We've Moved!!!

We are finally in the apartment! What a great blessing! It is SO wonderful having our own space. So we are all settled in now! Yay! (Can you tell I'm excited?) :)

Anyway... things are winding down here. This week is our last week of groups until the first week of June. We are now planning to spend the majority of May travelling around fundraising, all the way from San Diego to Mammoth Lakes! Several of the churches that have come to the camp here have invited us to come visit them. We are so excited about this opportunity! Now there's just the matter of living out of our suitcases for a few weeks straight...

We have more great news... our monthly support is up to 53% of our goal! God is awesome. Thank you to everyone out there for your prayers. We appreciate and need them all!

Let's see, what else has been going on?

I've been translating all over the place for both the groups and the Canadian family that has moved down. They're just finishing building their house, and are having me call all over trying to tie up loose ends for them! It's been a stretching experience for my Spanish!

We're heading to the States for the day on Monday to run bunches of errands and spend some time with Jeremy's family. It's going to be a long day. We're thinking about leaving around 5 a.m. to get everything done.

So that's our life in a nutshell right now! Catch you later!

Happy Easter

As I sit here this morning I think about this day, this holiday and all that it is. The stone was rolled away and He has risen! Our Lord is alive not dead. AMEN!
I am excited that I serve a God who is alive. Not only is He alive He is also active in our lives, He is active in my life. My prayer is that we all allow Him to be active in our lives.

For those of you who do not receive our prayer letter, here it is online!

During my Bible reading I (Jeremy) came across a familiar story that I thought I’d share with you. It is a story from the Israelites’ wanderings in the wilderness. Like many times before, the Israelites were again complaining before God and Moses. God, in His justice, sends poisonous snakes to the Israelites wandering in the desert. It happened that anyone who was bitten by one of these snakes would die. Now the Israelites, realizing their error, came to Moses crying out for him to pray for them. They wanted Moses to ask God to take the snakes away. So Moses prayed. God told him to put a bronze snake up on a staff. Anyone who was bitten could look at the snake on the staff and live. This story is found in Numbers 21.

As I read stories like the one above I try to place myself in it. If I were an Israelite bitten by a snake I would do everything in my power to see the snake on that staff. If a friend or someone nearby me was bit and they were unable or refused to look for the snake on the staff I would do anything in my power to save them! For I would have the knowledge of what heals and saves.
Now we read in John 3:14-15, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

My wife and I realize that we have been given an incredible gift! Eternal Life! Through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have this incredible gift: Life! Without Christ, we are dead. We look around where God has placed us to minister, and we see people dying all around us, like the Israelites dying in the wilderness. The people around us do not need to see a snake on a staff, but they do need to see Jesus. We pray that we are worthy of this calling God has given to us. We also challenge you in your lives to show Jesus to those who need to see. For every Christian is called to the mission field. For you, that may not be in a foreign country. Your mission field may be to the person next door, or to the coworker that you see is hurting, or even the person in the grocery line in front of you! Wherever you are is your mission field. It is where God has placed you to minister!

Busy, busy, busy

Things are starting to pick up here! Last week we had around 120 campers in. It was a really busy but awesome week. They built 6 houses and had a couple of VBS and other ministries going on as well! I (Melody) ended up translating for a different site every day! It was fun to get to know people from all over North America. And it sounds like we'll be getting a few more sponsers too!

Things are quiet for these next two weeks as we prepare for more groups, but then March will be packed full!

We miss all of you back home. There's never enough time in the day to talk to all our loved ones. Keep us updated! We rarely hear any news of what's going on in the outside world, especially with what is going on in all of your lives!

Randy and Sandy have offically arrived with their family to stay for good. We are excited to have them around again!

Please continue to pray for us as we minister here!