Thursday, May 31, 2012

Fundraisers!

Hey everyone! Just to let you know, we will have a rummage sale Friday and Saturday to raise money for our Serbia Mission trip. There is a TON of stuff so come out and support us, please! The sale is located at 406 Manson Rd in Sherwood. The building is off of Khiel, between Moose cleaners and Subway. Hope to see you there!
Also! Caitlin and I will be selling our paintings again this Sunday the 3rd at FBC Sherwood. We have a lot more paintings this time, lots of donated photography, and some drawings that are for sale. We raised the most of the money needed for our trip during this sale last year, so we are hoping for the same results!
Thank you everyone, for the huge amount of support you have given the three amigos. I can't describe how blessed we feel!
In Christ's love,
The Three Amigos!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Final days in Winnipeg!

Hey everyone! Yesterday I was sick so I was not able to go to the campus withy the rest of my group. When they came back, they filled me in on the different things they did and opportunities they had. It seemed like it was a very successful day. Even though many people did not want to talk about church or Jesus, the met one man who was a chaplain here at Red River. He is working on campus here so this was good news!
Today we went back to campus. When we got there it was 10:00 and there weren't many people so we walked around and waited until lunch time. Jordan talked to one girl but she didn't care about what she said and eventually just left. I got in line to get food and then sat down with a girl who was eating by herself. We talked for maybe 30 minutes. It was a casually conversation at first but then I asked if she went to church somewhere. She said she did when she was little but now she is older and chooses not too. Throughout the whole conversation I mentioned going to church and being involved with different Christian things. Each time she would not answer or turn the conversation around. Eventually she left abruptly and I never got to share my testimony with her.
It seems like many people here are very closed minded and honestly don't care about faith. They don't see the point in going to church and anything to do with religion. It makes me really grateful to have grown up in the bible belt and to have gone to church. The culture here is pretty shocking as to how liberal everyone is.
I came back to the church to help cook the spaghetti for the service tonight. And we cooked a ton! The service turned out really good! The girls I met at the park earlier this week were at the service tonight. I really enjoyed talking to them and hearing all about what God has done and is doing in their lives. God knows exactly what I need to hear and see and it's so awesome to see Him do this for me!
We will leave tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. and will be back around 12 in the afternoon on Friday. Pray for our travel!
Beth

Monday, May 21, 2012

Canada Day 7

Hey everyone! So today we went to Assiniboin Park and a few of us face painted while other played games like soccer, kick ball, and flag football!
We had a pretty awesome day! We painted so many kids faces and got into good conversations about Christ with the parents.
Most of the guys played games and they met one guy who was a Christian and one who wasn't. They made some connections with these guys and invites them to our party/service on Wednesday night.
I also got to talk the Canadian girls from Aaron's church and I really enjoyed the conversations! One girl is going to work to stop sex trafficking and another girl is working with inner-city kids who were/are addicted to drugs. These girls really impressed me because they are all doing or looking for God's will in their lives. They are supposed to add me on Facebook and hopefully I can keep up with them!
Some of us cooked Chicken Spaghetti for dinner and my goodness it was delicious! I've missed home cooked meals! We also had some of the youth come and eat with us and hang out!
Then we played some games with the youth and it was super fun!
Tomorrow we will be going on the campuses again so pray for us!
Beth

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Canada Day 6

So yesterday it rained and we did not get to do the park family day. Today (Sunday) I went with some of us to Tabor Baptist church. it is a really small church but God is doing really great things there! They have planted numerous churches, and have sent many missionaries around the world. Daniel an Collin also did a great job leading worship!
We went to Provoncher park and we painted kids faces and played flag football. The guys who played flag football met some new people and got to talk to them. They are invited to our going away party on Wednesday night.
Jennifer talked to parents while Cait and I painted faces. She even led someone to Christ today! Praise the Lord! Tomorrow we will go to Assiniboin Park and do the same thing.
I'm exhausted so I am going to sleep now! Goodnight!!
Beth

Friday, May 18, 2012

Canada- Day 4

Hey everyone! So we had a really awesome day at the park! We talked to many families inviting them to our event tomorrow! There were also daycare age kids and their teachers said they would tell the parents and they seemed pretty excited about it! During lunch time there were many high school kids an we talked to all of them! I'm not sure how many people we talked to, but it was a huge amount of people!
Pray that tomorrow the rain will hold off and that many people will come!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Canada- Day 3- In need of an encouragement!

Hey friends! So we have finished day three of our mission work at Red River College. We went to the bigger campus (remember there are two campuses) today, and there are definitely more than the few people we saw yesterday. We went to the cafe and grabbed a coffee and pastry, and sat down to survey the cafeteria. I noticed that people either sat in large groups, or by themselves and were studying. So just looking around, it felt really hard to just approach people. I then asked a group of guys sitting next to us where do most of the people hang out, and he then told us a few key places. The first place was called the "Cave." After we walked in, we realized this was a study area and everyone was very quiet. Then, we went to another room right next to it. It had pool tables, video games, and chairs to hang out. Immediately, when we walked in, I felt out of place. It seemed like everyone just stared at us, so we played a game of air hockey and sat down for awhile. Then we decided to look around the campus and prayer walk.

After prayer walking, we decided to grab lunch, split up, and try to sit down with people who were sitting alone. We had the same encounter as we had earlier with people just not seeming like they should be approached. So we went outside to the courtyard to eat lunch and try to join a group. The group we sat down by was a group of girls. After listening to their conversation, we realized the were studying out loud for some kind of medical exam.

At this point, I know for myself, that I was extremely down. I felt that I was not accomplishing much, and I felt that all of my approaches to people were failures.

We decided to split our team up differently because Ben and Jennifer seemed to be having a lot of luck talking to people. So my new group went back to the game room because Ben really likes video games and he thought he would have an in with these guys. This did not work either because the guys were really rude and completely shut him out.

Then we decided to go back to the cafeteria and talk to people. The first girl we talked to and asked to sit with did not want us there so we moved on. Then we saw that there were not many people at all there.

Overall I've felt very down about what we have been doing. The only positive thing I feel that I personally have accomplished is surveying the campus. This was the main goal of going to the college, to find out if there are any mission opportunities going on here. W asked the Student Services and they said there was no such group, but students are very welcome to start one.

Miriam feels that the best way to do ministry here is by doing something we do back home called "Noon Day." It is a free meal provided by local churches, and the students come to here a short devotional by another student and they are given a free meal. All the students at Red River College are commuters and I think this would be very receptive and welcomed!

Tomorrow we will be going to neighborhoods and inviting people to come the the "Family Day" we will be having in the park on Saturday.

I know we have awesome people praying for us and I am so very thankful for this. Without prayer and coming to God, nothing can be accomplished. I ask that you specifically pray for myself: that I would not be so discouraged about talking to people, and also that I would find at least one person willing to talk to me. Also pray for the other members of my group: Ben, Jennifer, Miriam, and Jordan.

-Bethany

Romans

So I've been reading Romans for the past few days and so many new and awesome things have been revealed to me; I thought I should share what I've learned.
Romans 6-7 talks about how when we do not yet know Christ, we are slaves to sin. We did not have a choice but to sin. When we are redeemed, we are slaves to Christ and have the choice to sin or not to sin. Even though we do still sin, it is the sin living it us that is sinning.
Also, chapter 9 was really awesome in that it talks about the justness of our God. We are the created, so who are we to tell God, the Creator, that his ways are unfair? We don't see time as eternity but as a beginning and an end. God see all of time and knows everything that will happen. His ways are perfect in everything, so even though we don't understand God's ways at the moment, remember that He is Just!
-Beth

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Canada Day 2

Hey friends! Today we went to all the different universities to get to know some people. Each of us amigos we split up between the universities.
My group went to the Red River College. It took us a long time to find the campus. Apparently there are two campuses and we went to the wrong one first, so we had to take another bus to the other campus (that we were told to go to. Then we noticed that the campus was dead. There was only three building and only one had a food court and sitting areas. We got our lunch and planned on sitting down with people. We sat down with two Chinese girls who left really soon after we started to talk to them. Them we talked to some other Canadian girls who were super friendly! They told us the campus was desolate because it was summer and the campus is small anyway. Then we walked around looking for students. At one point there were only four students in the food court!! Jennifer and Ben shared the Gospel with one lady and she realized she needed to start going to church again. Praise God!
One of the main goals of going to the campuses is finding ministry opportunities. I don't there there is any kind of religious group, mainly because people just go there for class. A good way to reach this campus would be some kind of event when classes are over or a Saturday.
Tomorrow we will go to the other campus (that we first went to) because it is supposed to be a little bigger.
Pray that we will have the boldness to speak to people and that people will be open to talk to us. Pray that they will see their need for Christ and open their hearts to Him.
Again thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for your prayers!!!
Love Beth!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Canada Day 1

So we finally arrived in Canada around 6 am this morning, and found the church we would be living at for this trip. Then we met Ray the pastor of the church we are staying at, and Aaron, the pastor we are working with. Then we went to eat lunch and we all braved the bus transportation!! Lunch was delicious and then we did a little touring. We were all pretty exhausted so we had a quick dinner and played a game together.
Tomorrow we will be going to the three different campuses and meeting new people. Pray we will meet people, build friendships, and share the gospel with them. Also pray that our group grows closer together to fully serve the people of Canada.
Thank you all so much for the prayers and keeping up with us. It means so much to us that you all love and care about us, but ultimately the Lord!

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Canada Bound!

Hello friends and family!
Tomorrow, we three amigos are going to Canada on a mission trip with our college ministry from FBC Dardanelle. We are so excited and blessed to be going on this trip! God is so good!
There is a little less than twenty people going, and we will start driving tomorrow at one o'clock. We will be working on three different campuses in Winnipeg Manitoba: Red River College, the University of Winnipeg, and the University of Manitoba. We plan on working with a pastor of a small church in Winnipeg, who is a missionary with the NAMB. He is trying to find opportunities to start college ministries on these campuses, and we will be the ones doing this work. We will be going to coffee shops and other places, meeting Canadians, building relationships, and sharing the good news with them! We also plan to do some kind of children's event to get the community involved with Aaron's (the missionary) church.
Hopefully I will get to post sometime while we are there to let everyone know how we are doing and what all is happening here!
On another note, we are also going to Serbia again, this summer! We will leave July 7th and come back August 6th. We know that we will be working on Southern Serbia, Prokuplje. As far as what exactly we will be doing, I am sure will be doing the same kinds of things we did last year: children's ministries, visitations, prayer groups, and disciplining. Of course we will find many other opportunities when we get there!
We have a packed summer so it would be awesome if you would keep Canada and Serbia in your prayers. Your commitment to us means the world!!

In Christ's wonderful and gracious love,
Bethany