Hello from New Braunfels, TX—yes that’s NORTH of Seguin…ha, ha, ha

back to Our Walk of Faith

Friday (2/23) took us to the campus of Texas Lutheran University (The picture is the lab where Andrew works for Dr. Squires)! By the time we saw Andrew at Chapel, he had called the newspaper (a reporter showed up to interview us after chapel) and made an appointment for us to meet with the director of missions at T Bar M. He has such a servant’s heart. He listens to what your needs are and then does something about it! We were both pretty impressed with how well Andrew has things together. I don’t think I’ve met anyone his age like him, yet he still knows how to have a good time with his friends. The service was really good…talking about Lent and remembering what Jesus did for us. They even sang a song about being on a journey with the Lord from page 326. (3/26…that’s our anniversary!!) After the service, we met the campus pastor, Greg and the speaker from that day, Pastor Ann. (In the picture...l to r: CE, Pastor Ann, Pastor Greg, RE, Bill, & Andrew) She told us about a Border Ministry through the Lutheran church. She sent us to the synod office on campus to learn a little more. The ladies we met there—Janet, Susie, and Carrie—were all very helpful. They gave us Pastor Bill’s e-mail address and told us that they would be adding us to their prayer list!

Andrew took us to lunch with his mom at a little Mexican restaurant in New Braunfels. (We saw even more of how Andrew takes care of people. His mom’s car was in the shop so when it was ready, he rode with the man to go get it and let him mom stay and eat with us.) Since it was really close to the time we were supposed to meet Keith at T Bar M, Mrs. Traeger gave us a ride back to the camp. Keith wasn’t immediately available, so Chris and I walked around the little camp store. Mr. Turpin (apparently that’s what the T in T Bar M stands for) and his daughter, Ashley stopped us because Chris looked familiar. We noticed that they both had their tennis gear, so we asked if they were going to play. Ashley’s 16, and her father told her that she’s one of the best in the state in her age group. Pretty impressive…then we saw her hit…then we were really impressed. She has such a sweet spirit…very humble…Her dad is very proud of her and all of her achievements. Just last week she was selected for a national sportsmanship award. The day that she’ll receive it, Pete Sampras will be inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame, so there’s a good chance she’ll get to meet him.

After watching Ashley practice for a while, Keith came in. He took us on a tour of the camp and told us about the different programs that they have. The property is actually a resort, conference center, and Christian camp all in one location. In the back, there’s also a neighborhood with private residences. During the summer, they operate two camps—T Bar M camp and Camp Travis—and about 5,000 kids go through the program over the course of that time. They have a day camp for young children, a sports camp for ages 7-11 (They share the Gospel through sports.), and a Christian camp for 12-18 year olds. During the rest of the year, they host retreats and leadership training using high & low ropes courses. In addition to all of this, they carry kids on 6-8 mission trips per year. The trips normally include very extreme conditions and visiting remote villages that other short-term missionaries don’t go to. This year they are going/have been to Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru. We absolutely enjoyed learning about all that they have to offer here!

The best part was their Tim Team…it’s short for Timothy. It’s a group of 10 young adults (21-25 years-old this year) who are involved in a year-long discipleship program. (In the picture clockwise starting on the left: Don, Levi, Katie (one of their supervisors), Robby, Ellen, Staci, Valerie, Chip, Natalie, AC, Jared) They are the ones who run the high & low ropes courses and work the retreats year round. (during the summer there’s an additional 280 people helping them) By working in this way, they “earn their keep” so to speak. Keith dropped us off with them at 3:30 so that we could get to know them. They just got back from Nicaragua, so we swapped God stories with them. It was incredible just to hear about what God is using them to do, how they are growing, and about their love for our Savior!! They also invited a former Tim Teamer over to meet us—Sarah Rinn (pictured with RE). She just got back from the World Race in November. Adventure in Missions began a spin-off of the Amazing Race last year. The teams would race from country to country and then share the Gospel and do outreach for a couple of weeks when they got there. Then they’d race to another country. They went around the world in 11 months!! We had a ton of fun hearing some of her stories too. All of them were full of helpful tips about travel including contacts in a few countries!! Sarah even told us about this phone service called Skype which is over the internet (the second time we’ve heard about it…I guess it’s time to investigate!!).

We left the Tim Team house to go see what Andrew was up to…he had invited his newly-married friends—Nicolas & Kathleen—over for supper. Kathleen has also done quite a bit of mission work…she spent 2 months in Haiti and 2 months in Malawi with a group called Teen Missions International. I enjoyed chatting with her and learning about a missionary family that they support in Guadalajara, Mexico. (God continues to go before us!!) Mrs. Traeger also stopped by for a bit while she was waiting on Stephen, Andrew’s younger brother. He was at a school-sponsored party, and she didn’t want to drive all the way home just to turn around and drive all the way back.

Saturday…Andrew had to go to Austin to study for the GRE, so Chris & I had a date day!! Friday was the end of week 21—day 147, so we celebrated by taking a little run (He ran with me which is a big sacrifice because I run a lot slower than him!) and eating lunch together. We enjoyed some alone time!! By mid-afternoon, we went looking for the Tim Team. We hung out with them a little more and picked their brains about their program…what was good, what they’d like to change, and about some ideas that Chris and I had. Sarah bought a headset for us to use for Skype (again…God provides our needs.) Then we went over to their house and helped cook supper…continuing to fellowship (and have a little fun...the guys decided that Valerie needed to be duct taped to the soccer goal and the girls tried to help her, but to no avail) until they had to go back to work at 8:30.

Sunday morning, Andrew invited us to go to church with his family at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church. Before Mass, Andrew introduced us to Father Tony, and we met several of the deacons. We got an e-mail Sunday morning from Pastor Bill (of the Lutheran Border Ministry) telling us that he would be leaving San Antonio on Monday afternoon to go to Eagle Pass, TX (That’s the town where we think that we’ll cross the border.) So Chris & I began praying about what we should do…go to San Antonio and see if a ride worked out or just walk it out through the wilderness. Well, wouldn’t you know it…the message that morning was on being in the wilderness. Although we probably wouldn’t choose those times, some times the Spirit leads us there (as He did Jesus just after His baptism). In the wilderness we learn to rely on the Lord…we have to send our faith down deep to reach the Living Water which is our Source of life. So we kept praying, but we were pretty sure we knew what we were supposed to do. Father Tony recognized us at the end of Mass, so several families stopped us to ask about our journey. Elaine stopped us because her boys—James & Jonathan had some questions for us. We were able to meet her other children Lauren and Anastazia as well! One of the deacons also came to talk with us, and he & his wife prayed over us—for safety and for soft hearts along the way…that people would be receptive to God’s Word. Right before we were going to walk out, another family stopped us…Blas, Mica, and Noah Espinosa are from the Charismatic Catholic Center in Houston. They work with the young adults there. We were interested in talking to them because we continue to hear about this movement within the Catholic Church. Mica offered to send us some more information, so that we could read about it and know a little more about it.

The Traegers wanted to take us to their favorite restaurant for lunch, so we went to the Huisache Grill. We were able to meet Stephen and chat with him a bit. Mrs. Traeger spoke with the principal at Stephen’s school, New Braunfels Christian Academy, on Friday night after the party. He invited us to come on Monday to speak to the Bible classes. Stephen told us about it and asked if we would at least come to his class to share our story. (more confirmation that it wasn’t time to go) We told him that we probably would, but that we’d get back to him. After lunch, Andrew showed us around New Braunfels…what a beautiful town. I know I’ve said it a million times, but God did a really awesome job laying out the landscape of our country!! There’s a spring feed river that runs through the town…perfect for tubing. One of the world’s most famous water parks is here as well… Schlitterbahn Waterpark Resort. Then we went to historic Gruene…it’s an old town which is now part of New Braunfels. The dance hall there is the oldest know dance hall in Texas!!

When we got back to camp, the Tim Team invited us to church with them at the Austin Stone…when he’s not on tour, Chris Tomlin is the worship leader there. (On our way to church, we drove by the capitol building which is the largest capitol building in the country…even bigger than the one in Washington DC.) Although it wasn’t Chris Tomlin, the worship leader did a great job leading us into the presence of the Lord! The message was right on time too! They are doing a series on marriage, so Chris and I both learned a lot. Since we spend almost ever second of every day together, sometimes we get a little frustrated with each other. We’ve also learned that guys and girls are very different, and that’s a good thing!! The speaker offered some good ideas to open the lines of communication and reminded us all that anytime there is conflict in marriage, it’s the devil. Our fight as Christians “is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”—Ephesians 6:12 He also encouraged couples to dig into the Word to define a godly marriage. Then to make a plan with actions not just ideals to work towards a marriage that is pleasing to God. Finally he told us to encourage each other and to vocalize your joy and love for each other openly and often. From church, we went to a little restaurant called Magnolia Café…you could order just about anything you could think of to eat and the food was tasty! We met Joey, a friend of one of the Tim Team members, and spent more time fellowshipping (clockwise: RE, Ellen, Joey, Valerie, AC, and Natalie)!

On Monday, we did go to Stephen’s school, New Braunfels Christian Academy, to speak to his class. We enjoyed as did the teacher, Mr. Houk (also a pastor of a local church). He invited us to stay and speak to all of his classes!! We talked to two 10th grade classes (the first of which was Stephen's--also pictured 1st) and one 9th grade class (their class has two pictures). They were all attentive and asked good questions!!

Since you are finally getting to read the blog, you can guess what I did on Monday afternoon, Tuesday, and part of Wednesday!! We’ve been working hard to catch up on recording what God’s been doing! Andrew has been a gracious host!! T Bar M has lots of deer, so Chris went out to find them yesterday...he came across 22 of them all in one place!! Apparently one of the ladies in the neighborhood feeds them every night. We are planning on riding with Andrew to his class in San Antonio this afternoon (Wednesday 2/28) and getting back on the road from there.

We ask for your prayers especially in the next few weeks as we cross the South Texas desert and head into Mexico. We’re soooo excited to see what God is going to do!! We’d love to hear from you! God bless you, and we love you!