Below are some notes from my message on 12/6 entitled When Jesus Calls. There are some scriptures to be praying when you are praying to the Lord of the Harvest for workers and some passages to meditate on regarding rewards.
I am not the best at actually getting footage when I am on a trip or retreat. I like just experiencing the trip better than recording it. This video will give you an idea of some of what the people are up against in Cambodia. It’s neat to see how God is using the ministry that Paul and Ron are doing with the military families over there and to think about how God can use us as well. We are hoping to raise money through Stop Slavery to be able to provide a school for the guys in Unit 14 by April.
I am in Cambodia today. Yesterday we went to Serat’s house. He is a missionary with Cadence and one of two seminary trained men from Cambodia. He has intentionally moved into a village to be the light of Christ to them and he loves it. Compared to his neighbors he lives in a palace. He has a bed yet sometimes just sleeps on the cement floor. I’ll have to tell you more of his story later. He is 39 so he survived the times of the Khmar Rouge as a youngster.
Today we are going to see the General at Special Forces Unit 14 where we hope to have a mission’s trip in the spring and raise money for a community development project as part of stop slavery. You can check out the plan here.
I just wanted to give you a quick update on our ministries. Jen is full speed into running Awana again this year. She has a volunteer staff of around 30 people and she says that they have been awesome. She is enjoying homeschooling mostly and really enjoying teaching at classical conversations on Fridays.
I have a home office. Waahoo! I am actually writing from there right now. There was an 8X11 plastic storage shed with two small windows that had been for sale for a couple of years outside the BX. It was missing a part so I asked if they would take $100 instead of $1100 since they are moving to a new BX and the manager said yes. I was starting to feel like the 1000 square feet we have in our apartment was getting a little small. I’ll have to take some pictures when it gets light out and post them here.
It looks like we are only a few weeks out from having a new youth worker out here to lead the Jr. High group. Mark Kellond is due to be out here soon. Pray that his last $320 a month of support comes in quickly.
I am stoked about the strength of our student leaders this year. We have 10 students that are doing a great job of reaching out to their friends, leading cell groups and loving those around them. We are making some changes this year as we start a non profit to combat human trafficking and taking a one year break from spring break to do a missions trip over that time. Please pray that God would lead us to the places that he wants us to serve probably either in Cambodia or Thailand.
Summer Paintball
We went paint balling this summer with our guys and had a great time. It was good to have some of our former students back this summer helping out with ministry.
Hiking with some of our students on the student leader retreat that we held in Northern Okinawa at Okuma.
Beach Wedding in Okinawa
It was really fun to be able to do a couple of weddings this summer for students that we first had as 7th graders. Craziness. Gach and Vince had a beautiful wedding on the beach in Okinawa.
Rachel and Paul were married in the Air Force Academy Chapel. I almost didn’t get to make the wedding because of a typhoon here but God really opened the door for me to get back when the airlines told me it would be 5 days before I could get out. It was really fun to see everyone at the wedding. I was originally hoping to see some other friends in the Springs as well but in the end after not even making it for rehearsal I was just glad to be able to be there for the wedding.
Here is some fun Engrish that one of our staff caught on a ferry. It doesn’t always sound right but usually you can get the point.
Jen is blogging about her homeschooling adventure at www.jenrathmell.com if you care to follow the fun.
We just finished up our student leader retreat for this school year. We had a great week and I am excited about the team and some of our plans for this next year. Some of those plans involve you so you should check back in a few weeks to see the direction we are going this year.
Tomorrow marks my first normal day back in the office in nearly 3 weeks. Traveling and seeing old friends and new people is always fun. Retreats at Okuma rock but sometimes it’s really fun just to get back into normal life.
Jen had a soccer camp last week for Awana and me and some of my students and graduates helped to run it. It was great fun and we heard multiple comments from parents and students that we should have made it two weeks long. I say, “Always leave them wanting more.”