Niverville YFC Banquet Pictures

Hello everyone that reads this sporadically updated blog,

Here's some pictures of the YFC Banquet at the Heritage Centre this last Wednesday. Our theme was "change". We have seen a ton of change in the community, the culture and the teenagers since the drop-in centre opened.

We watched a video with lots of old photos to show how much the drop-in has changed over the years. We heard what happened this year, particularly...Ecclectomania at the Niverville Fair with Island Breeze, and the 3rd annual townwide youth event, the Super Runningman 64.

Mark, Gord and Cheri (the board chair) gave inspired speeches. One of our volunteers gave his testimony of going from being a drop-in teen to being a burn survivor to being a volunteer for YFC Niverville. We also got a good dose of reality when two of our very own drop-in teens told us what it is like to be a teenager nowadays, in this society and culture.

This is Cheri Downey (the board chair).

Brent & Drew telling us what it's like being a teenager nowadays.

Me telling it like it is.

Gord telling it like it will be.

...and Mark telling it how it was.

Merrick Sandulak giving his testimony.

The awesome jazz band, The BMW's.

Thanks to all of you who came, who wanted to come and who thought about coming.
Come again next year, we will not disappoint. Well, we might disappoint, but God never does...


God bless,
Eric

Niverville YFC Banquet

Just in case you hadn't heard...

Niverville YFC is having their annual banquet on November 25th at the Niverville Heritage Centre. Doors open at 6. Meal is served at 6:30.

Live professional jazz, video presentations, an incredible testimony by one of our volunteers, and two teenagers talking about what it is like being a teenager in Niverville.

It will be an unforgettable evening.

We have a couple tables left for $175 (seats 8 people), individual plates for $25 or just call us and we will see if we can get you in for free at a table that's already paid for.

388-6827

Hope to see you all there.

ps. This is a fundraising banquet, but we see the fundraising as secondary. We want as many people as possible to come out to see and hear about how the Lord has blessed the YFC.

Talk at Soncity

Hey everyone,

There is this place called Soncity across from Niverville's high school where students come and eat a $3 all-u-can-eat lunch buffet every Tuesday. Before every Tuesday buffet, one of Niverville's youth pastors or one of us from the drop-in centre gives a "God talk". I gave one of these talks yesterday and I thought I should share it with you all...


I want to talk to you guys about racism. Not only between races. I'm talking about racism between, Muslims and Christians, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, teachers and students. Pride is the root of all types of racism. When you think that you are better than someone, (anyone) in a sense, you are being racist.

Martin Luther King Jr. ends one of his famous speeches with this:

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old song:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

Paul says something similar in the New Testament...

But now that faith has come, we are no longer under the Law.
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise.

Those are beautiful pictures of unity and harmony in the human race. But the only way that will happen is if every single person looks into their own heart and changes what's not right. I challenge you today to look into your heart and see how pride has blinded your decisions.
You may think that Niverville is safe and free from racism. But it's not. You may think that this guy or that girl is the problem...but maybe you have become part of the problem. Pride is the reason there is racism. Pride creates divisions among people where there should be unity and friendship.

So if you want to change the world...get humble. Humility is the key to understanding other people and where they are coming from and understanding God.

Humility is the key to true happiness.

Short Films by the YFC Film Crew

Here a video i've been trying to load for quite some time. Made by the Niverville dropin centre's very own film crew.



And here is another, more complex, stop-motion film that i uploaded on Youtube.



God bless you,
Eric

Summer '09

We all really enjoyed ourselves this summer. It was a season of renewal and change. We are still doing many renovations to the building. Our booths are in the middle of getting a makeover. We have new blinds and a new computer. And thanks to some young geniuses, the computer is now working at full capacity and we feel very blessed to have it. If you want to help with any of the ongoing renovations, just give us a call at 388-6827 or email sixdegreesoferic@gmail.com.

One thing i wanted to mention on this blog post is about the drop-in's "prayerful reflection sabbatical week". The last week of summer, all of us at the drop-in, took a week to prayerfully reflect on the past year and to dive into the Word. We all read one of the Gospels. I read the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John focuses on Jesus' deity. He was and is fully God. Yes, he is fully human, but he was also fully God, walking on this Earth. I'm just so glad I read this Gospel. It put everything in perspective. I realized that although reading the good book can be difficult sometimes, it always helps to give you perspective and it puts your priorities in order. It was an amazing week of living in God's rest. Now all I have to do is choose to live in that special, peaceful place, all the time.

God bless
Eric

ps. I will be writing a newsletter shortly. If anyone wants to get an email of it, leave a comment with your email address. (I'm trying to save paper, by sending emails, rather then mail.)

Reflections on the Niverville Fair 2009

Enjoy the video...



God bless
Eric

Niverville Fair & Golf Tournament

Hey everyone,

The Niverville Fair was great. I don't know about you, but I really enjoyed it. Thanks Roger (father-in-law) for bringing out Island Breeze to perform on the YFC stage. Thanks Kristen and Bethany (sisters) who put the Island Breeze/Drop-in/Weird Moustache Man float together. Thanks Dad (Valleywest Landscaping Ltd. owner) for driving the float, just like the good ol' Maranatha float days. Thanks to all the peeps who rode on the float or unicycled/skateboarded around the float, Josiah, Zach, Riley, Brent, Seaver, Jeremy, Chris, Ben, Roger, etc. Thanks to the fair committee, especially Elaine Krahn and Bruce Neufeld for providing YFC with a stage and sound equipment. Thanks to our sound guy, Vince Taylor (head of lighting at the MTS Centre) for excellent sound. Thanks to Rory and Greg for setting everything up on the stage. Thanks to Out of Darkness for a killer show and for letting me use your drums, Andrew. Thanks to Riley(dij. master) who played with Guerilla Warfare. Thanks to everyone who setup and took down the stage equipment, Josiah, David, Chris, Ben, etc. Thanks to Zach (unicyclist extraordinaire) for filming Eccletomania.

Hope everyone enjoyed Ecclectomania and the float featuring Island Breeze. In case you missed our children's feature on the Sunday service, we did a modern version of the Good Samaritan story and called it the Good Steinbacher story. Thanks to Gord, Sammy, the ninjas, desperados, Hannah Montana, Tony Hawk and the Good Steinbacher for helping us make the story come to life.

And now for something completely different...

The 2009 Niverville YFC Golf Tournament was a hit this year. It went very smooth. Thanks to Melissa, our fearless volunteer who sat in the blazing sun at one of the prize holes all day. Thanks to Ed Dale and Carl Fast for making my day a bit more exciting by getting the closest to the pin on the 2010 Mustang hole-in-one hole. Thanks to all the golfers, especially Tim, Colette, Henry, Ed and last but definitely not least...Gary, Brian, Chris and Sherwood.

The day was perfect (it started pouring just as we got back to the drop-in after the tournament, praise God). The food was great. Thanks to the drop-in teens who finished off the leftover ribs (Drew). And having the support of a richly blessed community is priceless.

Thank you everyone and have a great summer.