Monday, July 20, 2015

Dunoon, Scotland

Hello from Dunoon!

We have been here for 6 days now and ministry has been going well. We are yet again involved in holiday clubs in the afternoon and youth clubs in the evening. Our final youth club event is tonight at 7pm (1pm central time) so please keep praying for us that we would be intentional with our time and really preach the gospel not on our strength but through God. One girl, Kayleigh, accepted Christ one of our first nights here and has been a joy to get to know.
On a more stressful note, we have had some visitors to our team which were unwelcome: Mr. and Mrs. L. Ice. Kelsie and the other assistant, Cassidy are literally on their fourth full day cleaning nits out of a few girls' hair and they are exhausted. Yesterday they worked from 8am-midnight and only completed two of the four girls who had it. So please be praying for positive attitudes and patience as these days are beginning to wear on them heavily. Finally, pray that our students would not let themselves go home mentally and remain invested and involved in our work here. It's that point in the summer where it is easy to let things slide and try to coast until we get home but we are praying that that would not be the case here.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Govanhill - Glasgow, Scotland

Where has the time gone? It's already July 16 and two weeks from now we will be back in the states, hard as it is to believe. Upon leaving Drumchapel we spent about ten days in Govanhill, a neighborhood in Glasgow. Govanhill is a very impoverished neighborhood and also has 159% more violent crimes than the Scottish average making it a perfect place to set up camp for awhile. Additionally it is a large cultural hub with over 30 languages spoken just in a few block radius of our church. Many middle eastern and Romanian people live in the neighborhood and these were the kids we interacted with the most. We actually had very little interaction with Scottish youth during our time here. Ministry was intense and exhausting as we ran Holiday Clubs Monday through Friday for 3 hours a day and Youth Clubs for 2 hours every night. Several of our students also had the opportunity to share their testimony each night with the local youth, but the evening club was very
challenging. We encountered many teenagers that were disinterested in discussing anything religious and were only interested in playing ping pong or dancing. It is was a great growth opportunity for our team, especially when they were able to engage in conversation with kids who were either Muslim or Atheist, as most of the kids we met were. 

Our team also performed their dance and dramas every day and we even went into downtown Glasgow on Saturday and did two performances. During the second performance a couple of our girls, Rachel and Emily, shared the gospel with two women on the street and they made commitments to Christ that day! So there is some very real, very intense ministry happening and it is so cool to see how our team is learning and growing in their faith. We had a Culture & Heritage day in Edinburgh on Monday and went to Loch Lomond for a hike and a little R&R on Tuesday but now we are in Dunoon and ready for our last week of ministry before heading to London to debrief.

Please continue to pray:
- For healing as many of our team over the last 3-4 days have been sick with what we suspect is some sort of stomach virus and several others have been battling colds.
- In addition to Damien from Drumchapel, also pray for Azam, a Pakistani man that I met who grew up Muslim but doesn't really believe in anything anymore. I shared with him on Friday night and he even returned for church on Sunday but he remains unmoved by his sinfulness. Please pray for his heart to be softened to the Gospel.
- Pray that our team would finish strong during our last week of ministry and that we would not be overcome by exhaustion.

Monday, July 6, 2015

Drumchapel, Scotland

     Hello world,
     Kelsie and I are currently in Drumchapel, Scotland. We've been here since Monday evening so today is our fourth full day here. The students and summer staff have been leading a Holiday Club for the local kids aged 5-12 (Holiday Club is the European term for a VBS). During the first half hour of the program the kids participate in worship and watch a skit performed by a few of our students. They also have been learning Ephesians 6.15 by heart, "Wear shoes that are able to speed you on as you preach the good news of peace with God." Matt (our trip leader) and I have been leading the kids in the hand motions for the verse and I have also been leading the kids in warm-ups (which are exercises but more meant to make them laugh than really stretch them). They also have snack time, games, crafts, and a Bible story that all support the story for the day. Today is the final day of our Holiday Club and on Sunday we will be leaving for Govanhill, which is located in Glasgow.
     Scotland is very beautiful and reminds me very much of Ireland as I suspected it might.  Kelsie loves it here and is the only person on our team who has been to Drumchapel previously. The last Royal Servants trip that came here was the EuroQuest team in 2009 when Kelsie was a small group leader. It's a small area but we've performed at the local park a couple of times and our students have shared the gospel with many different people. Some have kept the tract our students gave them and some have torn it up. But as our team learned at training camp, "Successful witnessing is taking the initiative to share Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results up to God." We are merely called to share God's love with the world, not convince them of it. Only God has the power to do that.
     Our remaining itinerary is roughly as follows:
     July 5-15 Govanhill, Glasgow
     July 15-23 Dunoon, Argyll
     July 23-28 London, England
     July 29 Flight Home
Please continue to pray:
- That Kelsie and I would keep moving toward God, and consequently, toward each other.
- For our students to keep pushing on as we have been doing Holiday Club in the afternoons and street ministry in the evenings and that they would not succumb to weariness.
- That Damien, a young Scottish man who has been hanging out with our team and the Scottish Christians here, would know the truth of Jesus Christ. He has a thousand questions and clearly is searching for something to fulfill him but thus far is content believing there is no God.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Almost Gone

TRAINING CAMP is coming to a close.

Right now it is 5.30 am on Saturday morning and we are hours away from parents coming to visit for Open House. We are only 36 hours away from boarding a flight for the United Kingdom. And we will be busy busy busy until that point (which is why I am up so early to write this blog, because our schedule is so full). Our Scotland team has been doing great. We’ve had some minor injuries and homesickness but the excitement for our ministry in Scotland has been building and all of the hours spent praying and fundraising and trusting God is about to come to fruition.
Training Camp is a busy affair. Our students have gone through teachings such as Being Culturally Sensitive, the Necessity of Truth, Identity in Christ and Forgiveness. Matt Halseth blessed me with the privilege of teaching on Restitution, which I shared with our team yesterday. They’ve also learned disciplne, responsibility and humility through the structure and priorities we maintain at Training Camp.

Please keep our entire team in your prayers this summer. Pray that we would be preaching the gospel of Christ and not our own selfish ideas. Pray for our relationship with each other, that we would remain in unity and that gossip and dissent would have no place here. Pray for Kelsie and I that we would continue to strive to serve and love each other in a stressful environment while still putting God first in our marriage. Finally, pray for the Scottish people who are about to encounter our 24 students and staff and consequently, we hope, encounter Jesus.
Jack and Kels

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Today is the Day

Good morning all. Today is the day. Oh, what a beautiful morning, oh, what a beautiful day it is. Today is the day I head to Training Camp (Kelsie will join me on Monday after a friends wedding). We are very excited to begin training for out roles this summer. I will be responsible for the finances this summer, which means I balance the books every day, go to the bank and get the best exchange rate, divvy out spending money to everyone and coordinate with the food person so they have money to buy food. And of course, Kelsie is in charge of the food this summer. She will be be responsible for supervising the preparation of every meal, the safety of the students while cooking, she will be buying food almost daily overseas and planning meals as well. Obviously there will be a lot more that we do within the team but these are our primary functions as assistant leaders.

Please pray for us this summer. That we would find our strength and energy in God alone and not ourselves or each other. Pray that we would have patience with one another and truly treat each other with respect and love as it will be a long, exhausting summer. Pray for our students that they would be stretched and molded in a way they never have before and that they would boldly share the Gospel with the nation of Scotland.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

What's Next

For those of you who didn't know, Kelsie and I have had a very crazy and trying year. This past fall I finished one of my toughest semesters yet and graduated from St. Cloud State University with my Bachelor's Degree in Theatre. I am very glad to be done but I spend most of my time now serving at Mongo's (Wed-Sun lunches) and La Casita (Wed, Fri-Sat nights). Kelsie has had a similarly busy year. August through December she spent at the Coffeehouse as a General Manager before being let go just in time for Christmas. Since then she has spent most of her time between the chiropractor, physical therapist, and gym while also finding time just last week to pick up a job in the Barnes and Noble Cafe. Life is very crazy. On top of all of that, something Kelsie and I have dreamed of since we were married was the possibility of spending a year overseas doing missions work following my graduation. We pursued this in November and December but it became apparent that at that time it was our will for our lives and not God's. Since then we contacted our friends, Job and Bethany, to find out if they had a need for assistant staff in Nepal this summer. They did not, but Job directed us to Hank, the leader of Royal Servants' Ireland team. I spoke with Hank mid-February and he excitedly accepted us as assistants on the team. We have been very eagerly preparing to head overseas and get ready for another summer with Royal Servants. God wasn't quite done adjusting our plans however. For various reasons, the need for assistant staff on Ireland was no longer pressing and we found ourselves without a team. After a long conversation with Tom Ives, the director of Royal Servants, we agreed to join the Scotland team were there is a very pressing need for staff. It's amazing how God can change your plans not once but several times over the course of several months and yet everything seems to come together the way He intended it. I shouldn't be surprised by this, but He still amazes me. Kelsie and I are thrilled to be heading to Scotland. Logistical details have not changed very much. We will still be gone June 6 - July 29 and there is only a slight decrease in what we must raise financially. Culturally and geographically it is very similar to Ireland. The major change is the people we will be traveling with; the students and staff we get to invest our lives in and the leadership we get to work alongside. We will post more details as they become available, but just know that we have become very content with our plans changing, though it has been slightly discomforting at times. We continue to seek your prayers as we prepare for this trip. God bless.

Jack and Kelsie Becker

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Change of Plans

Dear friends and family,

I just want to begin by thanking all of you for the outpouring of prayer and support; Kelsie and I truly appreciate it and ask for you to continue in prayer for us. We have been gearing up most of the semester to head overseas to Nepal for a seven-week mission trip. We both love this country and were looking forward to ministering to the people there, however, God has made it clear to us that this is not where we are meant to be this summer. It was a difficult decision filled with anguish and shed tears.

Over the last month or so there have been a series of events that have given us cause for concern regarding Kelsie’s health and though this is not meant to alarm you, we wanted to inform you about it because it is the primary reason we have chosen to withdraw from Royal Servants this year. Our focus this summer needs to be on our physical health. This has been especially difficult for Kelsie as you can imagine and we covet your continued prayers as we mourn the loss of this opportunity. We do also know that God has a beautiful plan that we do not fully fathom and this decision is in our best interest.

As far as the financial funds are concerned, we have just over $4,000 in our accounts at the moment and they will remain there at this time for possible future use.
Thank you for all of your kindness and love in this time.
God bless,

Jack and Kelsie Becker