Heading Home . . .

Well, tomorrow, I head home from camp for a few weeks. It's been GREAT here at Northland!!! I'll try to post more later, but can't make any promises.

Just a Thought for the Week

2 Corinthians 12:10 "Therefore I take PLEASURE in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for WHEN I AM WEAK, THEN AM I STRONG."

I've been thinking about this verse this week. How often do we take all the distresses, and persecutions, the infirmities and reproaches and necessities and take pleasure in them? Yet, God's given them to us to make us weak so that HE can be strong. Just a thought to dwell on this week. Can you take pleasure in the problems so that God can be glorified?

   Also, I'll be teen counseling at camp this week and would appreciate prayers for wisdom and patience.

Once More, God Brought me to Camp

Staff Training here at Northland Camp has come to a close. Every time that I’ve been here, it’s been neat to see how God worked it out, because every time I’ve come, there have been a million and one reasons in my eyes why I shouldn’t be here, yet God always works things out for me to be here at just the right time.

I’ve been really challenged this year, as I’ve sat through the training sessions and messages. I’m so blessed to be here with this awesome team. One of the things that I’ve been reminded of this week that has really been an encouragement to me is to keep my focus right.

I mean we hear about things like the Notre Dame fire, and thing, “How sad!” But looking ahead, everything here is going to burn up anyways. At the end of the day, the only thing that’s going to matter from this life is how we lived for God.

It’s easy to get caught up in the little things of life that seem big at the time, but keep it in perspective of eternity. At the end of the day, most things won’t matter, and we need to make sure we're investing in the things that do matter. Bringing glory to God, and showing the world HIS love.

So, yes. It's been a great week! I'm excited to see what God is going to do this week in my life, as well as in the campers.

A verse that I've been thinking about a lot lately is Matthew 13:58 "And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief." Sometimes, we want to see God working, but He's not doing mighty things in our lives, because of our unbelief. How often do we pray . . . "God, change this situation!" But don't actually expect to see a change? My encouragement to you? Have faith. Don't expect God to do great things if you're not living by faith.

I'll try to post again next week, but I do have very spotty internet connection and may not be able to. I guess we'll see. :)

VBS 2019

 I've missed the last two years of our church's VBS, so it was GREAT to be home for it this year! Our theme was "Kids on a Mission" and each day we explored a different aspect of being a missionary. Since each day was themed with a different country, I decided to dress up for each day!

 

I worked 'back table' with Miriam. And you may notice the color scheme is the colors of the wordless book. As part of the missions theme, we taught the kids to share the wordless book so that they can share the gospel wherever they're at.

Monday, our theme 'destination' was the USA, with special focus on the Navajo Indians in New Mexico where there's a Bible Camp my brother helped out at.

One day, was Ecuador.

The last day was India.

The Congo was one of my favorites, although it did take an hour and a half to do all the little braids, and longer to take them out!

The singing and lessons are so encouraging to me, even as a worker, it's a great week of Spiritual growth.

And one day was Germany!

We had a total of 86 kids come throughout the week, and a few salvations, as well as a lot of Spiritual growth. It was neat seeing how even the workers grew over the week.

Next step for me? I'm off to Northland Camp again!!! Sadly, I wasn't able to leave for the whole summer, but I'll be there for three weeks as a counselor. If you think of it, I'd appreciate prayer. Some of the teens we end up counseling come from really rough homes, and are dealing with things that I've never experienced. Pray that God will let me love them and know how to best help.

Mid-West Almanac Blog Post

I had the opportunity to share a picture on this website, and hopefully, I'll be doing it twice a month for a little while. The next one comes up tomorrow.  http://www.midwestalmanac.com/small-town-minnesota/