MERRY CHRISTMAS :)

Lots of Love this Holiday Season from "The Three C's" :) Jesus is the reason for the Season!

Nov. 21 till Now!!

Sorry to all you blog followers! It has been a busy couple of weeks and I have yet to have time to blog. Now... I get to blog from the comfort of my own home! I am excited to report that us Encore ladies are on holidays until January 9th, 2011! It was just last year that we left for India and spent the Christmas season in a different culture. It was challenging and really eye opening but at the same time we are all glad to be able to see friends and family this Christmas!

But before I completely go on break I will give you a slight update an the past 3 weeks events!

First after we finsihed tour we took a few days at the lodge and also worked in the office we then went to Glenmore Chirstian Acadmy, Bethal EMC(near Cremona), Brant Christian School, West Zion Church(near Carstairs), Cremona Christian Fellowship, Wycliff Cafe and Carstairs Church of God. Even though we were "done" our 3 week tour.. we were busy!

In between this travelling madness we managed to find some time to just have fun together making cookies that look like our staff members,
taking Helmuth out on a triple date for his birthday and going to the Airdrie festival of Lights!

We also created a new drama with the help of Jamie Popoff, the awesome drama genius we worked with for the first one Encore 17 drama. His insight, passion for the Lord and teachings have been so much appreciated and we were able to finish our program in 3 days!! This program is called "What is Love?". It touches on the real meaning of love and our key text is 1 John 4:7-11... GOD IS LOVE! It is a powerful program full of humor, thinking and a new realization about what love truly involves and the ideas us as humans have about love. I may be a bit bias, but I really like the program, and sometimes I wish I could just watch!

Some of you may be thinking..
What's next for Encore.. Well.. touring.. touring.. office.. office.. touring.. and more touring.. we are doing a lot of promoting VTI, encouraging and inspiring others at Bible Colleges, Chruches, Schools. We are heading out to Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, hopefully Montana and maybe BC! If you would like us to come to your hometown, just call or e-mail and ask for Carmen! I would be happy to try to fit you in Lord Willing!!!

But we would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

We will talk to you all in 2011!! Boy how time flies!

Take Care and God Bless,

Carmen :)

TOUR: Nov. 10-21

Well here is my second attempt at blogging.  Don't you just love it when all your hard work gets deleted?  ...and it almost always happens when you are almost finished!  Sigh, here we go again...

Well we've had an exciting and full tour over the last 3 weeks.  Sorry I've got a little behind on blogging, but I'll try and pick up where Cayla left off.  :)

Our next stop on our travels was Camrose, AB, where we met up with Jill Hagen, who is under the Artist In Residence program through VTI, and her band (Nathan and Jordan).  Linnea Salte also joined our touring extravaganza, as we continued northward to Peace River, Grimshaw, High Level, and La Crete (Cayla's hometown).  It was really exciting to be able to tour with Jill and Linnea.  They are both very talented people with big hearts for God and for sharing their stories and music.  I've added their web sites, so please check them out!  :)

I think Grimshaw was a highlight for all of us.  We had an amazing time of worship and also got to enjoyed the company of some familiar faces.  Kyle and Alena, two of our team mates from last year, were there to welcome us.  (They are both doing internships through the church there.) 

In High Level we were able to do two programs, one for a youth group and the other for the Christian school.  We were also blessed to be able to get to know some of Cayla's friends who live in the area, and seeing as High Level was the furthest north most of us have ever been, decided to commemorate the moment with a picture!  :)

Up in La Crete we were able to present at Cayla's home church, which was pretty amazing as well.  By then we had already been on the road for a couple weeks, and most of us were pretty tired and drained, but despite our exhaustion God worked through us.  So often I'm so amazed at how He works despite our many weaknesses.  We had a wonderful time with Cayla's family, though it was short, before our long drive back down to Camrose.  We spent just under a week with Jill, Linnea and band, but we made many memories and had many laughs!

From Camrose we (Encore) headed over to Drayton Valley, where we were privileged to share with the Christian school as well as a local youth group.  Then we headed over to Wetaskawin where we shared at a mission focus program and finally to Leduc for a Sunday morning service. 

That's just a "quick" summary of our tour, there are many other stories that could be told, but I'll have to leave that for another time.  In closing I will say that we have been thoroughly blessed throughout our travels, and have seen God use us even when we felt we didn't have anything to offer.  Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Two Weeks Come and Gone...

Wow, it's hard to believe that it's been over two weeks since our last post. A sincere apology to all who are faithfully following our blog - I am not as good at keeping y'all up to date as my teammates are! But I will try my best...

We had the privilege of going to Okotoks Evangelical Free church and presenting our

performance to their youth group on Friday the 29th. Dan and Cheryl - the youth pastor and his

wife - were such blessings to us. They encouraged us greatly in what we were doing, and we helped to fill their house with some happy noise. :) We did our performance Friday evening, and then taught the jr. and sr. high students a bit about missions during Sunday school the following Sunday.

On Tuesday (Nov. 3) we left for Nipawin and on the way we stayed the night at Osler, SK where Carmen hails from. We reached Nipawin on Wednesday, and we shared with the Nipawin Alliance youth in the evening. While there we got to connect with our old friends James & Karina and Rhys & Janelle, former VTIers themselves. As crazy as it sounds, we did not take a picture with them. What can I say - we are a little bit lame. Thursday evening was spent with the Neuanlage youth (and some brave adults). They had a wonderful youth group, and we especially enjoyed the youth pastor's two little boys from Ethiopia. Friday morning we presented to the high school students at Valley Christian Academy in Osler, and then we drove to Nipawin Bible College for their missions conference. The staff, students, and missions reps at the college were so friendly and welcoming, and the Lord spoke to some students through us. We had quite a few people who were interested in doing ministry with VTI, so please pray that God would be guiding the right people to VTI for next year's teams. Sunday evening we were able to present at Carmen's home church in Osler, and then hang out with her College and Career group. On Tuesday we went to Glaslyn where Cara's friend Laura is interning as a youth/children's pastor. We had the privilege of playing with the kids and sharing our performance with them, and God worked it out so that our performance related to last week's Bible story. Our God is so good! Last night (Thursday) we performed with Jill Hagen and Linnea Salte at the Prince of Peace Lutheran church. I'm writing this from our wonderful host's house, so hopefully we get a picture so we can show you! :)

Here's a quick outline of our coming week:

Friday: Youth program at Mile Zero Church in Grimshaw, AB

Saturday: Program at High Level Evangelical Free Church

Sunday: Program at La Crete Christian Fellowship Church (MY CHURCH! WOO HOO!!!)

Monday: Program at High Level Christian Academy

Tuesday: Travel to Edmonton, AB

Wednesday: Programs at Drayton Christian School and Calvary Baptist Church in Drayton Valley

Hopefully that's enough information to keep you updated for a while. May God bless you all as you pray for our ministry, and may you be challenged and grown in your walk with Christ.

Blessings! :)

Cayla

Our pray card :)

PRBI and Beyond

Well, another weekend has come and gone. It is remarkable how time just seems to fly by when you are having fun and serving the Lord!

This weekend we spent up at Peace River Bible Institute (PRBI). The team consisted of us Encore Ladies, Joe, Michael and Michelle. We spent time getting to know students, staff and other mission reps along with having the privilege of sharing our stories in one of the Seminar slots. I must say my personal favorite part of the weekend had to be catching up with Kimmie, our teammate from last years Friends and Followers team. She was a part of organizing the event and even though she was extremely busy making sure everyone had a place to stay, food to eat and a place to set up our booth, yet she still spent time building into each one of our lives and it was super encouraging. I think I can speak for us all in saying that our visit to PRBI was extremely great. The speaker, students and missions reps were all super friendly and we all felt very much at home! The Lord is doing great things in and through PRBI and I hope someday we will be able to visit again! =] We love you Kimmie =)!!!

So some of you may be wondering what is next on our agenda. Well we will try to help as best as we can! This Friday we are in Okotoks just south of Calgary for a youth program followed by leading a bible study Sunday morning with the same group of youth.

I am excited to say that as of Tuesday November 2nd we will be heading to Saskatchewan for the week. The dates are as follows;

-Nov. 3rd: Nipawin Alliance Church for a youth program around 7pm,

-Nov. 4th: Grace Mennonite church in Neuanlage SK, for another youth program

-Nov. 5th morning: Valley Christian Academy in Osler SK

-Nov. 5th to 7th.: Nipawin Bible Colleges Missions Conference

-Nov. 7th evening: My home church Osler Mission Chapel , for a 7pm evening program

-Nov. 9th: Our final stop in SK is Glayslyn on Nov. 9th for an evening youth program.

And that concludes our visit to SK! Feel free to stop by if you are in the area! We would love to see you at any of our programs!

Anyways, I could go on and on about more of the amazing opportunities the Lord has provided us to share our story but I will maybe try to update you on our Alberta tour at a later date!

As for praise and prayer, some of you may have heard about our past teammate Gillian, she got into a bad car accident. If you could rejoice that surgeries have happened on her back and are scheduled for her knee and right now she is stable and in good spirts, along with joining us in prayer for a speedy recovery and finding her comfort in Christ.

As for Encore, just for communication and a deap Christ-like Love for each other as a team as week seek the Lord in all that we do!

Thanks for joining us on this years amazing journey!

May the Lord Bless in all you are doing in serving Him!

Carmen Pahl =]

We had a good weekend out in the Linden/Three Hills area, catching up with friends from last year and some new ones too.  We also were able to present our Encore program (A Creative Look Back on a Year with VTI) at a youth leader conference at Prairie, which was pretty neat.  We had only received the invite the week before and the fellow organizing it didn't even fully know what our program was about, yet it  flowed beautifully into what they were presenting!  It was totally a God thing how that worked out!  :)

I'm continually amazed at how God not only cares about the BIG things in life, but also the small ones!

Which kinda reminds me of a song by Jon Foreman called "Your love is strong".  Good song!  :)

Tomorrow we're working on finishing up some last details for our upcoming weekend at PRBI (Peace River Bible Institute) as well as spending some time working on music.  It's kinda interesting having such a small team compared to last year for that kind of stuff, but I know God has each of us three here for a reason, so we'll just do our best and leave the rest in His capable hands.
I think we're all pretty excited to head up to PRBI...and to see our friend Kimmie, who was on team with us last year on Friends and Followers and is attending there this year.   We'll be spending a couple days there with their mission conference before heading back to Calgary. 
Blessings!

Greetings!
The Encore trio is currently in Linden, AB, and off to Three Hills tomorrow for a program at Prairie.  Our tour starts at PRBI next weekend and our other Alberta stops will include, Okotoks, High Level, Grimshaw, La Crete, Wetaskiwin, Leduc, and Edmonton as well as Carstairs, and Didsbury area.  Saskatchewan stops so far are Nipawin, Osler and Neuanlage.  If you would like to know any other details about our tour dates and times, just post a comment or email us at encore@vti.ca. We would love to see you at our programs!
~The 3 C's aka Cara, Cayla and Carmen :)