Week 3 of camp...

Right now:
This is now our 3rd week of camp this summer and it has been neat to see how God has worked theses past 3 weeks.
Karalise has been learning a lot in the kitchen about how to cook for large groups as she assists the cook. She has also been learning a lot about supervising our high school staff as they work in the kitchen most of the time.
Malachi has also had many opportunities to learn and develop his maintenance skills as he works under the camp's very skilled maintenance guy, Caleb.
We have enjoyed our evening Bible study time with our 6 high school staff these past couple weeks, tonight we3 will be studying Psalm 103 for our chapter on "poetry". Our highschoolers have been amazing! They have worked very hard, even on jobs that aren't the most fun... would you still be smiling after 1,180+ dishes? They usually are! They have been faithfully studying God's Word daily and then asking some pretty tough questions during our evening group Bible study. God has really blessed us with a great group of teens for the past few weeks!

This weekend:
This Friday we will be traveling down to Indiana for Malachi's dental work/oral surgury. Some friends hooked us up with a dentist in Plymouth, IN and these friends are covering the cost of the dental work. They wish to remain anonymous but if you would like to help them out, You may do that by sending us a check and putting "dental" in the memo and then we will send it to the dentist. Please pray that Malachi will heal quickly and thet hae will not have a lot of pain as we are only off for the weeked.

This is our memory verse for today, hope it is an encouragement to you!
Psalm 103:11-12
"For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so grreat is His (the Lord's) love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."

Have a wonderful day!
~the Pratts

one for the books

This week was the first real week with campers, which was exciting.The excitement wore off for me about half way through day two when i was called in to clean up a mess in the bathroom left by a sick camper. But the Lord is good and he provided some major encouragement for us this past week as he has put it on the hearts of some of our brothers and sisters in Christ to pay for the dental work that needs to be done. This came right about the same time as we received the disappointing news from yet another doctor that he cant find any reason as to Karalise's health problems. Please be in prayer for us that we would finally find some answers and be able to take a more proactive role at here recovery. After the rough start to the week things really started to pick up. we got our first group of high school staff on Monday and by about Thursday they were really starting to open up. Friday night they had so many questions that twenty minutes before curfew i finally had to cut things short so that they could get ready for bed. working with these teens is such a blessing to us. The Lord uses our interactions with them to further reveal himself to us. They test our patience, they test our bible knowledge, they test out self control...etc but in the end it all comes down to the testing of our faith, and theirs. we spent this whole first week studying the book of James, and these kids just ate it up. we gave them a list of helpful questions to ask the text and they came back and asked for something a little more challenging. we worked them for 10 hours a day and they still found an hour a day to study the bible, and then another hour and a half to talk through the proper interpretation of the passage. It was incredible. needless to say even though we are there teachers and there supervisors we are very humbled by the quality of these kids.

God is at work at pine ridge bible camp. stay tuned for more updates on how he works in and through us this summer.


In His Love

Mac and Kara

1st Anniversary

• Yesterday, May 2nd, 2010 was our one year Anniversary! We were able to celebrate by going out to dinner for some authentic Mexican food and them watching a movie. Malachi surprised me with some orange, pink, and white roses. :) We thoroughly enjoyed a relaxing afternoon and neglected all our homework.

We have started teaching Children's church for the elementary age group at out church. We are on a rotation with another couple until we leave in a few weeks. We have really enjoyed getting to know the kids and also be able to connect with their parents. We love our new church family in Albion, MI and have had fun getting to know them through Sunday School, Dinner, and helping with their kids.

• Our Spring Semester ends the 13th of this month, just under two weeks away. Currently our classes are: Hermeneutics 2 (How to Study the Bible), 1 Corinthians (for 2 periods), and Partnership Development. We have been busy with lots of reading; and this week we have to complete several big projects. I have been learning a lot about how the different time periods in the Bible fit together and how the covenants are related to each other and how they apply.

• In three weeks we will be heading to Pine Ridge Bible Camp in Cedar Springs, MI for the summer. We will be leading and discipling the High School service teams by teaching them to serve joyfully and guiding them in personal Bible Study methods. We will accomplish this through serving alongside the teens in aiding in the day-to-day functions of the camp (ie. maintenance, kitchen, grounds keeping, etc). We will be teaching daily sessions on Bible Study and interpretive methods.

Thank you for your continued prayers!
~Mac and Kara

New Job!

Today was Malachi's first day at his new job. He is a Q.A.C. clerk for the US Census at an office here in Jackson, MI. This is such a huge answer to prayer as the hours will work perfectly with school and he will still have some time in the afternoons to get homework finished.

We had a wonderful time this past weekend as we were able to host a couple who are currently at NTBI's Waukesha campus in WI. They were an encouragement to us and we enjoyed just hanging out with them and watching the "NTBI Spring Tribal Cup" as the two schools competed in various sports.

This past Tuesday, our Korean friends who we help out with English invited us over for dinner. We had a tasty Korean meal, learned a new game, and had an amazing time with our friends. We have learned a lot from them as they are adjusting to a new culture and language, in not too many years we will be in the same boat they are in. It's been exciting to see their progress in our difficult language and persevere even when things aren't easy. We are so thankful for their friendship!

Please continue to pray for us as we will be starting our 4th block this coming Monday and will be getting three brand new classes. Please also continue to pray that the Lord will provide a vehicle.
Love,
Malachi and Karalise

Happy Almost Spring!

The Good, and The Ugly

Well a lot is going on for us as usual. We are enjoying getting involved at our new church in Albion, Mi. We are about a week into our third block, which means that we are almost halfway done with this semester already. In class we are studying Christ. We have two courses, The Life of Christ, and Christology. Its been so good to finally get into the New Testament, and to be able to focus on the life and works of Jesus Christ. The more we study the more we realize what a great and mighty savior he really is. We both have grown so much in the past 7 months, we are so glad that the LORD provided for our training here and that he continues to do so. One of the ways that he has provided for us is that I have finally found a job. I will be starting march 16 working in the local census office here in Jackson. This will provide me with 6 -7 weeks of work. If you do the math you will find out that it takes us right up until summer. We will be serving this summer as the high school staff supervisors at Pine Ridge Bible Camp, were we will be helping to implement a brand new teen discipleship program. This is very exciting for us as it will be a chance to live out some of what we have been learning, and it will help us to save money for next year here in Jackson. Please be in prayer for us as we are in serious need of a new vehicle. The one we have is pretty worn out and each day gets a little less reliable.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.


In Christs love

Malachi and Karalise Pratt