Kids of the King, Arise!

For the past several years, Sierra Noble has been actively involved in global issues related to war, the indiscriminate use of land mines, and their devastating effect on those people– especially children — living in war-torn regions of the world.

Her journey began, when ten-year-old Sierra saw a land mine display for the first time. It was a haunting moment and one that she would never forget. Although she didn’t think she could accomplish anything because she was young, two special people from her hometown Winnipeg,- Meredith Daun and Darryl Toews – thought otherwise. They convinced Sierra that she could make a difference, and that she could take a stand against land mines and help make the world a better place.

So WAS she able to do something? YOU BET! When she was only 12 she started traveling extensively throughout Canada, North America and Europe and in August, 2004 she represented Canada at the Ban Land mines International Children’s Conference in Japan. As she speaks she reminds us that as Gandhi said, “You must be the change that you wish to see in the World.” In other words “As ‘messed up’ as the world may seem, there’s always hope to change it.”

She’s a talented fiddler who focuses on the traditional Metis style of music, but also plays Cajun, Celtic, country and other styles with ease. She uses her gift to help fund raise to bring awareness of the danger of land mines and its effect on the children in the world. Her music has become a cata-lyst for change, a means to raise consciousness among people everywhere and a unique young “voice” that reaches out into the minds and hearts of all of us – regardless of where we live, regardless of who we are.

Presently, Sierra sits on the Advisory Committee as the Youth Representative of the University of Winnipeg, Global College and Dialogue Centre and is working with Dr. Lloyd Axworthy and other young representatives from around the World.

www.sierranoble.ca

Compassion knows no age

Helping the homeless stay clean

Aidan Robillard hasn’t heard of Hannah Taylor yet, but he’s bound to meet her if he keeps up his work on behalf of the homeless.

The bubbly, five-year-old Winnipegger donated more than 120 toothbrushes, 105 tubes of toothpaste and dozens of bars of soap to Siloam Mission on Tuesday, becoming possibly the youngest person to donate to the downtown Christian humanitarian agency.

He got the idea about six weeks ago after his mom, Jodi, dropped off some extra blankets at Siloam Mission. He asked why they were giving away blankets and who was getting them, and the conversation progressed to a discussion of how some people aren’t fortunate enough to live in a home.

“We got to talking about some of the things he has and others don’t and he was quite surprised to hear some people didn’t have toothbrushes and toothpaste. A half-hour later, he came out of his room with his piggy bank and asked if we could go buy some for the people that didn’t have any,” Jodi said.

It wasn’t long before his quest branched out to others — his grandparents, the other kids at Rainbow Day Nursery and members of his mom’s singing group, the Women of Note Choir.

His 16 classmates even took a field trip to a dollar store and spent a toonie each on various items of dental hygiene for Aidan’s collection. (Many of them were adorned with paper cut-out calling cards.) He handed over his haul to Siloam in a trio of boxes, one of which he painted himself and adorned with stickers from the animated movie Cars.

Aidan is the same age Taylor was when the now 12-year-old first saw a homeless man digging through a dumpster in downtown Winnipeg. Since then, her Ladybug Foundation has raised more than $1 million for the homeless.

“If you don’t brush your teeth, your teeth will get brown and they can fall out. Then you can’t eat and you have to suck baby food,” Aidan said, while his eight-month-old sister, Mackenzie, looked on from her car seat.

By: Geoff Kirbyson, Winnipeg Free Press

Jessie Robitaille,
Ottawa

Jessie, a few years ago in a time of prayer saw a picture of God’s hand coming down. He put all sorts of cars on a football field and they all fit (she was a bit surprised at that) and everyone in the cars opened the doors, got out and began to praise God.

Then God’s hand came down once again and this time He put all the churches that worship Him on the field and then He brought them all together and made ONE church. Everyone praised God without eating or sleeping for two days.

The next impression she had came while she was eating Cheezies. She saw God’s hand again come down onto the field. This time He was holding one Cheezy straight up and everyone (probably in Canada) ate from it and there was enough for all.

O.K. this is not quite the right picture but you try and find one large enough that LOTS of people can eat of it.

Anyways….

In each of the pictures that Jessie saw, people came together and praised God, and God took care of them.

This sounds like a picture about unity doesn’t it? It also sounds like God is taking care of His own. ( we’ll talk about that later)

Lets Read Psalm 133. It is called “A Psalm of ascents” that the Jewish people would read when they went to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts of the Lord. You can read about these feasts in the book of Numbers.

When you read this psalm you may wonder at the picture that it brings. “It is pleasant when someone pours oil all over you?” OKAAAY….

However to a Jew these were powerful pictures. It would be like me describing a scene to you:

The scene is one of you coming home in a Corvette, or a Porsche Boxter, on a cold winter day. You go in, and your mom or dad greets you with a cup of warm apple cider and has ordered your favourite pizza. They carry your books for you to your room. as you settle down to watch your favourite video, in a comfy lazy boy, toasting your toes by an open fire.

How does this make you feel? Well that is what this psalm did for a Jew.

As they journeyed to Jerusalem, they would be glad for the company of their fellow worshipers; both to pass the time in conversation, and for protection on the way. When they arrived in the city, they would see the place packed out, and they would enjoy meeting their friends from outlying areas again. It would have a holiday, camp-like feeling to it all. They would look at all this and say, “How good and pleasant it is for brothers to live together in unity.”

The metaphor (remember from language arts… a comparison of two things using like or as) of oil goes back to Exodus 29. Aaron and his sons were anointed with oil to be priests for Israel. To anoint someone with oil was a common practice in those days. It was a bit like a coronation (when someone becomes a King) ceremony today. It marked a person set apart for a special task.

Do you know what the Oil is a symbol of ? It is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, of God’s presence being upon the person.

It would also symbolize the softening and perfuming of the person. As God’s Spirit works upon us, he softens our hard hearts, and brings a new fragrance to us. Can you think of an example of how the Holy Spirit can help us change some of our rough edges? Look up Gal. 5; 19-23

What is another use of Oil?What about in a car, what is oil used for?
Right, it is for lubrication, or to help things run smoothly.

Anointing someone with oil would be done to mark someone as priest. It set them apart to serve the Lord. Normally, when someone was anointed, they would pour just a little oil on their head. But this is a picture of them pouring a large amount on Aaron, so much so that it ran down his beard, down onto his clothes, and all over him. In this case it would mean the oil running over him from head to foot. It symbolized a great amount of God’s blessing.

Now what is interesting, Aaron as a priest would wear a breastplate with stones representing all the tribes of Israel whenever he would do his duties as a priest. This was a reminder that he was bringing the people of Israel before the Lord. So when the oil was poured over him it would also go over these stones, and symbolize a blessing for Israel as well.

The “dew of Herman” in this psalm paints a picture of life brought to dry areas. Herman was the highest mountain in that area, some 9,000 ft. with a snow capped peak, there was heavy dew on the slopes of the mountain, and things grew lush and green. (A bit like the rain forests in British Columbia.) Mt. Zion was in the south where it was drier and rockier. So the picture here is of a dry region receiving the benefits of cool, fresh water, bringing life, and quenching thirst.

ACTIVITY:

1) Make a ‘breastplate ‘ like Aaron would have had. Use construction paper and:

• find a picture of all the flags, or flower emblems, or shields of each of the provinces of Canada if you live in Canada for example.
• Or ask God to highlight some different nations that he wants you to pray for this month and find their flags. You may like to go back to the previous post to check out some of the nations that Matt danced in for ideas.

Glue these on the construction paper that you have made into a rectangle about 4 inches by 6 inches. tack the “breast plate” on your bulletin board, or beside your bed. Over the next while keep your ears open to the news about and see if there is anything happening in these nations or provinces or states that you can pray for. Ask the Lord to lead you as you pray for these places.

2) Whenever you see disunity, pray God’s peace into these situations. For example, “Dear Jesus, please help me not to fight with my brother, help me to do my part and not hang onto my ‘rights’. Please fill me with your love and peace right now.“

3) Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. That is a command in the Bible. Right now there is a war going on in Israel and we need to pray that:

• God’s peace and unity, justice and truth would come out.
• protection for all the people in the land of Israel
• Pray Your Kingdom come Your will be done in Israel.
• We also need to pray that the people in Israel would seek the God of Abraham Issac and Jacob…and Ishmael…and desire to follow God and walk in His ways.

Around 1912 a group of Christians in Armenia had been praying, and one of their small sons had a vision. He tried to draw the vision he had so that his elders could understand it. What God was telling them, he said, was that they should leave Armenia and go to a distant land.

The young boy knew little about world geography, but the map he drew was clearly of the American West Coast. As a result of his vision, a large group of Armenian Christians left home to settle in California. Shortly after they had embarked on their journey, a massacre took place in their homeland that started in 1914. Their lives were spared only because they had already escaped to America, because they believed in the vision that God had sent.

Now that particular group of Armenian Christians were not used to having visions like that, perhaps they never needed them before. Now they did, and the Holy Spirit showed them what they needed to do. It would have been easy for them to have ignored the vision, as it was “only” from a child, especially as it required them to make such a big change. But they didn’t.

These Armenian believers prospered in America and raised healthy and happy families. One of their children was Demos Shakarian and God used him to bring revival to the United Sates and around the world. See God told Demos to start an organization called the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship, where Christian businessmen would meet, and invite other business men and pray for their businesses. At these meetings, people would give testimonies on how God has blessed them or their businesses. Many people in the buisness community came to know Jesus.

ACTIVITY: Find Armenia on a world map. Then find California on the western coast of America. See how many miles these Armenian Christians had to go to obey what God had showed them.

Would you and your family be willing to move that far, or obey that radically in response to a vision?
Paul in the Bible also received information about where He should and should not go through dreams and visions.
Look up Acts 16:9-10, Acts 18:9-10, and Acts 21:10-11

Keep that in mind, God knows all things and He may, prompt you to go someplace near or far to protect you or for you to share the good news about Jesus to someone.

Story taken from book “Revelation Glory” by Ruth Ward Heflin

K.I.D.S. is a group for ages 8 to 12. It has one group a week for 3 weeks and on the last week we split up into groups and pray for people on the street of downtown Victoria. Then the groups meet at McDonalds and share what happened.

Braedan
Age 11
Victoria, BC

We have a Life Group that goes to homeless people. Doris prayed and we closed our eyes and I saw a blue bridge. So we went to the blue bridge.

Tyrel
Age 7
Victoria, B.C.

Hope for Mongolia

Far-reaching events were being set into motion by God as a nine-year-old girl selected Mongolia to be the topic of her report for a home school assignment. As she gathered resources she came across an article from Mountain Movers magazine. The article mentioned that there were very few people who followed Jesus in Mongolia and how they placed alters to other gods in the felt tents in which they lived.
God placed a burden on this nine- year old so much so that for TWO years she prayed that these alters would be replaced with bibles. After TWO whole years of praying she saw the words “Hope for Mongolia” on the front of another Mountain Mover’s magazine. (This magazine by the way is the official missions magazine for the Assemblies of God Church.)
The article “Hope for Mongolia” described a revival meeting in Mongolia where 500 people had come to know Jesus. She knew this article was God’s way of telling her that He had answered her prayer. You see the girls name was Hope, Hope Smith. She said. “That day, I learned that there was another “hope” for Mongolia.”
During the following year these 500 new believers grew to 1000 as they shared the love of Jesus with their neighbors. Then  they started a church. Guess what the name of the church was? “Hope assembly!”
of course. As many as 2,000 people have attended services at Hope Assembly and they have even started another church. A few years later they started 2 Christian orphanages with the name of H.O.P.E. which stands for “Homes Of Peace Enterprises.” Do you think it is a co-incidence that Hope was the name for all of these places?

Which Keys of the Kingdom can you see that Hope used?

Perserverence…she didn’t give up.
Compassion… for the people of Mongolia that didn’t know about Jesus Love.
Witness…her prayers were one of the things that led to the revival meetings where the gospel was shared and people came to know Jesus.

Remember Hannah? We shared some of her story in the spring. Well here is what she is up to today!
This is from and article in the Winnipeg Free Press today.
“The 12-year-old Winnipeg girl has already dined with a prime minister and spoken to some of Canada’s ”big bosses” for donations. But this week, she took her trademark ladybug backpack to the nation’s capital for an entirely new opportunity, a sleepover at the official residence of the leader of the opposition, Stéphane Dion, and his wife, Janine Krieber.

“I am super excited about that,” Hannah said with a huge grin. “We got to stay in, like, Stornoway. That was so cool. I didn’t know the name of the place (before) but I definitely knew (Dion and Krieber) would stay in a special place.”

Her Ladybug Foundation has raised more than $1 million since Hannah was five, and asked her mother why there was a man eating out of a dumpster in a backlane in Winnipeg.

Perched on a sofa in Stornoway’s living room, Hannah has a bright red scarf around her neck, and it is those scarves she is in Ottawa to promote. The $20 fashion accessories are a fundraiser for Hannah’s foundation and the purpose behind her trip to Ottawa.

“I’m here to launch national red scarf day,” said Hannah. “It shows the homeless people in Canada that we hear them.”

In addition to staying at Stornoway with her father, Bruce, Hannah delivered a speech to dozens of spouses of Canada’s MPs and diplomats including the spouses of the French ambassador to Canada and the British high commissioner.”They can spread the message I’m trying to get out even more,” she said.

Hannah’s scarves and information about her cause can be found at www.ladybugfoundation.ca.

Deeds Irwin sent a report about the UN prayer intitiative that we prayed along with in September. Here is a part of that report.

CHILDREN AS PART OF THE UN PRAYER INITIATIVE

Making children part of the UN Prayer Initiative was a most significant decision that was made. They played a vital roll in this very special time together. The adults enjoyed having them amongst them and were astounded at the boldness of the children with which they serve the Lord and stand for Him.
John Robb
Chairman International Prayer Council

Anna Maria
Guatamala

My experience in New York was incredible.  I was deeply impacted by the fact that there are children and youth praying all around the world.  In my country, Guatemala, there are a lot of intercessors but only a small portion of them are young people.  After my experience in New York, God touched my heart and placed a seed on it.  My heart’s desire now is to organize the youth in Guatemala in prayer and I know that God is going to help me in this endeavour.  On the other hand, I am truly thankful to God for the opportunity of having met all of you. 

Samuel 14yrs

Children and youth prayed with great faith and authority.  Here is a sample prayer from a young boy named Samuel which he prayed as we were cruising the water ways:
 ”We declare that God’s eternal gates open up in New York. Ports, we bless you and we declare you are open to receive the blessing and the presence of God. We declare you open to the good and perfect will of God. We cancel all demonic presence, in the name of Jesus. We cry out for the blood of Jesus on these entries for the glory and honor of God. Amen.” 

Andrew 11yrs

The trip was awesome I don’t think I’ve ever had a better spiritual time and made so many new friends so quickly.  I really feel like it wasn’t just a conference it was more like a briefing for our mission from God. And another thing I really liked was just how we were all from different nations but we all were Christians and were gathered for a common purpose and just how it really occurred to me that we really aren’t any different than each other and that we’re all parts of the body of Christ and we’re all 1 family. That feeling was the coolest thing I’ve felt in my whole life! I felt God calling us to change the world and I have confidence, after meeting so many people with such Godly spirits, that we will change the world and we will keep Gods fire in us.

*Click on the side bar, “Prayer initiatives” to pull up the material related to the UN prayer initiatives on September 8th. OR follow the tag links below.

A LITTLE GIRL WITH A BIG MESSAGE

By Bobby Connor
I was in New Zealand for a conference with a couple of thousand leaders. As I walked into the conference hall, a very young girl around five years of age came up to me and said in a sweet childlike voice “I can preach!” Trying to humor her I knelt down and patted her on the head and said “oh sweetie that is wonderful that you can preach”, almost in a joking tone.

However I was stunned because she said back to me in a very firm and confident tone. “No! I can preach”! She said it with such boldness that I was almost knocked down. So I said to her. “Ok then, what is your message?”
She looked me straight in the eye and said my message is- 
“Pray!” Listen!” “Obey!”
I said to her, ” O.K.You are preaching tonight.” 

That night the place was packed with church leaders from around the nation. I had been speaking for about fifteen minutes when I looked out in the crowd of people and saw the little girl sitting with her folks. I stopped speaking and said to her “Honey do you still want to preach?”
She said “yes!”
Coming forward I picked her up and holding her in my arms, high on the platform so that all in the conference hall could see her. I placed the mike before her lips and she said in a strong voice,
“My message is “Pray! Listen! Obey!”

When she said this, hundreds of people were knocked out of their seats on the floor, weeping and seeking the Lord.
This is the message that God is saying to the Church today.