Thankful Hearts and Testimonies

When I reflect back on this past year, my heart is filled with so much gratitude.

Gratitude for the blood of Jesus and what he has delivered me from and that he has rescued me from the Kingdom of darkness into his Kingdom of Light!

Gratitude for my girls and the growth that God has done in me in my mother's heart.

Gratitude for how the Lord has preserved our marriage and led us to an amazing counselor that leads us to the feet of Jesus and into true healing through the Gospel.

Gratitude for family who love our girls so well and give us the gift of caring for them.

Gratitude for the goodness of the Lord and how he has led us to this season of ministry in Lancaster county that I could have never imagined in my wildest dreams!

Gratitude for friends and family who have walked with us through the years and encouraged, prayed for, and supported us.

THANK YOU for praying and lifting up our arms when we are weak, thank you for sending encouraging texts and letters, thank you for your financial gifts and meeting practical needs for us so we can continue serving our community and region. We are so grateful for you!

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HUB LEARNING CENTER

School is going so well and I am loving every minute with my students. Praise Jesus for creativity and for energy and strength!

Last week I had the opportunity of sharing at Alive Church about the Hub Learning Center and thanking them for allowing us to use their building! I made this video about HLC and I wanted to share it with all of you!

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TESTIMONY!

Last Sunday, YWAM Lancaster hosted a regional women's gathering and one of things that hit my heart was about making Jesus LORD. Jesus can be our savior without being our LORD. Making Jesus LORD means that when he asks you to do something, you obey right away.

Later that evening, I was with the Encounter group and we were worshipping Jesus and I felt the Holy Spirit ask me to preach the Gospel. Immediately all these excuses filled my mind of why I shouldn't, but I remembered the message earlier and about simple immediate obedience, so I talked to the prayer facilitator and they handed me the microphone.

They Holy Spirit came upon me and I began to share the Gospel message from the beginning of creation and original design of relationship with God and how sin separates us from God and how Jesus has paid the price to bring us back into that right relationship with God! The Holy Spirit did it and gave me the words and all I had to do was obey and open my mouth!

Three precious souls came up to surrender and repent and make Jesus Lord of their lives!

GLORY BE TO GOD!

Oh what joy would I have missed out on if I said, "no" or didn't follow the promoting in my Spirit. God is so good and he is WORTHY of our simple obedience!

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PRAYERS

• We have an upcoming marriage retreat with our YWAM staff couples this weekend! Please pray for continued breakthroughs in our marriage!

• Please pray for spiritual covering over our family and our marriage

• Please pray for continued wisdom as parents on how to help each of our girls thrive in this season

• Please pray for each of our HLC students that they will grow in the knowledge of the Lord and encounter him daily

• Please pray for energy, creativity, and wisdom for the HLC teachers & administrator- Amanda, Bethany, Erica, Wilna, and me

Thank you for your love and prayers and for your partnership with what God is doing in Lancaster!

We so APPRECIATE YOU!

TO GOD BE THE GLORY,

THE SHENKS

Settling Into a New Rhythm

We all live in seasons.

Seasons of parenthood, season of schooling, seasons of the year, seasons of life.

In YWAM our seasons typically go by quarters of the year.

YWAM Lancaster has started a new quarter with over 20 students in three schools (DTS. DBS. WISE) plus our HUB Learning Center with 28 students!

The past year has been a lot of transition for our family. After another month of transition, our family is finally settling into a new rhythm and it feels SO GOOD! This season we are so blessed to have a wonderful schedule for our family and we feel like we are able to pour out in ministry while also resting and pouring into our family!

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HUB LEARNING CENTER

We are over a month into our YWAM kid's school (the Hub Learning Center)and it’s going so well! I have 10 students in K&1 grade and it’s incredible to be back in a classroom again after 6 years! My favorite part of each day is during morning meeting when we spend time asking the Holy Spirit to speak to us, and the kiddos are learning how to know and recognize their Father God’s voice! It is seriously the best!

I absolutely LOVE having the freedom to teach in a "hands-on" environment, freedom to go on field trips and explore God's amazing creation, freedom to stop in the middle of the day to pray and "reset" our attitudes and day, freedom to listen to God's voice and read missionary stories.

This past week we read the YWAM publishing Hero's of Faith story about Amy Carmichael who was a missionary in the early 1900's. We spent time afterwards asking the Holy Spirit to show us if there was a specific nation or people He is calling us to.

My dearest Ellie felt the Lord put Afghanistan on her heart and she said "God told me to be a missionary in Afghanistan!" I cried such tears of joy that God would speak to my daughter and reveal his heart to her in such a beautiful way, calling her to a nation that is so desperately in need! I pray we can go to Afghanistan together! Now we are beginning to sow into Afghanistan through prayer and listening to what God wants us to pray for that beautiful nation.

Another seven year old student heard God calling him to preach the Gospel in China! Another heard Australia, and another student heard God calling him to "help people."

THERE IS NO JUNIOR HOLY SPIRIT! I felt the call into missions at age six, and by simply preparing the space for the Holy Spirit to move, God is calling his children into a love for the nations NOW! THANK YOU JESUS!

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Kid's Missions Track

Every Wednesday afternoon, we take all the HLC students over to the YWAM base for a Kid's DTS time.

We usually have a teacher from the DTS or WISE school teach the kids for an hour and activate the kids in what they were teaching the adults that week!

The first week, JC Alzamora from Harvest Net came and spoke to our students about prophecy and then took time to prophesy over each of the students! It was such a impacting time! Then we took time praying for JC and asking God to show us encouraging words for him.

We are so grateful to be apart of a community culture that values kids and believes God wants to use them even at an early age!

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Update on Josiah’s role:

Our plan was for Josiah to take the Discipleship Bible School at YWAM Lancaster as a staff student from the end of Sept-Dec.

After much prayer, the YWAM Lancaster leadership team prayed and felt that for Josiah to take the DBS this fall as student staff would require too much from our family as the DBS is 60 hrs a week. With me helping pioneer HLC, We felt God’s confirmation and we are honestly a bit relieved that we won’t have as heavy of a schedule this fall. We are so grateful for a leadership team that seeks the health of our family!

We love that in YWAM, families serve together, so we are able to split the normal work week hours! What a blessing!

Josiah's role in this season is serving the mission of the YWAM Lancaster base by serving in maintenance and food prep 2 days a week and I am teaching the other 3 days. With all of his skills, he is a great resource!

He has also been able to get more involved in worship and it's been such a joy to see him minister to the Lord and lead others into His presence!

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THANK YOU!

We were SO BEYOND blessed by the generosity at our yard sale and sub sale! God provided $5,316! Glory be to God! God has also been providing through you as we are at 70% of our monthly support!

Thank you for investing in us and what God is doing in our region as we walk out in simple obedience!

We appreciate you so much!

PRAYERS

• Please pray for spiritual covering over our family and our marriage

• Please pray for continued wisdom as parents on how to help each of our girls thrive in this season

• Please pray for each of our HLC students that they will grow in the knowledge of the Lord and encounter him daily

FIRST WEEK OF HLC SCHOOL!

First day of HUB LEARNING CENTER! First day of Kindergarten for Ellie!

First day teaching again after 6 years!

When I was in 6th grade, I wrote on "What do you want to be when you grow up" that I wanted to be a MISSIONARY, TEACHER, and a MOM and yesterday on our first day of school, I became a Missionary Teacher Mom with YWAM Lancaster!

God is so good in how he redeems our stories and leads us step by step into his ultimate plan for us!

Thank you so much for each of you that prayed for us for our first day! Josiah and I had a rough night the night before school started with all three of the girls waking up throughout the night, but I could literally feel the supernatural energy come into my body as I drove to school for the first day meeting! GLORY BE TO GOD!

We had a powerful time of worship at YWAM with all the students and mommas and all the YWAM Staff! Each of the students was prayed for individually and you could feel God's heart was so delighted!

At school, the kids did AWESOME! It was such a successful first day and we had so much positive feedback from the students and mommas! One of my first grade boys said, “I didn’t know school would be like this, this is fun!”

HLC (Hub Learning Center) has

*3 classes (K&1, 2-5th, and Middle School)

*4 teachers

*26 students!

We have 9 students in Kindergarten and First grade!

Miss Wilna is my assistant teacher and she loves the students so well! I'm so blessed to have her!

Please continue to pray for supernatural energy for the teachers each day, creativity to connect with the students, and wisdom from the Holy Spirit to speak into each of the kid's lives! Please pray for the students to bond with each other, encounter the love of their heavenly father, and feel peace and a sense of belonging at school!

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YWAM LANCASTER YARD SALE FUNDRAISER

Happening this weekend!

Fundraiser for our family and also for YWAM Lancaster and other full-time staff! Please come visit us and say "HI"!

GIANT COMMUNITY YARD SALE FUNDRAISER

Friday, Sept. 10 and Saturday, Sept. 11 from 8am-2pm

Chicken BBQ and Dough and Co food trucks on Saturday!!

Located at YWAM Lancaster base located at the former Twin Pine Campus on 322 (across from Weaver Nut)

Location: YWAM Lancaster 1932 W Main St, Ephrata, PA 17522

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE who has been praying for us, supporting us financially, and for all your encouragement and love as we step into this new season! We love and appreciate you so much!

Love the Shenks