Its the final count down

After six weeks its weird to finally see the finish line. It will be hard for all of us to leave Canada and the amazing people we have met here. This week we were able to recover a bit from two weeks of camp, and put the final touches on our Vbs decorations. We have transformed the sanctuary  into New York city for our "Big Apple Adventure".  Next week we are hosting Vbs from 1 to 4, I will be leading recreation for the kids and the girls will both be leading separate classes.
This week we have been able to experience many different sides of Edmonton. One of our first nights back from SYC some of the staff took us out to Hot Pot to try real Chineses food. We ate thousand year egg, tripe, and a lot of other things for the first time. It was an adventure to say the least but we had a great time hanging out with the people form SYC before the left for China on missions. One of the highlights of the week was when a family in Canada cooked "Chikfila" for us. Then last night we visited the Taste of Edmonton, a festival where all the restaurants in the city set up booths for people to try samples.
Our vbs classes start next week as we finish up our time in Canada. The church is throwing us a going away dinner on thursday night before we all fly out Friday morning. These weeks have gone by way to fast for us to be leaving already.

120 kids,5 and a half days, Zero hospital visits.... WIN!

Whoa! What an awesome week at camp, God did incredible things through out the week and we had 21 youth come to Christ!!!!!!! We spent this week at SYC junior high camp, wich was a much different experience that Senior high camp..... Luckily God held off the rain wich cut down the mosquitos and hospital visits all week. We were blessed with two incredible speakers to share Gods word this week and it was amazing to see the youth respond to Jesus as the week progressed! At first the kids were shy and slow to respond but Gods word was so overwhelming through out the week that they were eager to worship Him in chapel. On our final night of worship Nate (our speaker) gave a call to come forward and worship God, slowly but surely kids made their way to the front. The night ended with all of camp praising God with the arms raised all joining hands in front of the stage. It was one of the most powerful works of the Holy Spirit I have ever seen, and it was incredible to see God' presence so strong in such young kids.
        This week I continued my chatroom on "Living for Jesus" I was joined by two other missionaries from separate churches, Brian and Kyle, who both happend to be from the south so we were obviously best friends. We turned our chatroom into a game show in which kids discussed in there teams how they could live for Jesus. One of the highlights of the week was the friday night dodge ball tournament. All of the summer missionaries who were form the South made up "The Good Ole' Boys of Hazard County Team".
The last two weeks of camp will be an experience to remember, the time went by so fast but it was awesome to see how quickly we bonded with everyone there. Leaving today I couldnt believe i had only  known some of these people for two weeks when it seemed like a lifetime.

The mosquitos are here and they're organized....

This past week has been a blast, we have spent the last six days at SYC(summer youth celebration) with youth from all over Canada. It was amazing to see how many of these youth were touched by God and how strongly He moved in their lives. Many of them had their first chance of hearing the gospel and even more came to know Christ. Throughout the week the kids played rec games, participated in bible studies, chat rooms, workshops, and worship. Each of us had the opportunity to lead both a workshop and chatroom for the kids. We were also able to host the opening and closing gatherings curing the week to play games with kids and have impacts on their lives. 

The week started of wet and more but it didn't stop the kids form having fun and praising God! Luckily the sun came out so we weren't mud covered the whole time and to drive off some of the mosquitos that could almost be mistaken as clouds. We had amazing opportunities to teach youth about the love story of the gospel through chatrooms and prayer after our worship services. Luckily I was asked by the worship leader  to do a piece of art during our worship service so that he could use it to emphasize a point he made during the sermon. it was incredible to see how the students responded to artwork and how it placed God on their heart. 

In a day and a half we get to go back and enjoy the same experience with the junior high youth, be praying that God will prepare their heart and present us with opportunities to minister to them.

Things Ive learned in Canada:

-Rock Paper Scissors in not the same here.....

-The State Dance of South Carolina isn't dancing at all in Canada

-Apparently God hates raison cookies... but seriously Hosea Chapter 3 look it up

Over the hills and through the woods to summer camp we go!@

Waterfall on "End of Your World" Trail at Jasper

 After three weeks in Canada its finally here! We leave tonight for SYC summer camp with the church youth group for two weeks (senior high and then junior high). Our team has spent the last week preparing for the church's VBS that is just under a month away. We have been busy making decoration, designing and distributing fliers, and most importantly we have been able to all this while getting to know the youth of the church. I continue to be amazed by the generosity of the church and how gracious the families are in providing for us. Yesterday we had the opportunity to go to Jasper for our day off and spend our day hiking through the mountains and soaking in hot springs! This week at camp we will each be leading a "Chatroom" or bible study along with a workshop during the day. We will also be leading the opening and closing night gatherings! Pray for all the kids coming to camp and how we may show the love of Jesus Christ to all the lives we have the opportunity to minister to this week.