WOW! It's been a while...

October... Late October, since the last time we posted anything. Though, I don't really make or promote new year's vows, I am going to try very hard to do a much better job of keeping this blog updated. I apologize to anyone who has looked at this blog several times, only to be disappointed that it has been over 2.5 months. Okay...

Well, I guess there is much to update. First things first, we still love Midland. It is such a great place to live and we have heard it is a great place to raise a family. We absolutely love the people here as we have made some amazing friends in the year and a half we have been here. Though it is cold right now (not just Texas cold.. the 30's), we absolutely still love this place and would be extremely disappointed if God ever called us to leave.

Angela is great, she is working hard on our conferences here in the office. (We already have more conferences on the calendar than we did last year. That is extremely exciting. She is also excited about starting to get more involved with our church here. She is still loving her role in Teen CBS a community Bible study we help with here in Midland. She is such a great shepherd for those five girls that she has almost each week as we are going through the book of Daniel. She loves to pour herself out for those girls in pursuit of glorifying the Lord.

I am well also. I am staying very busy with work as I am getting ready to begin my college staff recruiting tour for this spring. I am excited about that and even more excited that I will be home every weekend and not have to be gone for weeks at a time. I am also staying busy with a small group of guys that meet twice a month with the pastor of our church as we worked through a phenomenal book called Disciplines of a Godly man by Kent Hughes. Now we are beginning to work through Stephen Covey's book the 7 Habits. It has been very fruitful as he has challenged us to pursue Christ in every aspect of our lives and seek for opportunities to share our walk with others.

Work is great. Our registration for camp just opened on the first of the year. We already have over 1200 students registered from our Early Bird Registration that we do each week at camp. With those 1200 students and the response that we have been getting from different Christian communities around the nation, we are hoping for an incredible amount of students this summer. We are also beginning to get staff applications flowing into our office. For the next two and a half months we will be sifting through applications as we try and piece together the best possible staff, but more importantly, the staff that the Lord wants. It is a big responsibility to trust the Lord in the selection process.

We are so grateful for you and for your prayers. Though things are going great there are always struggles and hard days and we are so grateful that so many are lifting us up. Thank you.

Another huge, thing, and a huge answer to prayer is our personal financial support. For those that don't know, we have been trying to raise more financial support so that we could perhaps purchase a house or rent an apartment. Basically, a place that would be our own, in attempts to begin to set up roots here in Midland. Well, through some different circumstances the amount that we thought we had to raise actually was incorrect, we needed to raise more than we thought for housing. However, as we just trusted the Lord in what really looked like a bleak circumstance, He totally provided. He provided amazingly and quickly. It has been amazing to see how again He didn't provide in the way we had envisioned He might, but He totally provided. We have now pretty much raised the support we need for the upcoming 12 months (we are only short about $200 per month) and are extremely excited as we are beginning to look at housing. We have been pre-approved for a loan and are extremely excited about what the Lord has for us. However, as we continue to seek housing, we just want to be within His will. If he provides a house, great, if not, an apartment will also be great. Thank you again for your so many prayers.

We appreciate you!

We will write again soon. May the Lord bless you today and draw you closer to Him.

Mike Tiland