| 9-12-11 |
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| Written by Philip Pinto |
| Tuesday, 13 September 2011 04:41 |
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September 12, 2011 Dear Prayer Partners, We have been a little slow getting our prayer letter out this month. Part of that is that we were gone when we normally do prayer letters. We delivered the table Logan, the homeschool student who was taking our woodworking class earlier this year, built. The family that ordered it lives in St. Louis so delivery was a bit of a challenge. We were able to take care of some other business at the same time and take the whole family and my grandma with. It is always an encouragement to visit with my cousin, who is a youth pastor, and his wife; and our kids have a good time playing with their kids. It was a short trip up and right back, but the prayer letter was neglected nonetheless. Then, of course, Melissa is busy with homeschooling Josiah and Isabelle while trying to keep up with Jairus and Asa. She has also been working hard decorating cakes for people and some other things. We are also spending more time in Cherokee Village with church [rebuilding] duties. We continue to reap the benefits of teen camp’s new connections. Our Friday night teen ministry is ministering to more teens. We are bringing even more teens in from Pocahontas, but are having difficulty connecting them to any church. It would be easy if we went to church in Pocahontas, but we don’t, and even if we did, there are also teens from Imboden and Ravenden Springs. It is physically impossible to attend church in every community from which these teens are coming. When we first started this work eleven years ago, the intent was to draw teens who might not otherwise attend an activity at church by offering activities away from a church facility. At that time, we were the youth sponsors at a church only two miles from Pilgrimage-Cedar Springs Camp. So we connected them with that church. Four years ago we joined Koinonia in Imboden; while they had been supportive of our ministry for many years, it was more difficult to connect teens with this church that was fifteen miles from P-CSC. A few former teens who are now adults still call that church home, but the distance has been a barrier for most. When we started the Friday night ministry we especially wanted local churches involved, but that has not been hugely successful. Over the years, a few churches have recognized the value and participated a little. One lady from Koinonia Christian Fellowship in Imboden (our old church) continues to faithfully attend and build relationships with these teens. She has done this for years for the sake of mentoring girls… even when there were no girls. Now that we have a few girls again, she has been able to get to know them and God is using her in their lives. Still, we are desperately trying to connect some of these teens to a good church in the Pocahontas area by getting someone from a church there to also attend on Friday nights and get to know them. Please pray that God would orchestrate this and lead us to the church (or churches) that He has for this, and that they would very soon get involved. On September 9, ten of the “Cedar Springs Teens” from Pocahontas, Ravenden Springs, and Imboden went to Cherokee Village to hang out at Village Bible Church, where I am interim pastor now, and spend the night. On Saturday, they worked trimming trees, pulling weeds, and cleaning inside the church. We are currently praying about how God might use them in more ways to help with the ministry of Village Bible Church in spite of the large distance barrier (35-50 miles). On September 24, Village Bible Church will be hosting an evangelism training seminar, and we hope that some of these teens will participate in that. Of course, that would be primarily for the benefit and growth of those teens. Finally, please pray that we would soon be able to get signed permission from land owners on the mile of gravel road that we are planning to widen. This road improvement is critical to the expansion of the ministry as we recruit retirees with RV’s and large campers to come to P-CSC to participate in the ministry. Thanks for your prayers and support -Phil & Melissa |
