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Armbruster family '07

"where have i been?" you may be asking....well i have been one busy little bee.

• first of all: for the last month i've been working 6 days a week. it's been good....some days it was a little overwhelming!!! a lot of books to be cleaned-ribboned-priced-picked-packed-and then set out! but on thursday we shipped out the last couple (by couple i mean 60) boxes of books and now it's time to rest before i get to do it all over again! :) this week-end my boss gave me a couple of days off and then on Monday we have a holiday! thank God for Thanksgiving!

• Every Thursday my friends char, kyla & I drive 45mins to winnipeg to take part in a little thing i like to call "african dance class". ok, so maybe it's not just something i like to call....it's actually what it is. yes, african dance.....and please don't ask any of us to do it for you....we still look like 3 white girls trying to dance like an african man! it's been a ton of fun....and we're learning! hey borgen dts '07.....have you guys been practicing your african moves?

• For my friday nights i've been involved as a mentor with the senior youth nights (grades 10-12) This is the first year that our youth group split the seniors and the juniors. so it's been something new...but i've really been enjoying it. being in a smaller group just makes it easier to connect and have good discussions with the youth. about half of the youth on friday night went on the missions trip to vancouver that i went on this july...so it's been good to maintain the connection and because we already have a bond, we can be honest and encourage each other through out our weeks. Yesterday we had our first outreach as a team together. man, it was amazing. i so easily forget how much i love/hate being put into situation where i have to rely on God, b/c there is NO way that i can do it with my own strength! then by the end of the evening i LOVE it, b/c God always comes through and teaches me something new! what we did yesterday was we split into 4 different teams. my team had 5 peeps in it, we drove out to winnipeg to an area called osborne village. for anyone who has never been to winnipeg: to sum it all up it's basically an area where there is a lot of culture, and brokenness mixed together. there is a lot of occult that goes down there and ya, it's just a really interesting area of the city where you see a lot of different people. just living their lives. while on osborne we went to a gas station and asked if we could clean up the place for free. the lady at first looked at us sooooo suspiciously! hehe, who would want to clean up a bathroom on osborne...and why? by the end though she was super friendly and said to me "wow, i can't really believe this....you guys came down to osborne to do this? wow, i don't usually say this....but you are really awesome." then on our way back to our vehicle we stopped to talk to a homeless man who was holding a sign asking for money. through our conversation he mentioned that he was waiting for a liver transplant, so we offered to pray for that and he agreed! i can't really say that i've ever imagined myself praying for someone on osborne...nope, but it happened! sweet God! i had an awesome group of kids on my team as well...they were super willing to serve and this was a first for a couple of them, so it was mightily stretching. i can't wait to see what'll happen next through these guys.

hm, it's 1:30am right now...and tomorrow is a day FULL of family gatherings and food! i'll need my rest now! for those of you overseas....tomorrow is the Canadian Thanksgiving! it's a day where we eat lots of turkey, mashed (or you may know it as "smashed") potatoes, and we thank God for all that he's given us. :) it's a pretty sweet holiday if you ask me!
bless you all!!
love, Mel