Here's the latest Harder family picture coming to you from Zaporozhye, Ukraine.
Monday, September 29, 2014
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Just Youth
We had our fourth Just Youth event on Saturday and it was fantastic! I know I always say this, but it was the best one yet!! We had so much trouble in the week leading up to it - we couldn't get flyers printed on time to hand out in schools, we were having trouble with our electricity and therefore had no internet to send personal invitations out to people so we were concerned that there would be no people showing up. However - at 6 pm there were 40 people lined up waiting at the door!!! And they just kept on coming - in the end there were around 75 people that attended!!! It just goes to show that it's not about how hard we work (or how big we fail in our advertising) that makes the people come - it's God who gets them in the door!
The band from Molochansk came back - they offered to come about a week after the last event so we were really excited to have them. When they left at the end of the evening they said they'd be back next time if we wanted them!
Because a lot of the youth are new believers or non-Christians, Steve preached on what life looks like after becoming a Christian - how life changes and the things you can do to get to know God better.
Afterwards we had coffee, tea, cookies and a time of hanging out and playing games.
We have a Bible study during the week with the Verhoogs (Garry and Teresa) who have a dairy farm and trade school for graduated orphans in Nicolaipolia. At our last Bible study Garry was asking us about events here in the city that he could bring their trade school students to so we invited them to Just Youth. He brought nine of the students and they were so excited about it and were a little disappointed that this event only happens once a month.
Monday, September 8, 2014
Season Opener: Supper Club
We had our first supper club this evening! We had 15+ kids come - a bunch of new ones - girls and boys who have moved into the New Hope Center group homes and some others.
Jess and I were really excited to have some new GIRLS come! We've been planning and preparing a screen printing craft for quite a number of days already and it was cool to have new people who were excited about it.
Unfortunately, it was a bit of a bust! These are supposed to be arrows and they're just all smudgy:
But I'm going to work on some new screens this week and see if I can figure out how to make them work - and the failure didn't stop these creative girls from making it work and making some really cute t-shirts!
Ping pong:
Fancy coffee:
We were planning on having a sugar cookie decorating contest because we were so excited about the new oven and we were told that it would be installed! Well......
We had our dessert and did a few minute opening, welcoming everyone and giving a short run-down on what we do on Mondays.
Thursday, September 4, 2014
September
September is here and with it comes a more regular schedule.
This first week of September is the first week back to school for all the kids so for us, we haven't had much up this week. Once this first week is over Steve will get in contact with some of the teachers he knows at schools and will figure out starting up some English classes again.
We've had a number of meetings about our Monday night supper club - what we want it to look like this year, what are our goals and plans for it, who is our target audience etc. We've had a bit of a revelation over the last year of doing this club and we've come to realize that Supper Club is a very, very slow-moving ministry. The graduated orphans - who are the main people group we want to reach - are very difficult to integrate with other "regular" people (their mindset, not ours!) and if we invite too many "regular" people to come all at once, then the graduated orphans get scared off and leave. We've had a few new volunteers crop up lately which is great but like everything involved in the Monday ministry, they have to show up slowly and one at a time for it to work. We also want new (and existing) volunteers to be people who actually care about the graduated orphans which seems like a no-brainer but you'd be surprised at how many people - even in the church - think of orphans as blood suckers who just want to suck you dry (that is an actual line we've heard). We are hoping to encourage our volunteers to bring their passions - if you love crafts, bring a craft to do with the girls. If you love to bake, bring stuff to bake cookies for everyone (an oven has been promised!!!), if you love games, bring your favourites and get a group together to play, if you love to play the harp, bring your harp and serenade the group! SO. How does Monday night look this year? Hopefully like HOME. You walk in and are immediately at home - there's couches to relax, with Mom (ha ha, me) baking cookies, ping pong or some games to play or a craft to do, fun music and just a comfortable atmosphere. We will still be providing supper for the kids and of course, never ever doubt that each and every kid that eats that meal is getting the whole, 100% Gospel message each and every time.
What else is on the schedule.....our home Bible study will be starting up again sometime shortly, hopefully our worship night again, the first Young Life club is this Friday, the next Just Youth is September 20th. So much to pray about, so many kids we can reach with all of these events!!
It continues to be astounding to me, the opportunities that God has placed before us. We welcome and are so thankful for your continued prayers and support and are so grateful for these times where God is using us as we speak and live and meet with others.
This first week of September is the first week back to school for all the kids so for us, we haven't had much up this week. Once this first week is over Steve will get in contact with some of the teachers he knows at schools and will figure out starting up some English classes again.
We've had a number of meetings about our Monday night supper club - what we want it to look like this year, what are our goals and plans for it, who is our target audience etc. We've had a bit of a revelation over the last year of doing this club and we've come to realize that Supper Club is a very, very slow-moving ministry. The graduated orphans - who are the main people group we want to reach - are very difficult to integrate with other "regular" people (their mindset, not ours!) and if we invite too many "regular" people to come all at once, then the graduated orphans get scared off and leave. We've had a few new volunteers crop up lately which is great but like everything involved in the Monday ministry, they have to show up slowly and one at a time for it to work. We also want new (and existing) volunteers to be people who actually care about the graduated orphans which seems like a no-brainer but you'd be surprised at how many people - even in the church - think of orphans as blood suckers who just want to suck you dry (that is an actual line we've heard). We are hoping to encourage our volunteers to bring their passions - if you love crafts, bring a craft to do with the girls. If you love to bake, bring stuff to bake cookies for everyone (an oven has been promised!!!), if you love games, bring your favourites and get a group together to play, if you love to play the harp, bring your harp and serenade the group! SO. How does Monday night look this year? Hopefully like HOME. You walk in and are immediately at home - there's couches to relax, with Mom (ha ha, me) baking cookies, ping pong or some games to play or a craft to do, fun music and just a comfortable atmosphere. We will still be providing supper for the kids and of course, never ever doubt that each and every kid that eats that meal is getting the whole, 100% Gospel message each and every time.
What else is on the schedule.....our home Bible study will be starting up again sometime shortly, hopefully our worship night again, the first Young Life club is this Friday, the next Just Youth is September 20th. So much to pray about, so many kids we can reach with all of these events!!
It continues to be astounding to me, the opportunities that God has placed before us. We welcome and are so thankful for your continued prayers and support and are so grateful for these times where God is using us as we speak and live and meet with others.
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