Manitobans continue to look for the best in less-than-ideal COVID-19 situations in this week's good news.

Bible camp director optimistic about summer 2021

Another COVID-19 summer is on the horizon, and yet, plans for Kids Day Camps are still in the works. 

Boyd Kleiver, program director at Roseau River Bible Camp, says their camp opened up registration to campers back in March and already have over 200 campers registered. 

When it comes to restrictions, Kleiver says, "We don't really think the restrictions (this year) will be more limiting than what they were last year. Our sports skills was one skill that we x'ed, but all of the other skills were good to go. Archery and ropes had disinfection stations. We were able to make each skill work, with a few adaptions, to what a regular summer would look like." 

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'I kind of feel like an olympian:' Steinbach man finishes walk to west coast

Early last year a man from Steinbach set out to walk the distance of Steinbach to the West Coast. On April 10, he succeeded.

Allen Broesky says in March 2020, he decided to get into shape for a trip to Israel that he had planned with his two sons Matthew and Kevin. Even though the trip was cancelled, he decided to keep walking.

Broesky says one day he tallied up the distance he had walked and realized that he'd walked as far as Brandon. He notes he just kept on setting further goals until he really kicked it into high gear in November and moved his focus to the west coast.

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'If you can't change the world, make a difference where you are'

After a year like no other, the graduating class of 2021 from Steinbach Bible College was sent off in celebratory COVID-style last weekend.

SBC President Rob Reimer says their returning students had a little bit of an advantage, simply because the previous year SBC needed to close down a month early. And yet, Reimer says optimistically, “It’s a great time to be a small college because, with the restrictions, you can’t have more than 25 people in a classroom. And with the exception of our first-year classes, we could fit just about everybody in.”

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Triggers: Exchanging parents' angry reactions for gentle biblical responses

Parenting can be difficult even in the easiest of times and how we react in difficult situations can differ from household to household.

Wendy Speake says in many situations, the knee-jerk reactions and blow-ups parents are facing are often a result of a bigger set of “triggers.”

Some of these, she says, are external, like a child’s disobedience, backtalk, or selective hearing, while others are internal, like an overflowing schedule, sleep deprivation, or perhaps a parent's own painful experience from childhood.

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Former refugee gives back to celebrate his freedom

A Winnipeg tailor is celebrating over 40 years of freedom and showed his gratitude by giving away 100 Vietnamese subs to people downtown. 

Tam Nguyen has been in Winnipeg, working as a tailor for 35 years. Before that, he was fleeing Vietnam, unsure if he would make it out alive. 

"I left during the war and I ran from everything. I saw people die, but luckily my family was all okay," says Nguyen.

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Facebook confirms the testing of a new prayer feature

Social media platform Facebook has confirmed that they are testing a new prayer feature within selected accounts.

The description of the new feature reads, “You may enable group members to ask for and respond to prayers in a post,” Religion News Service reports.

Facebook group administrators will be able to manage who can create posts, leave a comment or send a private message to the poster.

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God Walk: Using walking to draw closer to God

Walking, it's something we do every day, but quite often we take it for granted. 

In Mark Buchanan's latest book, God Walk: Moving at the Speed of Your Soul, he explores one of the oldest spiritual practices of our faith, walking.

"I walk a lot. None of it is heroic. I've never done a great pilgrimage or anything. But I became very interested in what was happening in us when we walk," explained Mark Buchanan.

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Métis-Menno artist creating massive Falcon Lake mural with help from family

Cottage-goers will have a new sight to take in this summer as a much-loved community centre in Falcon Lake is getting a makeover.

An artist in the Whiteshell is looking forward to creating her first-ever mural honouring her community's passion for volunteerism.

"The community and I decided we are going to do something kind of build around a sentence they gave me, so the sentence is 'community built by volunteer," Kyla Quiring, the Falcon-Lake artist says. "I am going try to make a piece that really shows that it is based on volunteers and try to include the whole topography that we have here in the Boreal and the Shields."

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'My mother has prayed for me all my life': Chuck Norris honours mom on her 100th birthday

Chuck Norris says that his mother has been an "example of perseverance and faith her whole life."

The Hollywood star made the comments in an article for WND on Monday, the day before his mother's 100th birthday. Wilma Norris Knight grew up in rural Oklahoma, the youngest of 11 children and faced many trials through life, Norris says. But through it all she clung to her faith.

"My mother has prayed for me all my life, through thick and thin," Norris says.

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Finding hope in India in the midst of chaos

India's official count of COVID-19 cases has surpassed the 20-million mark and infections have nearly doubled in the past three months, while deaths have passed 220-thousand.

Despite all of this Vijayesh Lal, general secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India says, there is still hope and God is still working despite the devastation they are surrounded by.

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MCC warehouse in Plum Coulee to remain open

MCC has reversed a decision to close its material resources warehouse in Plum Coulee.

In January the organization announced it would be closing the facility at the end of June, ending all volunteer activity at the building.

However, MCC Manitoba's Executive Director Darryl Loewen says there was a strong push from local volunteers and supporters to look for a way to maintain the operation.

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Elderly man gets lessons at beauty school to do wife's hair and makeup

An Albertan husband is living up to the vows 'in sickness and health,' recently learning to curl hair to help his wife of 50 years.

Carrie Hannah is the Director of Delmar College of Hair & Aesthetics in Red Deer, Alberta. 

"We had the gentleman come to our school," says Hannah. "He wanted to know if we were offering any courses." 

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Germany takes down massive darknet child porn site

“This investigative success has a clear message, those who assault the weakest aren't safe anywhere," says German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer.

Minister Seehofer is Germany's top security official and he recently thanked the authorities for their success in taking down this platform.

"That's what investigators work day and night, online and offline, globally," says Seehofer. "We'll do everything within our power to protect the kids from these disgusting crimes."

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Shining a light on mental health

This week is mental health week, an opportunity to shine a light on mental health and an opportunity to break the stigma surrounding it.

Sean Miller is the executive director at Peer Connections Manitoba. He says many of us need a reminder that our mental health matters and we need to stay on top of it.

"I use the analogy of Christmas. We have that time of the year where we are really engaged and there is a joy and a bounce in our step, and we're connecting with people and we're really generous, but over time we leak, we leak those things," says Miller. 

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Lauren Daigle writing new music

"I'm not one of those people who can tour and write at the same time," says Daigle, who is now in a season of writing.

Daigle posted a new video to Facebook letting her fans know that new music is coming out soon.

"I've just had so much fun this Spring. I've met a lot of new people and because of these friendships, I've actually been writing quite a bit."

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Canadian missionaries sharing hope while caught in Myanmar violence

A missionary couple from Manitoba is working hard to bring the good news of Jesus to a country that is in the midst of turmoil and violence.

Brother Bruce from Kleefeld works for Advancing Indigenous Missions. He is in contact with a missionary couple from Winnipeg that is in Myanmar right now and caught in the middle of the country's violence.*

"The army is classically anti-Christian. The worship system of the whole country, which is 90 per cent Buddhist, can't disagree with them. If anybody will not get food, Christians are fist in line for getting that kind of treatment."

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WATCH: Worship artist's first single shares the power of prayer at home

Tanya Elias is sharing her new single about the power of praying parents in the home. 

Elias is one of the worship leaders at New City Church, and she is also the bookkeeper. The church has run fully online since the pandemic, however, before that time New City ran two services, one out of Winkler and the other out of Winnipeg.

"I've done music on my own within churches since I was very young, but this is my first official recording and music video," she says. 

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Out of the Dust: The husband and wife duo that almost wasn't

Chris and Steph were high school, mission trip sweethearts who met and began falling in love on a 13-hour road trip from Nashville to Pennsylvania.

While dating through high school and marrying in college, they were volunteer worship leaders and served together in a variety of ways.

However, things started to change when Chris entered a season of doubt that many people walk through on their faith journey.

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Paid sick leave coming to Manitoba

The Manitoba government is launching a new Manitoba Pandemic Sick Leave program to provide direct financial assistance to help fill gaps between federal programming and current provincial employment standards for paid sick leave, Premier Brian Pallister announced today.

“We are at a critical point in our fight against COVID-19 and the variants of concern, and it is crucial to stay home when sick to help limit the spread of this deadly virus,” said Pallister. 

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Students band together to intervene in attempted abduction

A girl is safe after being approached by a stranger as she was walking home from school Wednesday.

At approximately 3:40 p.m., a young teenager was walking home at the intersection of Concordia Avenue and Molson Street from school. While she was walking, a man in a grey truck in used condition drove by and waved to her. 

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Inner-city church thrilled to become pop-up vaccination site

A United Church minister says their church is becoming a new kind of community hub that "drives right at the heart of faith."

Lesley Harrison is a minster with Knox United on Edmonton Street. She says their church has become known as a community spot in the area, which is why they were approached by the province to test out a new vaccination pilot program.

"They had heard that Knox, our church, is becoming a bit of an inner-city community centre where we host a number of different programs and partnerships, including inter-faith work."

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1 in 10 COVID-19 patients in India receiving free oxygen thanks to major company

A company in India is working tirelessly to get free oxygen to those who need it as the country continues to struggle against a new wave of COVID-19 infections.

Reliance Industries is not usually a medical-grade liquid oxygen manufacturer, but demands due to the coronavirus have made some changes to the company, Good News Network reports.

The company, which is owned by India's richest man, has now become the nation's largest produce of medical-grade liquid oxygen since March 2020.

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