May signified the
end of the school year for us and the end of the year is always bittersweet as
it means an end of our weekly meetings with the students until the Fall and it
also means our graduates will be leaving us and beginning their lives and ministries
at the jobs they accepted last month.
Here's the breakdown
of everything from May:
- We held our 11th OYAMA Graduation! Aiyanna and Amanda have officially completed the program and, having accepted Youth and Children's Pastoring positions, will be moving to opposite corners of the state for ministry. This is what it's all about! We are super excited for the churches and communities that these women of God will be making an impact in!
- In May our returning students began their Summer internships at Neighborhood Church in Albany in earnest; Here they will be actively engaged in both kids and youth ministry, summer camps, summer event planning and staff meetings. A new element of this internship beginning this year is weekly teachings on basic life skills to better prepare them for the realities of the real world. Pastors Kelly Dufour and Rob Shader have been a HUGE blessing to our students in pouring into them!
- As for me, the majority of my month was spent in meetings. May is when we begin our search for 2nd-year student internships so I had the opportunity to meet with several Pastors to begin dreaming about where and how to place our 6 returning students come Fall. This is an exciting time to dream about where and how each student will be spending their 2nd year doing ministry and being mentored to become the Pastor God intends them to be.
- Lastly, our application for the Fall deadline was at the end of the month and God has been faithful in blessing us with more potentially interested students than we expected! Over the past couple weeks I've been in contact with young men and women from all over Oregon who feel the Call of God to move towards ministry. This is super exciting for us and a great reminder that Jesus is still moving in people's hearts.
Finally, I'd like to
ask everyone who reads this to please take a moment and pray. We're almost
halfway through the year and we're in need of a move of God to continue to
provide for us to be a part of this ministry. We're nearly 50% funded which is
amazing but also means we're relying on the Lord to supplement the rest. Please
pray that God would bring more opportunities to share with others who don't
know about OYAMA and pray that I would be creative and diligent in finding
prayer/financial supporters to join the team. Thank you so much for joining
with us in prayer!
As you know, you can donate to the ministry or
become a monthly supporter at https://giving.ag.org
and type in Ministry Code: 282345. You can also find more info at https://oregonyouthalive.wixsite.com/programs/oyama
God bless!
