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Time Flies...
They say time flies when you're having fun, <<First Name>>,
The past year has been a whirlwind of activity and stress....accompanied by physical challenges and obstacles. We can firmly say that we have seen God's hand in our lives on a daily basis as we've faced each of these difficulties. There is nothing like watching Him at work over and over again to build our belief in His faithfulness, so for that, we can "Count it all joy, my brothers, when [we] meet trials of various kinds, for [we] know that the testing of [our] faith [is producing] steadfastness." (James 1:2-3) Here's a snapshot of the past year of our lives and what God has been teaching us both personally and in ministry with Apartment Life as a CARES Team....
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Events! Over the past year, we have served over 859 meals (pizza, lasagna, tacos, bbq, soup, chili, Thanksgiving dinner, etc.), served 176 fruit smoothies, handed out 346 treats at our mailboxes (gumdrops, jellybeans, popcorn, candy, snack bags full of "study fuel" like chocolate and caffeine, etc.), given away 169 ice cream treats from our "ice cream cart" roaming the community and blessed 50 individuals with soft cuddly teddy bears right after the semester began this fall.
God has been teaching us to plan, be flexible and to not be discouraged no matter the outcome because many times, His plans have been so much better than ours. He has been blessing us with new relationships and the opportunity to share His grace with others.
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We passed out 169 frozen treats from our Ice Cream Cart in August to many new and existing residents. They LOVED it!
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Residents! The majority of our community's residents revolve around something called university classes....We have a vague recollection of the difficulty of studying, often working as well AND trying to eat. Because of this, we tailor most of our events around food and conversation.
God has been teaching us about being better listeners and being encouragers to these stressed out students. We have also been learning to assist in helpful ways the other residents who may have special needs or trouble with relationships. Ultimately, we want to point them to the healer of relationship troubles and the One Who will always be faithful, Jesus!
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There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. (I Cor. 12:4-6)
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More ways to help:
~Donate food for our Thanksgiving dinner…if you can prepare it and bring it hot on the afternoon of Nov. 11th, that is even better, but we can take and prepare some of it ourselves. (Thanksgiving wish list at the bottom of this email)
~Help serve and mingle with people at our events. We especially need help with our Thanksgiving dinner the evening of Wednesday, November 11th. We also have a fun caroling event on December 13th that we'd love some extra voices for. This proved to be a favorite event last year for volunteers and residents alike. Let us know if you'd like to help with this!
~Help by baking Christmas cookies and or helping us make cookie bags the weekend following Thanksgiving. We estimate that we need 1800 cookies (that's only 150 dozen!) Let us know if you are able to help with this!
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Thanksgiving Dinner Wish List...
Turkey—6 turkeys roasted, carved, hot & ready to serve
Potatoes— 25 pounds
Stuffing—5 large (13x9) pans
Sweet Potatoes for sweet potato casserole
Green Salad for 50
Gravy—about 5 quarts
Rolls—about 100 2 large vegetable trays
Cranberry sauce—about 8 cans of jellied cranberry and 8 cans of whole cranberry sauce
Pies—13 pies, pumpkin, apple and the like (these do not need to be homemade!)
Please, let us know what you can provide!
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Internationals! We have met souls from all over the globe. There are residents here at Highland Village from China, Brazil, Russia, India, Nepal, Germany, Kuwait and other middle eastern countries. It has been refreshing for us to connect with other cultures and encourage and help them as they spend their time here in the US. We had the privilege of working together with three Chinese residents in February to host a Chinese New Year's Eve Party. It was delicious and amazing and enjoyed by Chinese and Americans alike.
God has been re-teaching us what it means to engage other cultures and be sensitive to their cultural norms, while not being afraid to speak the truth of the Gospel to them.
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We had so much fun handing out teddy bears. Here's one blessed resident with some of our family!
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We cannot do this alone....one year of attempting to do almost everything ourselves has been detrimental in numerous ways...including the fact that others like you have missed out on the blessing of serving in some way!
Here are some ways to help:
~Pray for us! We are trying to juggle life, homeschooling, ministry and Tucker's work schedule and it's exhausting! If you'd like to be on our more regular prayer updates, including our month end summary email list, please subscribe here.
~We need funds to supplement Tucker’s income so that we don’t continue the current trend we’ve been on. (Tucker has been working nearly 50 hours/week the last few weeks AND trying to help with the 20+ hours per week we have been devoting to CARES projects). It has been exhausting and harried at best. We are grateful that he can work, but would like to pare it back a tad so that he has time to engage not only with the folks here at the community, but also with our family! :)
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There are many ways you can partner financially with us….
- Give through our bank account (Contact us for info.) or paypal.com, (our account is tmpb4@mac.com ) These are not tax-deductible.
- Give through Hosanna! Ministries (1809 Buckskin Way Flagstaff, AZ 86004 and place “CARES” on the memo line) This is tax-deductible
- Hire Tucker to do some of those tasks on your “to-do” list. (It’s better if you’re in Flagstaff for this, but he will travel to the Phoenix area a couple of days per month)
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This has been a year of wonderful milestones! Paisley was able to attend Worldview Academy in June which she loves to share about (just ask her) as well as being baptized in August. The 3 older kids all participated in the Bible Bee and qualified for the National Bible Bee in San Antonio. They are all busy preparing for that competition in November. Each of the kids has been an amazing blessing to our CARES Team. Each has something to contribute--even Ephraim at only 3 (and a HALF).
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We appreciate your friendship, <<First Name>>. We thank you for your support and love of our family. God has blessed us in so many ways including you! We pray that God will richly bless you during this amazing season of Thanksgiving.
Serving By His Grace,
Tucker, Meredith, Paisley, Bethany, Ansel, Amelia & Ephraim
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