Special Church Camp—One-month-’til-Congo Edition
Greetings from Lake
Blaine Baptist Bible Camp in Kalispell, Montana!
We just finished our first week of camp…Junior
Boys. Titus was a camper for the first
time, and loved it! (Though he did catch
a flu bug toward the end…poor guy!) Martha spent this last week helping out in
the kitchen and will be a camper next week in Jr. High camp. Ruth isn’t old
enough to be a camper yet, but she is enjoying the chance to be a mini-camper
and participate when she can. The theme
is “Gold Rush” and we have had a lot of fun coming up with speaking sessions to
go along with that theme…and figuring out ways to tie Congo in, too! Please pray for us as we endeavor to
communicate God’s truths to the campers!
The Countdown
The second reason this is a special
edition is: we will be returning to Congo one month from today (from the
writing of this letter)! It will be bittersweet to leave again, but we are
truly ready to go “home” and continue with the things the Lord has for us
there. (Please see the “Looking Ahead”
section for what the next month looks like.)
We should be flying straight to
Chicago, where we will meet Kristina (the young lady coming with us to Congo
for 6 months). We will then fly all
together to Brussels and then into Kinshasa, DR Congo!
We do not anticipate spending a lot
of time in Kinshasa; however we will have to spend some time there to do some
supply shopping and gathering before making the 2-day trip up to Dibaya. We would like to not make another trip down until
Kristina leaves in February. Yes, that
means 6 months of groceries!
Weighing In
The bags are
packed…well, mostly! We packed, and weighed,
re-packed, and weighed again…until we arrived at 13 (so far) perfectly 50 pound
pieces of luggage. The rest will have to
wait until we get back from camp, but the majority is all done! What a nice
feeling…
*An extra special thank you to everyone
that participated in getting us items off our wish list! What a blessing!!!!
Martha, Martha…
As of last week, our Martha is now 13 years old…which, incidentally, makes
us parents of a teenager. We have always loved Junior Highers, and we are
looking forward to growing in our parenting skills as we get to parent one for
the first time. She has brought so much
joy and excitement into our lives and we are so delighted to call her our
daughter. Please pray for all of us as
we enter this new stage in life together.
June
If you saw us in June, you most likely met Catherine Webster. (She
watched our kids for us while we were in language school, and was Myndii’s French
tutor as well.) She was able to come
spend the month with us, and was a vivid reminder of why all of us love and
miss her so much!
Myndii’s mom was able to make a quick trip down from Alaska and though
her time was short, it was great to see her!
We kind of thought that June would be relaxing and laid-back since we
were staying in one spot and “all we had to
do” was get ready for Congo… However, if you know us, we just can’t sit
still! Our calendar filled up incredibly
fast, and quite literally, there wasn’t one day on the calendar left
blank! We did manage to get in some
family time and great visits with friends.
Meanwhile, Back in the DR Congo
Thank you
for your prayers on Excellent’s behalf! He has recovered from the illness and
made it back to Dibaya-Lubwe. In fact,
he and Muna have been contacted by churches in another area (not currently
reached by the mobile program) and have planned a trip to do some Bible
training. We are so excited to see the
Word being taught in our absence! Please pray that the Lord is preparing hearts
to receive the Word as fertile ground! The
professors are really looking forward to our return so Sparky can take them
through new classes and they can go out again for the next teaching cycle. What a blessing to see II Timothy 2:1-2 being
lived out in front of us!
Looking Ahead
Please
remember that our ministry and family schedule can be found on our blog
site! We will make every effort to keep
it updated.
What our last few months in the States look like, Lord willing:
July 3 Our Martha’s 13th birthday!
6 Polson,
Montana (am)
Kalispell,
Montana (pm)
7-25 Camp speakers at Camp Lake Blaine in N.
Montana
(Junior Boys, Jr. High, & Sr.
High)
13 Columbia
Falls, Montana
20 Heart Butte, Montana
23 Eureka,
Montana
27 Fellowship
with our sending church
August 3 Notus, Idaho
8 Leave for CONGO! (With
Kristina!)
Desiring His wisdom more than gold,
The Clancy Family
~Sparky,
Myndii, Martha, Titus and Ruth
“How much better is it to get wisdom than gold”
Proverbs 16:16a
.
Time in Kinshasa