Yay for Blitz Trips

This past weekend I went on my first ever Blitz weekend (more info in my previous post). It was a thoroughly enjoyable trip. We drove the 9 hours to Selkirk on Friday. When we were just outside of Portage I phoned Laura and when I told her that I was going to be in Selkirk she was rather excited. She came out to see me on Saturday night for a little while...it was fun...Barney Gargles...weird name for a restaurant.

Anyhow Friday night we did a Youth service. Many of us on the team were feeling like God was going to do a work in the Youth that night. During our time of prayer before the service God confirmed to me the topic that I was preaching. It was a pretty heavy topic so I was a little hesitent to preach it. It was awesome to hear someone whom I had just met and did not know what I was going to preach on pray that the kids would hear a message of love that would change them. I was preaching about our relationship with Jesus and how it's so much more than just believing in Him, it's about being changed, transformed into his likeness. God had given me a vision of a heart which had sticks protruding from it and he told me that he wanted me to preach it. I was really quite confused at first but as I listened to His voice he told me what to preach to go along with my playdough heart with twigs in it.

I preached from my testimony. When I came to Christ I needed to have a lot of things changed in my life. I told the youth how God did that in my life and how he could do it in theirs. Sometimes it's slow and gentle, sometimes things need to come out all at once and it can be very painful but God is always there to support us, standing by us the whole time. He does it because He loves us so much. He wants to make us better people, more Christlike so that we can do the kingdom work he has called us to do more effectively.

Now I must confess that I have never really spent much time reading Thessalonians but when I was preparing for this sermon I found this verse and I love it. It reassures me that God wants this process to happen and that He'll not leave me to try and do it on my own.

1 Thessalonians 5:23
May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together--spirit, soul, and body--and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ.

Ok enough preaching.
Saturday we spent the afternoon with the children doing a program for them. It was cool because there were lots of kids there, 43 to be exact. The Pastor's wife told us that there were kids there who she had never seen before so that was awesome. We were having such a good time that the kids didn't want to leave! There was a family of kids who came and one of the kids was autistic. His dad told us that he wasn't allowed in the kitchen or to play with anything from the kitchen and that we were to be firm with him that he couldn't have the things he was bound to ask for. I ended up being in the kitchen fixing the snacks for the kids so I had him asking me probably 40-50 times if he could have the purple cup, then it switched to the blue bowl. I really enjoyed talking with Austin, he was a great kid. He loved different shapes and colors. He was a highlight of my day...even though my fellow, beloved team member kept asking me "Kendra, can I have the purple cup?"

Sunday morning we led the morning service. Trent was preaching and Courtney, Melissa, Charlotte and Sheldon were led worship. I didn't really have anything to do so I helped Trent with the power point. Trent ended up leading the congregation in Communion as well that morning. It was a great time and everyone enjoyed themselves. We had a potluck after the service and it was great to meet a lot of the people who attend church there.

Pastor Andrew and his family were fantastic. They treated us very well. I'd like to give a shout out to the Penners, Marie and Melvin, they were fabulous hosts and fantastic people. I really enjoyed getting to know them and I LOVED the home-baked bread (not from a bread machine here people!).

The trip home was not overly eventful. The van was sucking oil and we wondered if it would hold out but it did. Sheldon was able to get his winter coat from his mom when we stopped in Neepawa on the way home. Yay! for winter coats. We arrived home late on Sunday night and I promtly asked Trent when they were going out again cause I wanted to go too. We head out to Star City the last weekend in March! Yay!