"But I learned on youtube..."

The last few weeks have been intensely busy, with winter retreats, march break camp and youth speaking engagements in between.  

The more time I spend with kids the more I see how important mentorship is, especially in the lives of inner city kids.  So many of the kids we work with grow up with only their moms, and their moms are often too exhausted or busy to spend the necessary time with them.

So often when we teach kids the Word, they respond with..."But I learned on youtube...But I saw in this movie...I read in this magazine...I saw on tv...my friend said...this song says..."  With no one to mentor them these kids deal with adult situations with kid like maturity.  They don't have anyone to help them filter the information the receive.  And with today's technology they receive information at an unprecedented rate.

The kids we have been able to mentor seem to be understanding God's Word more and begin ask questions about what they've been hearing, even some things they may have learned at church.  I start to hear them ask, "Why is it wrong to have sex before marriage?"  "How do you know God is really real?"  "Why are there so many translations of the Bible?"  and the list goes on.  The questions are often insightful, and some have been debated for centuries.

Many of these kids are signed up for Big Brothers and Big Sisters hungry for mentorship.  I believe that we the Church should be the one to providing them with mentorship, we need to step up and fill that role.  Will you join me?

 On a sidenote, I'll be sending out a prayer letter soon with updates retreats and March break camps that we've had.  Thanks for praying!

"The harvest is plentiful..."

Although CEF's Summer Training Institute is still 6 months away this is the time of year that I travel around the province (usually no more than 2 hours drive outside of the GTA) speaking to youth groups and high school fellowships challenging young people to spend their summer serving God.

This year, more than others, I feel a tremendous burden to find as many young people to serve with us as possible.  We have so many churches wanting to reach out to children in their communities needing help, they just don't have the experience our young people.  It's frustrating to know that the only thing holding the ministry back from reaching more children for Jesus is the young people that serve with us.

In the past 7 years as youth director of CEF the most CYIA we've ever had is 51.  This year I am believing God for 60 people.  With the thousands of Christian teenagers in Ontario surely we can find 60 who are willing to serve Him.

I've already completed a few youth speaking engagements and have a number of them coming up in the next few weeks.  Would you please pray that God would call young people to serve with us?  Can you provide me with an opportunity to share about CEF's summer missions opportunity with the youth you know?

"The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into the harvest field."  Luke 10:2

Hope in the Next Generation

Soon after I became a Christian at age 16 God gave a clear vision for my life, "To raise up a chosen generation" and "...to see the Church in victory."  Lyrics from the song "Let Your Glory Fall".

My other love in CEF is the privilege of being the youth director and seeing young people begin to fulfill the purposes of God in their lives.  Every year I am always excited to see where the CYIA serving with us will come from.  One year there were 16 different languages spoken among our CYIA.  

After serving a summer with us many young people can be heard saying things like, "God used me.", "Now I know how to share about Jesus with my friends."  "God is amazing."  

I thought I'd take a minute to share with you something one of CYIA recently shared.  She is coming back for her third year and will be joining me on our Camp Good News Base team this summer.  I am looking forward to serving with her.

"Everything that I have learned in my spiritual walk over the past year can probably be described in one sentence.  God is enough.  For so long I have been looking for other things to fill areas of my life that only God can fill and continually it left me feeling empty and discontent.  I was talking to my older brother and he told me to think about that statement, God is enough.  After praying about it for a while I realized that I wasn't allowing God to be enough for me.  I wanted God and to be living anywhere but ***, or I wanted God and a boyfriend.  I wasn't allowing God to be enough on His own...I was looking everywhere around me for the one thing that would make me feel complete, when the whole time I was missing out on the great joy I can have in God!  This is still a work in progress for sure, but I can definitely see the difference that God has been making in m life!"

Imagine what the future would look like if the next generation grew up with this kind of maturity in Christ.

Please pray that many young people would serve with us this summer.

Quality vs. Quantity

If you're a Tim Horton's fanatic you'll notice the new sizes they've implemented.  Imagine my wife's surprise when she ordered her usual "large earl grey tea".  It seems Tim's is moving in line with its American counterparts in size, but thankfully their new quantity isn't compromising it's quality.

Too often in ministry we measure success with quantity.  How big is the church?  How many young people showed up the event?  How many gets "got saved"?  We tend to fall for the "bigger is better" idea, in large because it is something we can measure.  When you're working with lives quality can be very hard to measure, especially when working with kids.

With large numbers of kids attending events it's easy to deceive ourselves into believing that we've been successful, so I've had to be very careful with how I go about doing ministry.

To maximize the potential for quality in urban ministry we try to maintain high counsellor-child ratios.

This past weekend we had a "Winter Weekend" with the kids who attended "Music & Drama Camp" this past summer.  Most of the kids are in Foster care, Children's Aid, or enrolled in Big Brothers & Sisters.  We have kids come who are high functioning autistic, have ADD, low self esteem, and other social and behaviour issues.

I had seven counsellors come out for the weekend and only ten kids show up.  However, it ended up being an amazing weekend of ministry to these kids.  They were all so starved for attention that our high number of counsellors enabled us to give them all the attention they wanted.

We played games, took them on a hike, had an outdoor campfire and did some tobogganing.  The kids AND counsellors had a great time of laughter, love and ministry.  The kids already asked about signing up for the summer.

In talking with some of the parents there is a real want and need for a Slingshot in Brantford for these kids.  As the kids left I felt so burdened for them and their parents.  Please pray that God would find a way to make the Slingshot in Brantford work.  We had one in December but have faced some challenges.  An incredible opportunity is before us to reach some very broken children and families.

Up Ahead in 2012

I hope everyone's New Year is off to a great start!

As we begin a New Year our urban ministries will be hitting the ground running.  Here's a short list of events coming up that could really use your prayers.

January 14: Slingshot Yorkdale
Pray for it to be well attended and that we could effectively reach the kids

January 20-21: Winter Weekend with Western Ontario kids
Many of the kids who attend are in Children's aid, foster care, or enrolled in the Big Brothers and Sisters program in their community.  Pray that many kids would attend and that we'd be able to love them as God would want us to.  Since we only ask the children to pay $10/each for the weekend (often they can't even afford that), we still need about $250 in finances to break even on the weekend.  Pray for God's provision or if you would like to give please let me know.

January 28: Slingshot Rexdale
Pray that many kids will attend and that we could effectively reach the kids

February 10-12: Boys Winter Weekend
The boys from Camp Good News are invited to a weekend called "Real Men Cry".  Pray for many to attend and a great weekend.

February 17-19: Girls Winter Weekend
The girls from Camp Good News are invited to a weekend just for girls.  Pray for many to attend and effective ministry.

March 12-16: Camp Good News Winter Rush
Unfortunately we can't accommodate as many kids as we'd like so it's on a first come first serve basis.  Please pray that God would bring the children He wants there.  It is a week long overnight camp.

Of course there are other events in between such as Good News clubs, "mentor outings" and visitations.  If you would like to be involved in some capacity I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks so much for praying!

"What's a dad supposed to do?"

A couple years ago I started to make a point of taking out the inner city boys one on one.  The idea was to get to know them better and to mentor them a little more.  What I found was that all the boys didn't know how to react when I invited them out, and when we did go out, they felt awkward.  I quickly realized that these boys didn't know how to behave around a man, or father figure.  They always asked where the other boys where and had very little to say.  It's taken some time for them to get comfortable with going out.

One time I took out an eleven year old boy, Nolan, for dinner.  It was was awkward at first but he eventually started talking.  He'd been going through a rough time at home and school and I wanted to find out why.  He started to share with me that he had just found out the year before he had a father.  I had a conversation with him that went something like this:

me: "So what do you think about having a dad?"
Nolan: "I don't know.  I never thought about it before."
me: "How do you feel?"
Nolan: "I don't know, what's a dad supposed to do in your life?  And how come he wants to be in my life now?  Now that I'm a man he wants be around, where was he before?"

There was a lot of hurt, anger and confusion in Nolan's heart.  It was compounded by the fact that his absent "dad" was starting to fight for visitation and custody rights through the court system.

It's been a tough journey for Nolan but he's a good kid with a great heart and trying to find his way through it all.

What really concerned my heart was the comment, "What's a dad supposed to do in your life?"  It's a question that many if not all of our inner city kids ask themselves.  How will they learn to be godly fathers without a father in their lives?  There's no one to teach them how to fish, learn a new video game, or treat a woman right.  They need to be mentored, they need to know what a man of God is.  Will you help?

"I wish I had to raise support."

It was just a couple years ago that I graduated from CEF's Children's Ministry Institute.  While there I remember having a conversation with some people about the challenges of raising support.  I learned that in some CEF chapters in the States you don't have to raise support because that is the responsibility of the board.  I remember saying to my friend Todd (who didn't have to raise support), "I wish I didn't have to raise support.  That's great that you don't have to worry about it."  To my surprise Todd responded, "Sometimes I wish I had to raise support.  Because sometimes when I need that extra boost in support or have prayer needs I have no one to turn to.  But because you have to raise support you have people you can turn to when you have these needs."


Being a missionary has it's challenges, and there are days when I think life would be easier if I didn't have to raise support and had a "regular paying job".  But then I think, my kids wouldn't have the opportunity to hang out at camp every summer, come to Saturday programs, and be around the inner city kids and Christian youth that I have come to grow and love.  I am sure being in this type of environment has really contributed to the spiritual growth of my kids and their sensitivity to God's heart.

From time to time people will remark about spiritual depth of our kids but I know I can't take any credit for it.  When I stop and think why it is our kids are sensitive to God, I realize it's because of the supporters who pray regularly for our family, supporters that I would never have if we weren't missionaries.  Having such amazing people pray for us might be the single greatest blessing of being a missionary and something I wouldn't trade for anything and makes the sacrifices worthwhile.

So to everyone who prays for us and our kids, thank you...you encourage us so much and are truly making a difference.

This is My Voice...

*Dave talked about suicide at age 4.  *Maddie's father left when she was 11.  *Lisa's father decided he wants to be a part of her life when she graduated elementary school.  *Crystal just moved out of a housing co-op with an 80% illiteracy rate.  They all live in poverty.

This is a tiny glimpse into the lives of four young people who attended STI this summer.  But long before STI they were campers at Camp Good News.  If you want to see the power of God, get to know some of these inner city kids who love God.  I am continually humbled by the strength these guys have found in God.  Despite everything they have been through they continue to lean on God and seek to serve Him faithfully.  The daily influences around them run counter to the Christian faith, and yet they choose to follow Him.

*Maddie and I are March Break '08

If all we focus on in urban ministry is short term results we will very quickly get discouraged and want to throw in the towel.  I constantly remind myself and new volunteers that urban ministry is a marathon, not a sprint.  You have to be in it for the long haul.  You have to be ready to make sacrifices.  You have to be ready for your heart to break for these kids.  As someone once said, "People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care."  I have never founded that to be more true than when I am working with the kids.


This is probably why I don't understand short term missions in urban ministry unless there is someone there to continue the work.  In the course of a week the kids can begin to trust and get attached to those who came to reach them.  but if the team leaves in a week never to be heard from again, what makes them any different from the absentee father?

I have to admit it was very exciting and rewarding to see four CGN kids attend STI this year AND serve in the field.  The best part of all, I didn't have to persuade them.  They wanted to do it.  They wanted to serve.  And they did well.  Very well.

They were embraced by all the CYIA who had no idea they were from the inner city, unless they knew them before.


They taught kids the gospel through the province and served as counsellors at camp.  They lived with different families, visited different churches and led children to Christ.  Over the course of the summer they matured so much spiritually that they found it hard to be campers at Teen camp with all "drama" that they used to be a part of.

*Dave often talks about God on facebook and continues to grow spiritually.  The change in his life has made his younger sister want to serve with us next summer!  *Maddie and *Crystal teach a Good News Club in their community.  *Lisa is active in ministry at her new church.  They're also planning to join us again next summer.  Who better to reach the kids in their communities than them?


I am so proud of them and inspired by the lives they live.  The change God has done in their lives has motivated other campers to want to serve with us next summer.  They still have a long way to go (just like the rest of us) but they're off to a great start.

The Scanning Code of Practice

Few shopper have ever heard of the Scanning Code of Practice.  But the way it basically works is this; if the barcode on the item you are purchasing rings up at a different price than what was on the shelf you are allowed up to $10 off the item you are purchasing.  If the item is less than $10 it's free! 

 I'd known about this for a while but finally had the chance to apply it yesterday at a Toy Superstore (while doing some Christmas shopping).  The cashiers who were helping me had no idea what I was talking about so I had to explain it to them.  Then the manager came and without any argument or complaint I scored a free Christmas gift!

Aside from trying to help you potentially save a few bucks at Christmas it reminded me a lot about our Christian lives.  So many people receive Jesus to get "saved" but don't know their rights once they've become a child of God.  They don't know there's more being a Christian than going to heaven.

That's the struggle that I face working with our inner city kids.  Worse than having poor literacy skills is their spiritual literacy.  Most of them don't know that in Christ there is healing for the pain they feel, freedom from the sin that enslaves them, guidance to live fruitful lives, and more!  Outside of the few times we meet them they rarely pick up a Bible or have any knowledge of God or biblical principles.  

On a few occasions I remember taking some of the kids to a Christian bookstore and their responses being, "Wow, I never knew there was so much Christian stuff."  None of these kids have a biblical worldview.  Do you?

Footprints in the Sand..."Where's the bus?"

Whenever you see "Footprints in the Sand" as the heading it means I'll be sharing about something amazing only God could do.  Something that just yells, "God must be walking among us".  I hope your faith faith is lifted.

I still remember my first year co-directing Camp Good News with Bonnie.  I was at the camp with some counsellors getting everything ready for the kids.  Bonnie and a few counsellors were in Toronto rounding up the kids.  We were all excited for what God was going to do.  Everything was lined up and we were ready to go.

Then the phone rang.  Bonnie was on the other end;

Bonnie: "Ivhan, we're here.  Where's the bus?"

Ivhan: "What do you mean where's the bus?"

Bonnie: "Where's the bus?  It's not here."

Ivhan: "Hang on, let me call the bus company and find out."

So I called the bus company and it turns out they had booked a driver who was on vacation that week.  After my call they scrambled to find another bus driver.  While they scrambled, I got the counsellors with me and we prayed for God to intervene.  After praying one of the counsellors pointed out a picture hanging behind me that said,

"When God wants to do something great, He begins with difficulties and when He wants to do something wonderful He starts with impossibility."

Amazingly, the bus company found a driver, but the bus would be an hour and a half late.  During that time I got a phone call from a mother asking if it was too late to sign her daughter up for camp.  I told her the bus was running late and that she could still bring her daughter to the bus pick up.

As only God could know, that girl would be one of the kids to receive Christ at camp that week.  God did many wonderful things things.

Boys and Girls in an Adult World

The kids I see always walk around tough.  They've got their swag, they've got their bling, nothing can hurt them.  Or so they would want to have us believe.  At first glance the kids I work with seem wise beyond their years.  They seem like they know how to handle the world and all that it throws at them.  But when you scratch the surface just a little, you find a boy or a girl who's scared and broken.


The kids I see are just boys and girls in adult world.  They've been exposed to situations and issues no child or person should ever face.  They've had to deal with poverty, abuse, assault, addictions, crime, murder and more. They've seen things no child should ever see.  They know things no child should ever know.  They often raise themselves and are forced to mature faster than they should.

Why is it an eight year old girl knows the details of a murder behind her building.  Details that they cops might not even know?  How are ten year olds more street smart than most adults that I know?  I admire the kids for their determination to "make it".  But in the end, they're just kids.  They're forced to deal with adult issues without the maturity or guidance to handle them properly.  They try to handle it.  But they're just kids.

Take them away for a weekend and their shoulders drop.  They feel safe and don't have to worry about what they're going to eat next.  They don't have to look over their shoulders or carry the burdens of their family.  For a few hours they can just be kids.  They laugh, they smile, they play.  It's no wonder many of the kids want to live at Camp Good News all year.



I know we can't take them away forever and I can't take them all home with me, but I'm thankful for the moments we have to be God's love to them.  For some, it will be enough to soften their hearts to make a difference.

 Your partnership in this ministry is what makes this possible.  Your prayers, your financial support make a difference.

"Maybe he sells drugs to provide for your family..."

It's very easy to look at someone who's committed a crime and call them guilty.  It's easy to point the finger, to say there was another way, to think they had a choice.  But it's not so easy when you it's your family that's hungry, when you're the one who hasn't eaten in days, when you're the one suffering.

I remember twelve year old *Jason sharing with me and some of his friends that his dad was in prison for dealing drugs.  His friend said, "Maybe he sells drugs to provide for your family, you don't really know.  Maybe it's what he had to do."  My initial reaction was, "That's just an excuse."  But I stopped and listened and realized the truth to what the boys were saying.  Jason responded, "Yeah, probably."  And as he began to think about he said, "If my dad is in prison, when he gets out he can't get a job.  And if we can't get a job he'll have to sell drugs again to make money.  But if he sells drugs he'll go back to jail.  And when he gets out he won't be able to get a job... HOW'S HE SUPPOSED TO GET OUT?"

It's a vicious cycle.  One that  twelve year old boy has to deal with.  Around this time he shared this story his mom was going to court because her "friend" came over to the house with some drugs and got busted.  *Jason has been living with his grandmother for years and doesn't live in a safe neighbourhood.

*Jason is a good kid but the negative influences around him are overpowering.  He wants to do better, but he doesn't know how, he doesn't have the support that he needs.  He's now too old for our programs and we've started to lose touch with him.  Please pray that God would send people to walk alongside to guide him.

"God doesn't live at my house..."

Slingshot Yorkdale was off a fantastic start!  We had twenty five kids from the neighbourhood come out and about twenty seven volunteers come out for the day!

You'd think twenty seven volunteers was way too much, but after you take away volunteers for snacks and lunch, worship team, and some to focus on particular kids you have just enough!  Urban ministry is all about relationship and so the more the merrier! It was especially helpful having one of regular urban volunteers Ashley McGuire there as well as CYIA Martha Desta and Caroline Karwowski from Tandridge.

It was a pretty crazy day figuring out how to work with all the kids and volunteers but it was a blast.  I shared about David and Goliath and how God can help us with our problems, the kids were then challenged to receive Jesus if they had never done so before. Nine kids responded and were counselled for salvation.

I had the joy of counselling little *Nancy.  She is only three years old but it was amazing how much she understood.  As I asked her questions and talked with her she said she wanted to pray with me.  After we prayed and she opened her eyes she said, "Where's God?!!!"  "God is in your heart, and He is everywhere."  I explained.  "God doesn't live at my house.  He lives at my grandma's house."  she answered.

"...Your Father in heaven is not willing that one of these little ones should perish."

-Matthew 18:14

What a blessing it was to see a three year old receive Jesus and many others, the oldest being a student in Grade nine.  

We're off to a great start.  Thank you for praying for the club.

Slingshot Saturdays

I've use the term Slingshot Saturday (SS) quite frequently and thought I should share a little bit about what it is and how it came to be.

Camp Good News, our summer camp for at-risk kids, has been running for about ten years now.  Some of the kids who come to camp used to be involved in a good news club in their community, and others just showed up at camp.  If you've ever been to camp you know how special that one week can be.

A few years ago when I joined Castlefield Community Church (CCC) I met Yvette who was doing some work with Angeltree (a ministry of prison fellowship).  Yvette had a desire to run a camp for those kids.  I also had a desire to run a camp for the Camp Good News kids.  In cooperation, CEF, Angeltree, and CCC initiated a march break camp for disadvantaged children.  It was a chaotic, but exciting week at camp.  The kids were all SO happy to get to see each other again and kept asking if we could have camp every weekend!

The thought seemed fairly ridiculous to me but I couldn't shake how effective camp ministry could be and felt we had to find a way to do more.  Seeing Angeltree kids once a year wouldn't be effective ministry.  There were clubs at Jane/Woolner and Tandridge but having everyone together was special.  After some prayer I felt a monthly Saturday program would help support the clubs at Jane/Woolner and Tandridge and open the doors for continued ministry to Angeltree kids.

With a lot of support from everyone we initiated our first Slingshot Saturday in April 2009.  We easily averaged twenty five kids a week...one ten year old boy even took a forty five minute bus ride every month on his own so he could come.

Interestingly, six months after Slingshot began the clubs at Jane/Woolner and Tandridge closed because there was no one to continue the work there.  Slingshot Saturday would be the only ministry to the kids in those communities.  Only God could have seen that coming.

Why the name Slingshot Saturday?  Because the vision is to "help children overcome the giants in their lives" just like David defeated Goliath.


The kids would love something every week but I think it would lose it's "specialness".  It would also make it more difficult to find dedicated volunteers who could come week in and week out.

Two years later Slingshot Saturday has now moved to Rexdale Alliance Church which is a walk away from Tandridge and a five minute drive from the housing co-op for battered women.  I am thankful I don't have to drive an hour and a half before and after the program to pick up kids now and spend more time hanging out with them.

This Saturday, November 12th", we begin a new Slingshot program near Yorkdale mall.  There's a housing co-op there with a lot of needy kids.  One of the church members from the church we're partnering with shared that some of the kids talk about their mom sleeping with guys for money.  There is no doubt these kids are surrounded by a lot of darkness, it is my prayer that we'll be a light to them.  It is my prayer that these kids will know that, God has a plan for them, a "hope and a future."  Please pray for this.

This is My Voice..."...at least I have a place to sleep."

I'll be using "This is My Voice" as a header from time to time to share with you some of the stories of the kids in the city.


Ten year old Carol lives in a housing co-op for battered women.  She lives with her mom, two older brothers, an older sister, and someone else.  It's a small apartment.  Her family is Buddhist.  Her brother a proclaimed atheist.  Her family doesn't have much.

When CEF staff Yvette Hewitson started working at the co-op Carol was allowed to come to the after school program, but never the good news club.  However she was allowed to come to Camp Good News: Winter Rush (our March break camp).  All week Carol heard the gospel and asked lots of questions, by the end of the week she made a decision to receive Jesus as her Lord.

The following summer she was allowed to come to our summer camp because her mother so how happy she was.  But Carol still wasn't allowed to go to good news club.  By the end of the week of camp, sitting around a campfire I asked Carol, "So what did you learn this week?"

Carol: "I learned that there is only one God and all those other gods aren't real."  She later said to another counsellor, "What am I going to do when I get home?  My mom's not going to believe me when I tell her those other gods aren't real."  We never taught these things at camp, God just worked in her heart.

I went to pick her up in the fall for Slingshot and asked if she'd be allowed to have a Bible.  She said,
"No, I'm not allowed to have a Bible, but read those comic books Bibles you guys gave me.  I also sing the songs I learned at camp and pray when I'm in the shower or no one's around."

At our programs Carol is often the only one to come up to me and say, "That was good."  "What was good?" I would ask.  "What we just did.  The stuff about the Bible and learning more about God."

One day I had this conversation with Carol.
Me: "So do you have your own room?
Carol: "No."
Me: "Do you share a room?"
Carol: "No."
Me: "So where do you sleep?"
Carol: "I sleep in the hallway under the counter.  But it's okay, at least I have a place to sleep."

I've since learned that on her birthdays there is never any cake, presents or singing.  "It's just like any other day." she says.  The first time she ever wore a dress was when one of the counsellors lent her one at camp for the banquet.

I was humbled by her gracious response.  Carol is now twelve years old and continues to grow spiritually.  She is still the only one in her family to have received Jesus but is steady in her faith.  She will soon be joining our Leaders in Training Program.  Life is not easy for her but she rarely complains.  Her light grows more and more each time I see her.  Her desire to follow Jesus never seems to fade.  During lunch at Slingshot one Saturday I saw her in tears all by herself in the eating area.  A counsellor went over to check on her and found out she was upset because she felt she had made a mistake and that it wasn't a good example if she wanted to be a Leader in Training.  She inspires me.

Please pray for Carol to continue to grow in her faith and for her family to come to Jesus.

Black and White???

For as long as I can remember I've always been a black and white kind of guy.  It's either right or wrong, no in between.  But ever since I got started in urban ministry I've been living in the grey zone.  That's not to say that I've compromised my principles, but rather that issues are so much more complex than what I was used to.

How do you deal with...
...a child who curses you up and down and tells you to go to hell...only to realize he's releasing his built up anger toward his absent father
...a girl who gets pregnant when all she was really looking for was love.
...a girl who steals because she is hungry.
...siblings who show no respect to authority because their is no discipline at home
...sending kids home from camp for misbehaving when all you're doing is sending them back to very place they learned to misbehave

If I am to effectively minister to urban kids I can't be black and white because the right answer is not always clear.  If a kid misbehaved at a church camp I'd send him home because he'd be going back to loving parents and a supportive church.  If a kid misbehaves at our camps...sending him home teaches him nothing, but keeping him doesn't send the right message to the other campers either.  It's a tough ministry and one where you have to be dependent on the Holy Spirit, ALL the time.  It's definitely stretched me a lot more than I expected.

This past summer we had a few of our older kids get themselves in trouble, enough so the initial reaction would have been to send them home.  But after some discussion and prayer we ended up letting them stay at camp.  They would serve on the service team (take out trash, clean bathrooms, etc.) and do Bible studies with myself or another leader.  For their time with me we went through Romans 7-9.  I didn't know what to expect but it ended up being one of my highlights this past summer.  Most of them took it seriously and thought really deeply about God's        
                                                      Word, sin and how it impacted their lives.

I really believe the Lord showed us what to do in that time to reach them.  If the Lord ever brings me to mind, would you just pray that God would continue to give me more wisdom in this ministry?


I love what St. Athanasius said...

"The justice of God demanded that man be punished for His sins.  The mercy of God demanded that man be forgiven.  In God's wisdom He sent His Son Jesus do die on the cross for our sins so that we might be shown both justice and mercy."  (or something like that)

"...the desires of your heart..."

It's funny how you can never figure out God's plan for your life or what's really going on in your heart.  As a teenager I often thought it would be fun to be a camp counsellor.  Hang out with kids, play games, etc... When I became a Christian at sixteen I started to think about it more seriously but never did it because I always felt God wanted me to do ministry at my church over the summer (looking back I think He wanted to teach me some things).  As much as I wanted to be a counsellor I knew obedience to God was more important.

At eighteen I also knew I was going to be a missionary, I just knew it was something God was calling me to.  When, where, how, I had no idea.  I went to Costa Rica for four and a half months for an international development co-op which was kind of like a mission but I knew there was more.

Then at twenty-four a co-worker invited me to go to Spain with her to serve on the service team at L'Arcada, a Christian camp.  My duties would include cleaning bathrooms, doing dishes, mowing the lawn, clearing branches, taking out trash etc. for two and a half months.  Not exactly my idea of missions, but I felt God's leading nonetheless.

For about six weeks I ended up being the head of the maintenance team (and I am no handy man by any stretch of the imagination) and discovered that everything we do is worship to God is we have the right attitude.  Then in the seventh week, a number of counsellors had got themselves in some trouble and were all sent home just before camp started and I was given the opportunity to be a counsellor...in Spanish!  Thankfully I'd remembered much of my Spanish from Costa Rica.

Only God knew that my first true camp counsellor experience would be as a counsellor, in Spain, in Spanish! Incredibly enough, through the grace of God eight of the nine kids (nine and ten year olds) in my cabin received Jesus by the end of the week.  I asked the one boy who hadn't received Jesus why he decided not to, and his response was, "I don't know.  I don't know if I believe this stuff.  Can a man really be raised from the dead?"  For the first time I realized that kids understand the gospel and when explained properly they just don't blindly choose to follow Jesus.

Only a few years after that experience did I find myself called to serve at CEF.  In my second year there I served as a camp counsellor at Teen Camp.  The next couple of years I was co-leading with Leslie Shillinglaw and Bonnie Clark as they trained me for inner city ministry.  To this day I look up to them and consider them the "mothers" of CEF's urban ministry as the continue to sacrifice and reach out to disadvantaged children.  And now for the last four years I have had the privilege of directing Camp Good News, serving with some amazing people, and reaching some incredible kids.  Never would I have guessed that I would be blessed with this opportunity.


"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."  Psalm 37:4

"Take Me Home!"

I had no idea what to expect in my first year as the Youth Director of CEF.  All I had in front of me was the names of thirty young people (I'd only met two of them) and a schedule of what the Summer Training Institute (STI) would look like.

I was still getting to know the staff and really didn't have a clue what I was doing.  I remember the day when we took the two hour drive to Simcoe, Ontario for STI and arrived at the facility.  From the car I looked around and quickly said to Charlene, "Take me home!"  I was nervous, maybe even a little scared.  Could I do the job? Would the teenagers accept me?

Thankfully it only took a few hours for me to settle in after Charlene left me all alone.  It was an amazing first summer with some amazing teenagers I still keep in touch with today.  It would be the first STI of many to come (this past summer was my 7th!).  

Our end of summer reunion (Welcome Home) was also memorable because it was the year of the massive rainstorm.  The CEF office (in Markham at the time) parking lot was flooded, cars were ruined and businesses waterlogged.  

It's a Long Road...

Devonte in the SHAQ sweater

One of the first things I did when I joined CEF was visit a Good News Club (GNC).  For those of you who aren't familiar with a GNC, a GNC is a 1-2 hour program for (mostly unchurched) kids.  During the club the kids get help with their homework, sing songs, memorize Bible verses and learn Bible lessons.  but maybe most importantly, for that hour or two in the week the children know they are loved.

At the end of the club a six year old boy named Devonte walked up to Leslie (the club teacher) and said that he wanted to receive Jesus.  For the next fifteen minutes I saw Leslie sit down with Devonte, open the Bible and ask him questions about the gospel; Why do you want to receive Jesus?  What is sin?  What did Jesus do for you?  How was Jesus different?...

To my surprise Leslie didn't just say "Okay, repeat after me."  No, instead, using her Bible, she made sure Devonte understood what he was doing before teaching him how to pray to receive Jesus.  And there I sat watching six year old Devonte pray to receive Jesus.

How many Christians would there really be if we made sure everyone truly understood the gospel before leading them to the Lord?  I remember inviting kids to receive Jesus on several occasions and telling them to raise their hands if they wanted to.  There's nothing really wrong with that, except that I never knew if the kids knew what they were doing.

I think too often Christians focus too much on numbers and getting people "saved" that a lot of people who end up making the "decision" don't fully know what they're doing.  How often have we heard people encouraged to receive Jesus for reasons such as: if you want healing; if you want your marriage to be restored; if you want financial blessing; if you want this; if you want that...

Lost in all of that is that the only reason anyone should ever receive Jesus is because they are a sinner and realize that they need Jesus to save them from the punishment of their sins.  No wonder we have so many nominal Christians.

"For God so loved the world He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should never die, but have eternal life."  John 3:16.

Me and Devonte at Jr. camp this summer

Fast forward six years, where's Devonte now?  He's had his ups and downs but he's been the most consistent kid in our inner city ministry.  He's grown a lot spiritually and is viewed as a leader among his peers, he is learning to be a man of truth and is entering his second year in our Leaders in Training program.  He is a leader of leaders and the Lord is capturing more of His heart each day.  There is no limit to how God can use him.  Please keep praying for him.