ja_koniga

June 8, 2010

Dear praying friends and family,

There are three major prayer concerns this month. First, it is now the beginning of June, most schools are out, and we have no students enrolled in the summer internship program. Despite our best efforts at recruiting, something is still preventing response. We had one family meet with us a couple weeks ago; the parents really want their teen to enroll, but the teen is less than excited about it. This is a program that we feel strongly God is in, especially since it fits the vision He gave in 1968. After seeing the new internship brochure, several have commented on what an excellent opportunity this is for young men and women to get practical experience and training as they seek God’s plan for their lives without the expense of college or other paths. With all the directionless men and women in the world, it is difficult to believe that this couldn’t fit any of them. Pray with us that God would lead us to those who need to spend some time discovering what He has in mind for them. I will be speaking to a church and youth group in Pocahontas on June 13. Beyond that, I am still looking for more places to share this vision and burden God has given.

The second prayer concern is summer ministries. While there are only a couple youth left who are willing/ able to do missions projects this summer, there are several opportunities through the church in which we are involved and through a Bible camp in Missouri with which I will be connecting youth again. The major request right now, however, is daycamp(s). We would really like to expand this ministry to include an outreach to ages 12-16, in addition to our normal daycamp for ages 5-12. This cannot happen without more volunteers. The ideal situation would be for a church or even a family (or two) to step up and devote a week to one of these ministries. Our church, despite having already been involved in a week of daycamp ministry in Helena, AR, has usually been from where most of the adult help at our daycamp for ages 5-12 has come. We are truly blessed to be part of a church with so many willing servants! It seems almost unfair, that except for several years ago no other church or family has been able to receive any of the blessing. We just haven’t been able to connect any other churches or families to the vision to provide this ministry to so many children and families who need to hear the message and come to know and love believers and the God who changed our lives. Again, there must be churches and/ or families out there somewhere for whom God has this ministry in mind; pray that God would lead us to them and them here.

Regarding camp ministries, we really need to add some activities this year to enhance the ministry. We were tent camping out of state last week, noting the things we enjoyed or would have enjoyed as a family. Our first major task is to complete sites with power and water that are a reasonable distance to toilets. Right now most of our sites are more primitive than that. At the same time, we are in desperate need of more things to do on site. The waterslide still needs to be repaired or replaced. I have been searching for a suitable material for the waterslide, and trying to get a company to donate part or all of the material since March. It looks like we are going to have to come up with the $600-$1,000 and buy pond liner for the waterslide. God provided that amount once for a tool that has drawn many- I’m sure he’ll provide it again. Some small canoes or boats would add enjoyment to the lake. Radio controlled cars and boats would be a fun thing for kids (especially at daycamp). Trusting that the toys will be provided, we will use Friday night youth activities as the avenue to build some inexpensive facilities to operate r/c toys. These are all tools that would be used to attract local youth to outreaches as well.

Finally, please continue to pray that for the road into the Center. Two of the land owners have agreed on a location for the road that will help eliminate the steepest hill and one of the low water bridges. The county judge is preparing the easements for us to have signed by the landowners. Once easements are signed we can begin clearing the new location (50’ wide x 500’ long) for the road using chainsaws and volunteers. The next step is to determine how the project will be funded. While it is a public road, it is not a county road so the county is not obligated to do any work at all on the road. The judge has told us that it is unlikely that the county will have funds available to help in the purchase of two 10’ round x 85’ long pipes (railroad tanker cars) at a cost of about $14,000, but may be able to do some of the work.

Thanks for your prayers and support,

Philip & Melissa Pinto