Giving a break to Winnipeg

More than 200 people, most of them youth, spent this year’s spring break with SOAR Heartland in Winnipeg’s inner city.

SOAR Heartland, held March 21–30, is an annual short-term mission event, now in its fifth year, organized by MB Mission and Service International. Home base for the group was Christian Family Centre, a Mennonite Brethren church close to Winnipeg’s North End.

Daily sessions led by MBMSI regional mobilizers Lloyd and Carol Letkeman, as well as guest speakers, challenged participants to discover their GPS (God Pleasing Song). The group then put their learning into practice as they reached out, in nine teams, in nine different ministries. The activities focused mainly on children, providing VBS, healthy lunches, and “lots of love each day.”

Christian Family Centre was home base for SOAR Heartland’s sleeping and worship/learning sessions. Photo: Wendy Klippenstein

Burden and drive

“I love SOAR Heartland and all that it stands for,” said Debbie Smit of Bethlehem Aboriginal Fellowship (BAF), one of the ministries partnering with the program.

Not only has SOAR Heartland assisted with VBS for five years, but youth from Blumenort Mennonite Church in Rosetown, Man., with leaders Dave and Erica Rempel, have been participating every year, thus building long-term commitment and relationships. The Rempel family comes to BAF monthly to teach Sunday school, and the two churches have shared other activities.

Smit said this year’s VBS was “the best yet.” Kids who have been coming for five years and were now too old to attend, came anyway. The Blumenort team embraced these teens as part of their team and got them involved in leadership positions.

“Change takes time,” Smit noted, “but there is change.” She said that her pastor at BAF often shares 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.”

Paul Peters, 20, of Rosetown, Man., putting in his fourth year with the event (two as participant, two as leader) said that SOAR Heartland has given him a burden for the families of the North End. It’s also given him “the drive to a life of ministry, wherever God takes me.”

A VBS at one of the churches partnering with SOAR Heartland’s 2007 short-term mission event in Winnipeg. Photo: Wendy Klippenstein

So many shoes!

When Elton DaSilva, pastor of the hosting Christian Family Centre, reflected on 10 days in which more than 200 people had lived in their facility, he recalled loud music, shouting youngsters, luggage and sleeping bags, and shoes – lots and lots of shoes!

More amazing than these impressions, however, was the picture of today’s youth that SOAR Heartland painted.

“While society tells us that the ‘look at me’ generation is only interested in what they can get, we found a group willing to give,” he said. “We found a group weeping at God’s feet. We found a group putting in hard days of work for the benefit of others.”

“The smell of feet will clear up in a week or so,” DaSilva said. “What will last is the impact of seeing God at work in the lives of our future pastors, missionaries, business people, and politicians.”

—from reports