Bill Hebner

This is the 12 th year that we are serving in the UK and we will once again not be in Canada for Christmas.   With family at such a distance, this season often fills me with reflections awakened by the appearance of several distinct worlds which emerge in the UK as people precipitate around their own traditions…often songs reflect well where they are coming from. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer The first world is filled with those are going to have   “The best Christmas ever!” , what the event is about is immaterial to most, it is just going to be the best Christmas ever.... Whether Jesus is central or not is secondary. Santa Claus is Coming to Town Second world is filled with the awkwardness of people troubled by the social balancing act created by holiday events. Blended families, strained relationships and unresolved conflicts are brought to a head around a series of several forced relational days which can no longer be avoided by TV dinners eaten on lap trays i...

2012 has been an amazing year .    We did build the school, we did move the camp and get a new lease, and we have seen lots of youth come to know Jesus Christ. But I know that this often is just words, and the only way that I can express clearly to you what is going on is in person.   Therefore, like clockwork, I will be back in Canada to visit with friends who support and believe in our ministry.   I will be making calls in the next few weeks to invite you to various events that we will be hosting in Calgary, Kelowna and possibly in Grande Prairie and Vancouver in February.   As well I have extended my trip to 4 weeks so I can have more time to be part of your world as well.   Please let me know if you would like to visit with me 1 on 1 during my time home.    Just send me an email   and I will try to get to you.. .. February is always a special time for me as I recharge my batteries for the next year and reconnect with those I hold de...

This week, and this summer I have had the privilege of being on the receiving end of a service project for a change.   Over 85 youth, college, and now adults have made the pilgrimage to Wales to serve in the new Middle Park camp.   At first clearing the site, then waiting on tables and cleaning toilets, and now building a new shower facility for the 2013 season, while cleaning up on a lot of needed projects in the Powis prayer house as well as the camp. Receiving a gift such as this can be well.... humbling.... actually quite unnerving.   We sign up to the Christian message in the words of Dietrich Bonhoffer, ‘I bid you come and die’, or in the words of Paul, ‘I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives within me’, and then we are off, to serve, to give, to sacrifice, to pour out our life blood as a fragrant offering to the most high God, bathed in love for Him, with others receiving the joy of our sacrifice.....BUT, ...

Sometimes things just work... Click for more We have recently received pictures from Valencia of the ‘packed out’ community/school building we completed in April 2012.   See the pictures in the photo gallery . Since the completion of the building:  Even more youth (477) are part of the. feeding program T he AIDS counseling program is in full swing  The gardens for grannies are ready for their first crop.      It humbles me that a group of unskilled youth made this place possible.   We are now looking forward to the 2013 rendition of the YMP project as we will be going back to Ebenezer care centre to add more beds for orphans.  Our plan this year is to finally broach the multi-story design we have for using shipping containers.  Our intent is to build a 2 story unit for 32 children.  Our support is up and the number of participants on the YMP trip exceed 150, so we will build a second floor on the structure.  Th...

The work continues to expand...... We are completely amazed how certain elements of our lives ‘prosper’ daily while others seem to lay dormant for years and then explode like bamboo shoots.   But one thing that seems to be happening is that the work here is growing.   This is a good; it is and has been the dream since we committed to stay here 12 years ago.   To build a self standing incarnational mission in Wales, that would be run by the Welsh to carry the message of Jesus Christ into the future for the next generations of Welsh youth.   Our work has always been this goal, and will remain this goal.    However as the work expands, so too do the demands on my time, our resources and ‘life blood’.   Please continue to pray for the right help to come along that can support the national ministry.   That local funds would continue to grow to support the local staff, and that we would not grow tired in the day to day as we sense that the work is...

With the passing of Neil Armstrong this week, many of my childhood expectations came crashing down.   There was no way when I was 6yrs of age, following the excitement and celebration I saw around the world,  could you tell me that; we would not have a station on the moon that I could visit by the time I was 20.   That Mars was too far, that personal flying cars would not be a reality, and that mobile phone coverage on the M1 would be complete.... But not much has moved on.   Neil Armstrong went on to being a great professor at Purdue University, funding was redirected from NASA’s manned space flight, and with the invention of health and safety, I am not sure that anyone will ever again set foot on the planet as it will be too hazardous to do so...   So the one small step for a man became a step into a wall...... a wall of great reasons, but none the less a wall that stopped the expansion of space, the dream, and the future of all of those involved......

  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...