last updated: May 5, 2010 12:02 PM
May 5, 2010
Hello Everyone...I know last month I mentioned spring...well the snow has come in full force and we are keeping our springy thoughts for another day :) Our team in Mexico is adjusting to the heat and to the ministry. Wrestling is huge in Mexico and they have a wrestling skit about David and Goliath. Needless to say they are all getting a little bit bruised! They have had many chances to share Jesus with people all over the city by doing skits and dramas and then talking. They are working with local youth groups and getting to meet other international teams. Thank you for your prayers for them! Adam will head to Mexico on May 17 to finish the outreach with the students and staff.
We are excited that Gideon turns 5 this week...so crazy! We are really enjoying our children alot! I guess that's a good thing with number 3 on the way!
For those of you in the area we are having a YWAM Camping reunion on June 24-27 to celebrate 10 years of training and ministry, starting at the ranch as YWAM @ Eagles Nest and continuing on into YWAM Blackfalds. It is a super exciting time to share stories of God's faithfulness throughout! There is more info on our base website www.ywamblackfalds.com if you would like more info. Have a great day!
April 18, 2010
Hello all, we are so excited to welcome spring to Blackfalds and are praying for rain to help everything look green and springy :) Adam has just returned from teaching in South Korea and had an amazing week with the students there. We will be helping to host these students as they come to Canada for their cross cultural outreach on Native Reserves and in the Canadian inner city. They will be here from June until August this summer. We are heading into our last week of teaching for our January DTS and they will head to Mexico City on Friday, April 23. Very exciting! Well, you can read about this and much more in our spring newsletter (click here to read the newsletter). Thanks so much for the thoughts and prayers! Blessings to you all.
March 10, 2010
Somethings seems to have happened to our old photo gallery server so I have changed programs and moved all the pictures over to a new program. You can check out the new format by clicking this link or the family / ministry links of the left. Kim has also started to add new pictures from the olympics and our time in NZ and AUS.
March 7, 2010
Well, I am a little bit embarrassed by our lack of updating :) We have done so much since the end of November that it is hard to keep track! We were in New Zealand and Australia in November/December working with the YWAM Ship Tour. We were also able to visit Kim's sister and her family as they have recently moved to Brisbane, Australia to work with YWAM Island Breeze there. It was a great trip with great opportunities and amazing things to see and do. Our January was a flurry of new schools. We are running a Discipleship Training School with a focus on the Olympics and Mexico City. The students were here for 4 weeks of teaching and then we headed off to Vancouver to share Jesus with the nations as they gather together in the name of sport. We have just returned from that and had an amazing time of serving free hot chocolate with the Salvation Army at transit stations, praying for people on the street with YWAM Vancouver, serving meals in soup kitchens, encouraging the other 800 missionaries that were there under More Than Gold to serve with us, protesting the sex trade with Buying Sex is not a Sport, and serving the local church in Vancouver. We are now back at home and gearing up for some more weeks of teaching for our students as they prepare to go to Mexico City in May and June.
I have posted a few pictures in the Ministry Picture gallery (to the left), but we are having some serious issues with it, so there are very few! We will work on that!
Blessing to you all!
November 24, 2009
We took class pictures yesterday and I put them on our website for students to show to their families. Click here to see pictures of our current students.
October 24, 2009
We have just returned from a quick trip back to Manitoba to visit some old friends and Kim's family. We really enjoyed our time visiting and sharing about what God is doing. We also wrote a new newsletter that most of you should be receiving in the mail any day :)
If you can't wait to read our new newsletter you can click here to read it online.
September 28, 2009
The fall is here and winter doesn't look too far away! We are having a blustery day today. All our tomato plants have been plucked from the garden and are hanging in our garage to ripen(what a wonderful smell that is :). Our fall schools are going into their 3rd week. We have 2 ESL (English as a Second Language) students from South Korea and 6 Discipleship Training School students from 3 different nations. They have all come to learn about God and be trained to serve Him better. Adam and I continue to direct the school are a little less "hands on" this school. Kim is teaching a few things in ESL school and helping with that administration. Adam is overseeing the school, and did the first week of teaching about Hearing God's Voice. It was a great way to start off the school! Adam is also in charge of a community service every Monday afternoon. He is leading our students as they do things our community to bless and show the love of Jesus in a tangible way right here in Blackfalds. Last week they washed windows, this week they are digging potatoes, and next week they may be baking cookies, visiting with seniors or raking leaves.....the possibilities are endless. We really feel it is important to allow students and staff to see how to step out in faith in their own communities to show the love of God.
Adam and I also have the opportunity to lead the students and staff through the Freedom course that we took (see below for more info or go to www.citycentral.org). It is so exciting to see and experience life how God created us...to live free of things that get the way of us being more like Christ! So amazing!
We are looking forward to visiting our friends in Manitoba for Thanksgiving. Please call us or email if you would like to hang out! We would love to see all of you!!! Have a wonderful day!!
Aug 17, 2009
Thank you so much to those of you who have been praying for us as we crisscrossed Canada! We had such a rich summer full of teaching, discipleship, training and family. We spent 2 weeks at Camp Nutimik, in Manitoba and had a great time helping with their Counselor in Training and Leadership Training Camps. We then went on to Cypress Bible Camp, where we spoke, helped with worship and participated in general camp activities! We went home to Blackfalds and enjoyed but one short night in our own bed! We had the incredible privilege of attending a counseling course called Freedom Immersion in Tacoma, Washington. It was such an amazing week of prayer, teaching and learning. We were able to leave the boys with the girls that live with us so it was quite relaxing (We could actually sit down for breakfast for a whole 30 mins.....without having to get up and down 20 times...)!! We were able to get home and sleep in our beds one more time before Adam's sister and family came to Blackfalds and we set out for the mountains on our way to an Atkinson family reunion. We saw lots of bears, elk and mountains galore :) There were also all of Adam's dad's brothers and sisters (and families) gathered in one place, so it was quite the party!!
We are now very contentedly staying put!! Blackfalds was a great place to come home to! We are praying that the rest of this summer will be used to continue relationships already created and begin new ones! Our garden is growing...super slowly...we are not in Manitoba anymore...but we are excited about we have already picked. We are canning cherries, making jam and stocking our pantry for the winter!! My mother probably can't believe it!!
It has been so great to have people stopping by for visits on their way to and from Manitoba...always fun to show people our home and ministry!! Don't be afraid to call, Adam takes great pleasure in playing host!! Cheers!
June 11, 2009
Summer seems to have finally arrived! Hard to believe that it has taken this long, but we are so thankful for the sunshine and the wonderful weather to go with it! I hope you are all enjoying our latest newsletter (if you haven't read it yet please click here to view it).
I just had the opportunity to spend a week in Banff at a YWAM Base Leaders Training Conference. Wow! What an amazing time of learning! It made me so excited about what YWAM has been built on! The faith and the things that God has done in our mission is so amazing! What a privilege to be a part of that! Adam had a fun week with our boys at home. He was the only adult in the house for a whole week...that's a big rarity in our life! He had a good week, but is glad that we can enjoy life as a community!!
We are looking forward to a fantastic July at Camp Nutimik and Cypress Bible Camp! God is so good and we know that He is going to work in the lives of many young people this summer through the ministry of these camps! Exciting to have a small part in that!!
March 25, 2009
I just added some NEW PICTURES :) in both ministry and family pictures. Enjoy :)
March 18, 2009
Man...time goes faster the more kids you have :) We have been having a great winter! Our DTS students returned home from India and we had a wonderful time of sharing about the amazing things God did during their time there. They have many relationships to continue (thanks to Facebook) and now face the task of re-entering back into life in Canada. It is sometimes very difficult as things continue as if you have never had this crazy life changing experience! We were privileged to have Brooke and Soni (and our new baby niece) here for a few weeks before they jetted off to New Zealand and Fiji to work with YWAM there! We are hoping to go and visit them at Christmas!!!
We are always busy in Blackfalds and things continue to run! The coffee shop is picking up and getting busier. There are so many people that comment on our "family" and want to be a part of that through volunteering and hanging out. We are amazed at the volunteers and excited for opportunities to work with others in the community! Adam is speaking at different churches (we were in LaRonge, SK this last week!! Very fun!) and really excited to encourage the local church in Canada through some of the things God is teaching him!
January 21, 2009
Happy New Year!! We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas time! I am happy to report that our team is doing a great work in India. Our students have been there since the beginning of December and their time in Delhi is drawing to a close (they return to Calgary in the first week of Feb.). They have been able to spend much time talking and getting to know university students and working with an orphanage there. The small children that you see begging on the streets in many pictures from India are the very children that attend this orphanage (almost more like a day home). They come during the day for clean clothes, food and are able to learn some basic skills (reading, writing etc.). They must go home at the end of the day and work for their parents begging on the street. It is a sad sad tale that many of them have, but we know that God is showing them His love through some of His faithful servants. It is a great work and our students are feeling the compassion that Christ has for each of his children when they experience things that are not a part of His great plan for life.
Here in Blackfalds we are beginning our first English classes. We have decided to offer "drop-in" English classes for the community, instead of an English School. We really want to be a service to our community and this is a great way to get to know some of the immigrants in our area who are struggling with life in Canada, especially language. We had our first class last night and we had 8 students!! It was really fun and we are really looking forward to getting to know each of them!
Thank you so much for your support and prayers in 2008. God's faithfulness is so amazing and we are so thankful for each person that works with us to see God's great name shown to those around the world!!
December 24, 2008
Merry Christmas everyone!! Adam has arrived home from India!! So very exciting! When we watch the news and hear about all of the airport delays we are so thankful that his flight made it out of Toronto!
Our team in India is doing great. They have had many cultural adaptations to make, but have been working hard! We are thankful for Jenny and Antonio as they lead the team and know that this will be a huge learning experience for both of them! Hopefully a good learning experience!
It has been really fun teaching our boys about the meaning of Christmas. Gideon was flying around the other day with a cape on calling himself the 'newborn King!!' Who knew there was so much new vocabulary to learn about Christmas!!
We wish everyone a wonderful season and pray that God will remind you of His faithfulness throughout the last year!
December 12, 2008
Our team has landed safely in India and is getting used to the new sights and sounds that will be their home for the next 2 months! Adam has had a fantastic time getting to know the area and enjoying the culture. He will spend this next week with the team and then return to Canada on the 22nd of Dec. We are so thankful for this opportunity to see what God is doing in India. I know that our team (and Adam) will see God do many things!! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!
December 6, 2008
Hello Everyone! Thank you for praying for us. Adam has arrived safely in India and made it to the house of our contact there! He was very tired! We are finishing off things here. We have the Love feast tomorrow (our big meal together to celebrate the finish of the school) and then the boys and I are off to Manitoba!! I am not sure if I will be able to update this from Manitoba, but I will try! Have a wonderful day!!
December 1, 2008
Happy December!! Yippee! I can hardly believe that it is finally December, and the time is flying already! Adam leaves this week and he is teaching, has meetings, and we have final school stuff every single night!! It is a crazy week! Please pray with us as our student's visas for India were sent back to us AGAIN!! We are trying one more time to send them back. Please pray that they will get them processed in time. This will be the last time before they have to leave....which brings us to craziness at the thought of changing locations and tickets and applying for visas to a new country...etc....etc...ahhhh...the thought of all that makes me sweat! Thanks for standing with us! Have a great day!
November 21, 2008
Hello everyone! We are counting down the days until we get to Manitoba! Gideon asks everyday if this is the day (even though we have a countdown calendar and he can see the day!!). We are also counting down the days until our school is finished and Adam leaves for India. This is exciting but is the usual last minute rush of details..visas, immunizations, health insurance, team meetings, lectures Christmas parties, etc. etc. etc!!! If you've ever traveled yourself you know about all the time consuming little details...try doing it for 10 people! A little bit crazy sometimes! Please pray that Adam would get his passport returned with a visa in it :) for India. Time is getting close! The students also need to get their visas...after a minor glitch they got sent back yesterday...ahhhh....they always seem to come just in time....but this just seems more last minute that usual! We have posted our NEW NEWSLETTER and you can get to it by clicking here...or just wait and hopefully one will arrive in your mailbox!! There are many exciting things in it we are eager to share with you!
Have a wonderful day and thank you for your continued prayers!
November 10, 2008
We would really appreciate your prayers these next few weeks (we always appreciate them actually !!). Adam is teaching in the Discipleship Training School this week and in the Biblical Core Course in 2 weeks. It seems that whenever someone is teaching, their family has a particularly difficult week! We decided to do some hard core potty training this week...not sure if there is wisdom in that...but we are sick of changing diapers!!
Adam has to book his ticket to India this week. He is going to go a week before the team and stay the first week the team is there. We have never sent a DTS team to India and Adam will go to make sure things are ready for the team and that they get established in the area we are planning on working. Please continue to pray for our contacts there. Things are quite slow going and time is getting shorter by the moment!
This is always an "exciting" time during the schools because this is when everyone needs their outreach money!! Everyone has to pay for plane tickets by Friday ($2000) and pay their ground fees (the rest of the outreach money...another $1500) in 2 weeks. Whoever does not pay by Friday does not get a plane ticket at this point. Stress levels are high, but it is such an amazing faith building experience. God always uses faithful people to provide and it is so amazing to see God moving through the hands of his people. What a privilege we all have to be involved in what God is doing in India!! It is so important for students and staff to walk in faith, while doing everything they possibly can. Everyone has been busy selling chocolates, cleaning houses, making things for a craft sale at the end of the month, writing newsletters, making videos and doing random odd jobs. If we do the possible, God will do the impossible...He always will and always does! What a mighty God we serve!!
November 4, 2008
Our newest newsletter is available for viewing here (the ones on top are the newest). Enjoy!
We have just come back from a missions conference (called the Go Conference) in Kelowna, British Columbia. It was an amazing time of story! Stories of what God is doing in China and Mongolia and around the world; stories of what God has done and how He has faithfully provided for his children around the world; stories of the future - God calling young and old and to go and reach the nations with His great news! It was a very encouraging time! My parents flew out and were able to take in the conference, which was really exciting for all of us! They were able to hear a little more about YWAM and just be encouraged and challenged! The boys were so excited to hang out with their grandparents! I have uploaded some pictures of the the trip to and from Kelowna here. There are also a few pics from our current Discipleship Training School here in Blackfalds.
We are in the process of getting our schools ready to go on outreach. We would really appreciate your prayers as we contact people in the second most populous country in the world, India. We are excited about this location, and for the safety of those going and those hosting us, we probably won't mention too much, but please continue to pray for these preparations!
Oct 19, 2008
Wow! What a crazy month! We are now well underway in our schools. The Discipleship Training School has 3 incredible students and we have been studying together for 4 weeks now...hard to believe!! We have had speakers challenge us about Missional living, Leadership, Christian Worldview, and Prayer. It has been great getting to know the students and seeing them embrace the things God has for them! They are being challenged and really digging in to learn more about how amazing God is. It is so good to see and exciting for this generation!
This week, we had our last students move into our permanent student housing. It was a super exciting time! All of the housing options we thought we had arranged fell through shortly before the school began. We had some very gracious hosts who opened their homes to us and our students. We had students billeted out in 4 different houses around the Blackfalds/Lacombe area. The students and hosts were super flexible and amazing with the whole transition! Our directors were finally able to purchase a house that they will rent to YWAM as our student housing. It is a brand new place not that far from our house with 3 bedrooms upstairs and 2 bedrooms being worked on downstairs. The students were quite relieved to be living in the same town as the coffee shop and classrooms and just to be settled somewhere is very good for all of us! We are so thankful that God has provided this amazing place for them!
We are really looking forward to these next weeks as we prepare for a missions conference in Kelowna the last week October! God is doing amazing things all around the world and it is always good to get together, encourage and pray together about these things!!
Sept 23, 2008
Thanks again to all those who continue to pray for our family. We had our follow up appointment with Dr. Skov (the specialist in Calgary) and she said that Gideon's eye looks great. The muscle is still a bit weak so we will continue to patch his eye and he will continue wearing glasses. When the muscle is strong his vision may get better, but we just have to wait and see!! It was good to get a stamp of approval from her! Gideon did great (once again ;).
We are into our first week of the first DTS (if you don't know what a DTS is click here and read the definitions) ever in Blackfalds. It is so amazing! God sent us 3 incredible students (there are other schools running so the student total is 10) for the DTS and we have had a great start. There is a student from Red Deer, Switzerland and Slave Lake! They are really easy going and just excited to see what God has in store for them! Chris and Sharon (our directors) have been trying to purchase a house for some permanent student housing, after being denied a few times and just waiting a long time they finally got their financing and the house deal went through....WHO HOOOOA!! We are so excited. The students are billeted out in people's homes right now (in Lacombe) so the driving and carpooling means long days for the students (they leave at 7:30 a.m. and don't get back until 10 p.m. some nights!). As of October 1st they will be living within walking distance to everything here in Blackfalds. Soooo good!
Have a good night all! Thanks for the thoughts, prayers and emails!! We are so grateful for it all! Blessings!
September 8, 2008
Adam and Gideon got up early (4:30 a.m.) to get ready for the hospital. When Adam woke him Gideon asked "Are we finally going to go to the hospital?" He was so excited to go, he talked the whole way about the presents that he could play with after his surgery. The surgery went well. Gideon is now home and doing really well. He slept for most of the day, but got up happy and ready to play play dough, play with his balloon and eat some fruit! He is chatting and cooking play dough eggs like nothing happened! Thank you for your prayers! He has to be careful these next few days so it does not get infected! I will be very glad when the week is over!!
Thanks again for thinking of us, we are so amazed at the people praying!! Blessings!!
September 7, 2008
We have had a great week! The grand opening of After the Grind was yesterday. It was a crazy day, but lots of fun! We had some live music in the evening and it was a great atmosphere. The community is really excited about having a coffee shop in town and they are really supportive!
We are beginning staff training this week and trying to figure out what and how the schools will work for the fall. It's exciting and frustrating at the same time!!
Gideon is going for his surgery tomorrow. We are so thankful for all of the emails and calls we have received from people who are praying for us and thinking of us! Wow! Gideon is excited right now because he has been receiving gifts that he can use at the hospital, so he keeps asking when he will have surgery so he can use his new books, markers and play dough!! His surgery is at 7:40 a.m. tomorrow morning (which means they have to leave here at 5 a.m.) and the surgery will last 30 min's. He will then be in recovery for 30 min's. and then stay at the hospital for 2 hours. I am a bit nervous about the general anaesthetic and how he will react, but Adam will be with him, and he is such a great kid!
We will keep you updated! Have a wonderful day!
p.s. I put a few more albums of pictures under ministry and family pictures! Enjoy!
Aug 28, 2008
We are enjoying the end of summer here in central Alberta. Nights are cool and the days are still warm (as long as the sun shines!!). We went to Calgary yesterday to see Gideon's eye specialist. She confirmed that he will need strabismus surgery, but that his glasses and and patching is really helping his vision. We just got a call from them saying that they want to do surgery on Sept. 8. Yikes!!! We were told we would be on a waiting list etc. for up to 4 months, but it has been a week and we have seen the doctor already and now we are going for surgery in less than 2 weeks...ohhh my poor heart...they are going to shorten the muscle on one side of his eye and cut and reattach the other side at a different point so that his eye muscles keep his eye looking straight. They really feel that the sooner he has surgery the better. We really liked the doctor, she was really thorough and explained everything. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers during this time!
After much frustration with our old web site design we have decided to create a simpler site that is easier to update.
We hope you enjoy the new design and the updates (way more frequently)!!
Aug 15, 2008
As many of you know we have moved to Blackfalds, Alberta. We are now in the heart of central Alberta. We are 15 minutes from Red Deer, 1 hour from Edmonton and 1 hour from Calgary. God helped us to purchase an amazing home, we helped move our entire base and all the staff, and started a coffee shop all in the last 2 months....wheeew....and we are still reeling :) We are amazed at the incredible provisions from God through many faithful people!!
The coffee shop is open. It's called After the Grind and you can check out that web site! We have also changed our base name to YWAM Blackfalds, but we are all the same staff with the same schools....just in a different location! We are so excited about what the future holds.
Please pray for us as we gear up for schools this fall. Since we no longer live on a children's camp we are in desperate need of housing for students and more staff. We are hoping to rent some houses, but things are expensive and they will only allow 4 people in a house. We need an investor to purchase a house for us so that we can rent it from them.
