Fun Facts About Father Mark

Father Mark is an artist, above is his painting of the Trinity....

Fr Mark (left) preaching with fish and (at right) with a 37 pound trout.

Father Mark Blom is the Priest in Southend at the Catholic Church. He is the one who approached the LAMP Ministries (Lutheran) looking for a team to come and work with the youth of the community. It is not about Catholics or Lutherans....it is about God's will for us to spread His word. Father Mark will be our host in Southend and the communications we have had with him during the pre-trip planning have us excited to spend time with him. Here are some "Fun Facts" about Fr Mark:

• He was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.
• At the age of 21, he left home to work as a meat cutter. He also was a volunteer fireman. During that time he was lonely and considered making a commitment to God.
• He decided to commit to God and became a Seminary student at the age of 25
• He was ordained a priest in 2003 and became a leading preacher in Youth Ministries for the Oblate Fathers. The mission of the Oblates is making God's word seem meaningful for everybody.
• He is famous for his homilies in which he uses objects, symbols and art to explain complex theological matters (pictured above with his artwork and preaching with a fish).
• He draws and paints most of the arts he uses in his preaching. He has sold CD's with his homilies to raise funds for the ministry.
• His emphasis is on proclaiming God's word and believes that transforming people's minds, and attitudes is just as important as transforming the bread and wine.
• He has been in the community of Southend for about 2.5 years and is making a difference!
• From the pictures we have seen we can tell he enjoys the great outdoors...

Fr Mark is busy preparing the community and his home for our visit, just as we are busy preparing for our time there. I know that more "Fun Facts" about Fr Mark will surface while we are there. We are looking forward to fun, fellowship, and friendship with him.

~Vernice~

Getting Ready!

Today we got a lot done at Kate's house! First we cut paper for the memory work Bibles. Then we decorated the verses for the first 3 days. After that we ate lunch! yumm! It was Mac 'n cheese and turkey wraps! After lunch we went outside! We played volleyball!woohoo! Then when we came in, we decorated hats and tote bags! We used fabric markers! Then we made our blanket for Father Mark! It was a tie blanket which was really fun to make! Now we're been blogging! Later we're going to eat icecream sandwiches! Since 10 'o clock A.M. we've been learning all of the music! Now we are going to practice our skits!

More later....Dominique, Angela and Kate.

Cultural Training

Our team met with Sue Folger on July 13th for cultural training. Sue has been a missionary with LAMP for 26 years and is a great source of information and encouragement for our team. We learned much from her about the children we will be working with and how to adjust our Vacation Bible School to suit them and their learning styles/needs. Some of the things we learned are that the people are quiet and soft spoken and require additional time to process questions and formulate responses and that we need to be patient and offer plenty of "wait time." The people teach and learn by storytelling. They will not tell you openly if you've done something wrong but will model correct behavior by telling a story while demonstrating how something is done (such as tying a hook on a line..."My Uncle taught me how to tie a hook this way a long time ago"). The adults are likely to let children learn from their mistakes and figure things out on their own rather than correcting them. They may "lip point" to indicate direction/location rather than pointing with their fingers. We also learned how to structure our day with the children to accommodate their need for activity and how to teach in a way that is meaningful to them. Our team is very grateful to Sue! She eased our uncertainty about our upcoming trip and we look forward to the day when we will share her experience and knowledge. Until then...only 19 more sleeps until we depart! May God continue to guide and direct our preparations and be glorified in all we do and may the love of Christ flow freely! ~Sandy