Joint Short-Term Missions: July 2014

Monday, July 28, 2014

Goodbye Blog...Thank You!

Thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts throughout the whole trip. We needed them, treasured them, were moved by them. Thank you God for the for amazing opportunities we were given and the amazing people we came into contact with. Lots of love and truth were spread these last 10 days. Thank you so much for being a part of it.

To end off, some beautiful views from the Bible College in Chibougamau. Though it wasn't a 5 star resort by any stretch of the imagination (see here), it had the best Architect and Artist working on the outside views - God.

2014 JSTM Team

Over and out.

Saturday and Sunday Update

Saturday

On Saturday night, we had a feast! Between our chefs in the Kitchen and some new friends from Mistissini - we had quite the meal. It was a lot of food and a lot of fun and we also got to celebrate Pastor Harry's 73rd birthday. Happy Birthday Pastor Harry!

Moose meat gifted to us from Mistissini, tastes like steak!

Homemade donuts from our friends in Mistissini.

Our friends and guests watched the crunchy pork being cut.

Canada Goose Cree Style.

Canada Goose Chinese Style.

Chicken wings.

Shrimp chips - a big hit with our friends from Mistissini!

The Kitchen Crew hard at work making friend fish.

So much meat!

We discovered that Pastor Ada has a Cree twin in Mistissini!

Our guests from Mistissini.

Really good Chinese Food...delicious!

Enjoying the Chinese and Cree dishes.

Birthday Cake for Pastor Harry.

Happy 73rd Pastor Harry!

The young peeps finally get their bonfire and smores!

Sunday
On Sunday morning Pastor Raymond shared a great reflective sermon on our time in Chibougamau and Mistissini. He talked about both receiving and passing on vision. Thank you to Pastor Enoch and Freida for your vision and love for the people of Northern Quebec that you have passed on to us. We said goodbye and packed up and cleaned up to head back to Toronto. Bittersweet as the 47 of us will never be in the same room again - but it was so beautiful getting to work with and be with everyone these last 10 days!

Pastor Raymond sharing from his heart.

Good-bye song.

Good bye!

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Last Pit Stop

It's 11:00pm and we are just outside Gananoque. Only 3 hours away from Toronto!
We hit some heavy rain and fog in the middle of our trip, but are all safe and sound.

Continue to pray for safety these last few hours. Everyone should be dropped home by 2:00am tonight.

There will be another blog coming with some pictures from Saturday night and Sunday morning. There will be some pictures of a special meal we had with special guests and special food!

Also, there will be one more blog showing some of the beautiful scenery that surrounded us in Northern Quebec. Both blogs will be posted on Monday. After that, that's it! Our 2014 JSTM trip is coming to an end. Thanks for following us and thank you for praying for us!

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Super Saturday!

Today was Super Saturday!

Our Children's, Pre-Teen's and some of our Reno Team joined forces today to put on the ever famous…SUPER SATURDAY!

We had 16 games set up and the children had tickets with the name of each game and they went around playing every game and had so much fun! It's a fun way to end our week with them. They loved it! Lots of smiles and lots of friendly competition. The pre-teens and children joined in at the end for some songs and games. The children sang two songs they had learned with the pre-teens and the pre-teens shared a song they had learned with the children. Everyone went home with a bag of prizes.

It was a very, very emotional goodbye. Some children and pre-teens cried pretty hard - which made a lot of us cry as well. It was such a fun and beautiful week spent together, and a lot of us don't know if we'll ever see them again. The hope is that seeds of love and truth were planted and will be watered by others and hopefully some of us in the future.

Tonight we were gifted Canadian Geese from Pastor Annie, a First Nation Pastor in Mistissini - we will enjoy them for dinner tonight!

Sunday morning we will have service at the Bible College, eat lunch together then clean up before heading out on the road back to Toronto.

In your prayers, thank God for the wonderful week we were able to have together as a team and with the people of Mistissini. Also pray for safety as 47 tired peopled head back in 7 vans on a 14 hour drive home.

This is the last blog before we head back to Toronto tomorrow. I will try to update on our pit stops if there is wifi!

Bless and be blessed,

JSTM Team

The team that went to Mistissini to put on SUPER SATURDAY!

Four Colour Ball

Marble Pick Up

Ring Toss

Nelson with a bunch of helpers and children.

Egg Race

Bey Blades

Ada with two brothers she met in Perch River last year.

Marble Pick Up - it was fun to see them use chopsticks!

Ring Toss

Egg Race

Dog Bowl Throw

Pylon

Kung Fu Panda

Pinball

Chips

Memory Game

Amazing Maze

Four Colour Ball

What a great turnout!

Friday Update

OUR WHOLE JSTM TEAM!

Kitchen Team

Here is the Kitchen Team!

They prepared an absolutely delicious sushi dinner for us on Thursday night. We had some very special guests from Mistissini that night, a few of the pastors and church workers and their families. They loved the meal and it was especially fun to watch them eat wasabi for the first time!

The sushi meal is always a highlight on this trip! Look how beautiful these maki are!

Beautiful vegetables.

So creative!

Our special guests from Mistissini eating sushi, and wasabi!

Cooking away!

Prepping the veggies and chicken patties.

Chicken pattie making!

Choy!

Chicken. Some members of the Kitchen Team cut a whole chicken for the first time!

Fatty pork belly....mmmmm!

Reno Team
Here is our Reno Team!

The Reno Team continue to work on various projects around the Bible College. They did a lot of work on the first cabin - lifting the cabin to level it underneath, fixing and repairing the toilet and more!They are a busy team, constantly repairing, fixing and problem solving!

Add caption

Pacal sawing away on the porch of Cabin #1.

Jonathan showing us the lever to lift the cabin up, pretty neat!

Lifting up the cabin to add more support.

Paul sawing away as well!

Our Plumber Justin doing his thing in Cabin #1.

Outside Cabin #1.

Cleaning out a dirty pipe!

Anyone missing a toilet?

Worship Team
The worship team continues to bless us each morning as we get together for our 8:45am service.

Here is our wonderful, musical team!

Keith leading worship on Friday morning.

Pre-Teens Team
On Friday they had their day of program with the pre-teens. Ada and Keith did a skit to present the story of the Prodigal Son. The kids loved it and were very receptive. A very good discussion followed. They also had a "rock ceremony" where each teen chose a rock to keep to remind them about their week together. They ended with baked goods from a fundraiser at the church the day before and prizes!

The Pre-Teens Team! Minus Muse :( who wasn't feeling well this day.

Keith playing frozen Ninja.

Keith and Ada acting out the Prodigal Son.

A captured audience!

Rock ceremony!

Passing around the baked goods.

Children's TeamHere is the Children's Team!

The loudest group at the Bible College!

Friday was the last day of the Children's Program. Detective Valiant and Jonthan led the children into clues to find out a secret password that taught us about lucky charms back in Egyptian times. Beka led the lesson for the day and told the story of Moses through pictures. Each picture had a clue hidden in it that led them to discover God's purpose for their lives. She prayed with them at the end. Hoping seeds of truth and love have been planted for others to continue to water! We said "goodbye" but we still have SUPER SATURDAY before we have to really say goodbye. Pray for our very last day with the children and pre-teens!