Summer ministry team

    Christian Youth in Action 2012

Week Five

I am currently in the fifth week of ministry this summer. This week has been very different for a number of reasons. The first major difference is that I am doing a club in someone's home rather than teaching at a church's VBS. The children at the club this week are primarily unchurched and believe in other religions. This really different from my pervious week because most of the children who weren't Christian didn't really hold any religious beliefs, now this week as I am teaching about God and how Jesus is the only way to God the children are comparing it to what they already believe. Yesterday one little girl accepted Jesus as her saviour and she was so excited after, but I was so nervous for her to go home. I was afraid that her parents would tell her everything that she had just learnt was false. Today after we gave the invitation three girls came to talk to my partner and I. They each said that they already believe in Jesus but they just had some questions. After talking to the girls for a little bit I could tell what they really needed is discipleship and I am really sad because I can't provide that for them since I am leaving tomorrow. 
Next week is my last week of ministry this summer. I am already trying to think ahead to next year. I'm not sure what God wants me to do. I'm praying that he would make it clear as to where he wants me to serve.

Depending on God

Something God has really been teaching me during my first 3 weeks on the field is to depend completely on him.
Over the past few months I have started to really try to do things on my own. I know I can do all things through Christ (Phil. 4:13). But I really only go to God when I realize that I can't do it on my own. What I have realized is there is NOTHING I can do on my own. I am totally dependent on God for everything. No matter how well I learn to teach the Bible lessons it is still only God who can reach the hearts of the children.
My first week out in the field no kids were responding to the invitation. By Thursday I was feeling pretty discouraged. Before we did the Bible lesson on Thursday we had a "treasure truth" which included an object lesson I completely messed up the object lesson and I was thinking to myself that this was going to be such a horrible day. During the Bible lesson the kids didn't seem to be paying attention but after during the invitation 4 kids accepted Christ. God really showed me through that, that it doesn't matter how well I do or if I mess up he is the one who is working.

Training!

Things have been so busy. I haven't really had anytime to blog. So now it is time to play catch up. Instead of writing one really long post I'm going to write separate ones for different things.
I spent June 24 until July 7 at STI (summer training institute). It was really amazing. I learnt so much. I learnt about how to present a Bible story while including gospel points. I also learnt how to present a memory verse. I also learnt many other things.
About half way through training we found out who our partners are going to be and where we are going. I have two different partners for the summer, I have one partner (Hannah) for four weeks and the other (Rachel) for two weeks. I am serving all 6 weeks in the GTA.
Training was really hard at points. There was so much to learn. I wanted to learn everything really well so I would often study during my free time. During the second week we had to present the entire program for all five days of club. So each day would be two hours of stuff.
I had a really great time connecting with so many other young Christians who have a passion for serving God. Even though I am a lot older than most of the students I still developed many great friendships.
I didn't become a Christian until I was 17, and most of the people at STI were either 17 or younger. So it was just really amazing seeing people serving God at such a young age. Especially since when I was their age I wouldn't have even thought about serving God like them. For a few days I was almost feeling jealous of the kids I would be telling about Jesus, because they would be hearing about Jesus at such a young age and they would be able to grow up knowing and serving Jesus. One night I was sharing with one of the staff about my feelings and he said that it is great that I am going out now to tell young children about Jesus because they will have an opportunity to know Jesus at a young age that I did not.
So that is a very brief overview of training. I will try to blog again soon.
Until next time,
Megan Jones
Signing out

Packing, packing, packing

Well it is official I am finished the 2011-2012 yearbook. Not only am I finished, I finished it two days early. I'm really glad to have it done so now I can focus on getting ready for summer training institue (STI) which starts in two days. 
My biggest task right now is packing. I have packed maybe three things. Since I never really unpacked from school it is making it really hard to find some of the clothes I want to pack. There is also a few more props that I need to find and buy as well. I think Saturday is going to end up being rather busy. 
My biggest worry heading into training is having enough energy to make it through the days. Lately I have been feeling really tired and I'm afraid at training I won't have enough energy and I'll pass out in the middle of the day. 
I'm also going to be learning a tone of things during my two weeks at training so prayer for being able to learn all the information and remember it all would be great. 
I'm really looking forward to seeing what God does this summer. I will try to keep everyone updated via blog post from my phone.
Anyways back to packing.

The Wordless Book: Green

Green reminds us of things that grow, like trees or grass. God wants you to grow too.Not just by growing taller or gaining weight. God wants you to grow to love and please the Lord Jesus more and more. 
When you become a child of God you will not suddenly be perfect but God will give you the strength to keep from doing wrong things that displease Him. He will help you be more kind, obedient and truthful. When you do sin, tell God you have sinned. He will forgive you. The Bible says in 1 John chapter 1 verse 9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” 
God has given us way to grow in Christ and get to know Him better.
Go to church to learn more about Jesus and how He wants you to live
Read your Bible and pray, talk to God about what you think and feel
Obey do what God tells you to do in the Bible
Witness to others, telling them about what the Lord Jesus has done for them so their sin can be forgiven

The Wordless Book: Clean

Jesus wants to forgive all of your sins and make you clean before God. 

In the Bible it says in John chapter 1 verse 12 "yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God"

You can become a member of God's family by:

Admit you are a sinner and can't save yourself 

Believe that Jesus died on a cross was buried and rose again to take your punishment for sin

Choose to receive Lord Jesus as your Saviour, know He will forgive your sins and make you His child

When you become God's child, He gives you some promises. It says in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5 "I will never leave you", no matter what God will never leave you. 

After you receive the Lord Jesus, God wants you to get to know Him better.

The Wordless Book: Red

God knew about the sin in your life—that there was nothing you could do to take it away. That’s why He sent His only Son, Jesus in the world as a baby. Jesus is God’s perfect Son. He lived a sinless life. He never thought, said or did anything that did not please God, the Father.
Jesus did not deserve to die, he could have called down a thousand angels to take him down from the cross. But He willingly gave Himself up to die on the cross for you and me. He took your punishment. This was the only way you and I could have our sins forgiven.
Just like the red on this cross, Jesus gave his blood for you and me. It says in the Bible in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 22 "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness".
Jesus died and God brought Jesus back to life on the third day. Jesus is alive in heaven today.
Because of what Jesus did for you, you can have your sins forgiven.

The Wordless Book: Dark

Sin is anything that we think, say, or do that does not please God. (At this point I would have the children give examples of sin). 
Why is it so easy for us to tell lies, lose our tempers or be unkind? Because every one of us is born with a nature that is sinful. That means you and I are born with a "want to" sin. Just like this dark heart, all of our hearts are dark due to the sin in our life.
God’s Word says, “All have sinned” (Rom. 3:23). All means every one of us, including you and me. Sin separates you and me from God because He is perfectly good—without any sin at all. God can’t allow sin where He is.
God says sin must be punished. The punishment is to be separated from God forever. 
But God has a wonderful plan so that you and I don’t have to be punished for our sin.

The Wordless Book: Gold

Gold reminds many people of money or jewellery. God lives in a place with gold streets. It is called Heaven, a wonderful place of light, beauty, and happiness. God wants you, me, and everyone else to go there someday and live with him forever. 
God wrote a book called the Bible for us to read to learn about God and what He is like. The Bible in one book that is made up of many little books put together.The Bible tells us that God created the whole world including you and me. God loves everyone very much, we know this because the Bible tells us. In a book in the Bible called Jeremiah it says in chapter 31 verse 3 "I have loved you with an everlasting love". 
What is God like? God is Holy, He is prefect, without sin. Everything He does is always perfectly right.
But there is one thing that can never be in Heaven, that is sin.

Bonus!

Wow! Two posts in one day, I'm getting better at this whole blogging thing. =D
I thought I would share what the verses we are memorizing this summer are, so I have a picture of them all nice in pretty which is currently my background on my computer.

I also have a video clip of us practicing one of the verses. We were being taught the verse like we were children in the club, so in this video we are playing a game in which we had to pretend to be doing different things while saying the verses. (Ex. being underwater, being a whale, and in the video we were walking on hot coals)

Prep Weekend!

 It is amazing all the things you can get done while you are procrastinating. I have been meaning to write a post about prep weekend, which was this past weekend, but other things seemed to steal my time away, on the positive side I did get some work done on the yearbook. 
Anyways...
...Prep Weekend....
So this past weekend (May 11-13) I spent with CEF. Basically the point of prep weekend is to introduce you to some of the other people who will be serving in the summer and to be introduced to some of the material that you'll be teaching in the summer. 
There was about 20 of us at prep weekend. At STI (summer training institute) there will be about 60 people, so it was nice to be able to meet some people in a smaller setting. 
We learnt about the colours of the wordless book and how to present each one. (I think I might do a post on each of the colours , that'll also help me to remember all the points) We also learnt the memory verses for the summer. We also sat through a demo of what a day in club would be like. I really enjoyed that, it was interesting to see what actually happens in the club. To simplify things I'll put in point form the things that happen.

• Games (these incorporated the theme which is pirates)
• Songs (with actions which were explained before we sang the song)
• A skit (which was pirate themed)
• Bible story 
• Small groups
• Missionary story 
• Memory verse (which included playing a game to help remember the verse)
• Lastly, the club finishes with a review game

Well those were the main things we did. I don't want to make this post too long so I won't share all the details.

I'll post again soon, I need to tell someone that they can kick me if I don't blog again in a week.

I will leave you with some pictures of the weekend because everyone loves pictures.

Group picture!

Learning one of the verses

Night time devos

Going on a hike

Demo club

It's summer!

I'm officially all moved in back home. Well not completely... my stuff is still mostly packed. (and by mostly I mean the only thing I have unpacked is my laptop) It is tempting to just live out of boxes since I will be gone more than I am home this summer. 
My work with CEF doesn't start until the end of June, so that gives me almost two months to do other things. The biggest thing I will be working on is the 2011-2012 yearbook for Heritage. If you didn't already know this past year at Heritage I was the yearbook editor. I still have a TONE of work to do on the yearbook. If you could be in praying for that, that'd be great, it is hard preparing for ministry this summer with this huge ball of stress sitting on my head. I need to have the yearbook completed by the time I leave at the end of June and I still have 60 pages to go. 
The second thing I will be doing is going to Iceland! I am Icelandic on my mother's side of the family. I have been dreaming of going to Iceland since I can remember. I am unbelievably excited. I am really looking forward to seeing the part of Iceland that my family is from and meeting relatives.
Lastly I will be preparing for summer. Before I arrive at the summer training institute (STI) I need to have some verses memorized and know some stories that we will be working with this summer. So I am working on learning those and preparing my heart for ministry. 
I'm excited to see what God does this summer but right now I need to get this yearbook done.

In the beginning

Lame title I know... but I felt the need to tittle my first blog "in the beginning". 
I've never been the best with words or this whole blogging thing. So you may be wondering to yourself, 
what is the purpose of this blog? 
Well the reason for this blog is because there is a lot of distance between myself and everyone that I want to stay in contact with. I want to be able to keep people informed of what God is doing in my life and what I am doing in ministry. I especially want to keep those who are supporting me either financially how their money is being used. As well as keeping those who are praying for me up to date on prayer requests and answers to prayer. 


Now you may be wondering what ministry is Megan involved with? Well.... let me tell you.
This summer I am going to be a summer missionary with CEFOntario (Children's Evangelical Fellowship). 


Last summer I spent two months in Cameroon (maybe I'll share some stories from that trip later). I learnt many things there and I grew so much. One of the things I learnt is that I believe God has called me to minster to children. Which has led me to wanting to work with CEF. 


I’m excited to be a part of CEF’s summer outreach for two reasons: First, I will be able to teach the Bible to about 400 children in different parts of Ontario. Of course, I won’t teach them all at one time, but I will teach them in 20 or more small groups called 5-Day Clubs. Nearly half the children in the club probably won’t go to any church. I will be spending the first two weeks (June 24-July 7) of my summer at CEF’s Summer Training Institute before I go out on the field. There I will be trained on how to lead 5-Day Clubs and help me tell every child I teach about God. 


That brings me to the second reason I am excited for this summer. I know the summer will help me to grow in my Christian life, and prepare me for future ministry in missions and with children. Although my work will be exciting, it will also be hard. I need people to pray that God will help me in the work I do, so that it will really count for Him.


I will need to raise $475 for training and an additional $250 for each week out in the field. I will be in the field for a total of 6 weeks. As I enter this mission field, I would ask for your prayers and support. I need to raise support in order to do this work. Even if you are unable to give financially, I would really appreciate your prayers and encouragement. I would be more than happy to answer any questions you might have. I am very excited to be used by God and serve Him in this way.


If you would like to know more about CEFOntario I have a link to their website on the side.
There is also a list of prayer requests and items of praise on the side as well. 
Feel free to contact me for any information.