Dear Friends and Family,
Here we are already half way into May, crazy! It has been a crazy last couple of weeks but God has really given us the strength we have needed.
So last time we wrote CCBI was gearing up for Speakers Week and Calvary Chapel Hamilton church retreat. I will start with Speakers week. That was back at the beginning of April. It was an amazing time of fellowship, worship and hearing from the Lord through some great speakers. We were blessed with Andrew Russell from Calvary Chapel Melbourne sharing with us as well as some of our local guys. We also were blessed with a couple of churches coming and joining us and making it sort of a church mini conference for them.
The Calvary Chapel Hamilton Church retreat was also an amazing time. The students and staff at CCBI helped coordinate and facilitate the camp. The theme of the camp was the Heart of God. The church came to the Lakes Ranch and then we cooked for them and organized the games. Jake was one of the guest speakers, he shared on Psalm 23, the Heart of God as our Great Shepherd. It was a busy time but the church and the Bible college really enjoyed themselves and are looking forward to doing it again.
During Easter we as a family just took a bit of a rest. We were blessed to join our friends and family in the Lord at Shoreline church in Tauranga, New Zealand in the celebration of our risen Lord!
For the time we have lived in New Zealand we have made some good friends and great connections One of those friends and connections has been kids camp at Lakes Ranch. Tecla has been cooking for them on and off the last two years and Jake has been teaching at the camps for about the same amount of time. At the end of April beginning of May Tecla cooked for another kids camp and Jake taught at the same one. It was one of the busiest ones we have done as it was during the Bible Schools semester and there were 170 kids attending the camp. God certainly used both of us as we did our different parts and many kids were blessed through the physical food and the spiritual food. The theme was Toy Story in light of the Friendship we have in Jesus Christ.
The next thing on the horizon is the end of the semester and Jake's mum visiting. The students will depart by May 18, it will be a sad time as we have come to love this batch of students, but it is also a time of rest for us as a family. Jake's mum will arrive May 19 and we all are looking forward to a bit of down time with her. We are going to see a little bit of New Zealand with her
Thank you all for your prayers an support, we can not do what we do without all of you coming along side of us! We love you all and are grateful for each of you.
Love Jake Tecla and Jade
