A Welcome Home Party Turned into a Powerful Prayer Meeting!

Summer time in Canada is beautiful!

Summer time is a great time to entertain friends and family!

We often host parties in our backyard during the warm summer months.

We hosted the couples' party recently at home

This year was no exception.

We hosted a few big parties for various groups.

J. loved seeing his cousins again in Toronto

One was for our son who came home this year and  wanted to see his cousins and friends.

Before I went to Waterloo for the leaders training, we held a welcome home party for him at home. It motivated us to tidy up the garden and had everything looking nice.

Entertaining family  at our backyard party

Since we wanted to minimize the work of decorating and cleaning up, I have learned to give two parties, one right after the other.

Therefore, we organized two parties on the same day - one in the early afternoon for family and another later one in the evening for our church friends.

A welcome home party in our backyard

Having catered the food,  we did not have to overwork ourselves preparing dishes for our guests.








It worked out well. All we needed to do was getting the garden and the house ready.

God blessed us with a fantastic afternoon and evening so that we could hold the parties outdoors.

Maria and Larry came in the afternoon to join us for the family party. W. and Danny dropped by later when most family members left.

For the church family gathering,  Ben - Y's childhood best friend and his family came for the party. Newly diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer,  Ben came to see Y.

I was afraid that they might not want to attend a social function due to this illness.

 We were surprised and glad they came.

Ben's parents were honest about his illness. They told everyone what the illness was about and asked everyone to pray for their son.

Right there in our backyard, everyone came together in a circle.  United and holding hands, we  prayed and cried out to God for His mercy and power to heal this young man.

God's presence was there that evening!

We encouraged Ben and his family with God's words and shared good news stories with them. I shared with them how God cured my sister who was suffering a serious case of breast cancer. That was almost thirty years ago.

My sister is a cancer survivor, doing well, a healthy grandmother with four lovely active grand children!

Ben and his parents were positive and enjoyed their time at our welcome home party for our son.
















God is full of mercy, love and grace.

He welcome my son home, blessed him with a great party and at the same time, provided us with an opportunity to pray for Ben and to encourage them! Praise God!

R.T.
Toronto

P.S.  A couple of weeks later, Ben.'s mom texted me informing me that the doctor found B.'s tumor has shrunk and that it is a slow growth tumor. No chemo is needed. Just hormone therapy! Praise God!

The family asked us to continue praying for Ben.
We definitely will! Glory to God for listening to our prayers!

Asking God for Directions and a Sign for My VBS Work in Waterloo, Ontario

We have been running VBS for the past decade

With lots of help from the local churches and volunteer youth leaders, I have been able to run an annual full day week long VBS for the children in the Waterloo region for the past decade.

Youth Leaders' participation is invaluable to VBS 

However, I was not sure how this year's summer camp would work out as we seemed to have more leaders than children registering for the church camp.

Number of Youth Volunteers broke our record this year!

Without much advertising but depending mostly on word of mouth, the VBS  usually has a decent turn out every summer. This year was different; it was the slowest in terms of registration. With less than two weeks prior to the camp opening,  only eleven children had registered.

Children's registration for VBS was slow at the beginning

'' Is God telling me to finish my work here?  Is it time for me to move on to do something else?" I wondered when the church elder told me about the registration number.   I prayed to God for His guidance. I prayed to Him to give me a sign if this would be the last year we should be offering this program here.

A painting activity idea by one of our youth leaders

I asked for a sign - if the VBS had less than 20 children, then it was a clear sign that God wanted me to stop and move on to something else.

The children and teens both enjoyed the many activities at our VBS

Three days before VBS, the registration number jumped up to 19 children! I said to God, but I asked for 20 children as a clear sign. The day before VBS, a parent called and asked me if there was still space for his daughter

We had to move the children on the 3rd day of VBS.

We hit 20 when the camp opened, the exact number I asked for!

We had to modify programs and activities.

We encountered a number of challenges in this year's VBS:

1.  The pastor of the church that lent the most support to VBS had to go overseas for a family emergency.

Our youth leaders were flexible in their programs and instructional methods.

2. One of my 4 main leaders had to drop out at the last minute, also due to family illness

We moved our Fair Fair to indoor this year.

3.  The original site where we were supposed to hold the camp could only accommodate us for 2 days out of the 5 due to fire inspection procedures

Grateful for our youth leaders' assistance and contributions!

4.  We had to move the camp after 2 days to a new site which was not ideal for the operation of the camp

We added a Kids' Cooking Class for 2019 VBS

5. I didn't have a car as I left the car in Toronto for my husband and J.

Despite of all these challenges, God looked after us well during the camp. He sent a team of volunteers to help me shop, cook and look after the volunteers' lunches and the children's needs.

Grateful for the parents and local church's support

Because I didn't have a vehicle, I| could not do any shopping at night therefore I could rest. Cindy, one of the leaders' mother did an excellent job organizing everything!

The children were well behaved!

The children were well behaved. The youth leaders, though young and inexperienced, were cooperative and teachable. They were cooperative and pleasant to work with.





The team of volunteer mothers learned that I left J. at home for a week and he was leaving on Friday evening, they urged me to leave on  Friday afternoon to see him off.

I felt confident enough to do just that. Chuck arranged a ride for me to Toronto so that I had door to door service to our house.

2019 VBS went well despite of many challenges!

I was able to spend some time with J. before he departed Canada.

VBS went well as well as the presentation on VBS Sunday.

2019 VBS Waterloo, Ontario

God is great! Everything worked out at the end. He gave me a clear sign - keep going and serving the children in the Waterloo community! 

R.T.
Week of VBS, 2019
Waterloo, Ontario
Canada
19082019

A Great Turn Out in Our 2019 VBS Youth Leaders Training Camp

We had 19 youths participated in the 2019 VBS leaders training

No sooner did we arrive back home in Toronto, I had to pack my bag and get ready for the youth training retreat in Waterloo.

Youth leaders learning some outdoor games

The annual VBS youth leadership training was held during the second weekend in August before the start of our annual VBS.

J. also was home for the two weeks. After spending a week with him at home, I was sad to leave him in Toronto and left to do the training.

The outdoor program is always  popular among young people

We had a great attendance this year with 19 young people signing up for the leadership training program.

This was a record for us!

After the leadership training, these volunteer youth leaders would be running the children's program in the following week's VBS.

Jack did an excellent job leading the youths in the training!

Their involvement is invaluable to us. It is the key to the success of our annual VBS for the past decade in Waterloo.

A planning session during the leadership training program

The youth leaders are always involved in the planning, organizing and carrying out the full day week long VBS programs.

2019 VBS Youth Leader Training Participants, Waterloo

I am so grateful to have this group of wonderful young people assisting me every summer!

Thank you, God, for sending angles to do the work so that the children in the community would have a chance to hear the gospel during the summer holiday!

R.T.
Youth Leaders Training Camp
Waterloo, Ontario

A Review of Our Accommodation in Anchorage Booked on the Home Away Website

Accommodation in Anchorage

We booked a 2 bedroom condo unit for our vacation in Anchorage, Alaska

We stayed in Anchorage for 5 days. Instead of booking a traditional hotel type of lodging, we chose a more homey option for our vacation in Alaska.

J. could have his own bedroom in Anchorage

We booked through a website called Home Away, specially for people looking for a home style accommodation.

Our bedroom at the the 2 bedroom unit in Anchorage

Our 2 bedroom condo unit at Tall Birch, just outside of Anchorage, did not disappoint us.

A spacious living dining room at the unit.

We liked the place as the condo was spacious with a good size living dining room.

The kitchen was well equipped.

A well equipped kitchen made us feel like home. I bought some salt and other condiment needed for preparing our simply meals there.

It provided us with basic items such as paper towels, sandwich bags, species; it was convenient for us. We even made our sandwiches for our day trip to the glaciers.

We spent most of our time in the dining room in the evenings playing board games!

There was a big screen TV in the living room, but we hardly had time watching any programs at all.

We spent two evenings playing our favourite board game at the dining table.

A balcony which we didn't have time to enjoy.

There was a balcony with a table and chairs where we could sit and sip our morning coffee and enjoy the ravine like scenery outside.

However, we were busy every day with day trips, that we did not use the balcony much.

There were a few issues during our stay there:

1. The location of the unit was a little too far from  the Anchorage downtown area, therefore we didn't spend much time there.

Close to the airport, we could hear a plane flying over us often. However, it was all right at  night as there seemed to be less planes landing at the airport nearby..

Anchorage, Alaska

2. There was no immediate service available when something didn't work at the condo unit. When we turned on the TV, there was image on the screen but no sound. The coffee machine didn't work either. By the time, the owner of the unit came to fix it, it was our last night there.

3. This was the part I didn't like at all. We had to pay extra charges including a hefty cleaning fee and  other charges besides the cost per night charge. Even though we kept the condo spotless, we still had to pay the cleaning fees of US$ 250.00. It didn't matter whether we booked a 2 or 4 days stay, the same fee applied. Because of this charge, we booked a 5 night stay which meant that we could not drive too far from Anchorage to explore other sites and stay overnight somewhere else.

Overall,  the condo unit was OK for our accommodation during our vacation in Anchorage. It was a good place for family travelling with more than two people.

This was a first for us spending more time on a board game than watching TV.   I enjoyed playing games with my loved ones a lot. I hope we would keep up this activity at home once when our vacation is over.

R.T.
Anchorage, Alaska

Flying Home to Toronto from Anchorage, Alaska

Sadly, our Alaska vacation came to an end!

We flew home from Anchorage, Alaska to Canada.

All things must come to an end. We were a little sad that our holiday came to an end.

We departed from the Anchorage Airport, Alaska

It has been a wonderful three week holiday spanning a great distance between Canada and the U.S.

Wildlife sculptures, Anchorage Airport

We visited numerous cities, saw and learned many new things. The best part was spending time with our loved ones.

However, we were unable to get a direct flight from Anchorage to Toronto, Canada.

Polar bears, Anchorage Airport, Alaska

We flew from Anchorage to Vancouver.

Beautiful carving in Vancouver Airport

From Vancouver, Canada, we connected a flight to Calgary.
We waited for a few hours, had time playing our favourite board game while waiting for the connecting flight to Toronto.

Native artwork in Vancouver Airport, Canada

It took practically a whole day.

We were quite exhausted by the time we got home.

It  was good arriving home from our vacation.

We thank God for giving us such a marvelous time with our family,  for protecting us and blessing us with a safe journey! 

R.T.

En route from Anchorage, Alaska

to Toronto, Canada