It's finally time for an update! Some of the highlights of Spring Tour were the inner city children's program in Winnipeg and another opportunity in Montana where we went to a re-integration prison for teens and people who were too young to go to a normal jail. In the inner city program we were working with children who don't generally know how to behave. We did a program and were able to go out to the park and hang out with the kids. Overall, we had a really good response from the kids and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. In the beginning of our Spring Tour, we were able to travel with the Jill Hagen & AIR [Artists in Residence] band. They were able to perform in some of our programs, and overall, we really enjoyed getting to know them a lot better. One blessing was, during our time in Camrose, we had technical difficulties with our sound equipment, and we ended up needing to do the whole program acoustically. As a team, we thought it was okay, but not great. We did our best though, and had a really good response from the teens that were there. They really opened up to us, and were willing to be open and real, willing to share where they were at and what they needed prayer for. Up to that point, we really hadn't had that huge of a response.

My knowledge of the whole team experience is limited, as the last half was spent being sick and in and out of the hospital due to some interesting reactions to prescribed medicine. I had the combined affect of bronchitis and the flu with lack of sleep and close quarters with other sickies.

The team really loved being in Montana, being in walking distance from each other, having bonfires, and getting to know their billets. From what I heard, it was definitely one of their favorite places that they were able to go to. They had a great time hiking and ministering to really neat people.

Overall, our Spring Tour was really well done.  We all enjoyed the van rides, as we were stuck in close quarters for long periods of time, and were able to have some great conversations. We left our personal ‘bubbles’ overseas so it didn’t bother us.  During these past nine months, God has really transformed our team from being a scared bunch of strangers into a loving family. It’s been great.

Thank you so much for your prayer and financial support, we as a team have really appreciated your sacrifice, and commitment. Sadly, this may be the last time you hear from me. But I know that we are all looking forward to whatever God has in store for us.

Prayer Requests
~ For the team as we move back into everyday life from our experiences on team.
~ For those on team who are still in need of financial support.
~ For the continued ministries of VTI as they prepare for Gap teams and the applications going through for next years Friends and Followers.

Love in Christ,

Emily Tiel [on behalf of the F+F 65 team]