Above All We Could Ask or Think

Hey Everyone!

          Sorry for the month of silence. Entering a new season of ministry tends to suck up a lot of time at first, but it is so worth it! Over the past couple weeks we have been blessed to teach at two fantastic Good News Clubs ®. The one that was started at the Mars Primary/Elementary school has grown to almost 70 students! The other one that we have been doing is at the Mars Centennial school and we have about 16 students registered. We are so excited about these clubs and the excitement of the children and can't wait to see what God is going to continue to do throughout the school year. Please pray for more workers to teach these clubs. As the numbers grow we need more teachers to accommodate them, so pray that God would burden the hearts of some people from the area to come and help.
          Also, as we have already mentioned, we have started some Christian Ministries Institute classes that CEF requires us to take. It's hard to believe we are already in week five of these classes. Pray for us as we finish them up in about month that we will be able to balance work, school, and our relationship with each other.
          Thank you everyone for your prayers. We are still so excited to be here and are in awe of how much God has blessed us. We know that God will do exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or think (Eph. 3:20).

In Christ,
Steven and Kayla

Just a little update

    Summer ministry is over, all the 5-Day Club paperwork has ceased, and we starting the school year. Our last little bit of summer fun will take place this evening as we have a little cookout with our two summer missionaries, but tomorrow starts with Good News Club training!
    Tomorrow morning from 8am-12 we will be teaching a four hour training class on how to teach a Good News Club as well as lead a child to Christ. Please pray that we will have many teachers come out and also that God would give us the words to say.
    Another big prayer request we have is for us as we start Christian Ministries Institute classes on Monday as well as a support training class. These three things combined are going to suck up huge amounts of time, so pray that we are able to balance work with classes.
    Finally, we need your support. We need more than just prayer; we need people who are willing to back up this ministry and us with faithful, monthly donations.

In Christ,
Steven and Kayla

2500 Miles Later

Good morning friends! This summer is going by way too fast. While driving our missionaries to a club this past week we all suddenly realized there is only one week of clubs left after this week at the farm show.
     For all eleven years that I have been teaching 5-Day clubs, it has always been a sad feeling to realize the summer is almost over-not because summer means no school and lots of fun, but because I loved teaching children about Jesus and and building relationships and memories. I have been blessed this year by our two missionaries because I have seen the same passion and excitement in them that I had as a summer missionary. They don't want the summer to come to an end either!
    Please pray that God will continue to develop and encourage these girls (Becky Shirey and Angelina Gottron) even after this summer is over, and that their passion would stay alive. We are already excited for next summer! We are praying for ten summer missionaries next year-pray with us!
    Aside from the summer ministry, we have also been working on the Good News Club© (GNC) ministry for the upcoming school year. We are overjoyed to report that we have opened one up in two new schools, Mars primary/elementary and Mars Centennial. That makes a total of three GNC on this fall fall including Moraine elementary and we are working on getting a fourth ready to go in January.
    So what we need is for you to cover this GNC project in prayer! We have a training scheduled for August 24, for those who are going to be helping/teaching at the GNC. Pray for us as we study and teach, that God would speak through us. Also, pray that we would have many excited volunteers. Finally, pray that the children come. God is going to do great things.

Into Eternity...

Many of you have likely learned about infinity in math class.  The basic idea is that any number you can come up with positive or negative can have a number following or preceding it respectively.  Others of you may have discussed infinity in terms of philosophy, such as Hilberts Grand Hotel.  I want to take a moment and think about infinity in relation to time and eternal destination (which is in its nature, an opinion on infinity).

Because of our limited position in time and space, it is hard to imagine what a timeless eternity will be like.  We will be able to praise God literally forever.  Another wonderful thing about eternity is that we will also be able to spend forever with other Christians.  

-tangent story that brings me to this-

God has blessed Kayla and I so much, that it is obvious that we are to be serving Him in Butler County.  He provided a place to rent from an incredibly nice old couple, He provided a car through some friends at church, we got all the furniture we needed and a dishwasher for extremely cheap to free, we got a washing machine for 25$, and a dryer for free.  We responded to a Craigslist ad about a dryer, and I got a call the next day from an older man.  Not recognizing the number, I figured it was one of the dozens of CEF contacts I had called in the past few days so I answered “Hello, Steven Tini, Child evangelism Fellowship.”  The man asks what the organization is, and I explain to him that we are a para-church organization that reaches out to children with the Gospel.  It turns out that he and his wife are both Christians, and they decided to give us the dryer for free.  When we picked up the dryer, I had a chance to sit down with them to thank them for their kindness.  We talked about Moody Bible institute (they listen to Moody Radio), life in Chicago, what I do in CEF, and various other things.  They were very pleasant and it was wonderful to encourage them with what is going on in the ministry, and for them to bless us by providing a dryer.

Kayla and I are so extremely grateful for all the people who have been a blessing to us the past few weeks and months.  In eternity, I will have an infinite amount of time to spend with each person who has been a blessing, an infinite amount of time talking to the people of the Bible, an infinite amount of time hearing the stories of every other Christian through the ages, and best of all, an infinite amount of time praising God from whom all blessings flow.

-Steven

While we are on the topic of eternity, I thought I would take the time to mention something that has been an encouragement to me this morning. Before heading out the door earlier today I took a minute to check my Facebook and I saw a status from one of our summer missionaries that said this:

"So thankful that I have the opportunity to not waste my summer by going places or spending worthless hours at the mall or with friends, but that I'm able to serve God with all my heart this summer. Looking at eternity instead of meaningless things. The reward is SO much greater."

    After reading her status I had to stop and think to myself, do I have that kind of focus? Am I willing to joyfully give up things that give me brief pleasure in exchange for things that will matter for eternity? The very end of her status is really what I need to focus on, and really what every Christian should be focused on: Looking at eternity instead of meaningless things BECAUSE the reward is SO much greater! Lets all try living for that reward that surpasses anything that this world has to offer.

-Kayla

Today is the Day!

Hey Everyone!

    Today is the day! Our first club of the summer starts at 10:30 this morning. Please, please, please, be praying for us today as we travel and teach. As I mentioned before, we have two summer missionaries, but one of them had a missions trip this week and we didn't find out till last minute. Having said that, we have to jump in this week and teach clubs while juggling office work.
    There is a saying that is quite popular among our CEF family that says: Be ready for anything! This is so true-things change last minute all the time and we just need to be ready for it. This is where we really need to rely on God and be willing to go with the flow, otherwise Satan will use it to bring us down and hinder the ministry.
    So in short, please be praying for us today/this week as we try our best to go with the flow and trust God to get us through and to help us get everything done that needs to be. Also, be praying for this children, that their hearts will be open and that the family of God will grow!

                                                                                                                                In Christ,
                                                                                                                                      Kayla and Steven

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).

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.