Here we go 'round in Edmonton, Edmonton, Edmonton... (and surrounding area)

Where has Encore been these past few weeks?! Why haven't they written on the blog (other than the recent prayer request, of course)? Are they still ALIVE?! If you are asking these questions (or any others), do not fret - you are not alone. I myself have been wondering these same things...

Following the Feb. 17th post (thanks to Carmen, weren't the pics great?!) we did two programs: a morning chapel at Prarie BIble Institute, and an evening youth program at Highland Mennonite Brethren Church. Each program seemed to go well, but unfortunately we weren't bright enough to take pictures... just try to imagine what they may have looked like. :o)

Saturday morning we began our 5-day break! Carmen was able to go home, Cara stayed with our wonderful landlady Irene, and I was able to visit the Sorells! It was a very needed break following our month-long tour, and God really used it to refresh us.

After our break we began our Edmonton and area tour, which brought us back to the Shaw Conference Center for the Alberta Missions Fest. There we were able to once again connect with the other missions reps we've been developing friendships with, so that was great. Each of us had some pretty significant conversations with other people, so we pray that we were an encouragement to all we spoke with during that weekend and that God inspired especially the youth and young adults through us. I know I was especially blessed by the Sunday morning worship service wherein the Pastor didn't preach, but rather had us minister to one another in groups of three. Two gentlemen prayed for myself and my family, and God really spoke to me through them.

One thing that WASN'T so awesome was the fact that Cara's car acquired a flat tire during the missions fest! Fortunately God provided a few helpful men who were willing to help us change

it in the blowing cold (and one without a jacket... yipe!). Praise the Lord for compassionate men, and that the tire was easily fixed... for free! :D Cara's cousin was generous enough to help us out with the tire issue, and all was resolved. I was also able to visit my little sister Celsey and my two adopted bros Mike and Matt at Grant MacEwan one evening, and it was a wonderful goot time. (Pictured above with me)

Monday was spent at West Edmonton Mall for a team day off! We shopped for a while, ate "The Kitchen Sink" at Jungle Jim's, and watched a movie in 3D. If I read my teammates correctly, they enjoyed it as much as I did! I'm looking forward to our next team day off... :)

Tuesday to Thursday was spent traveling to and

doing programs at: Concordia High School, Cornertsone Christian Academy in Kingman, Barrhead Alliance Church in Barrhead, and Strathcona Christian Academy in Sherwood Park. We then attended the Global Connections

Conference at PBI as missions reps.

One of the highlights of representing Christ and VTI at PBI was getting to know a fellow missions rep’s children: Glenna and Josiah. They were such a delight to be with during the conference! We were also privileged enough to stay with Nic and Linda Weins once again. We enjoyed fellowshipping with them over SUPER good food! :D

As Cara wrote, these next two weeks don’t hold a lot of programs for Encore, but we are still working “behind the scenes” in different ways. God knew we needed a bit of a break from traveling to and doing programs at a bunch of different places, so Cara is at home and Carmen and I get to visit her home in Osler this weekend! Please pray for spiritual and physical renewal for the whole team, so that we might represent Christ by loving as He does – unconditionally.

God bless you as you seek Him in your daily lives and strive to share the grace He’s given you with those around you.

Respectfully Yours,
Cayla :)

New Arts Internships Logos!! :D

Prayer Request

We got back up to Calgary yesterday...and I phoned my parents in the evening. I knew my mom was going in for some more tests soon, but I didn't realize that they had already happened on Friday while I was away. The news wasn't good. She has cancer again. They don't have much information so far. It's a bit of a waiting game for now, but she'll most likely be heading in for surgery within the next month or so, depending on the doctors' availability.

It just worked out (God's doing I'm sure) that we only had 2 programs booked for the next two weeks, so the girls (Carmen and Cayla) and staff decided that I should take that time to spend at home. So they sent me on a flight home early this morning. They are such a blessing!

Like I said, the future is still unclear, but Mom is on a lot of vitamins and other alternatives for the time being and we are praying and trusting God.

Your prayers would be appreciated for wisdom, guidance, and strength.  As well as for the ability to trust Him with all of this.
Thanks,
Cara R

Jan/Feb tour is finished! What's next for the 3 C's??

Another tour come and gone! I think I say this every time I write on the blog, but man does time ever go fast! Yesterday was our final day of tour and we arrived to a nice crisp, cold, and frosty Calgary. But before I let you all in on what's happening next for Encore I will just do a quick re cap on our lives for the past 2 weeks!
We started off heading to Providence for the Missio Dei Conference. This was really eventful. Once we arrived we found out we forgot our promotional banner in the back in Calgary, AND the heat in our building was not working and it was minus 30ish! What a crazy start to Manitoba! Yet through everything we had quick solutions to our mad arrival to Winterpeg area. Cara quickly put together a Chalk Art showcasing VTI and we used this for the rest of our time in the area as our promotional banner, as for the cold night, blankets, blankets and more blankets! :) Here we were able to present and do some henna for the students too!

Following Providence was Steinbach. Then came Manitoba Missions Fest, here we met so many great people and met some new friends along the way too, and so many fellow VTIer's; even our booth buddies, Curt and Chryselle!


The next week that followed we went to so many great places, SBC for a chapel, LBE, West Park School, City Church, and Cara's home church ACC. And during this time Miss Cayla Schlamp turned the BIG 21(Feb 9th)!

We had the privilege of celebrating her birthday on three separate occasions, first with GILLIAN at Montana's! If you remember back in October Gillian is our former team mate who got into a big accident, well God is so good and she is WALKING! Praise the Lord!! It was so great to see her and celebrate Cayla's 21st year. Secondly a wonderful singing of Happy Birthday at SBC and thirdly wearing a crazy hat at LBE. We wish her a wonderful year ahead, God has great things for her to glorify HIS son and I can't wait to see how God will use my fellow team mate and sister in Christ for HIS glory. Exciting :) So with that being said Winnipeg flew by and we will miss seeing Cara's parents, Brian and Anne along Cayla and I's hosts the Guille's and their daugther Cheryl!

Our forth "C" for the past two weeks! And finally we concluded tour with a wonderful program at Millar College of the Bible.

Overall God has been so great over this whole tour. We met some amazing people, built great relationships, learnt a ton, and were challenged in many different areas! We really learnt that no matter what happens, HE is faithful and provides what we need to accomplish the work He has lain out for our team, and despite constant personality differences, technology failing, bad driving conditions, forgetting lines and objects and personal struggles we know that the Lord is hold us each up with His righteous right hand and ultimately He loves us! And along with that we know that all things work together for those who love God. We love God and He surely loves us! After all He is the definition of true love right? :)

Thanks again for sticking with us!! My hope for you is that you will constantly be reminded of the fact the God loves you with a crazy love that blows my mind every time I think about it! Nothing you do or say or think can ever make him not love you. He sent His son to die for us.. that's how much He loves us..Unconditionally! In return all He desires is for us to follow Him with all of our hearts and be set apart for Him. That people would see His love through our actions. And I myself and challenged with this everyday I get up, how can people see Christ in me today? What can I do to for others to see Christ in me? God sent His son for me! How crazy is that? Wow..

So as promised, tomorrow we have two programs, one early at Prairie Bible Institute and following at 7pm in the evening, Highland MB Church in Calgary. We then have a 5 day break followed by a week long tour to Edmonton from Feb 25th to March 6th. Then, touring, touring and more touring. Encore will be heading to Montana, all over Alberta and eventually out to Ontario in May.. so stay tuned, we will update you before we head out again. You can also find our tour schedule at www.vti.ca.
Before I close there is just three things I can think of that our team would ask prayer for;
1) For contacts for our upcoming tours
2) Unity as a team
3) Guidance for each of us in the future after Encore
Well, I think I covered most everything, hopefully looking at the length of the e-mail! Wowwy!!
Take Care and God Bless! :)
Until the Next Time!
Carmen Pahl

Manitoba Schedule!

Just to update you on our whereabouts...After our weekend at Break Forth (Edmonton), we spent a quick night in Calgary before hitting the road once again, this time for my home town of Winnipeg, MB. We had good roads most of the way, and arrived in Winnipeg this afternoon (Feb 1^st). For those of you in the Winnipeg area, we would love to see you at one of our programs.

February 2-3 Providence College and Seminary Mission Conference, Otterburne, MB (Look back drama on the 3^rd)

February 4 Steinbach Bible College morning missions chapel (no drama)

February 4-6  Mission Fest Manitoba(Winnipeg)

February 9 (11:30-12 noon) Steinbach Bible College morning chapel (Look back drama)

February 9 (7-8:30pm) Living Bible Explorers youth program (Winnipeg)(What is love drama and music)

February 10 (10-11am) West Park School (Portage la Prairie, MB) morning missions chapel (Look back drama and music)

February 11 (7-9:30 pm) City Church youth program (Winnipeg)(What is love drama and music)

February 13 (10:45-12 noon) Assiniboia-Charleswood Community Church (ACC) morning service (Winnipeg) (Look back drama) and (7:30-9:30pm) L.I.G.H.T. Worship night at ACC (What is love drama)

If you have any questions about locations, times or anything, just drop us an email at: encore@vti.ca

Blessings!
Cara R

Life on the road...

Hello dear friends!

Well we've only been on the road about a week and a half, but it's been a full tour so far!

The C's with Michael Ross Watson

We started off January 20^th for Millar college of the Bible, where we took part in their Missions Conference. The trip there did send us on a bit of an adventure. We ended up getting stuck in some pretty deep snow after being misguided by our GPS and hitting some bad drifts, but with the help of “Pops” (our wonderful driver) and an “angel” in a blue 4x4 truck we managed to arrive safely. Amazingly only about 15 minutes late!

The conference was great! We had a wonderful time getting to know the students and were truly blessed by the speaker, a missionary by the name of Michael Ross Watson. What an amazing testimony! We were also privileged to share one of our dramas (Encore: A creative look back on a year with VTI), and I must admit that it was probably one of my favourite programs so far this year.

From Millar we headed up to Osler, SK (just north of Saskatoon), where we were blessed to stayed with Carmen's family. On the 24^th we presented at Bethany Bible School. It was quite a rough performance, dues to mic issues and odd other glitches, but we were reminded once again that God is fully capable to use us, even when we mess up! And are we sure thankful for that! If it wasn't for God's saving grace, none of us would be where we are today, that's for sure!

From Bethany we drove to Briercrest, where we were privileged to share with some of the students in the huge Hildebrand chapel and for once were were actually trying to spread out our staging instead of minimizing it! It was quite remarkable especially since some bright person decided to do some jack hammering just outside the building. It was a new experience at least, and gave for a good laugh afterward! Jack hammering aside though, we were able to talk with a number of the students as well as even spend some time with Ryan and Jake, two of our former team mates, and Carmen's brother and friend. It's always nice to see some familiar faces in our travels!

Friday made for an early and stressful drive up to Edmonton for Break Forth, because of a “wonderful” thing called freezing rain! Yuck! The Lord was with us all the way though, and we arrived safe and sound, though slightly rushed. The weekend was spent chatting with conference goers, explaining what VTI is about, and enjoying the company of some ol' friends. Unfortunately we weren't able to get in on the sessions, but Carmen and I were able to attend a worship concert featuring Paul Baloche, Brian Doerkson and a few others, which was pretty sweet, and Cayla was able to spend some time with her sister!

Over the last week, we saw quite a bit of interest in VTI, which is super exciting, but also means a lot of follow up, so we'll most likely will be holing up in an internet cafe' sometime over the next couple weeks! :)

Well that's about it for now! Sorry to have kept you all waiting for a while, but spare time is sometimes hard to find on tour.

Blessings,

Cara R

Hi ho, hi ho, it's back to work we go...

Greetings to all of our faithful blog followers! Thank-you for sticking it out during the Christmas lull where you received very little info on the adventures of the III C's. And now, back to our regular programming...

Each of us was so very blessed to have been able to spend an entire month with loved ones over the Christmas season. :) We all feel very refreshed and renewed thanks to some down time and God's Spirit, and are (slowly) getting back into the swing of full-time ministry.

For the short time that we've been back, God has been providing in amazing ways. I found the photos I need for the promo video I'm making, Carmen and Cara have people calling back regarding host schools and churches for our tours, and... (drumroll please)...

WE HAVE A HOME! A very wonderful, generous lady has offered to let all three of us live inher basement during our Calgary/office times. It is such a God provision for both herself and us, as she no longer had a roommate, and we were looking for a place for all three of us to live. Praise the Lord that He arranged this before we were even born! :D

So, what's next? Well, we're in the

office working on our touring schedule and other tour details this week. Though it may not sound that exciting, we're actually quite enjoying it, and I really believe this time is needed before we get into the whirlwind lifestyle of long driving/ministry days and short nights! We've also very recently started to have a Bible study every morning (we've each picked a book of the Bible to lead studies on), and already I can see the difference it's made in our day.

In closing, all I can say is that our God is so good, and He loves us enough to give us good gifts, never mind His only Son! Doesn't that just blow your mind? It sure blows mine. :)

Pressing on in Christ's name,
Cayla for Encore