On-Site Training
March 21-24, 2013 (4 days)
When you arrive in Winnipeg, you will spend four days in On-Site Training (Orientation). During this time, you will focus on your relationship with God, your team and your upcoming ministry. This time has been described as a waterfall where God pours into you before you begin your Ministry Assignment. It is also a time of refreshment, where you drink deeply the spring of living water, letting your burdens from the past be washed away. Read more to hear about stories and reflections from past participants.
Orientation Stories and Reflections
Kaitlyn Rempel, Blumenort Mennonite Team
"The Broken Ring" is a picture that God gave me while I was doing a learning tour of the North End of Winnipeg. Although I had seen and heard many of these things before, I was once again devastated by the hurt and exploitation I saw there. As I was once again hearing about the prostitution in that area, I was overwhelmed with anger at the people who would even give the prostitutes business. Didn't they know they were destroying their lives? But at the same time I was experiencing this anger, God spoke to me and gave me this picture of a hammer breaking a ring. It represented the cycle of poverty and injustice being broken, but the thing that caught my attention was the hammer. It was native in appearance, and I interpreted this as meaning that God was going to raise up people from the North End's own community to break the cycle. The beauty of this picture gives me so much hope and I pray Isaiah 61 over this community because I know that it is truth and that God has anointed them to be ministers to their own people.
Danielle Kampen, Douglas Mennonite Team
On Friday, all of the SOAR participants participated on a walking tour of the North End. We were split up into groups of 3 or 4, and did a sort of scavenger hunt around the area. Each group received a package that contained newspaper articles, questions and clues for figuring out where to walk to or stop next. We prayed while we walked the stretts that have the most prostitution and the most gang activity in Winnipeg, stopped at parks nearby and greeted people we passed by on the sidewalk.
When I told people about this tour after we'd returned home from Soar, people asked "weren't you afraid?" And maybe at first I had been afraid of the thought of it. It was definitely a step out of my comfort zone. But while we were walking, we did not encounter fear. Instead, we fund God. We found him in so many places; in so many people, and he opened our eyes to the ways he is working in our city; opened our eyes so we could see his children and love them as He does.
We talked to people we met on the street; asked them questions, and shared stories and experiences. Some groups took people out for cofee; some groups prayed for people and were even prayed for in return. There are amazing stories of what we experienced. A few groups were approached by peple who said, "Oh hey!" You're the Christians, aren't you?" It was an honour to be recognized as such.
Just throughout the course of this tour, our mentalities changed from stereotyping the people of the HEartland of Winnipeg as "them" to seeing them as children of God and people we can relate to. The following is a quote from the Lion King II, where Kiara says to Simba: "Them? Us. Look at them. They are us. What differences do you see?" While there are differences, in circumstances in lifestyle and in culture, "they" are people with hopes and dreams and lives and stories just like any one of us. That is who we treated them as, so that is who we saw. And our eyes were opened.
Laura Hildebrand, Fort Garry MB Team
I was really touched by the way our team bonded together and encouraged each other through the hard times and exhausting days. I also loved the community of SOAR as a whole and the friendliness of everyone. I made a lot of friends outside of my team, which was really fun as well! The facility has been so beautiful, it was really great to have the mirror room and the showers. I really engaged in the worship time and I learned a lot about the cultures and perspectives of the Aboriginal people and gained a lot of insight in that area. I felt like the leaders of my team, the Take Flight team and other coordinators were very encouraging and friendly as well!
Becky Epp, Douglas Mennonite Team
Every day there was team time. During team time, we would talk about the day, and where we saw God. We wrote encouragement cards to each other, prayed together, or simply relaxed. Sometimes we broke off into smaller groups and answered questions, and prayed. Sometimes we had things to do that related to the session, like listening prayer and foot washing
I have participated in a foot washing a few times prior to SOAR, but this year we did it really differently, I enjoyed it a lot. One person would sit in the middle. They would have their feet washed by two other people. Then the whole team would lay a hand on them while two people prayedout loud.
As my feet were washed, I felt so blessed. There is a physical weight when 23 people lay a hand on you. But there is also the weight of all their love and prayers pouring over you. God’s love for me became so obvious to me during that time. It was an amazing feeling.
Being a team is really important on SOAR. If our team didn’t get along, it would be a really long week. But we all became good friends and I think we worked as a team well. If there was trouble at VBS, we would all pray together. If the worship became really emotional, we would comfort each other and cry together. As the week progressed, we became more and more like a family.
Karleen Peters, Douglas Mennonite Team
SOAR was an amazing experience all in all. Good times and bad, it was one of the best weeks of my life. For me, my favourite part of out daily routines during SOAR was worship. We had it twice each day: Once in the morning, once in the evening, each right before team time.
Each session would start with amazing music, good songs, and people singing along. They were times full of total love for God, some full of mourning and lamenting, some full of total praise and worship that you could feel the floor go up and down and we jumped. One of the first nights we were there, they had a time during worship where you could go and nail your burdens to a cross, much like we had here. Pretty soon over half of the people were crying, and everyone was comforted and given loads of hugs to, and they just felt totally loved. You could just feel what you were giving up be lifted off your shoulders and sent away, and just sing with all you had. We even got to know some of the people in the band, and they were just awesome. They were all so talented with the instruments that they played, it was clear that God gifted them all with amazing talent.
All in all, worship was a super exhilarating, beautiful, exhausting, total give it all time. It was an amazing experience, and I hope God blesses me with the chance to do it all over again.
