Stanardsville, VA

I would just like to share some random things that happened to us back at Stanardsville a couple of weeks ago. :)

Squeaks the mouse :)

First of all, the girls caught a little mouse! We all thought he was so cute and thought maybe we could take care of him and keep him as a pet. We named him Squeaks. However, I guess he needed some more care than we could give him (i.e. bread crumbs, grass, and water)...and Mrs. Van thought that he would not be the right pet for us :) ...so...we let him go back into the forest.

The last night of our competition at this school was on Thursday night. It started to rain just as we were to begin registration. We moved everything into the gym. The storm seemed to be passing, so we the girls were sent out to scout for any lightening in the area. The storm was really not coming our way and we enjoyed standing outside keeping watch. Because the rain had cleared the atmosphere, the moon was easy to spot...and we took a picture (Have you ever attempted to eat the moon??)!

Janna is about to eat the moon!

Well, the teens came back out to play Spoke Tackle in the now muddy grass! This really adds to the game!! :) As soon as everyone was situated and began playing, the electricity went out!!! The cars that were around all turned on their lights and shined them onto the field for the teens to be able to see. It was quite a night!






Since we were not scheduled to hold a teen activity on Friday night, we made the most of our extra time! The Van Gelderens took their trailer on to the next church in Fredericksburg, but Stephanie came with the rest of us to Washington, D.C.!!

White House

Washington Monument and Capitol Building

at the Lincoln Memorial

Air Force Memorial

Beaver, WV

We had a great week at Victory Baptist Academy! The testimonies were such a blessing at the fireside service! Here are some of them:

"This week really gave me a chance to think about what I should be doing in my life to make myself a better Christian and be a better example for others. This week God really spoke to me about my music. Music is my life and a lot of people know that. It’s been really hard for me because I’ve been in public school since I was in kindergarten. This is my first year here. God really spoke to me this week because I have a lot of music like this and this is the kind of stuff I need to get out of my life. I thought throwing my music into the fire would be hard, but...here it goes!"

"This week I surrendered my entire life to God. I always thought of myself as a good person because I don’t go out and do things that other people do, like drugs and all that stuff, because I never thought it was right. But I was holding myself up compared to other people. I was praising myself for all the good things that I do. I wasn’t praising God. I wasn’t giving God the glory for helping me to be good. I’ve done bad things because we’ve all sinned, but I’ve gotten those out of my life. I’ve decided to give Him all the glory and live my life entirely for Him."

We had beautiful scenery!

"One of the worst things I had in my life was music. It was an addiction - a serious addiction. I would get up in the morning, listen to it, go to school, and come back after school, and listen to it the rest of the day. It was really bad stuff. When Dr. Jim Van Gelderen preached about hidden sin, it made me realize my mom and dad didn’t know about that. It’s been killing me since I’ve started doing that like emotionally, but I had actual physical pain on one of those days about it. I called my mom and told her what it was. As soon as I told her, God gave me some serious grace. It felt really good to finally tell her. I’m really grateful for that. I’m so excited this week that my cousin Marshall got saved. I’ve actually cried myself to sleep over it thinking that he would go to Hell without God. I’m so thankful he came here that he would be saved. I thank the Lord he did. I had a good night’s sleep that night. I thank God for my friends who can encourage me. I’ve made a lot of decisions in my life and I want you all to pray for me. I’m Chris, by the way. :)"

Spoke Tackle

"This week God really spoke to my heart about music and hidden sins that I knew my parents didn’t know about. This week I made the best decision I could have made in my life. I surrendered to be a missionary at camp this year, but I can’t have those things in my life."

"This week He really spoke to me about hidden sins in my life. I got it right with my parents. It was the best thing I ever felt. If it wasn’t for this school.... I resented this school; I didn’t want to go; I didn’t want the homework, but the school gave this to me. Thank you."

Glow Sticks in the Dark!

 On a lighter note :) we, the girls, wanted to share a little embarrassing moment.
Monday all of us girls decided to just have a little recess in the nice gym at the school. We all were really excited to see the volleyball net set-up! So, of course, we started bumping a volleyball around. It had been a little while since we had worked on this and were not really doing a fantastic job keeping a volley. While we were working on our skill, a teacher walked through the gym. That was fine. We were sorry we weren’t displaying better skills, but it was fine...until... After school the academy had volleyball practice. We peeked through the window to be horrified to find that...the teacher who had walked through our recess was the VOLLEYBALL COACH!!! We then felt even more embarrassed about our poor recess display! :)

WV Capitol Building

The trailer crosses over into WV!

South Haven, IN

Here are some testimonies from our first week out on the “WAR of Special Forces”!

We even had a viola join us!

“One of the greatest things was that Zack brought John on Thursday to get saved. John brought Michael on Friday to make sure he was saved, too.

After he walked out of the counseling room, they looked at each other and said, ‘Awesome!’ and gave each other knuckles.”

Glenn prayed for recruits and not just recruits, but recruits that would actually come.

What kind of teen would give out his name and phone number? After each recruit, Glenn prayed for another one. The Lord really answered and increased his faith. He knows that he can’t do it, but HE can!!

Philip prayed for lasting fruit.

Josh, Philip, and Glenn

Zack came the first night and was saved! Thursday he joined the WAR guys for prayer before the activities began. He prayed that the rain would be held back and that others would come and make the same decision he did. The Lord answered his prayers! He came every night and is excited about his new life in Christ!

Josh counseled a guy who was contemplating doing suicide later that night.

He had prayed to be saved the night before, but was so discouraged about his mess of a life that it just seemed best to go to Heaven right away. Josh shared some verses about assurance, Who saved him and that sins can be cleased each time they are committed (I John 1:9). Satan is a great deceiver and wants us to feel that there is no hope. The Holy Spirit is more powerful than Satan, but HE has to be listened to. Fellowship with the Holy Spirit is so important. I Cor 10:13 - there is always a way of escape. The teen then replied, “That changes everything!” :)

Josh is tired

There was definiately spiritual warfare Friday night. There was a group of about 7 teens that came late. They were just in time for the food. After a little while, the same 3 guys that had left early the night before were again going to just show up for food and then leave by the end of the trivia time. Some of the girls seemed as if they were going to leave too, but they decided to stay. These girls, who were tempted to go, got saved that night! Praise the Lord they stayed for the whole time!

The guys gave me a couple pictures of when they went to Camp Joy (Sept 4-7).

Dr. Jim & Phillip

preaching at Camp Joy

On the road!

Thank you for praying for the Colony Project! The Lord gave great strength to the many people who pitched in to help in any way they could! The BCM guys arrived Tuesday and were able to move in to the rooms! There still are somethings that need to get fine tuned, but it is livable...especially for a men’s dorm! ;) Praise the Lord for the many people who were able to work on this project so quickly!

Since August 24 our team has been in training. However, this week has been quite...uh...unusual (that is for a “training week”).

Sunday morning, September 2 the team, minus the three guys, went to minister at Marquette Manor in Downers Grove, IL. Dr. Jim Van Gelderen taught the men and teen’s Sunday School while Mrs. Rhonda Van Gelderen taught the ladies’ Sunday School class. In the morning service the Van Gelderen girls did two violin specials and Dr. and Mrs. Van sang a duet. After the service, we had lunch and went back up to Menomonee Falls, WI. We needed to be back for BCM’s opening service.

Labor Day Monday we were able to enjoy some time at the church picnic. However, the day off was not too restful. This is the week that we had to get everything ready to leave town! The trailor had to be cleaned and the house set in order, not to mention all the packing for everyone! So, we quickly left the picnic to continue on with the clean up.

Monday through Wednesday there were evening services because of BCM’s opening week of college.

Tuesday, September 4 Dr. Jim, Glenn and Josh headed to Marquette Manor’s school camp at Camp Joy in Whitewater, WI. The guys each had a cabin and were able to be a blessing in counseling these Christian school teens as well as participating in the activities. Great prep for the tour!

Janna mowing the lawn!

Meanwhile, Leanna and I stayed back to be with Mrs. Van and the girls. We worked on school and house work. The big white van we will be taking is back from the shop and all ready to go. The lawn is all mowed - Janna, Stephanie and I learned how to mow a lawn the other day!! It was fun! (I have to admit...my arm's a little sore.)

Friday evening the guys arrived back from the school camp and helped pack up the trailer and van. This morning we finished closing up the house and packing to go. We finally got on the road this afternoon!! Yay!!!

This coming week we look forward to ministering in South Haven, IL! Please also pray for a Sunday School Workers’ Seminar we will be helping with on Saturday, September 15.

Training has begun!

The Minutemen Team met on Friday for out first training sessions! By Friday evening we had already sat through many practical lectures on how to recruit teens for the competitions and run the evening youth rallies. However, there still is much to learn about counseling and preparing for the weeks to follow.

Saturday at 9:00am began our next sessions of training. After lunch, we had the unique opportunity to minister by working on a project for Baptist College of Ministry! The college has recently rented out an old motel and is hoping to have it “ship shape” in time for the students to arrive. The motel will be an ideal situation for men’s dorm rooms and/or housing visiting families. However, there is much to be done! We were able to go help by washing out trash cans, installing shelves, scraping paint off of counter tops and light fixtures, tearing through some old dry wall, sweeping and vacuuming the floors, and putting in wood flooring and carpeting. There are still many things that need to get done in a short amount of time! The goal is by Tuesday! Please pray with us that this project would get finished quickly!

For supper we had a birthday celebration for the Van Gelderens! Four of them have birthdays within just eight days!! We went to Red Robin for burgers and birthday sundaes!

We finished the night with one more training session...and then we were ready to call it a night!

Getting warmed up!

This week a branch of Minutemen Ministries, Cola-Clash team, was at my home church. Since this is almost the same ministry that I will be working with, it was wonderful for me to be able to participate. It was a great "warm-up"for what I will be doing in the Fall. Many of our church people went canvassing and recruiting for the past two weeks. An average of 90 teens came each of the three nights for the Cola-Clash! Most importantly, there were about 15 professions of salvation! Wednesday night I talked with a girl that seemed unsure of making a decision. Friday night I was able to counsel another girl and she prayed to be saved!

So, what kind of work did I do for the Cola-Clash?
(remember, I am not part of the team, just a helper from the church) The Cola-Clash was 6:30pm-9:00pm. Starting at 6:00pm we were at our posts ready to register the new teens when they arrived. Once the games got going out on the field, we would go to the kitchen to help make sure things were ready for the snack time (snack time for teens would be nachos&cheese, hot dogs, or pizza). Just in time everything would be ready to go and the teens would arrive for their food. As soon as the teens made their way through the food line, we would go up to the classroom to start refilling their water cups. Then, it would be going around collecting trash. After the empty cups and plates had been collected, it was time to listen to the testimonies, special music, and then the message from God's Word. It was after the message that we would slip out to the counseling room and wait for the teens to come back.

The team members have to do more :) so, we will see what is ahead!