Sad Goodbyes, New Beginnings and One Amazing Father!!!

"The Definition of True Love is Sacrifice" - Jason Ma

A quote from Encore's "What Is Love" Drama

Well, faithful blog followers.. our Encore year is officially done. I can't express enough how good our God is.. the places we have been, the people we have met and the opportunities to share our stories has been remarkable.

To answer some of your burning questions about whether VTI is closing/shutting down/ ending..posted below is a statement from the Board of Directors at VTI describing in detail the decisions that have been made in turn resulting in our recruitment team no longer being needed. Here is the letter;

Dear faithful co-workers, friends and supporters of Venture Teams International,

God has done great things for HIS glory through the 32 years of mission and ministry of Venture Teams International. From the ranks of these teams many have continued on foreign fields and on native land, in full time career missions. Many more continue to build into the Kingdom both here and abroad, in their respective workplaces, grounded and in their faith and witness, as the fruit of their time with VTI!

God has brought "thousands" to repentance and faith through the years of VTI’s service, and many more through through the mentoring of the second and third generations of believers and disciple makers.

In the recent years, recruitment and applications for teams have dwindled. Churches are recognizing their unique role of mentoring and discipling their own body members, dozens if not hundreds of organizations are doing what VTI does, and the special niche that VTI filled as a vehicle for facilitating and mobilizing teams has been eroded. The opportunity for Bible college interns to receive college recognized credits for training and practicum's are more widely available.

Given the small organization, smaller teams and maintenance of properties, operational costs have become prohibitive. Multitasking and extraordinary sacrificial service by staff have led to burn out among members of the organization.

The VTI board is concerned about the critical cash flow situation of the organization. To move forward in integrity requires immediate action. In light of this, the board is considering our options and is currently in dialogue with viable established ministries and mission organizations, including those who share the vision of VTI, to come together in some yet to be defined relationship, to address these issues. The goal is to exercise wise stewardship of the present ministry and assets entrusted to VTI, and to deal with the organization’s present financial indebtedness.

Steps have been taken to reduce all costs including staff and the closing of our Calgary office for the immediate consolidation of operations to the VTI training facility in Water Valley. We are limiting our activities until we have a clear direction for the future. We are also considering the future of our training centre in Water Valley. We will update you further as decisions are made and we are able to share these.

We recognize the call and gifting of our staff and would like to release them and bless them to God’s ongoing purpose and plan for their lives. In the financial realities and the uncertainties that are posed in times of transition, the board would value your prayers, that staff members, their families and the faithful supporters that have shared in their, and VTI's ministry over so many years, may know God’s guidance and peace throughout these challenging times.

Signed,

Brian Rushton

Board Chair

On behalf of the board of Venture Teams International

So..I have been asked a few times now.. what does that mean for your last year? Has your labour gone in vain? All those long hours of promoting, doing programs, standing at booths... Well.. my answer after much prayer and seeking the Lord for answers is.... NO WAY!!! The reason why I have been serving and I know Cayla and Cara would say the same thing is that first and foremost for the LORD! He is in control even if we don't understand what He has up His sleeve.. we trust Him so much and as we have said our goodbyes and are now heading our separate directions, we are at peace knowing we reside in His hands and know that He will take us to where He wants us and where we can Glorify His name the most in the days, weeks, months and years to come.

So what's next for each of us? Well.. plans as of right now for each of us are;

-Cayla is currently looking for a summer job and attending an Internship at Mile 0 Church in Grimshaw AB in September.

-Cara is currently looking for a summer job as well and is in the application process to attend Peace River Bible Institute in Sexsmith AB in September.

-And myself, Carmen.. I am currently applying for jobs and planning on attending Briercrest College in Caronport SK in September.

So Lastly, if you could pray for us as we step into the season of change and especially for those involved in the big changes going on with VTI that would be so much appreciated!

You have been great and I have loved every moment of sharing our amazing stories of what God is doing with you. We love you all so much!

God Bless you in your journey's ahead!

Signing out for the last time as Primary Liaison of Encore 17,

Carmen Pahl

Ps. Here are the last officialy Encore pictures :)

Our wonderful host IRENE! :)

Movie Night with Irene!

Cara's last Encore Chalk Art

Cayla and Ed!

Encore with Mike and Michelle.

I fell asleep in yet another movie...

Encore with Mark and Cheryl

Oh the places we have been!

First I must confess that this is not "soon" as I promised, and for that I apologize. I'm not sure that I can summarize everything that we've been doing these past weeks, so I'll just try to hit the highlights, and maybe Carmen and Cara can help me out by adding some other blog entries or something. Here goes...

On Sunday, March 27th, we began our jaunt down to Montana by heading down to Vauxhall, where some of Carmen's extended family lives. We were able to stay with her Grandpa following the Sunday evening program at the church her uncle pastors, and also had a day off at his house on the following Monday. My oh my how wonderful her Grandpa is! :)

Tuesday began our journey into the states. The Jill Hagen band met us at Vauxhall, we loaded the trailer and van with our stuff, and off we went to Elliston, MT! Here's a list of the programs we did around the Helena area (and at Jordan - the guitar player's - church) :

March 30th - Encore & Jill Hagen Band at Lincoln Community Center

April 1st - Encore & Carrolls at skate park in Helena

April 3rd - Encore at Elliston, Avon (morning), and Townshend (evening) Churches

April 5th - Encore & Jill Hagen Band at Deerlodge

April 6th - Encore & Jill Hagen Band at Hannaford Street Bible Church in Helena

April 7th - Encore & Jill Hagen Band at Montana Wilderness School of the Bible

April 8th - Encore & Jill Hagen Band at Great Falls

April 10th - Encore & Jill Hagen Band at a church in Frontier, SK

One of the definite highlights of being in Montana was ministering with the Carrolls - it was so awesome being able to stay with them, and just feel totally comfortable in their home. Another aspect of our Montana tour that we loved was the excitement of the people there, as some people even drove 3.5 hours just for the program/concert!! And those that came really appreciated what we presented. A personal highlight for me was getting to talk to a young man who could really relate to my testimony, and to encourage him and pray for him. If you could remember him in your prayers, too, that would be amazing. :)

Another highlight of our tour was simply being able to hang out and minister with the band. It was really refreshing, getting to tour and minister with other people. Us girls especially had some really great talks, and I know that we were all encouraged by one another. Ministry is tiring, but God has blessed us with one another so that we can pray for and encourage one another to press on toward the goal.

Here are some pictures of our past few weeks:

Well, I'd have to say that's it for now! I hope you enjoyed the pictures of us girls at Wal-Mart, with Carmen's Grandpa, us and Elena Carroll, The Jill Hagen Band performing, Encore doing our "What Is Love?" program, and Encore with the Jill Hagen Band and Dave and Lisa Carroll.

God bless you so much in your ministry, and thank-you so much for your prayers!

Cayla :)

A note of things yet to come...

There are so many things I could write about that it's pretty overwhelming! Therefore I shall just say that we have many stories to tell... that is all. Ha okay maybe not, but I honestly don't have too terribly much time right now (it's late and we haven't really been having early nights lately) so I will simply promise to write as soon as I can! Just wanted to leave you faithful blog readers with a note saying this:

We have not forgotten you, we have many stories to tell, and you will hear from us (me in particular) soon.

That, my friends, really is all. God bless till I tell you about the rest!

Cayla :)

Two weeks and beyond

Well the last couple weeks have had their ups and downs.  Like I had briefly mentioned, my Mom has been diagnosed with cancer.  We still don't have a lot of information, but she now has an appointment with a specialist on the 24 of March (today), and then from there a surgery date will most likely be chosen.  She is doing pretty well so far, but the waiting game is never an easy one.  Your prayers are definitely appreciated.

Seeing as we only had a 2 programs booked between March 8-20th (which is highly unusual, we normally have about 5 a week!), the girls decided to send me home for a bit.  So I got to spend a couple weeks at home in Winnipeg, doing odd things around the house and just relaxing with my family, which was a real blessing.

I arrived back in Calgary Sunday morning, and we got back into the swing of things pretty quickly.

The evening was spent doing our missions program at Bonavista Evangelical Missionary Church, here in Calgary.  We really enjoyed having the opportunity to share with the youth again and see some of our VTI alumni friends there.

Monday and Tuesday were spent catching up on things and hanging out together (Cayla, Carmen, and myself!), and exchanging stories from our time apart.

Wednesday...are you ready for this one...we had an early drive out to Olds, AB where we had 3 programs before 3 pm!  It was an exciting morning, a bit tiring, but good none the less.  The big relief, however, was that we only had a minimal amount of equipment to set up, since one of the schools was very small (only 14 students!) and the other one allowed us to plug into their sound system.  It's always nice when we don't have to haul out and set up our entire sound system, though we're definitely getting quite proficient at it! We were also blessed to visit Ron & Taya (VTI Staff) and their three kids and join them for a delicious dinner, before heading back to Calgary.

This morning (Thursday) was spent at Rocky Mountain College doing a program and sitting in on one of their music recitals and later today we'll be heading out to Carstairs for a youth program.  And lastly starting tomorrow we have a two day breather, before we hit the road again and start heading south (no need to get jealous though, cause we're only going as far as Montana!).

'til next time,
Cara R

Spring?! :S

Well.. the first day of Spring hit pretty nicely this year! Snowing like crazy, half frozen, half melted roads..

Anyways.. A lot has happened over the past 2 and a half weeks. As you may have read about Cara's personal prayer request about her Mom. So she was off to spend time with her family in Winnipeg.

In the meantime, Cayla and I stuck around Calgary for a few days... then her and I ended up heading out to Saskatchewan to hang out at my house and unexpectedly stayed there for a week. During this time we were able to hang out with our former team mates, Jake and Ryan, at Briercrest College, watch Refineded Undignified's "Secrets" Dance, visit my family :) and attend church at my home church, Osler Mission Chapel, along with attending a Family Feud College and Career night Sunday evening. In the meantime we got a lot of work done, e-mails, practice.. more practice.. more e-mails, calling.. the list goes on.. But it was great to just relax in the evenings and take time to just hang out (We don't usually get to "hang out" so it was a good change!)

Yesterday morning Cayla and I attended C3 Church in Calgary and picked up Cara from the airport around 11:45, we had a youth program at a church here in Calgary at 6PM and were able to pick up some groceries! :)

So what's up this week? Here is the list of events;

Today was: An Office Day
Tuesday:Another Work/Office Day
Wednesday: 3 programs;

1) 9:20AM, Olds Koininia Christian School Jr. High Chapel

2) 11:30AM, Olds Koininia Christian School, High School Chapel

3) 2PM Olds Mountain View Christian School
Thursday: 2 programs;

1) 11AM Rocky Mountain College Chapel

2) 6:30PM Program @ Carstairs Youth Club
Friday & Satuday: Days off
Sunday: 7PM Program in Vauxhall AB
Monday March 28th to April 9th: Montana Tour with the Jill Hagen Band :) woohoo!

Well, that's all for now. I hope you are all doing great!
Until the Next Time,
Carmen Pahl =]

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