This summer was unbelievable. We had more students come than ever before and saw God work in awesome ways.
I'm not going to lie, it had it's difficulties. This was our first summer with 2 kids and it took a little adjusting. We really do our best at SWO to safeguard and protect our families and our family made a bunch of little adjustments that helped a ton. However, it has been really awesome for us to just hang out with each other for this past week during our "staycation".... (that's like a vacation's poverty stricken little brother).
Everyday, we've had a lot of time to just hang out. We've made use of a good friend's pool and have worn out the local playground. It's been good to slow down and just enjoy our time with each other. I (Zach) have been thankful for the time I've had in the mornings to just sit and read God's Word without feeling like I need to prepare to teach anything. I've been going through Genesis and it's been awesome to see how our Lord worked in the lives of the patriarchs. It seems like everyday I'm blown away by how God has seen fit to extend His blessing to man... without any good reason for doing so. I mean, He chose Abram out of nowhere and said, "Hey, I'm going to bless you more than anybody else, go where I tell you." No reason, just blessing.
It's been cool because every night when I tuck Parker into bed, I've been telling him the stories that I've read that morning and then tell him that what God requires from us is to trust and obey. It's really that simple. God calls us into covenant relationship with Himself and asks only that we believe and obey. How could we turn that down?
Anyway, we'll hopefully do a better job at keeping this blog updated. We want y'all to know what's going on and as always if anyone out there feels the Lord leading them to support the Mabry's financially just call Tim in the office at camp 828-321-2210. We could really use it.
Looking to the future
Zach was hired on with Liberty University Online this spring as an Adjunct Professor, but hasn't yet been assigned a class. Please pray that he will actually be given a class. This could be an awesome ministry opportunity as well as providing support to our family.
Also pray for the ministry here at SWO, we've got students coming in next week, and it won't be long before the Be Strong Men's Conference (http://www.swoutfitters.com/sw-outfitters/programs/year-round-retreats/mens-conference).
With love,
The Mabrys
