Published February 14, 2017
North Annville Bible Church, Annville, Pennsylvania
Kevin
Ministry Highlights
Alisha and I helped continue to help lead our 5 year olds through 4th grade ministry. It has been a blessing to see our high schoolers take (and struggle with) responsibility leading a group of children. One girl in particular is really grappling with the concepts of leading a group. She is doing a good job for just starting out but its tough for her to process. What is happening and what is going on in her head are two different things. I have had great conversations with her mom and her about being a leader. It has been awesome!
We will be rolling out a 12 week family training program through video/email pretty soon. Everything is ready to go and I look forward to seeing how God will use it!
I continue to work with people in order to fill all the ministry holes we have in the 5 year olds through 4th grade ministry during the worship service. We have a couple new contacts and things are about to get rolling. Looking forward to seeing how the new people do in their roles and what kind of ways I can help them.
We had an incredible memorial service for the twins. God has done some amazing things in the lives of the parents and their family. It has been incredible to see.
The youth group had a good month of meetings and we went ice skating yesterday. One lesson was on communion and it made some people question their faith and wrestle with what they believe. Pray for a few girls in the group that are open about their struggles with faith lately.
YAC (Young Adult Community) at Lebanon Valley College continues to move forward. We will have our final meeting on Sunday but there has been a lot of planning and processing what the next phase of this ministry will look like. We are moving in a great direction and there is still a wide open door at the college, praise the Lord!
Significant work has happened on the lifegroup/missionary display project. We will be moving in some of these areas soon.
Key Prayer Requests
Junior Church Teaching Ministry Prayer Request: Things are falling into place. Pray that I can stay active in this area and make sure that everything is covered!
YAC (Young Adult Community) Ministry Prayer Requests: Had a good meeting with the Chaplain of LVC on Thursday. We will be starting a new small group bible study in the fall and I’ll be focusing on our young adult ministry at church with the hopes of inviting LVC students to attend. We will have our final YAC meeting this Sunday to talk about what this all means for everyone involved.
Outreach Events Prayer Requests: I have been in contact with some people about possible outreach event possibilities. Pray that these work out.
Pray for me as I work to develop a visual way to see our small group ministry and also a better way to communicate information about the missionaries we support. We are making good progress on this project.
Thanks for praying for the young girl in the psychiatric hospital. Continue to pray for this family. Praying that this family gets into a Lifegroup!
Thanks for praying for a mom (and her family!) in our church who was in the hospital for 3 months during her pregnancy with twins. The memorial service went well. I will be following up with them about making a video soon.
Pray for Alisha and she continues to meet with a girl from our young adult group. They have been going through a book together. Almost finished the book.
Pray for our youth group. There are at least 2 girls that are really struggling with their faith right now. Both are freshmen in high school. Just the battle between doing what they want to do and what they (hopefully) know is right and pleasing to God. At least one of them will be going with our group to the girls conference in the middle of March. Praying that will be a great and life changing experience for them.
Prominent Lessons
This month we went to go visit an eight year old girl from our church in the psychiatric hospital. It is sad that I can say that I know a handful of people in our church who have been to that hospital before, and a few of them have been under 20. When I heard the news about this girl I was very sad. She comes from a difficult family situation but whenever I saw her she was very friendly and lovable. She would always run up to me and give me a hug. We also had the opportunity to play catch together before one of our softball games. That was pretty neat. We went to visit and had a good conversation for the most part until it took a bad turn when her mom came. She just shut down. After the visit I was just thinking about how difficult it is to just come into a situation like that without knowing the family. They’ve been attending our church for probably 6-10 months. The family hasn’t been to church lately because of the parents’ work schedules. The mom desperately wants her daughter to get better and doesn’t know what to do. I don’t even know where to begin with any helpful advice. I was reminded that I will not always know what to say. I had a lot of questions running through my mind but it was probably not the right place to ask them. I will be praying for the young girl and the family, you can pray for her too, and entrust her and her situation to the Lord. I hope the doctors there will be able to help her and that God changes some things in the family situation.
I was running slightly behind schedule one youth group night, and of course, when that happens my projector and apple TV set up in the youth room did not work right away. As I tried to get that together one of my youth leaders wanted to talk to me about some things. I didn’t know what he wanted to talk about but he just had some questions for me about why certain things were happening and why we made a change that we did. I think they were all good questions, I’m just not sure right before youth group (when there are students already there) is the best time for questions like that. Next time I’ll have to ask him to wait until after the students have left or sometime during the week. This was a good reminder to me that no matter how much we think we are trying to do a good job communicating what is going on at church and why things happen the way they do, not everyone is going to get all that information. Also, people will try to fit their own experience into the change or idea and not consider how the change or idea helps other people. I’m thankful that he was able to share those thoughts with me.
This week there was one significant event that consumed our church. A lady from our church was pregnant with twins and her water broke a couple weeks into the pregnancy. Despite suggestions from the doctors to terminate the pregnancy the parents decided to go through the process and see what happens. We were all trusting God, praying for them, and doing whatever we could do to support them. It was awesome to see the church surround this family in prayer and support in many different ways. What was most amazing was the husband shared his story in front of the church during a morning service and he was able to share what God was doing in this situation. After the morning service I was a part of a group that met with him to arrange ways that we could help their family as a church. During this meeting the man reiterated that he and his wife knew this was never about the babies, it was all about them growing in their faith and relationship with God. God has used this situation in an amazing way to grow their marriage and their relationships with Jesus as a couple. It was so awesome to see their faith.
Tuesday the elders went to the hospital to have a special prayer night with them. Friday night we got news that the mom had a fever and they had to do an emergency c-section. Our senior pastor went to spend time with the family and early in the morning on Saturday both babies passed away. On Sunday an elder and the life group leader of the family offered to preach for our senior pastor. We continued to pray for the family. I am thankful to see how our church has responded to this difficult situation and it was awesome to see the church be the church. I think some other families that we have been working closely with recently were also encouraged to see how the church loves people no matter what their situation is. It’s also the first time a family has gone through a crisis like this since we started our small group (Lifegroup) ministry. This situation has showed the value of being in small group environment where those relationships and bonds are created and where there is a group of people that you can count on.
This week I happened to spend a significant amount of time with 2 youth group boys this week. One boy had some extra time at home alone since his mom was in the hospital and the other was home all week because of a surgery. It was awesome to be able to spend time with them in their own homes and do whatever it was they wanted to do. What we ended up doing was playing board games. They wanted to do learn some new games and they were incredibly smart and were able to pick up the games quickly.
It’s difficult getting together with youth group age kids during the week because of how busy their schedules are. But because of their circumstances there was some more time open for a visit to happen and I am thankful that both were excited about the opportunity. I’m thankful for the women leaders that we have in our youth group and they can build and strengthen their relationships in that way. The time that I can get during the week, whether it is helping out at home and keeping them company or supporting them at their extra curricular activities, is very important to me and I think it is important to building relationships were truth can be shared and take root.
Key Goals for the Next Month
Develop young adult ministry group to get ready to roll out in April.
Continue to share the outreach vision and work on spurring on another outreach event.
Recruit people to join the ministry teams. Specially, meet with at least 1 person who would be a great kids ministry small group helper or leader. One of my helpers who asks people to help serve in various ministries opened the door with one lady which is so helpful and awesome. I am excited that she might be able to help out!
Continue to make progress at our youth group Engage program. Engage helps students discover, develop and deploy their spiritual gifts and talents for the Lord and the church. Our third practice is Jan. 8.
Roll out our family training series.
Alisha
Ministry Highlights
Participating as a leader in youth group and leading a girls small group.
Helping to lead YAC, our Young Adult Group. We have a wide variety of people who are attending from freshman LVC students to a married couple, to young adults from the community who never went to college.
I’ve been able to build my relationship with a young adult girl in our YAC group and walk with her through life. We have continued to read a book together and meet to talk about it to help her out during her season in life.
Helping to lead our NABC Kids Sunday morning ministry. I lead a small group of 6-7 kids and mentor high school students as they help lead the group as well. This month we started preparing for our Christmas play and did it. I helped the kids sing songs, act out their part, make their costumes, and learn their lines.
Kevin and I invited the girl I have been helping to join us as we watched the Steelers game at Pastor Todd’s house. It was nice to be there with them and include this girl with us.
I continue to visit a family from our church’s house to do some physical therapy treatment on a high school senior. We have been able to make a good connection over the last year or so.
A 10th grade girl who has been struggling a lot lately has been keeping in touch with me through SnapChat. Praying for her to work through all the things she is dealing with.
Thankful for the time I have to talk to our Pastor’s wife about being a pastor’s wife.
Started to do morning devotions with Kevin before going to work
Been in contact with a lady from the church. It was very nice of her to get in touch with me and we have developed a nice friendship over the last year or so.
Visited with many people at my home church.
Key Prayer Requests
Continue to pray for a few girls in the youth group that are struggling. They are all struggling with similar and yet different things. Pray that they will be able to go to the girls conference in March and grow through these things.
Pray for my sister in law that is going through a lot difficult things in her life.
Pray that I continue to study well for my manual certification class and test and continue to learn a lot that can I apply to my job every day.
Pray that I do well in the clinic director training that continues through April.
Pray for me as I meet with the one young adult girl one on one.
Prominent Lessons
I have learned that I like to meet with people one on one. I have had the opportunity to meet with a young girl who is 22. She is a member of our young adult group and has been struggling with the recent loss of her father as well as with trusting God and seeking him first in her life. Through meeting with her I have learned to be a better listener, learned to give sound advice and have learned to be patient and listen more than speak.
This week I was encouraged by a text message I received from an older lady at our church. I missed church last week because I wasn’t feeling well and this lady sent me a very nice message asking how I felt and that she wanted to let me know that she missed me. This made my day and helped to remind me how much one simple text can mean.
This past Sunday I was in Pittsburgh visiting my family at my home church and I saw a girl who went to my high school with her family at church. I was encouraged to see her at church and felt led to go and talk to her. This was outside my comfort zone however I felt God was telling me too. I had the chance to briefly talk to her however our conversation was very short. I was reached out to her on facebook and have encouraged her with a personal message. I will continue to pray for her as God places her and her family on my mind.
Key Goals for the Next Month
Do well in my clinic director training.
Do well in my manual certification classes and tests that are coming up.
Meet with a girl from youth group who has stopped coming.
To help a particular family start coming to church regularly again and continue to build my relationship with them and their children.
Recent Comments