Watching four-year-YWAM-Hockey-camp-veteran Cheyann Newman do power skating drills at the 6^thAnnual camp in Prince George last week reminded me of the very reason that I am using all of my vacation time from work to volunteer with YWAM this summer.

Cheyann takes on every single drill as if it’s the last time she will ever get to skate on ice.

She has a passion for the game that can’t be bottled, or even captured in a single blog entry. She grins from ear to ear as she pulls her skates on and laces them up, and her eyes literally light up as she tells me how hockey is her life. She has this quirky sense of style with a cool yet humble confidence to pull it off, she makes straight A’s in school, and she dreams of one day playing for Team Canada in the Olympics.

I had the privilege of coaching 14-year-old Cheyann last week, but to be honest, she touched my life and the image of her childlike grin illuminating her face as she sprinted across the ice will forever be burned into my memory.

This was my second summer helping with the day camp at Prince George. I met up with the HSOS team in Grande Prairie last week and joined them for the PR. George camp and I will be with them through the Kelowna camp.

My involvement with YWAM Hockey this summer really is something of a miracle. I participated in HSOS last summer and it was such a life changing event for me that I desperately wanted to come back again this summer, but I was only eligible for one week of vacation from work. But, I happen to work for the NHL, and when I asked my boss if I could take a leave of absence this summer to coach hockey, he thought it would be a great idea. So, after much prayer and much red tape crossing, I got the approval to come back this summer for four weeks. So here I am, two days into the Langley camp and already I have seen God working in the most amazing ways.

It seems like so many of the kids we are coaching desire to know God more deeply so we’re doing our best to point them in the right direction. Actually, this week is the highest attendance ever for the Langley camp with 58 kids, and the majority of those kids are first-time attendees.

As a monthly supporter of YWAM hockey, I just want to say that I am in the trenches with Glen and Lorrain and the HSOS staff for these four weeks, and I just love this ministry. Glen says it all the time to us, but it really is "all about the kids," and that’s what I have seen in these last two weeks. All of the coaches and counselors are pouring out their energy and love to show these kid’s what Christ is all about, and it’s so wonderful that we get to use the sport of hockey to connect with these kids. It’s so exciting to see these lives being changed. We really appreciate your prayers and as a shameless plug, I would like to close in saying that if you don’t already support this ministry, I urge you to consider supporting it because it is absolutely the best ministry I have ever been involved in.

-- Deborah ‘Debs’ Francisco -- 2010, 2011 HSOS participant.