November-December 2023 | Noecker Newsletter

November Highlights

November began with the Equip students and Sandra doing an evangelism class. Last year, the group went to YWAM Lancaster, and this year Nolan and Joel decided to teach the class here. They had some interesting stories about going out to a mall and other places, offering to pray for people, and trying to talk about Jesus at every opportunity. It seems to be a theme of late; Pastor Bob gave a sermon in much the same vein.
Shenanigans continued among the students. Chairs were on roofs, people were pied (see Sandra’s newsletter), phones were stolen, cars were absconded with, and much more. From what I understand, there is more afoot. But then again, when isn’t there where Aidan, Caleb, Logan, and Donny are concerned…
KFJ continues to go well. It’s rewarding seeing the preschoolers grow up and come out of their shells slowly. Last year, one of the little boys would always bring a comfort stuffed animal (named Soft Puppy, is that not the CUTEST thing), and at some point, I don’t remember when, he stopped. Now, he’s been talking a lot, answering questions, and really retaining the lessons. That’s almost always the case for these kids. It is truly a privilege to be part of their lives and just a small part of their spiritual journeys.
Towards the beginning of November, Jenny and I forced Nolan and the students to have a game night with us. If there’s anything we’ve gleaned from that, it’s that some people should just generally not play Pictionary, or have anything to do with drawing at any point. It never seems to go well…
Kristen Manbeck, her 4 children, and I went to see Journey to Bethlehem. I love seeing movies in theaters. There’s nothing like the movie theater popcorn and the whole environment of being immersed in what’s showing. Plus, if you time it right, you can get matinee prices!
Back in September, Justin had gotten in contact with a ministry in Reading, OneLuv, concerning a donation of blue Takis (a spicy chip that the youth love). OneLuv gives out food, clothing, toys, and other items while presenting the gospel to school-age students. They’re smart in their distribution too; they first present the gospel, then give away what they have. And listen, these Takis are so popular, people will show up if they know they’ll get them. Thanks to a spicy blue chip, more people will hear the gospel and potentially be saved. Even the smallest things can be used to glorify God!
Rowan and I celebrated our birthday! I turned 28, he turned 6. We did a Lilo and Stitch theme, I was Lilo and he was Stitch of course. I love having this tradition of dressing up for our birthday. He chose this year, so it’s my turn to choose next year.
The end of November started the Christmas season, and with it, the students began their Gingerbread House Competition. Each of the students did, honestly, an amazing job.
- Last year, Grace and Emi did the majority of helping David and Kai with any questions they had. This year, I realized that’s what happened last year.
- Aidan’s “Magic Surprise” was a chocolate sphere filled with caramel, sitting on a rice krispie stand over a plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies.
- Caleb’s “Study in Perpetual Hope” was a recreation of the old building in front of the office. His structure was gingerbread with lots of icing, pretzel, isomalt, and fondant accents.
- Donny’s “Golgotha” was, you guessed it, a recreation of Golgotha. He stacked up homemade soft sugar cookies and then made crosses from KitKats, used green sugars for grass, and added some sparklers for dramatic flair.
- Logan’s “Candy R Us” was a candy store. He made a lemon shortbread, decorated the outside in a modern gingerbread house style, then packed it with all sorts of candy.
- Ultimately, Aidan beat Caleb by 2 points, with Logan, then Donny right behind them.

December Highlights

After the grueling week of gingerbread house making, and after Aidan was announced winner, the other 3 began planning for their Funishment- a play all about the winner to be put on at the CMTS Christmas Dinner.
- It was delightful. They dressed as older versions of themselves, speculating about who would be where in 10(ish) years. Aidan was living out of his car, Caleb was an old, old man with a walker, Logan had been adopted by Bill Gates (I think that’s who he said???) and was living the millionaire life with luxuriously long hair, and Donny had become… large… from overeating. (Self-deprecation is his sense of humor. #relatable) Seriously, though, look at the pictures I shared on the website. They say 1,000 words.
I got to watch my nieces for a day. Mom and Dad were in Wellsboro and Ned and Hannah wanted to go hunting together. I don’t usually watch Arya and Echo because Mom and Dad, or Hannah’s parents, or Jon and Nicole are so close but because Mom and Dad weren’t around, it was perfect! Those girls are something else. Arya is doing so well in preschool at KFJ now, and Echo just loves everyone, especially food though.
Thanks to Danielle’s newsletter, I was reminded about some of the things I did for the office. I have this issue of not being able to see the forest for the trees, and how do I describe my job without naming every little thing I do? Well, here are 2 things I did in November and December in just the office.
- I created the new Missions Opportunity page on the website. I am really excited about this new thing the ministry is doing. We’re going to start hosting Serve Days, where people can come and serve either at CMTS or with the staff at someone else’s ministry. We’ll also be raising awareness about the different ministries that people can serve with in addition to CMTS. We’re having a Serve Day on January 13th, where we’ll be sorting clothes. I hope to be there for it unless plans change.
- At the behest of Wes, I started using this new graphic design tool called Inkscape. Okay, well I literally started using it 3 days before writing this newsletter. It is seriously way above my head. I found this guy who makes tutorials online for it, and thank God for him because otherwise I would have NO IDEA what I’m doing. I mean, I still don’t really, but I’m more confident than 3 days ago! I really love doing things like this, and even though I have no training in graphic design, I like to think that God gave me a creative brain just for CMTS. I was using it at the bakery for 6 years, and now I’ve just gone digital. Anyway, pray that I would learn this new program really quickly so that I don’t waste time figuring stuff out and can just get right into making things we need!
For the last 2 years, the Cake Pros has invited me to their Christmas Party. This year it was at Brush Strokes in Schuylkill Haven (this art studio where you can go and paint signs or pottery. It’s a lot of fun, I’ve taken a couple of people there for birthday dates!) and we painted a winter or Christmas themed sign. Mimi chose a penguin sign for me, and when I remembered that one of the Darnell girls loves penguins, I found out their favorite colors. Luckily, the colors went really well together!
Joel and Danielle, their kids, students, Sandra, and a few others went on a work mission trip to Georgia. They fixed a house for a woman who plans to do some of the same things we do here at CMTS, primarily training and equipping others to serve God well. From what I’ve heard, they had a great time and made a lot of progress on the house.
Kora, the baby that we prayed and prayed for God to bless Mel and Greg with, turned one! What a beautiful, living testimony of God’s faithfulness and goodness. I’ve also been trying to have dinner with Mel at least once a month. It started this summer, and believe it or not, we’ve actually been following through! Mel is the craftiest person I know and just has so much information I didn’t know I needed. I appreciate being able to call her and say, “Hey someone just gave me a scoby what do I do???” and she has resources for me.
Debbie, Ray, and I watched Holiday Inn and White Christmas again this year. I don’t know if Debbie knows this or not, but it’s now a tradition for us to do this at Christmas time. When she and Ray fix up their RV to drive around the country and serve where God leads, they better either come back for a weekend in December on their way to Maine, or have really good internet so we can FaceTime and watch together.
Juanis and Michael came to visit for Jessica’s bridal shower! It was so great to see them. I love getting Juanis’ updates. She usually sends a mass text once every couple of weeks about how they’re doing in Monterrey.
The Saturday before Christmas, OneLuv reached out to us and asked for volunteers to hand out candy and toys at their gospel outreach event. I went with the Smiths and it was an amazing afternoon. I have no idea how much of the candy or toys they handed out or if anyone came to Christ, but I do know that God has been using their ministry to do great things. I hope we get more opportunities to serve with them.
Christmas came and went so quickly. Christmas Eve and Christmas morning are my two favorite meals of the year, more than Thanksgiving even, and this year they went by too quickly. I LIVE for the food at Christmas.
I think my favorite gift I gave this year though, was to my cousin Ellie. I ordered an art piece from Etsy where they put their dog Daisy in an Elvis outfit. It was absolutely amazing, and thanks to Mel, I was able to save a lot of money by Mod Podging it to a canvas myself!
In every newsletter, there is something that I write that I will constantly think about over and over later, “Why did I write that? Who cares? You’re sharing too much. No one wants to know this.” etc. Well, this is one of those things. I am not good at discipleship/discipleing, whatever you want to call it. Because Danielle loves me, and because I love her too, she has noticed this and wants me to grow. There’s always room for growth, and while it pains me to say I’m not good at something, it’s simply a fact. I’m not good at sharing about my spiritual life or how I’m doing mentally/spiritually or starting spiritual conversations. With God’s help, we’re going to work on that. Discipleship is not my strong suit, and when I think back on the first year of Equip, I can’t help but see how much I fell short. I don’t like to think about it, which means I need to do better, right? I know many people who I can have a good spiritual conversation with and I walk away thinking, “How did they do that??” But it’s time that I take notes and do the same. So please, if you’re reading this, pray for me. It’s only with God’s help that I will be able to make this a skill of mine. And please hold me accountable too. The best way to grow a skill is to practice, so practice with me!

Where’s God?

Everywhere! But specifically:

He has been growing me and stretching me to my limits. Every time I grow in one way, He challenges me to grow even more in another. And let’s be honest here, it hurts. There were a lot of things that happened in November and December that were painful, and maybe I haven’t seen the beauty yet, but I’m choosing to believe that it is there and God will make it beautiful.
He’s continued to provide finances every month. I have been blessed with consistent financial support each month and it would not be possible if not for God moving in the hearts of those around me. I’m so, so grateful for the people that God has used to provide for me. I can’t say it enough, but I couldn’t do this without you.
He has protected the ministry. And provided for it, miraculously, too!
He’s blessed me with a supportive family. This includes my biological family, my spiritual family, and my chosen family. Life would not be the same without them.
He’s provided food consistently for everyone at the ministry. God has provided low-cost resources through places like Hornings and Blessings of Hope, or donations of food from churches, etc. He promised to provide for our basic needs, and I have seen Him hold true to that promise.
He’s shown me grace and mercy when I truly don’t deserve it. None of us deserve it, but that’s what’s so amazing about God. He is good.
He’s proven His trustworthiness and His steadfast, enduring love over and over. God is sovereign and trustworthy.

Prayer Requests:

Continued provision! I know that God can and will provide my needs because He’s promised it, and His faithfulness is unending. That being said, He does tell us to remind Him (or ourselves really) of His character. That means praying for God to be God.
Please continue to pray for me as I seek His will, follow His plan, and surrender my own. My prayer is to glorify God in my everyday life, but I often fall short. He is gracious!
Pray for strength and wisdom for myself and everyone else at the ministry. Especially for the men and women in leadership. God is bigger than any challenge we’ve faced yet. He is sovereign!
Pray for the different projects happening around campus, for the finances to handle all these things, and for wisdom and protection. We have lots of moving parts right now, and I look forward to seeing God’s continued faithfulness.
Pray for the Equip program. These guys will be challenged and grown a lot this year. Also, we will soon be presenting at schools about Equip. And our first Open House is December 2nd! Pray for last year’s students, too!
Pray for the different aspects of the ministry: the Righteous Rides merge, the Warehouse, the Automotive Shops, Maintenance people, the leadership, the administration, the need for help everywhere, the list goes on and on!
Pray that the Lord of the Harvest would send more workers into His field (see Matthew 9:38). We need help. A few of the major areas of need are in:
- the kitchen (I know I keep mentioning it, but again, it’s on my mind a lot!))
- the office (with me!)
- Equip
- The Warehouse
- The Automotive shops
- Hospitality
Pray that I would find contentment and fulfillment in Christ alone, and that I would be persistent in prayer for His will, not mine. Every day is either an up or a down. I just keep trying to remind myself that God is God, He is the One in control, and He is faithful. Plus, and this keeps me going too, when I die, the only thing that will have actually, really, truly mattered, is what I did for God. And if that’s not motivation to suck it up and keep obeying even when it seems unfair or impossible or really really dumb, then I don’t know what is.

Don’t forget to check out the pictures from the last 2 months on the CMTS website.

Thank you again for your support! I am beyond grateful for this opportunity to serve God with my work. I am truly so blessed to work at a job that I absolutely love! I thank you sincerely, from the bottom of my heart for allowing me to do this and partnering with me!