Hi folks, Chris here with a quick update and some links about our family, life and work...
We celebrated Christmas and the new year with my sister, Christianne and my Dad back in Kentucky. We had a good extended visit with them for three weeks. The past year has brought much pain and change for my family. Dad is now in a nursing home and we got to see him quite a bit. My Sis has come through the most difficult battle of her life this past year. It was so good to be there to spend the season with them. Many folks gave to make this trip possible, some that don't even know us, but know and love my sister. We are grateful. You can read more about our trip HERE.
In January, we saw 1/3 of our YWAM team off to Thailand for a 3 month mission. The whole Sustar family is working with our good friends at Compasio on the Thai/Burmese border, supporting ministry to vulnerable children and families there. You can follow their work at their family blog HERE. Please pray for the Sustars and Compasio.
At the end of January, I traveled to Tijuana, Mexico to meet with all the Youth With A Mission ministry directors in the Southwest region of the US. It was a refreshing 2 days of relationship building, sharing struggles and praying for one another. To see all the variety and creativity represented in Youth With A Mission, visit the new improved international homepage at ywam.org
Amie continues her involvement with our local junior college dance community. She's taking more classes and is entering a piece she is choreographing into a community concert. She's also giving dance lessons at our church. You can see her piece from last year's show HERE.
The kids are great. We had a blast with them in Kentucky. Stella had so much fun with her cousin, Emma and is happy to be home, attending Awana, playing at church and wishing for Gabriel (the youngest Sustar) to come home from Thailand. Sam loves puzzles, any kind of game and trying to scare me when I come out of the bathroom. Josh is still aspiring to be the next Stephen Spielberg and is continually thinking of new story lines for movies. We even entered a short film contest together...but more on that later.
February, March and April will bring a series of visiting teams to Modesto. Tomorrow, Aaron and I pick up a team from Global Youth Network in Canada who'll be with us for leadership training for a week. We'll host Spring Break teams from Fresno and Sacramento in March and April.
We're also hosting The Wason's from YWAM Canada's Word to Life, who are back in our area for a Spring tour. John will bring his performances of the book of Colossians and Jonah. If you're local and think your church would like to host one of these unique and creative performances, contact me for booking.
We continue to reach out to the poor of our city, to serve the local body of Christ and to explore how we can support the vision of our local and international partners. If you're local, c'mon out for a coffee at the 9th St. cafe, Friday mornings, 10:30 - 12. If you're not local, get a team together and come spend a week with us learning how to do simple outreach ministry. You can take what you learn here back home and on other mission trips. We'd love to work with you.
Support - If you would like to support our work financially, all donations are tax deductible when made out to YWAM and sent to: YWAM / P.O. Box 3000 / Garden Valley, TX / 75771-3000. Our name must not appear on the check, but include a separate note stating the gift is for the Whitler's work in Modesto, CA.
Thanks so much!
Here's how to find us online...
Family site/blog - http://thewhitlers.com
Amie on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/amiehw
Chris on facebook - http://www.facebook.com/badyouthspeaker
YWAM site - http://ywammodesto.org
Chris on Twitter - http://twitter.com/badyouthspeaker
Our Podcasts - http://cwhitler.podbean.com
No comments:
Post a Comment