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I (Abi) have had so much fun this summer! I get to play in the pool and on the swing-set. I even went down the water-slide with Daddy! My favorite part of camp are my new friends Mason and Brody. I’m also trying to teach Anna sign language.
Camp. Camp seems to being going really well. Pray that the cabin leaders with be spiritually nourished as we spend time in Scripture and prayer together, and that their personal ministries would be effective. Pray God would pour out grace and kindness upon them which would then transmit itself to their campers.
Seminary. Though we’re not moving to Louisville, I am still planning to finish seminary. Pray that I will be diligent in my classwork, and in my interaction with fellow students. Pray that God would faithfully shape my perception and understanding of him. Pray that I would be formed into the people-shepherd which I feel God has called me to become.
Anna Grace. Anna is so happy and engaged when we talk to her! Her eyes get big, and she “talks” back to us with smiles, squeals, and coos. Pray God continues to keep her healthy, happy, and growing.
Plans for the fall. Pray that the puzzle pieces of our fall would come together smoothly and quickly. Pray that God would be honored in it all.
Thank you so much for your prayer for us during the last several months. We have some important news to share with you.
Over the last year and a half, Amanda and I have been planning on our move to Louisville, where I would finish my seminary education. We had hoped to go in the fall of last year, but when our house did not sell, we found ourselves pushing seminary to this fall.
So, in the last six months, I’ve made a trip to Louisville, called apartment complexes, looked for a job, and made plans as to how to survive financially without taking out loans. I visited churches, and met with friends of ours in the area.
However, there remained a certain amount of unrest and lack of peace with our planned move.
Then in the last couple weeks, through a series of events, God seemed to be communicating that while I should finish seminary, we should not move to Louisville.
With hesitation and prayer, we began to re-investigate what we believed to be God’s plan for us during the next few years. After much discussion, prayer, thinking, and getting advice, we came to the decision that we will be staying in the Kansas City area, while I finish seminary through distance education and modular courses.
The decision on our part as been very difficult, especially since we had been building up to make the opposite decision for the last year or so. But we are confident that this will be the best thing for our family, for our ministry, and the health of our souls. Amanda and I both believe that what God is planning for us here will be very important for our future ministry.
I look forward to sharing with you more in the coming months. For now, if you support us financially, please continue to do what you’ve done. And please be in prayer for us, as God’s plan for us crystalizes, and gains clarity.
The Early Morning. “I’ll take a fat-free carmel latte please.” These are some of the more common words I hear first thing in the morning. Because youth pastors and volunteers are so important to our ministry, every day before the campers wake up, I’m in the snack shop making specialty coffee drinks for them. These youth pastors, for many of the kids coming to camp, are the key to creating lifelong followers of Christ. If I can make it easier for them to love on kids, that’s what I want to be about.
The Day. For most people on this property, action and noise are standard fare. The voice of a camp speaker, the music of the worship band, lighthearted shouting from inside the water-slide tunnels, cheers next to the volleyball court, a ping pong ball, a pool ball, and an air hockey puck. However, the day is not filled only with noise and action. Mid-morning there is silence, solitude, Scripture reflection, and prayer, as campers learn to spend time alone with God. During the afternoon free time, you’ll also see cabin leaders sitting at picnic benches with a camper having a conversation about Jesus.
Midday. At noon everyday, Youthfront embraces a spiritual habit called “Midday Prayer.” It’s the discipline of choosing to cease from all our extraneous noise and action for the sake of re-orienting our hearts and remembering that “unless the Lord builds the house the builders labor in vain.” We all gather in Youthfront Camp West’s chapel building where, for about 20 minutes, we reflect on Scripture and pray together: full-time staff, summer staff, teen staff, volunteers, and campers.
Staff Quarters. The days are hot typically, but behind the dining hall, where the staff apartments may be found, the shade slowly overtakes the grassy lawn starting at about 1:00. By about 3:00 , the area becomes perfect for playful children and good conversations with fellow staff members. While Abi plays with her friends Brody and Mason, Ali (the boys’ mom) sits and talks with Amanda as they sit in the outdoor furniture.
The Night. The night time roar of insects, bull frogs, and rustling leaves can be almost deafening. Yet in it, lies also a peaceful silence under the beautiful backdrop of the star filled skies. At this point most of the campers are asleep in their beds, but we staff are still awake. Around a small outdoor fire pit, we will sit for hours talking about the day and brainstorming how to do camp better... how to better reach students with Christ, assist youth pastors, and create an environment that fosters spiritual growth.
Camp. Camp is starting soon. Pray that all the final details for prep week would be completed. Pray I would have wisdom about the things for which the cabin leaders need training during orientation week (after prep week). Pray they would be attentive and connect with one-another easily. Also, pray my assistant will acclimate quickly and be able to help me. Finally, pray for us as a family, as we begin living in a new location. Pray we will all enjoy our new environment.
Seminary. We are still trying to line things up for our transition to Louisville at the end of July. We are a little anxious about housing and job. Pray that all the right opportunities would land in our laps. Pray we would be patient and trusting of God’s plan. Please pray for extraordinary grace. Also, pray for us as we attempt to pack this summer.
Anna Grace. What a happy baby! Anna is doing so well. She is healthy and growing quickly. Within a week she was back at her birth-weight (which is really good). Pray she would continue to grow healthy and happy. Pray for us as we take care of two!
Tonight, we begin our move to camp! As I type this letter, the packing process has already begun. We’ve got clothes, books, baby stuff, and all kinds of miscellaneous things packed in rubber tubs, ready to go in the van.
Though campers don’t come until the beginning of June, there is a lot of preparation to do on location at Youthfront Camp West.
Next week is ‘Work Week’. The full-time Youthfront Camp West staff will be at camp doing work projects and getting ready to train the summer staff.
After work week is over, approximately 50 college age men and women will arrive ready for our nine-day orientation and training. The first few hours will be spent getting to know one-another. Then there are some basic practical things to talk about like how to handle emergencies, and the the specifics of each person’s job responsibilities.
The majority of their orientation and training time, however, will be spent learning the best ways to help middle school students come to know and love Jesus. We want our summer staff to be able to assess a teenager’s walk with Christ and move them to the next step, whatever that may be.
After Summer staff training week, its time for the students to arrive.
This summer I will function as the Cabin Leader Supervisor. Every cabin will have two cabin leaders in it, a full-time person and a volunteer. My role is to supervise, train, and spiritually guide this group of leaders. I also act as the funnel for any camper issues that need someone in authority (abuse at home, bullying, eating disorders, direct disobedience, etc.). Its a lot of responsibility, but also carries a lot of reward.
I am mostly looking forward to the spiritual input I get to pour into the summer-staff. I’ll share some of this with you in future newsletters.
Pray for us over the next couple weeks there is a lot to do.
About 2:15am on Sunday morning, April 10th, I woke up to Amanda’s voice in the other room, “honey, I think my water just broke!”
There are very few words in the English vocabulary that will get a husband out of bed faster than those. After a few semi-frantic delirious paces around the room, Amanda told me to call our parents, the doctor, and the hospital to let them know we were coming.
I dialed the hospital’s number and spoke into the phone, “My water broke! We’re coming in to have a baby!”
The nurse obviously thought this was quite funny and said, “your water broke sir?”
Realizing that I had just made myself the laughing stock of the maternity ward, I corrected myself and asked what we should do next.
After a few minutes of packing up the car, we were gone. As we walked the hallway from our van to the maternity section of the hospital, we stopped every few minutes as Amanda’s contractions were strong enough to keep her from being able to walk. Finally, about 3:15am Amanda laid down on a bed in the maternity ward and waited for the doctor.
When the doctor arrived and found how far along Amanda was, nurse chaos ensued (9 cm!). All of a sudden, there were four nurses in the room and Amanda’s bed was being moved. They pushed her to the delivery room, transferred her over to a new delivery bed, and about 45 minutes later.... we had a baby.
Little Anna Grace, was born at 4:30am on Sunday April 11th. She weighed 7lbs. 10oz., was healthy, beautiful, and had more hair than I do. We are so grateful for the new addition to our family.
Camp. We are still in need of two more guy cabin leaders. Please pray for guys who will be a good fit for the program, who love Jesus and are excited about working with junior high students. Also, pray I will have wisdom as I design curriculum for the Cabin Leaders.
Seminary. Pray that things will fall into place with regard to housing and job while we are in Louisville. Also, since we will be at camp this summer, a lot of our packing and getting ready to move will take place before the middle of May. Pray we will be patient and wise.
Anna Grace. Only two more weeks till her due date. The reality is that Anna Grace could come tomorrow, and she will undoubtedly be here by the next time you receive a letter from us. Pray that Anna would be a happy and healthy baby. Pray for us as the season of sleeplessness and crying children will be upon us soon. It will no doubt be a big adjustment for us from one child to two. Pray for a patient grace in the midst of stress. Finally, pray that Abigail will learn quickly how to be a big sister. Pray she won’t be too jealous of the attention Anna receives, and that she will learn to nurture from her mom.
A picture is worth a thousand words, goes the not-so-old adage. This month has been quite busy.
A trip to Louisville. At the beginning of the month, I took abrief trip to Louisville where we will be moving in the fall. I had hoped to get some things figured out for jobs, housing, and a church. There is still work to do, but the trip went very well.
South Field burning. Each year, we try to burn the dead grass at Youthfront Camp South in the early spring. Our hope is that burning will help control the tick population, in addition to eliminatingthe possibility of uncontrolled grass fires. It’s always a quite enjoyable, adrenaline producing event. This year Topher (my brother and co-worker) brought my nephew Cameron along for the adventure.
Head-quarters projects. To help resolve my support shortfall, I’ve been taking on about 10 hours/week of Youthfront Headquarters maintenance responsibilities. I wish I could show you the list of projects completed since I started taking on these responsibilities. Everything from replacing furnace filters, to oiling the boiler pump every month, to organizing tool rooms, to re-wiring a kitchen grease pit pump (what a mess!), to setting up phone lines, to clearing unused offices, to finding a lost vehicle...
Summer Staff preparation. This month, I’ve been working on putting together curriculum for the cabin leaders for the summer. Also, we’ve continued to do interviews in our search for summer staff. This past week, we had two guys decide not to come, which means we are in need of a couple guy cabin leaders for this summer. If you know anyone, point them towards the website (youthfront.com).
Engage Parent Event. This past weekend, was the Engage parent event featuring Marv Penner, who is an internationally known speaker for youth ministry. It was a wonderful event. I don’t think we could have been more pleased. We had at least a couple hundred parents come, and many of them stayed long after the event was over asking questions and talking to Dr. Penner.
A seminary course. I’m currently taking a seminary course from Southern Seminary where I will be attending in the fall. The name of the course is “Personal Evangelism.” It has provided a lot of opportunity for me to wrestle with the nature of the gospel and the practical implications for evangelism. I’ve especially enjoyed discussing the topic with some of the people on staff here at Youthfront.
Baby Coming! We are only a couple of weeks (or days) away from our new baby arriving! At a recent sonogram, we discovered that she is in the perfect position for birth; head-down and facing toward the back. We also have discovered that she likes to stick her bottom toward the sky, and curl her knees under her.
In Youthfront News. This month, I was in the Youthfront News to commemorate five years working for Youthfront (actually 6 years).
Cabin 16 painting. Yesterday, I spent most of the day painting the inside of the new Cabin 16 at Youthfront Camp West. The new cabin will be ready for this summer. It looks really good.
Over the last couple months, there have been some significant changes in our plan for the next year. I would like to tell you about them.
At the end of our first semester with Youthfront Mission Institute in 2008, we discovered some really important things about ourselves and our ministry.
First, I loved working with college students. I found that their intellectual ability, their availability, and their passion were so motivating and enjoyable for me that I could not see myself doing anything else. Not to mention, God seems to grant the most fruit in my ministry when I work with college students.
Second, the 24/7 ministry context we experienced for six months at YMI made us realize that such an all-consuming ministry was not sustainable for us as a family. Too much depended on me as director, and the seclusion kept us from the primary means by which we experience God’s encouragement, namely the local church.
Third, I discovered a desire to help people grow in the context of their everyday lives: doing their jobs, going to school, finding their spouses, raising their kids, reaching out to their friends, caring for their poor and elderly, and so on. There is tremendous value to seasons of rest and recovery. However, my desire is to help them maintain their faith and grow when they’re not at YMI or camp.
In addition to these discoveries, for the last few months it seems God has been transitioning us away from Youthfront. Through a series of events which includes the addition of a couple full-time YMI staff, God has made us willing to leave knowing the ministry we launched is not dependent on our involvement.
For these reasons (and a few others), Amanda and I have begun to transition our ministry.
This fall, we will move to Louisville, KY for about a year where I will complete my Masters of Divinity. Then, I will pursue a position which allows me to do ministry on or near a college campus. A particular city is not yet clear, but the opportunity to be daily equipping college students to reach and disciple people is very exciting to me.
Between now and September, I will be primarily doing three things.
First, I will be helping to pass-on YMI to different leaders. I will be mainly in a service role to help this next year of YMI run smoothly.
Second, because I will have more time in the spring and summer, we have decided to work one more summer at Youthfront Camp. Youthfront Camp West needed a Cabin Leader Supervisor, so I volunteered. As the cabin leader supervisor, I am responsible for hiring roughly 18 college students as cabin leaders, develop and lead the summer curriculum, and shepherd this small group of people for the summer.
Third, I will be trying to close the shortfall in my support account by taking on some Youthfront building maintenance duties and by raising a little more financial support.
If you have questions, I would be happy to talk with you. Feel free to email or call me.
Also, be sure to take a look at our prayer requests, and think about us as you spend time with God. We are, as always, desperately dependent on his care and guidance.
Camp. This summer, I will be the Cabin Leader Supervisor at Youthfront Camp West. Pray as I begin building relationships with our future summer-staff and plan the summer curriculum. Also, I only have five spots left to fill. Pray for wisdom in the selection process.
Seminary. As we said in our letter, in the fall we will move to Louisville where I will finish my seminary education. We’ve discovered that I can go solid for about a year and be quite close to finished. Pray for us as we put together the details of our move and transition.
Family. The last few months, since Christmas break have been quite refreshing for us. The pace has slowed, and our habits have been healthier. Every year Amanda and I are married, we better understand and love each other. Pray that we will continue to grow as husband/wife, and father/mother.
Anna Grace. Amanda is just a few weeks from her due date (April 15th). Pray that the baby would remain healthy and growing. Pray that she will be a happy baby (this is especially important since we will be at camp this summer).
A Few weeks ago, our small group visited the Forest Avenue Family Shelter in urban Kansas City. The shelter provides meals for members of the community and a place for women and children to sleep. Though I have been there before and have visited many places like this one, this visit was different than others.
Normally, we provide a meal when we come. This week we decided to have “breakfast for dinner.” A few months ago, Jonathan and I found an espresso machine for $4 at a local thrift store. Since then, Jonathan has been making me a latte a few mornings each week. This is quite the treat for me, and I thought the people at the shelter would enjoy it too. However, I could never have imagined that something so simple would impact me so much.
So we packed up food, our espresso machine, some milk, and a few different kinds of flavored syrups, and headed to to the shelter. As the evening progressed, women came, ordered a latte, sat down, and sipped it with a feeling that was difficult to articulate.
About midway through the evening, I found myself in a long conversation with one of the women and her son. I didn't find out a ton about her or her life, but it felt a lot like a conversation that I would have had with a friend in a coffee shop. We talked and laughed as though we had known each other for long time. As our evening ended, she told me that this was one of the first times she had stayed at a shelter. It wasn't what she had expected. She had been really scared, but she told me that tonight had been a lot of fun for her.
As Jonathan and I were driving home, we talked about our experience. Jonathan made a connection that has really impacted me. He told me that he thought the latte's had made the people feel "normal." They weren't just drinking a cup of Joe from the pot brewing in the back.
They were able to come up to a counter, tell someone what they wanted, wait while it was being specially made just for them, and then, sit and drink it with their friends just like a normal person.
For a few moments, their worries melted away in a warm cup of espresso, steamed milk, and white peppermint mocha syrup. They talked freely and laughed. There was a certain amount of dignity in drinking this latte.
For me, it is easy to look at a person in a shelter or out on the street and get caught up trying to understand how they got there and what I can do to "fix" their problem. I want to say that I care for them, but my "doing" mentality can sometimes keep me from loving them the way they are, or giving the dignity they deserve.
God is at work all the time. Not only is He drawing me to Himself, He is drawing others as well, even those homeless men or women we occasionally see on the street.
He calls us to take time and love people where they are, treating them with the kind of dignity love demands. Though, I can’t say something in my conversation explicitly pointed this woman to Christ, but I believe God was at work in her heart. I know He was at work in mine.
I daily amaze Mommy and Daddy. I am starting to communicate in more complete thoughts, and I am learning the art of “going potty in the big girl potty.” One of my favorite activities is sitting in Anna Grace’s car seat reading to my Panda.
Family. We have less than 11 weeks before Anna Grace is due (and your taxes J ). Pray for Abi as she learns what it means to be a big sister. And pray for us as we prepare to be come parents of a newborn again.
Camp. Jonathan will be Cabin Leader Supervisor at West this year. We are excited to be ministering to college students once again. Pray that the Lord would be preparing the students that are coming to serve on staff this summer. Also, pray that Jonathan would develop relationships with them quickly.
Seminary. Jonathan is taking a class this semester from Southern. Pray for him as he continues on the path toward finishing his Masters. Also, pray for provision as we seek to move to Lousiville, KY in the fall. There are a lot of details (housing, jobs, church, etc.) that we are not sure of at the moment.
Chicago. Jonathan and I will be heading north for a little rest and relaxation over Valentine’s Day. Pray that we would enjoy our time together as we spend some time as a couple.
