New Roles at VCS

Well as the new school year is about to begin, we wanted to tell you about a couple of new things we are adding to our ministry at VCS.

I (Matt) am still teaching the Middle School Social Studies classes, which consists of one class for each grade. However, I need to teach 5 classes to be considered full time, so I have added 7th grade Bible and Study Skills/Life Skills (a semester each). I am excited to be able to teach the Bible class, but to be honest, I am not sure how excited I am about the study skills and life skills. I am looking at changing the class so it fits me more-like adding computer skills and stuff.

Its not official yet but due to low enrollment in the Middle School, it is looking like we are not going to have enough students for athletic teams. If this is the case, then I will be freed up to be an assistant coach for the High School boys soccer team.

Stephanie is also experiencing change this year. After teaching 7th and 8th grade Bible last year in half of a block (45 minutes) she realized that was not enough time for her to cover both the Old and New Testaments. She asked administration if Bible could be a whole block, in which they said yes! So this year she will be teaching the 6th grade How to Study the Bible, 1 of the 7th grade classes the New Testament, and both 8th grade classes the Old Testament--a whole block each!

Although it was discussed last year, with the change of administration a decision could not be reached until this year, but they decided to ask Stephanie to be the Elementary Chaplain. This will put her in charge of doing or coming up with the lesson each week for elementary chapel. But because of her experience in children's ministry and knowledge of resources, she is also helping find more contemporary music for the worship leader. She is also hoping to get the elementary teachers on board and have them teach the same thing in class everyday that will be taught in chapel every week. The repetition will ensure the children are learning and understanding what is being taught, and it provides consistency in what they are learning as well. The decision being made this close to the start of the school stressed her out a bit, as she had no time to gather resources, curriculum, or prepare. However, she has covered well and after spending one evening on the phone with a fellow children's minister, she acquired a great Bible based curriculum that can be used in both the classroom and for chapel--for free! For those of you who know Stephanie well, you know her passion is in children's ministry, so she is extremely excited to say the least about God giving her this opportunity to live out the passion he has put in her heart.

As for coaching, as I said earlier, with the change in Middle School enrollment, we are not sure what athletic teams we will have, if any. So Stephanie will be playing it by ear and helping out where needed.

Last but not least, I think we have mentioned this before, but we will also be the Senior Class Sponsors. This is a job in itself, with taking care of the senior store (candy/snacks/drinks-before and after school and at break), hot lunches (twice a month-to raise money for senior trip), homeroom everyday, senior events throughout the year, and senior trip (a week long trip at the end of May). Although it is a lot of work, we are really excited to have this chance to invest in the seniors lives before they leave the VCS community. This class is a great group of kids, but many of these kids are yet to come into an intimate relationship with Christ. So we are excited for this challenge and would appreciate all prayers for us, and the seniors in this class as they live out their last year at VCS.

Back in Vienna!

Greetings from Vienna! We are so excited to be back home! It is especially nice to be back in our own place and sleeping on our own bed! There's not much to be said, but we wanted to let you all know we have made it back safe and sound. We will spend the next few days catching up with our friends here, meeting the new staff, and getting our school year started. Hopefully in the meantime, we will conquer jet lag. On Monday we start our orientation, which lasts until school starts on August 23. Please be in prayer for the start of another school year, and for the lives God will touch this year. We are excited to see how God works this year.

The Boys Return Home

DK, Oscar, and Salil have arrived back in Vienna. They left our company on Tuesday. We are sad to see them go, but we know we will be with them again in a few weeks and continue the mentoring process.

DK did a great job playing golf here in the states, and expressed his strong desire to come back next year and go to school. He played in 3 tournaments. The first was a qualifier for the US Amateur, unfortunatley it did not go so well for him and he did not qualify. However he recovered well a few weeks later and finished tied for 10th in the Missouri Junior Amateur. Then we drive to Dallas where he played really well on the first day, not so good on the second day, and then had a tournement best round on the third day to help him place 3rd overall in the tournament, only 2 shots behind the leader. After the first day the Dallas Morning News even wrote a featured story in their golf section about him. Check it out...http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/golf/stories/071907dnspodallasjuniors.30ef757.html

As we were driving to the airport, he was asked what is favorite thing about this summer was, he answered..."All the driving, because we were able to communicate and talk a lot."

Oscar had a great time at soccer camp and was invited to possibly play at Washington University. Stephanie and are are looking forward to starting the College search with Oscar and getting him into a school that is a great fit for him. If you have some college soccer contacts, please let us know and we will see if it is right for Oscar. His favorite thing about the summer was the time he spent at Shiloh Christian Children's Ranch with Stephanie's family.

Salil also had a great time at soccer camp and is looking at school's not as competitive as Washington Unversity. Thomas, is going to be working more with Salil during his senior year. We only spent 10 days with Salil, so we don't have as much to share about him and his summer but his favorite thing about his time with us was the chance to see a few universities (see below).

There are plenty of pictures to come....stay tuned!

Prayers for Matt and His Family

Last night, July 11, we heard from Matt's mom that his grandmother, Esther Clapham, passed away, which was very unexpected. She was in the hospital for hip replacement surgery, and was okay. She went to take a nap yesterday evening and never woke up. It was just a month ago when his grandfather, Donald Clapham passed away. So this is a lot on the family in a short time. Especially for Matt's mom who has spent the last year living with her parents and caring for them. Please be in prayer for Matt's mom Cathy as she handles the loss of both of her parents in such a short time.

We had just arrived in Dexter, Missouri to visit my Grandma Tuley and family for the weekend on Wednesday afternoon. So when we received the news last night at 11:00 we made plans for Matt to travel to be with his family. So this morning we rented him a car, he drove back to Saint Louis to the airport, where he flew to Oklahoma City, rented a car and picked up his brother and sister's family and is driving to Larned, Kansas this evening. This is a lot of extra expenses we did not have budgetd, but we have faith that God will provide. The funeral will be Saturday so please be in prayer for the Clapham family.

On Saturday we were scheduled to leave for Dallas to speak at a church Sunday morning. Now I will be driving myself and the boys down to Dallas, which is an 8 hour drive from Dexter. I will also be giving the presentation on my own on Sunday morning. I am okay with all of this, but please be in prayer for me, that we'll have safe travels and that God will speak through me on Sunday morning at church.

Thanks for your prayers and support, its what gets us through.

First Days in the States

Here are a few pictures from our first days in the States for Dk and Oscar. The first is them eating a "Vienna" hot dog in the Chicago airport. The next two are from their dinner at Cracker Barrel.

The Last 2 Weeks

We have been quite busy since arriving in Missouri, but what a blessing our time here has already been. I will give you a recap of whats been going on since arriving stateside.

June 13th: Getting Home
We found it quite interesting in Chicago that the customs officer was way nicer to the boys than to Matt and I. Our officer asked us so many questions in a not so nice tone of voice, while the boys custom officer was cracking jokes, laughing and smiling-even speaking Spanish with Oscar.
However our flights home were nice and smooth. We really liked flying straight into Chicago and then only having a one hour flight from there to Saint Louis.
Matt's mom was able to fly in about 20 minutes before us, which worked out perfect. As we were walking towards the baggage claim, Matt said, there's your parents, so I turned to look, and lo and behold, there was mom running and waving her hands and dad crutching as fast as he could towards us. Then my brother, his wife, Grace and Samuel who I had not met yet, surprised us by being there to greet us as well. It was a great time of reunion.
We ate at Cracker Barrell for dinner before heading home. The boys couldn't get over all of the options they had to choose from. Then when they chose their main dish, they couldn't believe they had to choose the three sides. It was entertaining.

June 16th: Stephanie's Birthday
Before the big party, we had a little party of our own to celebrate Amy and I's birthdays. I was so blessed with gifts and cards, and mom even made my favorite: great grandma's cheesecake. Yum!! Even the boys got me something which was super sweet, and what they wrote in their card had me rolling in laughter.
Although we were expecting more people to show up for the party, we still had a lot of my (Steph's) family come. It was really nice to be able to see and visit with them. We gave a short presentation of our year in Austria and then allowed them to ask us and the boys questions. It was a good time had by all.

June 17th: First Christian Church of Shelbina
We were able to set up a booth in the church foyer which allowed us to talk and share about our ministry with many people. It was nice to see people we had not seen in a long time and catch up with them and share about our life in Vienna.

June 23rd: Christian Day with the Saint Louis Cardinals
My mom was able to get us all free tickets to go to see the Cardinals play. Before the game they had fun stuff to do at a block around the corner with free Chic-fil-A and Coldstone Creamery ice cream. The game was HOT and DK brought pants to wear-he was quite toasty. Towards the end of the game a thunderstorm rolled in which cooled things off nicely. After the game some of the Cardinal players like Wainwright the pitcher, Pujols and others gave a brief testimony. Mercy Me was also there in concert.

June 24th: Northside Christian Church in Warrensburg, MO
What a blessing this church family has been to us. We worked there on the weekends in 2003, helping out with their children's ministry and ever since, this family has been a blessing to us. We were able to see old friends, and "our kids" all grown up. One of our grown up kids came and gave us big hugs. We were also able to see our adopted grandparents, Cliff and Dot who we stayed with every weekend during our time serving at Northside. We surprised them in coming which was a lot of fun. We were able to attend the anniversary picnic the church had that afternoon/evening which was a great time. There we were able to give a presentation about VCS and share some of our first year experiences. We were tremendously blessed by the worship and time spent in fellowship with them. Overall, we are so thankful to be serving Northside in Vienna. We are so thankful and blessed to be a part of a family of Christ like Northside.
This is also the day we sent the boys to churchcamp with my sisters who are the same age as them. The churchamp is just across the lake from my parents house so Matt is still able to take DK into town to golf in preparation for his tournaments. So far I think the boys are having a great time here, living on the farm and all that it entails. Hopefully during their time at camp they will be able to make new friends and meet God in a new and challenging way.

Until next time...

Welcome!

We have been debating for quite some time now about changing our blog. We like the one we had, but it is hard to add pictures to our posts with it. Since we want you to be able to see lots of pictures, we decided we should switch to a blog that is better for picture posting! So welcome to our new blog where we hope you will enjoy more and better pictures in the future!