Mission Work

 We had our Staff Retreat! What a glorious and restful 3 days it was with our staff. It really is so great just to be able to reset and reconnect with them all. It really helps us keep unified! 

Big Project we have going on, replacing a trailer that was falling apart with a trailer for Mike & Lisa, 2 new staff members, to live in while they serve at CMTS! We are now in the excavation process to prep for the new trailer. The old trailer is gone.

About 20ish years ago CMTS used to have a Volleyball Tournament during their Open House. Well, we aren’t doing the Open House the same way anymore, but we are rebooting this tournament as a fundraiser! The proceeds will go towards us doing what we do best: serving & equipping those that serve Christ. The money raised from this event will keep us going and successful in the vision that was given to Andy & Nancy and now Joel & I- to keep serving others. I love what we do and I love that God gave us the same vision as Andy & Nancy, that’s how we KNOW it’s from God. Plus, it has been pretty awesome what God has done through CMTS for 42+ years now!  As bigger contributions from the start up donors are slowing as they go to see Jesus, we will be doing more fundraisers and will keep you all up to date as these happen. We may be doing multiple ones a year to benefit different projects or just for the general fund to keep us sustainable and impact so many as we have for so long!

Share with your friends! I will attach a flier at the end of this newsletter for you to print or email and share! Sandra, our Hospitality/Outreach Coordinator came up with this idea and it is pretty cool. Proud of her initiative too! 

Texas

Texas!! So, we went to South Texas. We were following God’s lead on this one. We have been feeling God’s calling to bring a CMTS to Texas since about 4 years ago. Funny thing, Andy Merrick, our founder, felt that way as well many years ago. So, we prayed and asked God to lead the way and if HE wanted us to go, HE would need to make the way. 

As we were praying this past January/February we told God if HE wanted us to visit Texas that HE would need to have people invite us down there. While we were planning the Mexico trip for Equip I was looking through old newsletters from the 1990’s of CMTS and saw a few names that I have never heard of. We reached out to see if they were still around, what they were up to, were they still doing ministry, and were they able to get anything across the border? One invited us to come visit them. We prayed and asked God to keep that momentum going if this was HIS will for us to do this and not just some guy being polite thinking we would never visit anyway, so why not offer.

While in Mexico in April, Jared, the Director of the ministry base we stay at said he wanted help in getting Bibles, clothes, and other things to the surrounding communities around his base and he needed help. We prayed that God would open doors if we were meant to help him. Another ministry base in the states offered to let Jared park a tractor trailer on their land, right over the border, and use smaller vans to get it across the border and they know the border patrol which makes getting things across easier. Well, they ended up inviting us down and more and more people just kept inviting us. 

We flew down to San Antonio, Laredo, and McAllen for 5 days. There, we met with 6-7 different pastors and ministries and made connections for more later on. We also drove over 800 miles and in 2 tropical storms on some dirt roads (as you can see the car we rented was quite dirty!!! LOL) It looks like shipping to Mexico is gaining momentum again! And a pastor was so excited about CMTS that he offered us donated land when it is offered to him again. So, while it does not seem like we are starting another CMTS in Texas tomorrow, it seems God is doing something and we wait for HIM to do what HE wants done. We are super excited to get shipping into Mexico again; we are waiting on the shipper to confirm with us a date and then we get to pack a truck! Woo-hoo!! 

We didn’t take a lot of pictures, but I really wanted to get one next to a cactus! So we got multiple. We also celebrated Joel’s birthday while down there and we had a little extra time before meeting with a ministry director and went to go see the Alamo in San Antonio. We had so many ministries host us for the night and feed us meals, it was beautiful. We are so grateful to them! 

Home Life

Joel turned 43 this year! He does not like his birthday to be a big deal, but we like to celebrate him anyways! So thankful for him!!

We had our 5 year move to CMTS Serveaversary! LOL It has been a blast and I cannot believe it has been 5 years already! 

Joel, Ace, Peyton, Jett, and Jase went on their annual all boys’ camping trip! They went to a campground, with our camper, and it had a pool with awesome slides. They boys had a blast and came back a little sunburnt! LOL

Our oldest daughter got engaged! Her boyfriend, Cam Gehris, invited her to go on his family’s vacation to Tulum, Mexico and proposed on the beach! We love his family and him so much! So blessed to have such a great Jesus loving family by Devin & Cam’s side! **Happy Dance**

Homeschool Corner

We had our evaluations and we passed! Moving on to the next grades! Prepping the next year really begins! LOL

Prayer Requests

• Support: We are still not fully supported and are actively raising support.
• Homeschool: that is an ever going prayer
• Guidance, wisdom, and discernment as God leads us as we lead the ministry.
• Our smaller family car had the engine blow a piston rod, we need a whole engine repair or replacement. Prayer for finding an engine that is low in miles and affordable and funds to pay for this repair.

Ministry Prayer Requests

• Mission Trips: Prayer for getting connected with people to match needs for teams
• Shipping: We have many shipping containers going out soon full of supplies to help ministries share the gospel around the world!
• Staff: We are in need of another front office staff member and another mechanic to meet our growing needs in those areas.

Family Needs

Support

We are very grateful for the team of supporters we have. Thank you! We are currently at $2,500 monthly and where we need to be is $3,570. This covers what we need to live each month as this is our only income. It has been by the grace and provision of God that we are making it. We could really use your help. Prayers and awareness of this need to others is much appreciated!

Would you like to join our team? We need your help to continue to accomplish God’s vision for us at the ministry. Would you join us as a monthly supporter so we can continue the work God has started? We want to take you along for the journey and we would be honored to be able to share the experience with you. You would become part of the team and we would share how God is working and the impact it is having on His Kingdom. Please pray and ask God if you should join us.