...and after you have done everything, to stand.

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then..." (Ephesians 6:10-14a)

It's time for us to stand our ground and stop giving way in our personal lives.

Like it's been said before, whether we like it or not, as children's outreach workers we are caught up in a cosmic war, and the territory being fought over is the hearts of kids in the community. When we pray, go to the kids, bring them to church, speak words of life to them, etc, we are on the offensive.

When an army goes on the offensive, they have to expect a counterattack. The devil's counterattack against us is almost always covert. If we're not watching for it, we don't even know what hit us. We might not even realize that we've been attacked at all. But he doesn't care about that. What he cares about is making us harmless to him. So he comes at us with all kinds of personal temptations designed to take us out of commission--or at least to make us ineffective.

Taking a stand is everything. It's true that we need to use the armour of God and the sword of his Spirit in order to stand, but unless we actually decide that we are going to stand our ground, all that great armour and the mighty sword will just be laying off to the side as we get pummelled to the ground. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of that happening to me.

Will you choose to stand your ground and determine not to give way anymore?

Fall 2006 Potluck Pics

Thanks to all who brought yummy food for our first potluck of this ministry year. We couldn't have done it without you. Well, I suppose we could have, but then it wouldn't have been a potluck...

Evangel Kid Outreach

Just the Bare Bones!
With everyone away for various reasons this week we only had 7 bus leaders at our morning meeting (I hope I didn't miscount!). Seems kinda low but isn't 7 God's perfect number?! We had a sweet prayer time and we had a pretty good morning to follow. It is a blessing serving with all of you and I'm looking forward to having everyone back next Sunday! I hope that you have all been blessed. May God meet each of you in a special way this week! ~S

Nature Call 2006

As far as I'm concerned, the verdict is out: our first ever Back Country Nature Call was a sucess! We had about 30 kids, 3 parents, 6 leaders, and no casualties. The afternoon started with picking up the kids from their homes by bus. Then it was up to East Kelowna for a spirited hike into Gallagher's Canyon. After a good round of photo ops, rock throwing, cave exploring, and hillside climbing, it was time for the trek back to the bus. Somehow most of the kids had just as much energy going up as they had going down! Then it was off to the church for sitting around tables and watching a slide show of pictures from our hike while we drank hot chocolate and ate Costco cookies. It was a great way to end our afternoon before the ride home. Special thanks to Susanne for sacrificing the chance to be with our kids so that everything was prepared for us when we got to the church...

Please Pray with Me

More than ever I'm sensing the call to pray. I'd like to present some elequent discertation on why we should pray, with stories and scriptures to back it up. But all I've got at this moment (as I sit in Second Cup with just a few more moments before I have to get back to the church) is this burning desire for you to have the same sense.

I believe with all my heart that the most powerful work we can do for the kids we're trying to reach is to pray for them. That's why it's so hard. That's why we can never seem to get to it. That's why it's so hard to do when we actually get to it. That's why we often don't even want to.

Unless you consciously carve out some time to pray, it's not going to happen. Tuesdays, 6:00PM is our designated prayer time. Would you carve out 15 or 20 minutes (or more) a week to sit and pray and wait and listen? If you can't make it to the church, do it wherever you're at.

This Tuesday when I'm in NYC, I'm going to make a point of praying at that time. It might not be for more than a few minutes but I'm going to do it. I hope you'll join me. It's not the least you could do. It's the most.

Training/Team Building Meeting: Looking Back

Thanks to all bus captains and leaders who made the effort to attend our meeting last Saturday. I thought it went pretty well. Eating together is always a good thing, and hopefully you were inspired to keep being a Christian Barbarian, one who is open to hearing from God and then acts on it.

Some random thoughts to remember from The Barbarian's Way out of Civilization video and our discussion afterwards:
1. "Civilized" church is not what God intended. It stifles his work.
2. Hearing and obeying God starts with what He's already said in the Bible.
3. Ignoring what He's already said in the Bible could prevent you from hearing Him in the specific situations.
4. Fear may be one of the biggest causes to us not responding to God's voice, whether it's His voice in the Bible or in our hearts.
5. Christianity is not supposed to be safe.

OK, so maybe the super-fast training we went through next wasn't all that inspiring, but it's always good to be reminded of what we do, why, and how we should go about doing it.

Wrapping up with our "Jesus Time" was a highlight for me too. 'Nough said.

Christmas Coming = A Whole Bunch of Stuff Going On

There's a whole bunch of stuff happening in November and December. There--now you can't say I didn't warn you! You can find it all on my online calendar, which is linked to in the links section of this blog...

October Happenings

It's hard to believe that October is almost halfway over! Please take note of the following events still upcoming this month:

Saturday, October 14: Nature Call. Meet at 12:00 at the church to be part of this great event.

Sunday, October 15: Bus Ministry Potluck. Please be sure to call Madeline back with info on what you're bringing. If you can't bring something, come anyway and no one will even notice.

Sunday, October 15, after the potluck: Bus Ministry Planning. I need to hear what you have to say about upcoming events. Hope to see you there...

Monday, October 16 to Tuesday, October 24: Me on Vacation in NYC! Trevor will take over bus stuff while I'm away. Contact him directly (868-2322) about any problems that come up.

A.C.T.I.V.E. TEAM BUILDING

there is an A.C.T.I.V.E. TEAM BUILDING event happening on Friday, October 13th from 7 pm-9 pm at Trinity Baptist Church. Registration is at 6:30 pm. Cost is $5. Please RSVP to Christine Bitgood by Monday, October 9th by e-mail: kids@kcc.net or call: 762-9559 ext. 32.

in case anyone wanted to go to it and hadn't heard about it.