"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.