PRAISE THE LORD! HE IS GOOD, HIS LOVE NEVER FAILS!!

Imagine safely leading 31 team
members through the streets of
Glasgow and London for a month?
Thanks for praying for our safety
and our leadership this summer!
God is good!

“Your LOVE never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on me.”  (from the song “One Thing Remains” based on Psalm 136)

Hey Friends… After a long and rewarding summer Matt and family are finally home from leading a Royal Servants team of 31 members to Scotland and England! Next month we’ll share a more detailed report on the summer but for now we wanted to send out a quick report to rejoice over God’s faithfulness in what he has done through our team:

· 36 gospel performances or creative outreach teams

· 55+ children involved in the Holiday Bible Club (VBS)

· 40+ teens involved in a week-long youth club outreach

· 37 Bible study and team teaching /discussion sessions

· 42 Bible verses memorized by each individual

· Hundreds of individuals hearing the gospel message

Wow! We praise God for his enduring love and faithfulness in all that our team accomplished this summer. Thanks for being a part through your prayers and gifts to our ministry!

LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN!

Hey Friends… By the time you receive this post-card we will be on
our way to Scotland! Please pray for our July weeks of ministry! 

· Week 6—Ministry in Glasgow, Scotland

· Week 7—Ministry in Glasgow, Scotland

· Week 8—Ministry in Glasgow, Scotland & London, England

· Week 9—Ministry & Debriefing in London, England

· Week 10—Final Debriefing & Departure Home & REST!

A NOTE FROM JENNI

 The kids and I are so excited to travel with Daddy’s Scotland team! After five years of not traveling we might be a little out of practice, but we can’t wait!  This summer is an awesome opportunity for our kids to be exposed to ministry, and for their hearts to grow in Christ.  We will be learning a lot about new cultures as we serve in a very multi-cultural inner-city Glasgow church. We’re also thankful to have our family together after being separated the month of June.

Praise God we have a volunteer student nanny!  Her name is Elizabeth and she has already served two summers as a student w/Royal Servants We are so thankful for her!  We are asking the Lord to richly bless her this summer.  Pray for Jenni and the kids to connect well with her. And pray for Elizabeth to have wisdom as she serves our family.

PLEASE PRAY 

· Royal Servants Scotland—Pray for team unity, spiritual growth, physical strength, safety in travel, wisdom and guidance, faith and courage in sharing the good news of Jesus, and changed lives in our outreach & service!

· Family Travel & Ministry—Pray for wise packing, organized living (out of 6 duffle bags) in a church classroom, sleeping and jet lag with a toddler, peace when laundry and showers are not easily accessible, wisdom parenting in a team setting, and a consistent joyful attitude for us all :)

IT ALL STARTS AT TRAINING CAMP!

Training Camp is a fast-paced,  

environment with intentional 

training & in-depth discipleship, 

designed to give students the tools

 they need for success on the team

 and the mission field. 

“trained in righteousness and equipped for every good work”
2 Timothy 3:16-17

Hey Friends… This week Matt heads to our Missions Training Camp for the month of June. For most students Training camp is a momentous step in a spiritual transformation process that continues throughout their mission trip with Royal Servants and beyond. Please pray for this crucial work!

· Week 1—Packing & Final Prep for Training Camp

· Week 2—Reign Staff setting up Training Camp

· Week 3—Assistant Team Leaders Training

· Week 4—Staff Disciplers Training (College Students)

· Week 5—Student Training (about 300 HS students)

Wow, we are so excited! Pray for wisdom and team unity as Matt trains our Royal Servants Scotland Team for ministry abroad. Please also pray for physical, spiritual and emotional strength for our family as we all prepare to serve in Scotland and England July 1—30. Lastly, pray for extra funds in order to make our ministry possible. 

Thanks for your partnership through prayer and giving to our ministry—we appreciate you!

TELLING THE NEXT GENERATION!

“…we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders… so each generation should set 
it’s hope anew on God…”  Psalm 78:4,7 (NLT)

In Psalms 78:1-7 we are reminded of passing on God’s truth to the next generation so they in turn will tell each generation to “set it’s hope anew on God.” THIS is our goal as we lead a Royal Servants mission trip to Scotland this summer! A recent email from former student Lizzie Wirgau, captures how we are doing just that! Here is Lizzie’s story:

“There are few things I really feel strongly about and believe in as much as I do Royal Servants. As intense as my 6 week mission trip was, I honestly think that my Royal Servants summer in 2006 was the most formative point of my high school years.

Royal Servants taught me to surrender my comforts and future plans to Christ. In that sweet surrender, I was able to be obedient to the call God had on my life and anxious to be His hands and feet to the world. The month I graduated from college, God lead me to start a non-profit organization that helps African widows, refugee women, handicapped, and orphans, to market hand-crafted products to the world through an online store!

I know that learning to surrender and be obedient and willing at 16 years old truly shaped me into the woman I am today, 7 years later. It gave me an “extreme” mindset… I saw what “selling out” for Christ looked and felt like. I would never trade that summer with Royal Servants for anything!”

Hearing Lizzie’s story is living proof of God’s work through Royal Servants in reaching a new generation for Christ. This will be our 8^th summer serving with Royal Servants – wow God has been so good – and we are excited by what He continues to do each year to reach a new generation. We are happy to be a part of it!

I will be serving at our missions training camp for the month of June and Jenni and the family will be traveling with me and the students on our mission team for the month of July in Scotland & England. Our family feels strongly about the importance of this work and we ask you to stand with us in your prayers and giving. We look forward to how God will once again provide.

Thank you for helping us reach the next generation of students, like Lizzie, and those we serve around the world!  

GRAB A SHOVEL! (ROYAL SERVANTS SUMMER MINISTRY)

Our “work” this summer is
taking the good news of Jesus
to those who have not heard.

I love getting my hands dirty…shovel in hand, dirt under fingernails, the smell of sweat (ok, I’m a guy), the sense of accomplishment, and the feeling of exhaustion when your head hits the pillow at night. Our staff members love it too. Seriously, they are some of the hardest workers I know!

I sometimes get asked by students, “So, what kind of ‘work’ do you do on your mission trips”, which implies that we will be doing some kind of hard manual labor on the mission trip. There are plenty of mission trips that focus on hard physical work – you know, construction, painting, digging ditches, etc. And while some of our teams do a bit of physical labor, it is not the primary focus of our mission trips.

There is another “work” on our mission trips that we shed sweat, blood and tears over…. it is the “work” of believing in Jesus.

In John 6:28-29, a crowd approached Jesus and asked, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

Students who join Royal Servants this summer  probably won’t dig any ditches, but they will dig deeper into God’s Word and “work” on their belief in Jesus Christ, growing deeper in their faith. This will happen as they engage in and answer challenging biblical questions, memorize Scripture, and connect with others in lively small group discussions. Then they take what they have learned and put it into action by reaching out and sharing what they believe with others. God uses them and stretches their faith muscles beyond anything they ever thought possible!

Students who are willing to do this kind of work—the work of believing— quickly find that this kind of labor is not hard physically, but it stretches them spiritually in a good way!

2013 SPRING WORK DAYS (AT TRAINING CAMP)

Speaking of “work...” well the physical kind that is; Matt is organizing volunteer groups and individuals to come help  complete some crucial work projects at the Reign Ministries Training Camp from April 25th—28th.  Training Camp is significant in the lives of students as they prepare for missions and life beyond. Please pray for a good turn out and for good weather to complete our projects so we are ready for student arrival in June!

APRIL 2013 PRAYER & PRAISES

· SCOTLAND MISSION TRIP - 
Matt is working on final details and prep with partnering churches in Scotland and England. Please pray for a good working relationship with these hosting churches for this summer’s ministry.

· SPRING WORK DAYS—
As mentioned please pray for the crucial work projects at training camp to be completed and for safety with the volunteers.

· SUMMER PREP—
We are entering the busiest and most stressful time of our year. Please pray for us as we are in our final prep for the summer ministry.

· LOCAL MINISTRY—
Matt recently helped plan a retreat for the men in our church and is excited to see what God is doing in their hearts. Pray that these men would be Godly leaders in their homes and beyond.