Berkley is now four months old and we are just finishing up with two weeks of summer staff training. These past couple of months have been tough because of the crazy schedule, but are loving getting to see Berkley grow and preparing for a summer of ministry to students. Brittany has moved out of her official capacity at Snowbird to focus on raising Berkley. The transition has been tough at times, but we are excited to see the new ways the Lord is going to use her among the female interns and summer staffers. Our prayer is that God uses our family for the sake of His glory. At times, that will be through daily tasks that support the greater ministry of Snowbird. Other times it will simply come about by inviting younger couples into our home for dinner and speaking the Gospel into their lives. We learn in Ephesians that marriage is for our sanctification and we see that raising children hurries that glorious process along even more quickly! As the Lord grows us in wisdom and godliness, our prayer is that we will be persistent in inviting people into our lives to walk through that process with us and and be encouraged by the Lord's patience and grace in our life.
I've been working continually on a website project for Snowbird that will provide a greater capacity for us to provide sermon podcasts, videos, and blogs with a Gospel-focused purpose. Our plan is to better encourage and support youth pastors, students, and parents with God's Word on daily basis. Needless to say, countless hours have been spent fine-tuning the website side of this plan but it has been a great learning experience and I am excited for Snowbird to unveil the finished product in the next month!
One of the biggest ministry opportunities Brittany and I have comes each summer when roughly 100 college students arrive in May for twelve weeks of training and summer camp ministry. As I mentioned earlier, we are already two weeks into their stint here at Snowbird and we have already begun building some great relationship with certain summer staffers. Several guys and girls that were in our small groups as high school students are returning as staff members and use their summer to pour out the Gospel into students' lives. Praise Jesus for His work in their hearts!
Please be in prayer over the teachers and staff here at Snowbird this summer. We are all spending time delving into the Gospel of Mark in preparation to discuss John Mark's recording of events in the life of Christ. Pray that the authority, glory and preeminence of Christ is communicated clearly and boldly--and received with humility and repentance.
In Christ,
John
In Christ,
John
Prayer Requests from John & Brittany:
- Pray that we keep our eyes on Jesus when days get long and energy runs low.
- Pray that we continually look to Christ for power and fruitfulness in ministry and never rely on our own strength.
- Pray that we will build quick and strong relationships with summer staffers and have time to invest in them on the weekends.
- Pray that we will be faithful to maintain and pursue friendships with people in our church even in the busy schedule of summer camp.
- Pray that we both continue growing in humility and faith as we learn how to raise our daughter, Berkley.
