Summer Stretch

A little bit of Norah mischief...helping herself to items on the bathroom counter

And getting stuck in the 2nd floor skylight of the dollhouse. (Is it bad that this picture makes me smile?)

The girls on a trip to the Alaska Zoo

A trip to McHugh Creek on Turnagain Arm with our friends the Bittles

 July is drawing to a close and we have begun counting down days....Evie is counting down days to her 4th birthday (it's on August 21st), Norah is counting down the days she has left before she is fully weaned (well, she would if she could :) ) and Justin and I are counting down the days until we make the full and complete move to Victory (just under a month).

We fly out to Salem, OR on August 30th. We will be presenting at Bethany Baptist Church while we're there-it's the church Justin attended while he was in college. On September 5th we're flying to Pennsylvania to visit family and present at East Side Bible and Calvary Bible Church. We're hoping to make a quick jog down to North Carolina while we're there to visit our friends the Ellers! On September 23rd we are flying to Minnesota and driving to Bemidji to stay with Steve and Brenda, Justin's parents, and Justin will do some staff recruiting for Victory at Oak Hills Bible College, where Steve is president. We will be returning to Alaska on October 1st.  At least I think I have all the dates right! It's going to be a long trip but we are really looking forward to seeing lots of family and friends and striving towards being at 100% of our support goal.

It is pretty crucial that Justin be able to be at camp to work with the program this fall and we are trusting God to see us through to our full budget at that time. It's very easy to doubt sometimes, when what we're doing looks rather foolish from a world's point of view. I had a chance to talk to a missionary who is visiting Calvary right now and confide in her that I worry sometimes that we won't be able to raise our support and we'll be stuck in limbo forever. She smiled and urged me to throw myself upon the mercy of Christ. She said she has never once been disappointed by taking a step of faith. It was so good to hear those words!

We are gearing up for Vacation Bible School right now at our church. I'm teaching the 3&4 year old class. Our theme this summer is Incrediworld - an amusement park theme from Answers in Genesis. We'll be studying different animals in God's creation. If you live in the area, and have kids through 6th grade, bring them over! It's August 6-10th and we start at 6:15pm.

Victory is in the middle of their last week of camp. We'll be able to stop in and say hi to everyone on Friday on our way to Glennallen. Glennallen Community Chapel is having their annual church campout and outdoor service this weekend. Justin and I will be sharing our testimonies for the church on Saturday night, and on Sunday Justin will present our ministry at Victory and give a short devotional. We're looking forward to camping out and as always, getting to talk about Victory and what God is doing there!

Ways you can be praying for us right now:
-That God will move mountains and we will get to 100% of our support
-That God will plants seeds of faith in young hearts during Calvary's VBS- 8/6 through 8/10
-That the staff at Victory finishes strong and leaves camp praising God for the work He did this summer
-For increasing measures of faith in God, and for us to partake daily of His grace.

Thank you for your prayers! We love hearing from everyone and knowing that we are being covered in prayer. Don't ever underestimate how powerful it is when God's people pray for each other!

-

Norah waits for the parade to start with her Uncle Levi

                          

At Juneau Falls in Cooper Landing

The exciting point of the hike was almost losing our dog Dagonet over the falls

It's almost mid-July and the summer days are flying by! This summer has already been different from any summer we've experienced so far. We know we are growing in our faith and being stretched in our trust in God, and that's a good thing.
We got to enjoy a visit from some dear friends from North Carolina this past week. Josh and Melissa Eller brought their two precious boys and visited the Kenai Peninsula. It was so good to see Melissa, who I grew up with, and to introduce their family to Evie, who they had never met.
Aside from Justin working full time and me working part time, we've gotten to do some fun summer things!
We took in the exhilarating 4th of July parade in exciting Kenai Alaska (...do you detect the note of sarcasm? :) It's funny to look back at things like this that I went to as a child and remember my excitement, and then see the same things as an adult and watch my children enjoy them just as much as I did. Despite the cloudy skies that intermittently spit rain, it was a fun family activity. Afterward we went to my parent's for a barbecue and had a great afternoon with family and friends.
We got to hike to Juneau Falls, which is 4 miles in on the Resurrection Pass trail, last week. It was just the right type of hike for busy folks and it has inspired Justin and I to try and do the full hike- from Cooper Landing to Hope- which is about 38 miles. More on that in later posts!
I have been studying 2 Corinthians in my personal time and it's amazed me to see the clear system of missionary support that God inspired Paul to urge the church at Corinth to apply. Sometimes I feel that we're lost or in the dark on the support raising front, and it's easy to take the world's point of view and look at it as mere fundraising. But knowing that it's a system focused on God's provision, which inspires outpourings of grace, which in turn allows us to give all thanksgiving to God, brings him glory! And isn't that our final goal?
We've had several people ask us specifics about our support goal and details of where we're currently at and what our future plans are. Don't hesitate to contact us- we'd love to hear from you! You can find us on facebook or email us to get on our list for e-updates. i_love_jesus7777@hotmail.com for Justin, or super_lyn_z@hotmail.com for me.

Some ways you can be praying for us right now:
-For the rest of the summer at Victory- this week is the short week with the youngest campers. Pray against homesickness, and for God to speak big things to little hearts.
-For family time as we struggle to find moments where we can all connect together throughout the week.
-For our support to continue growing.
-For health & safety through the rest of the summer as our health insurance has ended. The girls should be able to have insurance soon.
-Praise God with us as we thank him for his provision and care for us. Pray that we would always be aware and humbled by his grace toward us!

A Growing Summer

                                                            Norah loves to slide!

                                                     Tuckered out after a long day of playing






It's been over a month since my last post. Whoops! Things have definitely been happening, though! We moved in to our new place for which we are very thankful. Justin started his job with PCHS, Peninsula Community Health Services, and though it's tiring, long days working with challenging kids, he is enjoying it. I (Lynsey) started a job at Kenai Landing, a fishing resort and boat launch, as a front desk clerk. While this will meet our income needs right now, it is pretty difficult to find time as a couple and as a family because one of us is working every day of the week and we only have a couple of hours together each day.
We've been enjoying a Kenai summer and the ocean sunshine and warm temperatures that comes with it. We have really enjoyed playing in our church's coed softball league, and last week we got our first win! (Let's hope it's not our only! ;) Evie and Norah love softball nights too because it means that they get to play with their aunties and uncles, who are great babysitters, either at the fields or at Grammie's house.
Our support base is continuing to grow bit by bit. We've had several new people join our support team in the last month and it is so encouraging to see God's faithfulness.
We've officially planned a trip to the lower 48 for this fall, to visit family and raise support. We have presentations scheduled at a different church for each of the 4 Sundays that we're outside, and will be visiting 3 different states, so it's going to be a busy trip! We are also really looking forward to seeing family in Pennsylvania that have never met our girls.
We had a glorious week of sunshine and high temps this past week. Now the rain has finally returned, but I must say I'm a little bit grateful, because the house (and blog, and other things) have been neglected while we've been outside playing!
We've been keeping up with how the summer at Victory is going. Four of my siblings are there this week at a couple of different camps. Please be praying with us for Victory, and the powerful ways God is changing kids' and staff's lives there this summer!!
God has been so good to us...this continues to be our theme and personal reminder when we feel that we're in over our heads with this life change of starting camp ministry full-time.

Ways you can be praying for us right now:
-A praise: we were able to sell our truck, which we needed to do!
-That God leads people & churches to join in supporting us monthly
-That we remember that our work and ministry isn't beginning, we're already in the middle of it!
-That we are able to find time to spend as a family this summer
-For Victory: that God gives health, energy, and spiritual strength to the staff. For the kids, that they have their eyes opened to the good news of Christ's love, and receive it willingly.
As always, thank you for your prayers. God works in us through prayer for others. He listens as we lift others up to Him!

Belief or Dishonor?

                                       We took a trip to the Kenai beach last week

                                           Justin climbed the bluff & jumped down

                                                          Clay mud!





I found a quote written in the back of my Bible last week that said,
"A person who doubts God's goodness dishonors Him."
It was based on James 1:7&8. It struck me as so true! The world looks at worry and anxiety as legitimate side effects of taking care of yourself and planning ahead. But the Bible says that if we think we won't receive God's goodness, we are like a wave of the sea-which is powerless and never in itself amounts to much.Worry and anxiety, even if they are understandable, are a sign that we're not entirely leaning on God for everything we need.
So that has been our theme of late- believing that God is good. That doesn't mean that we will have it easy. But there is always an ultimate hope and joy that we can see beyond present circumstances!
God showed us His goodness last week by landing us an apartment! I truly believe He orchestrated it. When we had originally talked about getting this place, the landlord would not agree to anything less than a 6-month lease. It is a 3-bedroom apartment in an ideal location for a great price. Well, a couple of weeks later the landlord had suddenly changed his mind and agreed to let us rent for as little or as long as we needed! We are definitely praising God for that.
Justin is on his way to Soldotna at the moment to interview for a job. If hired he will be part of Redoubt Elementary's program for at-risk youth that helps them to stay out of trouble for the summer. He'll feel privileged to be hired because the program involves lots of outdoor activities all summer, which is a pretty fun job to have. While it will be a 40hr a week job, the pay is not quite enough to support a family of 4, so I've applied to about 10 different places around town for a part-time job.
We're not quite sure what this summer holds but we know God will be doing things in our lives and the lives of people whom we cross paths with.

Ways you can be praying right now:
-Praise that we found a place to rent
-That Justin gets this job or another that will help provide for our family
-That our support continues to move along
-That the summer at Victory goes well and that staff spots are completely filled; there are a few needs for people within camp, and orientation is beginning
-That we choose to believe God in everything!

...Searching...

                                                Norah plays with her puppy "cousin" Orpik

                                             We had pea-size hail...that's big for here!


 We are halfway through May and it feels like spring! The leaves have hesitantly begun to burst on the trees and the grass is greening. I saw a yellow jacket today!
Mother's Day was great fun and we celebrated with our church family, and then Justin took the family out for good Mexican food. We had our last youth group for the season yesterday evening. We still plan to do activities throughout the summer, but we finished up our Bible study and will no longer have regular meetings. We'll end the year with a youth camping trip this weekend at Discovery campground, which should be fun!
Right now we are very busy with rental-house hunting, and job hunting. Justin has been putting resumes in to different places and I have been making lots of phone calls and emails about rentals. It's very difficult to find a place that will allow us to have 2 outside dogs and that will also do a month-by-month lease, and that fits in our price range! (I know, we ask for a lot. :))
Meanwhile, we have been enjoying the spring sunshine and a chance to get outside. Yesterday was a stay-in day for the most part, though, since we got one of the biggest hailstorms I've ever seen here in AK! Of course, the girls decided they wanted to go out and play in it. They are definitely Alaskan born and bred!
Our support is moving along and we are now around 50% by our records! This is a huge praise! We got word that we will be able to share our ministry at Glennallen Community Chapel in July.
Some ways you can pray for us right now:


-That Justin will get a job 
-That we will find a place to rent
-That our support continues to grow (and praise Him that it already has!)
-That Evie will be able to take these changes positively...she seems to be very prone to anxiety and is upset easily lately.

As always, thank you so much for your prayers! We love and appreciate you all! 

An Exercise in Trust

As spring is now here in earnest, we've hit 60 degree temperatures (wow!) and the drifts of snow in our yard are now finally reduced to small mounds and puddles, we'll share with you the news that we're staying here in Kenai for the summer. We did not reach our goal of raising support and since we need to be at 100% before moving, it means that we'll stay where we are for a while longer. While we knew that God could do anything, we also knew we were on a very aggressive schedule timewise (we attempted to do in 5 months what takes many families a year or more) and weren't surprised that we need more time. So, while we are disappointed to be missing out on what's shaping up to be an amazing summer at Victory, and our hearts go out to Aaron Meeuwsen and others who'll be shouldering the load of program staff this summer, we are gearing up for a move to a more affordable place, a new job for Justin, and a summer spent here in Kenai continuing to raise support. We are fully trusting God and we're looking forward to see how he provides for us. While it feels frustrating at times and also sort of feels like starting back at square one (we have to find yet another place to live; this makes 4 moves in 2 years; and Justin needs a job since school ends next month), we know that God won't build your faith if things are always running smoothly! So we are trusting Him and remembering that He wants us to walk by faith, not by sight. We're glad to be able to spend more time with our precious church family and all our friends in the area, too.
Ways you can pray for us right now:
-Encouragement to remember that God always follows through on his plans for us
-A job for Justin
-A place to live

Thanks to everyone for all their prayers and support! We plan to press on!

A preview of the way our life will change

As our goal date draws closer - we are now just over a month (42 days!) from our proposed move date - we are trying to work harder than ever at raising support, getting the word out there about this awesome ministry at Victory and hoping that God will spur His people to invest in this work. While we've hopefully informed people about what goes on at Victory and what Justin's job will be, I'd like to share with you some ways that our life as a family will be changing.
If you want to hear more about this, we will be having a pizza lunch at Calvary Baptist Church this Sunday, April 15th, immediately following the second service (about 12:45). I'll be making some homemade pizzas to share with everyone. Come eat, hang out with friends, and listen to the details of what will go on in our ministry.
For now, these are a few of the changes that we'll expect about life at Victory and in Glacier View, the community in that area:
-WE ARE GOING FOR GOOD, PERMANENTLY! Many people tend to think this is a temporary thing, since it's a "summer camp". It's a permanent move...a year-round job and career change for Justin. This in itself is huge!
-We'll have camp housing. Lots of people have asked me whether we'll be buying a house up there. The camp provides housing for each of its staff families, and our awesome camp director has been putting a focus on lots of upgrades and remodeling for much of the staff housing. We'll pay rent each month, along with heating for our housing unit.
-We'll live an hour from town - ANY town. This means planning to grocery shop every two weeks, and attempting to combine any other appointments and errands on those days to save time and gas. It's a little frightening for me as a mom to be so far from a hospital (the nearest one is about an hour and 15 minutes' drive away) but I do feel much safer knowing that two of the camp's staff members are EMTs and the community's Emergency Services are located very close to us. While this is quite a rural place to live, we feel that we've been very well prepared by living in Quinhagak, a village on the Western edge of Alaska, for several years (this is a whole other story itself! :) ). The setting, which is in the midst of the amazing Chugach mountain range with views of the Matanuska glacier, is absolutely worth it! God's hand is all over the view every time you look out the window!
-Small community size...this means not much opportunity for jobs outside of camp ("tent making" if you're familiar with that Biblical concept) and dependance on God for providing for our family.

Some ways you can pray for us right now:
-Trust! Our numbers are not looking the best at the moment. We are battening the hatches (I'm not even sure what that means!) and asking God for an extra measure of faith as He works out his perfect plan in all this.
 I was encouraged the other day by a verse from 2 Thessalonians 2 (which is now on my kitchen chalkboard so I can read it regularly): "Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word." He has given us comfort and hope! We want our hearts to be established in every good work and word, in order for others to also know the comfort and hope that's in Him. This is the reason and purpose we desire to be in this ministry.

                                                   Our Evie is really growing up!

                                                    We enjoyed a trip to the Anchorage museum a couple weekends ago

                                               Hockey season is ending...I'm really going to miss it!