Email Update 6-25-13

Greetings!

You'll have noticed we are trying something new with our email updates. Hopefully this works and you all receive it without issue. If anyone has any problems please let us know.

We've had an awesome couple of weeks. Last I wrote you all, we had just finished up BIMI candidate school and were hitting the road.

We traveled 6 hours from Chattanooga, TN to Salisbury, NC where we had a great time with folks there. I was privileged to teach the teen boys Sunday School. Later that night, we shared our testimonies and presented our ministry. I was a little nervous at first because my projector died on us, I tried 15 minutes to get it working without success. I literally dropped down on my knees, laid my hands on it, and prayed. It started working! It took every ounce of restraint not to interrupt the choir practice by shouting "Praise the Lord!"

After our presentation, I was able to preach. At the conclusion of the evening, the pastor called for a missions committee meeting in the middle of the service. It was our second church of our pre-field ministry and they voted to take us on for support. Praise God for His goodness!

The next day we immediately set out for Wilson, NC three hours away. That week, we helped out in a Vacation Bible School. I had the opportunity to lead several children to Christ. A total of 20+ children placed their faith in Jesus Christ that week. Check out this link to our website for extra details: http://www.shalltheyhear.com/2013/06/sonwest-roundup-vbs.html

That Sunday, I was able to teach Sunday School for the teens and we shared our presentation in the evening service. It was such a blessing for us to get to know the people better do to Vacation Bible School. You all know that one of our deputation goals is building relationships and working with this church all week allowed us to do just that.

So far, we have been to three churches and two have taken us on for support. We've only been going full-time for three weeks and already we are at 15% support. God is good! I hope that you will continue to pray for us and that you will consider supporting our ministry.

I frequently share that we, as Christians, ought to be expecting great things from God. Mark 11:22-24 instructs us to place our faith in God, and that through faith, we can move mountains. In Matthew 14, Peter didn't experience God's power by staying in the boat. He walked on water because he had faith in God and His power then acted on that faith. Through God's grace, we will continue to see God's power in our lives.

If there is anything that we can pray for you about, please let us know. We care for you and desire to be a part of your lives.

Your servants in Christ,
Traver and Amy Freeman

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SonWest Roundup VBS

"Howdy Y'all! Yeehaw!" That's what I could be found saying numerous times over the past couple of days. We recently finished up an awesome week of the western-themed SonWest Roundup Vacation Bible School with Tabernacle Baptist Church in Wilson, NC.

We were privileged to work alongside the folks at Tabernacle to help make their year of Vacation Bible School a wonderful success. There were over 100 almost every day with the highest day of attendance bringing in just under 120. If I remember correctly, over five days, 170+ different kids were in attendance.

From the very first day, the gospel message was clearly presented and an invitation given. That first day, I was blessed to be able to lead two young boys to Christ. Later in the week, God gave me another opportunity to help one boy place his faith in Jesus Christ for his salvation. All total, 20+ children placed their faith in Christ this week.

My main responsibility was running the van ministry and sharing the missions story each day. On the side, I assisted in a very rowdy 5th and 6th grade class which had close 50 children in it each day. Amy helped me on the van, and worked in both the craft room and kitchen, lending a helping hand wherever it was needed most.

Throughout the week, the children took a penny roll offering and raised over $200 for Amy and me. We are truly blessed to and thank God for His provision.

On the last day, there was an ice cream party, horses, goats, and hay rides! It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work, too. It was sad to see it come to an end, but it meant some much needed rest for us.

That Sunday, we continued to minister to the folks at Tabernacle and had a great time forging relationships that will last a long time.

Since then, we've already received a request to help in Vacation Bible School from another church. We love Vacation Bible School and if you are interested in us helping out your church, please do not hesitate to contact us at 724-331-5296 or australia.freeman@gmail.com

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June Prayer Letter

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Email Update 6-7-13

Hello Everyone!

I hope that this email finds you all doing well and serving our wonderful Lord. He is so amazing! Attached you will find our latest prayer letter. We will be returning to the monthly format from this point forward (since our schooling has finished), and I'm so glad that I did. I could barely fit everything for one month, and I had to take out the pictures. I hope that you will take the time to read it as it is different from our emails.

This month we reached 100 contacts on our update list. I wanted to say thank you for your help in reaching that mini-milestone. You're a special group of people. You've got a direct line of communication with us. You have shown a personal interest in our ministry. You receive updates and prayer requests that others don't get and you get instant access to our prayer letters before the printed copies arrive in churches. Additionally, we are encouraged because we know that you specifically are praying for us. We greatly appreciate that and we don't take it for granted. Thank you.

This past month, we packed up all our things and officially became "homeless" as we mentioned in the letter. We are renting a storage unit in Pensacola to store all of our stuff rather than carting it back to Pennsylvania (which my mom would not like!) and carting it back to Pensacola again before we leave for the field. We will need to ship all of our luggage, furniture, and appliances to Australia via shipping container. We decided it would be more time/cost efficient to leave everything in Pensacola.

As I sit here typing, we just finished Week 2 of BIMI Candidate School and hold our certificates of completion in hand. We have had to constantly remind ourselves this week that we got a head start, and that we're just beginning. All of our friends are reporting they are at 60% support or 80% support.

We are at 10% support, but we should be at 0%. We should have just finished Week 1. We should have 0 meetings ahead of us and a bare schedule, but we started early so that when we graduated from Seminary we'd hit the ground running. Praise God we have a busy schedule through December of this year. I hope that you will pray and partner with us that we might raise our support quickly.

I don't want to say too much more about Candidate School because that's for next month's letter!

Ahead of us we have three meetings in North Carolina and a Vacation Bible School. Please pray for God's power. We will be door-knocking Monday afternoon and I will be teaching the mission story all week. I'm not sure what God has in store, but I pray that He will give us opportunities to serve Him so that He may be magnified. He is the reason why we serve and He deserves all the glory. I hope you will praise Him for His goodness and grace to you today.

If there is anything we can do for you, please send us an email. We are here for you. Thank you for praying.

In Christ Alone,
Traver and Amy Freeman

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