Prayer & Praise (Feb 6-12)

- I am taking a few weeks off from Good News Club while my co-teacher, Ruth, goes on a trip to California to help raise her financial support. Ruth is preparing to start serving full-time with CEF of Greater Denver later this year. Will you pray that she has a great trip and can build some solid new relationships? She will be in California from Feb 3-18.

- I leave tonight for Frontier School of the Bible in LaGrange, Wyoming, to represent CEF at their spring missions conference. It is about a 160-mile drive from Denver and the weather is poor today (snow; cold temperatures). Will you pray for safety as I travel?

Here is a picture from the Starbucks in Denver right now where I am writing this post:



I will be at Frontier for three days, teach two workshops, have a display table set up, and hopefully just have lots of great conversations with the students! Here are the workshop sessions I will be teaching:

TEAMWORK IN MISSIONS: God didn't just call you ... He called others too! But what if you don't really get along with those other people? In this session, we will dig into the book of Acts to see what dynamics of teamwork the early Christians encountered as they carried out their mission, and what lessons we can learn from them as we carry out the mission today.

TRANSFORMATIONAL STUDENT MINISTRY: How does transformation happen? And what does this mean for how we do student ministry? In this session we will explore a simple yet powerful principle from the Scriptures that explains how God has designed us, and then from that insight explore how we and the students we minister to might be changed.

I'm looking forward to it! Thanks so much for your prayers and for your heart for this ministry.

Prayer & Praise (Jan 16-22)

- On Saturday night (Jan 15), we had our “Christmas in January” party for the CYIA summer missionaries. It was great time!!! We shared a meal, played games, and did a drawing for door prizes.

- We finished off 2010 with contributions for our Christian Youth In Action (CYIA) program totaling $29,827 (or 89% of budget). And although we did not quite make budget, this 89% in 2010 represents a great improvement from 2009. There is definitely momentum building for this ministry. I am looking forward to a great 2011!

As I put together the budget for this year, I am incorporating some new ways of cutting costs vs. the way we ran the program last year. Additionally, I am also excited about some new fundraising opportunities/strategies we will be pursuing this year. Will you join me in praying that this ministry to students and children will be fully-funded in 2011 and that, above all else, we would honor God in all we do and listen to His voice in all things?

- At Good News Club last week, I spoke with a six-year-old girl after the Bible lesson. She had professed faith in Christ at club several weeks ago and when I spoke with her today she told me that she wanted to tell her friends at school about Jesus.

“I think that’s a great idea!” I said. Then, looking at Ruth and me, she said: “I want to be like you guys when I grow up! I think it would be fun to go around and teach people about Jesus.”

I don’t know what God’s plans are for this little girl, but I can tell that the Holy Spirit is doing something wonderful in her heart. Please pray that Good News Club will continue to be a source of growth and encouragement for her!

Prayer & Praise (Dec 19-25)

- Funds have continued to come in to finish off our 2010 program budget for Christian Youth In Action (CYIA). To date we have received $29,127 (or 87% of our budget). Please continue to pray for the remaining funds.

We are having a “Christmas in January” party for CYIA next month. I am sending out invitations this week and hope that many of our summer missionaries will be able to come! This is a great time in the middle of the school year for them to reconnect with one another and enjoy some good fellowship.

- After nine months on the job as our office manager (the other hat I wear in addition to CYIA Director), I am preparing for a big transition as we get ready for 2011. We are changing our accounting software over to QuickBooks by Intuit, and there are many things that I need to learn how to do in the new system: charitable contributions, bookstore sales, payroll, etc. Please pray for me to learn everything quickly and accurately!

- The fall semester at Metro State finished up this past Wednesday. I have about five weeks off before diving into spring semester. Praise God for this time of rest and relaxation, and pray for me to be able to use the extra time wisely.

Thanks for praying!

Prayer & Praise (Oct 31 - Nov 6)

- We started our Good News Club at Mt. View Child Care again a couple of weeks ago. It has been great getting to reconnect with all of the kids! Many of the same children from last year are there, as well as some new ones. We are starting a six-week series on “Moses: The Lawgiver,” exploring the story of Moses and the Israelites starting with God giving the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai. A quick survey the first week revealed that most of the children have never heard this story before. I am excited that my teaching teammate Ruth and I get to share this important chapter in God’s Story with them!

- Funds continue to come in to finish off our 2010 program budget for Christian Youth In Action (CYIA). To date we have received $27,239 (or 82% of our budget, up from 79% the last time I wrote you). Please continue to pray for the remaining funds to come in.

- This Saturday, Nov 6, I am helping teach a Good News Club workshop down in Castle Rock. Many of the people who will be attending are getting training for the very first time. Please pray for a great work to be done as these fantastic volunteers learn how to share the gospel with children, teach memory verses, and put together a Bible lesson. I will be teaching in the morning and Marney will be teaching in the afternoon.

Thanks for your prayers!

Prayer & Praise (Sept 26 - Oct 2)

- I did two children’s programs this month with the help of CYIA summer missionaries: an all-day program at Southwest Bible Chapel on Sept 11 and an evening program at Templo Evangelico Bautista on Sept 18. Both went extremely well and the children seemed to really engage with the teaching! Praise God for these opportunities to continue getting CYIA students involved in children’s ministry during the school year.

- Our total program budget for Christian Youth In Action (CYIA) this calendar year is $33,377. This includes both the funds for general operating expenses and the funds for the students’ individual accounts. To date, we have received $26,310 in donations, or 79% of our budget! This is encouraging when you consider that we are only just now coming out of a recession in which charitable giving was down across the board for non-profits like CEF. Please pray for the remaining funds to come in between now and the end of the year.

- A few weeks ago, I sat down to write out my strategic priorities for ministry during the 2010-11 school year. I will be focusing on three main things: (1) Developing video resources for the ministry, (2) Building new church partnerships and strengthening existing ones, and (3) Fundraising. Please pray for these objectives to bring much glory to God and many new citizens into his kingdom!

Thanks so much for praying.

Prayer & Praise (Aug 15-21)

- The first week of August I got to go to a summer BBQ at Mt. View, the church and daycare center where I taught Good News Club last school year. I got to see several of the kids from club, including Mario, who accepted Christ at club back in December. We had given him a Bible to start reading, so when I hung out with him at the BBQ I asked how his Bible reading was going. (He had started in the beginning at Genesis.) Well, Mario said he has been reading a lot and is now in the Gospel of John!

Praise God for Mario’s salvation and growth in Christ. He has been through a lot with his family in the past few years and it is so awesome to see him holding firm to Christ!

- Last Saturday I got to do a children’s program at a church named Templo Evangelico Bautista along with two of our CYIA summer missionaries. We played soccer with the kids outside and then went inside for a Bible program. It was a lot of fun!

A four-year-old girl named Ashley responded to the invitation at the end of the Bible lesson, but she was too shy to talk so we gave a gospel tract to her older sister that they could read over together at home. Please pray that Ashley would trust Christ her Savior or, if she has already, that she would be willing to talk with us about it when we come next month.

- I start classes again at Metro State on Monday. Please pray for me to work hard, learn a lot, and have a great witness for Christ!

Prayer & Praise (Aug 1-7)

I just got back from Boston last night, wrapping up a great summer of ministry with our Christian Youth In Action (CYIA) missionaries. I am posting a few highlights below, and will follow up later in the month with more in-depth posts, including pictures and video from the summer!

- CYIA Training: We held a two-week training camp in June. We had a large number of 1st-yr summer missionaries, and as I watched them teach 5-Day Clubs throughout the summer, I became convinced that they really came away from the training well-equipped. I learned a lot of lessons, and we still have a ways to go, so I am looking forward to making next year’s training the best ever.

- Ministry in Greater Denver: During June and July, we held three weeks of 5-Day Clubs at homes and backyards, daycare centers, city parks, apartment complexes, and trailer parks all across the Greater Denver area. These clubs included several great new church partners, and we are looking forward to working with them in the future.

Due to some paperwork mishaps over the course of the summer, I only have incomplete statistics, but I can tell you that we taught over 900 children about Jesus in our 5-Day Clubs, and 62 children placed their faith in Jesus for the very first time. Praise God!

- Ministry in Greater Boston: Frank, Connie, and I took a team of eight students to Boston during the last two weeks of July for “Good News Across America,” a huge effort by CEF to build up ministry to children in that city by partnering with churches there. Over 160 CEF workers from around the nation came to Boston for the campaign. We partnered with nearly 30 churches to host 5-Day Clubs, and CEF of Massachusetts conducted Good News Club trainings for the fall.

Over 2,000 children attended the 5-Day Clubs in Boston, and we saw 209 children place their faith in Jesus for the first time! It was a powerful movement that I believe was inspiring to many of the churches with whom we worked. Based on prior years’ ministry campaigns like this, 20 of the 30 churches will successfully start after-school Good News Clubs this fall and begin a powerful new ministry in their communities.

- Summer Ministry Celebration: We are a having a get-together at the CEF office this Friday night, Aug 6, to celebrate. Please pray that many families, individuals, and church partners will be able to make it so that they can meet one another and hear the stories of what God has done.

Stay tuned for more updates about this summer! Thanks for praying.