Lantern and Compass Project

Clarity and Direction

Newsletter

Road bump

Following our last camp in August of 2021, we were taken down a path that threw our lives off course for a season. Rusty was diagnosed with both prostate and kidney cancer and our lives suddenly revolved around doctor visits, traveling back and forth to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer hospitals in NJ and NYC, medication therapy, hospital stays, radiation treatments and lifestyle changes.

Rusty is still making adjustments and following a regimented treatment plan and we are believing for a complete healing. God has been giving us both courage and comfort as we face this unknown. What we do know is that God is faithful and will never leave us to navigate through this on our own. We have had a huge support team and community of believers that have been praying for Rusty and it has made all the difference in the world. We still covet those continued prayers and would ask that as we look forward that you join our support team as we trust and believe for the following for Rusty.

  1. That God would divinely heal him of cancer.
  2. That Rusty’s strength would be restored.
  3. That the medications side effects would be minimized.
  4. That when we return for a followup in December that the kidney cancer will have disappeared.
  5. That God will be glorified through all of this.

Mountaintop Experience

What an evening at Mountaintop Church sharing the joy that comes from bring part of what God is doing through His people. We were not only building with blocks during the kids service but we were helping to build God’s kingdom as the kids discovered how they could be part of the Great Commission. Don’t ever hesitate to involve kids in the process of praying, giving and going in the area of missions. They make a profound difference and their prayers are powerful .

Everyone rejoiced at how willingly the people gave to the Lord’s temple.

1 Chronicles 29:9

Awaken Every Morning

After a disheartening year of COVID restrictions, Camp Wannahockalugie opened their doors and their hearts to campers for the 10th year. It was a year of new and fresh beginnings, a year that AWAKENED everyone to God’s possibilities. The camp staff was bubbling over with excitement as they made preparations, knowing they were going to bring a message of hope and love to a fresh group of campers.

From the staging to the live animals, everything was in place and as campers arrived the building was filled with fun, laughter and a longing to be in God’s presence. There is so much that I could share about what happened over the week but watching the Camp Wannahockalugie recap video will tell you more than I ever could.

I will follow up by saying that every camper received Bible instruction, given time to listen for God’s voice, and encouraged to share and soak up God’s word through everything that happened at camp.

“The War Room” (Prayer Room) is by far my favorite part of camp. Pastor John and Melissa, new to Hilltop Christian Fellowship, truly helped to usher in the presence of God as every camper had 30 minutes each day to focus on hearing God’s voice and pressing into knowing Him personally.

Over 12 campers asked Jesus to come into their life for the first time and there were 13 campers that took the next step and were baptized in water to show the world that they love and desire to follow Jesus.

Each year it seems as if camp gets better and I know it is because Holy Spirit is touching lives in deeper and deeper ways. Camp is one week out of the year. We must know and walk in the truth of the theme verse this year,

Morning by morning He awakens me and opens my understanding to His will.

Isaiah50:4

Many thanks to Hilltop Christian Fellowship and their incredible camp staff for sharing the gospel with the 900 plus students over the past 10 years and making Jesus a priority in their church and community.

Tragedy Humanized

For the past 48 hours I have been praying for six Afghan Christians as they made efforts to leave the country to escape the violence, persecution and certain death for following Jesus if caught at any of the checkpoints as they made their way to the airport. I am ashamed that it took a prayer request from a friend, that had direct connections to this group of people, to humanize the tragedy that is taking place in Afghanistan. As events unfolded, I received updates of their progress, their setbacks, and their uncertainties. As more people joined together and prayed for them to make it safely through airport gates and onto a departing plane, God provided. After two days we received report that they had boarded a plane in Kabul to begin their journey to the states where a community of believers are waiting to receive them into their family.

Photo represents the urgency to leave the country and not a picture of the six described in this post. It does represent many others that need our prayers.

How must God have felt during this tumultuous journey? How sad must He have felt that His children had to endure such suffering? How disappointed must He have felt that there were christians around the world that saw the news of what was happening and didn’t cry out for God’s intervention. What will it take to humanize the stories that we are hearing in the news media?

We have freedom in our lives and in our faith but are we taking it for granted? Are we looking at our freedom as an unconstrained opportunity to share the gospel with as many people as humanly possible or are we wasting the blessing that God has given us through this freedom?

“Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, he gives freedom.” 1 Cor 7:13

As we continue to journey through this year together, let’s not allow distractions to keep us from learning, growing, sharing and delivering the word of God to those around us. We must move forward, making Jesus the priority and urgently sharing His word with others. We don’t know the hour or the day that Jesus will return but we do have the good news of Jesus and how to guarantee eternal life with Him. How many will you reach with that good news?

Encourage Others

The Good Shepherd Ministries and Lantern and Compass Project believe in the power of encouragement and have been blessed to be able to provide food encouragement to our community over the past eleven months. Many thanks to those who participated in the community food boxes and blessed so many families.

The Bible has much to say about how we as believers are to be an encouragement to those around us. Continue to follow our facebook page at The Good Shepherd Ministries and Lantern and Compass Project as we provide other means of encouragement over the coming months.

So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.

1 Thessalonians 5:11