I'm Back!

Hey Key Club,

I got home Sunday night from our weeklong CSM conference in Switzerland. We had a GREAT time. A Biblical Counseling professor from The Masters College lead us in teaching times each morning. He spoke through heart issues and discussed ways to solve conflict Biblically. In the evenings our field director shared from Acts and encouraged and challenged our team with his insights. He challenged us to be Gospel driven, willing to embrace struggles and to be people who are willing to enter into each others lives to challenge and shape one another. We opened each session with worship and prayer. It was a refreshing time. Each afternoon we had free time. I went on 3 hikes in the area and spent an afternoon in the city of Thun. Check out my blog for some pictures. It was really fun to spend time with my teammates and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Our rental house was in the midst of amazing mountains. We couldn't have asked for a more majestic view. Just check out our team picture - I didn't alter it, that was our mountain view from our house parking lot! Thanks so much for praying for our week.

I returned to a normal ministry week. We finished our "Media Frontier" series in youth group on Tuesday. I taught on the dangers of Facebook (did you know psychologists now believe in a thing called Facebook depression!?) and how to be wise with social networking. In the coming weeks, we'll be honoring our seniors, graduating our 8th graders into the high school group, and farewelling students who are moving this summer.

I hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend. As we remember those who have served our country, I want to thank you for supporting military families in Germany through your prayers and giving. Thanks for joining me in this ministry!!

Blessings,

Beth

May Update

Hey there Key Club!

Hope this finds you doing well and enjoying spring. Summer's right around the corner! Since coming back from our spring break retreat, life seems to have flown by. Here's an update from the past few weeks...

Youth Group: We recently taught through a series on Biblical community in our middle school group. Our high school group finished going through the book of Luke. We’re currently teaching through a series on media, its dangers, and how to make wise choices in what we feed our brains, in both groups. A recent study reported that teens spend over 7 hours a day plugged into some sort of media. But with all the media multi-tasking they do, (watching movies while Facebooking, texting and listening to their iPods, etc.) they actually are exposed to over 10 hours of media each day. 10 hours - that’s a lot of influence.

Bible Studies: We’ve got just a few weeks left of Bible studies for the school year. This past semester, we looked at a number of women in the Scriptures as well as female missionaries with middle schoolers and in the high school group, we read through The Case for Christ.

Tomorrow morning I’m headed to Switzerland for our annual, weeklong Cadence Student Ministries staff conference. We’ve got a speaker coming from the states, who will be talking on how to resolve conflict Biblically. Unresolved conflict is one of the main reasons missionaries leave the field. The goal of the week is to equip us with skills to deal with conflict in healthy, Biblical ways. We’ll also spend time in worship and fellowship as a team throughout the week. It should be a great week to recharge our batteries as we transition from our busy retreat season to our summer ministry schedules. (I won't have e-mail access while in Switzerland.)

Coming Up:

Steven, a college student whose dad is a chaplain here at Ramstein, will be interning with us this summer. AJ and I are looking forward to having him join us in a few weeks. He’ll be helping out with the teaching load and doing a lot of relational, contact ministry. Would you pray for him as finishes out his semester and prepares for a summer of ministry. Pray that God would help him build relationships with our students and use him to encourage and point them to Jesus.

We’ve begun preparing for a service project trip to an orphanage in Hungary. We’ll be helping to lead a morning English camp and an afternoon sports camp for orphans and kids in the surrounding communities. We’ll also be doing some service projects around the facility and will serve in whatever capacity the staff are needing us to lend a hand.

Prayer Requests:

1. For youth group and Bible study teaching times - pray that God would direct AJ and I as we prepare and that we'd speak Truth to students in relevant ways. Pray that the hearts of students would be open to hearing God's Word and that they'd have courage to live it out.

2. With summer approaching, many of our students will be moving. Please pray for students as they say goodbye to friends - it'll be an emotionally challenging time.

3. For our staff conference - pray that God would work amongst our team and continue to shape us into men and women who love well and glorify Him in all we do.

THANKS so much for praying and for your partnership in reaching the military community with the Gospel. Your support is so encouraging!!!

Blessings,

Beth