May News '06

Hello All,

"None of us knows what the next change is going to be, what unexpected opportunity is just around the corner, waiting a few months or a few years to change all the tenor of our lives.” -Kathleen Norris

Our Family
As a family we’ve recently had to make a rather big decision regarding life and ministry. As of August Nate’s contract with east2west and Runnymede Christian Fellowship is up. February was the month that we had to let them know if we were going to renew the contract, or not. After much prayer we made a very hard decision-to not renew Nate’s contract. It was a really tough choice to make as all of the youth clubs that Nate runs are a bit like his babies. The young people in the groups mean a lot to us and we’ve been through quite a bit with them. However, we really do feel that God is saying that it is time for us to move on. We made our decision public about a month and a half ago. Right now we are totally at peace with leaving, although at times it’s tough to think about, we know that we’re walking in God’s will for our lives. The plan right now is to go back to Regina and from there we’re just exploring some different options that are open to us. While we’re not totally sure what’s on the horizon, we’re excited about where God is leading us. We will be officially leaving England at the end of August.

Nate
Recently exodusonfire was asked to lead one of the Sunday services. Nate led the youth worship team- and it was awesome! The youth group wrote a hilarious skit based on the parable of the Good Samaritan. Then one of our young people did an excellent job at preaching a message on what it means to be a modern day Good Samaritan. The service was well liked and received by all!
Nate is currently quite busy with speaking engagements. The word that has been at the forefront of his mind lately is “legacy”. He is doing his best with all of the clubs and ministries that he’s involved in to leave behind a legacy that is both practical and spiritual.

Erika and Kelaiah
As you may remember, I used to teach Jo Jingles classes (music and movement classes for parents and children). While I’m not going to be going back to work, I have begun taking Kelaiah to Jo Jingles on Thursdays! She is loving it! The moment that the Good-Morning Song begins, she has a giant smile on her face!
We continue to attend our Mom’s coffee mornings, which is always fun.
Kelaiah continues to love conversation. She’s very good at saying “Dadadadad” and various other words that sound something like that! She is also very good at grabbing things (like hair, earrings, flowers, water jugs, anything she can get her hands on really) and not letting go! Kelaiah is laughing now, and believe me; she has a laugh to match her smile! It gets us giggling too! In the next couple of weeks she’ll be starting on solids and I think that she’ll be more than pleased as she seems to always want to eat what we’re eating. Our daughter is such a blessing and we enjoy her more and more everyday!

The NOISE
The Noise project that Nate organized in March was excellent. The police were so grateful for all of the work done to their station and they look forward to utilizing it soon. There was a really good turn out of volunteers, both young and old. Our Canadian Bible School team did a good performance at the B-B-Q and Nate shared the Gospel message. All in all the day was very successful! Thank you for all of your prayers!

Prayer Requests
*For God’s continued direction in our lives as we’re preparing to move back to Canada

*For continued financial blessing as Erika is not going back to work and we need a way back home!

*For health and protection as we’ll be doing quite a lot of traveling in the next few months.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Love and Blessings,
Erika, Nate and Kelaiah

March Update

Ahoy, Ahoy Everyone!

(Oooops! We wrote this blog and then never posted it! Terribly sorry! We thought that we should post it anyways just to keep you updated and informed!)

Alas, time never does seem to slow down and we’ve had yet another jam packed month full of work, work, work, and of course, fun, fun, fun!

Nate
Nate has been especially busy this month with work/ministry. On top of his usual work load, he’s also had the opportunity to preach at church, take the church youth to The Big Story- a big youth worship event in Southampton, attend a day conference, take leadership of the youth worship team, plan and prepare for the Canadian Bible School team that comes in a weeks time, prepare for the NOISE (see below), and more…

Erika
I’m just keeping myself busy being a full time mom- and loving it! I aim to get at least one load of wash and one chore (besides the cooking and dishes) done a day- it doesn’t always happen, but I try! And between that, I’m just busy busy playing, feeding, changing diapers etc. I’m still helping out at exodusonfire on Friday nights. Friday mornings are always good fun as I meet with a group of mom’s for coffee and to talk more than just “goo goo gaa gaa”! I do like to get out with Kelaiah, so when it’s not raining we try to do something fun outside.

Kelaiah
Our little girl is growing up so quickly and getting bigger everyday! She’s getting really good at playing and enjoying little jokes- like funny faces. Kelaiah also likes it when we read to her. Her favorite books seem to be “The Farm” and “My Shining Bible” (I hope the latter remains her favorite, in different forms, throughout her life!). However, these days Kelaiah’s priority is “chatting”! She loves a riveting “conversation”, so long as she’s the one doing most of the talking! We are absolutely captivated by our little one and even though every parent thinks their child is the best- ours really is!!!!

The NOISE
The NOISE is a project that is all about letting our actions speak louder than our words- i.e. - living life loud. We put on this project in Englefield Green where Nate runs two of his youth clubs. The areas that we target are generally the poorer areas or public areas that no one else tends to. Projects usually include picking up rubbish, washing windows, clearing over run gardens/yards, cleaning public walk- ways, handing out lolly pops, etc. In addition to the things mentioned above, I believe that this year we may be cleaning up and painting a police station in the area that hasn’t been used in nearly 5 years due to its poor condition. The police would like to use it but haven’t the time to fix it up. Having the station open would be a huge benefit to the community.
All of these random acts of kindness are done to show the community that we care, and to share the love of Jesus with them. We always end the NOISE with a free b-b-q that’s open to everyone in the community to come and enjoy. At the b-b-q we usually have the Canadian Bible School team perform some dramas and share the gospel. In the past couple of years we’ve seen a few of the young people Nate works with give their lives to Jesus through having the Canadians with us. Although the Bible School team is a huge blessing, the NOISE now has such a good profile in the community we’re able to get more and more people helping us out. This year, another local church will be sending 10-20 of their members out to help. Several of the young people from Nate’s clubs came to help out last year, and it looks as though we’ll have an even better turn out this year! Nate’s been working with the local government to arrange all kinds of help from garbage pick up trucks, to road works signs and visibility vests. One of the councilors was able to get Domino’s Pizza to donate 20 large pizzas for the pre-NOISE kick-off party! He’s had all kinds of meetings in person and on the phone with police, church leaders, Tesco (a local grocery store) the press, etc, just to make this project happen. This year looks like it’ll be the biggest NOISE so far and we’re excited to see what God will do in the community!

Answers to Prayer
God is leading and directing us in the ministry that he’s put before us- more details to follow
Nate has had a huge amount of favour with the local government as he’s been planning the NOISE


Thanks to everyone for you continued support and prayers. We couldn’t do what we do without you!

Love and Blessings,
Erika and Nate & Kelaiah