Hello everyone!
Once again it has been a whirlwind of a time since my last update; our school has finished, all our friends have spread out, some of our friends new parents, and we are visiting our family in Michigan.
Well, let’s get started!
The School Of Apostolic Pioneering that we were a part of finished with all students graduating and having excellent projects to pioneer in the next couple years. Some could be seen as very traditional projects, while others were definitely leaning on YWAM’s value of being visionary and doing things in radically new ways!
After the school finished we wrapped up some debrief items and shared plans for promoting the school in the future.
At once, with really only a day of packing, we through our things in the Jeep that has been lent to us and headed off to Michigan. We started off with four passengers and dropped people off along the way. We were also able to visit several friends. We arrived four days later and for the first time, save for Mom, my family was able to meet our son.
Taking him to the farm was great! My Grandfather immediately swept him up and started showing how to roll pool balls around our pool table just like he used to do with us. We also spent some time shooting our bows at targets, practicing our softball skills for an upcoming tournament, and chased the cows back into the fence. The more our youngster is over there the more he is realizing that cows aren’t actually big dogs that go “wuff” too!
We are planning to spend our time here until just after the 4th of July and then head back to Idaho. We will be spending a lot of time with family, as well as, support raising, making connections, and scouting out the land for future YWAM bases.
Thanks for keeping track of us!
Other Updates
– During our time in Michigan we are hoping to do some praying and imagining about what future YWAM locations could look like here. As we do so, we will start putting up small articles on the different cities we go to and would love to hear some of your ideas as we do so too!
– Just yesterday we had our first prayer trip! My brother and I headed up to the highest point in Michigan’s thumb, north of I-69, and prayed for the surrounding cities. You could see several from the top of the mountain and it was a really beautiful place to spend some time in prayer.
Scripture
Just a few days ago I was praying about what to read and it felt like I should read through the new testament during my time in Michigan. I also started reading the book unChristian by David Kinnamen and Gabe Lyons.
In David’s book, through in-depth research, they take a look at how Christianity is viewed by 16-29 year-old’s in the USA. The research, done through the Barna Group, is pretty stark… though not the majority, many of the Americans in that age group who are not already a part of the Church view it in an unfavorable light. What is worse, most of these perceptions come from experiences in churches or among Christians.
After reading this, my first go at reading Mathew brought me to the end of chapter 7, right through what is known as “the sermon on the mount“, a large continuous collection of Jesus’ teachings. The biggest thing I noticed about them was how all of them were concerned with how we live our lives. They have very little to do with pointing out how others live their lives wrongly, they even contain a teaching warning us of it.
Go and see for yourself, it is only two chapters.
This section scripture contains a big part of the heart behind living our lives as a follower of Jesus and paints a true picture of what Christianity needs to look like.
Praise Reports and Prayer Requests
– Praise God that we all made it here in one piece!
– Praise God that my Grandfather is able to play with our son!
– Please pray for my Grandfather, he has several serious health concerns!
– Please pray for the costs we have that go along with delivering a baby! We still have $1,200 dollars to raise by the end of the month!
Thanks for all your prayers!
In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom
The Abiding Kingdom 