Christian News
West End ministry sees God provide when plans fall through
One Winnipeg ministry is praising God that they were able to continue ministering to the community, despite a roadblock. While Living Bible Explorers was preparing for the Family Retreat, the truck booked to pull the trailer of all of the needed supplies fell through. "We have a trailer that we don't have a truck big enough to haul, so we always line up for somebody to come and haul it. We need it because of all the stuff we take, everybody's supplies, everybody's bedding and tents. We need to take it all. And so we fill our trailer to the rafters. So we had it all lined up, but the morning of, it fell through," Cher Paulson, Executive Director of Living Bible Explorers, said. "We had staff members and people on the phone. One intern called a friend and her mom came with her truck within two hours, loaded everything up, drove it out, and dropped the trailer. She's going back to pick it up and what a miracle," Paulson said. Before the truck was provided, Paulson said that the staff was believing for a miracle. "As the team was praying and sitting in the room, praying that God would answer. To us we couldn't do it if we didn't have this truck, it might seem like a trivial thing. "As they were praying, to see their reaction when somebody came back into the room and said we found a truck, everybody just started praising the Lord. We couldn't believe it because we know God can do it. But every time we are so grateful." During the summer, Living Bible Explorers continues to minister to the community, although it looks a bit different. "We minister all year round and in the summer, we say to those that we've ministered to for the 10 months of the year, we want to give you a summer experience." Between day camps for kids in Grades one through four, overnight camp, and family retreats for two nights at Bird's Hill. "We do beach days for families, take them out to Birds Hill Park to the beach there and we give them an experience that they may never have had before." While the summer has been busy at LBE, Paulson said connecting with kids and families has been the highlight. "Just finding out about them and their lives. I was able to talk with a family yesterday and she was sharing things that have happened in the past and I just couldn't believe it. I would have never known that she had gone through all of that." As Paulson and the LBE team connect with others, they love being able to provide a safe place and give new experiences. "To be a place where we give her experiences that she's not able to get any other way and she just said 'thank you so much for bringing us here, for allowing us to have these kind of experiences.' It's such an amazing thing to see God work in the lives of people. "You never know what they've been through, and you never know how the conversation with them can lead to Christ and can lead to the hope that He can give. And there's no better feeling than that."