Update letter

January 13, 2012

Dear Friends and Family,                                                                                

Greetings from snowy PA!!  J  Meeting the 6 month mark in our new assignment, we wanted to celebrate by telling you the great things God has done, and share with you the exciting things to come!  Since arriving in the Greensburg area in July, our good, good Daddy has provided us with a home, a local church family, and many beautiful friendships.  He has proved faithful at every turn, and our every need has been met!  Rather than just tell you that we are all doing well, we wanted to take a few lines each to share what God is doing in us individually:

Shane is currently working two jobs – first as a Personal Care Assistant (PCA) for a developmentally disabled young man at Clelian Hights School, and second, he moonlights as a server at the Olive Garden.  He is content to work as a server again, thankful to God for the provision, but he LOVES his work at Clelian; he says regularly that he has found something in which he feels very fulfilled, and though it can, occasionally, be draining, he continually finds himself uplifted, edified, and invigorated in the position.  He loves it so very much that he will be going to school to pursue an Education Degree at Seton Hill starting in either the Summer or Fall, depending on the credit transfer and student aid situations.  It is so great to see how he has found an area of service that leaves him feeling fulfilled and inspires him to dream about the future!

Cassie is thoroughly enjoying being a homemaker.  This is more of a literal job than ever, as our house is over 100 years old and needs lots of love!  Homeschooling is another of her “mom jobs,” as Ben is now in kindergarten and an eager Grace has begun preschool.  Cass adores our kids, each being an irreplaceable blessing and joy, and with their animated personalities there is never a dull moment!  J  She has also come to genuinely appreciate the simplicity of life here; the slower pace has been refreshing.  Of course, ministry plays a huge part of Cassie’s time at home too: God regularly brings people by our home for prayer and encouragement, pulling on Cass’s passion for seeing God’s people restored to Him, and answering with His grace and power at every encounter!

Ben has found year 5 of his life to be a big change and challenge.  Because of this, he has learned how to pray in a new way, trusting God when things do not always make sense to him.  He has so much confidence in God’s ability to answer his prayers- his faith is inspiring!  He has missed his friends in Phoenix, but began making new ones here right away.  He has also learned to value his sister; Grace has truly become his best friend. He is learning to read, write and do math, and excelling at all, but has special interests in animal science and computers.  Ben loves the weather here, as long as he gets to play outside in it all! J

Grace will be 3 on the 22^nd of this month, and is every bit the passionate, adventuresome girl she ever was and more!  Her laughter is still contagious and she is the life of the party!  She is curious and sharp, and has developed a vocabulary to help her keep up with her need to know.  J  She loves reading, has almost mastered her alphabet, and can count to 17 without missing a beat.  Colors, shapes and animal sounds are a constant part of her play, which inspires her to continue learning.  Her favorite thing is to write her name, though she still needs help, and enjoys all things artsy from crayons to play-doh to paint and of course, makeup… she does it all!

Lily is almost 7 months old and doing all the baby stuff with ease.  She is such a sweet, peaceful gem!  Her happy disposition and easy going attitude have made her quite popular; we have friends that come over just to hold her!

Thank you all for your prayers for His favor and blessing, we have truly seen it!  As described above, things are going very well for us personally and we want to use the rest of this letter to share with you what God is doing in, around, and through us in terms of the ministry work we know we’ve been led here to do:  

            Ministry began almost as soon as we arrived, with our visitors to basement home receiving prayer and inner healing.  Upon moving into our house in October, the visits and testimonies have continued, with semi-regular worship nights being a highlight.  God has poured out His Spirit among us, releasing prayer, prophecy, and healing as groups of 5, 10, and 15 have come together to exalt Him and love one another.  We are blessed and grateful that He has met us here, and that He has gathered those who desire Him above all else to our side!  Things are shifting!!  New things are being seen, felt, dreamed and experienced as passion and freedom ignite with His love!

            As 2011 drew to a close, we truly sensed God was speaking to us that the season of transitioning from AZ to PA was ending and our season of establishing was beginning; so we sought Him as to what that meant in terms of ministry since we had been meeting on a semi-regular basis as mentioned above.  The answer that we heard was that it was time to establish not only in our personal life, but in ministry also, so, we have prayerfully decided to begin opening our home to a weekly time of fellowship and encounter, to begin by the end of this month!  We are looking forward to deepening the relationships God has begun here, and widening the network as well.  Currently, the group of friends represents 5 local congregations and they are all under 35 years old; these are some of the passionate next generation, those who have been crying out to God for revival, not just for this area, but for the world!  Their hunger for the Kingdom propels our ministry here and reminds us regularly why we were sent.  Their humility and transparency result in healing, deliverance, and impartation every time we are together and we are so blessed to be vessels God is using in their lives and in this city!

            Now if you’ll come on a dreaming journey with us, we’d like to unfold more of what 2012 holds for us and what God is telling us we’re heading for.  Our plan for 2012 begins with opening our home once a week, to continue hosting God’s Spirit and His people together.  Next, in addition to the weekly encounter time, we aim to begin conference style ministry school classes in August using the leadership and discipleship materials available to us through Skyway’s Ascend International Ministries (AIM) and Wagner Leadership Institute.  The goal of these classes is to intentionally equip the ministers and revivalists in this area to effect change in their hearts and the hearts of those around them for Christ.  We believe God has called us to see a school of ministry and impartation begun and established in a way that blesses all the churches in our area through holding classes.

            Of course to build something like this, “from the ground up” we need an incredible amount of support and we are blessed to be covered by Skyway’s AIM and to have many people praying for us on a regular basis.  We have several goals that we truly believe are attainable as God provides through work and through those who answer the call He puts on their hearts to support us.  Two very immediate goals we have now are that we can 1) immediately reduce Shane’s hours at his second job from 5-6 nights/week (after working 5 days at Clelian also) to about 3 nights/week, thereby keeping life in balance with time for family, ministry, and work; and, concurrently, 2) to establish our own 501(c)3 non-profit umbrella for our ministry, a requirement for continued association and covering within Skyway’s AIM.  These goals will take about $400/month to replace Shane’s income and $2000 one time to establish our 501(c)3.  Following this, our next goal is to completely replace Shane’s income from the Olive Garden by August, freeing him to devote more time to our developing ministry; this goal will take about $1000/month in faithful ministry support.

            Our plan also has built in replacement of ministry support so that we are not dependent upon this for life.  As the school grows, in both size and notoriety, it will become a self-sustaining ministry and will support full-time staffing too.  At this juncture however, we are obviously not at that point and so we’d like to invite you to partner with us in this Impossible Journey, to show what only God can do when we echo on Earth what He is releasing in Heaven.  If you feel Holy Spirit leading you to support us in the beginning stages of Grace School of the Impossible (this is the first time we are releasing the official name of our ministry!!), we will be accepting donations in any amount and frequency in our name until our 501(c)3 is completed, at which time any gifts will be considered tax deductible.

            Thank you to those who have given gifts, one time or reoccurring, since our launch; God has used you to meet our needs very practically and we are so grateful!  We appreciate your prayers, and invite God to bless you for the blessing you have been to us!  Happy New Year… 2012 is going to be AWESOME!

Love to all!                                                                CONNECT WITH US: