Looking Ahead...

Dear Friends and Prayer Warriors, the Lord is good.  Thank you for the words of encouragement that many of you sent after last week's post.  The Lord is our Sustainer.  Though we have a very real enemy and the war will wage continually, we're thankful to have our Lord as our shield and defender, and prayer warriors like you to intercede on our behalf.

On a family outing down by the dam.

To provide clarification, our ministry here in East Tennessee is called “Mountain Vision” and it is two pronged: our pastor training ministry and our benevolence ministry.  As we come to the end of September I have some mixed news to share with you pertaining to our benevolence ministry.  The storehouse in Greeneville has seen a marked rise in clients this month.  As a matter of fact, September has been the busiest month since they started keeping records in mid-2009.  The number of people we served this month nearly doubled over what we have done during the previous months this year.  On one hand, that's great news because it means the Lord is giving us more opportunities to meet people's needs and share the love of Christ with them.  On the other hand, it means the economy is not getting better and more people are facing more significant needs.  As a matter of fact, it seems to be taking a turn for the worse here in our area.   

For example, Ms. Penny keeps our daughter Lily in the childcare at the YMCA.  It's her part-time job.  One evening this week as we were picking Lily up after going to work out, Ms. Penny mentioned that she had lost her full-time job where she has worked forever, and she wasn't sure how she was going to be able to take care of her daughter.  She is embarrassed that she's having to ask for government assistance for the first time, since she never thought she'd have to do that.  Right now, she's in limbo waiting for some form of assistance to kick in while trying to keep herself and her daughter fed in the meantime.  We are hoping to be able to help her at our food distribution next Thursday.  There are many, many more like her in our community.

Over the last few weeks Mountain Vision has begun to forge an exciting new partnership with First Baptist Church in Greeneville, TN.  For the Christmas season we are very excited about Mountain Vision partnering with their church to help pull off their annual event “The Christmas Store”.  “The Christmas Store” is an outreach that First Baptist puts on each year to help provide Christmas for needy families in the area as well as to reach out and share the Gospel of Christ with those who participate.  They collect critical items that a family needs (diapers, toilet paper, peanut butter, and other non-perishables) and purchase new toys for children under 12 which they then distribute to the families.  On the day of the event, after families receive their gifts, they also receive a Bible and sit down with a counselor who shares the Gospel clearly with them.  Last year, First Baptist served 85 families and this year the goal is 100.  We are working on ideas to include several of our partner churches in NC in this outreach project for the holidays.  Please stay tuned for more detailed plans that we can share with you on how you can be a part of this outreach this holiday season.  Hopefully we will be able to share those details in the next couple of weeks!  We hope through this partnership we can help their church more effectively reach out to the lost people in their community as well as to recruit volunteers from their church to aid our Storehouse ministry. 

On the pastor training side of our ministry we are preparing to launch!  Over the past week Daniel has been reaching out to pastors as well as the heads of local Southern Baptist Associations in an attempt to arrange meetings to discuss partnership with these associations as well as to recruit pastors for the BTCP training program.  Please pray for these phone calls and meetings that the Lord would go before Daniel and stir the hearts of the men he will talk to, that they will have an excitement in their hearts and see the need for this ministry. 

Personally, Lily is so close to walking!  She just will not let go quite yet but enjoys pushing her musical walker all over the house.  She also loves being outside, just like her parents! 

Things you can be praying for this week:

·                       1.  Daniel’s meetings with pastors and association leaders.  That they would be excited about the pastor training program and want to participate. 

·                       2. Continued planning for “The Christmas Store”.  That local NC churches would be excited about partnership and families helped would come to know Christ through this ministry.

·                       3.  On Saturday night, Meredith and I are going on a Sunday school class outing to see "Courageous".  Please be in prayer for our newly forming friendships, that the Lord would help us to establish community here in Greeneville.

Checking out the gravel.

Taking daddy for a walk around the yard.

Trials and Spiritual Warfare

Lily says "Hi!"

Dear Friends and Prayer Warriors, 

Thank you so much for your prayers on my behalf this week.  The surgery on Monday went well.  Dr. Holbrook was able to successfully reattach my severed tendon with no complications.  I'm very thankful to live in an age where the Lord graciously allows us to correct our carelessness.  I will have to wear a brace on my wrist and hand for the next six weeks while the tendon heals, but I am optimistic I will regain full use of my finger.

Sometimes in this blog I treat our personal life and our ministry life as separate entities, when in reality of course they are one and the same.  Nowhere has this become more glaringly apparent than in the spiritual warfare we are waging daily.  Our enemy is relentlessness in his attack.  I can honestly say that neither Meredith nor I were well-prepared for the spiritual opposition we’ve faced since we've been here.  We're so very thankful for all of you who read the blog and pray for us, but practically speaking, we are more isolated now than we've ever been.  It's been a struggle to find community here outside of Charlie and Earlene, who are wonderful of course.  We are thankful to have finally begun to make some friends at church, but those relationships are just getting started.  Dr. Akin said in a seminary chapel service that the devil fights hardest against those who are in a position to do him the greatest harm, those on the frontlines of the Gospel.  We live in a spiritually dark place, and the devil has his hand wrapped firmly around many of the churches here.  Our work is difficult.  Our enemy is fierce and does not want us to be here.  I believe the devil would like nothing more than to destroy our home and disqualify us from the ministry.  Please pray for us, that the Lord would protect our home, that we would not be discouraged, that we would love one another well, and that our marriage would get stronger every day.  At the same time, would you please pray for Lily.  She continues to struggle with sleep, which translates to less sleep for mom and dad and a greater amount of stress in our home.  We've tried everyone's (and I mean everyone's) suggestions.  By God's grace, she has stopped fighting naps the last couple of days, but she continues to fight bedtime.  She cries and/or talks to herself for an hour and a half to 2 1/2 hours after we lay her down, regardless of what time we lay her down.  She's also waking up some at night because she falls asleep so late, or she wakes up exceedingly early if she falls asleep really late.  Please pray for endurance for Meredith and I as we wait for this phase to pass.

In ministry news, we are beginning work this week to build relationships with area churches to establish partnership in hopes that some of these pastors would become potential BTCP students.  Daniel is in the process of beginning to set up those meetings.  We are also working with a local church, First Baptist, that hosts a "Christmas Store" each year and gives out clothing, diapers, and other essentials to needy families in our area.  We are working on several different ideas for how to partner our supporting churches from home with First Baptist in this ministry to help those in need for the Christmas season.  We will update you more on this next week as ideas come together.  

Thank you to those of you who have written cards and sent e-mails of late to encourage us.  We sincerely appreciate it.  Thank you for your continued prayers and support!   

Until the Nets Are Full, 
the Shraders

Lily loves Buddy Buffalo.

Family outing for ice cream.

Mrs. Earlene shared her ice cream cone!

Lily thought about it...

And then went back for more!

We also went to feed the ducks.

Lily wanted the duck to come closer.

Family snuggle time!

Daddy and Lily went to pick pears.

Lily knows what to do with the pears!

My beautiful splint.

Hand Surgery

Hi Friends and Prayer Warriors!  I hope you're having a blessed week.  It's been a challenging two weeks in the Shrader household, and we sincerely appreciate your prayers.  Friday the 9th I accidentally cut my pinky finger on my right hand and severed a tendon in it.  Tomorrow, the 19th, I'm having surgery in Johnson City to repair the tendon, and I would love to have you lift the doctor up at some point tomorrow.  Tomorrow after the surgery I'll post a regular update with pictures of life and ministry here.  Thanks for all that you do!

love in Christ,
Daniel (and Meredith and Lily!)

Second Harvest in Greeneville

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We had our friend Sara Davis take some pictures of Lily for her 1 year birthday!  Isn't she precious?

Hi Friends and Prayer Warriors!


I hope the Lord has blessed you this week.  He has certainly blessed us!  On Thursday September 1st we had the mobile food pantry from Second Harvest out at the Storehouse to distribute food to families in need.  We were able to bless about 61 families with boxes of food, both non-perishables as well as fresh produce and dairy products!  Those families represent over 200 people who have a genuine need.  Many of the clients were first-timers, an indication that word of our ministry is spreading, but also that the economy isn't getting much better in East Tennessee.  Praise the Lord for the opportunity to share His love in a tangible way! 

This is the line starting to form for food.  Notice all the cars!

 The Storehouse itself is undergoing some rearranging and reorganizing in order to make the other things we provide like clothes and household items more accessible, and on Thursday we were able to provide those items to 41 families, many of them with small children.  We've been blessed with a healthy supply of nice clothes, which we've been able to provide to many families with school-children in this back-to-school season. 

Clients picking up clothes.

To see more pictures from last Thursday, check out this online album.  You don't have to be a member of Facebook or logged in to view these pictures.  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150305024291030.365557.181274416029&l=d23308c1ad

On a side note, if you do use Facebook, please "like" Mountain Vision Ministries- Greeneville, TN.  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mountain-Vision-Ministries-Greeneville-TN/181274416029  This is our ministry's page on Facebook.  I'll be uploading pictures and updating the status there from time to time as well. 

Things you can be praying for this week:

1.  Please pray for me as I begin to recruit  BTCP students for a pastor training class to start in January.  I met one potential student this week, and I'm getting excited!

2.  Please pray for Lily.  She's had a virus this week and is still cutting teeth!  At least we can see them peeking through now!  We need to find a local pediatrician, so please pray for discernment as we try to find a quality local provider.

3.  We're moving towards joining a local church.  Please pray the Lord would provide us discernment as we seek to align ourselves with a healthy local congregation.

On a personal note, when we were back in Wendell a couple of weeks ago, we had our friend Sara Davis take some pictures for Lily's first birthday.  You can check out those pictures here if you're interested.  http://www.saraedavisphoto.com/shrader-family-session-wendell-nc/ Sara did a wonderful job and the pics are beautiful!

Love,
Daniel, Meredith, and Lily Shrader