Greetings to our Canadian Baptist Family! ** Please feel free to cut and paste this into your local church bulletin so others can be updated on the happenings of SERVE 07 ** - if you need the 5 MB Microsoft Word version, please let me know

God in my hoping There in my dreaming God in my watching God in my waiting God in my laughing There in my weeping God in my hurting God in my healing Christ in me Christ in me Christ in me the hope of glory You are everything (Lyrics from the worship song “Everything” by Tim Hughes - - one of the songs that we sang together at SERVE 07)

On behalf of the YLT (Youth Leadership Team), the Yellowknife Planning Committee and the Youth Groups of the West who were involved in SERVE 07, I (Ryan Sato) would like to share some reflections and thoughts on what happened this year at SERVE 07 from July 8 - 14.

Here's a sneak peek into this amazing event we call SERVE - -

� The church in Yellowknife (Calvary Community Church) was an incredible host church for us this year. This caring community of believers truly exemplified to us what hospitality and generosity is all about! Pastors John and Ann Webster blessed us with prayers and encouragement. And the organizational team that was comprised of Kristen Cameron (communications), Jennifer Bond (work projects coordinator), Sylvia Siemens (accommodations), Val Braden (food services), Vicky Johnston (recreation and eco projects), Bill Reid (publicity and prayer), Don Cameron (encouragement and community connections) and Werner Klinger (sound and technology) did a stellar job. We recognized early on that these people and others in the church were wholeheartedly committed to SERVE 07 and they were incredible examples of servanthood and dedication to making a difference in their local community for the glory of God.

Some of our Yellowknife Team: Vicky Johnston, Don Cameron, Kristen

Cameron, Werner Klinger, Ann Webster and Bill Reid. � Our work projects made a difference in the Yellowknife community. We figured that Jen Bond had the incredible task of putting together over 2500 volunteer-hours of service for the week. Our projects included: A VBS based out of Calvary Community Church, a Soccer/Taekwando Sports camp, painting the manse at CCC, painting the fence at the Anglican Church, landscaping and sodding at the Rotary Park, helping the local Catholic church with their Thrift Store, clearing brush at the local Cross-country Ski Club, working with the Salvation Army, a full sanding and re-painting of a Catholic Church in Dettah, cleaning and painting at local schools, helping at the local youth drop-in centre, and helping prepare for the infamous “Folk on the Rocks” festival.

As we worked and served in the community, lots of people started taking notice of our presence. Ryan Sato, Don Cameron and Sarah Brightman did a radio interview with CBC North early in the week and then the local paper, the Yellowknifer, did an article about us at the end of the week. And to top it off, the Mayor of Yellowknife, Gordon Van Tighem, joined us for our evening gathering

on Friday night to thank us for all our efforts. (the Yellowknifer article is attached to this e-mail).

Laying the sod at the local Rotary Community Park � There were approx. 150 students and youthworkers who came to SERVE 07. We were at full capacity because with support staff and other guests our numbers were near 170. We had 50 people who flew in from the BC area and then 95 people came from the Heartland and Alberta aboard 2 buses originated in Regina. The “roadtrip Hero” award goes to Sandra Sabourin and her group from Winnipeg (Cornerstone Baptist Church) who traveled 44 hours to get to Yellowknife. Their group’s theme song for the week was “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson. Ha ha!

Our buses that got us to the beautiful lands of the Northwest Territories

� There were 20 churches represented at SERVE....from Duncan, BC all the way across the west to Winnipeg, MB.

� The students slept in 4 local churches (Baptist, Anglican, Pentecostal and United) and ate meals together at the United Church. Val Braden and her crew did an outstanding job of feeding us! The grand finale of meals was on Friday night when we got a Turkey dinner and then feasted on gourmet desserts. It’s amazing how joyfully we served when our tummies were fed well!

Feeding the masses at SERVE 07

� Sam Breakey (our AB area minister) and Carmin MacMillan (Strategic Projects Manager from CBM) joined us during the early part of the week and were an important part of our week. They blessed us with their kindness, care and encouraging words. Andy Moffat from Olds, AB was our guest speaker for the week and did an great job of challenging us to listen to God and learn from each other as we worked and celebrated together. Chris Turnbull from the Awaken Faith Community in Calgary was our Videographer for the week and did a top-notch job of gathering pictures/video footage and creating presentations during the week. If you’d like a copy of the DVD, please contact Ryan Sato or look for the “soon to be posted” videos at youtube.com.

Andy Moffat speaks to the group at one of our evening gatherings

� Evening celebrations and worship happened during the week and Mike Oshiro and the worship team (mostly) from Western Community Baptist in Victoria led us. The team was made up of Aaron Baxter, Sarah Gardner, Dan Willes, Fraser Campbell and Kathleen Nisbet. There was such a spirit of joy and exhuberance right from the first worship song. And when the 180 of us were dancing and singing during some of the songs we were really raising the roof in the house of the Lord!

Worshippers in the house of God! . � Now let me take some time to talk about the students and their youthworkers - - this was a fabulous bunch of people. Yes, we were all from different places on our spiritual journey and from different church contexts, but we gathered around the purposes of God and the unity of the Holy Spirit and we did pull of an amazing feat. We served God in our strength and our weakness and he blessed our humble offerings of faith and worship. We accomplished tasks that we had no idea we could accomplish and we worked our tails off! And the leaders who brought these students all deserve medals of honor for their hard work - - their dedication to this younger generation and their perseverance to climb the highest mountains and ford the deepest rivers to get their students to this event was nothing short of remarkable. Every group had to raise thousands and thousands of dollars to make this trip happen and their efforts are heroic. Thanks also to the churches who prayed for and supported these youth groups. Y’all made a difference for the Kingdom of God and this trip will live on in our memories for many, many years to come.

� If you want to see some more pictures of our Yellowknife adventure, go to: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=6805&l=95835&id=618209415

or

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7888&l=23e5a&id=618209415

Let’s keep on praying and praising God in the wake of SERVE 07 - -

� For Unity. As we worked and worshipped together we caught glimpses of what it means for us to be the people of God united in vision and purpose. What a blessing! How captivating! How inspirational! Not only were we feeling the unity as a Canadian Baptist family we were also sensing the blessings of the family of God as we worked with other churches in the Yellowknife community. As we keep on praying for unity, let’s pray that Youth groups would find other ways of working and serving together in the months ahead. And let’s be creative with other ways that we can keep the CBWC unity going and growing amongst our young people.

� For Strength: The race that we are in takes strength and perseverance. Let’s pray for our students that they would continue to be undergirded with strength from the Holy Spirit as they go back to their cities, the schools and their familes as ambassadors for the cause of Christ.

� For Mercy: God was so merciful in granting us safety as we traveled and played our way across Canada. The bugs were miraculously low-key and we did have a couple of sprained ankles and achy joints, but nothing too disastrous. This is the kind of mercy that we pray in the future…that as we seek and serve, God would provide the mercy we need as we face situations that challenge or stretch our faith.

� For Transformation: We are praying that God would continue his good work in the hearts of everyone who attended SERVE and in the community of Yellowknife. We are not praying a “mountain-top-short-term-spiritual-high” but we are praying that this event would simply be one of many fresh winds of the Spirit blowing in the midst of God’s people. For Calvary Community Church we pray the encouragement of the Lord and a sense of his Spirit saying “Well Done, good and faithful servants” - - may God continue to grow your faith and your identity as a body of believers who truly make a difference in the community! Let’s continue to pray that our presence in the community will allow people to begin asking questions and reflecting on how they might belong to a local Christian community, or make movements towards believing in this Jesus that we represent, or be intentional about becoming followers of Jesus.

For our students, again, we pray for lasting change in their hearts. We pray that this event would powerfully form their spiritual journey. That they would think back to the service, the worship and the fellowship and know that they were encountering God and that there is no better place to be than in the midst of the family of faith.

� For Leaders: The success of SERVE 07 was greatly influenced by the Youthworkers and leaders who led the individual groups. The willingness of these groups to put out lots of gusto was largely inspired by and modeled by the leaders. Let’s pray that these leaders would stay strong and stay true to the faith. Let’s pray that they would find places of rest too, so they wouldn’t burn out, and that they would take care of their own bodies, souls and minds. Pray for a

continued sense of God’s affirmation on their journey of leadership - - an abiding peace and a deep wisdom to say “yes” and “no” at the right time!

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Your prayers and support were/are a gift to us all!

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the

heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the

creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for

adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to

the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him

we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the

riches of God's grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he

made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he

purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring

unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3-10)

From the stained glass at St. Patrick’s Church in Yellowknife