Bill Hebner

Another year has come and gone and as I stop to pause and to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour and refocus on my family and friends, I trust that this letter finds you in the same mind-set; not too fractured by shopping nor to full from the abundance that most of us take for granted.   I wish you peace on earth, and peace in your soul as you prepare it for heaven as we all must do. My 2014 has been quite busy and disjointed even by my standards.  Here is a summary for those of you who are curious. For a visual of last year se my photo gallery  and video gallery . February - saw the whole family back to Canada for Christmas and a short season of western culture and weather.   It was good to spend some time with Mya traveling as a family through Alberta to Vancouver Island and back seeing many friends and family. March - once again saw us go different directions as I was off to do another mission trip for just over a month in Capetown wit...

Africa 2014 Photo Gallery Just over 50 young people and adults made the pilgrimage to the Khayelitsha informal settlement this year for the YMP spring trip.   ( Click for Photo Gallery of trip ) Though this was the smallest group we have taken in some time, the group made up from Wales and Canada buckled down to help expand a   1400 sq/ft pre-school for 160 kids to over 5000 sq/ft in just 2 weeks.   With some help from local Cape Town businesses, The Power group and Johnson cranes, along with support from the DOCKS church in Mitchell’s plain, the project allowed young people to learn new skills and that they can make a difference in the world they live in.    We must always remember that we go on trips of this nature not to entertain youth, but to inspire them to the possibility of what they can do if they put their mind to it.   The answer is that youth (and adults) can do most anything if their heart is in it.   Often day one i...

Khayelitsha School Build Project 2014   Click to see Extreme Build planned for this School Another international cast will be traveling for the first time from Canada, Wales and South Africa to the Khayelitsha informal settlement of 1.4 million people on the Mitchell plain just out of Cape Town.  Our project this year is to convert a small building servicing 80+ children into a school similar to the Lehae site of 2012 in Johannesburg ( click to see build plans )  The cost of the project is just under $40,000.00  (£25,000.00) to provide the space needed to support 300 children in the main auditorium with kitchen and bathroom facilities. A Project Inside of the Project.  (A very creative idea) Working with several international charities Northmount Baptist Church in Calgary is filling a 20’ shipping container with new school supplies and children’s equipment (or new condition) to send to Cape Town.  The goods will then be distributed by the ...

The weather has begun to turn here in the U.K. The rain is just a little bit cooler than it was last week, and the sun is cresting the terrace houses at the end of the street a few minutes later every morning.   All around me everyone is drifting back to the routine of school and work.   I visualize 1 st year students excited to learn their A,B,C,’s while feeling apprehensive of being alone in school for the first time without a parent.   I can see teenagers looking at an algebra text they put down in July with only a vague recollection of the concepts. Now they’re praying for secret decoder rings that will remove the fog of summer neglect from their minds.   This is topped only by the worry of “Will anyone like me?”, and “Will they fit in this year’s social calendar?”.   Finally I can see parent’s breathe a sigh of relief as the routine of life gets back into gear. They are free of trying to pry their kids from a screen or pushing them to go out and get ...

Since July 4 th I have had the privilege of working with just under 900 kids and leaders at camp .   Many of them hearing the good news of Jesus Christ the first time .   Others hearing it in a fresh and vibrant way.   ( Click to see photos of all the fun ) SEEDS SOWN   Vibrant and fresh presentation of the good news. As the lights go on in the souls of many of these teens, I often am quieted to think about their future as they go home.   Some face rocky soil, parents that will flat out tell them they are wrong, have made a mistake, and that the love in their life and the light in their eyes is a passing emotional phase.   Others will get home, perhaps even supported by parents that were hoping to introduce their youth to Christ in some way, only to see the seeds of excitement snatched away by the peer pressure and friendships that they are returning too.   15 young people from a community in Scotland will be facing such pressures as the world...

_______________________________________ I had a great deal of affirmation after last month’s blog.   We truly do serve only one.   He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.   But we do not serve in isolation.   Often, outside of our control we encounter ‘gifts from God’.   These co-travellers, committed to the same relationship with God, but skilled in different ways to compliment what God is doing in our own life.   When we walk with the Lord it is amazing how many of these travellers appear to support a vision centred on the development of God’s kingdom.   This blog is dedicated to those who ‘draw alongside’ at the right time, for the right reasons, to weave together the tapestry we are constructing for Him. Bob with me in Africa building relief housing..... Bob- A 70+ servant of the Lord , faithfully comes and waters the grass on our hot Welsh spring days ensuring that there will be a playing field for youth this summ...

Click here for enlarge images in Photo Gallery 2013 will see the Middle Park Camp, settling in and expanding resources. This blog is late because I was busy grading the expanded residential fields, installing a road and football pitch and building a new blob tower with an expedition team for Scotland and a second from Virginia.     Year one was amazing with 550 bodies visiting the site over the summer.   Most, young people from the Celtic nations Ireland, Scotland and Wales are travelling with their leaders to experience the ‘best week of their lives’ at a culturally relevant event.   This year we will repeat that and, as much as we can, raise the bar for young people to see us love them in an unconditional way as Jesus Christ did for us.   2013 will see the return of a Hovercraft to the camp.   This will replace the experimental quad bikes that have proven very hard and costly to repair.   Then we have the addition of Air Soft (a modified pai...

2013 will mark the re-start of the TENT charity for the management of the Middle Park Camp in Wales. We have been providing Young Life Style camps for youth since 2008 near Welshpool. The camp now has a formal trusteeship to set its direction and development for the camps national future, working in conjunction with Urban Saints Wales, Hafwy Trust, YWAM , YFC and Young Life International.   The trust is designed to hold as a core value the desire to see youth "loved in their world and encouraged to know Jesus Christ in a flexible and relevant way. It has always been my desire to build the infrastructure of outreach and discipleship in Wales in such a way as to outlive my involvement here. I am so happy to see this major step in moving this work in Wales beyond the Bill Hebner Show, and more about the Kingdom owning this. For those of you who would like to support this governing charity , donations can be made in the UK via the TENT trust directly, while from Canada the camp ...

  More Photos Click Here With the amazing support from Young Life Expeditions providing 75 volunteers from Arizona and Wyoming, and a matched donations from the UK and USA of nearly £70,000.00, we moved the camp to what we believe could be the permanent site.   Phase one of the ground work was done in the spring, and the camp though very wet through the setup weeks, received 277 visitors July 20 th for the first ever Scotland/Ireland residential camp.   This summer the property saw over 550 visitors and now has the capacity for 1200/year in its existing format.   All the equipment on site has been purchased and we are so excited with the results on our shoe string budget.   We even had an inflatable sports hall donated last minute to use when the weather is not cooperating. (See our Photo Gallery for pics and video below) Please pray as we now have decent ‘toys’, and equipment to facilitate camps for youth in the UK taht we remember that the point of...

Our April trip to South Africa to build the school for Olive Branch Outreach seems a distant memory after so much time focused on camp.   However, not only is the school working well, the school has been ‘finished’ by the local charity to a standard that is so refreshing to see.   This 560 sq/m building cost just over £35,000 and accommodates just under 400 students.   The concept has been so successful that we have had several more requests to build similar if not larger structures in 2013.   I will be in Gambia sometime this winter helping to develop the first phase of a school based on the same general principals. The South Africa trip for April is already building momentum, with some of the groups that have attended in the past creating their own flavour of trips.   I was questioned if I was concerned about this break away from our direct supervision.   The truth is I am honoured.   If we continue to only run trips via the YMP label, then we wi...

I have grown accustom to spending a great deal of time setting up the annual camps for YL and Urban Saints.   This year things have moved to a new level.   Setup, with camp, will be in total 2.5 months, as we are moving the camp to a new location in the middle of the property in Welshpool. CAMP BUILD : Taking over the old mixing hole, Powis Middle Park camp is getting one step closer to becoming permanent as we now are leasing some land from the estate and have permission to put in basic infrastructure.   For 2012 Water, sewage, electric and storage are now finding homes in this picturesque surrounding.   A new fold out kitchen, Dish room, and walk in fridge will replace the well used trailer we have had for the past 4 years.   And a new to us 12m x 30m dining tent with a floor will become home for our larger capacity groups.   (Camp layout at bottom of post) CAMPERS & STAFF : Scotland and Ireland will be the first solely YL group to use the si...