outreach
All posts tagged outreach
Thank you to everyone who has been praying for Erin and our family over the past few weeks since she was diagnosed with breast cancer. We are so thankful for our ministry family with FCA who have been very supportive and are allowing us whatever time we need for Erin’s appointments, tests, surgeries and etc.
Students at Powell County’s Fields of Faith
During this time though we are still trying to get as plugged in as we can to our new ministry with Fellowship of Christian Athletes and are so excited to share with you what God is doing. Last week, I (Andy), was able to travel to Powell County where both the Powell County Middle and High Schools partnered together to put on their first ever Fields of Faith outreach. These schools are near and dear to us as some of our friends from Emmanuel Baptist Church are working as huddle sponsors and many of our former youth group students are involved in FCA. Around 30 students and 10 adults came out to this even where the students shared their testimonies, read scripture and sang praises. It was exciting to see many of these students sharing about their walk with Christ for the first time! We are so excited to see what God is going to do through these faithful students, teachers, and coaches in Powell County this school year and at many more Fields of Faith outreaches to come!
Students listening to the devotion at Madison Southern High School
At the end of the week, I was able to go to Madison Southern’s monthly club day FCA Huddle. I lost count of how many students where there at around 70 students, but if I had to guess there were close to 100 students who gathered in the school gym for their Huddle. It was awesome to watch their leadership team put on a skit that talked about the power that sin has on us and how only Christ can set us free. After the skit, one of the students share a devotional and part of her testimony. During her talk, Ms. Bevins, one of the teacher sponsors, pointed out to me just how close of attention the students were paying to the girl speaking. Sure enough almost 100 students were totally focused on this student sharing from the Bible. Not a single mobile phone was out or conversation was being had. All the students were focused on the message. It was awesome to see just how powerfully God can use students to impact their fellow students!
This week, I was able to return to Lee County on Tuesday and go to our Huddle at Lee County High School. It was great to see students that we have worked with over the past several years and to seek KMM intern Jeremy Holt, leading them through a Bible study. I also had the opportunity to speak to a Pastor’s Fellowship group on Tuesday in Lee County where I was able to present to them about the ministry of FCA and how they can partner with us. It’s awesome to be able to share what God is doing with FCA and specifically the goals and passions that He has given Erin and I to minister with FCA.
Financial Update
Help us reach our Monthly Support Goal!
As you know Erin and I have been working on becoming fully funded as missionaries with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Currently we are at 67% of our monthly support goal and have set a few bench marks we want to reach during these last two months of 2016. Our first goal is that by the end of November we hope to raise another $1,200 a month in financial support. This will put us at 84% of our total support goal.
Our second benchmark is that we hope to reach full financial support by the end of December 2016. This means we need to raise around $2,300 more a month in monthly commitments by the end of the year. When full funded we will be able not only to take care of all personal expenses such as salary, insurance, etc., but also be able to cover all our ministry expenses such as travel to schools, Bibles and Bible study materials, and also funds to help send coaches and students to camps and conferences.
So where do you come in? If you are already part of our support home team we thank you for your financial and prayer partnership and ask you to keep praying for us that we will reach these financial goals in 2016. We also ask you to pray that over the next few weeks I will be able to schedule many support appointments as possible. We realize that in December once Erin has her surgery there will be a three week period of helping with her recovery where we will not be able to get out for these appointments. So please pray we can make the most of the time we have in November.
If you are one of our many friends that we have already spoken or met with about joining our Home Team and you have committed to partnering with us, but haven’t done so, we would like to ask you to join us now. We know it’s a busy time of year, but your partnership would be a huge blessing to us and also allows us to get into more of our schools right away! Please pray about what that commitment might look like for you and your family and join us as soon as possible.
Lastly, maybe you have not made any sort of commitment to partner with us in this new ministry, but feel that God maybe leading you to do so. We would like to ask you to join us now. Please feel free to contact us about ways to partner with us, or click on the link on the side of this page where you can set up online giving right away. Also, if you know of anyone we haven’t talked to yet about our ministry with FCA and should please let us know too!
Thank you all for your time, prayers, and support. Please remember our family during this time. Pray with us for Erin’s health and pray with us that we can be fully funded and fully engaged in ministry with FCA soon!
Our family @ the YHBC Chapel Dedication
It’s been a little bit since our last update, and we do apologize. These past few weeks have been a very busy season of ministry and transition for our family. Since our last update, we have wrapped up another school year of FCA Huddles at Lee County High School and Middle School. We were blessed to have great students in both of these huddles this year and it was a privilege to be able to share with them from God’s Word and to see them grow in their relationship with Him.
We also wrapped up our After School Jr. Bowling League at the Lee County Recreational Center. In our next to last week of this league we were blessed to see one of our students accept Christ as his personal Savior! And the awesome thing is that it started with another student witnessing to him on the bowling bus! Our kids Maeven and Judah, both participated in this outreach and had a great time bowling and meeting the other kids! They also loved getting bowling trophies.
Maeven and her bowling trophy!
We are still in the middle of trying to close on the sale of our current home and then close on our new home in Richmond, KY. The good news is, that it looks like we will be able to close the first week of June here and hopefully close on the new home and move shortly thereafter. Please keep praying for us during this stressful time that things will happen smoothly and quickly. Right now with no set dates we can’t schedule movers, fencing, and several other things we have to do to move. Also, moving is getting closer to the date when I (Andy) will be taking students from Lee County to FCA Leadership Camp. The good news is we have a great God who is in control of everything and already knows how everything will work out!
Judah showing off his bowling trophy!
We would also like your to be praying for us during this time as we are also scheduling support appointments with family and friends. We are currently about half way to our support goal. Please pray that we will be able to secure the rest of our support before we start with FCA in August. If you would would be open to hearing more about our new ministry with FCA, please let me know, I would love the opportunity to share with you. If you would like to join our monthly support team or send a gift, you can send support in one of two different ways. The first way is to send a check made out to FCA to:
Central KY FCA
2201 Regency Road
Suite 602
Lexington, KY 40503
In the memo of the check just make a note that your gift is for support of Andy Owens
The second way to help support our family is by going to www.my.fca.org
When you get to this website just click on the left side of the page where it says search for staff and areas. Then in the search, type Andy Owens. This will lead you to our support page where you can click on and begin to set up online giving. You will be able to create an account with FCA where you can set up either manual or automatic giving, whichever you would like to do. If you have any questions about anything please just let me know! Also, if you are currently sending support for our family to KMM thank you for your faithfulness and please continue to send your support to KMM through the month of July.
The next couple of months are going to be a busy, high stress, whirlwind of a time. However, we know God is going to do great things during this time and can’t wait to see what He has in store for our family. Please keep praying faithfully for us!
7 years already!!!
Greetings from Beattyville, where Erin and I are currently celebrating our 7th Wedding Anniversary! And how do we celebrate such a joyous occasion? Well as the true romantics we are, we are staying in with two sick kiddos. Even though we are stuck inside we are so thankful for the seven wonderful years of marriage and that we have two great kiddos to take care of on sick days!
Since our last update, much has been going on. I (Andy) wrapped up another season of helping coach our high school bowling team. While I don’t know that I impart much bowling wisdom, I try to be there to be as an example and encourager to the students. I strive to help teach sportsmanship, point students to Christ, and just be there for whatever they may need. Our students did well in the regional tournament and now we are done for the season. Pray that they will still come to the Rec Center in the off season where we can continue to work with them.
Maeven showing off her new hair cut!
During the Super Bowl last week, we had an FCA Super Bowl outreach party at our house. We had students over for a fun night of food, laughing at commercials, and watching the big game. Most importantly, we stopped the tv at halftime and spent some time in God’s Word talking about what a devoted follower of Christ looks like.
Along the same theme as our Super Bowl Party outreach, I (Andy) have been leading a study of the book “Not A Fan”at Bear Track Bible Church on Wednesday nights. It’s been great to talk with the church about being a fan of Christ vs. being a true follower of Christ. We still have two more weeks of the study to go, so please be praying for us!
Judah our scary tiger!
Maeven and Judah have been doing well. This past week they had Valentine’s parties in their pre-school classes and even got to attend the birthday party of a friend from church. Maeven has been doing great with learning to write her name, and with the help of her Momma, made a sign for our front door to tell people about Jesus. Judah is speaking more and better each week and still is passionate about his love for animals. He can’t wait for it to be warm enough to go to the zoo again. Erin has been doing well, but has had some fibromyalgia flair ups lately too. Please pray that this won’t hold her back from doing all she wants and needs to do.
Thank you all so much for your continued prayers and support. We have much coming up in the next few weeks that we will keep you posted on. God is doing some great things and we can’t wait to be able to share again with you!
2016 is here and we made it! As usual the new year got off to a busy start for our family as the Lee County Recreational Center held it’s annual New Year’s Eve Teen Lock-In. Over 109 teens and adult chaperones attended this outreach and helped us ring in the new year. Normally, I (Andy) would sort of facilitate and help make sure the night runs smoothly and find a speaker to share the Gospel with the students. For this Lock-In, I realized that I hadn’t scheduled a speaker and so I ended up speaking. I was blessed to have the opportunity to share with the students about how God’s will for their lives is good, pleasing, and perfect and that they shouldn’t conform the labels that the World places on them. I’m not one to throw out casually that I feel the Spirit moving, but that night as I gave the devotion I did have a peace from God that I was sharing just what He wanted met to share and that He was working in the hearts of our students. Please join us in praying that we will see students make decisions for Christ as a result of the Lock-In outreach.
Maeven and Judah have had a great start to the New Year as they went to their Mimi and Pop’s for New Year’s. They were also able to take one of their Christmas gifts and go to Build-A-Bear and each get a new buddy. We even had break through’s in Sunday School this week as both of our kids were able to tell us their lesson, Judah actually colored, and Maeven wrote her name on here Sunday School paper all by herself! After a two week break, both of our kiddos are excited to go back to Pre-School this week to see their teachers and friends.
Maeven and Judah and their new stuffed pals
Today we are starting the second semester of our After School Jr. Bowling Outreach. Join us in praying for this awesome outreach. Pray that students will remember after being off for a couple of weeks and come back to day. Most of all pray, that they will be receptive to the Word and open to talking with our staff about Jesus!
2016 looks to be a busy year with lots of opportunities and changes. Please keep our family in your prayers and thank you so much for your faithfulness!
Next week we will be having our New Year’s Even Teen Lock-In outreach at the Lee County Recreational Center. Please begin praying with us for this event. Pray for the students who will be attending that they will be receptive to the Gospel and that our staff will have many opportunities to share with them throughout the night. Also pray for our staff that we will have wisdom as we talk and interact with the students. Lastly please pray that we will have enough help. We need many volunteer chaperones to come out and make this a safe and fun outreach. Also, please consider joining us as a volunteer! Thank you so much and please please pray!
