Merry Christmas!
We would like to start by wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! Jenny and I are so thankful for your prayers and support as we do our best to serve the Lord and our students here at CMTS.
The first half of the 2023-24 program year has flown by! We have said goodbye to our visitor Jesse as he had to return for the rest of his own college program in Holland. We pray blessings over his life and hope to see him again one day! We are so thankful to have had the chance to meet and get to know him and share some of his US experience with him. The four remaining students (Aidan, Caleb, Donny, and Logan) have continued with their vocation rotations: Caleb in the warehouse with Justin, Logan in the mechanic shop with Nick, Aidan in the body shop with Doug, and Donny in maintenance with Ray. Weekday classes this year were studies on Ephesians and Crazy Love. The Thursday evening classes this year so far included local church volunteer teachers on addictions, finance, creation vs evolution, sowing and reaping, and the search for significance. We are so thankful for our dedicated teachers who graciously volunteer their time to teach and pour into the students. We couldn’t run this program without them!
Evangelism Week was held in October this year. The fruit of this week-long series is to teach the students how to step out of their comfort zone and start a conversation about Jesus with strangers. The goal is to share the love of the Lord and the Gospel message with others and to link them up to a local church if they do not already attend. Last year involved attending day class at YWAM Lancaster and evangelizing on the streets of Lancaster and Lititz. This year looked a little different as we chose to teach the week at CMTS. Joel did a phenomenal job preparing the students, along with a day taught by One Luv Ministries from Reading. The students went out twice into Reading that week, once to the Berkshire Mall and once to Penn Street, to evangelize. They went out in small groups with the leaders and were able to see God’s Word go out and reach the people they spoke to! Praise Jesus for their obedience to tell others of Him despite how nervous they were! The students have also participated in Operation Christmas Child with Ray and Debbie (CMTS missionaries) at their home church packing boxes to send to the larger distribution center. They have recently returned from an impromptu trip to Georgia this month to help with a local ministry project near Savannah. You can read more about this on the CMTS website and facebook/instagram pages!
As hard as the students work, there’s plenty of time for being silly, as well! We had the annual Gingerbread House competition where the students were able to channel their creativity and baking skills to create tasty projects for the rest of the staff to judge/taste. It’s a nice evening of community bonding and fellowship. This year, it was a tight race, but Aidan won for how tasty his cookies and caramel dipping sauce were. They all did a great job!
We are so proud of each of the students for so many things, including the way they work with cheerful hearts, the friendship they have developed with each other and the staff, and their continued pursuit of personal growth in the Lord. As they all have gone home for Christmas break, we find that campus is so quiet without them. We have enjoyed getting to know each of the students and are so looking forward to the second half of the program year!
We are praying for rest and rejuvenation for the students and all the staff. We are praying for God to guide us into 2024 and to help us be Godly examples to the students in whatever way they need. The 2024 year will bring classes on experiencing God, the human race, Hebrews, resume building, and interview skills many more opportunities for bonding and adventure trips, and the Mexico trip to YWAM Monterrey!
If you would like to hear more about what we are doing with Equip and how CMTS serves those here and around the world, we would like to personally invite you to the annual CMTS Banquet on February 22nd, 2024 at 6pm at the WhereHouse in Hamburg, PA. Please RSVP here by 2/8/24 to us or to CMTS.
All God’s Blessings,
Nolan and Jenny Lapp