Good Evening Prayer Warriors
Happy Tuesday - We are excited to report in on another great day in Meadow Lake!
We have officially claimed our mascot for the trip - UNFORTUNATELY:
…and they are out for blood - in full force - we have a wide array of repellent and afterbite and we seem to be trying something new on the daily to combat the after effects of our very enthusiastic buzzing friends!
We started off our day today sharing on our team devotion about Welcoming the Next Generation - reflecting on Jesus' actions in Mark 10:14 when he prioritized having the children come to him for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Our focus was to be intentional about investing in youth and children with a genuine and unhurried love.
We arrived a the center a few hours before it was open to the youth to allow us to go through an orientation time and start to prep the center for visitors. We were able to dig in and start some cleaning in the kitchen and were also treated to custom coffees thanks to one of the team members at TPYC (Brandon) who is quite skilled with their espresso maker! He even went as far as including latte art!
We did a prayer walk around the building praying over the different areas and the ministry and impact of the center and then shared a devotion time with the Turning Point team. They have been reading a chapter a day and were on 2 Timothy Chapter 1 - a charge for us to not be ashamed to testify about our Lord - God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power, love and self discipline.
The youth arrived and the volume and energy took a big upswing in the center - it was fun to see their excitement to see old friends and to be together.
Belinda had been working on a "pantry hunt" soup for us which was an amazing hamburger soup creation and once the teens arrived they helped us make Bannock to go along with the soup.
It was a great experience to have them explain the process of making the dough - and this time it was to music - with one of the teens Nadine recalling her favorite worship song from camp My Lighthouse (complete with actions). We sang along with her as we added flour into the dough to get it to just the right texture ready for baking.
While we waited for lunch to finish cooking, we had the opportunity to spend some time with youth doing some of the things they love to do when they are together at the center.
Video Games - Smash Bros and Maurice is the champion but so willing to teach and give tips to those wanting to learn!
Uno with Tanaeya & Olivia - Those of us visiting should have known we were in trouble when Tanaeya could shuffle the cards so well at the start that it was going to be tough to beat them at a game they LOVE so much!Once we had lost - 2 times in a row it was time for our delicious lunch - a chance to chat with the youth and have them start to teach us some of their Cree Language - starting with the numbers and a few animals. We were practicing during our debrief and hope to surprise them with our progress tomorrow.
Pool with Olivia - complete with jump shots and an introduction to the Grannie stick!
After lunch, and clean up (everyone does their part), Uncle Bill led us through our first sharing time with the teens with the theme of identity. Starting with our names and who named us and what they mean, and words that we use to explain who we are or what we are known for - it was an exploration of how God sees us and our identity in Him. Uncle Bill then also shared some great photography tips and tricks around photo composition and focus points. We had purchased a photo printer for the youth center to use and for the kids to be able to print out their creations - so we look forward to them being able to capture memories and print them out there for years to come!
While part of the team spent that time alongside Bill with the teens, the other part of our team went on an errand run to put plans in place for a landscape upgrade that we will start tomorrow at the center and some groceries for a meal that we will prepare tomorrow evening. Auntie Lise has been drawing out a plan for us to follow as we work to freshen up some of the outside areas of the building. Stage one was removing some paint from a section of fence.
Stay tuned for phase two of this project that will be putting stain on instead of taking it off, and our update for tomorrow - day two of our time with the youth and this time around the theme of Resilience!
Thank you for your continued prayers for our team, we have so enjoyed our time together serving. Our morning devotions and nightly debriefs are filled with encouragement and often a lot of laughter - not to mention some scratching of mosquito bites.
Week 1 - Meadow Lake Team!
