Saving Fish from the Fire

                This month has been a busy, but rewarding month as we traveled across Butler County teaching 5-Day Clubs. We have reached many children, counseled several for assurance, and had the privilege of seeing one young girl come to Christ. Alex, one of our summer missionaries, describes it like this: “The experience is thrilling, knowing that another soul has been won for the Kingdom.” We are also thrilled and we hope you are too. Thank you again for your support-you are a part of a life changing ministry!

                Along with our 5-Day Clubs we have also been preparing for our venture to the CEF Christian Ministries Institute this fall. We will be taking required classes in Missouri from September all the way through the end of October. We would really appreciate your prayers as we prepare both mentally and physically for yet another big task while we are still in the midst of ministry.

 While having devotions this morning I was reminded once again of the importance of our task and its impact on eternity. Matthew 13:47-50 says, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angles will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing teeth.” How many fish will be thrown into the furnace? What can I do today to increase the number who will be ushered into the kingdom? We pray that you would ask yourself this same question.

That Still Small Voice

There are some days where I feel as though I have a bit of an Elijah experience. In 1 Kings 19 God simply

passing by caused fire, an earthquake and wind, but God wasn't actually in those things. In the ministry there are often great things happening and though I rejoice because of them God is not always speaking to me through those situations as I expect. I always think that those things will be what drives me to push forward in my service for Christ because they are so big and fantastic. However, as Elijah experienced, there are times where I am simply going about my day watching God do great things when I hear that still small voice saying "Kayla, remember your task. Remember your focus. I am the one you are serving. I am the one receiving your worship. I love you. Keep pressing on." It is in those moments that I feel the biggest "wow" in my day and feel encouraged to stay the course and keep pressing on! 

Though I am no spiritual giant, I do try to be sensitive to the Spirits voice because look at what I could be missing out on if I didn't! As fellow brothers and sisters in Christ I encourage you to live lives that are pleasing to Christ so as not to squelch the Spirit. If you are discouraged perhaps you are missing out on that still small voice. Take some time to make your heart right with God and receive the blessings of his encouragement to your heart. 

And we do hope that your hearts are right with God because jealous for your prayers for us, CEF and the children that we are reaching. 

Pray and Surrender

This past week Steven and I attended the CEF International Conference in North Carolina. It was a wonderful week of encouragement and spiritual enrichment. I have come home a truly changed person as I have just spent a week listening to God speak through several great men, spent time in fellowship with others who share my passion for children, and prayed out loud with people from over 80 nations.I get chills down my back as I think back to how strongly God's spirit was moving among us.

During one of the messages we were told to give all we have to God just as the boy with the five loaves of bread and two fish did. I know as Christians we have heard this over and over again: "Surrender all to God yada yada yada" and so often we follow that up with giving God an extra hour of our time or a little extra sum of money and think that will suffice. However, God does not need our money or our time for he can do whatever He wants by simply speaking a word, but He wants it. It is not for His benefit or anyone else's, but for yours. It is hard to remember on a daily basis that this life is so short. It is hard to remember that eternity is at stake. It is hard to remember that everything we do matters to God. If you are rich, give until you have nothing because God will bless you and make sure that you have all you need and your faith in Him will grow exponentially. If your time is all divided up cancel appointments and ask God what He wants you to do with the time He has given you, because if you are alive and reading this right now, then it is only because He still has a plan for your life here on earth -don't miss out! If you are living your life in selfishness by keeping to yourself, please stop! Most of the people you see everyday are going to hell and you could make a difference!

This week I have been challenged to work harder than ever because when I get to heaven I don't want to find out that many children have gone to hell because I chose to watch a movie instead of call a church. I have also been challenged to pray. Many of the people at the conference were from sensitive countries and they have so much that they could complain about, but instead they pray. They pray loud and long and I know that God hears their prayers. God answers prayers that are prayed with sincere hearts and prayers that are prayed often. I have access to the most powerful weapon on earth and often times I choose not to use it and who knows how many have died without Christ because of it. Prayer is powerful and I am excited to use it because I know that with it, many will live and become part of God's family. Can you think of a better way to use this life?

Surrender all you have and become poor for Christ. "Do you not know that God has chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom to which he has promised to those who love him?" James 2:5

Pray with me for the children who are lost. Pray long and pray hard! "Pray without ceasing" 1 Thessalonians 5:17

Pass me-I'm driving for Jesus

Kayla is not the biggest fan of driving, so I am often behind the wheel (I probably drive 300 miles for every 1 mile Kayla drives) the vast majority of the time.  One of the biggest annoyances I have while driving is speed limits.  They almost always seem set too low for the road.  “I could easily do 50 down this road.”

In one of the classes Kayla and I took recently online for CEF’s Children’s Ministry Institute, Reese Kauffman the current president of CEF said something that got me thinking.  He said that he would rather have an employee who was submissive to authority but had a poor work effort than one with a go-getter attitude and no respect for authority.  He gave an example from Scripture how Jesus upheld the Roman authority even though the government was corrupt and oppressive.  While it may feel like speed limits are oppressive, it is still of Christian importance to yield to the government.

I find it interesting that this is something that is not only ignored, but joked about in Christian culture.  I think back to when a wonderful old saint in our church got a speeding ticket on Ruskin Dr. while traveling to the church (and I do have to admit that 25 is much too slow for that road).  The overwhelming response I heard was joking about his lead foot etc.  This is not an isolated incident though.  I often hear people joking about how fast they got from one location to another compared to what it should have taken (if they were obeying the speed limit).

Having done over 20,000 miles since May, I can certainly attest to how tempting it is to want to speed. Even speeding by just 1mph would save me a quarter of a day just spend sitting in a car.  Unfortunately speeding even 1mph is disobeying the government/ the authority God has put in place for us, and ultimately sin-sin that Christ died on the cross and gave His perfect blood for.  It may seem a bit drastic, but it certainly should make you think twice about speeding.  The next time you go to set your cruise control above the speed limit, just remember that it isn’t the speed trap you should be worried about, it’s your submission to the authority God has set, it’s your testimony to other drivers around you/passengers in your vehicle, and it’s your relationship with God you put on the line just to arrive a few minutes earlier.

Quick Update

These past two months have gone by so incredibly fast and I just realized that we have neglected to update you on what we have been up to. First of all, the snow has not bee kind to our GNC's! We missed about three or four weeks of clubs because of school cancellations due to snow. Last week we finally got back to having club and because it was the week of Valentines Day, we threw a little party. They made their own candy necklaces, had a valentines snack, and played a review game that involved eating lots of Valentines chocolates-it was certainly lots of fun!

Secondly, we started some more Christian Ministries Institute classes, so that occupies our time a great deal. We are actually starting another class this evening, but this one is a live class taught by some of our fellow CEF workers. I happen to be sick right now and have been bed ridden for the past two days, so prayers for this class this evening and tomorrow would be appreciated!

This past weekend we held our first CYIA winter retreat and received a lot of positive feedback from the
five teens who were in attendance. It was a great time of learning and fellowship and it looks like we will be adding some missionaries to our county for this summer! We also talked to a young man this past week who has been attending a training we are teaching and he is ready to sign the papers to be a missionary as well! We have been praying for ten summer missionaries for this summer and right now it looks like we have five, so we are half way there! Please pray with us that we will have ten missionaries this summer.



Thank you to those of you who stay updated on what we are doing and who pray for us faithfully-we appreciate it! And if you don't currently pray for us and support us, it is never too late to start.

Please Pray

Dear friends,

As many of you know we have been preparing for a winter retreat for prospective CYIAers. The retreat is supposed to take place February 14-16. However , thus far we have not had a whole lot of response to our invitations. Please pray that teenagers will contact us, that God will bring names to mind of people we should ask, and that we will have wisdom as to whether or not it is God's will for us to have the retreat. We have put a lot of work into it and obviously we hope that it is God's will, but perhaps it is not on His agenda this year. We trust God in all things and know that He has our best interests at heart.

Children's Perspective

There is nothing quite like listening to children give their perspective on theological quandaries. This week in GNC we talked about Jesus' temptation in the wilderness and asked the age old question "could Jesus have sinned?" We got an array of answers from "Well yes, because He was being tempted so He could have chosen to sin" to "Well no, because Jesus is God" and "Well yes and no, because He was being tempted, but He was also God". It is certainly interesting to get their perspective on things that adults mull over themselves. It is exciting to see them get enthusiastic about learning things of God and is an encouragement to us as well to become eager about spiritual things.