Kelli Canfield

In the past week, God has not only provided miraculously for our upcoming move to Peru, but He has also given me the opportunity to help two young girls come to know Him as Savior. I am so humbled and blessed to have been used in such a way.

I got to talk with Shianne on Sunday about her need for Christ, and she gave Jesus her heart. And she and her brother (who was already saved) will be talking with my husband this Sunday about what baptism means.

And then last night was our final night of Vacation Bible School. At the invitation a girl named Alexandra (but who goes by Alex) raised her hand indicating she wanted to more more about what it meant to be saved. I got to spend some time with her, and after we talked she said that she would like to ask Jesus to save her. So we prayed and she asked Christ to save her.

What a tremendous blessing to see two young girls come to know Christ! Please be praying for them as they begin their relationship with Him!

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I am so excited about this Sunday at Vision Baptist Church! We will celebrate our three year anniversary and give God glory for all the wonderful things He has done in three years!

In three years God has given Vision 8 missionary families who are serving God on the mission field as members of Vision Baptist. He has also sent out 3 other families that have left for the foreign field who are not technically members of Vision, but who are so close to us that we count them as our own.

God is also raising up more families out of Vision to take His gospel to the world! Two families are preparing to leave for training on the field for six months within the coming year. And there are many others who are working at the church and training to leave for the field sometime in the future. God is doing a wonderful work at Vision.

However, those headed to the foreign field couldn’t make it without the wonderful support of the rest of the Vision family who stay behind to help support those who do go. Vision has amazing people with great spirit and willing hearts. These people sacrifice their time, money, and selves to see that God is glorified.

Not to mention that the preaching is great! Pastor Gardner preaches the Word of God. We are doing a series through Hebrews in the morning services and Leviticus in the evening services. It’s been really amazing to see how the two books tie together.

If you are not already attending church somewhere else, we would love to have to come to Vision for our anniversary and praise God for the wonderful things He’s done. Just click on the picture above for more info or email me!

I want to say a special thank you to two people who work very hard in Vision’s Children’s programs. These two ladies come in and faithfully do their jobs with very little recognition sometimes, but they are integral parts of the program here.

Allison Clapp works every Thursday night in the Master’s Club program as the Activities and Games Director. The children love coming in for their time with her. She plays exciting games with them and asks Bible questions from their lessons while playing the games. We are so grateful for the time and effort Allison puts into quality activities for the kids in Masters Club. What a blessing she is!

Allison leading game time with the kids

We also want to say a big thanks to Cindi Shane. She works in the Masters Club program every Thursday teaching the 1st-3rd grade girls. She also plays the piano for Faith Friends–Vision’s children’s church program—every Sunday morning. She is such a hard worker and has a willing spirit to do anything asked of her. Thanks for all your hard work Cindi!!

Cindi with some of the kids in her Masters Club class

There are many others we could name! We are so blessed to be working with some of the most talented and willing people there is!

Last Saturday we began painting the Faith Friends (Vision’s Children Church program) room in preparation for Celebration Sunday–Vision’s 3-year anniversary–which will take place March 15th. I thought I would post some pics of the progress. Looks like we will be finishing the trim work and final touches this Saturday morning.

Robert and I want to say a special thanks to Brett Charap and Chris Fies who put a lot of work into the walls. Kristen Pearson and Danielle Ducharme helped me quite a bit with some of the trim work.

Brett Charap painting the "monster wall"

Our artist in residence

Chris' work in progress

Chris freehanded this painting! We were amazed to watch him look at a map and then pencil that map on the wall and paint it. I can’t wait to show you the finised product after Saturday. We are so blessed to have such talented people at Vision.

And finally. . .

My little attempt at helping out

Needless to say, the trimwork is not yet finished. I think I should leave the painting to people better talented than me! I didn’t get very far doing my job.

We plan to have the room all ready by March 15th–Vision’s 3rd annivesary. We also began a new series in Faith Friends–the book of Acts. We are very excited to be teaching the children the story of the church’s beginning and how the apostles turned the world upside down. Pray for us as we teach these little one’s the Word of God.

This past Sunday Robert and I had a wonderful opportunity to attend a Spanish speaking service and help out at Trinity Hill Baptist Church. The Spanish speaking church is pastored by Ronald Tubillas who also pastors the Spanish speaking church here at Vision. Ronald is actually a missionary from Peru to Latin American’s here in the States. He’s raising support right now, so if any of you have churches who are looking to take on some more missionaries, Ronald would be a wonderful addition. Even if you aren’t, you would get a great blessing from hearing his story.

Robert and I are getting ready for a six month internship in Arequpia, Peru beginning in June. Part of what prompted us to start attending is the desire to begin picking up as much Spanish as possible before we get to Peru. We realize we will still need language school once we arrive in Arequipa, but we would like to have at least a small foundation.

Also, we were able to help in the children’s chuch that day. It’s a good thing that the children there are bilingual!! Robert taught a lesson on how David became king, and I sat in the room and was amazed at how much he has grown since he began leading our own church’s children’s program. All the children were on the edge of their seat listening to everything Robert said to them. And many of them were asking questions that showed they were truly interested in the story of David. I am so grateful to be married to such a wonderful and talented man of God.

We are looking to help out in whatever manner possible at Trinity Hill. Please pray for us as we will be pretty busy on Sundays. Robert runs a bus route before and after the services. We both teach in the children’s church service, and now we will be spending the afternoon at Trinity Hill. We are super excited about it! Please pray also that we will be able to pick up on a much Spanish as possible.

Teaching the 3,4 &5 year olds in Children’s Church really has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. It is so amazing to see the facial expressions as these little ones learn the accounts of the Bible for the first time maybe and how they believe it with faith that would show up even the most faithful men of Christianity. And it is such a serious responsibility on my part to make sure I teach the God’s word and only that. Here’s my most recent amazement–and I am not quite sure that even Jose understood the depth of what he said on Sunday.

We are learning about Abraham and how the country of Israel started. Why? Because a few weeks back one of the little boys asked me why we talk about Israel so much and “just who are they?”

So, at the end of the class I try to leave them with a little teaser–a sneak peak at what will happen in Abraham’s life the next time we meet. Last Sunday, they learned about Abraham finally–after a very long time–receiving God’s promise of a baby boy. And we’ve really been driving home the fact that when God makes a promise, He keeps His promise. So at the end of the lesson I told them that God asked Abraham to do something big for Him–to take his son up a mountain and sacrifice him.

I then told them that next week we would learn whether or not Abraham obeyed God. I asked them to raise their hands if they thought Abraham would obey and then to raise their hands if they thought Abraham would disobey. I then asked them whether or not they thought Isaac would die.

Mixed responses.

Well, while we were waiting for parents to come pick up their children Katelyn and I were talking to Jose, one of our little five-year-old boys. Katelyn asked Jose if he thought Abraham would obey God, and he said “yes.” Then she asked him if he thought Isaac would live or die. He thought for a minute and said “Live.” So, I asked him, “Jose, how can that be? If Abraham obeys God, doesn’t Isaac have to die?” And Jose was quiet for a minute and said “No.” So I asked him, “Well, how could Isaac live?”

He replied, “Because God promised.”

A Real Woman. . . Does Hard Things!

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A real woman does hard things? Like dig ditches? Like be crass and rude and act like a man in a man’s world? Like be provacative and do whatever it takes to get that guy’s attention? No. A real woman does hard things–like choose to be a godly example of femininity in a world that pushes for women to be masculine. A real woman chooses to honor her Savior who is already more in love with her than that dumb boy who is pressuring her to be immoral could ever be. A real woman loves her Lord.

We will be learning about some hard things that a real woman does this Friday night. The college girls at Vision are hosting an overnight for the teen ladies of Vision. We’ll be doing girly things and learning a lot about how to honor our Savior. Don’t forget to bring $10 to cover dinner and breakfast the next morning.

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In children’s church, I’ve been teaching about the beginnings of Israel. So, we’ve been spending some time looking at Abraham and his following the Lord. Last week, I taught the little 3-5 year olds about Abraham and God’s promise. There was a verse that said that Abraham believed in the Lord–not just in His promise, but also in Him! I used that as an opportunity to give the kids the gospel. I talked to them about how God has made us a promise–through His Son Jesus Christ. We talked about sin–all the bad things we have done–and how that sin will keep us out of heaven. I showed them God’s promise through Jesus to take us to heaven. I am very thankful for one little boy who was paying very close attention and asking a few questions. No one got saved, but I am so thankful I have the chance to be one of the first people to share the good news of Christ with the little ones.