Quick Update on Church Camp and VBS

For all of you who were praying we wanted to give an update on how Church Camp and VBS went.

Bethel Girls Cabin

We both had an awesome week at Camp Shakamak. Alex was a counselor for a cabin full of young men from Bethel, and I was the only counselor in a cabin with 16 young women from Bethel. I was a little intimidated to be the only leader in the cabin, but the girls really did take it easy on me so I was very thankful.

Bethel Boys Cabin

There were several youth groups from regional IFCA churches that came to camp. It was such a valuable time to invest in the youth from our local churches. The theme this year was "faithbook" so all of the messages were centered around what it means to have faith in God and how to live by faith. There were many good conversations that took place that week, and it was wonderful to see God working in young hearts.


Dog pile at one in the morning...

Vacation Bible school was a ton of fun and a little challenging all at the same time. The theme was Athens: Paul's dangerous journey. Alex and I both stepped out of our comfort zones and did a little bit of acting! Alex played the role of The Apostle Paul and I was Damaris, a member of the council in Athens. I'd say that it went pretty well... except the night we made a little girl cry because she was scared. Apparently being chased by an angry mob isn't for everyone (No children were harmed in the making of this VBS... we were only pretending that there was an angry mob.) All joking aside we had a ton of kids tell us that we did a good job and they had a great time talking with Paul and Damaris.

Teaching the lesson in Paul's tent.

We were also the missions spotlight for VBS this year. So the kids raised over $350 for us to put towards our future ministry! It was such a blessing.

 

We Should Get Jerseys… Cause We Make a Good Team.

Well, thanks to more faithful believers who have joined our team we are now at 40% of our monthly budget that we need to raise before we can head out to the Philippines. God is so faithful!

 

We’re finally moved into our new home! This is our fourth home and we’ll be celebrating our third anniversary the 31^st of this month. It’s the biggest home yet and the lowest price thanks to our brother and sister renting it to us!  We’re excited to have people over and connect with our church family. We can’t tell you how blessed we are to be surrounded by such amazing church families.

We’ll be in Indiana doing partnership development until around February or March, but we are still at a very flexible and slightly unpredictable time in our lives as missionaries. So we hold onto dates pretty loosely J. After our time here we will be moving out to Oregon for 6 – 9 months where we will be continuing the partnership process.

 

P.S. I forgot to mention that Alex joined the church league softball team and they’ve been doing really well!

Please pray

·         That God will continue to raise up a strong support team for us.

·         Alex and I are going to be counselors at Shakamak Bible Camp this coming week. Pray that the kids will have a good time and grow closer in their relationship with God.

·         Also, VBS is coming up soon and Alex and I are going to be teaching the Bible lessons as Paul and Damaris. PLEASE pray that we will be able to act out the roles well!
 

Praises

·         We are moved into our new house.

·         For our new team mate supporters.

·         For all of the people praying for us.

Graduation!

Imagine yourself standing at the base of Niagara Falls. You have been given a very important task. You are told that you need to successfully catch as much water as you can because your going to need it later. You say "That doesn't sound too hard." But here's the kicker, all you have to get the water is a dixie cup. Well, this last year and half was a bit like standing under a waterfall with a dixie cup. Let me explain, there was a torrential downpour of information everyday in class, and often we felt like all we had to hold it in it was a little bitty cup. While we do feel prepared to go and live and do ministry overseas we also feel completely inadequate to do the task God has laid before us. The most pressing thing we learned in this last year and a half is that we are in desperate need of God daily. He has chosen to use us weak and broken vessels to reach the world.

So, after two years of Bible School and one and a half years of missionary training we're finally finished with  formal schooling! Not to say that we're done learning but we are excited to be done with this phase of training. We will officially become New Tribes Missionaries in early July. The most important and exciting thing is that we are one step closer to the foreign field!

There we were again... Our little brown Camry loaded down, 15 plastic totes packed up, and apartment cleaned out. It was time to say good bye again. We loved our time at the MTC and as difficult as it was to leave our friends that we had made we we're ready to move on. It was truly a blessing to learn from such an amazing staff.

Graduation with Erin's parents

We finally have an answer to the question that has been ringing in our ears. "Where will you be going?" We are currently in the process of applying to serve in The Philippines! We have been praying and considering this decision for quite some time. Thank you for praying with us!

Right now we are looking for partners who are interested in seeing the unreached of the world reached with the Gospel of Christ. We are looking for people who will join us through finances, prayer, and encouragement. So over these next months we will be meeting with individuals and churches to see who wants to be a part of our team and invest with us in the people of the Philippines. Please pray for us and the team that God is preparing.

Goodbye Summer Hello MTC

Our summer was amazing! Because we have two great sending Churches and a few individuals who are supporting us financially we were able to go to Bethel Memorial Church this summer and say, "Put us in any holes that you have this summer! We're all yours!"  Here are the different ways we were able to serve with Bethel over the summer.

We...

• taught a college age Sunday school.
• helped in the new transition room for the kids.
• taught the missions portion of VBS.
• spoke one Thursday at several local retirement homes. 
• spoke for one Sunday evening service.
• were senior camp counselors at Shakamak Bible Camp.
• spoke for one morning session at Bible Camp.
• had a few discipleship opportunities with family and friends.  

The best part of the whole summer was getting to spend time with family and friends - and making new ones:)

Summer is over and we are excited to be back in school at the Missionary Training Center! We're starting off the semester with a small groups Romans class where we discuss Romans 5-8 and we are also in Missionary Technology (where we get to learn about using solar panels, wiring your house, Tech. maintenance....). They are both great classes for different reasons.

(Erin using a shunt and multi-meter to measure the amps being used by a halogen light bulb)

To see all of our classes this semester and a brief summary follow this link   2nd Semester

To read and hear amazing stories about how the world is being reached with the Gospel follow this link  New Tribes Mission News

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