May Update

The Outdoor Education season is in full swing now, with two weeks down and two more to go! The last two weeks went really well. The first week we had 5th and 6th graders from World Impact’s Los Angeles Christian School (LACS) come up, and last week we had the sixth graders from Yucaipa Christian School.

As always the kids from LACS were a huge blessing to us. It is so great to see the positive influence that the school has been in all of their lives. Although most of them come from neighborhoods and families that are in shambles, the school has been a place of consistency and has pointed them to their rock and shelter, Jesus.

The first night at Firecircle (our evening program) with the fifth graders, Jared asked them how many of them felt closer to God at THE OAKS then back at home in the city. Every student’s hand was up. Jared encouraged them throughout his talk that Jesus is as close to them at home as he is at camp, and that He has placed them in their home, neighborhood, and family for a reason—to use them for His glory. I think the kids were challenged by this. It is neat to see how seriously they take their faith…much more seriously than I did at their age!

Later in the week we took the sixth graders on an overnight camping trip in the wilderness. This is the highlight of Outdoor Ed for them. For almost all of them it was the first time they had ever been more than 10 minutes from civilization, slept in a tent outside, eaten “hobo dinners” for supper, made S’mores, or played Capture the Flag in the dark. They loved it, as you can see from the photos.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

• Please continue to pray for strength and endurance for Jared as he continues in his busiest season…working 12 to 14 hour days without much of a break.

• Please pray for our group of summer staff as they start arriving at the end of this month! Pray for their hearts to be ready for the ways God wants to stretch them this summer.

• PRAISE!! Most of you received an email from us several weeks ago asking you to pray for God to provide the $10,000 in escrow needed for THE OAKS to acquire the property adjacent to ours, including several houses we would use for staff. God was definitely faithful and showed us His will in that matter, because the entire $10,000 came in that week! Thank you for your prayers and those of you who gave. We have several people applying to come on missionary staff within the next year, and now we will have housing for them!

BABY NEWS!! I am past the halfway mark in my pregnancy now! We are very excited about the SON that will be born to us in September! Yes, we just found out he is a boy, and we are very excited to not have to call him an “it” anymore! Everything seems to be going great with the pregnancy. Please continue to pray for the health of our little boy!

And finally, I should be finished with the mural in the Childcare Center by the end of this week! Here are a few of the latest photos.