ja_koniga

May 6, 2010

Dear praying friends and family,

We have an announcement to make… we are expecting our fourth baby sometime around Thanksgiving! We are very excited and thankful for the expansion of our ministry in the area of our family.

There is nothing new to report on the road. Please continue to pray that God would provide what is needed for more people to access the center more easily and safely.

We enjoyed our visit with churches/ pastors in Kansas and Nebraska. We pray that some of the youth we visited were challenged to become involved in full-time ministry at least during the summer months. Of course, we would like that service to be here in Ravenden Springs, but if they follow God somewhere else, that’s great too. A couple of local churches are allowing me to share in the coming weeks about what God is doing here and how some in their church could become involved in it. Pray that more of the churches represented by people on our list would catch the vision, and encourage more of their people to take advantage of the practical training available. Pray that we could also make better inroads with the churches, especially locally, that are not represented by people on our mailing list.

We are praying earnestly for expansion of the Pilgrimage Learning & Christian Training Center. Our first course for the learning center was a success and well liked by the six students who graduated this week. The registrars for the class are compiling results of surveys to help the instructors determine what course(s) will be offered in the fall. We look forward to an even higher enrollment and hopefully some online students as well. The course we just completed is now available online… if we can just figure out how to find the people who want to learn how to study their Bibles. I am still taking Anchor’s seminary courses (as time permits) and am thoroughly enjoying it. It is obvious to me now why Anchor has been able to continue for over thirty years in its education of men and women all over the world. And, it is exciting that Pilgrimage now has a part in that as we make these programs of study available online. Nowhere can one find such a high quality, practical training system at such a low cost. I know there are many pastors out there who could benefit from this program; again, it is a matter of locating the people who need this level of training. The convenience, quality, and cost make it an unbeatable value, especially for the bi-vocational pastor or other minister of the gospel.

As to the Christian Training Center, we are still looking for students (youth or adults) who desire to know and serve the Lord more fully. Part of the problem we have is that most interns who might otherwise become involved, struggle with giving up a summer (or more) source of income to volunteer in God’s service. That is where I was when I first considered a summer of service through Pilgrimage in Ravenden Springs in 1997. Thankfully, I had a great mentor who challenged me to do what God was telling me and trust that He would meet my needs. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be here now without that challenge. Unfortunately, we are not being highly successful in convincing others of this, and many are missing out on God’s blessing. Pray that God would help people see what He is doing here and become so burdened that they could not rest until they became involved; and that ultimately His work here would expand.

Please pray that we would know what God is doing regarding the Friday teen ministry. It is in need of new life. In its early years it was a tool for drawing unsaved, unchurched youth to Christ, and encouraging those that were already saved and in church. In recent years, it has become almost exclusively a discipling tool. Please pray that the youth who are involved now would get a burning passion for the lost souls of their friends and see Friday nights as a fun and interesting enough experience to get their friends to come. Praise God for the one adult who continues to help by coming every Friday and developing relationships with those who are coming, and pray that more adults would catch that vision.

Thanks for your prayers and support,

-Philip & Melissa