boys despite the heat went soul winning the old fashioned way.  Walk door to door mile after mile, at least that is what they claimed 🙂  Pastor Kalbfleisch was able to rent a bus so we were still able to go for a hike and a great time getting to know the church families.  We were able to go to one of the members house and have a cook out and barbq.  What a great time fellowshipping with God’s people.

We are supposed to get the bus back tomorrow morning.  We are excited to be here and looking forward to the great things God has in store for us this year.

Click below to see the pictures from Day 1

http://www.vimeo.com/13115245

Day 2

Well the best way to describe today was HOT!!  I think everyone enjoyed the nice Air Conditioned rooms last night, and the comfortable beds.  This morning we were able to take a nice walk to the church, it is about 1 block away, but you have to go around the mall on the corner, so you have to walk about 2 blocks North, then over a block and 2 blocks south.  It was a nice walk, but I think it made everyone thankful for a Air Conditioned Bus.  Since we did not have transportation to start the day we did some prep work and some practicing for the VBS later in the day.  The bus was fixed at about noon, and we are thankful to have a nice bus to ride in.  Right after lunch we went bowling, had a great time, (it was Air Conditioned 🙂 ) then armed with a great big cooler of ice water it was time to see if we could get any contacts for the evening service.

Back for supper and get everything in shape ready for the children to come and learn about Jesus.  Some teens went on the bus to gather the children that needed rides, others stayed behind to do dishes, pray for the evening and get setup.

VBS started, Marshall Wiedrick and Abigail Kalbfleisch were having a great time while we waited patiently for the kids to arrive.  Finally the bus arrived, and a few others joined, and we had 13 children for our first night.  We are encouraged that there are many that said they will come tomorrow, since we were only able to get invitations out this afternoon, many said not tonight but tomorrow.  Those that attended had a GREAT time, the Teens did a super job leading the classes and teaching the kids verses, doing crafts, and playing games.

Please continue to pray for us, as we will try to get out on visitation early tomorrow morning before the heat that we will get lots of contacts for tomorrow night.

Click Below to see pictures of Day 2

http://www.vimeo.com/13143205

Day 3

Praise the Lord for answered prayer!!!!! Mrs.Tooke had told all of the teens the night before that she had set up crafts for 24 kids and the Lord provided not only the 24 but 29!!  Amen!

Yes another day of hot, but the teens have had great attitudes about it all.  Each morning the girls are up bright and early….not all but some as early as 5:30!  Praise the Lord for enthusiasm.  After breakfast, a  praise walk started the day; what a privilege to be able to sing and praise God openly in this country.

This morning the teens were even more purposed to find contacts and invite kids out to VBS.  With the challenge of 24 children set before them, they set out in small groups to canvas the neighbourhoods of Newmarket.  They had smiles on their faces as they had many positive answers and even some kids who couldn’t make it today but wanted to be on the list for the next day.

They came back for a hearty lunch and then to the teens delight, we headed out to the air-conditioned mall for some shopping!  While we were there we played a game for the teens to find all the leaders and receive cards each time they found them.  The person with the most cards at the end won a free fast-food meal.  Congratulations Austin!

The church people here have been fantastic helping out with VBS and we are so thankful for them.  We sent the bus and Mr. Wiedrick drove his van to pick up local kids.  Eagerly the rest of us left behind waited for the full load we had prayed for to come.  One of the girls picked up in the van had them stop at another house while she went inside and convinced her friend to come too….the more kids, the better!  There was so much excitement when the final count was made and it was 29.   Tomorrow the goal is 35 and if they reach that number, the child who brought the most friends will get to throw a pie in Matt Wood’s face!

2 kids got saved tonight!!!

Thank you for your prayers, we are excited to see what God is going to do tomorrow.

Sorry no pictures for today 😦

Day 4

Well the best way to describe today is GOD IS GOOD !!!

We skipped the praise walk today to get a group picture today. Mrs Tooke washed all our shirts, so we can smell fresh and clean.  Thank you Mrs. Tooke!

This morning after devotions we went out distributing Flyers and John and Romans.  We were able to cover a good area, but it was very hot so we took it easy.  We were able to some more contacts.  After lunch were went to Rock and Chalk rock climbing.  The teens had a great time, it was VERY hot in there, and Mr. Wiedrick and Pastor Walsh are very exhausted there were 22 teens wanting to go up and and only 4 people on the ropes.  Leah Vogel was the first one to climb up the rope, she did it very fast, and made the boys want to try.  Many were able to do it, some were not.  There was a rope ladder, the men from the climbing place said that Paul MacDonald was the fastest person he has ever seen climb the ladder.

After a GREAT supper on scallop potatoes and pork chops and corn.  It was time to get ready for VBS.  Since we had 19 kids on the bus last night and we were praying for more kids to come, Mr. Wiedrick booked a second bus.  We were praying that God would do a great work, so we put feet to our prayers and send two buses to two areas of Newmarket.  We were excited when the first bus called and said they had 17 on it, and went to get another 6.  The second bus had 15 on it.  So that made 38 on buses. DOUBLE THE DAY BEFORE !!!

Mrs Tooke told the Teens that we were to pray for 41 kids to come to VBS for Thursday night. When the final count came in with all the drive in kids, we had a grand total of 42 kids.  God blessed even more than we asked.  The kids are very excited, and the teens are doing a GREAT job leading the classes and teaching the children.  I believe we had 3 kids saved tonight.

Pastor Walsh each night has been challenging the Teens to live for God and to make Christ first in their lives.

Please pray for us as we are getting tired, but looking forward to cooler weather tomorrow.  We are excited and waiting to see how God is going to bless tomorrow.

Thanks to Austin for doing the picture show tonight

Please click below for pictures.

http://www.vimeo.com/13197232

Day 5

To summarize today we serve an AWESOME God.

Today started with rain, I don’t think there was one person sad that it was raining, maybe the leaders as we had to make a quick plan for the day. But everyone was so thankful for the break from the heat.  Since it was raining, we were able to spend much more time in prayer and testimony time this am.  Then it was off to Vaughan Mill/Bass Pro for a few hours, as the rain was supposed to stop early afternoon.  Right after lunch we went out handing out John and Romans, even got one more contact from a new area.  It was then back for supper and get ready for VBS.

The VBS started with the buses each bringing in 19 each for a total of 38 on buses, which was a great blessing as there were many that did not come and new ones that came.  An even greater blessing was the parents that brought children in tonight we had a total of 52.  Our goal was 50 so Austin Judge got pickles and eggs on his head, the children enjoyed that very much.  Pastor Kalbfleisch thinks that 45 was the largest VBS the church has ever had, we are so thankful for the children that the Lord is sending to us.  The children that are coming are very excited, and it was such a blessing to see parents bringing their children.  We had at least 5 decisions for Christ tonight.  I believe that makes a total of 10 for the week.  We were also excited that some of the parents have already said they will come on Sunday for the closing ceremony.

Please pray for our last evening VBS and the closing ceremony on Sunday morning.

Please click below for the pictures from today

http://www.vimeo.com/13222635

Day 6

The end is drawing near!

Well today is our last full day here in Newmarket, Pastor Walsh allowed us to sleep in this morning, which the leaders appreciated, and I am sure some of the teens did as well.  We went out and passed out John and Romans this am, and got some new contacts again for VBS.  We then went to the Kalbfleisch house to do some gardening, painting and cleaning for them.  We also had a little Birthday party for Marshall as it was his 3rd birthday.

The teens did a great job working, and Pastor and Mrs. Kalbfleisch appreciated the help.  We were able to get a great deal done for them.

Tonight was another great night a VBS, we had a total of 46 children.  I think 38 came in on buses, so our drive in crowd was down.  It was also interesting to see the visitors that came even tonight.  We were expecting to be down a little tonight, as many of the regulars were going to be away.

After devotions tonight Pastor Kalbfleisch put on a skit for us, it was very funny, and we hope to share it with out in the future.

Tomorrow is going to be very busy, as we have to get all packed up and ready to come home, put on the VBS closing and then finish packing the decorations.

Please Pray we will have many parents out to the closing, and that we will have safety travelling home and we will have not breakdowns 🙂

Sorry no pictures tonight we will see you all tomorrow.

Please not that we will not be back to Simcoe at 4:00 as scheduled. We are going to try our best to be back to Bethel for the evening service.  Hopefully the traffic will be good tomorrow.