I've had the chance to network and chat with other people from churches across Canada and the United States and discuss thier church's outreach, and our program is very unique. Not alot of churches have this privilage to bus kids (or youth) in to sunday school and spend a few minutes directly with kids. My stories have been met with looks and words of almost envy from other workers. Many churches are just beginning to realize that outreach doesnt mean a couple arms from the church pulling people in, it means reaching out from the inside. One church changed thier vision to include the phrase "to work from the inside out".
I'm so excited to have been able to work with you guys in the bus ministry! Its given me the chance to plant the ideas in other youth and children's workers' minds.
I'm sure that Marvin's said this multiple times, but, its important to look at the children, NOT the numbers. You could have 1 kid on your bus, but even the fact that she will get to hear about Jesus, even for one day, could mean a huge difference later in their life.
A speaker told of a story of a muslim man. He was the poster boy for muslims, did everything according to the book. But earlier in his life, he was befriended by a christian woman, who never pushed christianity on him, but told him about it. Being brought up muslim, he never converted, and never really believed what she said. Later on in his life, as he was making his pilgrimage to the "Holy City," these thoughts came back. It was not untill he reached the peak of the pilgrimage when he performed in a ritual which involved a live sacrifice and catching its blood in a ceremonial bowl, did he realise the truth. Literally, at the peak of his muslim religion, the teachings by a woman in his childhood came back and he realised who his saviour really was. He's now a christian who is carrying on this woman's ministry.
This is just a small reason why you guys are here for the "one" not the many.

Bless you all.

New Member to the Bus Ministry Family!

A big welcome to the newest member of the bus ministry team: Elysia Bewernick! Elysia has joined the Downtown/Capri route as one of the leaders under Heather. She'll be riding the bus on Sundays as much as she can, and will be joining Heather's other leaders on a rotational schedule for visitions as well. Make sure to go out of your way to make Elysia feel welcome...

Omega MetroKids

Summit Pacific College is starting a new Omega program next fall: Omega MetroKids. It's something like the internship at Metro Ministries in NYC, but it goes for 8 months rather than 4, and the courses are actually transferrable if the student pursues further studies at Summit. Omega MetroKids is located at Surrey CLA church and uses their well-established bus ministry for the practical application side of the program.

If you are interested in learning more about this program, I do have some handouts and a CD-ROM that the director gave me. Also the website is posted in the links section of this blog.

Let's Not Forget This Little Answer to Prayer

Sometimes we can pray so many prayers and wonder if God ever answers or even hears any of them. I have a story that proves that he does both. I've been wanting to record this little story ever since it happened but busyness kept getting in the way. Most of you know the story because you're in it, but it's worth being reminded of it.

Way back when, in the afternoon after our last potluck, we had a planning meeting. We didn't get it started off right; there was no prayer before the planning got going. The agenda eventually took us to the complicated issue of how to handle gifts for youth, and that's what it stayed: complicated. We (at least I) couldn't get my head around all the options: siblings that came to church, siblings that didn't come to church, youth that only came on Wednesdays, youth that came on Sundays, etc. The discussion was going around in circles and the whole thing was getting frustrating.

Somewhere in the midst of that, Chalyse said we could pray about it. Then some time after that I made the executive decision to move on in the agenda and leave the problem unresolved. When we got through the rest of the stuff, we finally did pray, including a prayer against the cloud of confusion surrounding the youth gift issue.

At that point I thought it was worth a shot to broach the topic one more time. And all of a sudden, it wasn't confusing anymore. We quickly narrowed everything down to two similar options and left it at that.

This sudden clarity was no coincidence, so don't let yourself think that it was. God answered our prayers!

(By the way, in case you were wondering, every youth that comes to church, whether on Sunday or Wednesday, will get a gift this year. Youth that don't, won't.)

Prayer

There a girl in the grade 2/ 3 room who needs prayer for her mom as she is pregnant and she smokes. She comes on the buses and is worried for her mom. Thanks.