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A Ministry Partner's Perspective |
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SOAR HEARTLAND has been coming to Bethlehem Aboriginal Fellowship for the last five years. We have been so blessed to have the youth from Blumenort Mennonite Church come every year, lead by Dave and Erica Rempel. This team has faithfully come out, planned and prepared their hearts to love and serve our community. It hasn’t always been easy. There are a lot of hard issues to deal with when you work with kids living in the inner city, things that kids growing up in the country don’t have to face and have to come to grips with. What is really neat is that this team and their church have been committed to coming back each year and desire to partner with BAF. They have seen the need to walk out their faith in new ways that have really stretched them out of their comfort zone.
The beauty of long term commitment is seeing the fruit of their labours. This past year has been the best VBS yet. Part of it was just letting God do His thing, part of it was the team’s continuation to catch the vision and the passion to serve this community, part of it has been the consistent, Godly and caring leadership of Dave and Erica. Another part is the SOAR HEARTLAND team creating amazing and challenging worship times and calling youth and leaders to get stretched in ways they haven’t been stretched before. It is such a great program.
Some of the fruit for Bethlehem Aboriginal Fellowship (BAF) has been Dave and Erica and their family coming on a monthly basis to teach Sunday School. It’s having one of the leaders decide to move to the North End and work at BAF with the children. Another young man wants to buy a house in the community and use it as a safe place for kids and to do ministry out of. It’s having our Pastor teach at their retreat, and having their missions committee come visit us. This summer we are planning a block party that we’ll do together. It’s about getting connected and having the churches share with each other the uniqueness of each congregation. It’s not just about the middle class country church helping out the “poor” inner city church, but also the “poor” inner city church helping the middle class country church. We need each other and we both have something to offer each other. Both churches are being blessed.
Carol and Lloyd Letkeman’s love and passion for the North End has been such a huge blessing and encouragement to me personally. I still remember the first time I heard Carol talk passionately about the North End and I was so grateful to know other people who loved the North End, who saw the need and potential for this community to be transformed. Our pastor often tells us what God told him once about coming to work at BAF, “If you’re not in a hurry, I can get a lot done through you.” Change takes time but there is change. I’ve seen the changes that partnering with SOAR has brought. One of the most exciting changes this year was seeing the kids that have been coming for five years that are now too old to come, still come! They want to be part of the action! The Blumenort team seized this opportunity and embraced these inner city teens to be a part of their team and got them involved in leadership positions. The plan for next year is to invite them to be part of the planning team for SOAR HEARTLAND 2008! That’s exciting.
I love SOAR HEARTLAND and all that it stands for. I personally have been blessed in so many ways through this God-orchestrated ministry. I’m just so thankful for Carol and Lloyd and their staff, Dave and Erica and the Blumenort Team. I’ve learned and grown and just love the opportunity to be part of this great team. I look forward to Spring Break every year now!
- Debby Smit - Bethlehem Aboriginal Fellowship Church
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