wopc youth

7.13.09

It’s Deane again. This will probably be the last update for a while. The Friday night program with the kids and parents was awesome! We got back to the dorm about 9:00 pm and went to bed for our Saturday  5:00 am wake up call. We were on the road about 6:30 after a quick stop at Tim Horton’s for breakfast to go and (much needed) coffee. We hit some very severe storms on the way home, the kind where you are driving 20 MPH with wipers on full speed and 4 way flashers on. My group arrived in town about 9:00 p.m., Adam’s about 8:00 and Dave’s about 10:00. Saturday night was reuniting with family and going to sleep in our own beds.  Sunday was worship, home cooked meals and some much needed rest. Today I’ll be wrapping up some of the loose ends.

Friday night’s program was incredible! The kids all did a great job on their songs, memory verses and presentations. Adam and Jonathan worked in shifts until 4:00 a.m. Friday morning to put together one of the greatest videos I have ever seen. They are working on a final version for the WOPC family that will be ready for presentation during a Sunday School hour some time in August. Even if you never come to Sunday School you DO NOT want to miss this one.

For me personally, one of the highlights of the week was on Friday evening watching my group “The Beavers!” singing with the rest of the kids. One of my kids was a beautiful girl of 12 whose name was Maedeh. She is a Muslim from an immigrant family, and I watched her mother in traditional Muslim dress smiling and clapping as her daughter sang “One Way, Jesus!” with the rest of the kids!

And now, please let me close with a prayer;

Dear God, our Father and our Lord, I thank You for  the opportunity for this trip and for Your hand of providence and protection throughout.

Father, I thank you for each of the team members, American and Canadian, Anglophone and Francophone and the gifts they brought to the team. I thank You for their longs hours of tireless work with each of the children You placed in our care. I thank You for the strengthening of the bonds and relationships we share as brothers and sisters in the faith.

Father, I thank You for all of the people who provided us with the material and logistical support that made this trip possible, as well as for everyone who lifted us up in prayer.

And perhaps most importantly, My Lord I thank You for each of these young souls you entrusted to our care. Father, we pray that you used us to plant seeds of faith in their hearts that may one day grow into faith and love for our Lord Jesus Christ, and that we may one day meet with them again in Your Heavenly Kingdom.

Father, to You belongs all the praise and honor and  glory, and we thank You, in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen.

7.9.09

We had sunshine today! No rain! The sun really does shine in Quebec!

It felt really good to have sun today. Temps were in the 70′s. All seemed right with the world. Today’s lesson was Moses wandering in the desert with the Israelites, and how God has and does provide for his people, one of the threads running all through the lessons this week.

I had an amusing situation this morning while teaching the lesson to the 10-12 year olds. I was trying to convey the concept of manna from Heaven as God’s way of daily provision to the Israelites and that they were to gather two days supply on the sixth day so they did not have to work on the Sabbath. I guess I did not think through my explaination very well, because suddenly one of the kids raised her hand and had a rather animated conversation in French with Trina, our translator. After a rather lengthy exchange with the student she looked at me with a barely suppresed smile and said the girl was wondering what happened to the Iraelites when they got hit on the head by loaves of bread falling out of the sky! This whole language and syntax thing is a lot more complicated than I had anticipated.

Our relationships with the kids continue to grow. They are bright, happy kids who like to have fun, like all kids everywhere. We spent a good part of today getting ready for the closing program with the kids and their parents tomorrow night. 5:30 is a barbecue and skits and presentations at 7:00. We hope to have our goodbyes with the kids and our Francophone friends by 9:00 so we can get back to the dorm, get some sleep and be on the road by 6:00 a.m. for the long trip home. We all miss our families and are anxious to get home. It will be somewhat sad to leave our new friends, however good relationships will endure despite distance. I’m not sure I’ll have time to write anything tomorrow night, so this may be our last entry while in Quebec.

I think I’ll let Adam Cruse lead the way home. He seems to get through the border crossings more quickly than I do!

Bon Nuit from Quebec,

Your servant in Christ,

Deane

7.8.09

Wednesday, day three is over, we are on the down hill stretch! The weather was better today, only a little rain and the kids were able to go outside for their recreation periods.  We have now settled in to a routine, and our relationships with the kids have really blossomed. I have finally mastered the proper French pronunciations of the kids names, and we have really begun to bond. I can discern each of their personalities better. They each have their gifts and their quirks, just like the rest of us. Their English skills have really improved in a short time and I am actually able to say “hello”, “please”, “thank you” and “you’re welcome” in French without thinking about it too much. I was having difficulty getting the kids attention some times because phrases like “quiet please!” or “Can I have your attention?” spoken in English in a noisy room just did not register with these kids. The first time I said “écoutez” which means “listen” the result was almost miraculous!

We are continuing our memory verses of Exodus 15: 1,2 and they have mastered it pretty well. The kids also love the crafts, skits and singing.

Tonight we met back at the church with the Francophones for pizza and conversation, and then Mme. Drouin, one of the Elders wives led us over the the city of Levis “pronounced Lay-vee” for what they promised would be the worlds best ice cream. The ice cream was quite good, but what really made it great was the thick coating of dark, rich, semi sweet european style chocolate that it was dipped in, and then allowed to harden. Mme. Drouin assured us that because the chocolate was high in cocoa content and anti-oxidents that it was good for our hearts. I was glad I was eating healthy!

Off to bed for tomorrow will arrive soon, and at my age I need all the energy I can muster. It’s been a great trip so far, and I know I have said this before but it’s worth repeating; Each of the team has done a great job in stepping up to their particular role, especially the teens. Each has done whatever was needed without complaint and has shown a great amount of responsibility. They are great ambassadors for Christ and for W.O.P.C.

Bon nuit!

In Christ,

Deane

7.7.09

Dave Borst here blogging today.  This is the first time I’ve ever Blogged… the word always makes me think of blah, blah, blah.  It is unusually cold here today, even the locals are commenting on it…   Today’s VBS went much more smoothly – we ironed out some kinks at the meeting last night (see yesterday’s entry).  We had a few more kids attend today, I believe 34 total.  After opening with some praise songs lead by our “Canadian Contingent” &  another rousing skit from our crew, the classes learned about the Egyptian plagues & how God sustained the Israelites.  After Bible lessons, the groups rotated through their morning activities, one of which is music.  We revised the schedule to lengthen the time from 20 to 30 minutes which allowed us to do much more singing.  We are mixing it up between Biblical-based songs  and secular songs to stay within the spirit of how the camp was advertised to parents.  We did “Father Abraham” with all of the motions, which seemed to be a hit.  There is an interesting local connection, because the “Plains of Abraham” are a popular park adjacent to the old city  (over which the British invaded).  Grace taught the kids sign language for “Jesus Loves Me”.  Since our theme is camping, I tried to pick silly summer-camp type songs for the secular set, such as “John-Jacob-Jingleheimer-Schmidt” & “Froggy” (you’ll have to see the video for that one – I’ll just say that your thighs should hurt afterward if you do it right).

The only major challenge today was the rain that moved in at lunch time, forcing the Cruse Bros. to do some creative thinking to hold the 45-minute recreation blocks in a social hall that is just a little bit larger than the WOPC social hall (and thankfully lacking the poles).  Today’s craft activity was to make Decoupage-covered crosses, good job Nina!

Oh, before I log off I’ve got to mention last night’s activity.  Nine of us went to the university pool, which was huge.  They have all of the olympic-spec. diving boards, all the way up to 10 meters!  (However, the highest one open was “only”  5 meters (17 feet)).  Everyone in the party went off the 3-meter spring board, and many took the 5-meter plunge.  Memorable jumps included Adam C’s “walk to water” (not walk on water), where he continued to walk all the way down…….  Dandra’s 1st jump treated the entire pool to a 5-meter s-c-r-e-e-e-e-a-m (sploosh).

Continue to pray for us that our work here will bear spiritual fruit, and also for our endurance & safety, especially for the long ride home on Saturday.

God Bless, Dave

7.6.09

Well, this is it. Today all of our weeks of preparation will be put into action. We were up at 6:00 a.m. for our morning routine and a hearty breakfast in the University dining hall and then off to St. Marc’s. I think all of us were a little apprehensive hoping that all would go well. At 8:00 we met with Pastor Ben and Eliyah and out Translators Trina, Catherine, Deni, Jacqueline and Geneieve. We were given our student rosters. Pastor Ben lead us in devotions and a time of prayer, and then it was off to last minute preparations. The children began to arrive about 8:45 a.m.

We had a time of greeting and songs with the kids. Adam C. had produced a skit and I won’t go into all the details, but Adam B. played a starring role as “Astro” the dog. Pastor Ben then translated the skit into French for the kids, and then it was performed a second time for further clarity, we then divided up and went off to our respective rooms with our groups.

I will let the others tell their stories in their own time. Each of us will have our own unique experience to relate.

I was assigned to the 10-12 year old group, along with Ben. Catherine was our translator. We took some time to introduce ourselves and asked each of the kids to do the same. These are really neat kids from the full spectrum of cultural, religious and racial backgrounds. The English skills of the children ranged from very limited to good. Our lesson was the story of the baby Moses and how Pharos’s daughter saved him. We reviewed a number of vocabulary words such as “king” “princess” river” “basket” and so on. We then began the process of memorizing Exodus 15:1, a process that will continue all week, culminating in their recitation of it for their parents as part of our Friday evening finale. Over the rest of the day there were crafts, songs, games and outdoor activities and ended with a group gathering for a few closing songs. I for one was ready to drop by the time the kids left.

We then had a debriefing with the entire St. Marc’s and WOPC team and made adjustments based on our experiences today.

I was very pleased with the way each and every one of the team performed, both Anglophone and Francophone. God blessed us with a fruitful day. The kids had a good time and we were able to begin to share the love of Christ with them. I was reflecting tonight on what impact we might have on these children. We will probably never know. I just pray for God to plant mustard seeds of faith that will one day grow into mighty trees of faith. Perhaps I will get to meet some of them again when I get to Glory.

In Christ,

Deane

7.05.09

The weather was much nicer today, partly sunny, breezy and cool, in the 60’s. We got up and had an early breakfast and went to worship with our brothers and sisters at St. Marc’s. We met Eliyah and Pastor Ben for the first time in person, and all of the people were very welcoming. The entire service was in French, and I found that I was able to follow along with the scripture readings using my ESV. Pastor Ben is a dynamic preacher, and again I found I was able to follow bits of the sermon. There was a young engaged couple who made their public profession of faith. Of the hymns that were sung, some of the tunes were familiar and some were not, but we all did our best to sing them in French. The last song was very familiar, “Dieu, ta fidélité” translated “Great is Thy faithfulness.” I’m not sure how good the lyrics were, but we sang the tune with great joy.

After worship was a time of fellowship where we enjoyed coffee and conversation. The coffee was great, and as an aside, I have not had a bad cup of coffee since we got to Quebec. I think Alan would like it here

A family from the congregation offered to take us on a tour of the old city in the afternoon, and so we set out with Marc and his wife Helene and their teen’s Alexandre and Genevieve. We toured several beautiful churches and a library and we saw places in the old city I’m sure we would not have found on our own. They are wonderful people and we give thanks to God for their hospitality.

After a quick dinner we met at the church to meet with our Francophone team mates for the week and to review lesson plans, schedules skits, and music. We finally got back to the dorm at about 9:30 pm and I’m sure we will all sleep well tonight.

Tomorrow is day one with the kids, and we would covet your prayers that all would go well. I have an abiding sense of God’s hand on all of this, and I pray that we will be worthy ambassadors for Christ. We praise God for his providence thus far and look forward with eager anticipation to what He has in store for us in the coming days. I will update again tomorrow evening.

In Christ,

Deane, on behalf of the entire team.

7.04.09 – Bonjour from Quebec!

The first group of the missions team left the church at 6:00 am yesterday and arrived at Laval University in Quebec at 10:00 pm. We were delayed at the border for 1 hour and 45 minutes, but we got through with no problems. The weather on the way was everything from bright sunshine to torrential downpours, but God had his hand of protection upon us. The young people were great and Dave, Nina, Ginger and I all shared the driving. Thanks be to God for inventing GPS units!.

Adam, Amber and Jonathan arrived safely tonight about 7:00. It was great to see them. We give thanks to God for his watchcare over them.

This morning we found St. Marc’s church and the local Wal-Mart to stock up on some incidentals. This afternoon we were able to see some of the old city. The city is beautiful, and it was like being teleported to an old city in France. Tomorrow morning we will worship with St. Marc’s and we will meet with Pastor Westerveld and Missionary Associate Eliyah Madson in the afternoon.

The people of Quebec have been great and very patient with our lack of French lanuage skills. All of us are doing our best to learn the basics, and I think the Francophones (as the French speaking Canadians like to be referred to) find much good hearted amusement in our efforts. Quebec is a beautiful, clean and safe city!
Please pray for us as we make the final preparations for VBS on Monday morning and for the 38 young souls that God is entrusting to our care. We pray that he will bless our work and make us fruitful. We are greatful for your prayers and for being given the opportunity to labor for Christ here in Quebec.

More to follow…
In Service to Christ,

Deane and the rest of the WOPC Missions Team!