JANUARY UPDATE
3 monkeys Swimming with daddy in florida & the little guy hanging with Mommy and again with Papa Cattani.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Welcome to 2014! It is always an exciting thing to start a new year, filled with possibilities and fresh adventures. We have absolutely no idea what this year will hold for us. Sure I have plans and certainly I have set some goals (realistic ones, not the flaky resolution type), but there is still no way to have a written guarantee that any of it will actually come to pass. Each of these hopes and dreams rests fully on the providence of God, His grace and mercy. At the same time, I have to be realistic in honoring him for holding back from our lives some of the unspeakable pain of the world. This last year was one of incredible blessing for us and we praise God every breath he gave us to enjoy it!
Also, a massive thank you to everyone who has been praying for us and partnering with us financially over the last few months. We are incredibly grateful for each of you while we hold you up in prayers of thankfulness!
Story time at home with Coralise - Mommy and the Monkeys - Jonny's 1st Christmas
WHAT A SEMESTER!
Since September I have been on an educational sabbatical, taking 5 courses in my Masters of Divinity program while also interning a day a week at Nassau Street Church. The class work was heavy, but it was deeply fulfilling. With courses focused on Christian Ethics, Romans, ministering to those in the midst of suffering, Christian spirituality and a robust course in Pentateuch theology it was a full semester.
LIFE AT HOME
Rhonda and the kids were busy with school for most of the semester, yet even with this schedule we still tried to set Fridays aside as a dedicated family time. What good is a sabbatical if you can’t spend a bit more time with your family? Our fourth baby, Jonny, is now 9 months old, crawling and constantly hamming it up for the camera. The other three monkeys LOVE making him laugh with silly faces or making him jealous with all their running and chasing. You can see the need for speed flickering in his eyes!
EPIC ROAD TRIP
One of the highlights for us this semester was the opportunity to head down to Orlando, Florida for me to take a course through Reformed Theological Seminary. Rhonda summed it up beautifully with her Facebook status after the trip... “7 days of driving + 5 days of school + 4 days of sight-seeing family time + 3 days of Disney + oodles of play, sun and swim = the most EPIC Cattani road trip yet!!! (And yes, there WILL be more)
Rhonda planned so many different things for the kids to do along the way. The drive was fun with the monkeys taking care of school, colouring, playing and every few stops they would dip into the grab bag for a new little surprise!
WEDDINGS
The kids were involved in two wonderful weddings this fall. Annabelle is now a professional flower girl, while coralise and caden took a little more to warm up to their roles. Annabelle had them practice with her many times at home before the big days. Congrats to the beautiful new couples, Jon and Jenna & Brad and Michelle! Thank you guys for letting our little ones be involved!
DISNEY
Our second week in florida was set aside for some r&r. We had not had any down time after camp this summer, and we thought that a bit of fun was in order. so... we did disney. it was such a great experience to meet my dad down in orlando and tour the parks together. every few days coralise will still talk about meeting all the princesses!
Friends in Florida - Coralise the beach model
EXCITED FOR MINISTRY!
Some Items for Prayer
- Please pray for our follow-up crew as they continue to disciple campers from last summer
- Please pray for the upcoming Feb. retreat, that it would be a time of gospel rejuvenation
- Praise God for a wonderful sabbatical this last semester!
- Please pray for our monthly financial support to be filled up by the end of this year.
As for ministry, now that I am back in the office full time (with a bit of school still on the side) there are two solid challenges which we need your participation in if we are to overcome them.
The first thing is our camper numbers. For the last few summers we, along with many other camps in Canada, have been experiencing a decline in camper numbers. Last summer we had close to 100 open spaces. We would like to ask for you participation through prayer. Please pray that the Lord would continue to send us campers this summer who need to hear the gospel message. Please pray that we would have heavenly wisdom in recruiting campers from many unlikely places and new groups. We would love to see more of Winnipeg’s immigrant population sending their kids to camp through some of the funding options available to them. As a summer staff, we will be fasting lunches on Mondays and spending that time in prayer for our summer numbers. Please feel free if you would like to join us in this from where you are!
If you would like to sponsor a camper this summer, please click the link below and we will make sure that one more spot is filled with a camper who otherwise would not be able to afford it. As of right now, we are only able so sponsor about 3 campers, it would be wonderful to fill an entire week of 100 campers who are sponsored.
The second challenge Rhonda and I would love for you to get involved with is our personal ministry support. I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but my salary is utterly dependent on the contributions of individuals. We have been running a deficit in our support account for the last year because monthly contributions coming in only cover about 1/3 of our need. Basically, we are looking for numerous individuals to sign on to support us for $20-$50 a month, for a year. We ask that you would prayerfully consider how you can be a part of the Cedarwood ministry in this way. If you feel called to contribute, please click the link below; each gift is eligible for a donation receipt.
Thank you so much for prayerfully considering involvement in these areas. We will do our best to keep you informed of how things are going over the months leading up to summer. As always, if you have any questions just shoot me an email or feel free to call... 204-669-4205 ex. 217.
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