Volume 12 Issue 6 | July 29,
2018
Monthly Snapshot
SUMMER
MISSIONS: AN END AND A BEGINNING
For four days at
the end of June, I had the joy and privilege of welcoming home a team of staff
and students who had served the Lord in a spiritually challenging place –
Central Asia (see team photo above). It started out well enough, with me easily
finding our Air BnB rental home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and navigating the
train system to meet the team at JFK. But we quickly discovered NONE of the
team’s fourteen checked bags made it to the States that day… and even after
hours of conversations with the airline, some of the bags would not arrive for
thirty six more hours! It’s always an adventure.
The team did an
awesome job of fighting jet-lag and engaging in our conversations. We discussed
the challenges of reentry, which can be powerful even after being away for only
a month, and the ways they can carry their experiences with them as they walk
with the Lord on campus this fall and beyond. We spent some time in conflict
resolution, which was both very challenging and encouraging; it allowed me to reflect
on the ways the Lord uses healthy conflict resolution to provide growth and to
heal relationships. We celebrated all that God did with our version of an “Ebenezer”
- a wall of post-it note praises (see photo above, and see 1 Samuel 7 for
reference). One of the biggest praises from the summer is that thirty-five
people heard the Gospel for the first time! Pray with us that local Believers will
continue the conversations and relationships started by the Summer Mission
team!
A few days after
I returned from New York, I headed to DC to send off the Summer Mission team
heading to Botswana (see team photo above). During a somewhat chaotic airport
briefing, the Lord used my experiences and expertise to send off the team. I
chatted with parents about in-country safety and what it was like for me as a
young woman in a foreign country. We organized the bags of supplies - water
filters, school supplies, toiletries, and warm winter hats - sent by Cru’s
Global Aid Network to enable the local ministry to bless people in need (see
photo above of me and Kayla packing supplies at the GAiN warehouse). I made
sure the team knew about security policies and what to expect as they travel.
And I got to send them off with some vision-casting and prayer.
The Botswana
Summer Mission team has now been in country for almost a month, and the Lord
has been using them alongside the local team to share the Hope of the Gospel in
my beloved Botswana. The Central Asia Summer Mission team has been home for
about a month, figuring out how to live as ones who have been forever changed.
Please pray for them!
PRAISE AND PRAYER
I have LOVED coaching “STINT to Staffers”
– young adults who have served with us overseas for one or two years and will
soon be joining staff full time. I look forward to telling you more about them
next month. Please join with me in praying for them as they process all that
the Lord has done during their time overseas and reenter American culture,
which comes with its own type of culture shock.
I am trusting the Lord to complete my team
of ministry partners WITHIN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS so that I can jump fully into
the fall semester with my new staff team. I have trips planned to Newport
News/Richmond and Williamsport to meet with potential Ministry Partners, and I
am hopeful!
Please continue to pray for me and Adam as
the months apart run on. The Lord is kind, but we are tired.
