Sylvia, Shania, and I hope you are having and will be having a great time with family during these special times as we remember what our God did for us by sending His Son to earth. That our Creator would choose to walk amongst us fully man and fully God is amazing. Remembering the day He was born is so important to us, and sharing it with your family is special.

We are doing great already months into gearing up and preparing/planning for the next summer as well as different discipleship retreats we have going on during the year. It was an amazing summer with 60+ kids coming to know our Lord, which is huge for Spain, as well as over 1,000 kids, youth, and parents able to hear the Gospel and have a seed planted. The impact is overwhelming as we see kids learn who Jesus is for the first time in a country that used to be Catholic and having staff grow a ton in the Lord during their time serving the kids at the camp. Some of you have been over here and seen this happen with your own eyes and it is all God as He works in the hearts of so many. We get the privilege of watching it happen and being able to share it with you so you know that your support and prayers are working on people in Spain. Thanks for being missionaries with us to this needed country.

One of the things we are enjoying at this stage in life is making traditions that are special to us during Christmas and the fact that I am from the US and Sylvia is from Spain creates a neat mixture of different cultural Christmas traditions that we will be making ours over the years to come.

We just had the amazing privilege to attend my younger sister Tamie’s wedding to Alex Casuso and it was a really special experience even though I had a stomach virus the whole day. We are so happy for them and we have now, all married, freed our parents! We were also able to go to 3 missions conferences; at Wheaton Bible Church in IL, Global Outreach Conference in MS, and FC3 in NC as well as visit lots of people and churches in MI, NC and SC. Some places we only had a couple, of days and rushed around seeing as many as we could. I am sorry if we missed you. Hopefully, next time we will have more time in the different areas.

Sylvia and I wish you a very Merry Christmas remembering our Savior and a Happy New Year to serve Him even better as we grow in Him. We have included our new prayer card that Sylvia has designed so you have something to remember us by. Below are some praises and prayers.

Praises:

We survived the first summer in Spain at L’Arcada as full time staff. It was a great experience and we really got to see a lot of the inner workings of L’Arcada. We also saw a passion for ministry that was really exciting and encouraging.

60+ kids and youth came to know the Lord this summer which is huge for Spain and we are very excited to see what the Lord does in their lives over the next years.

Over 1,000 kids, youth, and families heard the Gospel message this summer, and were impacted in different ways. Even many of the youth that came this summer as staff made Lordship decisions.

Prayers:

Please pray that Sylvia and I will continue to work on ourselves to have a servant heart in the ministry. The enemy constantly attacks using pride and old nature, so pray the Lord keeps working in our lives and humility.

Continue to pray for our monthly support. We have seen the Lord connect us to many that joined us in this and we keep seeing it go up, but we are still at 53%. Continue to pray that the Lord will provide so we can continue to do ministry in Spain.

Please pray for us as we look for a rental home in Spain. Currently, due to our support, we are living with my parents but need to start looking for something for ourselves. As support goes up we will be able to afford to do that. Pray that the Lord will help us find a good deal on a rental.

Continue to keep in prayer the sale of our house in the US.  We know the Lord is in control of all things and so we are at peace with the situation however we do need to sell this home to be able to be fully here and the housing market is constantly working against us.  Maybe a church would like a missionary home in SC or someone is looking to move there.   Pray the Lord will open doors for us in this area.

For His Glory alone,

Jeremy, Sylvia, & Shania

Dear Friends and Family,  

We are still alive!  I know it has been a while since we sent out an update but for a good reason.  We have been heavily involved in the ministry of L’Arcada here in Spain.  As you remember we moved to Spain mid May and started right away to get involved in different things that where going on.   As most of you know Summer is our busiest time of the year and there is so much going on.   Let us give you an overview of how the summer went so you can see how the Lord is working over here in Spain.    

We started out with the English camp that my Brother – in – Law and Sister Christian and Tafie came over to Direct and it was so neat to see so many people come to improve engilsh and at the same time learn more about the Lord. Sylvia and I helped here and there running different activities and Sylvia was very involved in designing everything from T-shirts, stickers, postcards, brochures, etc etc.   Then Basketball camp hit which I did not get to be at much because I was helping Jordi, our program Director, finish programming the next camp which was our Native American camp.   

This summer I had the priviledge of codirecting the Native American camp which is 4 weeks long including the staff training week.  I moved out to camp for a month and was able to learn a lot about what Jordi had done all these years with the camp.   It is amazing how much work he puts into this camp.  For those of you that don’t know the Native American camps are our oldest camps.  This camp was the first one that we did when the Lord opened L’Arcada back in 1991.  It was a great experience and we where beat after getting done.   Sylvia was a champ taking care of Shania most of that time alone and if you know Shania she does not know what lack of energy means.  Sylvia also helped with the camp store and a lot of other graphic design projects that are constantly needing  to get done.  We saw 14 kids in this camp make a personal decision for Chirst.  We also got to see staff and Christian campers make Lordship decisions and grow deeper in Him.    

Folowing that was Family camp which was special to see how families grow closer together when Christ is at the center.   We love having the privilege to share with families what the Bible says about marriage and parenting.   Adventure camps came after that and we saw teenagers come to camp and do all sorts of crazy activities while the staff at camp got a whole week to share the gospel with them.  I remember a councilor coming to me all excited because her camper had just come to know the Lord but worried because the girl had told her she wished she could have a bible and the councilor did not know where any where.   We where able to pull out some that we have to give away and encouraged her to put some of her favorite verses in the back for the girl to be able to read at home.   Another councilor said that her girls would ask her to read her bible when there was free time.   WOW instead of going out to play these girls that do not know the Lord wanted to see what was it that was in this book that was so interesting and special to their councilor.   It is not over yet though.  We just finished hosting a Group that cameall the way down from Germany bringing 70 teenagers with them.  After that L’Arcada had a camp for adults 20+ and other things follow.  What a full summer.   

On behalf of Sylvia and I and the rest of the full time staff of L’Arcada we want to give all of you a huge hug of thanks.   Thanks for your financial support that keeps us over here in the ministry and keeps the camp going and things getting fixed and built.   Thanks for your Prayers.  Again this summer I have seen many different things that the enemy has done to stop the camp and to discourage both us as fulltime staff as well as the these great volunteers that give their summer serving and sharing at camp.  It is your prayers that help us get past that and the Lords doing amazing things through them.  Thanks so much for activily taking part in reaching Spain for our Savior.   We pray the Lord Blesses as he constantly does for all of us.  Let usshare some prayer requests we have as we move on into the rest of the year in this special ministry.

1) Pray for the Kids that have left and will be leaving the camp.  Both for the ones that have come to know our Lord as well as those that are not sure yet or flat out have said no.   That the new believers may continue to grow with both our help and others the Lord places around them.  That the spirit continues to work in those that have not made the decision yet.  Let it not stop at yes but follow with discipleship, growth, and multiplication.  

2) Pray for us as we try to balance being parents to a energetic 2 year old that we love to death with a ministry that could use 100% of both of our time.  This summer was hard juggling both. Pray the Lord will give us patience and wisdom.

3) Pray for our new jobs.  Sylvia is in charge of the graphic design area and I am in charge of New Technologies (website, media, computers, etc) and am the assistant to the Director of Programing (Jordi).  It is a lot of work for both of us so pray that we slip in to our roles well and be able to be of a huge help to the rest of the team.  

4) Pray for Positive attitudes!  Sylvia mentioned I was being negative the other day about a few things and she was right as she normally is :).  It is amazing when tired and stressed how the enemy comes in and tries to divide.  Pray that we focus on Jesus where true Joy comes from and look through his eyes at our own lives so that we are constantly growing.  

5) Pray for me as I pray about mentoring & discipeling a young man that came to serve as a volunteer this summer.  I see a lot of me in him and spent a lot of time sharing and listening to him as well as encouraging him to get into the word this summer.  I have never discipled anyone so it will be a learning experience for me also.  That the Lord would guide me and use me for His purpose in this.  

6) Please Pray for a car to use on the trip we are taking starting October 3rd.   We will need a car to travel with for the month and a half that we are traveling in the States (till the 20th of November)  and we have not been able to find one yet.  

7) Finally continue to pray for the rest of our financial support.   We are  now at about 51% which a lot of you are helping with and it is a blessing but be praying that the Lord will continue to bring in what we need to keep us over here and in the Ministry. 

Dear Friends and Family,

HOLA!  We wanted to get out another newsletter to let you know all the Lord is doing as we get settled in Spain and start serving at L’Arcada.   We are so busy these days with paperwork (one of my favorite things to do)  andother things that we have not had much time to sit down and do any updates.  Our container got here Sunday and is going to be delivered tomorrow.   However when we got here we found out we had to do a lot of paperwork we were not awareof to get it through customs.   We have been working on that and the Lord has been helping every step of the way to get this accomplished.  Please be praying that all that works well.

We are also working on getting Shania legal here.  She is a US citizen so we have to go through the process to get her set up.  More paperwork!  We already have our bank account and phone set up which is a blessing.  As we had mentioned earlier since we are at 50% of our needed monthly support, we are going to be staying in our parent’s basement for a while until we are able to raise what we need to find something for ourselves.  This is yet another blessing.  It was not fixed up at all.  In fact it was all just brick and cement floors since it was never finished and so we have been painting and fixing it up a bit so we can stay there. 

On the ministry end. I will be helping our Program Director Jordi that a few of you know as a co director for Indian Camps this year.  We have already had a few planning and programming meetings and am learning a lot.  Jordi has been with L’Arcada since it started back in 1991 and has a wealth of knowledge. I am also starting to take over the technical side of things like the website and other things like that.  Sylvia hit the ground running taking over the Design side ofthings.  She has been going back and for the with T-shirt companies here for the volunteer and team shirts thisyear.   Shania is doing well and basking in the attention of both sets of Grandparents. She loves the camp though we are not sure if 763ish acres are enough to contain her. 

Camps start this weekend. Please pray for safety, strength and that the Lord will really touch many lost souls this summer.   Thanks so much for all your prayers during this time. It has been a tiring process however we are so glad to be here finally and digging in.  Thanks also to all ofyou that support us financially.  We areso blessed in how the Lord has provided through you and thank Him so much for you also.  It is always amazing to see how the Lord works and how it all points to Him and for His glory.  When we try to do things to lift ourselves upwe are actually working against the current of a powerful river.    We will keep you updated as much as we can.  During the summer months we have tobe out at the camp a lot and there is no internet up there.  However we will be in town here and there tosend out updates.

Here are some Prayers and Praises.

Praises:

The Lord stepped in as he always does and helped all thepaperwork for the container and customs go through without a hitch.

Our car died yesterday but the Mechanic in town was able tocome to the house and check it out and it was all fixed within hours.  What a blessing.

The basement where we are staying is almost all fixed upjust in time for the container arriving tomorrow.  

Prayers:

There is a lot of work to do for camps later in the summerand so we are running full time with that and still getting installed.  Please Pray that the Lord will really workthrough us in all we do.

Pray for strength for my sister and brother in law Tafie andChristian as they arrive tomorrow to direct the English camp.

Above all Pray for the youth coming to the camp.  May the Lord keep the enemy away from theirhearts and that the spirit may have free reign to touch each child so that theymay hear and come to know the true Jesus. 

Dear Friendsand Family,

It’s so nice that you will get this letter soon after we write it.  I remember growing up before the internet when letters would take a few weeks to get overseas and my parents remember when it would take a Month and a half especially sending stuff around Christmas.   It is a great age where our Lord is using technology that, lets be honest, He invented, to connect us more.  It is a huge opportunity to reach all over the world with the gospel.  It connectsus in the field in Spain with you in the field in the States or around the world to encourage each to keep going where the Lord has us to spread the word.

Well we are finally here in Spain everyone!  We are so excited as we get settled and see family and friends again in the area.   It has been a crazy ride getting over here but all your prayers have been a blessing as we got everything ready.  We also had an amazing turn out when loading up the container that made everything go so smoothly.   We have taken two weeks to get all the paperwork that comes with settling into a new country, filled out and turned in.   I have to start studying for my drivers license over here.   Please pray for this because it costs around $1500 to take the tests and you get two attempts before you have to pay again. So I have to really study hard.  It is so expensive to get a car and license over in Spain that most people do not own a car until they are out of college and have a full time job.  We are starting to get over Jet lag now and feel more aware of our surroundings.

Sylvia and I can’t thank you enough for your faithful support both prayer and financial over the time we where fundraising.   We are now in the field and though we are only at 50% of our needed monthly support the Lord is providing in different ways. My parents have a small basement area we will be living in until our monthly support grows more.  We are excited to start in the ministry over here and see the Lord us and you all over there as a team to reach more Spanish for the Lord.   If the Lord is leading you to support us in the ministry over here in Spain our most urgent need is monthly support commitments in the amount of whatever the Lord leads.  To get set up for this go to our webpage and click the Donations button or go directly to:  www.jerysylf.com/donations

Here are some important Prayer and Praiserequests for these next few months. 

PRAISE:

We are in Spain!  This is a huge blessing and the Lord got us here smoothly.   Shania even slept almost 4 hours in the plane.

Praise Him for all the People that came and helped load our container.  That was a blessing

Praise Him for providing a home through CBC up in NC for us to stay in the last two weeks in the states since all our furniture was on a boat to Spain.

Praise Him for our support going up from 43% to 50% in the last couple months.  We are getting there at His perfect pace.

We Praise Him for all of you that stepping forward with us financially and in Prayer to see Spain change from one of the countries in the world with the least amount of believers in it to one that is full of people that love our Lord.  Something only our God can do for without Him we do nothing.

PRAYER:

Pray for us as we get all our paperwork and processes done and set up for living in Spain.  I am relearning and in most cases learning everything from scratch on how it works over in Spain for Finances, residency, etc.   Also for me testing for my drivers license.   The tests are very hard and as I mentioned before are expensive.

Pray for our household stuff to get here safely and that there is no hold up at the Barcelona port which will cost us daily and can get very expensive.

Pray with us for all the kids, youth, and families coming to Camp this summer.  That the Lord would bind the enemy so that the spirit may work in many lives and many souls be reached for His Glory.  

Pray for the Staff both full time and volunteers that will be at the camp.  May the Lord grow us all closer to Him and give us the strength to push forward and do our best for the nonbelievers coming to camp so they have a great time.

Here are some pictures for you all.

Top Left:  Hanging out our clothes to dry at Sylvia's Parents house

Top Right:  Shania Fine Dining on a Plane for her size its like first class

Middle Left:  Shania watching as we land in Spain.  We where going over the water and so she was saying boat and agua (water in spanish) the whole time hehe

Middle Right:  We lucked out on the long flight and there was two empty seats on left so I set up a tent type structure so she could sleep....She slept for 4 hours!!!! YAY!!!

Middle Left Again:   Shania having her first loaf of Spanish bread .... mmmmm

The Other two pictures:  Jeremy cutting and eating ( Might have eaten most of what he cut)  Cured ham right off the leg of the pig.   This stuff is GOOD!!   Gave Shania a piece and she kept saying "more" over and over.

Dear Friends and Family,

We are back in South Carolina after an amazing trip through Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. It was a great time of seeing friends again and being able to share the ministry with so many people and churches. We are so grateful for all of you that opened up your homes for us to share or made time in busy schedules to meet with us.

First of all we want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas. It is a great time of year to remember the beginning of our Savior on earth. The Creator coming down and living with us crazy people, most of which despised Him to the point of eventually killing Him and he allowed it all to happen because of His love for us. This is something Sylvia and I will never understand but are so humbled and grateful for it. Sylvia and I pray that you will enjoy your time with the Lord, family, and friends.

We are writing for prayer as we take a new step of faith in our Lord. As you know we have set a goal to get to Spain in May. Although most missionaries raising funds and prayer partners to go to Europe are taking between 2 and 3 years…some more to raise support, we are deeply concerned with the Spiritual state of Spain and the fact that we could be doing something about it if we were there.

So, since we only have about 6 months until the end of May we have set some specific faith goals out before us. Let me explain:

1. We are trusting that the Lord sell our house without too much loss. The general housing market here in Columbia is in the pits and the Townhouse market here is close to 250% oversaturated. In spite of this, and the fact that it is not in the best part of town we believe that the Lord can sell this place for us. As we have mentioned before in our letters the Lord asks us to take steps of faith that stretch us. We continue to take these steps.

2. The second faith goal is to continue to work hard at raising the lacking support. Under this area we have a number of things we want to communicate to you:

   a. We are deeply grateful for those of you have been standing with us through your monthly financial commitments and also those of you who are praying regularly for us. We are daily aware that the enemy has Europe in his grasp and is not wanting us over there. So, thank you so much for sticking it out with us in the war.

   b. The next part of our goal is to move forward with our support. Many of you have mentioned you are with us in prayer and at heart. We are so grateful for this effort on your part. We would like for you to take the challenge of supporting us for $20 or more monthly in order to get us to Spain and into the ministry there. If most of the people on our newsletter list committed to support us for this we would be at 100% of our support. Spain needs Jesus!!! . We ask that you pray about this.

3. The third part of the goal is to continue setting up appointments with churches and people in order to search out new opportunities for support. But meanwhile we want you to consider supporting us and not waiting for others to do it. Dive into the challenges with us of reaching the hearts and minds of the Spanish youth with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Dear Team,

We are excited about all the people and churches we where able to meet with down in Florida.  We also got to spend some time seeing some friends again.    We are now back in SC and preparing our next trip down to Alabama the first two weeks of November.  Sylvia and I wanted to thank you for all your prayers and help during the Florida trip. Keep praying with us as we work hard to raise our Monthly support.  We are getting near 40% now of what we need thanks to the Lord and to your prayers and support. 

We where in Florida for a week and had 4 Home fellowships,Met with leadership from 5 different churches. We where able to update our two supporting churches and thank them forfaithfully standing with us during this time. We also where able to meet with different individuals throughout theweek.  All in all it was a goodweek.  Thanks for giving us theopportunities to share. 

Again our Goal is to get to Spain by May 2011.  We would love to go sooner so we are making it a priority to meet with as many people and share our need for monthly support and about the ministry we will be working in.  If you have family or friends that are interested in hearing about L’Arcada and/or they are in a church that we might be able to share with let us know.  We need your help to make new contacts and build more relationships.   We know it is a tough time with the economic situation however we also know that our God is not hindered or slowed down by any economy.  In fact usually it is now in the times when we are stretched that the Lord shows his power and glory.   Some verses the Lord has shared with me in my devotional times or by way of others over the last year are Mark12:41-44,  2 Cor 8, John 6:5-15.  These are verses we have experienced in our lives when we have seen some of you support us in all kinds of ways even beyond what you could.  We thank you so much for being an example of how the Lord can work even in times of difficulty to show His glory.  More and more Sylvia and I do not think the economy will slow or stop our raising support when the Lord wants us over there we will get there.  He has confirmed over and over he wants us in Spain but he has his perfect timing.  So in the meantime we are doing all we can to find and connect with people and churches that are led by Our God to support us in Prayer and financially.  Be encouraged in all you do in the Lord because his plan trumps your situation

Now for prayer and Praises. 

Prayer:

Continue praying for strength and flexibility as we plan all these trips.  It is difficult being on the road this long especially with a 14 month old firecracker

Keep praying for monthly support.  This is our need right now in order to get over to Spain.  We are excited to see more and more of you join our support team and we are so thankful those praying alongside us  for this.  You all are amazing prayer warriors!

Pray for L’Arcada and the Staff over in Spain as they are already planning and evaluating what 2011 is going to look like. 

Praise:

We are getting near 40% and are excited to see what the Lord is doing and the amazing people we are starting to build friendships with…Yes you   We thank the Lord for you all.

We had a safe and special trip to Florida and really enjoyed seeing a lot of people again as well as meeting new.

I jumped into the Gulf of Mexico with Shania while in Florida.  Unfortunately in my excitement to see my daughter’s first reaction to waves I forgot that my phone, wallet and keys are not water proof.    This is a twofold praise as my Sister Tafie was able to provide me with another phone,wallet and keys are ok and the Lord got to work on my pride a little 

Dear Friendsand Family,

Sylvia and Iare now back in Columbia, SC after being in Spain almost two months Working out at L’Arcada this summer.   It was amazing to see what the Lord is doing over there with the youth and families that come to the camp.   We had some interesting experiences in our process of getting over there like getting charged 3 times for the same ticket and then getting the real ticket canceled 3 days before we left but everything worked out as the Lord wanted it to and Sylvia and I got totest our attitudes and trust in our Lord. As always he came through. 

As many ofyou know summer is one of the busiest times for us at L’Arcada and we are very short full time staff.  It was a blessing that Sylvia and I could go over and help. This was the first summer for Pere Gonzales, the new L’Arcada Director.  It was amazing to see the Lord work through Him during the summer.  Keep praying for him as he settles in to all the different areas of directorship and pray that the rest of us full time staff will be a good support to him. 

So what happened?  Well the first camp we were there for was the English camp which my Brother-in-law Christian and my SisterTafie directed for the second time.  I was not planning on doing much but help with some activities during this camphowever because of so little volunteer staff this year I had the opportunity to direct the activities group as well as help out in washing dishes and my favorite: CLEANING BATHROOMS J  hehe.  We had a great time serving where we could to help relieve Christian and Tafie a little here and there.  It is amazing that no matter what you have to do in life you should be doing it for the Lord and Joy should be the foundationof it.  Sometimes it is hard and we don’t want to do something.  I have to be honest cleaning bathrooms is not on the top of my, “I wish I could do this more often” list hehe, but then I stop and think that our God invented quality andas Christians trying to live a Godly life we should give the best quality we can.  A lot of these kids coming to camp have not experienced Godly love.  If even one of the around 1000 kids that come to L’Arcada comes to know the Lord and will be with Him for all eternity because he or she sees how everything we dois to show them love then I am going to clean with Gusto J. 

So on to what else happened.  As we have mentioned before, Sylvia and I really have a heart for the youth that come to the camp as staff.  L’Arcada has some discipleship and training programs for the different stages of staff that come to camp.  Some of you will know this but for those that do not, two of these programs are for staff in training called Cantera andFEV.  Cantera means quarry where the stone is taken out and FEV stand for Formation of Summer Staff (in Spanishhehe).  Cantera come to serve around the camp in activities, kitchen, service, cleaning. These are the youngest and I got to give their Bible study Sessions every day with then talking about knowing our God so that we can serve him better.   FEV are 16-17 year olds and this is the next stage of training and discipleship as they learn during their program how to be assistant counselors.  Their training is  focused on discipleship for them and how to share their faith since thefollowing week they were in with the kids helping the councilor.  I co directed this program with Pere.   These kids are in my heart as they later go back to schools, towns, and work where many are either one of 2 or 3 Believersor they are the only believers there.  So the programs have a dual purpose.  Yes weare training them to be Godly staff at L’Arcada however that is the small purpose.  In our eyes the larger purposeis that these kids can go back into their community and not only resist temptation and not get pulled in to the world, but because they are grounded in Gods word they get involved in their Church and they can be a witness wherever they are for our Lord and Savior.  

With this process kids come to L’Arcada and learn about the Lord and come to know Him as their personal Savior then we see them grow up over the years coming back toour different age level camps and we finally see them old enough to step in to these discipleship and training programs for staff I described above.  Then they leave L’Arcada on fire to get involved in their Church and grow more and to share what the Lord has done for them.   Some of the Kids in Cantera and FEV this year have been campers since they were 6 or 7.   That is so amazing and all Glory be to our God in heaven as He uses us to help shape these young adults as they grow closer to Him.

It was a great summer where again God broke into the hearts of many young kids.  Adventure camp start, which is the last camp of the summer.  The Family camp justended with a full camp of 15 families and some of the non-believer parents said that they have never experienced such love. Wow! 

Sylvia had mother duty most of the time which with a 1 year old that is a full fledgedrunner was pretty crazy work hehe.  But because she helped with taking care of Shania so much I was able to really digin and help a lot more then I would have been. It was also a blessing because she got to spend some good time with her parents, brother and extended family that she has not had in a year. 

Sylvia and I want to thank you all for your prayers during this summer.   Keep praying for Spain with us and praise Him with us as he does amazing things over there.   Thanks to all of you who support us with one time gifts as well as monthly support. We want to share with you that thanks to the Lord we have gone up from30% to 38% during the last two months of monthly support needed to get toSpain.  Praise the Lord.

Praises:

- Shania is walking and is a healthy ball of energy. 

- We got toSpain and back safely.  Everyone on the overseas flight back knows who Shania is since she walked up and down all the aisles tons of times.

- We are nowat 38% of what we need to get to Spain Praise the Lord

Prayers:

While we were up in Michigan someone opened a bank account in my name and over drafted it sowe are in the middle of an identity theft situation and are working with the bank and police to figure out what happened and who did it.  Please pray that this will get sorted out as it was a little scary how easy it was for this to happen.

Pray for monthly support.  Our goal is to be in Spain before next summer.  We are going to be traveling anywhere we need to share about the ministry and try to raise support.  Pray that the Lord will help us find more churches and individuals that have a heart for Spain and the enormous need overthere.  Please pray to see if the Lord isleading you to support us monthly.  And if you can help us with any contacts that you think may be interested let us know.

Dear Friends and Family,

Sylvia and I hope you all had a good Easter remembering oneof the cornerstones of our faith.  Theresurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ is another confirmation of ourfaith.  With Jesus defeating Death we allmust continue to stand strong in the good times and in the bad or hard times aswe are tested and molded in preparation for eternal life with Him.  Be encouraged because He continually coversus with grace and gives us that strength to carry on.  Sylvia and I continually see it in our lives.

As many of you know, we have trusted the Lord with our housesituation down in South Carolina.  Due toour tenant moving out, the current housing market situation and not being ableto sell the home,  we have been prayingabout whether or not the Lord wants us to move back down to SouthCarolina.   Many of you have been prayingwith us in this regard and we are so grateful for your prayers.  Over the past two weeks the Lord seems to be guiding us to make the move to SouthCarolina through putting this on both our hearts and by opening a lot of doorsdown there.  This move comes at adifficult time for us.  We have 2 supportraising trips coming up as well as plans to go to Spain for a month this summerto help meet some of the urgent staff needs by directing two of the L’Arcada trainingprograms.  The stress and financialburden of a move at this time pushes our faith to a new limit as the Lord worksin our lives to help us learn to trust Him more. 

Sylvia and I have been extremely blessed by TrinityFellowship Church up in MI as well as Spring Hill Camps over the last two years.  They have been an enormous spiritual andemotional encouragement for us as we have been raising support and have reallycome alongside us to offer counsel, friendship and care.  Our little daughter Shania came into theworld up here also and we have made many friends during this time. Even thoughwe have a lot of friends and family in SC it will be hard to leave.  However, when Sylvia and I got married wevowed to have Christ at the center of our relationship.  Following His will needs to be a priority inour lives and we strongly feel he is leading us down to SC.    We have prayed a lot over this and we havetalked to a lot of different people, trying to budget and plan for this move overthe past few days.  We are looking atmoving mid-May after completing the previously planned trip to Illinois.  

Below are some praises and prayers we would like to sharewith you.  Thanks so much for your prayerand/or financial support.  We could notdo this without such a neat team of people. It is a blessing to be surrounded and supported in prayer.   Let us know how we can be a blessing to youby sharing with us how we can lift you up in prayer.   Give us a chance to bless you also. 

Praises

·        Jesus Conquered death on the cross!!  What a blessing and what an amazing God wehave.  We must continually remember togive Him the glory for everything.

·        We want to thank the Lord for making this moveclear and giving us peace in the process

·        My parents passed through for a week and we hada good time together as they enjoyed spending a little time time with their granddaughterand us. 

·        One of the obstacles of moving down to SC was thelack of a car since we sold our car when we moved up to Michigan. The car weare using now is being lent to us by Trinity Fellowship, who has said that ifwe moved down to SC we could keep the car. We are so grateful to the Lord and Trinity for this as it is one of themany doors the Lord has opened in the process of decision-making regarding themove.

Prayers

·        Please pray for us as we make this move. We trust the Lord for finances in two major areas:

·        1) Moving truck costs and 2) Tickets for our one-monthsummer trip to Spain to help out in the ministry.  Pray that the Lord would provide as He alwaysdoes when we follow Him.  If you wouldlike to help with these needs, please click here to go to our support page and learn how.  If you have any questions let us know via email or phone. Thanks so much

·        Pray for Shania as she is having a hard timesleeping at night. We think it is because she is teething but as many of youparents know it makes days harder when you are tired.

Hello Prayer Partners,

Sylvia and I wanted to shoot out a quick prayer request to you all over a situation that just came up.  We have a house down in SC that we have beenrenting out since our move to Michigan.  We have been trying to get itsold but because of the market, this will not be an option at the moment. We have decided to keep renting it for another year or so.  However we just found out that our tenant has put in her 30 day notice.  It is essential that we get another tenant in as fast as possible since we will not be able to afford paying rent for a house up in Michigan and mortgage on the one in SC.  We would like to urgently ask for prayer that the Lord will provide a renter very fast for our place.  If we do not get someone in there fast we will need to move back down to SC amongst a lot of other issues with this move is the extreme costs of a moving truck and the fact that we do not have a car down in SC.  We are praying the Lord will let us stay up here as we try to finish raising our support and we would ask you to pray also that the Lord would either provide a renter or some how make it possible to move back down.   We are praying for peace in these nervouse moments from the Lord that we may have faith in Him and his plan.  Thank you all for your prayers up to this point.

PS if anyone is looking for a house in Columbia, SC let us know!

Dear Friends and Family,

We are sorry for the delay in getting out an update on everything that has been going on in the last 2 and a half months.  As you can see we have a new website and will be using this to keep everyone of you up to date on what the Lord is doing in our lives and through the ministry of L'Arcada. 

We are now back in Michigan after a long almost 3 month Trip where we got to meet with a lot of churches and individuals in a Lot of areas.  We visited North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida mainly during this time and have been blessed meeting a lot of new brothers and sisters in Christ.  At the same time we were able to spend time with my parents, sisters, and brother-in-law down  in NC.  They were happy to see Sylvia and myself but the star of the show was Shania.  It was a great Christmas together as a family something that as many of you have experienced gets harder and harder to make work as families move around this great earth.   So we really enjoyed every moment of it.

We are now searching for more churches and individuals that are interested in letting us share the ministry with them.  Economic times are hard but we are confident in the fact that our God is bigger then the economy and trust him in his provision.  If you have any ideas of people or churches we could contact and share with please let us know. 

Praises

Shania is growin up and is healty and energetic.  We prais the Lord for such a blessing.  Please keep her in prayer as we teach her about the Lord that one day she may come to know him as her personal Savior.

We are at 30% of our support and see the Lord bring more and more people into our support family with the goal of reaching Spain for His Glory.

The Lord really protected us on this big trip we just came back from.  Kept us safe and really took good care of us.

Thanks so much for all of you who sent in Christmas gifts to our account.  This money really helped us do the traveling and made it possible to meet with a lot of people and churches to share the ministry.  Thanks so much.

Prayers

Please pray that more people will feel led to join our family so that we can get to Spain sooner.

The person renting our house down in SC is looking for a new home.  We are trying to put it on the market fast to see if it will sell but as soon as our tenant leaves we will need to get another one in there as fast as possible to cover the mortgage payments.  We woul dlove to get this house sold so we do not have to worry about it especially when we move to Spain.  However if not sold we really need a renter in it.  If we cant get one Sylvia and I may need to move back down to SC which we hope to avoid.  However we know God is sovreign and his plan works for the best so no matter the outcome we are trusting in Him.  Please pray for this with us.  To thouse that have been praying thankyou so much.  We have been very at peace with this and know it has something to do with your prayers.