SD Family to Kona Adventure.

Hello Friends and Family,

We have just finished up our 9th summer serving as directors here at Camp Hammer. Ocean is turning 15 in less than a month and is growing into an amazingly beautiful, creative, loving, confident woman. Elli is 13 and always revealing her gifts, and heart of compassion to us and the world around her. Phoenix will be 9 in October, and she was a camper for the first time this summer. She is a blessing and friend to everyone she meets. Sarah and I continue to grow and strive to be who God has created us to be. We celebrated 17 years of marriage in July, and we continue to love each other more and more. 

This fall we have an opportunity to serve in Kailua-Kona for seven weeks and we want you to be apart  of our SD Family to Kona Adventure. 

More and more Sarah and I desire to see Camp Hammer become a missional ministry throughout the year.  Camp has been used by God to disciple and grow young adults during their summers serving for many years. As you know, so many staff have gone on to serve in full time ministry, or living intentional lives to spread the gospel. The impact is immeasurable.

Last November, my family and I were invited to serve for a week at Youth With A Missions, University of the Nations in Kona Hawaii. My whole family was unable to go, but I had the privilege of speaking on relationships to their Community Transformations, Discipleship Training School. It was a rich experience serving and helping equip over a hundred young adults for their outreach to the various countries they shared the gospel with. The experience was enriching and grew me in my faith as a believer and leader in ministry.

My time there introduced a new possibility for Camp Hammer in the winter months. YWAM would like to partner with us and have a Community Transformation DTS here at Camp Hammer. It would run from October-December, beginning fall 2014. This would be a huge blessing for camp financially, and it would also continue to fulfill the mission of Camp Hammer throughout the year.

My family and I have been invited back to YWAM in Kona to serve as a speaker, but also to invest in the young adults as the process and prepare during the remainder of their lecture phase before leaving on outreach. We have been given the opportunity to serve the Community Transformation DTS from November 7-December 26. During this time Sarah and I will serve as encouragement and be available to the students, and outreach leaders as they process all that they are learning. We will begin our time with me speaking to the school on relationships, which naturally lends for us to continue developing relationships and spiritually directing and encouraging their leaders and students. The girls are excited to relieve some of the missionary families, by offering free child care so that parents can have time to connect and process as a couple. We want to bless and serve however we can!

During our time there we would also be helping develop and implement healthy involvement with the community of locals in Kailua-Kona. There is a large population of homeless youth, meth addicts, and fearful natives of the island gods. Our family will be working to develop ways to consistently care for the local population. This component of the trip gets all of us excited. We have worked with the homeless in Santa Cruz during the Christmas season for a few years. We know that it can be challenging to share the gospel with homeless people due to mental illness, but that is where we have seen the fruit of living it out in action.

The last piece to our mission trip would be educational for Camp Hammer. I would have the opportunity to learn more about YWAM, and really figure out with the main people of their organization if it would be a good partnership for camp. During our time in Kona, I will work with the directors of the Community Transformation DTS, and meet with directors from other bases throughout the globe to gain a better understanding, so that I would be well equipped to move forward.

The most important area we desire support is through committed prayer. We want people to pray for us daily. Without prayer we ail not be able to do what God is leading us to do for his glory. You can also help by supporting our missions trip financially. We have to raise $6,000 for airfare and our costs while on the island. This is no small chunk of change, but we believe in a big God, and we know he will provide! If you feel led to support us financially, we would be so blessed. Our first step is to get airline tickets. A round trip ticket to Kona is about $600. At this point we have raised $3,000 for our family of five to travel. The other $3,000 is for our housing, food,  transportation and hospitality expenses used to bless the missionaries and to serve the homeless while in Kona. We look forward to having you be apart of the SD Family to Kona Adventure. Our trip is a short term missions trip under Twin Lakes Church. All financial gifts are tax-deductible.

Make checks payable to:

Twin Lakes Church, and make sure to write "Camp Hammer Missions" in the memo. (this method is tax-deductible).

Mail checks to:

SD Family to Kona Adventure

21475 Big Basin Way

Boulder Creek, CA 95006

Peace and always love.

The SD Family
#roamingredwoods