April at a Glance

PLACE Ministries

APRIL '25

From Monday night Bible studies, podcast recordings, and lots of plane rides, this was a month full of people and places and opportunities.

The busyness and variety with which this month was filled reminds me of the gratitude I have for you and the Lord for the opportunity to go and to share. My hope in sharing with you here is that this would not just serve as an update on our endeavors, but an invitation to share in what the Lord is doing in these places.

B O L I V I A

At the beginning of April, I went with North Hall Church on a medical mission trip to Bolivia. We spent most of the week in a rural city providing medical care to the local community. About two weeks before we left, Mike Robertson, who’s been leading this trip for almost twenty years, found me at church.

He said he had a question for me that the Lord had laid on his heart. He was considering asking me to teach PLACE to the missionaries we would be working with while we were there, but kept second guessing it because of how difficult it would be to translate the material into Spanish. I told him that wouldn’t be a problem at all, we already had Spanish workbooks.

Getting to teach PLACE while we were there was not on the itinerary when I said yes to the trip six months earlier. I did not have a reason to go as much as I did not have a reason not to go. The Lord knew how he wanted to orchestrate each decision and each prayer in a way that required trust, obedience, and a willingness to say yes and to go.

While I spent most of the week in the pharmacy, to start our trip I was able to serve and bless the missionaries in Bolivia who, especially on trips like this, spend most of the week serving us. Long before Mike asked me to teach, that was my prayer. That I would find a way to serve my team and the missionaries there.

And what a blessing it was. To serve those who spend so much of their time serving those who are sent.

D6 Conference Orlando

The D6 Conference is a conference for children and family ministries from across the country.

We went as a resource provider where we got to speak to attendees about our tool and the value it could be for their youth ministries, volunteers, or staff. Our hope is that these conversations would plant seeds for future partnerships that we will soon see fruit from.

M O O D Y

Although dad has been traveling up to Moody for almost twenty years now, this was my first year to come with him on this trip. We spent the week sitting down with students and, prayerfully, encouraging them in how the Lord has gifted them and showing them how PLACE can be a valuable tool for them in their life and ministry

Despite my absence the last two weeks of this month, it was so encouraging to see these girls desire to be together. The two Mondays I wasn’t in town, they all still met together at our usual spot.

For me, that was evidence of the value they put on Monday afternoons together. The opportunity to pour into them and see their hearts for the Lord and one another continues to be a sweet and refreshing blessing.

“I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds”

(Psalm 9:1)