Greetings family!
We are BUSY just as many of you are too, and we were silent in June but there is SO MUCH to tell! We have had visitors, volunteers, classes and lots of planning! Let’s start with our visitors. We had the immense pleasure of hosting Dr. Samuel Sinner for a few days. Dr. Sinner for those who are new, is a research scholar in linguistics, history and comparative religion. It was wonderful to hear him explain certain sections of the bible, giving definitions in the original Hebrew and Greek. We were so blessed to have that time with him and we hope to see him again soon, when he’s not trotting the globe.
In June we were able to minister to two families that come from a Church God has had us ministering to in North Hollywood. We cooked them a meal, had their children play with our children and loved on the families with prayers and displaying the Love of Christ. We are planning another trip to minister at their church. We appreciate your prayers that God will move in the church, refresh and strengthen them and reveal more of Himself to them.
Also in June, we sent our first long term missionary in quite a few years! Nona Babich is in Asia teaching English and helping the hungry and the destitute. We are happy to see God using Nona in her giftings and we can’t wait to hear a report back from upon her return! Pray for Nona as God takes on this new adventure!
While we sent out a missionary, we are training some more here at home as we prepare not one but two trips in the upcoming months! Frist off, as many of you know, we are heading to Big Sky Country to do Casaq in August! Casaq will be live at Crow Fair in Montana, and as the date gets closer we are seeing God put together our team in miraculous ways. It has been some work but we know God is guiding us in this endeavor.
Another trip we are planning and training for is Uganda. We planning a small team of people to go and train a team of young ambassadors that will help teach children at Sister Gertrude’s school basics in sanitation, personal hygiene, healthy cooking, cooking for foreigners as well as basic spiritual foundations. We are wanting to help the children be set up for success in every area of their lives, and we are excited to see what God is doing in these precious children!
Fast forward to this month! Fourth of July was an amazing celebration of freedom beyond the physical. This week, we will tie our Volunteer Highlight with our review because they are both intertwined. For the Fourth we had over various volunteers and family for a triple birthday celebration! Two of our precious volunteers, Virginia Russell and Carrie Durren had birthdays this month so we had decided to celebrate their birthdays on the Fourth. The third birthday was a birthday of new life in Christ! We had almost 50 people in our home, and while we were celebrating Virginia and Carrie’s birthdays, we were celebrating a Baptism of this week’s third Volunteer Highlight.
While many of the volunteers we talk about are adults, there are those we have who are young that deserve to be focused on. This volunteer is a special one. She and her sister have volunteered here for the last 5 years. A group of students came to help out, The Lancaster High School Interact Club, and one of the students brought their father and little sister. The little sister wanted to help, and so her father asked if there was a spot she could work at. Interesting enough, at the time, Ashley had just moved in with us, so Ashley worked with the little girl. Raven was that little girl and Breshiana her older sister. They have been a part of our ministry ever since. Raven and Breshiana have also been part of the Casaq the Eagle play since the beginning and they are also a part of the All Nations Dance Ministry. Back in 2012, two weeks before the first team left for the Philippines, Raven and Breshiana suddenly lost their father. Teresa told the girls if they couldn’t make it that it would be completely understandable. The girls chose to stick with their commitment despite overwhelming circumstances. The sacrifice those girls made was used by God to demonstrate His love to the people of the Philippines, though they may not fully understand it. As long as Raven has worked with us, we’ve never seen her make a face no matter how long or how hard the task at hand is. She bravely faces whatever task she’s given, even if she’s never done it before. She works with a cheerful heart, in a spirit of excellence. She expressed to us her desire to be baptized. The morning of the Fourth, Raven came over and sat with Letty while she explained what water baptism was. Teresa was there and helped explain who Jesus was. After Letty left, Ashley came in and explained what salvation is. At the end, Teresa, Ashley and Raven prayed and Raven asked Jesus to be the Lord and King over her life. There were tears of joy as we watched one of our precious young people step into the realm of eternity. That afternoon, with almost 50 of our family and volunteer friends, including Raven’s own family, we gathered around the above ground pool and watched as Raven became a new creature and a new creation, with Carrie and Teresa baptizing.
It is a blessing to see what God is doing with our young people as they experience the God of Love, Power and Might. It’s humbling to see it happen here, with our own. On a day of freedom and the birth of a nation, we celebrated the freedom of sin and the birth of a new life. We celebrated our freedom to worship this precious Jesus in our homes without fear.
How did you celebrate your Fourth? How can we pray for you? Let us know here, on our Facebook page or in our email. We love hearing from you! God bless!
Love always,
Your family at All Nations
