Trust in the Lord.

"Dot your leader night" at AWANA.
Every time a child said a bible verse, they put a dot on us!

“Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 has not always been an easy verse for me to swallow. I tend to think my way is the best way; I like to be in control and I like to have a solid plan.. After all, I am so wise and full of infinite knowledge. The truth is that I don’t like to make mistakes, but who does? And no matter how hard I try, I will still end up making quite a few… I will let people down, I will say mean things, and I will make bad choices. If I did not make mistakes; if I was always put together and perfect, Christ coming to die for my sins would be pointless. Traveling across the world to share the Gospel with military children would be meaningless. And that is surely not the case. Because Jesus Christ did indeed die for me and everyone else for that matter, my life has purpose, Matthew’s life has purpose, we all have a purpose.

           

Matthew leading Large Group

There have been times on our journey of support raising where I wonder if our full support will come in and where it will all come from, if we will ever have the opportunity to minister to military children or if we will be “stuck” in Virginia for the remainder of our lives. When those thoughts begin to creep in, I am taken to the very words spoken by God, “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:11-13). God did not promise to give Matthew and I an easy, happy-go-lucky road/life. God promised that His way will not harm us and that His way will cause us to depend on Him. It is in this dependence we will learn to trust Him fully. In this life, we will have smooth travels, ride on bumpy roads, get stuck in traffic and maybe even have a little road rage. But one thing is for sure, if we trust in the Lord, He will make our paths straight. And this path will one day lead to military ministry.

            As Matthew and I continue to rely on the Lord and watch as His plan unfolds, we will continue

serving in our church. On the Sundays Matthew and I don’t lead a small group, Matthew has been helping co-lead large group and I have started to learn more of the “ins and outs” in leading children’s ministry. We have had an amazing opportunity to connect with a church body that has encouraged us, strengthened us and taught us so much! It will be hard to say goodbye when we head to the field, but we know we will always have a home here in Virginia.
            Matthew and I have big hopes to have 100% of our support by the end of next month (January 2014). As of right now, Matthew and I have 14 people who are giving to us on a monthly basis, which is averaging 25% of our monthly goal. We would love to have 72 more people pledge $75/month or 54 people pledge $100/month. Join us as we pray for God to send more people our way! Maybe you are one of them!!

The End of Our First Year!

Me listening to a memory verse

  Ministry at our church, McLean Bible Church has been a great time for both Sarah and I! We have helped lots of kids with learning bible verses, core truths, and made lots of friends.  The ministries we volunteer in are Kid's Quest and Awana! We enjoy the ministry at McLean and hope to incorporate into our ministry one day. One thing that I really enjoy about the Kids Quest ministry is the leadership team that is in place.  The director, Mary Scott, does a fantastic job communicating the vision of the church and leading her coordinators.  Her coordinators are Yasmin (Large Group) and Ana (Small Group), they do an outstanding job bringing the kids great material that is engaging!  Yasmin’s team tells the bible story, do funny skits, and sing interactive songs.  Anna’s team leads the kids in a more in depth study of the story. We are both on Ana's team. I am going to join Yasmin's team this summer!  I hope that we are able to construct a leadership team of volunteers wherever we are stationed.

Sarah and I lead the kindergarten small group.  Recently, we had to say good bye to our kindergartens as they are moving up to 1^st grade.  We are going miss them!  We taught what the bible says about compassion, friendship, truth, faith, mercy, wisdom, and many others!  As small group leaders, we lead them in scripture memorization and dug deeper into the large group message.  My favorite part of the small group is the scripture memorization.  Our favorite way to memorize a verse is by putting it on a white board and erasing one or two words at a time.  When the words are all gone…everyone knows it!  We meet our new kindergartners next week; we are super excited!

Sarah  hanging with the kids

During the spring, Sarah and I had to get jobs. Sarah got a job working a Chick-fil-a. It is her second passion right after missions.  She enjoys working there but is really excited to start our future ministry! I started substituting and I really enjoyed it!.  I substitute all the grades, K through 12^th. The elementary age is my favorite! They all call me Mr. A because I don’t want them mispronouncing my last name just like when I was in school haha.  A few of the classes asked me what the “A” stands for, but I tell them its my secret. As a response to that, they picked the A to stand for Awesome!  It is quite the ego boost when I walk down the hall and hear a bunch of kids say “Hey, Mr. Awesome!” followed by high fives!

For the rest of the summer, Sarah and I are finishing our growth plan!  This means that I need to finish school as well as read a few books.  I am very close to being finished; I only have 4 more sections to complete! Yippee! Sarah is reading the same books as well as setting up dinners with potential supporters and working!