A Dream of Marvin's

I dream of using the old Zoe Zone bus as a mobile outreach ministry base. We could simply use it to transport people and equipment to different venues in the community, or we could go a step further and also use it as a backdrop to a staging area, much like the Sidewalk Sunday School trucks in New York. An awning could be attached to the side to act as a cover for a stage area. Stage risers--stored in the bus--could act as a portable stage. We could easily set up a simple sound system as well. It could be used in festivals and events (Canada Day, Fat Cat Festival, etc) and would become an easily recognizable presence on the streets of Kelowna.

Mission: Street Invasion

We've been talking about how we'd like to target certain streets on our routes. Well, here's a plan:
1. Captains, pick a street and tell me about it by March 5.
2. Captains, call your prayer partners and tell them about it at the beginning of the next week.
3. Everyone pray for the targeted streets.
4. After spring break, teams from Evangel (but not us in the bus ministry) deliver canvass flyers to all the houses on those streets.
5. Visitation teams follow up by going door to door. (4 and 5 could be done together by just the visitation teams.)

One variation of this plan is to enlist Sr. High youth to do both 4 and 5.

What do you think? If I don't hear from you this week I'll assume you're all on board with this plan--as is--and we'll go ahead with it... :)

Value-Added Visitation

Last week I tried to encourage you to keep going because God will use even the simple little things we do to impact a child's life. While that is totally true, we can also be taking advantage of our visitation times to spur our kids on in their faith. Of course we have to be sensitive to how well we know the kids and to what their parents might think, but there are some simple things that we can be doing to add "value" to our visits:
1. Talk about last week's lesson at church. Do they remember what it was about? Have they been thinking about it? What could it mean for their lives?
2. Challenge them to be reading their Bibles. Don't be vague about it though. Suggest where to start (Matthew is a good place) and help them track through the weeks. Reward them for remembering what they've read. (I'll be adding the "Bible Zone" back to the flyer, which will help.)
3. Remind them about the memory verses and offer to help them practice.
4. Pray with them.

Have you got some more ideas or comments about this? Click on "comments" and share your wisdom!

OUTRAGEOUS DREAMS WEEK EXTENDED

I would love to know your dreams about HOW we can reach kids in our community, and since we've only had a few people share them so far, I've decided to extend our Outrageous Dreams Week for another week. If you haven't been dreaming about the "how", why not ask God about it, and then just put down whatever comes to mind at that very moment. You'll never know what you could come up with if you don't try! NO DREAM IS TOO OUTRAGEOUS

Dan's Dream

My dream is to see depression and low self worth something that kids never have to experience. In fact, I want to see it become nothing. Gone.

A little encouragement

Keep fighting the good fight everyone! Every moment that we are able to spend with our kids are moments of eternal consequences. And it's really not that hard to make a difference. 80-90% of our job is just showing up with Christ-like attitudes. God comes with us (since his Spirit is in each one of his followers) and does the real work through the simple things we do to show love and compassion. Who are we to limit what God might do through us simply handing a kid a piece of paper and asking them about their day?

Another Update on Things

Our prayer warriors now have our information and are already praying for us! I'll have a sample prayer request card ready for your review on Sunday, so the real thing will be good to go by next Sunday. A question from the prayer team was if we could keep them updated each week on when we're visiting so that they can be praying for us WHILE we are visiting. I like it. Is it doable for all you visitors?

We hit some snags with getting the sleep-over flyers out this week so hopefully you'll all have flyers for both boys and girls events so you can really push them next week.

Just a reminder to scroll down and be aware of all the different important dates coming up in March...

My Dream!!

Hey my dream is that we could maybe help out kids who are struggling with money, clothes, etc... What I'm thinking is maybe each route or every two routes(or something) could find a family that is in need of help and we could help them by doing fundraisers or something of the sort. The reason I have a dream like that is becasue I hate to see families that are suffering.

girls' sleep-over

Today the girls' sleep-over was tentatively booked on the system for March 22,23. Hopefully this gives all you ladies time to make room in your schedules! Let me know if it absolutely doesn't work for you--just so that we have an idea of how many leaders will be there.

What are your Dreams?!

OK, let's make it official: This week is Outrageous Dreams Week. Tell us your dream for reaching/ministering to the kids in our community. No dream is too crazy or outrageous to qualify...

Dream for One-by-One Ministries

I would love to see us do more outreach for our kids in the summer, like holding mini suday schools in the complexes where a lot of the children with parents on welfare live and even the neighborhoods that a lot of our kids live in even. (eg. Like doing a christian block party for the kids where they can also get to hear about God. Ask qusetions, have someone pray with them and stuff like that.)

GOOD NEWS!!!!

Hey, I have some good news. The last couple of days I have been have lots of trouble with my knee. Today my knee doesnt hurt at all and yesturday I could barely walk. So I want to thank all of you who had prayed for me so THANK-YOU very much. I am so happy because today I don't have to limp when I walk.

Update on the Prayer Team Stuff

By the end of Friday I should have the route packages ready for our prayer warriors and they will be in the hands of the Dalgleishes this Sunday. The next step will be to include our warriors into our team, inviting them to our pray times and events, like the upcoming potluck lunch...

I hope you're all excited to see what might happened as our routes are prayed for! Hope for, pray for, and expect great things!

Updates on Dates and Things

Thanks to everyone who attended the sleep-over planning meetings this week! There are some great ideas and the sleep-overs are shaping up to be fun and meaningful. The guys' one will still be on the weekend in the middle of spring break; however, there are a lot of conflicts with doing the girls' one during the first week, so it will likely be moved to the second week of spring break. Informational flyers and forms should be available this Sunday.

I'd rather not go against the flow of a church-wide event like a day of fasting, so I'm going to move the potluck to after spring break.

I'll believe it when I see it, but it looks like my beloved pirahna's and their new boss (Mr. Sucker Fish) will finally be moving to Vancouver. If you want to say your good-byes to them on this blog, I'll be sure to forward the messages on to them.

So here are some relavent dates:

March 12, 19 No Buses
March 17,18 Boys' Sleep-Over
March 21,22 Likely Date for Girls' Sleep-Over
March 26 Likely Date for Potluck

Mmm...Pot...Luck...

Last month's potluck lunch seemed to go pretty well, so why not have another? The tentative date for our next potluck lunch is March 5.

A little visitation story

On our route there's a family that always has a few foster kids. Two of the kids there now are a younger sister and older brother. She faithfully comes to church basically every week, but he's only been to one youth event and hasn't been out since. She's recently been telling me about how she's been trying to get him to come to church. Well, this past Wednesday he finally did come out again and had a great time! Now for the punch line. When we visited the home yesterday I was talking to the foster mom about the brother and sister. I don't know if this is any coincidence, but it seems just this past Sunday the sister got home from church and told her brother that he should come to church--because it will make him a better person!

An Update

Sorry about the slow week for posting from me, but thanks to the others for picking up the slack! This week was my first weekly reading tutor shift at Bankhead Elementary. I guess there's not too much to tell about it, except that the kids were in grade 2 and one was rather shy. For those of you wondering what happened to getting involved at Pearson Rd, I'm wondering the same thing. I drove to the school with the intent of introducing myself to the principal, but it just did not seem like the right thing to do and I ended up driving away. That happened twice in a row. I guess God has other plans.

This morning I met with the community outreach pastor from Emmanuel in Westbank. He's doing some pretty cool things over there, and I've been inspired to look into a few of them myself. One thing that has stuck for me was the idea of backyard VBSs in the summer. Emmanuel has done them for 2 years with pretty good success. They're like mini daycamps right in people's neighbourhoods. I've already thought of some different twists, like doing them in low income complexes and/or having afternoon field trips. What do you think? Has this sparked something in your heart?

Spring Break Sleep-Overs II

Yesterday I finally had a look at dates and such, and realized that we have not a moment to lose--although we are by no means behind the 8-ball yet.

1. The guys sleep-over will be March 17. The girls sleep-over will need to be either March 14 or 15, still to be determined based on work schedules, etc.

2. The men and the women will need 2-3 planning meetings between now and March 12. Meeting #1 has to be before February 17 so that promotional material can get out in time. That means that by the end of Meeting #1, a basic idea of what will happen at the sleep-overs needs to be determined.

3. Final decisions will be made by the Bus Captains, but Leaders are encouraged to attend the meetings and give ideas and opinions.

Let's be praying that God would use these events to touch kids' lives...

My exciting weekend!!

Last Saturday I was down at my friends place and her sister was having a really bad day and I went up to her and asked her what was the matter and she said she had been having some problems at school with some bullies. I was then thinking in my head how I could help her and I said to myself "What would Jesus Do?" I asked her if it would be okay if I prayed for her and she said yes. On Monday I went to her and asked her how she felt and she told me that the person who had been bullying her stopped and she was really happy. That was my excitement for the week!:)

Something that made me smile

There is a little girl on my bus who is currently in foster care and during prayer time two weeks ago she asked me to pray for her that she would get to spend time with her parents. Well, the following weekend I think it was she got to go make cupcakes with her mother and father. It was pretty amazing to hear that. It always puts a smile on my face when I hear that prayer works. Last week she asked me to pray for her to have a good life because shes been getting teased at school recently. I just know God will help her with that.
Also, I would like to say thanks Pastor Barry and Ramona because the idea of that prayer time is really awesome, its my favourite part of Sunday mornings. :)

Super Bowl Sunday

We're having a Super Bowl party at the church! Bring $5 for food and something comfy to sit on, and come to the Heritage Rm around 3 this Sunday. If you don't want to watch the game a) come anyway and hang out with everyone, or b) plan a Non-Super Bowl party and let us know about it!

Spring Break Sleep-Overs

For those of you that don't know, we're planning on having separate girls-only and guys-only sleep-overs at the church during spring break for our kids. We're hoping they'll serve a few different purposes: strengthen relationships, bless our kids, and hopely gain a few new kids for Sundays. We'd love for as many of you as possible to be there. It looks like the guys one works best on March 17-18...

Now it's time for your input! Ladies, when's the best time for you? Everyone, what kinds of things do you think would be fun to do with the kids?

My Thoughts

Here are my thoughts to Marvins name idea. I think that the "One By One Ministries" is a good name. That passage by Matthew is good for the name as well. I would also like to congratulate Barry on going visiting and reaching out to the church kids. I'm really happy about getting a prayer team for us; it should be great. Well see you all on Sunday--have a great week!:)