Summer 2025 Ministry Update on Upcoming Mission Trips and Road to Release

Summer 2025 is well underway and, while the temperatures here in Michigan have yet to break eighty degrees, we are feeling the heat of the summer rush both at work and in ministry.

Life Update

As mentioned in our previous update, I started a new job at the Department of Natural Resources the beginning of May and it has been a huge answer to so many months (and years) of prayer. While it is a summer position, I’ve been guaranteed forty hours a week, with a pay raise every year I choose to return. Plus, the skills I’m learning will more than likely benefit our ministry in Australia someday. So far, I  seem to be catching on quickly and am loving everything about it!

In other news, Trenton continues to lead his store in West Branch, where he received an amazing report from the owner of GPS Hospitality this past month. His assistant manager was recently promoted to the general manager of another store, so he has been in a bit of a transition in leadership, but he seems to be managing well!

We were able to finally straighten out our insurance situation. As you may remember, we lost our medical insurance right after we got the news that the medication I’ve been on was working. This was due to me getting a full-time job to help pay off our debt so we can get back on track toward the mission field. It was a big blow to say the least… But while we now have to pay $500 a month to get the medication covered, it is covered under the insurance provided through Trenton’s work. Please pray we can manage that extra $500 a month as money has been tight with all the debt we accrued from the flooding last year.

Ministry Update

We are still in full fundraising mode for our upcoming short term mission trips! I’ve been busy turning in the bags upon bags of soda cans everyone has been donating to the church for our Uganda trip next May. We have a team meeting planned for August of this year as well as a possible bake sale.

Our trip to the Operation Christmas Child facility this December is in the beginning stages of planning as well.

At the church, we’ve been busy with two weeks straight of mission emphasis, welcoming missionaries from Dearborn, Brazil, and Kosovo.

Our Go Initiative team had their very first mission outreach to Camp Bethel this past May, where a group of about eight people went for two days to help clean up from the major ice storm we had in February.

We also had our ladies tea on May 17th, and while I could not attend this year due to it being my first week of the new job, Trenton reported a great turnout.

Writing/Book Update

The Shadow Series Road to Release officially began with the local author fair this past Saturday and the event was a huge hit! For the first time ever, I completely sold out of books! I have two more events planned for this summer, one in Frankenmuth next month and one in Cadillac the beginning of September. All of this, plus the added behind the scene snippets I’ll be revealing on Facebook throughout the coming months all lead to a release date announcement for book two in November!

Book two is still in the ending stages of the editing process. I am waiting on the last fifty pages from my editor before we can move on to the final draft. However, I am very happy with how it has been turning out.

The updated version of book one is currently available on Amazon which includes fifty pages of added content, a brand new series cover, updated interior design, as well as the first chapter of the second book for you to read early! You can get a copy here. Or, if you have kindle unlimited, you can get it for free!

In the meantime, I have started light work on researching for book three. I won’t do any heavy work until book two is complete and I have more time to write in the fall/winter, but the bare bones are being formed as we speak and it’s so exciting!

Please pray for these upcoming weeks as the Fourth of July is always our busiest season both in work and ministry. We have ALOT going on and it can sometimes be overwhelming. Please pray that the Lord provide us the endurance we need to get through and that we’d stay strong against the devils attacks as they come (and they really do more often than we’d like to admit!)

Also keep in mind that we have upcoming mission trips and they are open for you to join! For more information on any of the ones listed below, you can contact me directly, or check out our website here.

We are also in need of soda cans! So, if you have any lying around that you would like to donate, we are more than willing to take them!

As always, thank you all for your love and support.

Visit us online as siministry.org for updates on mission trips and book releases.