Heading
Tuesday morning while we waited for breakfast, we spent time praying for each of the VBS children by name. Appropriately Fred read the devotion this morning on spiritual battles. Our armour is both defensive and offensive.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Ephesians 6:13-17
The days this week are quite busy: yesterday we rinsed the kids tie dye shirts and hung them to dry. The building projects are continuing with only a few days to finish them and we prepped the hampers. Each consists of a bottle of oil, a bag of rice, several packages of noodles, tins of corned beef and sardines, condiments, eggs, bread and a few treats. We are also including womens’ hygiene packs provided by a partnering church in Chilliwack.
A few of us delivered some of the hampers to local seniors: someone who had a stroke, a blind woman and others with mobility challenges. Most of the others came here to the Oasis to get their hampers and some clothing.
Yesterday morning was spent rinsing and hanging the tie dye shirts. The kids were pleased to get their shirts today. VBS, has been going well. We have 5 colour teams with between 7-10 kids and 3-4 leaders on each. The engagement has been great with the songs, stories and crafts. In our green group, it is amazing to see every child in the group of almost all boys, so engrossed in a simple craft of using fabric markers to draw on a tote bag, and today a pencil case. Though the designs varied, many of the kids chose to draw a cross as part of their picture. It is hard to say what that means to them, as many come from a Catholic background. May they understand that the work Jesus did is fully completed and that they can live in freedom.
A number of us have been woken up in the wee hours a few days in a row, because of emergency alerts. The emergency has to do with ash fall from Kanlaon volcano, which is a few islands and about 423 km away, so not too relevant here, although it may have shifted the weather. It has been hotter and muggy, which can make it harder to work and lead to fatigue and irritability. We are especially susceptible to attacks by the enemy as the gospel is preached to the kids. Pray for clear communication as the leaders teach the children. Pray that the evil one would not gain a foothold and that we would remember to stay fully armed against his schemes. Please partner with us in prayer for these last few days.
