AIA has been great, and I know many of you guys have heard me say that already. At first I was really unsure of whether I wanted to take this job or not. I knew it was going to be tiring and I also knew it was not as much pay as many other jobs. I debated doing AIA or applying for another kid's summer camp job in the city. I finally decided to do AIA and I'm so glad that I did. God has provided an answer for each one of my questions and each one of my worries and problems. I was worried about being tired and exhausted. God gave me power and strength. I was a terrible public speaker and did not know what to say. God gave me the courage and the wisdom to speak boldly. I was worried about raising money and support. God provided the money that I needed through the generosity of people from the church. I was worried about transportation and housing. God gave me amazing teammates and awesome billets. I worried that the pay was too little. God reminded me that my reward is not here on earth but in heaven.
This summer I had a chance to meet many different people from different lifestyles and backgrounds. Different cultures and different experiences, all of them. Yet complete strangers welcomed me into their homes and offered me anything I needed. All because the body of Christ unites us all, and it truly amazes me every time I think of that. It's the realization that each one of these people have experienced God in their own lives and that's what brings us together, and that is remarkable. So many things I've learned this summer that I cannot write them all down. The main thing for me is the reminder to live my faith out boldly and set examples. As children of light we are called by God, and that we are not of this world, and I have to constantly remind myself to not conform to the rules of the world. Well that's pretty much all I can think of in my head right now at 1:35 AM, so I'll just stop there. Overall, I had a great time and this summer has been a positive experience for me. Bev is already trying to get me back for next summer. Although I might not be able to do it next summer, I definitely plan to do it again as I feel that this is a ministry that God has called me into!
This is the last blog entry! Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, 29 August 2012
Week 8 - Westlock
Last week of camp. Westlock is a pretty small town so the churches combined for one camp. We drove in and went inside the church and the first thing we noticed on sunday night was the lack of a coordinator. We were waiting for one, but there were only 3 volunteers. Turns out the coordinator was a farmer and that harvest had arrived early, so he was pretty much busy the whole week and would not be able to help. This proved to be a problem as the coordinator is in charge of all the volunteers and has all the registration sheets and all the information about the campers. We found ourselves with 3 volunteers who had no idea what they were doing, but they were all willing to do whatever needed to be done. (by the way this group of volunteers were even older than the last camps)
Day 1, we had about 15 kids at this camp which was really small, about the size of the fushion camp as well. I was presented with head coach duties by Bev for the first 3 days this week. I really did not want to do it, I didn't really feel like head coach was my kind of thing. However I decided to give it a shot since it was a small camp and it was the last week anyways. Luckily for me my head coach responsibilities remained in camp and not outside. So all I had to really do was run the camp by keeping everything moving and keeping track of time. First day went well except that none of the kids in the camp were skilled in soccer except for one boy. You might be wondering why that's a problem. Well first day world cup we knew he was more skilled than every other player, so we put him on a team with 2 younger kids. Each team played 3 games, and the skilled player (Patrick) scored over 10 goals a game while the others scored 0. So obviously that was not enjoyable for all the other campers, not enjoyable for me to ref, and I doubt it was very enjoyable to Patrick either.
Day 2 , we get more volunteers for the week which was awesome. This meant that we could have coaches play during world cup just like in fushion. This ended up working out great so thank goodness we got more volunteers to balance out the games. Small group was good too, since we had so little kids we just did 2 small groups with 2 coaches in each. We had some good discussion about sin and the kids asked some good questions about the ten commandments and the adam and eve story. We had a boy named Jaxon who would tell us everyday how many pages he had read on his bible which was great. I was so glad to hear him talk about the stories that he read in the Bible as opposed to the tv shows he watched or the video games that he played last night. He's 9-10 years old and he's watching a lot of stuff that he should not be watching, but that stuff doesn't really surprise me anymore.
Day 3- We only had Brittany for the morning as she had to go in for some tests and surgery on her legs. It had been a problem for a long time and its continually gotten worse, and the doctor says that she will need surgery if she ever wants to play competetive soccer again. I'm not too sure about the specifics but something about relieving the pressure in her legs by draining the fluid. From what I hear it's quite the painful process, they stick giant needles into her legs and have her run for 30-40 minutes to measure muscle contractions or something like that. We all prayed for her before she left, and camp still went pretty smooth for the rest of the day. Brittany was out of the hospital later that afternoon and she joined us for dinner.
Day 4- It was Kaitlyn's last day with our team. She had decided that she would go back to Calgary later on the afternoon to join her soccer team's preseason games. It was pretty sad and emotional when she left, only for Brittany though. Just kidding, Lane and I said our goodbyes too, and we missed her too.
Day 5- Last day of camp for the summer, and to be honest Lane and I couldn't have been happier. I knew I would miss it later but at that time it was a huge relief. The week had dragged on so long, and it felt like the week was taking forever to finish. But it was a good camp, and I'm happy to say our team finished strong. except for Kaitlyn, she ditched us.
Day 1, we had about 15 kids at this camp which was really small, about the size of the fushion camp as well. I was presented with head coach duties by Bev for the first 3 days this week. I really did not want to do it, I didn't really feel like head coach was my kind of thing. However I decided to give it a shot since it was a small camp and it was the last week anyways. Luckily for me my head coach responsibilities remained in camp and not outside. So all I had to really do was run the camp by keeping everything moving and keeping track of time. First day went well except that none of the kids in the camp were skilled in soccer except for one boy. You might be wondering why that's a problem. Well first day world cup we knew he was more skilled than every other player, so we put him on a team with 2 younger kids. Each team played 3 games, and the skilled player (Patrick) scored over 10 goals a game while the others scored 0. So obviously that was not enjoyable for all the other campers, not enjoyable for me to ref, and I doubt it was very enjoyable to Patrick either.
Day 2 , we get more volunteers for the week which was awesome. This meant that we could have coaches play during world cup just like in fushion. This ended up working out great so thank goodness we got more volunteers to balance out the games. Small group was good too, since we had so little kids we just did 2 small groups with 2 coaches in each. We had some good discussion about sin and the kids asked some good questions about the ten commandments and the adam and eve story. We had a boy named Jaxon who would tell us everyday how many pages he had read on his bible which was great. I was so glad to hear him talk about the stories that he read in the Bible as opposed to the tv shows he watched or the video games that he played last night. He's 9-10 years old and he's watching a lot of stuff that he should not be watching, but that stuff doesn't really surprise me anymore.
Day 3- We only had Brittany for the morning as she had to go in for some tests and surgery on her legs. It had been a problem for a long time and its continually gotten worse, and the doctor says that she will need surgery if she ever wants to play competetive soccer again. I'm not too sure about the specifics but something about relieving the pressure in her legs by draining the fluid. From what I hear it's quite the painful process, they stick giant needles into her legs and have her run for 30-40 minutes to measure muscle contractions or something like that. We all prayed for her before she left, and camp still went pretty smooth for the rest of the day. Brittany was out of the hospital later that afternoon and she joined us for dinner.
Day 4- It was Kaitlyn's last day with our team. She had decided that she would go back to Calgary later on the afternoon to join her soccer team's preseason games. It was pretty sad and emotional when she left, only for Brittany though. Just kidding, Lane and I said our goodbyes too, and we missed her too.
Day 5- Last day of camp for the summer, and to be honest Lane and I couldn't have been happier. I knew I would miss it later but at that time it was a huge relief. The week had dragged on so long, and it felt like the week was taking forever to finish. But it was a good camp, and I'm happy to say our team finished strong. except for Kaitlyn, she ditched us.
Tuesday, 28 August 2012
Week 7- Terwiliger Community Church
Going into this camp, I knew that Terwiliger was obviously a wealthy community. I was interested to see the difference between the kids there compared to the kids at fushion. We headed to the pastor's house for orientation on sunday night where we met all the volunteers. It was the oldest group of volunteers we have had so far. Most of the volunteers were in their 20s and 30s and were school teachers; in fact we were told that Terwiliger community church had a lot of teachers in there. It was interesting and I was a bit unsure of how camp would run with so many teachers. The other alberta team had previously encountered problems working with some teachers at their camps. They had told us that teachers usually want to do their own thing and have their own teaching style and that some of them did not listen to the coaches at all. Luckily for us, the volunteers there were not like that, they were quite awesome. None of them knew how to play soccer though (except for one phys ed teacher), one of them had never even touched a soccer ball until camp!
First day in, we knew it was going to be a big camp. 63 kids had registered, it was the biggest camp we've had so far. The max for a camp is 60 kids for 4 AIA coaches, but we decided that an extra 3 wouldn't really make a difference. We headed to the field in the morning, and to our surprised the grass was disgustingly long. Which once again...meant mosquitoes. The first day went pretty well to my surprise. Most kids listened pretty well and were pretty good in general. It was hard to setup a lot of the stations and games because the grass was so long though. We once again prayed for the grass to be cut. During debrief we found out that during small group time, a kid had told a coach on the U-talk form that he was scared of his dad. We'll call this camper Joe. Joe told the coach that he was scared of his dad because he beats him, and that he didn't want to write it on the form because his dad would beat him even harder if he ever found out. We decided to be careful of how we approached this situation. We didn't want to report anything because we were unsure. The family just recently came from Columbia so it's definitely a different culture there. Well I mean outside of North America, parents from pretty much every other culture beat their kids for disciplinary purposes. The fact could also be that the kid was exaggerating and making it seem a lot worse than it is. And last of all, reporting something like that really tears a family apart. If the dad gets taken away, etc. So we all just decided to observe him and his brothers for the next couple of days before taking any action.
Day 2 we went to the field to see the grass still uncut. But just as we were about to setup, we saw a giant city lawnmower cutting the grass on the field across from us. One of the volunteers went up to him and asked if he could cut ours as well, he agreed and our grass finally got cut before the day started! It was our third time that God had answered our prayers the very next day by cutting the grass. All 3 times were in edmonton (because the city never maintains its field *cough*), once during NEAC, once during fushion, and once at TCC. It was great to see God taking care of the little things for us so that we could focus on the bigger things. During lunch it started raining really hard so we had to take shelter at a nearby gazebo in the park. The plan was to wait the rain out so we could go back outside and play later. However, that was not the case because the rain kept coming down, so we ended up calling parents to the field for pickup and my team and I got off work early that day! Even though we didn't play soccer that afternoon, I felt like that rain had a purpose. We had a boy in our camp called Andrea (pronounced On-dray-ah) who was from Italy and just came 2 weeks ago. He did not speak English at all and we had to communicate to him through hand gestures and so on. He had trouble playing and learning our games because of the language barrier and this was frustrating for us and for him. During that lunch though, Brittany had pulled out her phone and she was able to use the translator on her phone to communicate with him, (luckily he knew how to read and write already). That lunch we were able to find out about his family and his background, and all sorts of cool stuff about him. We built a really strong connection with this kid during that lunch. I also danced with him to Michael Jackson's thriller. Throughout the week whenever he saw me, we would both do a michael jackson pose which was pretty sweet.
Day 3 I had two boys in my group tell me that they wanted to accept Jesus. Usually when I lead a child to do the prayer, I have them repeat after me. But that day I had them pray on their own as I listened in. I felt like that way I would be able to see if they really understood what it meant or what they were actually doing and that they weren't just blindly following whatever I say. Thankfully both of these boys were sincere and they prayed the prayers themselves which was awesome. It was awesome to see the change of heart in a span of few days in one of the boys. His name was Jacob and I remember when he had told me he wanted to accept Jesus, I was quite surprised. He was often quite disruptive and a troublemaker, he was also really mean to some of the younger kids. After he had prayed, I told him that now that he has Jesus in his heart, he had to be nicer to people. He looked at me really seriously and nodded. From that moment on I don't think a single coach or volunteer had to lecture him or pull him aside for the rest of camp. It was just amazing to see how much of an impact that it had on him, and it was definitely good to see that he was taking it seriously.
Day 4 I don't remember anything from this day.
Day 5
Everything went by pretty quickly, the day was pretty smooth. In the afternoon world cup, a lot of parents showed up to watch their kids play which was good. We noticed that Joe ran over to his dad to hug him and greet him when he came which was a good sign. It's not very likely that a kid would be that excited to see his dad if he was that abusive, nor would it be very likely that the dad would even show up to support his kid. Throughout the week our volunteers haven't reported any signs of abuse like marks or anything so we felt a little bit relieved. In the end the church coordinator decided that we wouldn't report anything but that they would tell the teacher at his school to keep a look out for it. Everyone had to leave quickly after, Lane had a 9 hour drive to regina for a wedding, Kaitlyn had to go to a wedding as well, and Brittany had to head home to get ready for her grandma's interment. Busy and tiring weekend for my whole team, except for me!
First day in, we knew it was going to be a big camp. 63 kids had registered, it was the biggest camp we've had so far. The max for a camp is 60 kids for 4 AIA coaches, but we decided that an extra 3 wouldn't really make a difference. We headed to the field in the morning, and to our surprised the grass was disgustingly long. Which once again...meant mosquitoes. The first day went pretty well to my surprise. Most kids listened pretty well and were pretty good in general. It was hard to setup a lot of the stations and games because the grass was so long though. We once again prayed for the grass to be cut. During debrief we found out that during small group time, a kid had told a coach on the U-talk form that he was scared of his dad. We'll call this camper Joe. Joe told the coach that he was scared of his dad because he beats him, and that he didn't want to write it on the form because his dad would beat him even harder if he ever found out. We decided to be careful of how we approached this situation. We didn't want to report anything because we were unsure. The family just recently came from Columbia so it's definitely a different culture there. Well I mean outside of North America, parents from pretty much every other culture beat their kids for disciplinary purposes. The fact could also be that the kid was exaggerating and making it seem a lot worse than it is. And last of all, reporting something like that really tears a family apart. If the dad gets taken away, etc. So we all just decided to observe him and his brothers for the next couple of days before taking any action.
Day 2 we went to the field to see the grass still uncut. But just as we were about to setup, we saw a giant city lawnmower cutting the grass on the field across from us. One of the volunteers went up to him and asked if he could cut ours as well, he agreed and our grass finally got cut before the day started! It was our third time that God had answered our prayers the very next day by cutting the grass. All 3 times were in edmonton (because the city never maintains its field *cough*), once during NEAC, once during fushion, and once at TCC. It was great to see God taking care of the little things for us so that we could focus on the bigger things. During lunch it started raining really hard so we had to take shelter at a nearby gazebo in the park. The plan was to wait the rain out so we could go back outside and play later. However, that was not the case because the rain kept coming down, so we ended up calling parents to the field for pickup and my team and I got off work early that day! Even though we didn't play soccer that afternoon, I felt like that rain had a purpose. We had a boy in our camp called Andrea (pronounced On-dray-ah) who was from Italy and just came 2 weeks ago. He did not speak English at all and we had to communicate to him through hand gestures and so on. He had trouble playing and learning our games because of the language barrier and this was frustrating for us and for him. During that lunch though, Brittany had pulled out her phone and she was able to use the translator on her phone to communicate with him, (luckily he knew how to read and write already). That lunch we were able to find out about his family and his background, and all sorts of cool stuff about him. We built a really strong connection with this kid during that lunch. I also danced with him to Michael Jackson's thriller. Throughout the week whenever he saw me, we would both do a michael jackson pose which was pretty sweet.
Day 3 I had two boys in my group tell me that they wanted to accept Jesus. Usually when I lead a child to do the prayer, I have them repeat after me. But that day I had them pray on their own as I listened in. I felt like that way I would be able to see if they really understood what it meant or what they were actually doing and that they weren't just blindly following whatever I say. Thankfully both of these boys were sincere and they prayed the prayers themselves which was awesome. It was awesome to see the change of heart in a span of few days in one of the boys. His name was Jacob and I remember when he had told me he wanted to accept Jesus, I was quite surprised. He was often quite disruptive and a troublemaker, he was also really mean to some of the younger kids. After he had prayed, I told him that now that he has Jesus in his heart, he had to be nicer to people. He looked at me really seriously and nodded. From that moment on I don't think a single coach or volunteer had to lecture him or pull him aside for the rest of camp. It was just amazing to see how much of an impact that it had on him, and it was definitely good to see that he was taking it seriously.
Day 4 I don't remember anything from this day.
Day 5
Everything went by pretty quickly, the day was pretty smooth. In the afternoon world cup, a lot of parents showed up to watch their kids play which was good. We noticed that Joe ran over to his dad to hug him and greet him when he came which was a good sign. It's not very likely that a kid would be that excited to see his dad if he was that abusive, nor would it be very likely that the dad would even show up to support his kid. Throughout the week our volunteers haven't reported any signs of abuse like marks or anything so we felt a little bit relieved. In the end the church coordinator decided that we wouldn't report anything but that they would tell the teacher at his school to keep a look out for it. Everyone had to leave quickly after, Lane had a 9 hour drive to regina for a wedding, Kaitlyn had to go to a wedding as well, and Brittany had to head home to get ready for her grandma's interment. Busy and tiring weekend for my whole team, except for me!
Friday, 17 August 2012
Week 6- Fushion Fellowship Church
My team headed back to edmonton for this camp. The church is located on stony plain road, in a low-income kind of neighborhood. Going into the camp our team knew that this camp could be one of our tougher weeks. We would be getting kids from a different lifestyle/background and going into orientation the church only had 5 kids registered. To give you an idea of how little that is, most churches average around 30-60 campers. But yea hearing from Kaitlyn and Vince last year they didn't have that many kids either so we knew that this camp would be tough. Going into orientation we had about 7-8ish volunteers, but later on the week it would grow to be around 10. That's almost half of their congregation volunteering at the camp. Fushion fellowship may be one of the smallest churches I've ever been in, but the church has a big heart for the Lord. Their passion to go right into the community and reach into those tougher areas of our city is truly remarkable.
Day 1
We headed to field and saw that it was a mess. The grass came to my shins, the grass was still wet from the rain the night before, and of course the previous two factors are perfect conditions for mosquitoes. Hoards of them. As you may know, I attract mosquitoes where ever I go, I could spray all the mosquito repellent I want. After the first day I had around 100 mosquito bites on my legs alone, (some had been there from previous camps...but still). I just remember on day 1 I was trying to set up my warmup stations in the long grass while being swarmed by mosquitoes. Everyone of them trying to bite me. I could barely setup because I was constantly swatting mosquitoes away from my face. At that moment I just felt great anger and frustration. I felt that it was unfair and unreasonable that the conditions were like this. I couldn't understand the purpose of these mosquitoes and why they were trying to bite me. Why was the grass not cut, why was the grass so wet which made my socks wet and gross. Why am I being treated like this when all I'm trying to do is serve you God. It's been a while since that day so I can't really remember how I felt exactly. But I was just so angry and I was just questioning God angrily, what the purpose of all this was in my head. Now that I think back on it, it reminds of me Jonah and when he was sitting in the shade of the tree. God sent a worm to eat the tree which made Jonah furious. He had also questioned God why. Why did he deserve that. God said, "What's this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night.
A bit of my own self reflection reminded me to be humble and to be more grateful instead. It was a blessing and a privilege to serve and not my right. It was not something God needed me for because God does not need anyone. I had to rid myself of the arrogance, the idea that God should give me what I desire simply because it's something that I feel is right. I have no idea in the way that God was going to be working in this camp so who was I to question his way of doing things.
Later on that day our team prayed for the grass to be cut the next morning and for the mosquitoes to die down. Camp started we had about 13 kids which was a lot better than 5. Instead of doing several groups of kids, we just did one giant group of kids as we lead them through skills and games. During coaches corner we did our skits, and as usual we tried to make it overly dramatic to lighten it up. Not a single laugh was given that skit. But our team was prepared for this, we knew that the crowd was going to be a bit tougher and harder to entertain. We just carried on and did our thing, even though it was difficult because you really have to live off the camper's excitement to make it through these camps. Small groups was split into 2 groups, the kids were really talkative until we talked about anything God related.
We had to try a little harder than any other camp to get the kids excited but after lunch the kids started to warm up and have fun which was good.
Day 2
I held my breath as we drove to the field. I got out of the car and ran to the field even before getting any of my stuff. The grass was cut, an amazing answer to our prayers! Coaches' corner ran a lot smoother, the kids were more comfortable around us and lightened up. It was much better than the first day.
Day 3
Don't really remember much about this day, most of the kids said they had already made the decision to follow the Lord though.
Day 4
On day 4 we ran camps with only 3 coaches. Lane headed over to be with the other team for one day. One of the coaches on the other Alberta team was leaving for school so Lane took over for one day. At our camp we could afford to lose one coach since we had 13 kids, the other camp (with about 60ish kids I believe) however, could not. Camps still ran smoothly, smaller camps are good in a few ways. It's easier to handle and run, more relaxed, and you get to know each kid better in the camp. However games are not as fun with less kids, and there's less energy to feed off from the kids.
Later on that night we went to the church for volunteer appreciation. We had a big turkey dinner which was delicious. While eating dinner Kaitlyn was pulled aside by Bev, and then when she came back Lane was pulled away. Didn't really know what was going on, but after dinner the leaders of the church wanted to pray for each AIA coach individually. They wanted to pray for Kaitlyn first because she had to leave early. No one on our team had any idea where she would be going, we were very confused. They prayed for her for about 20 minutes and after she told us that she was going to drive home. So Lane was going to be head coach the next day. She reassured our team that nothing was wrong, and that she just needed some rest to avoid burning out. After that each one of the AIA coaches were prayed for individually. They prayed for each person for about 20 minutes which was quite long. However, when I was being prayed for it didn't feel like it. I had never been prayed for like that before. There were probably around 5-6 church leaders up there, I think a few of them had the gift of Prophecy. But they just laid hands on my head, my chest, whatever and they prayed for me. It was a pretty awesome experience for me, everyone on the team enjoyed it. The girls wrote down what they had said so they could refer to it later. I thought that was a good idea so this is a good place as any to write it. One guy said he kept seeing Robin hood when he thought of me, in the sense that I give to the poor or something like that. Not necessarily stealing from the rich but giving to the poor. And not just the financially poor but the spiritually poor he said. One other guy said he saw me as a hovercraft. In the sense that I would not be settled down in one place and that I would be moving from place to place doing God's work even after this summer. It was pretty crazy and bizarre but a cool experience. It was crazy for Brittany and Lane as well as the leaders prayed for things that in both of their lives that neither of them have ever shared with anyone (events like certain loved ones passing away) and that the prayers that were prayed upon them were just so relevant.
Day 5
Ran camp without coach, but it still went well. Last day goodbyes and hugs again. I expected Fushion to be one of my tougher camps but it turned out to be one of my favorites. By the end of the week the bonds and relationships that you build with the kids is just so wonderful, its always hard to say goodbye. It always amazes me to see how God can bring people together so closely in a matter of 5 days.
Day 1
We headed to field and saw that it was a mess. The grass came to my shins, the grass was still wet from the rain the night before, and of course the previous two factors are perfect conditions for mosquitoes. Hoards of them. As you may know, I attract mosquitoes where ever I go, I could spray all the mosquito repellent I want. After the first day I had around 100 mosquito bites on my legs alone, (some had been there from previous camps...but still). I just remember on day 1 I was trying to set up my warmup stations in the long grass while being swarmed by mosquitoes. Everyone of them trying to bite me. I could barely setup because I was constantly swatting mosquitoes away from my face. At that moment I just felt great anger and frustration. I felt that it was unfair and unreasonable that the conditions were like this. I couldn't understand the purpose of these mosquitoes and why they were trying to bite me. Why was the grass not cut, why was the grass so wet which made my socks wet and gross. Why am I being treated like this when all I'm trying to do is serve you God. It's been a while since that day so I can't really remember how I felt exactly. But I was just so angry and I was just questioning God angrily, what the purpose of all this was in my head. Now that I think back on it, it reminds of me Jonah and when he was sitting in the shade of the tree. God sent a worm to eat the tree which made Jonah furious. He had also questioned God why. Why did he deserve that. God said, "What's this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night.
A bit of my own self reflection reminded me to be humble and to be more grateful instead. It was a blessing and a privilege to serve and not my right. It was not something God needed me for because God does not need anyone. I had to rid myself of the arrogance, the idea that God should give me what I desire simply because it's something that I feel is right. I have no idea in the way that God was going to be working in this camp so who was I to question his way of doing things.
Later on that day our team prayed for the grass to be cut the next morning and for the mosquitoes to die down. Camp started we had about 13 kids which was a lot better than 5. Instead of doing several groups of kids, we just did one giant group of kids as we lead them through skills and games. During coaches corner we did our skits, and as usual we tried to make it overly dramatic to lighten it up. Not a single laugh was given that skit. But our team was prepared for this, we knew that the crowd was going to be a bit tougher and harder to entertain. We just carried on and did our thing, even though it was difficult because you really have to live off the camper's excitement to make it through these camps. Small groups was split into 2 groups, the kids were really talkative until we talked about anything God related.
We had to try a little harder than any other camp to get the kids excited but after lunch the kids started to warm up and have fun which was good.
Day 2
I held my breath as we drove to the field. I got out of the car and ran to the field even before getting any of my stuff. The grass was cut, an amazing answer to our prayers! Coaches' corner ran a lot smoother, the kids were more comfortable around us and lightened up. It was much better than the first day.
Day 3
Don't really remember much about this day, most of the kids said they had already made the decision to follow the Lord though.
Day 4
On day 4 we ran camps with only 3 coaches. Lane headed over to be with the other team for one day. One of the coaches on the other Alberta team was leaving for school so Lane took over for one day. At our camp we could afford to lose one coach since we had 13 kids, the other camp (with about 60ish kids I believe) however, could not. Camps still ran smoothly, smaller camps are good in a few ways. It's easier to handle and run, more relaxed, and you get to know each kid better in the camp. However games are not as fun with less kids, and there's less energy to feed off from the kids.
Later on that night we went to the church for volunteer appreciation. We had a big turkey dinner which was delicious. While eating dinner Kaitlyn was pulled aside by Bev, and then when she came back Lane was pulled away. Didn't really know what was going on, but after dinner the leaders of the church wanted to pray for each AIA coach individually. They wanted to pray for Kaitlyn first because she had to leave early. No one on our team had any idea where she would be going, we were very confused. They prayed for her for about 20 minutes and after she told us that she was going to drive home. So Lane was going to be head coach the next day. She reassured our team that nothing was wrong, and that she just needed some rest to avoid burning out. After that each one of the AIA coaches were prayed for individually. They prayed for each person for about 20 minutes which was quite long. However, when I was being prayed for it didn't feel like it. I had never been prayed for like that before. There were probably around 5-6 church leaders up there, I think a few of them had the gift of Prophecy. But they just laid hands on my head, my chest, whatever and they prayed for me. It was a pretty awesome experience for me, everyone on the team enjoyed it. The girls wrote down what they had said so they could refer to it later. I thought that was a good idea so this is a good place as any to write it. One guy said he kept seeing Robin hood when he thought of me, in the sense that I give to the poor or something like that. Not necessarily stealing from the rich but giving to the poor. And not just the financially poor but the spiritually poor he said. One other guy said he saw me as a hovercraft. In the sense that I would not be settled down in one place and that I would be moving from place to place doing God's work even after this summer. It was pretty crazy and bizarre but a cool experience. It was crazy for Brittany and Lane as well as the leaders prayed for things that in both of their lives that neither of them have ever shared with anyone (events like certain loved ones passing away) and that the prayers that were prayed upon them were just so relevant.
Day 5
Ran camp without coach, but it still went well. Last day goodbyes and hugs again. I expected Fushion to be one of my tougher camps but it turned out to be one of my favorites. By the end of the week the bonds and relationships that you build with the kids is just so wonderful, its always hard to say goodbye. It always amazes me to see how God can bring people together so closely in a matter of 5 days.
Week 5- Camrose
Our whole team was recovering from a sort of rough week going into Camrose. We were also just passing the halfway mark of our summer so fatigue started settling in a bit as well. However we were excited about Camrose because Phyllis (Bev's sister) was the church coordinator and she had trained all the assistant coaches quite well. The assistant coaches were prepared to lead devotions, coaches' corner and do testimonies which was awesome. Not to mention that there were over 10 of them which made leading small groups and world cup a lot easier. One thing that stuck out in this camp particularly, is that Phyllis made every single volunteer and coach pray every time we had devotions, debriefs, etc. Phyllis was really focused on building into the volunteers and she really wanted to make sure they grew in their faith this week. After our volunteer orientation we went back, Kaitlyn stayed with Britney (who is from camrose). While Lane and I headed to our billet's house which was outside of camrose. As we drove we were kind of disappointed that this house was so far and that we would not be able to sleep in as much. But..when we got there and our billets showed us around the house, we decided that it was worth the drive. We stayed in the basement and there was a home gym there, pool table, well-stocked fridge with drinks, two queen sized beds, 3 couches and a big flat screen tv. Our billets were amazing this week, they brought us snacks in the middle of the night and packed us amazing lunches everyday. They even made our beds...and restocked our fridge with drinks daily. We were spoiled, that 10-15 minute drive to Camrose didn't seem so bad after all.
Day 1
Probably one of the smoothest first days of camp so far this summer. The campers were awesome, super attentive, super skilled, great kids in general. We had two kids specifically, who were extremely skilled. Both of them were Eriks, and both of them were amazing. One of the Eriks plays on a club team, don't remember which tier but he is more skilled than pretty much all of our volunteers. The other Erik is just as amazing, he played in a swedish league a few years back I believe.(he told me his juggling record is 69) He is also the grandson of Phyllis. Both of these Erik's stood out even on the first day, everything was pretty easy for them. We were aware of their skill before camp even started so we were concerned that it would be boring for them. But these kids were amazing, since they could perform all the skills so well, they spent their time teaching the younger kids and taking on a leadership role instead. Lane and I made sure to keep them challenged though during the breaks by having them do soccer tricks or do juggling tricks like milkshakes or super sevens.
In my small group I had a few church kids but most of them were not. Anders was one of the kids who was not a church go-er he is Erik's younger brother (Phyllis' grandkids). Anders and his family are not Christians, they are always told that Christianity is the faith of their grandparents, but not something their own family believes in. Going into camp I could see that Phyllis really wanted this week to have an impact on her grandchildren.
Day 2
Camp continues to go smoothly, the assistant coaches are awesome. They have so much energy and enthusiasm, they make every skit exciting for the kids which is awesome.
Day 3
Bev made an appearance today, she was going to be with our team for the last few days of camp. It was great seeing her and catching up with her. She is going in for surgery next wednesday so she has to be well rested. The doctor says she can only work 5 hours a day, and not to over exert herself. It was great to talk to her and hear how she was doing. Her presence was an encouragement to our whole team, and we were glad to have her back. Wednesday we present the good news to the children, my favorite day. Phyllis sat in my small group as I did my gospel presentation. I asked if anyone wanted to make the decision to follow Jesus, and surprisingly no one wanted to commit but that's ok.
Day 4
The day we talk about trust training and how even after you become a Christ follower, there are tough times and you need to trust in Jesus. In my small group I asked everyone who they trusted the most. Everyone said God. I was then curious to find out why even kids who didn't go to church said they trusted God the most. I assumed that most kids said "God" because someone else before them had said it, and they were just following suit. I asked Anders if he went to church or if he was a follower of Christ. He shook his head. Then I asked him why did he trust God. He said to me quietly "well..listening to the stories from the coaches, I feel like God is someone I can trust". Hearing that really brightened my day. At the end of the day during our debriefing session, I shared that with the team and that made Phyllis really happy.
Thursaday was our volunteer appreciation dinner, we headed over to the community church. It was also Howard's birthday (Phyllis' husband), and for his present Phyllis had me tell the story of Anders to Howard. It made both of them so happy to know that God was working in their grandson's heart. Howard couldn't stop thanking me, even though we both knew that none of this was my doing but what God was doing through me. They told me that Anders and his family have never had any interest in their faith, so to hear Anders say something like that was a big deal for them. The night went on and volunteers and coaches were called up on stage and given thank yous and stuff like that. A few volunteers led worship songs. Before the night ended everyone held hands and prayed for Bev and the four AIA coaches. After that each AIA coach prayed for the volunteers and the church. After that we all prayed for healing on Bev. It was just an amazing night of prayer and worship, and you could feel the presence of the holy spirit there which was amazing. The power of prayer is amazing.
Day 5
Before I ended my small group today, I asked if anyone wanted to pray. I asked each camper if they wanted to pray, most of them said no. I asked Anders if he wanted to pray. He said "I don't know what to say". I told him that he's having a conversation with God and that he could say whatever he wanted. He agreed to try and gave thanks to God for the weather and that he could have an amazing time at soccer camp. At lunch I let Phyllis know that he had prayed today, and she was thrilled. I could tell that God worked in this soccer camp in a really special and personal way for her.
After lunch we had world cup all afternoon and pretty much every parent came to watch their kid play. The community in Camrose is amazing and the atmosphere made the games that much more exciting for the kids as well. After that it was home time, and it was kind of sad for me. This camp in particular, I built a lot of close relationships with the kids and it was sad to see them go. A lot of pictures were taken with the kids and I. Unfortunately none of those photos were taken by my camera or phone, nor would I be allowed to share them even if they were. But Camrose, definitely my favorite week so far.
Day 1
Probably one of the smoothest first days of camp so far this summer. The campers were awesome, super attentive, super skilled, great kids in general. We had two kids specifically, who were extremely skilled. Both of them were Eriks, and both of them were amazing. One of the Eriks plays on a club team, don't remember which tier but he is more skilled than pretty much all of our volunteers. The other Erik is just as amazing, he played in a swedish league a few years back I believe.(he told me his juggling record is 69) He is also the grandson of Phyllis. Both of these Erik's stood out even on the first day, everything was pretty easy for them. We were aware of their skill before camp even started so we were concerned that it would be boring for them. But these kids were amazing, since they could perform all the skills so well, they spent their time teaching the younger kids and taking on a leadership role instead. Lane and I made sure to keep them challenged though during the breaks by having them do soccer tricks or do juggling tricks like milkshakes or super sevens.
In my small group I had a few church kids but most of them were not. Anders was one of the kids who was not a church go-er he is Erik's younger brother (Phyllis' grandkids). Anders and his family are not Christians, they are always told that Christianity is the faith of their grandparents, but not something their own family believes in. Going into camp I could see that Phyllis really wanted this week to have an impact on her grandchildren.
Day 2
Camp continues to go smoothly, the assistant coaches are awesome. They have so much energy and enthusiasm, they make every skit exciting for the kids which is awesome.
Day 3
Bev made an appearance today, she was going to be with our team for the last few days of camp. It was great seeing her and catching up with her. She is going in for surgery next wednesday so she has to be well rested. The doctor says she can only work 5 hours a day, and not to over exert herself. It was great to talk to her and hear how she was doing. Her presence was an encouragement to our whole team, and we were glad to have her back. Wednesday we present the good news to the children, my favorite day. Phyllis sat in my small group as I did my gospel presentation. I asked if anyone wanted to make the decision to follow Jesus, and surprisingly no one wanted to commit but that's ok.
Day 4
The day we talk about trust training and how even after you become a Christ follower, there are tough times and you need to trust in Jesus. In my small group I asked everyone who they trusted the most. Everyone said God. I was then curious to find out why even kids who didn't go to church said they trusted God the most. I assumed that most kids said "God" because someone else before them had said it, and they were just following suit. I asked Anders if he went to church or if he was a follower of Christ. He shook his head. Then I asked him why did he trust God. He said to me quietly "well..listening to the stories from the coaches, I feel like God is someone I can trust". Hearing that really brightened my day. At the end of the day during our debriefing session, I shared that with the team and that made Phyllis really happy.
Thursaday was our volunteer appreciation dinner, we headed over to the community church. It was also Howard's birthday (Phyllis' husband), and for his present Phyllis had me tell the story of Anders to Howard. It made both of them so happy to know that God was working in their grandson's heart. Howard couldn't stop thanking me, even though we both knew that none of this was my doing but what God was doing through me. They told me that Anders and his family have never had any interest in their faith, so to hear Anders say something like that was a big deal for them. The night went on and volunteers and coaches were called up on stage and given thank yous and stuff like that. A few volunteers led worship songs. Before the night ended everyone held hands and prayed for Bev and the four AIA coaches. After that each AIA coach prayed for the volunteers and the church. After that we all prayed for healing on Bev. It was just an amazing night of prayer and worship, and you could feel the presence of the holy spirit there which was amazing. The power of prayer is amazing.
Day 5
Before I ended my small group today, I asked if anyone wanted to pray. I asked each camper if they wanted to pray, most of them said no. I asked Anders if he wanted to pray. He said "I don't know what to say". I told him that he's having a conversation with God and that he could say whatever he wanted. He agreed to try and gave thanks to God for the weather and that he could have an amazing time at soccer camp. At lunch I let Phyllis know that he had prayed today, and she was thrilled. I could tell that God worked in this soccer camp in a really special and personal way for her.
After lunch we had world cup all afternoon and pretty much every parent came to watch their kid play. The community in Camrose is amazing and the atmosphere made the games that much more exciting for the kids as well. After that it was home time, and it was kind of sad for me. This camp in particular, I built a lot of close relationships with the kids and it was sad to see them go. A lot of pictures were taken with the kids and I. Unfortunately none of those photos were taken by my camera or phone, nor would I be allowed to share them even if they were. But Camrose, definitely my favorite week so far.
Thursday, 2 August 2012
Week 4- North Edmonton Alliance
I was so excited to be able to do camps at my own church. I was quite excited to hear that there were over 45 kids before I came to edmonton. I knew that there weren't that many of our own church kids attending our soccer camp so that must of meant that there were lots of kids coming from the surrounding community. I was excited to hear about the list of volunteers we had as well. As soon as camps started I felt like this camp would be challenging. The kids I had in my warm up were really talkative and not very skilled or coordinated. It was already quite a big difference compared to the other camps so far this summer. The kids didn't listen as well and a lot of them got distracted very easily. I'll be completely honest with you guys, last week was a tough week for me and for those of you who volunteered, may have seen my frustration at times. I felt like I was spending more time trying to get the kids to pay attention than teaching the skills and fast footwork. I admit I even wanted to throw in the towel on a few occasions. It was just a week where I felt exhausted and I have nothing left to give. However, amidst all that my small group was the highlight of my week. I had the opportunity to build an awesome relationship with the kids in my small group. Every camp I go to, I usually find a kid to connect with and I try to build into them the whole week. Last week I felt that connection with the kids in my small group and it was great. 3 of my campers in small group came to the Lord, it was awesome. I'm so thankful for those campers and I continue to pray that they will learn to trust and rely on God and deepen their walk with him.
Overall the week of camp at my church has been my toughest week so far. But by no means does a tough week mean a bad week. I was able to serve alongside my brothers and sisters in Christ, and even see some of the spiritual growth that has been happening inside them. It was a week of stretching and growth for me as well. I definitely had fun back home and was glad to see our community reached through our church.
Overall the week of camp at my church has been my toughest week so far. But by no means does a tough week mean a bad week. I was able to serve alongside my brothers and sisters in Christ, and even see some of the spiritual growth that has been happening inside them. It was a week of stretching and growth for me as well. I definitely had fun back home and was glad to see our community reached through our church.
Week 3- Rocky Mountain House
Our team was greeted by a bunch of friendly teenagers in front of the church as we arrived. We made our way into the church to meet the coordinator/pastor and our 2 volunteers. They were brothers, the older one was Jordan (18) and he had been volunteering for AIA soccer camps for 5 years. The younger one Riley (15) was volunteering for the first time. We were quite surprised that there were only 2 volunteers at this camp. but that's more than enough when you only have 20-22 kids. After debrief we went to our billets place. Our billets had enough rooms for all the coaches so our whole team stayed together for the whole week which was pretty awesome. The week ran pretty smoothly for the most part. The only problems we had were with the twins Carter and Connor. Both of these kids were exceptionally skilled compared to the rest of the camp, they were both great kids as well. They showed great leadership quality to the younger kids, and were always attentive and helpful. However when Carter's team played Connor's team in world cup (the scrimmage), all hell broke loose. There were profanities on the field, punching, kicking, reckless slide-tackling, you name it. We had to threaten to disqualify both their teams in world cup (which is a huge deal to the kids) in an effort to cool them down. In the end, neither one of the twins won the world cup anyway which was good. If either one of them had won, the other twin would have completely lost it. hmm both skilled players who win regular season games but choke in the playoffs. reminds me of the sedin sisters. Other than that, the week was really relaxed, 20ish kids was really easy to deal with. Not to mention that the kids were all pretty good (except the twins during world cup). My small group consisted mainly of church kids. I had some meaningful discussion with Carter and some of the older kids about some of the deeper topics which was good. Overall a great week with great kids
Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Week 2 Crossfield/Carstairs
Met up with my team in Carstairs. Carstairs is about 10-15 minutes
from Crossfield and is where my head coach and my billets lived. (the
actual camp is at crossfield) Lane and I were pretty disappointed to
learn that we would be separated for the week and that we would be
staying at different houses. The billets who were supposed to house us
dropped out last minute and we stayed at different areas. I stayed with
the church coordinator Louie and his family. We had volunteer
orientation in Louie's basement where we met most of the volunteers.
Louie had 2 daughters around my age who were both volunteering for
soccer camp. The other volunteers were all about the same age as well,
so we were relieved to have some more mature volunteers. It was also
nice to have more volunteers, we have around 7-8 this camp. After
orientation I got a tour of the house and decided to go bed early
instead of watching a movie.
Day 1
Woke up this morning at 6ish and killed time until we had to head out. I got to know Louie a bit better during the 15 minute drive to the field. Louie's in his mid to late 40s and says he's been a soccer coach for decades. He still plays in a soccer league and is able to keep up with guys in their 30s he says. Louie is an engineer for air canada and fixes airplanes in Calgary, he also taxis them around the airport. He also tells me that if he has spare time in his shift, he's allowed to fly the flight simulator which is an exact replica of the actual cockpit. I asked him if he could technically fly a real plane if he had to. He said yes he'd probably do quite well, mind you he said he might wet his pants doing so though.
Camp went smoothly, having a lot of volunteers made a huge difference. There were only about 36 kids compared to 55 at cochrane, so definitely less chaotic. The only complaint I have is that my small group gets distracted really easily and there 3 kids who are quite disruptive. I had a few kids who weren't church kids so it's going to be interesting to see how they respond to coach's corner throughout the week. It was a super hot day so we had water guns to spray the kids and cool them off, which worked really well actually. After the first day of camp, none of the coaches had any major concerns except for the heat. Thank goodness we have 2 tents and water guns.
After camp Louie asked if me and the other coaches would be interested in an adult drop in soccer game in Didsbury (15 minutes from Carstairs) . After a bit of debate we said we would go. Louie and I left after a quick dinner and we drove to the field. My team texted me saying they would arrive together but they would be quite late. I really didn't want to play and to make matters worse my team wouldn't even be there until later. Everyone there was pretty big, skill level was decently high as well. (There were a few club players) I was really nervous to start and had some terrible touches, but after a while it got better. During half, Kaitlyn and Lane arrived and they were both on my team, with those 2 feeding me and Louie we dominated the rest of the game.
Day 2
Camp was good I still have a lot of trouble with my small group. The big 3 are still talking quite a bit and I'm finding it hard to squeeze an meaningful contribution from any of them.
After camp we went to Kaitlyn's house for supper and some games. We got a call from Bev and that she's been bedridden after coming home from the hospital. She's on a liquid diet which sucks. She has to wait until the end of July for a CAT scan. However in the midst of all this God continues to work. Bev told the doctor that hopefully God would heal her so that the scan wouldn't be necessary. The doctor asked her if she really believed that and Bev said yes. Bev told the doctor how she was miraculously cure of her epilepsy in her youth. The doctor didn't seem all that shocked and said that he's seen miracles before too. After the doctor left the room, the patient sharing the room with Bev came up to her and asked if God really did heal her. Bev said yes and had the opportunity to share a bit about God. She left the patient her number and now they will meet for coffee the next time Bev is in Red Deer. Our team was not the least bit surprised to hear that story, that was so Bev. Such a strong woman of God, and to put so much faith in God for her healing and to use an opportunity that God had given to her to evangelize even amidst her sickness. I think she inspires every single AIA coach with her faith, and for myself I definitely look up to her, and strive to be like her in my walk with God.
Afterwards we did devotions and talked about how frusturating small groups were. Kaitlyn told us to pray for our small group members individually. The idea of it was so obvious and so duhhh. Yet it never occurred to me to do so. Going to give it a try before bed tonight.
Day 3
Some terrible news, a kid we had yesterday was seriously injured. His wrist was struck by a ball shot from a volunteer. He has a broken wrist and a dislocated elbow. Today he didn't come to camp, and the coordinator gave everyone a serious lecture about shooting the balls. There really shouldn't be any reason that the volunteers or coaches should be shooting the ball full power at the net when there are kids there. It really should be common sense but over the past few days we have had an enormous amount of injuries due to hard shots. (quite a few from the volunteers) It's just unfortunate that something like that has to happen to a kid. Especially since the injury was from a volunteer and from something that shouldn't have happened anyway. It's just bad for everyone when these things happen, bad for the church, the family, and AIA.
On a brighter note, God answered my prayers today because my small groups went a lot better. The chatter was greaaaaatly reduced. I had 3 kids in my group come to Christ today, 2 of which were the very disruptive ones. It was a pretty amazing experience for me. As cliche as this sounds, I put God in a box a lot of the times. I find myself assuming in who God will work in and how he will work. But you learn to expect the unexpected with God because his way of working is beyond what we can comprehend. In my small group I also have an older kid named Greg, who was the most skilled soccer player in camp. He was also very mature for his age, and had great leadership quality. I asked him if he wanted to make the decision to follow Jesus, but he told me he had already done it last year. He listened in as I prayed with the 3 campers.
Day 4
God continues to answer my prayer request in small groups. I've prayed for a shy quiet girl in my small group called Christiana to open up to me. She hasn't spoken a single word in our small group, and has refused to share anything at all every time I ask her to. Today we were learning how to trust Jesus and I asked if any of them have ever experienced difficult times or had a time of weakness. Christiana raised up her hand and I was really excited to call on her. However, when I asked her to share, she froze up and remained silent. I told her she could tell me the story during lunch time. When lunch time came, she told me that she would tell me at the end of the day. At the end of the day, i forgot. fail..
Day 5
Before small groups today I asked Christiana if she wanted to share her story, but she didn't want other members to listen in. So I asked her to tell me at lunch, again. During small group I handed out the U-talk forms our and had them fill out the backside. When I took the forms in I noticed Greg ticked off the "I've decided to follow Jesus Christ for the first time this week". This came as a surprise to me as he told me yesterday that he had already done it before. I didn't feel it necessary to ask him about it. Whether it's his first time committing or a re-commitment I just think it's important that he made that decision himself and that he understands what it means to commit himself to Jesus. What do you guys think? I asked him who he prayed with and he said he prayed on his own, and I realized that he prayed the same prayer I prayed yesterday in small group.
I spent my whole lunch with Christiana so she could tell me her story. She finally did and it was something about being locked in her grandma's bathroom or something like that. I knew to her that this story was probably a big deal, and even just sharing it with me was a huge step for her. I was just glad that she had finally decided to talk and share something meaningful about herself, and for that I was very grateful. She opened up to me a bit more during lunch, and we had conversations about snacks and birthdays, things like that. I was a bit disappointed that she decided to open up to me on the last day of camp, and wish she would have done so a few days earlier. For a brief moment I thought to God, "if you had only done this a few days earlier, maybe I would have been able to connect with her better and help her accept Jesus." How was I supposed to reach her with the gospel on the last day of camp. But I was reminded of the team devotion I had earlier this week. That everything will go according to God's will and not mine. My head coach said that she views everyone's spiritual journey as a timeline, and we all fit on different parts of these kid's timelines. Some of the kids are in that part of their spiritual journey where they are ready to accept Jesus, and it's time for us to reap what has been sown. For other kids like Christiana, we're just planting the seeds that our God has provided for us. And it may not be in our place to lead them to Christ, but to push them onto the next part of their spiritual journey and ready them for someone else to do so. This was just something I was reminded of this week. Us coaches have planted many seeds this week, but it may not be in God's plan for us to see the harvest. But we have faith that God will carry out what we have started, and in that I find great joy in what I do.
Day 1
Woke up this morning at 6ish and killed time until we had to head out. I got to know Louie a bit better during the 15 minute drive to the field. Louie's in his mid to late 40s and says he's been a soccer coach for decades. He still plays in a soccer league and is able to keep up with guys in their 30s he says. Louie is an engineer for air canada and fixes airplanes in Calgary, he also taxis them around the airport. He also tells me that if he has spare time in his shift, he's allowed to fly the flight simulator which is an exact replica of the actual cockpit. I asked him if he could technically fly a real plane if he had to. He said yes he'd probably do quite well, mind you he said he might wet his pants doing so though.
Camp went smoothly, having a lot of volunteers made a huge difference. There were only about 36 kids compared to 55 at cochrane, so definitely less chaotic. The only complaint I have is that my small group gets distracted really easily and there 3 kids who are quite disruptive. I had a few kids who weren't church kids so it's going to be interesting to see how they respond to coach's corner throughout the week. It was a super hot day so we had water guns to spray the kids and cool them off, which worked really well actually. After the first day of camp, none of the coaches had any major concerns except for the heat. Thank goodness we have 2 tents and water guns.
After camp Louie asked if me and the other coaches would be interested in an adult drop in soccer game in Didsbury (15 minutes from Carstairs) . After a bit of debate we said we would go. Louie and I left after a quick dinner and we drove to the field. My team texted me saying they would arrive together but they would be quite late. I really didn't want to play and to make matters worse my team wouldn't even be there until later. Everyone there was pretty big, skill level was decently high as well. (There were a few club players) I was really nervous to start and had some terrible touches, but after a while it got better. During half, Kaitlyn and Lane arrived and they were both on my team, with those 2 feeding me and Louie we dominated the rest of the game.
Day 2
Camp was good I still have a lot of trouble with my small group. The big 3 are still talking quite a bit and I'm finding it hard to squeeze an meaningful contribution from any of them.
After camp we went to Kaitlyn's house for supper and some games. We got a call from Bev and that she's been bedridden after coming home from the hospital. She's on a liquid diet which sucks. She has to wait until the end of July for a CAT scan. However in the midst of all this God continues to work. Bev told the doctor that hopefully God would heal her so that the scan wouldn't be necessary. The doctor asked her if she really believed that and Bev said yes. Bev told the doctor how she was miraculously cure of her epilepsy in her youth. The doctor didn't seem all that shocked and said that he's seen miracles before too. After the doctor left the room, the patient sharing the room with Bev came up to her and asked if God really did heal her. Bev said yes and had the opportunity to share a bit about God. She left the patient her number and now they will meet for coffee the next time Bev is in Red Deer. Our team was not the least bit surprised to hear that story, that was so Bev. Such a strong woman of God, and to put so much faith in God for her healing and to use an opportunity that God had given to her to evangelize even amidst her sickness. I think she inspires every single AIA coach with her faith, and for myself I definitely look up to her, and strive to be like her in my walk with God.
Afterwards we did devotions and talked about how frusturating small groups were. Kaitlyn told us to pray for our small group members individually. The idea of it was so obvious and so duhhh. Yet it never occurred to me to do so. Going to give it a try before bed tonight.
Day 3
Some terrible news, a kid we had yesterday was seriously injured. His wrist was struck by a ball shot from a volunteer. He has a broken wrist and a dislocated elbow. Today he didn't come to camp, and the coordinator gave everyone a serious lecture about shooting the balls. There really shouldn't be any reason that the volunteers or coaches should be shooting the ball full power at the net when there are kids there. It really should be common sense but over the past few days we have had an enormous amount of injuries due to hard shots. (quite a few from the volunteers) It's just unfortunate that something like that has to happen to a kid. Especially since the injury was from a volunteer and from something that shouldn't have happened anyway. It's just bad for everyone when these things happen, bad for the church, the family, and AIA.
On a brighter note, God answered my prayers today because my small groups went a lot better. The chatter was greaaaaatly reduced. I had 3 kids in my group come to Christ today, 2 of which were the very disruptive ones. It was a pretty amazing experience for me. As cliche as this sounds, I put God in a box a lot of the times. I find myself assuming in who God will work in and how he will work. But you learn to expect the unexpected with God because his way of working is beyond what we can comprehend. In my small group I also have an older kid named Greg, who was the most skilled soccer player in camp. He was also very mature for his age, and had great leadership quality. I asked him if he wanted to make the decision to follow Jesus, but he told me he had already done it last year. He listened in as I prayed with the 3 campers.
Day 4
God continues to answer my prayer request in small groups. I've prayed for a shy quiet girl in my small group called Christiana to open up to me. She hasn't spoken a single word in our small group, and has refused to share anything at all every time I ask her to. Today we were learning how to trust Jesus and I asked if any of them have ever experienced difficult times or had a time of weakness. Christiana raised up her hand and I was really excited to call on her. However, when I asked her to share, she froze up and remained silent. I told her she could tell me the story during lunch time. When lunch time came, she told me that she would tell me at the end of the day. At the end of the day, i forgot. fail..
Day 5
Before small groups today I asked Christiana if she wanted to share her story, but she didn't want other members to listen in. So I asked her to tell me at lunch, again. During small group I handed out the U-talk forms our and had them fill out the backside. When I took the forms in I noticed Greg ticked off the "I've decided to follow Jesus Christ for the first time this week". This came as a surprise to me as he told me yesterday that he had already done it before. I didn't feel it necessary to ask him about it. Whether it's his first time committing or a re-commitment I just think it's important that he made that decision himself and that he understands what it means to commit himself to Jesus. What do you guys think? I asked him who he prayed with and he said he prayed on his own, and I realized that he prayed the same prayer I prayed yesterday in small group.
I spent my whole lunch with Christiana so she could tell me her story. She finally did and it was something about being locked in her grandma's bathroom or something like that. I knew to her that this story was probably a big deal, and even just sharing it with me was a huge step for her. I was just glad that she had finally decided to talk and share something meaningful about herself, and for that I was very grateful. She opened up to me a bit more during lunch, and we had conversations about snacks and birthdays, things like that. I was a bit disappointed that she decided to open up to me on the last day of camp, and wish she would have done so a few days earlier. For a brief moment I thought to God, "if you had only done this a few days earlier, maybe I would have been able to connect with her better and help her accept Jesus." How was I supposed to reach her with the gospel on the last day of camp. But I was reminded of the team devotion I had earlier this week. That everything will go according to God's will and not mine. My head coach said that she views everyone's spiritual journey as a timeline, and we all fit on different parts of these kid's timelines. Some of the kids are in that part of their spiritual journey where they are ready to accept Jesus, and it's time for us to reap what has been sown. For other kids like Christiana, we're just planting the seeds that our God has provided for us. And it may not be in our place to lead them to Christ, but to push them onto the next part of their spiritual journey and ready them for someone else to do so. This was just something I was reminded of this week. Us coaches have planted many seeds this week, but it may not be in God's plan for us to see the harvest. But we have faith that God will carry out what we have started, and in that I find great joy in what I do.
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