A spring update on our {growing} family

S - Sending.  So much of our ministry season is spent training, after all, that's really what we're about - training youth to share their faith.  We are now entering into a season of sending.  1 month from today, our first mission team of the season will head out to Ghana to serve alongside a missionary there.  They are in the final stages of preparation - receiving their Visas, finishing raising financial and prayer support and turning in paperwork.  This is just the beginning of many, many youth proclaiming the Gospel in many, many nations so that others may come to know Christ.  We are so excited to see God work in this way!

P - People. The last 8 months have flown by.  Moving to Salem has been a great adventure in our first year of marriage.  As we consider the time we have left, we are realizing how hard it is going to be to leave.  Salem has become our home, not because of the building that we reside in but because of the people we do life with here.  We have spent many hours fellowshipping with our small group and church body here.  We have hosted game nights with college friends from Corban, we have opened up our home to our Sunday school class, we have filled our home with the praises and prayers of new friends.  These people have become those near and dear to our hearts.  They have cheered us on through our adjustment to married life, living away from family and finding a home church.  New seasons call for new challenges.  Leaving our friends here in Salem will certainly be one of them.

R - Resting...NOT. There is a time for rest and a time for action.  This is the period of action in ministry.  I am calling, emailing, Facebooking, and texting participants on a daily basis.  I spend much of my time keeping tabs on where individuals are at with funding, paperwork, and life in general.  I have the joy of seeing first-hand how God works in their lives to bring their mission trip to fruition.  It's a pretty cool thing!  Nathan is busy as well!  This is the time when churches are signing contracts, working out details and making deposits.  It's also the time when he is finalizing summer staff, communicating with them and making sure that they are ready for training in a little over a month.  There will be a time for rest, but that time is not now and not anytime soon!  We are grateful for the strength and stamina from God to head into this season healthy, rested and eager to see God work.

I - In between.  In so many ways, we find ourselves in the "in between".  We are in between renting and owning a home.  The buying process is long and tedious, but we are trusting God to see us through.  We are in between being settled and packing.  I have begun to get this home ready to load into a trailer.  We are in between being a family of 2 and a family of 3.  This little one has many more months to go before we will hold him/her, but Baby Burres's presence is becoming more and more noticeable with each passing day.  Living in the "in between" calls for lots of prayers, reliance on God's sovereignty and faith that things will work out.  It's a good exercise of trust in our good, good God.

N - New life.  YES!  We are expecting Baby Burres in late October of 2014!  I am just over 12 weeks along and so ecstatic to be carrying this precious life.  Nathan and I find ourselves giddy with excitement and nervous for what is ahead.  Our comfort is in knowing that God has given us everything we need to parent well and that he has ordained this child to call us mommy and daddy since before the creation of the world.  We are thankful for 6 more months to prepare our home and our hearts to meet this little baby and we look forward to raising our child in a ministry-focused family.

G - Graduating. Nathan is just 2.5 weeks away from graduating from Corban University with his degree in Student and Family Ministries.  Today he is working on completing 2 of the 6 papers he has due next Wednesday.  I cannot wait to see him cross the stage as a sign of all the hard work he has put in over these last few years.  He'll be done with school for now, but who knows what the future may bring!

FREE mission trip? WHAAAAAT?

We find ourselves at the end of another busy week and we are so excited that we get to vacation with our families this weekend!  We will take pictures and post them sometime in the future  :)

Today, we want to share with you an exciting announcement that YMI just made!

If you or anyone you know is interested in winning a FREE mission trip with YMI, click HERE.  

If you are interested in where we are sending teams next year, click HERE.

We are so thankful that God is working in this world. He's not done yet.  Maybe YOU are a part of His plan for the Gospel to be known in every tribe, tongue and nation in 2015.  

To God be the glory for the GREAT things he has done.

Praises and Prayers

Praises:

1. We think we have found a place to live when we get back!  This is exciting news and we are eager to get it all finalized sometime between now and May.  Please keep praying that this works out and that we will be able to have a smooth transition back to WA.

2. Work is going well - we are really looking forward to summer ministry season starting with mission teams and sports camps! It's just around the corner!

3. We get to go on a short weekend vacation with our families in a couple weeks.  Our parents decided to rent a beach house for all of us to stay in - my immediate family, his immediate family and us!  We couldn't be more blessed to have families that love each other and desire to VACATION together!  Wow!  God is so good.  We will be hanging out in Lincoln City, Oregon in a couple weeks.  

Prayers:

1. The YMI Fundraising Banquet is tomorrow evening.  Please pray that God lays it on the hearts of people to give and give generously.  This event plays a huge role in the amount of ministry that we are able to do in the coming year.  We know that God always provides, so we are asking that this is one of those ways.

2. Pray that a) our summer mission teams fill up (we still have spots open) and b) sports camps fill up.  We are finding that, for whatever reason, filling ministry opportunities is difficult this year.  We are also hearing the same reports from organizations like us.  Pray that God will allow our ministry opportunities to fill up so that our missionaries have teams to receive and so that communities are connected to local churches.

3. Pray for Nathan as he finishes up school.  He has a TON to do in the way of assignments over the next couple months.  Pray specifically as he prepares to give a sermon in chapel at school.  He has decided to teach on marriage and we both recognize that teaching is a high calling.  Pray for wisdom and discernment as he figures out what God would have him communicate to these students.

4. Finally, pray for us in our last 2 months in Salem.  We have grown to love it here.  Our friends are here, we love our church here and we like our first home together.  We know that God is going to supply all of our needs when we move back - relationships and fellowship included.  But it's still hard to think about leaving!  Thankfully, Salem is just a (relatively) short drive from Tacoma.  We'll be making visits, for sure!

And, to end this post, here are some pictures from the snow storm a few weeks back!

I convinced him to go for a walk.

Someone's car was COVERED in snow up on the road.

February Newsletter

Worship Songs on My Heart

For whatever reason, these two songs have been on "repeat" in my heart and my head this week.  I pray that you are encouraged as you listen and praise God.

"Do It Lord" by Tommy Walker

"When I Don't Know What To Do" by Tommy Walker

Praises and Prayers

Sometimes life gets so busy that the only thing that make sense to post about ministry is praises and prayers.  So that's just what I'm going to do.  

Will you join us in praising God for:

1. The many ways that he has shown up this week.  Though more sign ups, through encouragement, through church visits, through sports ministry.  God has shown up.

2. The college students who just got back from spending a month doing an English/Bible camp in Florida for a TON of kids.  The Gospel was preached and lives were changed.

3. The Team Leader Training coming up next weekend.  We are so thankful for these people who have decided to serve God by leading a team of young people overseas to share the Gospel.

4. The opportunity for me to spend a week up in Washington (next week) to connect with the main office staff and plan for summer ministry.

5. Nathan and I bought a car this week because the Lord has provided the funds.  We are so thankful that in His perfect timing, we are able to make this purchase.  We will be getting the car next week.  This car will allow Nathan to be traveling all over the state of Washington to help oversee sports camps.

Will you join us in praying for:

1. More sign ups for YMI Teams, churches and sports camps.  We have seen God answering this prayer, and we know that He will continue to do so.

2. The missionaries we work with overseas.  Pray that they will be strengthened in their faith and eager to receive teams from YMI this summer.

3. The trainings we have coming up in February - Leader Training in Seattle, Leader training in Charlotte, NC, YMI Team Training in Charlotte, NC and YMI Team Training in Orlando, FL.  It's a busy month around here!

4. Continue to pray that Nathan and I will be able to raise the final bit of our monthly support.  As always, God provides.  As we move back to Washington in a few months, we have seen that the cost of living will be higher and we will need to have our full 100% in place prior to that.  

5. Pray for our leadership at YMI - our board and executive team.  They are the people who lead us in ministry, make decisions, counsel us and encourage us.  Pray that the Lord will encourage their spirits and that they will continue to lead well. 

Jesus > Football

Yesterday was a day of great celebration in our home.

We spent the morning at church and as soon as church ended, we headed home to wait.  To wait for the kick-off that would immediately heighten BOTH of our anxiety.

You see, I married a die-hard Seattle sports fanatic.  My husband loves the Mariners and the Seahawks.  There's just no getting around it.  So naturally, I have begun to adopt his love for his teams.  This week, I sewed him a Seahawks banner that is proudly displayed in our family room for everyone to see.  I planned a dinner that stays warm for a long time so that he could grab food when it was convenient depending on how the game was going.  I cuddled up on the couch next to my husband and did my best to help him breathe.  I love the game because I love my husband.

The Seahawks won.  The game was over.  And then the real battled started: Facebook.  Twitter.  Ugh.

I was so incredibly saddened by what I saw.  I still am.  I saw racial slurs being thrown left and right (Happy MLKJ Day, right?).  I saw cyber-punches being taken.  I saw people being reduced to "just" an electronic profile with every word said.  I felt sick.

Folks, I'm not perfect.  Don't claim to be.  Don't intend to be.  I fail every. single. day.  And there's grace abundant.  But let's not let grace be a license to sin.

I am appalled because for these 12 hours since the game, there has been no distinction between Christians and non-Christians on Facebook.  We all blend in; we look the same.  We look like Football is the end-all be-all.  We look like ref's calls matter more than people.  We look like OUR team is worth dying for.  We look like the legacies of Kaepernick and Wilson are more important that the reality of the God we say we worship.

Can I tell you something?  Jesus died for sinners and saints.  He died for Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson.  He died for Richard Sherman.  He died for the San Francisco 49ers and the Seahawks - equally.  He died for you and me.

And we, by the grace given to us, should be avenues for mercy and grace and humility to be shown to humanity.  We are the ones who are going to show the world that Jesus WINS.  He REIGNS.  He sits on his throne above and over all.  He came to redeem.  He came to seek and save the lost.  He came for them.  He came for the people who are unloved and unlovable.

Let's consider what we are teaching our children, our friends and our enemies based on our latest social media interactions.  What will people conclude by looking at our profiles?  This person loved their team or This person loved Jesus?

Maybe they can conclude both.  But the both is what's missing so many times.