Planting Seeds of Faith

Over the past week, life for our team has been a bit different than what we are used to. Rather than our office being home base, we have been very scarcely in our office but busy running retreats for the students in the community. Over the past four days we have had five major events, and three of those events have been Encounter days. Encounter days are day-long retreats which really challenge retreatants to make a personal commitment to love Christ.

The retreats have been an incredibly powerful experience for everyone on team. A few times we have started the day feeling really unsure about if the material we have planned will be effective and touch the hearts of the students we will be ministering to. Each day, however, our doubts have been pushed aside. On our first retreat, we had several students share with the whole group that after their time in prayer they had started to believe in God for the first time and believe that God had a plan for their lives. Some students sharing were even moved to tears in front of the whole group because of the powerful experience they had in prayer. The next retreat we had students who were eager to ask tough questions and really looked for answers and how they applied to their lives. The last retreat that we had yesterday was especially amazing. While we felt uneasy about it all morning, and weren't sure how effective it was even after the retreat was over, we received an email from one of the staff members thanking us and telling us that several of her students were given the courage to really change their lives and live for Christ, all because of what they had learned at the retreat. Praise God!

Rachel prays with one of the girls in her small group during
the prayer ministry portion of the day

While retreats have fun and games, we had the opportunity to see lives change during the prayer ministry portion of the afternoon. Many students who were rambunctious all day quieted down and really concentrated during prayer ministry. Each team member was given the opportunity to pray with the members of their small group individually. For many of the retreatants, it was the first time anyone had ever asked to pray with them! We felt privileged to share the love of Christ in this way. We pray that the days might plant seeds of faith in each of their lives!

Pray for us as we continue our ministry here in Weyburn!

God bless,
Jillian and iNFUSE 2