On Friday, we were in Loksa for the final performance of Music Camp. The program was held in the yard of the Baptist Church just down the street from the camp, and people from the community even came to listen. Here you see the band, led by special guest Daniel Oskarson. 

There were a good number of people who came for the program. Every chair was filled! 

Major Helen Tyrrell leads the songster group as the crowd listens. 

Major Helen Tyrrell also lead the timbrel elective group. 

Andrei, Erika and Priit perform to a song in sign language. 

Kulla-Siiri Kant (on the piano) leads the smaller elective choir. 

During another song, two of the girls performed a beautiful dance. 

excerpts from Phil Wall's book

I'll Fight
Holiness at War
by Phil Wall

Chapter 3
Battle for the Heart
Loving as a warrior should love

When Jesus said we should love God "with all our heart" it was an issue of unconditional ownership that was at stake. Uncompromising love for God and commitment to him is the only nesting place for the heart of a warrior.

All every warrior does must come out of a heart of deep love and devotion to Jesus Christ. Loving God may seem a very basic place to start, yet it is fundamental to the issues at stake. We are called to love God more than anything else in life.... This love relationship with Christ is the very cornerstone of who a warrior is; and it is that relationship which calls us to devotion, sacrifice and death itself for a lost world.

Haing a perspective upon what God has called you to will be very helpful in shaping relational decisions. In many senses it is a starting point for consideration. I often suggest to people who are focused on being totally God's man or woman, to set up a kind of qualification template into which someone must be able to fit if they are to be considered in the dating option. For example, a person needs to have a similar vision and commitment to God, have an ownership of commitment to the church/movement they are part of, have common values as to physical expression of intimacy outside of marriage, and share some of your similar values and ideals.

... they find it very difficult to discern the difference between the Holy Spirit and their hormones.

excerpted from a blog post about Spiritual Formation

from "Out of Ur"

I do think that as evangelicals we consistently underestimate the power of culture, and our attempts to “be relevant” usually end up as our weakness rather than our strength. But I believe in a certain type of counterculture—in Tim Keller’s immortal phrase, “A counterculture for the common good.” We create alternate communities that not only pray for the wider world, but also serve that wider world in acts of mercy and justice. Take The Salvation Army--an evangelical approximation of monastic counterculture and discipline, complete with distinctive clothing. In the mid-1880s the Salvation Army took on the audacious goal to end unemployment in Britain. They didn’t succeed, but their experiment led to thousands of urban ministries today.

excerpts from the 614 Vancouver prayer newsletter

Praise God for our Battleschool students! They continue to fight strong with openness and great attitudes. Pray that the Lord will instruct them in all He wants for them this summer.

Requests

Please pray for holiness in our midst, that we will not give the devil a foothold and that we will do well at discipling converts.

Pray for interest and favour and great networking for our corps.

Pray for partnerships with new Officers in the area (unity).

Please pray for leadership of new developments in our community; confirmation, direction, and provision.

Pray for Crossculture (kids' ministry happening all summer). Please pray for salvation (PRAISE THE LORD: 5 teens saved this summer already) and discipleship - integration into cell groups. Pray for favour in the neighbourhood - housing in the area for an incarnational team.

Pray that we will be Spirit-led and not programme-led in our ministry.

Pray that the War Room would continue to be the hub of 614 Vancouver. Pray for renewed partnerships of ministries in our community, coming together to pray the Name of the Lord.

Pray for a brigade going to Old Orchard Beach all next week in prophetic evangelism.

Please pray for continuity for our cells throughout the summer months.

Whatever happened to ... ?

http://ctlibrary.com/le/1999/fall/9l4120.html

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/007/35.40.html

I thought it was interesting to see two questions posed recently, beginning the exact same way.

"Whatever happend to prayer meeting?"

"Whatever happend to the idea of rescuing people from hell?"

Does anyone out there have an answer to either one?

Evelyn

Chris finally blogged! (this is just an excerpt!)

http://www.chrischronicles.blogspot.com/

Believe it or not I'm...alive!! ahhh!!!

I've been at Battle School for what feels like an eternity and I'm loving it.

Anyway, I love battle school. I'm one of 4 other really cool Battle Schoolers.

Anyway, here at Battle School we have many odd terms, such as Air Force, Ground Force, and street combat. No, none of these things involve killing anyone. That would get us in tons of trouble. Air Force is prayer walking, dropping bombs of prayer from our spiritual bombers, yup, that's Air Force. Oh yeah, and what makes it cooler is we pray out loud so it can sometimes lead to street-combat-type encouters. And street combat, which is one of my personal favorites partly just 'cause of its awesome name. But also it's walking around and talking to random people on the street and praying for them. Which is wicked good fun; half the time you get cursed at and the other half you get someone thanking you. Both halves are equally fun. Then we also have Ground Force, which is basicly whatever manual labor our fearless leader (Johnathan Evans) has for us to do. We tore down wallpaper one time and scraped paint another and oh so many fun backbreaking things.

Then we also have Isaiah 61 verse 4, which is our theme verse or whatever. Because we're at the 614 Corps, and so I need to tell you what the verse says. "They will rebuild ancient ruins, repairing cities long ago destroyed. They will revive them, though they have been empty for many years." (Isaiah 61:4 NLT) So basicly we're here to rebuild the crud out of whatever gets in our way. Because we're living in the worst part of Canada, maybe even the worst part of North America, this is bad. Drugs everywhere, watch your step for needles. And the police are almost powerless. It sucks. But I love it.

That's one thing, if you're down here helping people, like with The Salvation Army, then you're safe, you've got buddies all over. I can't walk down Hastings without seeing a friend. And I'm not talking about other teenagers, I'm talking about my addict buddies. I love 'em to death. So yeah, that's what I do. And by the way, re:cr8 (prounounced like re create, as in to create again) is our little cafe we have Thursdays to Sundays where we have free coffee and tea and then juice and hot chocolate for a quarter. It's great. I absolutely love serving at re:cr8, something about walking up and saying "what would you like today, sir?" and having them crack up that I called them sir. "I'll have a double-double" okay, two sugar, two cream, add coffee, stir, and...presto! it's coffee time!

Now what else was there...ahh yes, Oppenheimer Park! The fortress of evil that we're tearing down stone by stone. Oppenheimer Park (or Needle Park as it's known by its resident addicts) we're down there 5 days a week executing Operation Restoration, we're trying to win this park for God. First we did a Jericho-style walk around the walls for seven days and then screamed. Which was wicked fun because everyone stared at us. And basically what we do there is incarnational ministry. In other words, we just be there. We pick up trash, play games, try to get kids to come because even the addicts are pretty respectful and won't do drugs around kids. And it's a park, it's supposed to be a place for kids to play. So we have loads of fun down at Oppenheimer Park. And I forgot to mention this, we also have...the War Room, it's our awesome 24/7 prayer room, we all take 3-hour shifts and pray. I love it. They have this huge rack of CDs with everything from Matt Redman to P.O.D. which rocks. So you can get down to some serious intercession in there. I really love it. And i always try to secure the 11pm-2am shift on Saturday 'cause that's 9-12 am on Sunday morning in Estonia. So my corps prays for me as I pray for them, it's a prayer party! And so if you want to pray for me and the rest of Battle School as we pray for you e-mail me any prayer request and I can put it on our prayer wall and get all of 614 praying for you and all that coolness. And my e-mail is chrisjohnclark@juno.com.

what a list!

RO 1:29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

29nad on tulvil igasugust ülekohut, kurjust, ahnust jatigedust, täis kadedust, tapmist, riidu, kavalust, kiuslikkust,nad on keelekandjad,30laimajad, Jumala vihkajad, julmurid, ülbed, kelkijad,halva peale leidlikud, vanematele sõnakuulmatud,31mõistmatud, truudusetud, leppimatud, halastamatud,32kes küll teavad Jumala käsku - et need, kes selliseidasju teevad, on surma väärt -, kuid ei tee seda mitteüksnes ise, vaid tunnevad head meelt neist, kes niiteevad.

2TI 3: 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-- 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

2sest siis on inimesi, kes on enesearmastajad, rahaahned,kelkijad, ülbed, teotajad, sõnakuulmatud vanemaile,tänamatud, nurjatud,3halastamatud, leppimatud, laimajad, ohjeldamatud, jõhkrad, heapõlgajad,4reetlikud, tormakad, upsakad, rohkem lõbu- kui jumalaarmastajad,5kellel on küll jumalakartuse nägu, aga kes on salanudselle väe. Niisuguseid väldi!

We spent the last five days at the Army's camp in Loksa doing a Junior Soldier Camp. It was a challenge, but also great fun as we explored Army beliefs, history, service and other topics that will hopefully root the young people in their belief and their service through the Army. Here the Estonian-language group works on papers based on the "Captain Gabriel vs. the League of Darkness" DVD, which looks at officership and service opportunities to meet human need through the Army. 

Young people from the Russian-language group work on the Junior Soldier preparation materials. We gave each of the kids Salvation Army shirts that we have accumulated over the years from various corps and Army events, and it was a joy to see them appreciated and put to good use. Little gestures like that often mean so much. 

Kerli, Linda, Keit and Linda having fun (with Kiril in the background trying to get the same picture in reverse). 

Diging in at meal time. 

Our meals were prepared by two Americans (Ashleigh and Jackie) who have been helping the Army in Estonia this summer. The kids weren't always sure about the American-style food, but the Clarks sure enjoyed it! 

On our final evening, we had a talent night. Each team offered several skits, and many others got together to do other skits, songs, dances and even card tricks. Here are the campers watching a performance. We had it outdoors because it was such a beautiful evening. 

The boys offered a ballon orchestra, with memorable music unique to the Army! 

The girls from Narva offered the classic skit of getting ready for the day, with one person's hands doing the work for another. It is funny every time you see it! 

Kerli and Anneli wowed us with the dance, "Salsa vs. Ballet." 

Erika offered a sign enterpretation of a Christian song. 

On the final morning, we had a worship program, and a time for the Junior Soldiers to kneel at the altar and sign a commitment to read their Bible daily. 

Campers Karl-Gustav, Liis, Priit, Andrei and Kristal presented chocolate to the translators, team leaders and cooks to say thanks for a job well done. 

Kiril was a bit enthusiastic about being thanked by Karl-Gustav. 

prayer warriors needed!

Friends, I just found out that Chris signed up for the same War Room time slot for the next two weekends. So I need people to volunteer to pray at the Kopli Corps again this Sunday!

9.00
9.15
9.30
9.45
10.00
10.15
10.30
10.45
11.00
11.15
11.30
11.45

Please spread the word to others who might not see this on the blog.

It's 11 p.m-2 a.m. Sat./Sun. in Vancouver (where Chris is) and 2-5 a.m. U.S. East Coast time for you hearty souls there!

Thanks!
Evelyn

Tim was in charge of game time each afternoon. We had great weather and were able to do lots of games outside in the large yard outside of the house.

Peter had his own fan club, and the kids even put up a swing for him. Here is Linda, Liis, Kerli and Anneli pushing Peter.

One night we gave each team a bag of identical props in their team color (red, yellow and blue) and asked them come up with a creative skit, story of creation using everything that was in the bag. The kids really got into it and it was great fun watching them as they did their presentations. Here is the red team discussing ideas as they prepare. 

The red team had a lot of fun with their props, transforming two of their girls from homely to beautiful. 

The yellow team, made up of nine boys, takes a bow after their performance.