Update from Ron:
Davin is in his last year of high school. He is trying to decide what to do after graduation. He is leaning towards going to school to become a police officer, then maybe enlisting in the military. Mallorie has three semesters left of university. It has passed quicker than we thought. She is doing well. Jana is active as always. Ballet, flag football, and volleyball (she just began this).
Isabelle has been very busy lately with taking Olivia to gymnastics, doctors and dentists appointments (Davin broke his wrist – don’t ask. He is always at the doctor or the hospital for something). I have changed jobs. With my new work schedule, I am not able to help Isabelle with rides as much as before. This has made it hard for her to homeschool Olivia. So, we are happy that Summer and Josiah are in school now.
My new job at Collège Champagneur is going fairly well. It is a lot more work than I first thought. I teach English for 7th, 8th, & 11th grade (five classes total). It is part-time, but an 89% percent job, so almost full-time. I am personally finding being a bi-vocational pastor a really hard thing to manage. I have never experienced a burnout, but I feel as though I am heading to the edge of it. I am grateful that my devotion times with the Lord have been beyond amazing lately. I feel as though God’s grace is truly sustaining me.
The church seems to be doing well. The Lord has added a few new people to our congregation. They are not fully plugged in yet, but they are moving quickly towards it. We have seen 5 new members since late summer. This has been a huge blessing. Also, we have 4 home groups (3 French and 1 English) in operation. This is helping create a deeper fellowship that has been needed to some time now. Almost all the new people are implicated in a home group. Now, we just need to get the folks that have been around for a long time to commit to a home group.
We conducted an outreach on Hallloween this year. We have never done this before. Personally, I am not a fan of Halloween, so we have stayed away from doing anything that night. But, seeing so many people in our community that are out that night, we decided to plan an activity. We played games and watched a movie. I am not sure of the numbers, but we had about 10 non-Christians children attend, plus some parents. I think we will try to do it again next year.
We have begun a once a month basketball outreach on Sunday afternoons. A couple of weeks ago we had 15 people come (6 non-believers). We began this in order to connect to people in the town. Who knows? It might blossom into a league eventually. Also, during our Sunday worship, we are having new visitors come at least twice a month. This is a great thing. Another good thing is that our church finances have never been better. We have broke our monthly giving totals the past two months. This is a good sign. Pray that we use these resources wisely.
Rebecca, from Georgia and a former student from Capernwray, has moved up here and began working at the Bible school. Soon, she will be «working for» Renaissance as well on a part-time basis. My struggle is finding time to get her setup with work tasks. She is hopefully going to be able me with some administration stuff, as well as beginning a youth girls Bible study.
We are so grateful for the partnership that we have with your church. We love you guys and look forward to seeing you again next summer. Here are some ways you can pray for us :
- Our kids’ spiritual walk with Christ. Isabelle and I find that our busy family schedule has hindered our kids’ relationship with the Lord. Pray that we find good and natural ways to disciple our kids.
- For Isabelle and I. We do not get time together very much (without the kids). Every time we plan something together, something always happens with the kids, so we have to cancel it.
- My fatigue. I have not been this tired since seminary. Pray that I would be disciplined to get to bed early and prioritize my time.
- Our church has decided that we need to seek hard to find a permenant place of worship. We feel this way due to our wanting to have better visibility in the town, as well as wanting to offer more ministry opportunities during the week. Pray for God’s direction in this.
- Pray that the Lord show us where He is actively working in our town. We need to be doing more outreach (evangelism). But, we do not just want to do something for the sake of doing something. We truly want to engage where and how the Lord leads.
