Abi Update

I have a new sister! I love her so much! I play with her every day. Sometimes I make her co

okies with my play kitchen, and give her a bear to cuddle with. My friends and I are ready for the summer!

May Prayer

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!

Camp!

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.

Anna Grace!

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.

Abi Update

I love my Daddy and Mommy. Daddy took me down the slide at the play-place, and we matched on Saint Patrick’s Day. I love it when Mommy lets me cook with her. In the picture, I’m making cookies for Daddy.

April Prayer

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.

Pictures and Words

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.