Trial And Change (November 2024 Missions Update)
- Trenton Shields
- Nov 30, 2024
- 4 min read
House Update
I apologize for the lack of updates regarding our situation with the house. As you can imagine, things have been a bit chaotic, especially leading up to the holidays.
The good news is, our well situation seems to be coming to somewhat of an end. We have hot water and a furnace just in time for the snow! That is about all we could have really asked for at this time.
Having lost all of our Christmas decorations in the flood, our church has really stepped up to provide us with whatever we need to make this Christmas seem as normal as possible. And despite the workers coming in and out on a daily basis, we have been able to keep everything relatively clean.
There are obviously some things that will never go back to the way they were. The sentimental things we lost will never be replaced, but even in that we find ourselves at peace knowing that there's a reason for everything.
Continue to pray for the situation as some of the repairs will not get done until spring. But praise God for the repairs we did get before the snow started to fly!
We got a few small Christmas trees from a wonderful lady at church. Christmas lights always make every situation seem brighter, don't you think?
This is a picture of the outside of our house as it currently stands. The piles of mud and dirt won't be fixed until spring.
Despite everything, the cats continue to live a lavish life. Though this little guy had to get fixed this week... everything went fine!
Ministry Update
Our first short term mission team leaves on December 8th. This will be our first time leading a short-term group out of our church. We have a good group of about twelve people who will be traveling to work at the Operation Christmas Child facility in Aurora, Illinois. Please pray for safe travels as well as for those going. For those of you who have been on a mission trip before, you know how life changing it can be! Our prayer is that the Lord would open up their hearts to the great need in the world. There is so much to be done!
As for our ministry with Sports Event Evangelism, we were able to have dinner with our leaders this past week. They came up to meet with us and our pastor, and it was such a great time to catch up and talk about the whirlwind that was Paris 2024. We are looking forward to starting on the planning for the 2026 Soccer World Cup the beginning to middle of next year. If that's a ministry you'd like to be a part of, feel free to contact me and I'll get you the information!
Australia is by no means out of heart and mind. Our teammates, who were on deputation with us, landed in Australia for their first term this week. We are praying about taking a short trip back to the Land Down Under in 2025 depending on what we can afford and how things turn up with our work schedules. So pray with us that the Lord would make his direction clear over the coming months. Pray also that we would be able to pay down our unexpected debt caused by the well situation.
Writing Update
I've been busy working on a little surprise for you all! I won't be announcing it just yet as I plan to sometime the beginning of the year once it's finished, but stay tuned because there are exciting things happening in the Shadow world!
War of the Rising Phoenix, book two of the Shadow Series, is set to be edited starting the beginning of the year. So please pray for that process, that the Lord would bring together all the little details and inconsistencies that are often so easy for an author to miss. Pray for the last book-signing event on the 7th of December, that I'd make a good profit toward paying for the editing. Praise God, after a very full fall, I've made it to the 25% mark!
Want to know what it takes to become an agent of change? Follow along on social media! You can find updates on the Shadow Series on facebook and tiktok!
My last book signing event of the year is December 7th!
With the help of a good friend from church, I was able to make limited edition stickers for the last event of the year! If you would like any between now and Christmas, let me know!
Our last event was our best yet. Will definitely be doing Tawas Band Bazaar again next year!
As always, thank you all for the prayers. Things have been very difficult for us these past few years, but we know two things for certain. God is in control and we have a whole lot of people praying us on. With those things combined, I have no doubt things will start to look up in the coming years.
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