California Breakaway!

Hey Everyone,
I just got back early Monday morning from my Youth For Christ trip to California. We took 160 youth and 25 chaperones from across Saskatchewan for a week of intentional and intense fun. We got on the bus Thursday afternoon and arrived at Huntington Beach Saturday morning. The next week was filled with giving the youth a trip of a life time. We spent time at three different beaches, Disney Land, Universal Studios, Six Flags, outdoor shopping centres, Sea World -just to give you an idea of some of the fun we had. In addition to seeing all the hottest sights in California we also had 4 nights where we had big group games and then had Corwin Tiessen speak to us. Corwin is an amazing speaker who the youth related to easily and was able to start them thinking about God and their relationship with Him. After these nights were over we’d go back to our hotel rooms for small group times.

I had 8 amazing girls in my small group all from Moose Jaw and surrounding areas. Each of these girls were at different stages of faith and it was such a privilege to be able to have these small group discussions and later one on one discussions of who they believe Jesus is and how they can grow in knowing Him. Like I always say the life of faith is a journey and it was such a privilege to be apart of these girls journeys of discovering more of who Jesus is- whether it be the first time ever hearing about Jesus or them being Christians for several years and growing deeper in love with Him. Throughout the week I found myself discouraged because the trip wasn’t unfolding how I had expected it would and was questioning I was even there. However, through my bus breaking down in Los Vegas I had a lot of time to reflect and see how God moved in the youths lives and found peace in knowing that God had led me to be on the trip for reasons far greater than I can and will ever comprehend, and I can rest in knowing that God is faithful to continue the work that He has begun in each of them.
Thank you for those of you who prayed for us this trip. We had no hospital trips and God defiantly was at work in our youths lives. Many of their hearts are seeking for truth and it is so exciting to see that hunger in their eyes. Please keep them in your prayers they continue to journey in discovering who Jesus is and the plan He has for their lives.
Thanks again for you love, prayers and support.

Leanne

In for the Long Haul

Hey Everyone, Thank you for keeping us in your prayers last weekend as we took 48 of our youth to youth quake (several of our boys dropped out at last minute which was too bad). It was an amazing weekend of building unity with our youth and also them growing closer to God. The speaker was a young man named Jared Herd from California, who was also the speaker last year. He has an incredible ability to capture our youth’s attention and keep them attentive (this is a big deal for youth who are not used to going to church and being respectful and quiet for ½ an hour). The theme was ‘Play Your Part’ and he took time over the weekend to share with the youth God’s grand story and God’s desire for them to be apart of it by becoming all that Christ created them to be.

Several of our youth stood up on Saturday night to say they wanted to start getting their lives right with God. This past Wednesday I spoke in Caronport at chapel about what it looks like to do discipleship in the 21st century. I wish I could have given them a 5 point formula of some sort but the truth is there is no formula in discipling new believers. As I prepared and gave this message God reminded me how this journey of faith is in fact just that- a journey. So often we get excited when people make decisions for the Lord but we then leave them alone to figure out how to live out this life of faith on their own. I also am guilty of expecting to see signs of maturity right away. I got home Sunday and felt overwhelmed by the implications of discipling these young people. However, God gently reminded me that this is a life long process for them (for all of us). They are not going to reach perfection this year or next year. This is a life long journey that we are all on together as a family. It takes patience, grace, love and perseverance to see fruit of maturity in all of our lives. At our Bible study on Tuesday I read Philippians 3:7-14 to our youth which says

7 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ.[c] For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. 1
12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it,[d] but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

God reminded me that this is what I have been called into youth ministry to do. To love, encourage, support youth as they learn what it means to put their past behind them and strive to become all that Christ created them to be. Yes, they will fall and make mistakes a long the way but just as parent raising their children into maturity we need to be gracious, patient and supportive as they grow in becoming all that Christ has created them to be. I have not reached full maturity and I am so grateful for all the people who God has put in my life to support, correct, love and be faithful in my life. Would you please pray for our volunteers and staff as we strive to be the body and support our youth as they grow into Christ like maturity. Our youth have so much going against them. Becoming a Christian for our youth is not easy because they often suffer much persecution from their friends and their families. Please pray that they would not give up because being a Christian is hard and that the Spirit would put a passion and a desire in their hearts to love God and live lives that reflect their love for Him.

Thank you all for all your continued support and prayers! You are such a huge part of this ministry and we know that your prayers are making a lasting difference in our youth’s hearts and lives.
May you be blessed as you continue to love and support each other as we are all on this journey of maturing in our faith and falling deeper in love with Christ!

God bless
Leanne

Act II- Youth Quake

Youth Quake Last year! Thom (Red shirt) and James (black cap) both became Christians at Youth QUake and have continued to grow in their love for God!

Hey Friends,

I hope your surviving the cold weather! Spring is on the way!! wahoo!

Life continues to be busy here in Moose Jaw. This weekend is Youth Quake which is our annual youth retreat that we take 60 of our youth on each year. I'm so excited for what God is going to do this weekend as we are taking new youth and God has been softening a lot of their hearts through our weekly Bible study Series-Gospel Journey Maui. Two weeks ago we actually ran our Bible study 3 times that week because youth who had missed the week before came to us asking if they could get caught up on what we had talked about. So on the Friday night another staff member and I spent 2 hours with one of our guys who is a muslim and his girl friend talking about what the purpose of life is and how we can know GOd. Please pray for both of them as they come to youth quake this weekend. The next day we ran BIble study again for a Wiccan, His girlfriend, and two other youth. God continually is amazing me the youth he brings into our paths. He has been just showing me so much His heart for His children and how much He wants them to know Him and experience life the way He created it to be lived.

Last week as I read 1 Corinthians 2 God really reminded me that it only by His spirit that any of us are able to understand the things of God and know Him. Would you join us this week in praying for that GOd's spirit would give our youth "the minds of Christ" in order that they can come to an understanding of who CHrist is and the amazing gift of abundant life that He is offering them!
God is doing something new in our midst this winter as we have been seeing God soften so many youth's hearts. Please pray against Satan's schemes of keeping youth from attending youth quake and any other distractions through out the weekend. ALso pray for our staff and volunteers to have wisdom, discernment, love and patience throughout the weekend as we get very little sleep. I appriciate all of your continued love and support. Thanks again for playing such a vital part of this ministry.

May you be blessed as you pray for us and our youth

GOd bless

Leanne

A FRESH START!

Hey Everyone, I hope your new year has started off well. I got back from Christmas and started work at full speed. With our New Years Eve party we were able to connect with dozens of new youth and have seen many of them out on the weekends. We started a new series for our Tuesday night Bible Studies called Gospel Journey Maui that has drawn out a lot of new youth as well (typically 45-50 youth). It is a series that has 7 young people from across North America with different faith backgrounds discussing deep questions of life such as ‘is there a higher power?” and ‘what is the meaning of life?’. Since New Years we have seen such a softening of hearts in our youth and it is so exciting to have God lead us to be apart of this journey with our youth in discovering who they are and who they were created for. Please continue to pray for our youth and our staff as we join them in this journey.

Also on Saturday nights we have been running the series during our drop in hours for youth who are unable to attend on Tuesdays. This past Saturday we had 16 youth join us in watching and discussing the video. This is so exciting as God has awed us at the youth He draws in. This past week 4 girls who we often catch drinking in our bathrooms joined us for the study and were so focused and captivated by it. God often reminds me to stop limiting God to what youth I think He can change. He has been so gracious to me this month in gently reminding me that He has the power to soften the hardest of hearts.
Another girl who was in my small group on Tuesday talked to one of the other leaders from our group on Friday about how she wants to become a Christian after our discussion on Tuesday. Please pray for her as this leader walks her through what it means to be a Christian.

Some of our amazing youth and staff helping with an annual food drive in October!!!

Another exciting thing that has started since Christmas is creating a new start for our student leadership team (SNL= Service N' Leadership) . The main leader moved after Christmas which was sad to loose him but exciting to be forced to think outside of the box and revamp how we run student leadership. It is just starting up but it has been exciting to approach youth to be apart of the team and to tell them what potential we see in them. God has created our youth with amazing gifts and talents and we believe by teaching them how to lead and serve that God will also draw them into a greater understanding of who God has created them to be and who He is. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about this in a few weeks.
We truly believe God is moving in a fresh and new way this year at Joe’s Place and we are excited for what this year of 2009 holds for us. Since January we have added 3 new full time staff to our team which increases our ability to reach the youth of Moose Jaw. Thank you for your continued love and support and partnering with us in as we are blessed to be apart of God’s work in this city.
Hope to talk to you all again soon
Love Always

Leanne

YAY HEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!GOD IS GOOD!

For those of you who didn't know, last week our boiler was broken because there was a leak in it. So if was below zero in our building and so very hard to work and keep kids wanting to stay at JOe's Place when it felt like an icebox. Wednesday night we had an emergency prayer meeting that God would glorify His name by healing our boiler becuase we didnt have the jmoney or the time to get a new one.
Well today I walked into work and it was the most amazing feeling to have a rush of hot air hit my body! All last week when we enter the building it was colder inside then it was outside.
God is faithful and sealed the leak that was in our boiler. After our emergency prayer meeting on WEdnesday we returned to Joe's Place on Thursday and our electrician said the leak was gone. Completely a miracle. However, when he went to start up the boiler the motor blew and so it was broken until last night when he got the part in that they needed to fix it. Saturday night we had probably 150 youth in Joe's Place for a coffee house which was such a blessing to have body heat to warm the building.
Thank you all for your prayers and Praise GOd for caring enough about something like a boiler. It is just another reminder that He loves the youth of Moose Jaw and believes in what we do here at JOe's Place!
THanks again
I love you all
Leanne

A White Thanksgiving!

Me and some youth and volunteers on Thanksgiving Monday

Hey Everyone,
Happy belated thanksgiving! I hope you all had a great weekend being reminded of all the things that we so often take for granted. I thought that this Thanksgiving would be hard because it’s the longest I’ve been away from my family. However, God was so good to me and gave me an amazing weekend with friends. By the end of the weekend I found myself feeling so blessed to have all these people in my life and I know it is by God’s hand that He has placed them all in my life. I am so thankful that God knows all my hearts desires and puts all the people I need in my life in His perfect timing. God has provided me with an amazing church family that I continually find myself loving more each week. I also am now teaching Sunday school once a month which has been a lot of fun getting to know some of the children in my church.

It snowed 8 inches on Thanksgiving Sunday. Our friends got snowed in at our house so we spent hours outside enjoying the first snow dump! (The snow is all melted now and everything is lush and green. Flowers are still blooming...how bizzare!)

This fall has been amazing with watching our volunteer team grow not only in numbers but in unity. Each staff meeting before we open Joe asks a few volunteers to share how they came to know God and who or what was significant in bringing them to God. It has been so amazing to hear the many different ways in which God draws people to Himself. It has been such a reminder to all of us that God is God of creativity and that He draws people from all sorts of walks of life and brings them to Himself in all kinds of ways. It has also been encouraging to hear their testimony of the journey of maturity of faith. It is such a great reminder that we’ve never arrived and we are all on this journey of maturing in Christ. Beginning our weekend nights in this manner has made us all more aware of how powerful God is to draw us to Himself and has given us a new confidence to share what God has done in our lives and share a new urgency and boldness to share the gospel with our youth. Please continue to pray for our volunteers as many of them are fresh out of high school and this kind of ministry is new and challenging for them. Already I have watched them grow in leadership and maturity. It’s so exciting to be a part of a ministry that is intentional in equipping and mentoring young Christian leaders into discovering their gifts and abilities in changing a city for Christ.

Volunteers at Joe's Place dressed up for Pirates of the Carribean Night.

God has not only been drawing out a lot of new volunteers but many new youth have been coming out. I am now apart of leading the student leadership team at Joe’s Place. On Saturday nights these youth help organize events for the other youth to get involved. It has been so amazing to see how God uses something as ridiculous as a Pirates of Caribbean night to draw out new youth and build relationships among youth and staff, and also create a sense of unity amongst all in the building.
Along with weekly events I also help organize service projects for the youth to be apart of. Next week we will be taking a dozen youth to Regina to help serve dinner at a soup kitchen there. Then on Wednesday ½ a dozen of our youth will be helping serve at a seniors banquet. We started doing these service projects last winter and its so amazing to watch our youth continue to grow in leadership and servant hood.
I want to share with you something the Lord has been teaching me over the past month. In September there was a lot of violence in Moose Jaw taking place and there was an evident darkness hovering over the city. Because of this at times I found myself anxious and nervous. 3-4 weeks ago a fellow class mate from Briercrest was killed while being a good Samaritan to a teenager who had hit an elk on a side of the highway. His pregnant wife reacted with such grace and forgiveness to the driver of the vehicle to whom killed him and continually talked about how God is good and has a plan for taking her young husband home. After that news I began to think of how many times the Lord saves me from death and how He has a purpose in saving lives but also in taking them. A few days later I had a bit of an accident where I tripped and fell onto the transCanada high way where there was a transport truck quickly approaching. God was gracious and I only suffered a twisted ankle some scrapes and bruises and was able to get off the highway before the transport truck passed. Four days later my roommate was in a car accident one block from Joe’s Place on her way to volunteer on a Friday night. Her car was totalled but she walked a way with only 1 bruise. In a matter of a week the Lord showed me how quickly life can be taken, and that I can trust that He is a good God who has a plan that is far greater than I can comprehend. I share all this with you because as I talked to a friend this week she asked me how the violence in Moose Jaw has been effecting me? I paused for a moment to think about this and realized that since these three accidents happened my anxiety has disappeared. I am no longer anxious and fearful about the violence in Moose Jaw (although dad, rest assure that I am cautious at night). Through these three accidents God has given me a peace and a renewed knowledge that He is God and I am not. I cannot always understand His ways but I can rest in knowing that He is faithful and good. He will be faithful in the midst of a broken and fallen world. I have been reminded that God has a plan for my life and it is in His hands. It is my prayer for all of you that God would make this truth real to you and that His peace that surpasses all understanding and circumstance will dwell in your hearts.
I have so much more I could write but I will save it for another day.
I love you all and am praying that God’s peace will reign in your hearts.
Love always
Your Prairie Girl
Leanne
Alexina, one of the dear women to my heart from my church. She helps serve dinner every Tuesday night at Bible Study at Joe's Place. She is such a blessing in my life!

September Update

I've been in denial that summer has officially ended and that the fall has begun. August was crazy busy with a lot of exciting events that we believe God really continued a work in our youths lives. We took 18 of our youth to Cypress Hills for 4 days at the beginning of August. For me this was an amazing few days of really connecting in a new way with several of our youth. I had opportunities to be transparent with them which was stretching but so good to watch how that really opened their hearts to be transparent with me in return. God drew us together in unity in ways we never expected and it was such a refreshing week for all of us.

The following week was super busy with preparations for our first annual 'Old School Party'. Joe's Place has been around since 1993 and by God's grace we were able to throw a party for close to 100 of the old Joe's Place youth (who are no longer youth). This was a great night of youth reconnecting with Joe and other staff. I got the privilege to organize a team of our present youth and leaders to take care of the children of these grown up youth. We are hoping this will be a yearly event that we host in hope to continue to stay connected with these people and remind them of the grace and love of Christ.

I went to Montana for labour day weekend to visit some old college friends. It was so fun to be with them all again and see how God has grown us in the past 5 years. September started with a rush when I came back from my mini holiday. It was exciting to plan preperations to orientating and training our fall volunteers from Briercrest. We were unsure how we were going to recruit new volunteers as our partnership with Briercrest has changed this year. However God is faithful and has raised up about 40 new volunteers to be apart of our team at Joe's Place. It has been so exciting getting to know them slowly. I am so excited for what the Lord has instore for us this year as so many new things are on the rise.

Starting this week we are beginning our drama team. On Saturday evenings an art club has begun. My Friday night girls group is evolving into a new dynamic. Adrienne (my friend who I partnered with in this ministry) has moved to Saskatoon and therefore that in itself has changed the dynamics of our group as we really balanced each other out well. (These pictures in this update are of our girls group on our last night all together). We have new girls who have joined our group and we have begun a new dvd seriese based on the book 'Captivating' by John and Stasi Eldredge. THis is a very powerful book that helps women of all ages rediscover who they were created to be and the freedom that is in Christ.

WOuld you please consider comitting to praying weekly for our girls group? The majority of the girls in our group our very new beleivers and I truly believe God has great things instore for them this year through this series. Please pray that their hearts would be soft and open to God's truth that they will hear each week. Pray that we will grow together in unity and love for each other. And plaese pray against all distractions that would keep them from hearing and applying God's words for them.

I'm so excited for this fall and where God will take us from here. Thank you for being apart of praying for me and the youth here in Moose Jaw.

I would lastly like to ask for your continual prayer and support as I continue to raise my financial support. God has been faithful in raising up 65% ($12,000) of my monthly support. I am still in need of raising the final 35% ($800 per month). If you would like more information on how you could be apart of this aspect of my ministry I'd love to talk to you on the phone or by email.

God has been faithful in providing me an amazing place to live this year as I am living with one of the girls from my Friday small group abd ny quadmate, Lauren, whom I lived with last year just moved in also this past week. We live in a great neighbourhood and have an amazing house that is great for having friends and youth over. My new contact information is as follows.

Leanne Plouffe

1303 Athabasca St W

Moose Jaw SK

S6H 6C8

306-692-2198 (home)

306-693-5637(Joe's Place)

Well, I would love to hear what the fall has instore for many of you. Feel free to drop me a line or a call anytime.

Love and miss you all lots

Leanne