Hallenbeck News for June

June 2009

Greetings Family and Friends,

We pray this finds you well and enjoying summer. I am sorry it has been a while since our last letter. We have been busy getting moved, unpacked and settled. For those of you who may be wondering “What? You moved?” We felt God leading us to leave Round Mountain and on April 1, arrived in Glenwood, WA, to serve the church here.

The transition has gone fairly smoothly as far as ministry goes. The church itself averages about 40 people each week. The people are generous and giving is strong. We have been made to feel very welcome here. Part of our church is the original building, constructed in the late 1800’s and then moved to the current location. The other part, the Sanctuary, was constructed in the 1950’s. If you do a Google search for “The Little Church on Crutches” you will most likely find an interesting article about the history of our little country church!

We try to spend our days out in the community when we can, either at school, the restaurant (which conveniently is right cross the street!), or the store. People are very friendly and we enjoy many conversations “over the fence” as we walk. The town itself is very small. 9 square blocks plus some housing in the outer areas. Ranching and logging are the main industries. The school has 63 students, K-12, and about 15 full-time staff. We’ve been told the population is between 200-500. This town is full of history, with generations of families being in residence. Many of the founding families still have descendants living here.

As we move into the summer months we ask that you pray for several things.
~ Father’s Day weekend is a big weekend here. There is a Rodeo and the church is bringing in a Christian Country singer for a concert on Saturday evening, as well as hosting a Cowboy Church Service Sunday morning. Pray that many will hear the Gospel.
~ Vacation Bible School is June 22-26. We are praying for 30 kids and right now have about 14 registered. Pray that we will have enough volunteers and that it will be an effective outreach to the kids and their families.
~ We will be traveling to Camano Island in July for a conference. Since Village Missions was unable to continue staff conferences, many of the District Representatives have put together mini-conferences for the Village Missionaries in their districts. We are privileged to be able to go, but are praying that we will have the finances to travel.
~ The first week of August is Summer Camp. Pray that kids from the community would attend and respond to the gospel. Again pray that through this we could reach not only kids, but their families as well.
~ Then in September we will begin Fall ministries. This will include a re-vamped Sunday School program for kids and youth, Youth Group and possibly an after-school program for Elementary kids. Pray that God would raise up volunteers for each of these ministries.

We thank each of you for praying for our ministry and for supporting us financially. We have been truly blessed in these tough economic times that each of you continues to give faithfully. We thank God for you each and every day. May He bless you as you give.

Serving Him Together,
Pastor Butch and Jennifer Hallenbeck, Grady, Spencer and Becca