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Category Archives: Missions
$2000 for Camp Rhino from Ohio
Sunday morning I reported back to a faithful supporter, and Sunday evening I presented our ministry in a new church. Both churches surprised me when they each gave $1000 for Camp Rhino.
Calvary Chapel Baptist Church in Minster, OH has faithfully supported my family since 2001. I enjoyed seeing Pastor Robert Warnick, and the Assistant Pastor Cory McGuire and all the great people of Calvary Chapel.
In Eaton, OH, I caught up with some old friends, Andrew and Jaclyn Stensaas. Amy and I met them when we were in college together at Crown many years ago. Pastor Andrew and his family are doing a great good there at First Baptist.
With the $2000 from Sunday, we are now over $73,000 in total for Camp Rhino. Praise the Lord.
Marriage Retreat
Our home church hosted a marriage retreat this past week in Atlanta, GA. They booked a hotel and conference center for the retreat only about 30 minutes away from the church. After all our traveling it was nice to have the retreat so close.
I’m glad to know we have a Pastor and church staff that cares enough about about the our lay and missionaries families enough to invest in our marriages. You can check my blog for divorce attorneys. I was really challenged to care for and be more tender toward my wife. Coincidently, I have been listening to two audio books on marriage that went along very well with this conference. If Only He Knew and From this Day Forward were really helpful. Needless to say, I have a lot of changes I need to make in order to be a better husband. I encourage you, take time to learn how to be a better spouse. I thing I do know despite my many mistakes, I’m married to the most amazing person I have ever known.
Please continue to pray for my meetings. I fly out to Ohio today to present my ministry in a new church and report back to a faithful supporter. When I get back on Monday, I’ll be driving to the Wilds Camp from Atlanta to check out their ministry for a couple of days in preparation for starting Camp Rhino.
Wolf Mountain Camp in Grass Valley, CA
I want to first apologize for the duplicate emails that occasionally come out. I’m trying to fix that on my blog and will hopefully have that squared away this week.
Amy and I arrived back from our trip to California late Tuesday night. We had a great time visiting three churches and spending time with dear friends who worked with us in South Africa. Through a mutual friend, we were also able to get connected to the ministry of Wolf Mountain Camp. After a 3 hour drive from San Jose, we met up with Director Jon Moore who graciously took time out of his busy camp schedule to pour into our lives all things camp ministry.
His emphasis on building relationships and doing certain things well really aided in our thinking about the ministry of Camp Rhino. It’s hard to explain how helpful the hours we spent at Wolf Mountain were. I’m grateful as well to have one more camp expert added to my list of emergency contacts for when we dive head first into camp ministry next year.
Here are just a few of the many insights he gave during out time with him:
- Our camp is a facility that implements a philosophy.
- We do food as much as we do preaching & we want to do both well.
- The process of camp just takes time to work.
- A good counselor is one who speaks from a platform of example with the motivation of love.
If you are anywhere near the Sacramento or North California area, I encourage you to check out Wolf Mountain Camp for yourself. They are definitely serving a needy area of our country.
Before I sign off, I would like to recommend a book that Jon gave me before leaving the camp last week. It’s entitled “The Value of Camp” by Walt Brock. It was a joy reading and gave me ideas and insights concerning camp ministry that I hadn’t even thought about. Click on the link to find out how to get your own copy.
Update from San Jose, California
We’ve been in the San Jose and Sacramento, CA area since Friday of last week. Ross & Sue Pyle, former missionaries to South Africa, made it possible for us to be in this part of the world. They have graciously opened their home in San Jose to Amy and I and have been wonderful hosts. The Pyle family are great friends of our who we first met and worked with in South Africa. I’m not so secretly trying to get them to come back to South Africa soon to help us with Camp Rhino:) . They really are great people to be around, and we have thoroughly enjoyed our time with them.
Tomorrow, we will have the opportunity to present our ministry in their church where they are working in the Christian school ministry. It’s encouraging to see the work their church is doing. There truly is a need of more Bible preaching churches in California.
Last week, when we left Fort Bluff Camp, Director Dave Sekura handed me an offering that the campers had taken up for Camp Rhino over the past two weeks for $444. He also gave us a special offering specifically from the camp for $500. Not only did they go out of their way and gave of themselves to help us learn about camp ministry this summer, they also gave financially. We we were blown away.
After camp, a good friend of mine, Pastor Andy Wallace of Hendrix Road Baptist Church in Florence, AL, called as well to let me know that their church voted to send us $500 for Camp Rhino. With six months to go before we head back to the field, it’s exciting to see our goals met for the Camp.
We are truly humbled by the people God has placed in our path to make Camp Rhino a reality. I can’t thank you enough for all the prayers and sacrificial gifts. You all truly are a great blessing.
Last Week of Camp
The past few weeks have been very busy with camp. We started off for our mission orientation at Sand Mountain Bible Camp from May 29-June 2nd. We then helped out at Fort Bluff Camp during their junior week, June 5-9. We then went back to Sand Mountain Bible Camp for our home church’s week of teen camp, June 19-23. The past two weeks we came back to Fort Bluff Camp to help during their two teen weeks as well, July 5-9 & July 19-23.
I appreciate the leaders and staff of each of these camps. They have been a great help and resource. We have learned an incredible amount of things we will be able to use when we start Camp Rhino.
Pray as we finish up teen camp at Fort Bluff this week and fly out to San Jose, CA on Friday. Our summer definitely hasn’t slowed down, and we are grateful for all the open doors.
I will continue touching base with other camp ministries to further our training and education for future ministry.
Over $60,000 has now been given for Camp Rhino
It’s been an amazing week and a half for Camp Rhino. One minute I’m informing folks of a special offering, and the next minute another offering was coming in.
-On Thursday, June 29th, my home church, Vision Baptist Church, gave $760 for the Camp Rhino. This was the day after I announced that Northside Baptist Church in Pembroke, GA gave $1500.
-On Sunday, July 2, I received an email from Pastor Todd Hogue of Community Baptist Church in Curwensville, PA. They gave their VBS offering for Camp Rhino which came out to be $1650.
-That night, while at White Graves Baptist Church with Pastor Will Allen, Pastor Allen took up over $1000 for the camp in a matter of minutes.
-On Monday, July 3, I stopped by Catoosa Baptist Tabernacle in Ringgold, GA to drop off some extra Camp Rhino T-shirts to Pastor Justin Gazaway. He surprised me by letting me know during their VBS from the previous week, the children gave $3000 for the camp. On top of that, the church voted to add $1500 to bring the total for Camp Rhino to $4500.
-On July 5, I received another email from Pastor Nathan Dorsey at Westside Baptist Church in Hampton, GA. He let me know the church voted to give $5000 for the camp.
Needless to say, it’s been an overwhelming few days. I’m in awe of the support and involvement of so many to help get Camp Rhino started.
I don’t have the exact figure at this point, but we are now well over the $60,000 mark.
Thank you all for your support and prayers.
$1500 from Pembroke, GA
Yesterday, Luke and I drove about 4 hours over to the small town of Pembroke, Ga to report back to one of our supporting churches. Pastor Spencer and the great folks of Northside Baptist Church have been faithful partners in the ministry from early on in our deputation. It was great hearing about the new ministries they have started, how God continues to bless their faith promise, and how God blessed their family with a new adopted little boy. He and Luke took to each other pretty well.
After my message the church surprised us with an amazing offering for Camp Rhino. They gave $1500 to help with the purchase of the property. It was such an encouragement. One step closer.
Thank you all for your prayers and investment into our ministry.
Check out the Initial Design for Camp Rhino
Now that we have passed the $50,000 mark in our fundraising goal (only $50,000 more to go:)), I wanted to give you a glimpse of what the future Camp Rhino site will look like. Below is the initial design for the camp based on the first 5-year plan. Once we actually buy property, we’ll have a better idea of the real Camp Rhino, but for now you can at least see the directions of our plans and dreams. The $100,000 we raise this year will go toward the purchase of this property so we can get the project started. We hope to have the property ready by July 2018 to hold our first camps. If you’re interested in donating to help Camp Rhino you can click here.
American Children Reaching South African Children
🎶 🎶 I’m glaaad to be here at Vacation Bible School….Vacation Bible School… Vacation Bible School. 🎶 🎶
It’s about that time of the year when VBS starts up all over the country.
This is turning out to be a special time for Camp Rhino. Many churches announced they plan to donate their VBS offering to help purchase the 15 to 20 acres of property for the start of the camp and training center.
Just this past Sunday, Pastor Justin Gazaway of Catoosa Baptist Tabernacle in Ringgold, GA let us know they will be giving their VBS offering to Camp Rhino. What an honor and blessing.
It’s incredible to think how kids in the US will be bringing their pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters to reach kids in South Africa with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
With more than $30,000 coming in the past few months, our goal of $100,000 is getting closer and closer. Please pray we continue to advance toward this goal.
I look forward to see how this Camp and Training Center ministry aids our churches in impacting our communities and country with the Gospel of Christ.