Commune with the Taco Man on the Moon

Here's a litte clip from the band "Guerrilla Warfare" playing at the Forks for the Youth for Christ staff from all across Canada. The band is made up of 2 of us Niverville staff, a staff spouse, a volunteer, and our summer staffer. The song is called "Taco Man on the Moon." Enjoy!



What is the meaning of this song? Well...to sum it up, it's about finding God in unusual places. Once upon a time there was a boy who was special, for he had an amazing and contagious personality coupled with a mental disability. From some unexplicable reason he was fixated on space, with the belief that there were people made up of tacos up there. We as a band have had the pleasure of hearing from this boy vicariously through a friend of ours who had been his educational assistant. Our friend was so impacted by this boy and his unusual words of affirmation through his spacial taco world, that it overflowed into our lives. Our friend was given life-giving words that contained the power of transformation in her life, and she was connecting with her heavenly Father all the while.
Most of the lyrics in this song are quotes from this special (spacial?) boy. It was written years ago, and still holds power for us as we sing it...as we commune with the Taco Man on the Moon!

mops, brooms, and mayhem

*disclaimer*

the staff at Niverville YFC prioritize relationship, NOT organization.

Okay, with that out of the way, here's a little slice of drop-in staff life.

With the addition of summer staff David, we are four young men charged with the responsibility of the drop-in ministry...and sadly one of those responsibilities is clean up. "Surprisingly" (that was sarcastic) this responsibility can fall to the wayside, and so out of our collaborated brilliant minds we came up with the plan to meet together at a designated time every week to share the load and complete this task.

Today was that day.

D-day.

We will fight the dirt!

Now as epic as that sounds, disorganization can always defuse passion. What you may not have known is that the plan to attack TODAY was only made by 2 out of 4 staff, one of whom had forgot by the end of the weekend...and made plans with family. So 2 of us happened to show up on time, summer staff David wasn't even aware. 2 hours of scheduled time had passed, and no cleaning had started. Kids were knocking on the door, and calling to come and beat the heat and hang out with us.

Executive decision time!

We decided to use the drop-in's AC as leverage for our disorganized selves to get some help! A good handful of kids came in willingly on the condition that they clean for the use of the AC...and surprisingly no one was deterred (many were desperate out of boredom). Out came the mops, the brooms, the heavy lifting, and the mayhem! But the kids came through, and we were able to witness the summer boredom of teenagers be put to use! In hindsight, our disorganized relational framework somehow led to a clean drop-in centre!

The Life of Brian

Well, it's been a while, and here's an update for you all about Youth for Christ's initiative of Brian "HEAD" Welch @ the Niverville Fair!

Better late than never?

OK, so Brian was no easy feat to fly in from Nashville...but with the amazing unified effort of Niverville's Churches and Ministries, we were able to make it happen (or better defined as "letting God do His thing"). So the band was booked for a show on Friday night of the Fair, and after a good amount of time we were able to add a Sunday appearance of Brian to share his testimony as a little icing on the cake. As it turns out, this little "icing on the cake" addition became the substance of what is to be remembered of HEAD coming to the little old Niverville Fair.

Recently talking with some of our youth who have turned 18 and have been caught up in the drug scene, I asked them how their summer has been going. To my astonishment, the main thing they talked about was Brian Welch coming to Niverville, and not only that..but they were primarily talking about his testimony! Brian's coming has stirred up all sorts of interest and excitement in the youth. One teen told us that his mom dragged him to the concert because she was an old fan of Brian's former band, Korn. He was totally blown away by the intense, loud, and yet relevant music and message of this former meth-addict-rockstar.

The "icing on the cake" Sunday appearance also blew us away in terms of community response. With the leadership of Niverville's churches, we moved forward with the idea of abolishing the traditional Sunday Fair Services we've been having in place of hearing Brian's story (with a little bit of Jack Johnson-styled worship beforehand). With the risk of losing many traditionalist attendees, or disinterested non-church goers, we went ahead with plan...and ended up with well over double the normal attendance!! Both the churched and the un-churched were blown away, and we've heard nothing but positive feedback so far! Can I get an AMEN?! Oh, sorry...that was the southern baptist preacher in me. Woops. Anyway, we at YFC have been blessed to be a part of this move of God in little ol' Niverville...and yet it's not just an event that has passed. We believe the best fruit is yet to come...if we're willing to follow God's movement and make the most of each opportunity He gives us.

Above: Brian sharing his story with Niverville on Sunday morning.

Below: link to a video of this story (starts on Part 2 of 6, once each Part is finished, just click on the next video it recommends).
http://youtu.be/gO1nfnTNYNs