You can have all this world, just give me Jesus

"I need Thee, Oh I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee..."

I woke up with that hymn playing in my mind. It has become so absolutely essential to my heart to have time with Jesus in my day. I crave it. There is this constant I-need-more-of-Him feeling in my heart. And no matter how much I read or write about Him, it never seems enough. And the more I read about Him and find out more deeply what He wants for my life, the more I know that I will never ever reach that point that is "enough". I can never give "too much" service to Him or "too much" of my time to Him. Even if I gave my whole lifetime to Him, it wouldn't be enough.

And yet! It's such a wonderful, marvelous feeling! To know that I can never personally attain what I think is "enough" service to my God because it makes me want to continually serve and love and find out what it's like to live the way He always intended for me to live... loving others and being in love with Him! To carry on His work in this world, bringing others to see their need for Him so that He is glorified. He is worthy of all praise in the universe! Glory hallelujah, our God is so GREAT!

March Update!

Hello loved ones!
I can’t believe I’ve been in the “Great White North” for over a month now! March madness has begun! Spring is in the air, hallelujah! I wake up and think “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it no matter what happens!” But let’s be honest, it’s a whole lot easier to have that attitude when it’s sunny and warm instead of grey and raining! Are you with me? Praise the Lord for his marvelous sunshine in this season of spring! There is so much to tell that has happened over a month’s time. I will fill you in with highlights!

The Hub (youth centre) has been bustling with kids! A few weeks ago, the town started holding meetings with local teens to involve them in more activities to get them “off the streets”. Well, the Hub was suggested for a meeting place. The meeting time ended up being Wednesday right before our Supper Club program. The teens in attendance now stay for Supper Club and come to the Hub for our other programmed nights too! We are consistently having around 25-35 kids during the nights we are open. That’s double the amount of kids we were seeing before! It’s awesome to see how God works in unexpected ways!

In all of this, please pray for the Hub staff team. Pray that we would be able to connect personally with each youth that comes through our doors. Pray that God would turn these youth to Him, that we would see a revival spread like wildfire all over this town to Toronto to Ontario to Canada to the States and to the world! So often we put God in a box and think, “Those are nice thoughts, but get realistic, revival like that is not going to happen, people aren’t going to change.” But let me tell you, if there is one thing God has been showing me lately, it is this: “I am HUGE and you are so, so small! Yet, I care for each one of you and pursue you so deeply, so intensely. And you might not be able to ever comprehend my love for you or how much the cross meant, but that’s okay because I made you and I know how your mind works. My ways are not your ways nor My thoughts your thoughts. I know sometimes you doubt. I know sometimes you want to give up because you feel like nothing is happening. But I am bigger than that doubt, I’m bigger than you, and I’m bigger than anything in this world! I’m the One who changes people. I’m the One who created the world and the One who changed it by hanging on a cross. I’m the same now as I was then. I have this world in the palm of my hand. So just go love people and tell them my Gospel. I’ll take care of the rest.”

How comforting is that? How powerful is it that we have this God dwelling IN us? What in the world? I am continually in awe of Him and His purposes for our lives.
PlayZone is going awesome with the little preschoolers. Another 10-week session is up and the town has informed us that the next session is already full with a growing wait list! There are many single struggling parents and it’s such a sweet program that let’s them gain a couple hours of sanity in their day! (And a couple hours where we get to act like kids!)

Mercy House has seen some big changes over the past month. For one of the ladies, it was God’s time for her to have a heart attack and survive, for another it was her time to move on from the House, and for another it was time for family reconciliation. God is continually building on each one of these ladies’ incredible journeys. My prayer is that God would fill these women with His heart and mind. That they would have a spirit of peace, joy, and courage to face whatever comes. I also pray that their past and present trials would just be building up an even greater testimony for God’s glory!

This weekend I was also blessed with the great opportunity to hear a well-known Christian speaker and author, Beth Moore, speak. The conference theme was “God is Up to Something New”. Boy was her message a blessing to my heart! Isn’t it exciting to think that God is in the business of making things new? He doesn’t just want us to patch up our old ways; He wants us to have a life that is completely new with Him. After all, that’s why He sent Jesus, in a way entirely new – the King of the universe destined to be born next to donkeys, to love those who hated Him, to die the most brutal death as the most innocent man alive, only to come to life again to cleanse a people completely hopeless to totally revolutionize the world! And not only does He make our hearts new, but He gives us new mercies each day; when our trials in life increase, so do His mercies, proving that we’ll make it through with Him because He always gives more than enough. But I love that He doesn’t stop at making us new only on this Earth, but that He also promises someday all things will be new! What a glorious day that will be!

There is so much more I would write to you all, but it all comes down to this: God is at work! Not only in the hearts of the beautiful people of Bradford, but in my heart, and I pray in yours as well! How great and faithful and loving is our God?
Thank you for your prayers and support! My life would not be the same without them. You are in my thoughts and in my heart.

Love,
Alicia

Exciting Times

Hello!

Sorry for the inconsistancy of these updates, but I will try and keep them coming more regular from now on. It's been a few weeks since I last posted, so I'll try and catch you up!

The Hub

Praise God for the work He's been doing at the youth center! We've seen our "regulars" as well as a bunch of new faces lately! The Hub staff has started holding meetings with local teens and town members to get their input on how to get local kids more involved in programs. It's also a great time to hear what the teens want from a youth center and how the community can contribute in making that happen. Please keep these meetings in prayer so we can be sensitive to what the kids truly need and help in meeting those needs. As a result of these meetings, we've already seen kids that attend come to the Hub for Supper Club and Drop-In nights! It's been so exciting and such a blessing to get to know them.

It's been especially awesome for me lately to have great conversations with kids that at first seemed really distant or shy towards me. Over the weeks, I've seen such a change in their attitudes during Hub time! God is so good! It's exciting to see what He will continue to do. The thing continually on my heart is hearing these kids talk about God and wanting to know Him.... Until now, relationships are being built up and kids are getting more comfortable with the idea of even hanging out at a Christian place. (Many have been hesitant to come because of our Christian affiliation - thinking we'll be super strict and "holier than thou" - so it's exciting that they're actually checking it out for themselves!)

Mercy House

These past few weeks have been quite the roller coaster ride at the House. One of the women had a heart attack and had to be rushed to E.R. I'm thrilled to say that she's back at the House and recovering quite nicely. She's such a sweet lady, and it's been really neat to see her changing from before and after the heart attack. We were just talking the other day and laughed at the remark, "God works in mysterious ways!" It's so true... the ways He grabs our attention. Another lady in the house had a death in the family. But she has peace in knowing that her Uncle has gone to see Jesus. We've just been keeping the family in prayer because it's still tough for his wife and kids to lose someone so precious. The 3rd lady in the house has really been faced with tough decisions lately. It's our prayer that she would gain wisdom and direction from God through her situation. We can only be there to encourage her and love her.

PlayZone

PlayZone runs in 10 week sessions, and our tenth week is almost here. Laura (director of PlayZone) said the new sign up for the next session is already full! I can't wait to see the new kids that will be coming... but I am sad to say goodbye to the bright little faces we see now!

Connection Cafe

The Cafe is growing! We see new faces come in every week and most of them are continuing to come. The word is spreading fast in the community about this sweet time at the Center! My prayer is that God would work mighty things in every person that comes through the door. It's amazing what some share about their struggles and lives. And to hear some of them so hungry for God's Word and wanting to open up the Bible and just read is such an awesome thing!

In Other News....

God has just been showing me what a wild ride it is walking with Him. I've recently been reading this book called "Leading with Love" by Alexander Strauch. It's really great thus far. God's really been teaching me all about love lately. How He loves, how we should love as Christians, what it looks like to love others as He loves.... it's just such an amazing thing to study and realize for yourself, because it's honestly life changing. It changes the way I deal with people that I encounter and the situations that I find myself in. Perhaps I will expound upon this more in another post...

I've also been so floored to have visitors come see me over the past couple weeks! Some close friends of mine from Camp Li-Lo-Li have come up to visit and see where I am serving here. Those visits make my heart smile! I don't know how I am deserving of such beautiful friends! God is good!

Speaking of wonderful friends.... one more exciting thing to mention before I leave... I will be visiting Rochester the weekend of March 5th! Hopefully I'll be fortunate enough to see many of your smiling faces! I'm excited to visit home :]

Until next time...

Love,

Leesh

It's been a week already?

Yesterday marked my first week here! Time is flying, but at the same time, I feel like I've always been here.

I have volunteered now at The Hub, PLAYzone, and Mercy House. The people in these places are unique and special to me, each in a different way.

My first "drop-in" night at the Hub was Friday. I think I was viewed as "the new girl" by many of the kids, so I felt a distance from them. A big part of their Hub time is video games, and I'm not the best at those! I prayed God would give me a way to connect with those kids. Saturday was my second Hub night, and I really feel God answered my prayer. I had some good conversations, played games with the kids, and they just seemed so much more comfortable and accepting of me. I can't wait til this weekend! We're starting a new tutoring program this Thursday a The Hub. A woman from one of the local schools volunteered her afternoon to head up this program. What a blessing!

PLAYzone is such a precious place! The kids that attend are ages 3-5. Need I say more? They're just little lights in this world full of life and innocence. We have story time, craft time, and plenty of play time. They just say the most precious and, at times, the most random things. I can't help but have my heart smile at them.

Yesterday was my first shift at Mercy House. Some incredible women are staying there with incredible pasts. To even see the things they were going through the day that I was there... my heart went out to them. It was such a change between the first and second halves of my shift. The latter part of my shift was so precious to me. One of the women really opened up to me about all of her struggles and worries. I think the sweetest part of my day was being able to pray for her, with her. I felt like God just broke down barriers in so many ways. The kids staying at the house are so energetic and cute (and some are sick! pray for them!). The other 2 women in the house are both dealing with family and friend problems as well. I will leave the description at that to keep privacy. But if you think of it, please keep the women of Mercy House in prayer. I can see that God is working in them. They've come so far since the day they moved in. All profess to be Christian and their relationships with God are being strengthened at that House.

CrossTrainers is seeking to add another branch to their ministry called 411. It's based on 1Peter 4:11 "If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen." So basically we want to find out what needs are in the community (Physical, Spiritual, Mental, etc.) and find a way to meet those needs. We had a meeting this week to brainstorm ideas on what our first step should be. What we came up with was a week of service to the community during March break. Finding out what the past tenants of Mercy House need and blessing them. Also going out into the community and finding out what small projects people need done - whether it's house work, a ride somewhere, clothing... whatever it may be we're going to try and meet those needs. The exciting part for me is, we are going to get the youth center kids involved! And current members of Mercy House! Eventually, we want the people in the community to be able to help others in the community. We're really looking forward to what that week is going to look like and eventually the ministry of 411 in this town. Keep that week in prayer if you could, March 15-19.

On a more personal note, I love living with June (Jodi's mom). She is such a wise and caring woman. We have had some wonderful talks about everything and anything, but they always seem to come back to Jesus. I have learned so much from her already!

Thank you for your prayers and support as always! Talk to you all again soon.

Love, Leesh

Oh Canada!

I'm here! I actually arrived on Monday afternoon, February 1st. My first couple days were a whirlwind of excitement and craziness. I met a bunch of awesome people I'll be working with at The Hub, Mercy House, and PLAYzone! I also received grand tours of said places.

Tonight was my first night working at The Hub. We had Supper Club. It's a program on Wednesdays that involves youth in the kitchen to make their own meal. It's headed up by a wonderful lady named Natalie who has the most wonderful French accent I've ever heard! I had such a wonderful time getting to know the kids that came! After dinner we watched a movie together as well. Dinner and a movie night, does that sound fun or what? What a blast! I'm looking forward to seeing how God works in these kids.

Tomorrow is my first day working at PLAYzone - the daycare program for kids in the community. I'm really looking forward to that!

On another note, there is another exciting thing happening here that I have to share! The very day I arrived Jodi was bubbling with excitement because she just came out of a meeting with the owner of Bradford Manor, a housing complex of sorts next to the Connection Center (where the Hub and PLAYzone are located). Jodi and Patti and others have been praying that the Lord would open up a way for them to be able to more effectively minister to the people there. During the meeting, the owner of the Manor was talking about leasing out the place to CrossTrainers and letting them run it! Please keep this all in prayer! We are very excited to see how God will work. Not only in the lives of the residents there, but also in the lives of future residents, and the owner as well.

Keep those prayers coming! Your support and encouragement is felt every day. I truly mean that. God is at work here. I can't wait to see what He'll do!

Welcome!

Hello! Welcome to my blog! Here I will be updating you on my adventures in Canada and beyond! I'm so excited to see what God will teach me throughout this year. So stay strap yourself in and enjoy this crazy ride with me!