July 25, 2008 - Day 14

Woke up a little earlier then usual. We arrived at 58's band council building at 9:00am to meet with J and the Chief of Longlac 58. We were quite excited to see J again and we were excited to meet the Chief and present our gift to him.

Before the meeting took place though, we ran into a parent of one of the kids that some of us multiple timers know very well. I was saddened to hear that he and his group of friends have fallen into the trap that seems to engulf the reserve. We spoke to the parent and offered our prayers and listened to his concerns. I was glad to hear that the parent was doing everything he could to get his son back on track and showed that he loved his children. Please continue to pray for the kids (who are now teens) of the reserve, please ask that the short times we spend with them will remain in them.

The meeting with the Chief went very well and we were glad to hear that he appreciated and believed that we have been a positive influence to the reserve over the years. Matthew 22:39, Love thy neighbours, that’s why we're here. We presented our gift and then had some private time with J. We took down prayer items and I shake my head again in disbelief of the amount of work J does. What a powerfully strong woman. Please continue to pray for her strength and passion for her people. She does so much and more all year round in the name of God and meets the needs of the community both spiritually and physically. Praise and pray for her.

After the meeting we took some time to look for ping pong balls... yup... ping pong balls.... Dom and I joked about how stereotypical it was for a bunch of Asians to walk around town looking for ping pong balls, but we needed to replace the ones at the church. Who knew that ping pong balls were hard to find in Longlac? no luck, no ping pong balls, apparently we need to go to Geraldton to find them. Next year I'm bringing a bag of them.

Next, an appreciation BBQ for us by 77. They BBQ'd for us and the patties were fresh ground beef... mmmm beeeef....

We appreciated their act and we got to sit and talk to them some more to get better acquainted with them. The kids were being kids, and they showed off their ability to do handstands... impressive...


We said our goodbye's and went back to the church. Please pray that they remember us throughout the year and that we were able to assist and help them. Next year we can step it up and take on more programs with the kids and teens...



The day ended with some of our Christian families coming over and sharing. We played some cards and talked. It was a great way to wind down the week. One more day and we're heading home...

Posted by: Taketo

July 24, 2008 – DAY 13

Another day of blue sky and sunshine..…PRAISE THE LORD!! It’s so perfect for today we’re going to Pamela Lake with the kids for an afternoon swim and BBQ hot dogs. Everyone was to meet at the clinic and head out together. Nadine and Shirley hopped on the yellow school bus with the kids and the staff while the rest of us went in a van. Around 10 mins. onto the highway, the school bus broke down on the side of the road. As we’re waiting for another school bus to come pick us up, we could feel it’s getting hotter. Thank God the new bus didn’t take too long and the children were very patient and behaved while waiting. We’re grateful we could experience even the “little grace” from above.

When we got to the lake, everyone was ready to dive into the cool and refreshing water. It’s so nice to see the kids playing freely with Taketo in the water, jumping on him and riding on his shoulders. Nadine and Ada accompanied the less “rowdy” bunch in the deeper end while Dom and Helen interacted with the younger ones by the shore. Even Andrew and Daniel were having fun playing with the other kids with a water gun and burying each other in sand up to their neck. Shirley spent most of her time talking with P and got to know her a little more. Overall it’s a great afternoon of spending time with the kids and the staff while enjoying God’s wonderful nature.

Later on in the afternoon, we (Ada, Helen, Nadine, Shirley) participated at the Ladies’ Cooking/Cultural Exchange which was held at the clinic. Our hope was to connect with the ladies and girls in the community through teaching them how to make Chinese dumplings and fried rice. The whole team had helped make all the preparations in the morning and the day before. One challenge was that we couldn’t find any proper dumpling wrappers in town so we had to use spring roll wrappers (cut them in four) instead. Thank God for helping us in getting everything ready with creativity and teamwork! After we showed them how to wrap the dumplings a few times, everyone was encouraged to try. Conversations were flowing freely while we were making dumplings together. They did a great job of making over 150 dumplings! Shirley also gave a demo on how to make Chinese fried rice. A few of the ladies crammed into the kitchen to watch every step. After everything was cooked, a nice feast of what we had laboured tasted exceptionally good =) Just when we thought we were all fed and done. P in turn showed us how to cook one of their traditional dishes, moose stew and fried bannock. It’s my first time trying it. It tasted like lamb and Chinese fried donuts…..actually quite yummy! You’ve got to try it someday!! When P was cooking, the four of us were helping her and chatting with her. She gradually felt more comfortable and began to share with us more of her personal struggles and concerns. At the end we even had an opportunity to hold her hands and pray for her right there in the kitchen! It’s amazing! May God continue to work in the lives of the people in this reserve.

Posted by Helen


Kids came in packs

Nice company

Sharing under the sun

Making Chinese dumplings

Cultural food - bannock

Yummy! Delicious!

July 23, 2008 – DAY 12

Last night, during our nightly debrief, I asked the team to be prepared to expect only a handful of kids for the next day’s fishing derby program. Most of the reserve’s children were away this week at a conference at Constance Lake, and the nursery kids had the day off because their supervisors had a staff meeting to attend.

After lunch, we arrived at Ginoogaming #77 around 1:00 pm. It was no surprise that there were no kids to be found at the reserve’s health centre, where we usually helped out with the youth program. So, we enlisted some of the teen helpers on the reserve, and divided ourselves into two teams to walk around the entire reserve to look for children, and to see if they were interested in joining us for the fishing derby. While we walked around, I used the time to get to know one of the teen helpers, L. She was only 15, and she was interested in going to college after high school. She didn’t know what she wanted to study, but she mentioned that the government would pay for tuition. I asked her if many of the graduates enrolled in university after high school, and she said, “No”.

The reserve was shaped like the figure 8, and we managed to gather about 4 kids. We eventually met up with the other half of our team. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to find any kids – they should have teamed up with some of the teen helpers, because without them, we wouldn’t have known which houses had kids that were staying home today : ) However, the other team did manage to speak to a few parents, and the team members found out that the parents knew we were visitors from Toronto. Eventually, we managed to round up a few more kids on our way to the bridge that was just outside of the reserve. This bridge was a great location to catch Walleye, Pike, and even Perch. It was pretty hot today, and the fish weren’t really biting. It was a good reminder that we weren’t really here to catch fish, rather men for the Lord (Matthew 4:19)!

We invited several guests for dinner, and I was so glad to finally see J. We had a good time catching up and sharing about each of our families. Tonight was also the first time Pastor J joined us for dinner, and had a chance to meet the new team members. I was so proud of the team members that were cooking tonight, because they were able to feed so many guests, and even whip up a couple of dishes from scratch, when we were running out of food. I was most proud of the kids on our team, Andrew and Daniel, because they stepped up, and helped supervise the other children that came for dinner while we were all busy fellowshipping with the adults. Nadine, Taketo, and I shared funny moments from our respective weddings, and it was a great time just sharing and learning about the cultural differences between our First Nations friends and the members of our team. Toward the end of the evening, we handed out the remaining gifts that we had for our guests, and hugged and thanked them for joining us for dinner.

Posted by Dominic

Walking around Ginoogaming #77
The Fishing Derby

Another beautiful day on Long Lake
Together again!

Mastering the art of eating with chopsticks!

July 22, 2008 - Day 11: Clear sky, nice weather

Today’s devotion from Ada reminded us how important it is for us to have the desire for God. (Ps.42:1, 2 &4) We need to come to God with hunger and thirst for we need to be first filled by Him before we can fill/serve others. It’s really easy to push God aside as we are always busy with things to do. I’m pondering on the question of how much do I desire for Him than other things? This is also the question we all need to ask ourselves.

After devotion, Taketo, Ada and I went to #58 to visit an old friend C. She just appeared while we’re still looking for her house. It’s easy to find anyone you want on the reserve. She led us to her house and we were shown many pictures that showed the pride the family for the children and grandchildren. We stayed for about an hour and half; we encouraged them and prayed with them before we headed back to the church.

We had lunch quickly and went to the clinic at one o’clock as usual, and we were supposed to do ‘prize Bingo’ today. Bingo has been just a song to me in the past and this is the first time I really learned how to play Bingo. I was looking at the time as we were learning about the game and then I found out that there were not going to be any kids at the program today. Disappointment set in and as I wondered why we were playing this game—just the three summer students, a grandmother and her grandson and us. Then it dawned on me that it’s an opportunity for us to understand this game. Apparently, Bingo is a very popular game, or the only game on the reserve. It could be a social pressure for people to come out, a chance of hoping to win some extra money, something that can bring excitement as there is nothing much to do. It is possible to be addicted as people compete with each other.

After sometime there were a few small kids that came back from another program and they played Bingo with us, and I couldn’t believe that I won Bingo four times in a row! This only served as an educational experience for us, but I don’t recommend it. However, some of us had the opportunity to connect with the few summer students who have been there to help the summer program. It turned out that we were able to arrange a ‘girls’ night out for the teens.
We did some quick shopping for the supplies that we needed for the night. To my surprise, I saw ‘D’ and his mom at the cashier checkout. It’s the same ‘D’ with the same smile that we’ve met a few years ago except that he is much bigger now. I tried to catch up with ‘D’s mom and am glad to find out that they’re doing better this past year. God has been great and He did answer our prayers. The only concern now is that the mills that ‘D’s dad is working at could be closing down later this year, it might be a problem then. This might mean the people on the reserve would be affected.

After dinner, some of us went to pick up the teen girls at 7:00pm. They saw only two girls there when they arrived at the clinic. It might be a little frustrated especially for those who came for the first time as not all the girls who promised had actually showed up. Thank God that they were able to pick up some other girls as they drove around. They were a little uncomfortable at the beginning but felt more relaxed as we started making the cookies. Thanks M for the cookie dough, it really came in handy! We then had a chance to do personal care which they really appreciated; and some wished there was something like that available on the reserve. We had a good time connecting with the girls from the reserve; they have put their hand prints on the wall and we invited them to pray with us at the end. A small episode before that was we had two visitors show up while the other members went to pick up the girls. It’s when we’re not sure what to do with them, then God stepped in--they were doing a Bible study upstairs with Taketo with the help from our young team member, Andrew! Isn’t God amazing! Our day was long and we’ve not been able to do our cross-fit exercises, but it’s worth it. We’ve been building relationship the people on #77 and it’s really amazing how everything has been working out, not necessarily the way we expected.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

Posted by Shirley


Bingo! 4 in a row


Bingo Time

Bible Sharing

Pampering our skin

Girls' Night Out

July 21, 2008 - DAY TEN

Team B is here… and blogging for the first time! Bear with me as I try to recap the last few days…
We arrived Saturday and arrived just in time for a hearty lunch, guitar hero, and swimming at Long Dock (pictures are on the other computer though)… It was great to see the relationships that had been built over the last week, and even better to hear of the testimonies of the small steps, giant leaps, and transformations that have been witnessed! It was such a blessing for the entire team to be together!
Sunday, Daniel and Ryan had the opportunity to lead worship for the combined service for the multiple churches in Longlac. It was great to worship together and “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit” as we are called to (Eph 4). Afterwards it was nostalgic to run into M, one of the first people I met when I came to Longlac in 2004… and then to be invited to St. John’s in the Wilderness church (the little red church where we stayed for many years) for refreshments as they celebrated their 60th anniversary!
We had many guests over to say goodbye to Daniel, Elaine, Ryan, and Wilson! It was great to see D, who we visited our first year driving from Longlac to Toronto in North Bay, and hear her testimonies of how God’s been working so powerfully in her life and how she’ll be starting Bible college come September! It was also great to see T all grown up and be there for her and partner with Pastor Rolland to pray and support her in any way we could.
Our first night (Sunday) without Team A, we went on a Prayer Drive through Ginoogaming #77 and Longlac #58. We went as two vans, praying through our walkie talkies, for everything in sight, from the mill closing down and jobs lost, to every family and house that we know God holds close to His infinite heart. It was a powerful time to be open to the Spirit and the Lord’s heart.
So now I come to today (Monday), where we began our day with breakfast, devotions, showers, and then prepared for lunch (productive, I know). In the afternoon, we met with P, our partner here at #77 helping us to plan and arrange opportunities for us to get to know the community. We made a banner with the kids at the Head Start program and interacted with the older guys who were leaving to go to their conference to be taught by the elders. Although we were worried about what we would be doing since the kids were leaving for the week, Dom enlightened us of the wonderful way that God works. Since we don’t have as many of our “manly men” (eg. Wilson, Ryan, and Daniel), it may have been difficult for us to keep up with #77’s manly men! Now we have the opportunity to work with the kids at the Head Start program, a younger crowd, where we can build relationships and are less likely to get pushed over the edge of Long Dock!
In the late afternoon, the team went back as P and T were preparing for the community feast as elders from Hamilton area were coming to give teachings on the Prophecies of the End times. Taketo, Nadine and I stuck around, and were invited to take part in their feast, which included bannock, which Taketo did not hesitate to bring back for the team! We were able to watch their smudging ceremony prior to their meal, where cedar, tobacco, sweet grass, and sage were burned, and everyone was invited to use it to cleanse and purify themselves. They waived the smoke towards their eyes, so that they would see good, and towards their ears so they could hear the good from what others were saying and towards their mouth so they would speak positively. There were many great discussions that led to even more interesting discussions back at church! Please pray for wisdom, sensitivity and understanding as we learn more of the culture and beliefs here!
At night, as you can see, we went fishing again; the catch of the night was Pastor Rolland’s huge pike!
Thank you for your prayers and support… more pictures and updates to come!

Posted by Ada


T3C team unite!

Joining in on the festivities with banner making!

Pastor Rolland (catcher of fish and men!)

... in awe...

Nadine really misses Mike! (Happy early birthday!!)

July 19, 2008 - Day EIGHT

Today we had an AWESOME start to the day. We posted earlier that the firefighters of Longlac invited us to join them for the Summerfest parade. So with Wilson’s hookup with his brothas in the fire hall, we rode down Longlac’s main street. Of course we were conspicuously the only adults on the firetrucks, we were surrounded by kids, but it was awesome sitting up there, meeting the community and tossing tootsie rolls at the crowd. We had invited some of the kids from #77 to join us and two of the kids ended up coming. It was their first time on a firetruck too, so it was nice to be able to share this hookup with them.

After the parade we ended up at the Long dock and we met up with some of the other kids there. We invited them over for lunch and again just enjoyed the informal time we were able to spend with them. Time to encourage and guide them in different things. I’ve really come to love this time with them. One of them also ended up bringing their PSP and we had a chance to play guitar hero with them.

While they were over, Team B arrived. There’s something about seeing people you know in a different city. It’s just such a good feeling to see a familiar face, even if you don’t know them all too well. You just have to experience it to really know how good it feels. Anyway, some of the group members were tired and stayed back to sleep, but the rest of us went out for a swim with the kids at the Long dock. Teaching them how to have clean fun and to take care of each other.

That night, just as a time to bond, share stories and slow down, we had a night of fishing with our team. We ended up meeting various people from town at the bridge where we fish too. It’s really hard to over estimate the benefits of fishing with people… just spending time, bonding and chatting. Hopefully a good and easy start for Team B.

Just as a final sign off for Team A, we really do thank God for everything that he has done. When we look back at this past week… so much has happened and we’ve been blessed to see how God has been working. It has been a week of being led by the Spirit and we are immensely grateful for that. Thanks for your many prayers.

~ Posted by Daniel

Kids enjoying guitar hero

Atv's!

Our guests for lunch today
Longlac Summerfest 2008 Parade
Smile!


Genevieve and Daniel

July 18, 2008 - Day SEVEN

Today was an overcast, rainy day. But brilliant in a way because the health clinic threw an appreciation breakfast for us. It was so very thoughtful, totally unnecessary, but very much appreciated. We made our way there for 10am and they had a huge breakfast prepared for us with eggs, bacon, sausages, fruit and toast. What a treat! And as if that wasn’t enough, they also prepared gift tote bags for each of us with various items like water bottles, hats, t-shirts and even stainless steel travel mugs. I was overwhelmed by all of this and very grateful for the favour and friendship we’ve cultivated through the past several years.

We had some time after the breakfast to make our way back to the church and chill out before we returned for the afternoon program. Our plan was to have a cultural exchange. We were going to make dream catchers with the kids and then we were going to show them the meaning behind the calligraphy in some Chinese words. Shirley stayed up on Thursday night researching (from a book we had) various words and writing up briefs so that we could properly and hopefully somewhat intelligently talk about the words ourselves… since for most of us it was all new! Some of the characters that Shirley chose:

Boat/Ship – vessel, eight, mouth (which is also symbolic of people)

· For Boat/Ship, the reference of Noah and the Ark. How there were eight ppl who went onto the vessel (cF Genesis 7:13) and were saved from the flood.

Blessing/Happiness – has the characters for God, One, Mouth (symbolic of people) and Garden

· For Blessing/Happiness, the idea that in the garden of Eden, there was God, and the first man enjoyed the best fellowship with God.

Righteousness – has the characters for Lamb on the top and I/Me on the bottom.

· The idea that there is a Lamb that atones for our acts and through this we become righteous

(I tried to copy and paste an image of these Chinese words but couldn’t. I did find an interesting website at http://www.eslmission.org/docs/esl/04B--CHINESE%20CHARACTERS%20AND%20THE%20BIBLE.doc that talks about the same things)

It’s interesting that the calligraphy has Christian meaning behind them. BUT, we didn’t get a chance to do this. Unfortunately, there was a heavy rain and the kids were in town and couldn’t come back to the clinic because of the rain. So instead we ended up with just us adults sitting in the meeting room making dream catchers ourselves. Despite not having kids and perhaps because there were no kids, we were able to just have a quiet craft time and just talk among ourselves and with Priscilla. In a way, we got to have a cultural exchange of our own, just talking about the native culture and understanding their ways.

That night we ended up having some of the boys over for dinner. At first I was a little apprehensive because I didn’t know how it was going to be having them over. But as soon as they came in, we laid down some ground rules… very simply ones: That they respect each other, us and the church. They were fantastic at this and we enjoyed the time with them so much. After dinner, because many of them had curfews (a respectable 8:30pm) we had a time for them to do a simple thing with us. On our wall, we have ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication). Every once in a while, when we feel moved we write something on a sticky note and place it in the appropriate spot. It’s a way for us to see visually what we are praying for and how we are communicating with God. It’s a wonderful thing to see how supplication items move to thanksgiving items… encouraging because it visually shows us how God is moving.

At the end of dinner we asked them if there were any prayer items (supplication) that we could pray on their behalf. We asked them to write them down on post it notes. It was definitely something new to them, BUT to their immense credit, they wrote down some very meaningful things… things I won’t repeat to protect their privacy, but very personal and touching things. I’m glad that we had the opportunity to do this with them.

One postscript that I’d add to show how our friendship has grown. When we picked the boys up for dinner they called us at 6:15pm to let us know that they were leaving their homes to meet us at the rendezvous point for 6:30pm. How many adults do that?! It was, for me, a touching moment because it shows me that they want to spend time with us and it means as much to them as it does for us.

~ Posted by Daniel… sorry for the lateness of this.

Appreciation Breakfast at the Clinic - Great Hospitality and Thank you again!

Our guests for dinner

Reminiscing on pictures from the past week


More Reminiscing


Shirley showing Genevieve how to use chopsticks

July 17, 2008 - Day SIX

Clear sky, warm weather - Today was Ryan’s turn to do devotion and I really appreciated what he shared with us, especially when he got to the part about being the fisher of men. Thank God for putting this unique team together, we learn from each other.

After the devotion and some time praying together, Daniel and Wilson went to get the minnows while we prepared for lunch. Pastor Roland got a red truck with a wooden board at the back that was used as a cutting board to fillet the fishes. Like last year, we had a fish derby for the kids on the reserve today.

We arrived at the bridge to get ready while Daniel and Nadine went to the clinic. The boys slowly arrived and most of them were experienced ‘fisherboys’. Some of them even knew how make a trap that could be used to catch minnows, others knew how to fillet the fresh fish caught. These are skills that we as adults don’t even know, not to mention our children. However, I’ve noticed that there was not as many children as there was last year, especially girls…we just wondered where they were. We found out later that there’s another program was going on at the Day Care. With that in mind, we still haven’t seen that many girls as we did last year. It’s good in a way so Pastor Roland got some breaks in between as he also enjoyed some fishing. (He was not able to stop filleting the fishes last year.

We’re able to talk to the kids and we found out that some of them learned fishing from their uncles, as their fathers were not around as much. There are still a few others that learned the fishing and hunting skills from their Dad. We noticed a difference between these kids as they are more stable and gentle, yet the others were more rowdy, rough and angry. I’m really thankful to have our young brothers on the team, I’ve noticed that these boys are just naturally drawn to them… they are hungry and in need of male figures that can be their role models to look up to. It really brings grief to my heart as these boys already have experienced such brokenness in their young lives – they are like little lost sheep. One of the boy ‘K’ was so disappointed because he didn’t catch any fish. I tried to encourage him to focus on the process and not to give up, for he’ll always have another chance. He finally caught a pretty ‘big’ fish and I could never forget that big smile on his face. The smile of hope and victory… I hope he’ll find the eternal hope and victory in God’s time.

After the fish derby, we all headed to the clinic to cook the freshly caught fishes as planned. Priscilla and Genevieve and others were already there and they had prepared their famous cultural food for us to enjoy – the moose soup and bannick (and it was very good!). I helped Pastor Rolland cook the fish fillets and it was really tasty. Umm... To our surprise, we were invited to breakfast on Friday. I praise God for the good relationship we’ve been building.

After the clinic, the boys asked us to go swimming with them at the Long Dock. We were really surprised to see them there, it’s unusual. We were giving out lollipops to them. One of the boys tried to threw his lollipop stick to the container but he missed it and I picked it up and gave him back the stick so he could put it in the container. We were so glad that we went to spend time with them there. This provided us more opportunities to interact with them. We are really blessed to have seen some changes that have already taken place - they are showing more respect to us now. This was the same group that were at first a bit rowdy and rude, but now they are saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. This is the work of God, for we know that we couldn’t have done it on ourselves. May He be glorified.

The poor and needy search for water,
but there is none;
their tongues are parched with thirst.
But I the Lord will answer them;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. ( Isa.41:17)

Posted by Shirley


Kid's Fishing Derby - WHAT A BLAST!!!






Pastor Roland hard at work filleting the fish for the fish fry - MMMMMM!!!!! (Thanks again!!!)


Swimming with the kids -The Ice Man and K on the dock... It's so COLD!!!


Wilson sharing a priceless moment!!!

July 16th, 2008 - Day FIVE

Today marks the midpoint for some of us in this missions trip . How time flies! I am thankful that God has continued to sustain us during this week. Our days have busy resulting in some fatigue. I pray that God will provide each of us with quiet time and rest during the week to recharge our physical strength and also to quiet are hearts to listen to God’s leading.

Shirley has been such a blessing to our team, taking care of us during this time we are away from our families. She has taught me to persevere and not to give up hope in times of worry and despair, instead, to trust in God’s greater plan for each of us.

After lunch we headed over to the reserve to hold a volleyball clinic and dodge ball with the kids. As an introduction, Wilson led us in a series of drills to warm-up and practice some techniques. We encouraged mutual respect and team spirit but also found it difficult to keep the kids orderly and interested during the game. Through sports we encouraged kids with low self esteem to participate and when necessary disciplined those who bullied and distracted others to understand the consequences of their disruption. Slowly but surely, we are gaining their respect and trust. Our team has been praying that God will allow appropriate opportunities for us to speak of Him during the rest of the week.

Our evening plans with the youth did not come though again because we weren’t able to find our contact so we spent the rest of the evening fishing on the bridge and fellowshipping with fellow fishing fanatics. Once again, everyone fulfilled the ‘Ron’ guarantee of catching something that night. To end the evening on a high note Wilson pulled into the Longlac Fire Station to visit his fellow firefighters. We were warmly invited by the crew to join them on the truck during the Summerfest Parade this coming weekend. This will be a good opportunity to meet more of the community then.

Posted by Elaine



Volleyball with the kids






Visiting Wilson's extended family in Longlac

July 15th,2008 - Day Four

Day four in Longlac began with an oatmeal breakfast that Momma Shirley made for us. Actually she has been making oatmeal breakfasts for us every morning. God bless her. After breakfast Nadine led us in a time of devotion and during this time the Lord reminded me to maintain my eyes on his vision, purpose and will; his people. I was reminded of the passage in Luke 10:38 when Jesus visited the house of Mary and Martha and Martha was so caught up in all the preparations that she missed what was important. Amidst the planning and preparing of meals and programs for the people here in Lonlgac God has reminded us to take the time to connect and converse with the people here.

After devotions we had lunch then we headed over to the Pow-Wow grounds for some outdoor activities with the children. When we arrived I was astounded by what I saw. There were kids running around freely, a lack of respect. I was surprised. In my mind I prayed for His sovereign presence to be with us. We started a baseball game and worked out (Crossfit) with the boys and the girls did some face painting and bubble blowing. The boys were really rowdy, especially when they missed a play or didn’t hit the ball the way they wanted to. God provided windows of opportunity for us to coach, guide and direct the boys and through such opportunities we began to see very small changes in their attitude and behavior. There was one boy in particular who had a hard time hitting the ball and every time he struck out he would throw the bat and walk off the field. After a bit of coaching and encouragement and a few more strikeouts I witnessed this boy hit a homerun! The smile he had on his face when he touched home plate was a smile of hope, perseverance, faith and encouragement. It was a blessing to see God work. God is good.

In the evening we held a barbecue for the community and it was amazing! Approximately one hundred people came out to the event. Everything ran smoothly. We served hot dogs and hamburgers, drinks and watermelon. It was great because not only did we got a chance to enjoy great food but we had time to interact with the people in the community especially those we don’t see during the day.

After the barbecue we went to the park to do more team building exercises…Crossfit! The workout consisted of as many rounds as you can in 20 mins of:
5 pullups
10 pushups
15 situps
It was a great workout together and everyone did awesome but for some reason I heard ducks quacking in the field. Maybe Rollie knows where they came from??

Posted by Wilson

Baseball Game


Guests lining up for the community BBQ


Serving the people of Longlac


N doing cross fit - Thumbs up!


Shirley face painting - Smile!


More face painting