Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Praise God!

    We are truly blessed to be a part of the staff here in Pennsylvania. After 8 days of a rigid schedule we are certainly glad to be home, but very thankful for the time spent getting to know the teens being trained, as well as time spent in fellowship with other staff.
    Thank you all for praying for us and the teens this past week during CYIA®  (Christian Youth In Action). We are happy to say that there were no traumatic incidents, we didn't lose anyone, and there were no serious sicknesses to report-Praise God!
    While I am on the topic of praise, Wednesday evening we had open air (open air is when the teens share the Wordless Book with children in public places) at two parks where some churches got together to hold carnivals. Upon returning back to the camp, we had testimony time and found out that we had shared the Gospel with 172 children and 27 of then made the decision to accept Christ!
    So again, we are thankful to all of you who have been faithful in praying for us and the ministry. It was evident at training school that we have a strong army of prayer warriors. Please continue to pray for us as the summer unfolds and we are hit with all kinds of responsibilities.

Pray...
...for our missionaries Becky Shirey and Angelina Gottron that they would stay spiritually strong, safe, and healthy. Also pray that God would speak through them and give them the words to say as they teach all summer.
Becky Shirey and Angelina Gottron at CYIA.

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...for us as we try not to go crazy with all the work we need to do as we concentrate on summer while planning for the fall.

...for us as we try to raise support. Pray that we would be able to raise $3,000 a month. (if you would like to contribute please see the "support team" tab up at the top).

...for our search for a church, that we would find one that we both like and that has people our age (Married people our age would be a plus).

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Exciting Things are Happening

Hey Everyone!

    Thank you all so much for your support, encouragement and open arms, welcoming us back to Pennsylvania. We have been so very blessed these past couple of weeks by notes, phone calls, and meetings. It is incredibly exciting to meet people with the same passion that we have-to see children saved!
    We have had so many opportunities to share about CEF already. Last week Steven met with some pastors to share a little bit about CEF and to encourage them to get involved. We also had a meet and greet on the same day where we were able to meet many of the locals and put faces to a few of the names we had been hearing. Today we met with two pastors in an effort to find a church to support a local Good News Club® this fall (yes, summer has barely started and we are already working on things for the school year).
    Also, amid our efforts to become familiar with people and places, we have also been gearing up for CYIA® (Christian Youth In Action) which starts this Saturday and involves making sure our missionaries have checklists finished. We are also teaching a couple classes so we try to fit some study time in there as well.
    I know some of this may seem a little dull to read, but we hope you are excited about what has been happening and what we have had opportunities to do already, because you, as a part of our prayer/support team are what make these things happen.

Prayer Requests
  * Pray for our summer missionaries right now as they prepare for training school starting this Saturday (6/15). Satan is going to try to prevent them from going using any number of attacks. Please pray that they will stay strong, safe, healthy, and focused. Also pray for them as they study their lessons that there would be no distractions and that they would get things done in a timely manner.

*Pray for us as we are also preparing for training school, that we will stay strong, healthy safe, and focused. That we would have wisdom in dealing with any situations that may arise and that our hearts and attitudes would be focused on Christ and mission. Also pray that God would give us His Holy Spirit as we teach, that it would not be our words, but his.

*Pray for the children that God would be preparing their hearts even now.

*Pray that one of the churches we talked to today would come forward and take on the role of supporting Church for a Good News Club this fall in the Mars elementary schools.

*Pray that we would become fully supported so we can continue doing this full-time.

*Pray that we would find a Church to become a part of.