The Moments I LOVE!

This past Friday 6 youth and I headed to Edmonton to a Newsboys concert. On Saturday I realized Although I'm really not old, I don't feel as young as I once did after a late night like this one, but it was worth it. While jumping up and down and singing and screaming to loud music is kinda fun, the moments I love at these kind of events is when the band starts singing those songs that really touch your heart, the ones that make you want to raise your hands and really offer praise to Jesus, in those moments I love to look around and see the youth really worshiping. Because to me that is what it is all about, it's about God getting glory through there lives and about them being drawn into a deeper relationship with Him. I love playing with youth, just having fun hanging out and being together, but i REALLY love getting to see them in those moments when they are connecting with Jesus, and I love standing next to them and worshiping right along side of them, recognizing that the same grace that they need as they walk the messy path of adolescence is the same grace that covers me daily, that the Same Jesus that rescued me is the same Jesus that they need to rescue them, and I LOVE it when together we can praise that Jesus.

A shot of the newsboys snapped by one of my youth with her ever so trusty Phone Camera.


As a Side note, I want to thank those of you who have been helping me reach my fundraising goal through my One - Fifty campaign, I'm not there yet but I am so blessed by where i am! Check out my page here to see how far you guys have brought me. Thank you for making my work possible!   

Happy New Year!

Ok, I know it's not a new year yet, but it sure feels like one in my life . . .and I am sure in the lives of many of the youth who have just begun their new school year. I feel like September, with the start of a new school year, is a brand new year for me.

It has been exciting over the past few days to be back into schools. It is still early in the year, so very few of our programs have started up, but I know where to find kids! Last week after going to an opening day assembly at St. Augustine school I took a few girls out for ice cream, it was so encouraging to connect with them and hear about there summers, it got me excited for what this new year will hold. It's just really encouraging to be back in the swing of things, to know that I can head into schools and connect with kids.

Tonight is the start of my Wednesday night youth bible study and I look forward to hearing some "back to school" stories, I also look forward to having a weekly opportunity to connect with these kids, to learn and grow together. I look forward to seeing what this new school year will hold. So Happy New Year!!

Golf . . . for a cause

I really don't like golf, I feel like it's a sport that someone invented for the pure pleasure of watching someone like me be very very frustrated. Baseball is more my sport, there's a ball and a bat and the goal is to hit the ball as hard as possible, how is that not awesome?? Golf, theres a ball and an awkward shaped club and the goal is to calculate how hard and in what direction you should attempt to move the ball, it almost makes me feel like I'm doing math . . .yuck!! So anyway, I really don't like Golf.

None the less every year YFC does a golf  marathon, 54 holes of golf in two days. ummm, can anyone say torture? However, the goal of the marathon is to raise money in support of our work with YFC. So as much as I hate golf I hate to pass up the great fundraising opportunity that it is. That is why I am INCREDIBLY happy that Nick Comeau will be golfing those 54 holes instead of me. Thank you Nick!! It is still my responsibility however to raise the money for him to embark on this 54 hole endevour that he is willing to do to help me in my work with Youth Unlimited. For the record asking for money . . . also not real high on my list of favorites, but because I believe deeply in the message of reconciliation which has been entrusted to us as Christians, and I believe we have been called to share it and to spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I will ask. I am so blessed to be able to do this work with Youth Unlimited. I am so blessed also by those of you who believe in this work and our mission. If you would be willing to make a financial contribution towards my work with Youth Unlimited by donating to this 54 hole Golf Marathon (all proceeds go towards my deputation with Youth Unlimited I would very much appreciate it. Please feel free to contact me for me details. If you are unable to make a financial contribution I would still covet your prayers for both myself and the youth I come in contact with this new school year.

haley@wolfcreekyfc.com  
you can also check out more info here

my supper made me think . . .

Me and my husband were out for supper at a restaurant the other day and I had a thought. . .

The food we were eating wasn't exceptional, in fact it was pretty disappointing. We had both ordered the same dish and neither of us was overly enjoying our supper. I knew that at some point in time the waitress would come around with the regular polite question "how is everything?" So I asked Brendan what he thought we should say when we were asked how our food was. We both decided that politely sharing that the food hadn't lived up to our expectations would be OK, it was honest, why would we lie? So i was prepared, when she asked I was going to be honest. However, when she came around she quickly rushed by mumbling something about "how was everything", hands full obviously on a mission, we both, with our mouths full  quickly responded "it's good, thank you." ummm . . . wait, that's not how that was supposed to go?!?

It just made me think, how often do people really share what is true. If the waitress had had a bit more time maybe I would have shared the truth with her, or maybe if it had come across that it actually mattered if the food was good it would have made a difference. So often in life I rush by someone and spit out "hey how are you?" often in such a rush that the answer could be "terrible, I'm stricken with disease and my dog just died" and I would still think that "O great!" is an appropriate response. Hey at least i made conversation right? Wrong, I think in this fast paced world I need to slow down, enough that when a kid hears me ask the question "Hey, how are you?" they believe that I am willing to stand there and listen to whatever the answer might be, and then to respond appropriately with both care and interest, if I'm not then I'm not being very relational. And if I honestly don't have an extra moment then maybe a simple "hi" would be more appropriate than a question I don't care to hear the answer to. It's funny how a bad meal can get me thinking sometimes.

THE Truth

Last week two Jehova's wittnesses came to my door, I invited them in and an hour long conversation ensued, for an hour we discussed the differences between what we believe is true. After a while it was time for them to go but they asked if they could come back, I told them I didn't know when exactly that would fit in and we left it at that. Last week I ran into one of them at Tim Horton's and she requested that they come back to discuss further with me, I decided it couldn't hurt so yesterday I had them over. We talked for an hour and a half, this time about much more pointed things - who is Jesus? God's son or God? Does the Trinity exist? Can all people hope for eternal life? What happens when we die? They were some pretty heavy topics, topics that get me excited because I want to know the Truth about these things - before the conversation I took some time to pray for humility and that I would know when to bite my tongue in order to not employ my ever so ready "Haley debate." I think I did ok in that vein :)

The conversation was good, frustrating at times but good. I certainly don't think I changed their minds about anything, I really hope I got them thinking though - I know afterwards I was thinking. I was thinking about Truth, we can't all have it, not everyone can be right in what they believe. I know some people would like to think that what's good for you is good and what's good for me is good and as long as we are all right in our own minds then that Truth is good enough. That's CRAZY! it's illogical, almost every religion or faith claims to have "the truth" so to claim that each of them can be right is almost insane, that would prove each of them wrong immediately.

The reality is that, as we sat in my living room discussing truth, one of us was wrong, one of us didn't have the whole picture. I am unchangeably convinced that what I believe about the saving grace of Jesus and the truth that he speaks is in fact "the Truth" (I also know that they feel the same way). Nevertheless it got me thinking, how important is the Truth, how important is it to be able to defend the Truth? . . . I think it's pretty important. I'm definitely not saying I have it all figured out, or I have all the answers, I wish I did during that conversation. But mostly it just made me realize how important it is to live a life in pursuit of "the Truth".

Jesus says, "I am the way, THE TRUTH, and the life" it gets you thinking!

It's been a while

It's been a while since I have blogged, I think the transition from the school year to summer has thrown me for a bit of a loop. I spent most of the past week in Winnipeg Manitoba where I got credentialed (finally!) This means that I have successfully completed the requirements of YFC to become a credentialed missionary of YFC, yay!! The rest of the week in Winnipeg was spent hearing from speakers, spending time with other YFC Canada staff and getting a renewed vision for what YFC is all about. It was a great conference despite the long drive.

And now I'm diving deep into prep work for this coming school year - I know last school year hardly got out the door and planning has already started for the next one, but it comes quicker than I ever think. I'm really excited about some of the stuff that will be coming my way with YFC in the near future, one of which is starting a mentorship with a young girl throguh Big brothers Big sisters, this means I will have the great privileged of sharing real life with a young girl, this match should start soon and I'm excited for the chance to hang out with her.

On a personal note, Brendan's trailer in Debolt sold which means we get to start the exciting process of looking for the first home we will buy together and this is a VERY new and exciting adventure!

Well I guess that's a bit of a glimpse of life right now, thanks for letting me share my life and ministry with you!

The house I build

I asked my bible study kids to contemplate a passage of scripture last night. It was Luke 6:46-49. It talks about two different kinds of people, wise and foolish. The wise man builds his house on a solid foundation, on the Rock (Jesus Christ), the foolish man builds his house on the ground without a foundation, Then the passage tells us that when the storm came the wind and rain and floods did not move the house built on a solid foundation, it withstood the storm, When the storm came to the house without a foundation it collapsed and it's destruction was complete.

I asked the youth which of these two houses they would want to be, and then we talked about how it was completely their choice. It is summer time now, I probably wont see all of them on a weekly basis, I'll try to see them often but programs just don't run the same in the summer. So i know that now is the time that all the teaching I have done, all the conversations we have had, all the things we have learned about will all be tested. This is where the rubber meets the road some might say.

We all have things in our lives that try to pull us away from building our house on a solid foundation, the sin things in our life that appeal to our senses that make us think that building on the rock isn't worth it.  Sometimes it seems like it would be easier not to put in the work, not to dig down deep and find that rock to build our house on, but we have to ask ourselves if a house with no foundation is the house we want to build? Will it be worth it when we are standing looking at the rubble that we put so much effort into, the house that we built all in vain because it was on a weak foundation?

I want to know, be certain, that the house I am building is on a solid foundation, that it is built upon Christ the Solid Rock, that no storm of life could shake it. I want to have faith to walk through the the storms of life and come up untouched on the other side because of my Rock.

My prayer is that this summer those youth would be thinking about the foundation that they want to build their house on. I pray that they will see the temptations of this world for what they truly are, traps to make us build our house on sinking sand, things that promise us immediate pleasure but offer no eternal reward. I want the house I build to be built upon the rock, likewise I hope to watch as many young people choose to build their house on a solid foundation through their choices this summer.