Prayer & Praise (May 24-30)

- This Saturday, May 30, is our second of two preparatory sessions to help the summer missionaries get ready for Christian Youth In Action (CYIA) training camp. Please pray that this will be a great time of training and team-building.

In the morning, they will give and be evaluated on their presentation of the Wordless Book. In the afternoon, they will learn all about the history of CEF, what we believe, what 5-Day Clubs will look like this year, and what to expect at CYIA training camp in June. It’s hard to believe that summer is almost here!

- Continue to pray that I could make good connections with families, individuals, and churches as I seek to raise the funds needed for my personal support and for the CYIA program.

- Next Tuesday, June 2, I am moving into a condo in Wheat Ridge; I will be renting it along with a friend of mine from church. Pray that the move goes smoothly.

- Praise God for the wonderful prayer time that our staff had this morning! We all live and minister in different parts of the city, so it is good when we get to come together.

Thanks for praying!

Prayer & Praise (May 17-23)

- This past Friday, May 15, Hannah and I traveled down to Canon City for a statewide staff meeting in preparation for Christian Youth In Action (CYIA) training camp in June. It was very productive!

Pray for each of the 15 training camp staff who will be teaching, serving as dorm leaders, etc. This week, pray especially for us as we prepare our respective teaching assignments, in order that the summer missionaries might be well-equipped for gospel ministry to the children.

- Continue to pray that I could make good connections with families, individuals, and churches as I seek to raise the funds needed for my personal support and for the CYIA program.

- Praise God for each of the 14 summer missionaries who are working in metro Denver this summer!

- Just as an extra, here is a great article CEF recently posted on the main website about our ministry to children in the U.S.

Thanks for praying. Blessings on your life and ministry!

Prayer & Praise (May 10-16)

- Praise God for a great CYIA Team Leader retreat this past weekend! This was our first annual retreat, and it was a blast. We had a great time together seeking God first, growing as a team, and maturing as leaders.

- Praise God for my semester at Metro State finishing up on Tuesday! I handed in my final paper at noon. It was good feeling! (The paper was one for my Intro to Philosophy class; I wrote about theism and the problem of evil. You can read the paper here.)

- Continue to pray that I could make good connections with families, individuals, and churches as I seek to raise the funds needed for my personal support and for the CYIA program.

- This Saturday, May 16, Hannah and I are conducting a catch-up session for the two summer missionaries that missed our first CYIA pre-training. Pray that it goes well!

Thanks so much! I appreciate your prayers and support.

Prayer & Praise (May 3-9)

- This weekend, May 8-10, is our first annual Team Leader retreat for Christian Youth In Action (CYIA)!!! If you can’t tell, I am super excited! :-)

The purpose of the weekend is for us to seek God first, grow as a team, and mature as leaders. For 48 hours we are going to retreat from our everyday responsibilities and relationships in order to prepare for the coming summer of ministry.

Please pray for me this week as I finish preparing for the teaching sessions and finalize all of the other little details.

- Continue to pray that I could make good connections with families, individuals, and churches as I seek to raise the funds needed for my personal support and for the CYIA program. Currently I am 28% supported and our CYIA general fund is at 35% of the 2009 budget.

- Praise God for the wonderful year Marney and I had teaching Good News Club! We had our last meeting of the school year last week. Please pray that the children would continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus over the summer.

Thanks for praying. Blessings on your week!

Prayer & Praise (April 26 - May 2)

- Praise God for our club at Salvation Army Red Shield last Friday! We taught the children about feeding the old self vs. feeding the new self for those who are in Christ. We had some great visuals, and I think they really comprehended the lesson.

Pray that the children who are in Christ would be strengthened in their walk and that those who are not would be drawn toward putting their faith in Jesus.

- Please pray for fundraising efforts toward this summer. Our budget for Christian Youth In Action (CYIA) this year is $7,650. We currently have $2,650 (or 35%) of these funds and need to raise another $5,000 (or 65%).

- This week I am working hard on sessions for our CYIA Team Leader retreat coming up May 8-10. We are doing three sessions for spiritual formation (the theme: learning to seek God first!) and five sessions for leadership development.

Please pray for me as I create the environments and develop the various sessions. I think the retreat promises to be a transformative weekend for our young leaders.

Thanks so much!

Prayer & Praise (April 19-25)

- On Saturday we held our first of two preparatory sessions to help our summer missionaries get ready for training camp in June. (The picture above is of some of them hanging out and playing games after we were done for the day.) The weather was less than desirable, but we still made it!

I can already tell we are going to have a fun and strong crew this year. In this first session, we trained them in how to share the gospel in a child’s vocabulary using the Wordless Book. After much planning and preparation, it was exciting to finally see this year’s program get underway.

- On Friday, I was looking at having 18 summer missionaries signed up for this year. Over the weekend, that number dropped down to 14. This was a bit disappointing, but I know that God will send us exactly the young people he wants us to train and equip this year.

Please pray for wisdom in handling the new scheduling dynamics this creates for our 5-Day Clubs, or possibly for some late recruits (which would allow us to go through with our original scheduling goals).

- This Friday, April 24, we are having our monthly kids’ club at Salvation Army Red Shield. Praise God for this opportunity to teach the children and connect with them! Pray for Lauren, Larea, and I as we teach.

- Praise God for the fruitful times I have had studying 2 Peter the past few weeks! God is so good in giving us the Scriptures.

Thanks for your prayers.

Prayer & Praise (April 12-18)

- Praise God for the opportunity that Hannah and I had to minister at a kids’ Easter festival in east Denver this past Saturday! We started out the afternoon helping the kids make bracelets with beads the colors of the Wordless Book, explaining each color as they added it to the bracelet and giving them a tract to take home so that they could remember the gospel story behind the colors. We ended the afternoon with my sister Christine making animal balloons, which the kids loved!

Please pray for Pastor Richmond and his church as they continue ministering in east Denver. (We will be working with them this summer to have 5-Day Clubs in one or more of the city parks around their church.)

- The application deadline for summer missionaries is this week (April 15). Please pray for a well-formed team to come together by God’s grace!

Each year we hold two preparatory sessions to help our summer missionaries get ready for training camp. Our first session is this Saturday, April 18, from 9am-3pm. Pray for Hannah, Larea, and I as we teach.

- Continue to pray that I could make good connections with families, individuals, and churches as I seek to raise the $3,910/month I need for doing ministry with CEF in Denver.

Thanks so much for your support in prayer! Grace and peace to you.