April 2023
Dear Friends and Family,
Hello, and blessings from Holbrook, Arizona! Spring is here along with the warmer air and crazy winds that it brings. School is beginning to wind down and we have several Seniors in high school who are preparing to go out into the wide world, which always makes this time bittersweet. We get to watch these kids grow up and hopefully pour into them in the time that we have with them and then watch them move on to the next part of their lives, thankful that we have had the brief opportunity and honor of getting to encourage them toward the Lord.
The Well has been going nicely. The junior high students have been continuing their study Road Trip to Truth, which is a course in apologetics. They are learning to defend the Christian worldview against competing worldviews such as atheism and other religions. The high school group lacks two books (Zechariah and Malachi) in finishing an overview of the entire Old Testament that was begun in August. Those should be completed in the next couple of weeks. It has been a wonderful study of the history of redemption as we have looked at God’s dealings with Israel and the world and His preparations for the coming of Jesus Christ. One of the biggest takeaways we have seen is that no matter what is going on or how messed up a situation is, with our God, there is always hope.
We took 14 teens to Show Low, AZ, for a picnic with pizza followed by swimming at a nice indoor pool for our April event. Brigette, one of our adult leaders, gave her testimony and encouraged the teens to put Christ first and to truly live for Him. She discussed the fact that we cannot have one foot “in the world” and one foot “following Christ.” We must be “all in” if we are to commit our lives to Christ.
The Next Chapter is reading and discussing The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. The group is still very early in the book, as we have had to cancel on a couple of occasions, plus the group ends up discussing many other things. This is part of the point of the Next Chapter. While we want to read and discuss the book we are working on, we also want those present to feel like they can bring up whatever topic they want.
A new ministry that we have been planning for some time was started this past month—Mentoring Moms is an outreach ministry that seeks to help young mothers grow spiritually while also getting practical help with things like diapers, wipes, etc. Gretchen, one of our leaders, has begun working with two young mothers, leading them through a devotional and seeing that they have access to needed items. One of her mom’s just gave birth to her first baby- a beautiful little girl. We are also in the midst of fundraising for 7 of our students to attend the Worldview Academy which is the last week of June, located at Arizona Christian University in the Phoenix area. This is similar to the worldview conference that we attended in Tennessee last year, just closer to home and much more of an in-depth Christian worldview training. We are currently studying two books that are required to read pre-conference. As always, we greatly appreciate your prayers for this ministry and for all those we reach out to. Thank you so much for your continued praying and giving, as this ministry would not be possible without your help! May God bless you!
—Jerad & Carrie Burgess