Entering the Season of Advent

Friends, the Christmas decorations are up and the trees are lit; what a wonderful time of year! It's a little different to be celebrating Christ's birth without snow on the ground, but we are thankful for the beautiful days here. Our school time gives us the opportunity to talk about why Jews (as a rule) don't celebrate Christmas and the what the loss of Christ as Savior and Messiah means. We can learn about different cultures and their expression of the holiday, always bringing it back to the truth of Jesus' virgin birth and the miracle God performed for His people.

As we enter into the Advent season, we ask that you continue in prayer for wisdom as we deal with our home in Laramie. It has been on the market for almost a year, and interest in it has dwindled over the past couple of months. We are working with an agent within the loan company to try to find a solution, and we ask that God would really make His way clear. Psalm 25:4-5 says, "Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Savior." We hold on to these verses, knowing that God is the only One who can see down this path He has carved out for us, trusting Him to reveal the next step in His time.

Thank you for your partnership in prayer, encouragement, and support. You mean a great deal to us!

The Family of God

What a week! After the flurry of opening weekend of pheasant season, I foolishly thought things would slow down a little. While the number of people here is fewer, we've been kept busier. Since we're dealing with smaller groups, Tim and I are doing the cooking, guiding, and hosting for each pheasant hunt group, and we've had people staying in the Prairie House (a cottage used for personal retreats and very small groups) all week, too.

We interact with these smaller groups in a different way--it's like they become part of our family as we spend the day with them, eat with them, and sit back from the dinner table just chatting. Last night our guests from the Prairie House joined our hunters and we all enjoyed a time of fellowship. After dinner, the lone female guest and I carried the dishes to the back kitchen while the hunters and the other guest talked with Tim. Vonda and I discovered many commonalities (we're both preacher's kids, interested in design, music teachers) and were able to encourage each other. As we returned to the dining area, Tim told me that he and Lloyd (Vonda's husband) had discovered a common link, someone we all know from western Nebraska.

Later, as Tim and I finished up the dishes, I told Tim, this evening makes me think of a song, "The Family of God". He laughed and then said, "That's the song Vonda was playing on the organ in the chapel when I gave them a tour."

God brings so many different people to this ministry in rural Kansas. We encourage and strengthen, but often finds that God uses them in our lives to encourage and strengthen us. And within the community of believers are so many connections! Thank you for your prayers and support as we serve the body of Christ in northwest Kansas!

It's a flurry of activity here at Shepherd's Staff! Gwen is getting ready for a group of scrapbookers, and Tim is helping to prepare for the many pheasant hunters that begin to arrive today. When we look at last year's calendar compared to the past four months, we really see how God is using us to increase activity here at Shepherd's Staff.

We ask for your continued prayers as we work to find our place here in this ministry. It's hard to add a new person/couple to a team, and sometimes we really feel Satan working against any forward progress. We so value your prayers.

A Season of Thanks

We shared a neat experience with the Rexford Community Church on Sunday. After a quick soup & salad potluck, we wrapped and packed boxes for Operation Christmas Child. This Samaritan's Purse outreach has always been close to the heart of our family, so it was neat to get to participate with other believers. Church members spend each year purchasing items for this event; there were eight or more tables filled with things to put in the boxes.

Gwen had the joy of helping Natasha pack boxes. She understood that each box needed specific things (soap, wash cloth, toothpaste, toothbrush, comb, candy, stuffed animal) and then would carefully choose what she thought another child would enjoy. Each box was special: one was filled with art supplies, another with games, another with little toys. She tried to get a pair of shoes into each one, and was disappointed when we couldn't make them fit into one box.

Meanwhile, Jesalynn worked on her own. She had used twelve dollars from her piggy bank to purchase items for this project, and you could see her joy in helping others.

Tim and Tyson worked together to fill boxes and again, great care went into each box. We were so happy to see the joy that our children are learning to find in serving others.