Music Kamp 2011

THE MUSIC KAMP 2011

Theresa organized the event starting in April for the Installation Chaplain. She ran the week event and scheduled five different musicians for each day’s session. One musician is a

local professional from Harrogate who who we know. We have been sharing Christ with Aide over the years so it was good to meet up with him again. He was willing to play with Mike and to help with one of the sessions.

Mike and Aide played the main music. Aide is trying to break into the music scene in Nashville. We spent three days witnessing to Aide. We met his family and had a really neat time with him. His wife is a very talented professional painter in the local area as well. please pray for this family.

We had over 80 kids attend the event. It was a time of building up the kids in their knowledge and understanding of music. The main theme music for the week was from the Bear Hug Band based out of Costa Mesa.

Eastern European Appeal

We just wanted to keep you guys update on our Eastern European Appeal. We are headed into another venture - similar to this one - which is our South Africa appeal. Please keep an eye out for this as it is something we have been praying about for a long time. In the meantime, here is a write-up on the Eastern Appeal. This story goes along with the previous posting called "Callum and The Lost Wallet."

God bless you!

The Howards!

We had to fly near the boarder of Hungary this year as the airlines we use were not flying directly into Hungary. We packed a 12 seater van with all the donations and drove to Hungary. It turned out to be cheaper than when we flew into Hungary. God is good. Even though we arrived late, we set up - what is now dubbed “the shop” - in the morning.

Each year we are able to provide many families with a care package. We still run everything by donations. Companies involved include Costco, Starbucks, a soap company, Lush (a natural soap company), ASDA, Sainsburys, and Ryanair. The military base also got involved by donations through the chapel and finally, our church gave items as well.

There are always many encouraging stories that remind us of why we do this and this year was no exception. Some of the shoes we brought were brand new and they were still there by the end of the week. There were 8 U.S. missionaries ministering in Romania who found out about the shoes. One of the ladies who need a pair of shoes came and tried them on and they fit her. Another lady had been praying for some V.B.S. materials to minister to 30 children in Ukraine but she had one problem, she had no materials. When she came into the room she found a whole box of V.B.S. materials we decided to bring at the last minute. It is always neat to see how God is faithful to match what we bring with the very needs that people have.

Ann cut hair, Eddie served,

and Mike and I ran the shop. Our kids went to vacation Bible school and connected with their missionary friends. It was a wonderful time for all.

Cullum and The Lost Wallet.

Here are the kids and here is the story . . . We call it "Cullum and The Lost Wallet."

The European Appeal starts with items being collected in February until the week before we leave near the end of July. The afternoon before we fly, we sort through the donations and pack the tubs so that a family from the church (the Wren family) can take them down to the airport in their van for transport.

That day was a Sunday and it started to rain. While out in town, my children unknowingly knocked my wallet (“purse” in the UK) out of our vehicle. I had stopped to pick people up to go to church. We came home after church to a note through our door that the parking lot attendant had found my wallet with all of my IDs in it! I didn’t even know it was gone! God was protecting us in a big way but we had to go and get it before we left.

Mike called the gentleman who had the wallet and he was a three hour round-trip drive away. Since Mike went to go get the wallet, I was left to pack and began to wonder how I would get it all done. The kids and I took a moment to pray and went to work on packing the tubs ourselves.

No less than 15 minutes later kids from the neighborhood had come to help us. Little Amelia, Millie, Callum, and of course Seth, Sabrina, and Sophia all started taking items from our house to the tubs for packing. Over the next 3 hours all the tubs were packed, put into the van and all before Mike returned! It was a blessing to have the kids help us. Afterwords we had a little ice cream social to say thank you.

During the time we were packing, Callum’s mom Tracy came over to see what we were doing. She liked the fact that we were doing something to help Eastern Europe.

Seth and Cullum began to play and ride scooters and every spare moment throughout the Summer they played and rode together. They made a ramp from our shed and rode from morning till dawn. They have become great pals.

Seth began to pray that Callum would attend church. Callum has been attending now since the Summer. There is Millie, Rosie, Zara, and Callum who attend church through the kids. It is neat to see what the Lord has done through them.

How good is God? He is totally and supremely and always good. He is the epitome of goodness. While we are partially good, He is totally and completely so! We can trust in Him.