YFC STAFF PROFILE #3: Mark von Riesen

Mister Mark Wesley von Riesen, the senior staff member of the "YFC Three." So..."is his last name really von Riesen???" The answer is YES...and AMEN! Mark officially changed his last name in the past year, to the original version of Friesen. This kind of elusiveness has been a definite characteristic of Mark for quite some time now, with most of his acquaintances not being sure of where he lives, how he lives, what he's up to, or how to get a hold of him (rumor has it he now owns a cell phone for the first time ever...no one's quite sure if it's true).

BUT...the one thing people can count on is that he won't be too far from the Drop-In Centre, for Mark has had a dedicated heart towards the place, the people, and the ministry for a long time. Nine years ago he wandered into the Drop-In, started volunteering where he could, and now has been on staff for well over five years. With the more recent additions of Gordon and Eric, Mark has moved to an Associate Director position.

With a listening ear and an original perspective, Mr. von Riesen naturally takes a pastoral role within the YFC community in Niverville, be it amongst fellow staff, volunteers, youth, or others in connection with YFC.

Personally, Mark loves travel and new experiences, loves the diversity and uniqueness of his family (and now including his girlfriend, Kristen, and her family), and he loves music as well...playing as much as he can while bringing it to life at the Drop-In Centre, too. Mark's experience plays a major role to the YFC team, a role that YFC is very thankful to have.

YFC STAFF PROFILE #2: Eric McMahon

And here's Eric Shaun McMahon...the newest addition to the YFC staff trilogy. With an enthusiastic heart to make an impact in the lives of Niverville's youth, he stepped up to the Drop-In plate over a year ago, and dedicated himself to the full-time position of Program Director. It's been quite a massive step as he did so in tandem with MARRIAGE, beginning his ministry upon return from his honeymoon. No wall is too high for Eric McMahon. This is the attitude he's taken as he has jumped right into the intensity of youth ministry with some of the tougher crowds. One can hear Eric every now and then say "people are just putting up walls, and I'm just tearing them down." It's his love for the kids that gets through, whether he's hanging out at the Drop-In, the skatepark, at the school, out for coffee, or in special events and programs with the kids.

Eric is just about 24 years old, and up until YFC he's done a number of random jobs, road trips, worked and lived in Thailand, lived in apartments with strange friends, and then married the love of his life, Melodie. He LOVES film, and music...and shares both these passions and talents in the ministry, and on top of being a man of God, he aspires to be a superhero called "Hawkman."

YFC STAFF PROFILE #1: Gordon Kroeker

Voila!.....Monsieur Gordon Timothy James Kroeker, Niverville YFC's Executive Director. At the young age of 22, Gord finished up a college business degree and stepped right into the ministry about two years ago now. Thankfully he had spent the previous three summers working at YFC giving him an adequate initiation into the storm of youth ministry, though adequate may be an overstatement as there is very little experience that would be adequate preparation for being YFC Canada's youngest Executive Director.

His versatility has been fundamental to his work, for on top of connecting with youth and heading up the Drop-In Centre, Gord gets thrown into spheres such as planning banquets, delivering sermons, Seniors bible studies, random sports events, teaching elementary school kids, bookkeeping, cooking breakfasts, painting, and much more. In all of this, Gordon brings a keen understanding of people, business, and faith like no other; a combination so helpful to this ministry.

Gord has a passion for his family and his heritage, and a fascination with machines that move at ridiculous speeds (like a super-charged combine?). He also enjoys long walks along the Red River, Mennonite poetry, free-style hip-hop poetry, 16th century literature, and a mean farmer sausage.

new place, new space, new face

Greetings, everyone!
We're just getting a "blog" going here for our Drop-In Centre...so we hope to keep you all in touch with potentially VERY interesting stuff. Spiritually inspirational stuff. Or at least funny stuff. The blog world is now becoming a new place, new space, and a new face for the Niverville YFC crew. Hope you like...

-mark

Christmas With The Drop-In...

Christmastime at the Niverville Drop-In is filled with good food and really tacky gifts. But it is much more than just that. We are called Youth for Christ for a reason. We try to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. So we gave it our best shot this Christmas and blessed the drop-in teens and the drop-in volunteers by giving them...good food and really tacky gifts.

Here are some pictures of this years volunteer Christmas party...

Chris hoping to find a gem.

Grace, trying out her new bird whistle.

Melodie inspecting the cheesecakes (made by yours truly).

Quelf, the ultra random board game

Volunteers with their gifts, which include: a marriage certificate holder, a Superman comic and a thigh master.

Kaeleb testing out his new pirate mug/pot/beerstein



Now for some pictures of our Senior High Christmas Feast...

The best picture we have of our Christmas tree.

Feast!

Josiah and Zac fixing our Canada flag Christmas light display.

Feasting!

Homemade perogies, lasagna, farmer sausage, chilli and tons of desserts.

Thank you so much to all the people who donated so many baked goods and other foods of all shapes and sizes. It's good to know the drop-in, which was built to serve the community, can count on the community. If that makes sense...

Merry Christmas and may you experience God in a whole new way!

Niverville YFC Banquet Pictures

Hello everyone that reads this sporadically updated blog,

Here's some pictures of the YFC Banquet at the Heritage Centre this last Wednesday. Our theme was "change". We have seen a ton of change in the community, the culture and the teenagers since the drop-in centre opened.

We watched a video with lots of old photos to show how much the drop-in has changed over the years. We heard what happened this year, particularly...Ecclectomania at the Niverville Fair with Island Breeze, and the 3rd annual townwide youth event, the Super Runningman 64.

Mark, Gord and Cheri (the board chair) gave inspired speeches. One of our volunteers gave his testimony of going from being a drop-in teen to being a burn survivor to being a volunteer for YFC Niverville. We also got a good dose of reality when two of our very own drop-in teens told us what it is like to be a teenager nowadays, in this society and culture.

This is Cheri Downey (the board chair).

Brent & Drew telling us what it's like being a teenager nowadays.

Me telling it like it is.

Gord telling it like it will be.

...and Mark telling it how it was.

Merrick Sandulak giving his testimony.

The awesome jazz band, The BMW's.

Thanks to all of you who came, who wanted to come and who thought about coming.
Come again next year, we will not disappoint. Well, we might disappoint, but God never does...


God bless,
Eric

Talk at Soncity

Hey everyone,

There is this place called Soncity across from Niverville's high school where students come and eat a $3 all-u-can-eat lunch buffet every Tuesday. Before every Tuesday buffet, one of Niverville's youth pastors or one of us from the drop-in centre gives a "God talk". I gave one of these talks yesterday and I thought I should share it with you all...


I want to talk to you guys about racism. Not only between races. I'm talking about racism between, Muslims and Christians, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, teachers and students. Pride is the root of all types of racism. When you think that you are better than someone, (anyone) in a sense, you are being racist.

Martin Luther King Jr. ends one of his famous speeches with this:

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old song:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

Paul says something similar in the New Testament...

But now that faith has come, we are no longer under the Law.
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise.

Those are beautiful pictures of unity and harmony in the human race. But the only way that will happen is if every single person looks into their own heart and changes what's not right. I challenge you today to look into your heart and see how pride has blinded your decisions.
You may think that Niverville is safe and free from racism. But it's not. You may think that this guy or that girl is the problem...but maybe you have become part of the problem. Pride is the reason there is racism. Pride creates divisions among people where there should be unity and friendship.

So if you want to change the world...get humble. Humility is the key to understanding other people and where they are coming from and understanding God.

Humility is the key to true happiness.