A Little Road Weary

The last few months have seen a lot of travel for us. It has been fantastic to be able to visit and share with folks about the ministry at ANBC. Our most recent journey afforded us the opportunity to visit a number of places while we were on the road.

We pushed through the run to Gorrie on Friday, We hit the road at about 6am. Kyle and I picked up our friend Matt Peppard on the way. Eighteen hours later we landed at Marcus & Kameron Cooks home in Gorrie, Ontario.

Early morning selfie as we prepared to hit the road. 

Our first order of business was to host the volunteer training sessions at Gorrie Bible Fellowship. As always it was a great time—we're excited to see what the Lord will do this summer.

Sunday morning I was asked to give a brief update about the ministry at Arrowhead. It was a privilege to share about all of the exciting things coming this year at Arrowhead.

It was great to hang with old friends too! 

Sunday afternoon we hit the road for Jackson, MI to the Ethnos360 Bible Institute campus. 

I was privileged to have the opportunity to preach in chapel and share about the ministry of NCEM at Arrowhead. We are looking forward to have one of the students join us for this coming summer at ANBC. 

Our friends Austin and Jesse are students at EBI. It was great to connect with them while we were State side!

We have some friends in Peterborough, Ontario at Peterborough Free Methodist Church. They have been sending ministry teams on a missions trip to Arrowhead for almost a decade. They hosted a Pancake supper at the church while we were in the neighbourhood and we were so pleased to be able to attend and share about what the team will be doing this year when they come. 

We had a bit of a fender bender while we were on the road. We spent over 50 hours behind the wheel during this week long journey, we are thankful to God for His protection—even during this mishap. 

Gorrie Bible Fellowship

It was great to be able to visit Gorrie Bible Fellowship in Gorrie, Ontario. There have been folks coming from Gorrie for almost 20 years to serve the Lord here at Arrowhead. I enjoyed connecting with friends and it was a blessing to be able to share with the youth on Friday night.

I was absolutely blown away by the context of the youth group meeting. I had been asked to speak for 45 minutes to the teens on Friday night, and experience with youth groups left me thinking this was way to ambitious for the attention span of teens. I could't have been more wrong. Youth group started at 7 with an hour of games outside then rolled inside to a time of music and worship, I then spoke for about 45 minutes, and I didn't compete with one cell phone or droopy eyed teen. The group was engaged and present. After I spoke, they broke up into small groups and discussed the lesson for almost an hour - this they did voluntarily. After that the had some food and played games for another hour. It was a great night. It is evident to me that the reason we get such high calibre young people from Gorrie is because of the focus and attention put in Gods Word!

While In Gorrie I met with the team for the entire day on Saturday and part of Sunday afternoon to go through some of the training materials that is meant to help equip them for cross cultural ministry at Arrowhead.

Youth Group Friday night - I learned some great new games!

Small group discussion during our volunteer training sessions. 

Bafa Bafa cross cultural communication role playing activity. 

Jerald and Jamie getting into character for our role playing activity.

So excited to have this great team of folks from Gorrie joining us at Arrowhead this summer! 

We love the Nielsen family. It was so great to have them join us for our Sunday afternoon meetings and look through the Arrowhead summer camp music!

Cabin Leadership and Discipleship

Well, here we are — in that final stretch before our summer camps. June 1st... it's hard to believe it's here already!

There are (what at times seems overwhelming) numerous logistics to consider when it comes to planning our summer camps. It is during this time of year when we really feel the crunch of seeing all of these moving parts come together. It is certainly a process that has taught us the importance of relying on the Lord! One of the areas in which we strive diligently is in connecting with Gospel grounded and Gospel committed people who are available and qualified to serve as volunteers during our summer camps in any number of areas. As seems most often to be the case, it can be quite challenging to find enough qualified volunteers who are willing to serve as cabin leaders. This is not a role we fill lightly at Arrowhead, serving as a cabin leader is one of our most key roles; and it is not simply a job we assign randomly. Ideally, as challenging as it might seem, we like to see an adult serve as the senior cabin leader; committed Christians of 20-50 years of age are most effective in this discipleship capacity. It's no secret, it can be very draining to keep up with a cabin full of energetic youth, but this shouldn't scare you away from this opportunity to build into the life of a young person and actively share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You might be amazed to discover just how much energy you really have when it comes to camp.

We've begun to strongly encourage families and adults to come and serve during our summer camp programs; and we've seen great results in both the ministry and in the stretching opportunity it gives to the family as they serve together; and there are a number of ways that a family can come and serve together.

This year at Arrowhead we do have a number of volunteer teams coming and are excited to see folks coming out to partner with us in ministry. But we're still in great need of some cabin leadership for some of our camps. We need some male cabin staff for our teen camp (July 7-11); as well as a need for both male and female cabin staff for our last two junior camps (July 28 - August 1; and August 4 - 8).

We have a wonderful (and mandatory) volunteer training component that will help to prepare you for serving at Arrowhead; and hopefully challenge you with some of the aspects of communicating cross culturally in an effective, God honoring way. This training is taking place here at Arrowhead from June 27-29, accommodations and meals are provided. If, however, you are entirely unable to be here for this weekend - please don't let that discourage you. We are going to be offering modules of the training throughout the summer and may still be able to accommodate you.

It is a sacrifice to give up some of your summer vacation, but what better way to do that than for the sake of the Gospel; seeing it communicated clearly to young people; and building new relationships grounded in discipleship.

Volunteer Training in Gorrie Ontario

This past weekend I had the tremendous blessing and privilege to be among the fellowship of believers at Gorrie, Ontario! My primary purpose for traveling to Gorrie was to offer the volunteer training program to the team coming from there. We have a group of eleven people (perhaps more) who are committing to give a week (some as many as 6 weeks) of their summer to the ministry at Arrowhead! It is a huge blessing to have the team come, and it was equally a blessing to have them a part of the volunteer training program.

It was a packed weekend to be sure, we met for a few hours Friday night, all day (and I mean all day) on Saturday and Sunday after church. We discussed some very important issues as they relate to the ministries and programs of Arrowhead Native Bible Center.

It was my first fathers day on Sunday, and I almost made it home just in time, but it was close enough - I flew into Fredericton at about 1:30am on Monday morning. Mike & Jamie treated me to a fathers day feast on the way to the airport, so I was well looked after, and once I was with my girls again it was like I'd never left.

 

We had some fun too - here are Sarah, Prisca, Jonny & Andy testing out a camp game for me... 

 

Jessica with the balancing skills...

 

... and of course Mike & Jamie with the big rattles...

We will be holding the volunteer training program again here at Arrowhead over the Canada Day weekend for all of those volunteers in the Maritimes. We are looking forward to a great weekend of fellowship and time in the word and discussing some very important issues with respect to cross cultural evangelism and discipleship. We have asked everyone who is planning to serve with us this year to avail themselves of the training and are prayerful that this will be of great benefit to all involved.

operation new books

Last year we put out a call for park benches for A.N.B.C., this year we are putting out a call for something a little different.

We are building brand new programs for our summer camps and a brand new 3 day staff training program. For these new programs we have some new materials on deck that we need to acquire for both training ministry and for camper ministry. We are hoping for 8 churches or groups that will partner with us in one of the following projects for printed materials for this years summer camp programs:

PROJECT 1
Cultural training manual for staff training • $450
This is a 152 page book that will assist with training our staff. It is a book written by the The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq and will be an invaluable tool in staff training. Usually retailing for $15, I have an opportunity to have 100 copies of the book printed for $4 per book plus shipping.

PROJECT 2
God has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life • $200
This book, written by Ray Comfort will be used as part of our staff training program. The book is an excellent teaching tool that will help ensure that all of our staff are on the same page with respect to evangelism and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. $200 will allow us to purchase 144 copies of the book for our staff training purposes.

PROJECT 3
Junior and Teen Camp Cabin Devotions Book • $250
We have the opportunity to purchase a chronological gospel devotional book. $250 will allow us to purchase 200 full colour copies including shipping.

PROJECT 4
Lil' Squirts camp Devotions book • $500
A is for Adam by Ken Ham from Answers in Genesis, this book would be used in conjunction with cabin devotions for our Lil' Squirts camp (ages 5 - 7). $500 will allow us to have 42 copies shipped to us.

PROJECT 5
The Action Bible • $300
A beautiful full colour hard cover book that presents the major Bible stories of the Old Testament from Creation through to Christ. It is presented in graphic novel format (comic book) and will be an excellent tool for ministering to our teen and junior camps. $300 will allow us to have 18 copies including shipping.

PROJECT 6
The Action Bible • $400
A beautiful full colour hard cover book that presents the major Bible stories of the Old Testament from Creation through to Christ. It is presented in graphic novel format (comic book) and will be an excellent tool for ministering to our teen and junior camps. $400 will allow us to have 24 copies including shipping.

PROJECT 7
The Action Bible • $500
A beautiful full colour hard cover book that presents the major Bible stories of the Old Testament from Creation through to Christ. It is presented in graphic novel format (comic book) and will be an excellent tool for ministering to our teen and junior camps. $500 will allow us to have 30 copies including shipping.

PROJECT 8
The Action Bible • $1000
A beautiful full colour hard cover book that presents the major Bible stories of the Old Testament from Creation through to Christ. It is presented in graphic novel format (comic book) and will be an excellent tool for ministering to our teen and junior camps. $1000 will allow us to have 60 copies including shipping.

Please prayerfully consider joining with us in ministry this summer by assisting us with one of these projects. If your church or group would like to join with us for one of these projects please drop me a line and let me know so we can avoid overlaps. ANBC relies on the financial support of churches and individuals who are sold out for the Gospel and sharing it with Canada's First Nations people. We have been so blessed by financial and prayer support over the years and continue to be excited about sharing the Gospel clearly and completely, through good staff training, good cabin devotions and chapel services as well as discipleship! This year, Lord willing, we are hopeful to have some excellent materials to work with.

Thanks for taking the time to read about some of our projects, I look forward to hearing from you.