Until The Nets Are Full

A Heart for the Forgotten

2012-01-20T21:38:00.002-05:00

This post is a bit longer than normal, but I hope it's worth the read. So when you've got a minute, please read this note from Meredith! If you're having trouble viewing this email, please click here.

Sometimes life requires a little strong coffee!

I have to be honest. Sometimes I get discouraged. Sometimes I wonder if God really wants us here. Sometimes I worry about our ministry funding. Sometimes I question everything. Sometimes I am afraid. Sometimes I doubt God. Don’t we all feel this way at times, but we are often too afraid to share it with anyone?

It has been a while since I, Meredith, personally wrote our blog post, but I felt led to do so this week to share some of what has been on my heart about our ministry here in Appalachia, East Tennessee.

The past 2 months have been very challenging for us here, and on several occasions, our family has battled deep discouragement. In May of 2010 we firmly believed (and still do) that God was closing the door to Russia and leading us to East Tennessee to train pastors. I remember thinking, “Oh Lord, will we ever be able to raise our support? I mean, God, who wants to support stateside missionaries, don’t most people only want to send mission funds to missionaries overseas?” The Lord answered with, “Trust me.” We did and He provided for us in exceeding and abundant ways (just like He always has) and He confirmed that this was where we needed to be.

We are missionaries. We left our home, our families, our friends, and everything that was familiar, and came to a place where people talk funny, drive 10 miles an hour UNDER the speed limit, are not very open to outsiders, distill urine to make Crystal meth, and live in a degree of poverty that I personally have never seen.

The past two months, things did not seem to be going as quickly as we wanted with the ministry here. We wanted a pastor training class like, yesterday. It was slow for Daniel to have the meetings that he needed to have, and some of the benevolence ministry, we simply did not understand the purpose of. Then, a major supporter questioned the need for us here, and lowered our support substantially, and I began to doubt. “God, do you still want us here?” “I mean, do we need to be somewhere else?”

The other night, I lay in bed with Daniel and unloaded my fears and questions. I asked him, “Why do you feel God has led you here? I mean, can’t you train pastors in another place. This just seems too hard.”

His answer warmed my heart and challenged me and I wanted to share it with you. If you too have had any doubts about how God could send a missionary to Tennessee, or anywhere in the US for that matter, hopefully this will encourage you as it did me.

He responded, “I have a heart for church revitalization, to see the church changed from the inside out. The focus of many ministries today, including the Southern Baptist Convention is on Church planting, going into places that have no church or many unhealthy ones, and planting a new church. I believe that is definitely needed, but I also believe that God wants to revitalize what is already here. Meredith, do you know why many older people do not like contemporary music? It is not the music but it is the fact that they do not know the words. Have you ever been in a service where they played a new song you did not know the words too? How did you feel? It really affects that worship experience. However, instead of listening to many older people and trying to understand them, too often we have just said, ‘they need to get with the times’ and moved on past them. I think in ministry at large we have done that too. Society is becoming more urban, people are moving out of the country into the cities and so the focus of ministry today is largely on cities and urban areas. I am not saying that is a bad thing, it is needed. But what about the small country churches? Are we just supposed to leave them to die? Are we supposed to just let them remain in errant or even heretical teachings? Look at Jesus. He went to all the towns preaching and teaching, but also the villages, the small country areas. His heart was for ALL people, and truth needs to be shared with all, even the small country churches that no one seems to care about today.”

His answer knocked me off my feet. I had never even thought of it that way. We began to pray for the ministry here, for God to make it clear if this was where we needed to be, and for the support of it in ways that we had not done previously. It has been amazing over the past 2 weeks to see how God has answered and confirmed the need for us to be here. A couple of our financial partners increased their gifts without us asking. We’ve added a new monthly partner. Some of our partners gave one time gifts that we hadn’t asked for. All reminding us that the Lord is in control, and this is where He wants us to be.

I am not saying everyone needs to be here. People need to be in China, Russia, Argentina, France, Mexico, India, Iran, and every country in between. Other missionaries need to be other places in the US. But God has called US here for now. And we are excited to serve the Lord in a place that has been forgotten by many, but not by the Lord.

We pray that all of our supporters would have a heart for Appalachia, in many ways, the place of the forgotten. Thank you for our prayers and support of our ministry, we truly could not be here without you and we are so thankful.

We are currently in need of $500 in monthly support to sustain the ministry here. Please be praying with us that the Lord would raise up those partners that would have a heart for what we are doing and would be excited about coming alongside us.

Snow Bunny! My nose matches my outfit!

Our first real snow.

Cheese! Everybody wears pj's on snow days!

She had a little trouble learning to walk in her new boots.

Dog! Dog! I see a dog!

Lily loves our neighbor's dog. He's a sweet fella, and he loves her too!

She was determined to try and get another drink of mommy's coffee, but mommy wasn't going to let her have too much.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-09T22:32:00.000-05:00

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Lily is watching the snow falling. We got a dusting last Tuesday.

Happy New Year!

I hope you had a wonderful, blessed, Christ-centered holiday. Ours was delightful. It was great to visit with family and friends at home for a bit, but we're glad to be back in action in East Tennessee and excited about what the Lord has in store for us in the new year.

On New Year's Day, I had the privilege of preaching at Central Baptist Church in Wendell, NC. The central theme of that sermon is something we've been reflecting on in our home for some time. The longer I'm alive, the more convinced I am the almost all of our problems in life arise from a misunderstanding of who God is and what He is like. That's why the Lord gave us a Bible, to intentionally reveal Himself to us. This year in our home, we're trying to read through the Bible every day asking just one simple question: What does this passage tell me about who God is and what he is like? And then, we're writing down our responses in a simple notebook. My hope is that be the end of this year, we'll have a notebook full of our own observations of what our glorious Lord has to say about himself. Would you consider doing something similar? We'd love to hear what you're learning as you join us in this.

As an example, what does Genesis 1 tell us about who God is and what he is like?
1. He is creator of heaven and earth.
2. He is all powerful.
3. He speaks, so he has the ability to communicate.
4. Everything he does is good and very good.
There are lots more things you could write down here, these are simply intended for illustrative purposes. I hope you'll enjoy your reading this year!

In our home life, Lily is a delight. She's growing fast and learning new words every day. She's become a little chatterbox, and she has a wonderfully sweet disposition. We're thankful for this time with her!

Meredith and I are doing quite well, though we have been struggling with some illness the last couple of weeks. To this point, Lily has been spared. Please pray she doesn't get it!

In our ministry, the Storehouse continues to be busy, serving many in the community. As for pastor training, we made some good inroads in December. I've enlisted the help of a number of key local leaders who are as excited about this ministry as I am! Please be in prayer for us over the next two months as we flesh out our plan to launch sermon prep groups by the summer.

Thanks for all your prayers and support!

I left the pantry door cracked on accident. The house got suddenly quiet for too long, and I soon discovered why. She really likes crackers!

Pastor Luis is a friend who pastors a local hispanic congregation. This week we were able to provide cribs for their church nursery among other things! He was very excited, and very thankful to the Lord!

Our 1st Thursday food distribution went great. Our local Second Harvest received a new truck for their mobile food pantry this month, courtesy of American Idol Gives Back.

Volunteers sorting for broken eggs as we prep the food to give out.

Lily is starting to outgrow her wagon, so for Christmas her Mema and Papa got her a new ride. She also got a folding slide and and outdoor table play set from her other grandparents, perfect for our little one who loves to be outside. We're blessed to have such wonderful parents!

This is Daniel's whole family. Mom and Dad, 5 kids, 5 spouses, 9 grandkids, and there are two more babies due this year!

She was tired in the midst of all the present opening :)

Me and my four siblings at Christmas.

If you have something nice to say, by all means Say It!

2011-12-21T22:50:00.000-05:00

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Lily loves books! This book is "What is Christmas?" and shares that explains how Christmas is all about Jesus!

Today we celebrated our second Christmas with Lily. Yes, it's early. But we're headed home tomorrow to spend some time with family for the holidays, and we wanted to have a celebration with just our little 3. Last summer I heard a pastor articulate an idea we've been trying to cultivate in our home for the last year, albeit slowly. Growing up, we were always taught "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all." However, the positive articulation of that is also true, though never stated. "If you have something nice to say, by all means SAY IT!" Since Lily was born, I've thought a lot about what would happen if the Lord were to take me home suddenly. What would she have of me? I've thought the same for my wife, and the answer is, only what I leave them. So, for Christmas I wrote them both letters, cards that contain my memories from this year and verbal expressions of my love for them. May I encourage you to do the same for those who are closest to you? Whether it's been a difficult year, as ours has, or a pleasant one, take time to write down how much you love them, and tell them why. Tell them what they do that makes you proud, and share a memory or two from this year that illustrates it. The letter can be as long as you like. I promise they'll read it! Letters are a simple, almost outdated form of communication in the age of email, texts, and tweets. But physical letters can be preserved in a way email cannot. The feel of holding a card or letter written to you with words of love will never be replaced by a typed message read on a cell phone, kindle, or ipad. And perhaps most importantly, they can survive long after you're gone. This year, please don't take it for granted that those you love know it. If you've got something nice to say, by all means say it, spit it out, write it down!

The cedar chest.

Lily is too small to read her Christmas cards from her mother and I this year. So for Christmas, we got her a small cedar hope chest that we hope will preserve these letters until she's old enough to appreciate them. Until then, we intend to be faithful to write them each year.

Meredith and I would like to wish you all the merriest of Christ-centered Christmases, and thank you for all of your love and support. We'll be driving to Wendell tomorrow to visit family for the holidays, and we appreciate your prayers as we drive. I'll be preaching New Year's Day at Central Baptist in Wendell, NC. I appreciate your prayers as I prepare to preach. We're very much looking forward to seeing many of you in the next week or two!

Merry Christmas,

Daniel, Meredith, and Lily  

Lily likes to "help". She's figured out the stool lets her reach more things. Not good ;)

We made treats for our neighbors for Christmas. I made my first ever batch of peanut brittle.

Peanut butter kiss cookies are great!

2011-12-12T23:07:00.000-05:00

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Dear Friends and Prayer Warriors,

It's been an exceptionally wonderful and busy two weeks here in TN. Our December food distribution went very smoothly, and we praise the Lord for that.

Children waiting with their parents for the truck to arrive.

We had a good crowd on a very chilly December morning.

Last weekend we were blessed to be able to participate in the Christmas Store at First Baptist Greeneville. For that event many of our friends at Central Baptist Church in Wendell and Calvary Bible Church in Williamston, NC collected diapers, peanut butter, and toilet paper. Our friends Graham and Jean Dean pulled a trailer load of items for the Christmas Store and our Storehouse over the mountains from NC last Friday. I forgot my camera when we were unloading, but it was a lot of stuff! We're so thankful to everyone that donated items to help with the ministry here. You're a blessing to us and the people of East Tennessee.

Graham and Jean Dean brought a trailer load of items for our ministry over from NC, and they were a tremendous encouragement to stay with us!

The Christmas Store was awesome. We got to serve about 90 families, providing them with toys, food, and some other of life's necessities. We also sat down with each family before they left and shared the gospel with them. The Lord was gracious to allow us to see a number of men and women place their faith in Christ, which is what it's all about. I had the privilege of counseling a sweet lady who had never heard the gospel clearly presented. She came to the Christmas Store because the other programs in town wouldn't help her because her daughter is 37 years old. But you see, her daughter is mentally handicapped, and functions on the level of a 5 year old. We were able to be a blessing to her and her whole family, and when we came to the counseling room, I sat down and explained that the love of Christ compels us to love others, because He first loved us. I shared the gospel with her as clearly as I could, and when I asked her if she had ever repented of her sins and given her life to Christ, she said she had not, but wanted to. I led her through a simple prayer of confession and faith, and she added her own ending for emphasis! We'll be following up with her in the weeks to come, and encouraging her to join our fellowship of believers! Please be praying for her and the other men and women who made professions of faith last Saturday. Follow-up is crucial, and our prayer is that the decisions that were made were genuine and not simply emotional.

Associate pastor Joey Tillery praying for the Lord's blessing on the day.

All set up! The wrapping tables are ready!

Guests were provided with hygiene products, toiletries, cleaning supplies, and some food items.

Deanna and Darlene get ready to greet guests.

A family receives the gifts for their children.

A family picking out socks and underwear.

A volunteer wrap the gifts beautifully.

Graham and Jean manned the food table!

Families selecting hygiene products.

Wrapping more gifts!

And more gifts! The wrappers were the busiest volunteers!

Another family selecting their gifts.

A wagon full of gifts for a family of 6.

The church set up an "angel tree", and one a large gift (~$25) was purchased for each child by someone in the congregation. The parent was also able to choose 2 approx. $5-$10 gifts for each child.

We were blessed to have the Deans serve with us. They fit right in and made themselves at home!

This week Charlie and I will be doing our 2012 strategic planning, and we appreciate your prayers as we map our where we believe the Lord is leading us next year.

On Thursday, I have a couple of meetings with key local leaders to talk about pastor training. Please be in prayer for those meetings as we seek to find a way to labor together!

thanks you for all your prayers and support. I leave you with a few more gratuitous Lily pics. :)

At the Christmas Store, Lily attempted to take off with one of the wagons.

Caught!

Doesn't matter. I'm going anyway!

Camera?

Lily loves to play with shoes.

I don't remember what I was feeding her, but she wasn't thrilled.

When we get to the end of a meal, Lily leans over the side of her chair and announces "All done! All done!", which is an appropriate way to end this blog post.

Blessed!

2011-11-28T20:40:00.000-05:00

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Dear Friends and Prayer Warriors,

I pray that you had a blessed Thanksgiving. We certainly did. Below this normal post, you'll find a couple of stories from our ministry from last week that I pray will bless you. They're examples of how the Lord is using us (and you!) in the day to day lives of real people. The stories might take a few minutes to read, but I assure you they're worth it!

Mrs. Earlene with the new woodstove!

This week we're getting the Storehouse ready for winter. We had a wood stove donated (praise the Lord!) and installed last week, and this week we'll be trying to get everything in working order. We're expecting our first snow Tuesday night into Wednesday! We're also gearing up for the Christmas Store at FBC Greeneville, which will be December 10. Please be praying for this as we continue to collect the necessary items, but also be praying that the Lord would open the hearts of the families who are coming to be receptive of the Gospel, and that many would enter into a relationship with him on that day!

In our home, we've been talking a lot about how we keep Christ at the center of this Christmas season amidst all the hustle and bustle of the secular holiday. This year, we'll be observing 25 days of Advent following a guide suggested by our good friends Adam and Heather Richardson, which you can find here. http://www.aholyexperience.com/free-advent-devotionals-jesse-tree-book/ Our prayer is that you'll find a way to keep Christ in the center of your Christmas as well!

Thank you for your prayers!

Stories from last week!

Desperate for Diapers
On Tuesday, I was supposed to be delivering a Thanksgiving meal to a family we know has a significant need. The young man is a roofer who got laid off about a month ago. The wife is a stay-at-home mom with 2 small children. There's no government assistance, and there was almost no food in the house. I got tied up and was running a little behind, and the young lady called to make sure I was still coming that day. I assured her I was, and that I'd be there within the hour. Right as I was saying goodbye, she hesitantly asks for one more thing. She asked if I could spare a diaper or two. She knew Lily was about the same size as her little boy, and he was out of diapers. I went and talked to Meredith, and we had two packs in the closet that she had acquired via her couponing efforts, so I was able to take diapers to this young family in need. After delivering the turkey dinner and the diapers, the young lady thanked me profusely for our help. You see, they'd been out of diapers for two days. There are so many families like that here, it's heartbreaking. Next week through the Christmas Store we'll be serving between 80 and 100 families, this one included, providing basic necessities as well as new toys and a Bible for the children. If you'd like to help out with the Christmas Store, just reply to this email.

One more, since the Lord was so good to us last week!

How the Lord Uses the Generous

This has been a wonderful week in our ministry. We're so thankful just to have an opportunity to serve the Lord Jesus and to bless others in his name! On Monday and Tuesday, through our partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast TN, we were able to provide turkey dinners as part of Project Thanksgiving to families in our community desperately in need of help. Though there are many stories from this week, one of them is perhaps sweeter than the others.

On Monday we were working with the apartment manager of some low income apartments to provide dinners to families she knew to have genuine needs. About half way through the complex, as we approached the next home on our list, the young man we were going to meet came out and met us on the sidewalk. His question surprised us. He asked if he could give away the dinner we were bringing him. He explained that today, he had food in his fridge, but his friend down the street didn't. His friend and his son were out of food, and he wanted them to have the turkey dinner we were bringing. Quite frankly, we were shocked by the young man's generosity, and of course, we gave his friend the turkey dinner. It get's better.

The apartment manager asked us if we had 2 more turkey dinners, since she had learned of two more families in significant need. So Tuesday we went back with the other 2 dinners and were met with a surprise. One of the new families was the young man from the previous day whose friend had given him his dinner. Well, here we sat with an extra Turkey dinner, and Charlie asked the young man if he knew anyone that really needed it. The man said he thought so and dashed off to check with a neighbor. A few minutes later he returned and directed us around the corner to another family. The lady met us on the curb literally weeping. Her husband is a roofer who got laid off because the work has dried up. There's no government assistance yet, and there was no food in the house. She'd been calling churches and praying that somehow the Lord would provide them with something to eat, and here we came with a turkey and all the fixin's. She said she knew the Lord would hear her prayers and provide for her family somehow. It was our privilege to be his provision. And it all started because the young man the day before had been generous enough to be willing to give up the meal we were bringing him.

This year we are thankful for a Lord who cares about the poor and needy, who meets us where we are are provides for all our needs. We are thankful for the opportunity to serve the Lord and be his hands and feet today. And we are thankful to all of you who make this ministry possible. Your gifts and prayers are enabling us to meet real needs!

Charlie praying with some men who we've just given a Thanksgiving meal to.

Charlie praying for these families we're helping who have significant needs.

Charlie chatting with pastor Luis, who pastors a local hispanic church and is becoming a friend of the ministry.

Lily helping daddy get the tree up.

She always wants to wear daddy's hats.

This weekend after putting away some laundry, I returned to find a new passenger in the laundry basket.

"Mommy, don't you think daddy's hat will complete my outfit?"

Playing in the decorations.

Our Christmas tree is up!

After Lily disappeared from the living room, I grabbed my camera and went to see what she was getting into. She had grabbed a washcloth and was "dusting" the table at the foot of mommy and daddy's bed. Just like her mommy :)

Getting Ready for the Holidays!

2011-11-19T12:35:00.000-05:00

There are so many things I could do with this picture in photoshop if I had time, but it's pretty funny just as it is. Lily loves rolling around in the papasan chair!

Hi Friends and Prayer Warriors,

It's been a busy two weeks gearing up for the Holiday season. Thanks you so much for praying for us. We had a wonderful visit with Pastor Ed and his traveling companion Mike a few weeks ago. It was good to be encouraged and to discuss areas for potential partnerships in the future.

The next step for launching a BTCP is my meeting with William Lunsford, which was cancelled due to an unforeseen event, and we're working to try and reschedule that soon. We appreciate your continued prayers on that front.

We've partnered with Second Harvest to participate in Project Thanksgiving, and next week we'll be providing Thanksgiving meals for at least 30 families in our community. Please be praying the Lord is glorified and people see his love through this project.

Many of these folks are used to asking for help. We're thankful to be able to be a blessing to them in their time of need.

People lined up for boxes of food.

We're also making preparations for the Christmas Store event at FBC Greeneville, and excited about what the Lord is doing there. If you'd like more information about how you can participate, please reply to this email and I'll talk you through how you can practically help.

In our home life, there are some things going on in my extended family that are quite challenging. If I can, I'll try to share some more details in a future post, but for the moment, would you please keep my family in your prayers. I know they'd appreciate it.

Love, the Shraders

Meredith's mom's cousin Ann came all the way from California for a visit!

Outside playing with a flower pot. As long as she's outside, she's pretty much a happy kid :)

Lily put on both of daddy's hats...at the same time.

Lily's in a stage where she loves to climb, and she love to climb in the papasan and roll around!

Cheese!

You want me to do a trick?

How about I karate chop the cushion?

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-02T21:56:00.000-04:00

Since we're first time parents, we knew nothing about babies or kids when we had Lily. Lily has survived so many mistakes that we made caring for her this year, we affectionately call her our little "crash-test-dummy". And so the idea for her costume was born. Meredith hand painted it!

Dear Friends and Prayer Warriors,

Thank you so much for praying for my meeting with Ben Proffitt on Monday. The Lord heard your prayers, and that meeting could not have gone better. He received me warmly, and we're on the same page in our agreement that we need to do a better job training our pastors and church leaders. He sees a lot of potential for BTCP, and told me I needed to go meet with William Lunsford, who is presently in charge of the seminary extension here. Before I could call William on Tuesday morning, Ben had already gone to see him to share our ministry with him! I talked to William on the phone Tuesday and he seems genuinely excited. I'll be meeting with him next Wednesday to talk about how Mountain Vision and BTCP can come alongside the Holston Baptist Association in offering training to their untrained pastors. Please pray the Lord would bless that meeting as we look for synergies in our ministries and begin to discuss how we recruit students!

Several of our partner churches including Central Baptist in Wendell, NC are collecting items to support the Christmas Store outreach here at First Baptist Greeneville. We're collecting diapers, toilet paper, and peanut butter specifically. We're also collecting new or gently used coats, hooded sweatshirts, blankets, sheets, and towels. Though we collect these things locally, the demand we're seeing is so high our local donations can't keep up. If you'd like to help out in some way with this outreach at Christmas, simply reply to this email and let us know, and we'll help you get connected!

Tomorrow, Thursday, Pastor Ed Rose from our home church in Wendell, NC will be coming in for a visit. We'll be meeting to talk about partnership opportunities for the spring and summer, and Meredith and I are very much looking forward to having him stay with us for a night! Please pray for safety during his travel, as this will be a quick trip up and back for him.

In our personal life, we thoroughly enjoyed our Lily's second Halloween. Lily got many, many compliments on her "crash test dummy" costume! She also rode a horse for the first time and loved it. We had a good time with the folks at First Baptist, as well as trick-or-treating on Main Street in downtown Greeneville.

Things you can pray for this week:

1. Thursday is our food distribution day at the Storehouse. Please pray we'll be able to bless many, many families.

2. Pastor Ed is traveling here on Thursday and departing Friday. Please pray for safety in his journey, and that our time together will be mutually encouraging.

3. Please pray for the Christmas Store outreach as we gear up and collect items for that event on December 10.

4. Please pray for my meeting next Wednesday with William Lunsford of the HBA as we discuss launching a BTCP here in East Tennessee.

After a little internet research, Meredith designed and painted Lily's costume!

I'm ready to go dad!

Mommy and her super cute crash test dummy!

Lily rode a horse by herself around the parking lot at First Baptist! Look at the excitement in her eyes. Can you hear her saying "Go faster!"?

The horse was cute in his costume too.

Lily also went on her first hay ride, and she enjoyed it!

I love my daddy.

and I love mommy too!

"Trick-or-treat!"

Yay for family self-portrait!

Running around the back yard!

Mommy is keeping a close eye on me!

The pumpkin full of candy was getting heavy!

"Look at me! I'm running fast..."

Until I crash. :) Perfect example of why I got this costume.

Candy!

"Mom, look what I've got!"

"But I can't eat lollipops :( so what fun is this?

Let's see what else is in here.

Thanks for all your love and support!
Love, the Shraders

Little Lily Ladybug

2011-10-27T21:04:00.002-04:00

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Hi Friends and Prayer Warriors,

The past 2 weeks have been busy! Lily has fully recovered from her sickness, and is back to growing like a weed and moving from walking to running pretty quickly! We made a mad dash back to NC last weekend, and Lily got to see both sets of grandparents for a few minutes anyway. She loves them. Since our last update, she has started to "give kisses," which is awesome. There's nothing quite like a clumsy, slobbery kiss on the cheek from your daughter.

Also in family news, Meredith and I were able to have our first "getaway" since Lily was born a couple weekends ago when we drove up to Boone and spent a night. We enjoyed driving the Blue Ridge Parkway and just getting some time alone together!

Blue Ridge Parkway!

View from the parkway.

We'd love to say a special thank you to Paula and Terry Jenkins for helping out at the Storehouse while they were here two weeks ago. They worked hard the whole time, and we thoroughly enjoyed having them. It was encouraging to spend some time with them. We love visitors!

Terry and Chuck building the new clothing rack.

Finished! We have a third more hanging space now!

In ministry news, over the last 2 weeks I have been working to meet with leaders of local baptist associations in our region to promote the BTCP (Bible Training Center for Pastors) curriculum in hopes of starting our first pastor training class in the spring. Just yesterday I was encouraged when I met with Jack Roddy, an associational missionary who is responsible for strengthening and equipping 58 churches. He has a lot of bi-vocational pastors with no formal training in his association, and said he definitely sees a need for BTCP to be here. He's agreed to make his pastors aware of our classes in the spring and to encourage them to consider attending! Praise the Lord! Please be praying some of those men will respond to the opportunity. This is the heart of why we are here - to see pastors in the Appalachian region equipped with sound doctrine to more effectively minister to their churches and the lost in their communities.

On Monday, I will be meeting with Ben Proffit, the Director of Missions for the Holston Baptist Association (HBA). The HBA is the largest local baptist association in northeast Tennessee, representing hundreds of churches. Many of those churches have pastors with no formal training who are potential BTCP students, and we would love to be a resource for them. Please be praying for that meeting, that the Lord would open the doors that He desires for us to walk through, and close the ones He does not.

Family photo with the fall leaves! This picture was taken right in our neighborhood! We are truly blessed to live in the mountains.

Up to no good :) Lily enjoys eating what the "grown ups" eat now!

Lily's "memaw" and "papa" came to visit and spend the weekend with her when we took our getaway to Boone!

Riding papaw's tractor. Well, almost.

She's a little unsure of mechanical sounds like the tractor but Papaw promises to "break her in" to the farm life!:)

Ladybug photoshoot over our weekend in NC. Lily loves being outside and being on the move!

Memaw was ready. Papa and Lily were not. Or were they?

Too cute.

Our Lily ladybug. She brings such joy to our lives and this is a really fun age!

Love,
Daniel, Meredith, and Lily Shrader

Be Careful What You Wish For...

2011-10-12T00:06:00.000-04:00

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"Look mom, a pumpkin!"

Hi Friends and Prayer Warriors, it's been an interesting few days in the Shrader household. Last Thursday, Lily started vomiting and so began our exciting first round of real sickness with our daughter. She's had a stomach virus for six days now and seems to be improving today. Last Thursday, she threw up all over Meredith. When I got home from work, Meredith was quite upset about the inequity of it all, and asked why it was that she was always the one getting thrown up on. I said I didn't know, and foolishly remarked that I wished that Lily would vomit on me instead of her for a change. Though the Lord is certainly not a genie, he did see fit to grant me that foolish wish, and three out of the next four days Lily vomited on daddy for a change. On a serious note, Lily is still struggling with a little dehydration. She's made it so far through today without vomiting, but she’s still not drinking enough. In addition to the stomach virus, she has some molars coming in and doesn't want to eat or drink anything, so we've been having to syringe feed her some liquids which is unpleasant for everybody. Please pray that she'll be able to hold down enough fluids to get through this illness soon, and that she'll return to eating and drinking normally before her dehydration requires more serious medical attention.

In ministry news, our first Thursday food distribution for Second Harvest went very well last Thursday. We were able to serve 69 households, and many of them were new faces. We are in the process of recruiting some new local volunteers, and the leaders of that were able to attend on Thursday. Please be in prayer for this new partnership as it would be a real blessing to us to have some more hands on deck helping at the Storehouse.

People are starting to line up.

We also gave away lots of clothes on Thursday.

This week we're blessed to have Terry and Paula Jenkins serving with us from Texas. They're a real joy and we're doing our best to put them to work, and I’m sure we’ll have photos up next week.

Finally, please be in prayer for Daniel as he continues to contact local area ministry directors and pastors in an effort to set up some meetings to talk about launching a pastor training ministry in the spring. This is truly where our heart lies and we are praying that the Lord would open the doors for this to happen.

Thank you for following along the blog and for interceding on our behalf. We believe the Lord hears your prayers and answers them. We couldn't be here without you.

Lily likes to sleep up against the bumper.

With mommy at the pumpkin patch.

Lily had a great time taking these little pumpkins out of the bin, and then putting them back!

Looking Ahead...

2011-09-29T22:14:00.000-04:00

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

2011-09-20T23:04:00.000-04:00

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

2011-09-18T23:14:00.000-04:00

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

2011-09-05T14:02:00.000-04:00

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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

2011-08-29T22:44:00.000-04:00

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Lily learned to brush her teeth this month!

Hello Friends and Prayer Warriors! I hope you've had a blessed week. Many of you live in areas affected by Irene, so please know that our thoughts and prayers are with you as you recover and clean up!

We have just arrived back in TN after spending a little time in NC. Lily celebrated her first birthday with friends and family, and especially grandparents! She also had her 12 month checkup and is growing like a weed! She's now in the 100th percentile for height, but the doctor assured us she'll slow down in the next year or so.

Lily was super cute for her birthday, but she wasn't too fond of the cake!

To see the rest of the birthday pictures, click here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150352519526159.403033.507686158&l=3469f3d7af&type=1. You don't have to be a member of facebook or logged in to view them.

In addition to visiting family, we visited with supporters and potential supporters. We've added a couple of new partners in the last week, and we are truly thankful for them!

In ministry news, Bill and Judi Havens have been a part of Mountain Vision for the last 3 years, and last week officially transitioned out of the ministry because the Lord is leading them to go back to Russia with a different organization. We love them and wish them all the best in this new adventure they're embarking on. Bill ran the day to day operations of our Storehouse, so please pray for our team, Daniel and Meredith, Charlie and Earlene, as we adjust to life without the Havens. So far, things are running smoothly thanks to some outstanding volunteers. Please continue to pray the Lord would raise up more volunteers to lead and carry out the ministry at the Storehouse.

In the coming weeks, I (Daniel) will begin recruiting potential students for the pastor training ministry we hope to launch in the spring. Please pray that the Lord would open the appropriate doors, and that local pastors would recognize the value of higher education and be willing to learn.

Ready for my wagon ride. Thanks Mrs. Paige for the new hat!

Where is Lily?

Peek-a-boo! Lily learned this on her way to Mema's house!

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support! We love you!

An Extreme Makeover by Mount Moriah Baptist Church of Garner, NC

2011-08-11T22:58:00.000-04:00

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This week we were blessed to have a team of missionaries from Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Garner come and serve alongside us. They're an amazing group and the Lord used them mightily. This post contains more pictures than normal because there's so much to show. Thank you for praying for their trip. I believe the Lord answered your prayers, because everything went very smoothly, at least until Claude locked his keys in the truck the last day, but AAA took care of him. :)

You can check out the video here: http://vimeo.com/27566327

Mount Moriah's Trip to East Tennessee from Daniel Shrader on Vimeo.

The team served in a variety of ways. They stocked our food pantry.

Our pantry shelves were almost bare. Now they're loaded up!

They brought us more clothes than we have room to display! The ladies sorted, folded, and hung clothes for hours on end. What a blessing!

Danna and Judy folding clothes.

Joan and Nancy sorting clothes.

Part of the incredible abundance of clothes they brought.

3 in a shirt!

The men helped us build new clothing racks to replace the old crowded ones.

They reclaimed Ginger's garage by cleaning it up, installing an access ramp, and building custom pantry shelving along wall.

This was the garage we the team arrived.


Gene and Judy cleaning.

Building the ramp.

Papa Tim and Jonathan working on the ramp.

Installing the railing.

All cleaned up.

Dan and Jonathan cleaning.

The finished garage!

New pantry shelves!

They also cleaned house! (and had a good time throughout!)

Cleaning the kitchen.

See, Mrs. Joan does work! :)

Team lunch.

Lily entertaining Mrs. Danna.

You can tell Papa Tim has grandkids. He's great with little ones!

And finally, the bathroom extreme makeover, courtesy of Claude Canipe, Brien Knight, and Phil Hansley.

This was the bathroom before they started.

Out with the old cast iron tub.

Out with the old cast iron toilet drain.

All clean. Ready to start the rebuild.

New sub-floor in. Brien and Phil starting the shower install.

Insulation in. Shower started.

Claude reworking the drains. They replumbed about 80% of the drain pipes to get the house to drain properly.

Sink and toilet roughed in.

Claude cutting the sheetrock.

First coat of mud almost done.

Phil and Brien finishing the sheetrock.

All painted. Trim done. Medicine cabinet installed.

The new toilet drain.

New floors almost done.

Installing the sink and toilet.

Finished!!!

Ginger's beautiful new walk-in shower!

Ginger's new bathroom!

L-R: Tim, Joan, Danna, Bruce, Nancy, Brien, Earlene, Judy, Claude, Gene, Charlie, Phil, Rannah, Jonathan, Judy, Dan, Ginger, Bill, Daniel, and Meredith.

Thank you SOOO much for praying for this team. The Lord truly blessed their time here!

Our First Missions Teams!

2011-08-04T22:11:00.000-04:00

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Greetings friends and prayers warriors!

The first 10 days of August are going to be exciting and busy days in our ministry! First, the Glogower family, Craig, Melissa, Craig Jr., Colin, Cameron, and even their dog Josie, arrived on Sunday the 31st of July to partake in a week of service with our ministry. They wanted to see "hands on" what our ministry was about as well as to provide an opportunity for their children to learn how to lead a missional and servant life. It has been a rewarding week for their family and a time of encouragement for our family all the way around. On Monday, Craig, Daniel, and the boys spent the day replacing a broken toilet and installing some handicap support bars in the bathroom of a couple who are currently struggling with physical disabilities. This will allow them to move around safely in their bathroom. For the past 3 days, everyone has spent time out at the storehouse working on various projects that were in desperate need of being done, including building a shoe rack to display shoes so that people who are in need could be able to more easily identify them. Time was also spent organizing clothing, working on grounds maintenance, and putting in a fan to help cool the storehouse which has no air conditioning. Today is the Second Harvest Food Bank food distribution and it was an awesome time! Over 48 families in need were given boxes of food! The gospel was shared and we were able to pray with many. We are so thankful to the Glogower family for giving of their time, talents, and energy to serve with us this week, encourage us (they even gave us a date night!), and for wanting to teach their children how to lead missional lives!

Also going on today through next Tuesday, a mission team of 12 people from Mt. Moriah Baptist Church is in town. The 7 men on that team are doing an "extreme makeover" on the bathroom of a lady who is disabled. She has had to take sponge baths for over a year due to being unable to access her shower because of her disabilities. The 5 ladies will be working hard at our storehouse continuing the organizational process and helping as we prepare to transition out the summer clothes and transition in the winter clothes to be given away. It will be a busy but exciting week of ministry!

Things you can be praying for this week:
1-Pray for safe travel and arrival of the team from Mt. Moriah. 5 members of their team are already in town but the remaining team members are traveling tomorrow.
2-Pray for unity of purpose for the Mt. Moriah team and that they will be able to accomplish the project in the time they have to do it.
3-Pray for the team from Mt. Moriah that as they learn more about our ministry and see it first hand that they will develop a love and heart for Appalachia and a passion for the great mission needs here and take that passion back to the rest of the congregation.
4-Pray for safe travel home for the Glogowers and that their sons will be excited about living a missional life from their experience this week.
5-On a personal note, pray for Lily this week as she is cutting more teeth and thus not sleeping well or feeling well.

Thank you for your prayers and support! We love you and miss you and could not be here without you!

Craig and Craig Jr. carrying out the old toilet.

Installing new handicap bars.

We installed a new toilet and handicap bars for some friends in need.

Craig Jr. weed-eating the back 40 in 95 degree heat. He knocked down ALL that tall stuff!

Delivering a mattress.

Collin helping with the shoe rack.

Cameron and Craig Sr. working on the shoe rack.

Final product. Our new shoe display rack.

We installed this big fan in the wall to help cool the Storehouse.


Framed.


It was a snug fit :)

Lily checking out some tourist brochures from this area - deciding what she wants to see first!

She sure loves to eat but it sure makes her tired!:)

Have we mentioned before how much Lily loves dogs? Lily so enjoyed her time with the Glogower's dog, Josie, while she was here!

The Glogower family L-R Collin, Cameron, Melissa with Josie, Craig Jr., and Craig.

Sweating it out!

2011-07-26T13:04:00.000-04:00

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Hi Friends and Prayer Warriors,

I hope you're finding ways to stay cool in the midst of the oppressive heat that's been covering most of the country. Despite the heat, the Lord's work rolls on. This week a bunch of our friends and supporters from Central Baptist Church in Wendell, NC are on mission trips to Enola and York, PA. They're doing a sports camp, backyard bible clubs, and other outreach activities to help plant a church in that very unreached area. Please keep them in your prayers this week.

We had a great time with Mike and Tim the week before last planning for the future. There are some changes on the horizon for Mountain Vision, and we're excited to have you along for the ride. We appreciate your continued prayers as we seek to follow the Lord as a team. I'll keep you up to date as "dormant ideas" (as Charlie calls them) become active and present realities.

Tim and Mike and the Cornetts at our house to hang out with Lily and visit.

On Sunday the 31, our friends Craig and Melissa Glogower and their 3 boys will be arriving to spend the week ministering alongside of us. We're excited to have them coming and are planning to put them to work! Please be in prayer for their family as they join us, that it will be a mutually encouraging week.

Sometime the end of next week, probably Thursday and Friday, members of a mission team from Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Garner will be arriving to serve alongside of us. They're coming to do an extreme bathroom makeover for a disabled woman, as well as to serve in the ministry here. I'll post more details and specific prayer requests next week.

Things you can be praying for this week.
1. Please pray that we will find a local Southern Baptist church to connect with. We've been visiting, and are praying through where the Lord would have us to join and minister in the local church.
2. Please pray for the Glogowers, for the plans for their trip as well as their safe travels.
3. Please pray for the Lord's direction as we finalize the plans for the Mount Moriah trip.

As always, thank you for your prayers. We couldn't do this without you!

Too funny not to post. Look how intensely Lily is focused on grabbing Mrs. Earlene's ear!

Chatting with Daddy.

We put up 120 ears of corn I bought out of the back of a pick-up on Saturday. It's yummy!

Lily and the pickle jar. It was cold, so it must have felt good on her teething gums.

Some day she'll get to enjoy the pickles too!

I missed the jar here, but look at that intensity!

A Busy Week Ahead!

2011-07-11T12:06:00.000-04:00

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Look at all my teeth!

Hi Friends and Prayer Warriors!

Thank you for your continued prayer support of our ministry. We believe that "the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much!" (James 5:16) Last week we were blessed to have Clint come over and install a heat pump for a disabled lady here in town. She had been without heat or A/C for well over a year. She was so excited to call and tell me on Friday that her house was a very pleasant 76 degrees, and that her son was asleep in his room (instead of on the kitchen floor where there is a small window unit air conditioner). We praise the Lord for Clint and his willingness to live sacrificially to bless others.

Clint: "Uh-Oh, does this mean I'm going to be on the blog?" Me: "Yes it does, so smile pretty!"

Out with the old.

Checking for snakes.

In with the new!

Bert and Clint installing the new air handler.

We also had our monthly food distribution last Thursday. We were able to bless 45 families with boxes of food from Second Harvest. All went smoothly, so thank you for your prayers for that.

Clients waiting for the Second Harvest truck.

The line starting to form at the Storehouse.

This week, Mike Scheer, the Missions Pastor at Denton Bible Church, and Tim Ford, Mike's flunkie, (just kidding Tim! Tim is an integral part of the DBC Mission's team who helps in all kinds of ways, like coming to meet with us!) will be arriving late Tuesday and then spending all day Wednesday and Thursday meeting with our team to talk about our present situation, vision, and strategy. I anticipate that those will be long and, at times, tense days of planning as we seek to determine the Lord's will and leading for the next phase of Mountain Vision. All of us desire to be squarely in the Lord's plan, so please be praying that the Lord will make his plan especially clear to all of us.

On Sunday, July 17, Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Garner, NC, will be voting on whether or not to partner with our ministry financially. Please pray that the Lord would allow us to find favor in the eyes of the church, and that a beautiful partnership would emerge there.

Things you can be praying for this week:

1. Please pray for our meetings with Mike and Tim, that the Lord would be present and guide our conversations.

2. Please pray for the people at Mount Moriah, that the Lord would move them to partner with us.

On a personal note, Lily's grandparents came to see her last weekend, all of them! My mom and dad were on vacation about an hour from here, so they drove up for the day on Thursday. Meredith's parents drove over from NC and spent the weekend playing with Lily and touring the big city of Greeneville.

Happy to see all of my grandparents!

Making faces at mommy.

She's looking mischievous. :)

Our ministry starts!

2011-07-06T21:29:00.001-04:00

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Hi!

Greetings Friends!

We hope this finds you all doing well and that you had a joyous time celebrating the 4th of July with your family and friends and remembering not only the privilege it is to have the freedom we do in this country but also the spiritual freedom we have through the blood of Christ shed on the cross!

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers over this past week! Daniel's first round of meetings with the team went well and there are more to come! The week for Daniel was spent first meeting with Charlie Cornett, our field director, and discussing the current status of our ministry here. The week rounded out with spending a day cleaning up the grounds and organizing our local storehouse where we give away clothes each week to those in need in the area. There are many changes on the horizon for our ministry so continue to pray for us!

We left Sunday for a brief trip to see Daniel's family near Dandridge, TN. It has become a Shrader family tradition that they vacation in the mountains on Douglass Lake around each 4th of July. It was nice to get to spend time with them, play on the lake, and for Lily to get to see her grandma, grandpa, cousins, and uncle Sam and aunt Alex. She did really well overall even though sleeping in her pack-n-play is not her favorite thing! As far as development, she has recently learned to wave and say "Hi!" when someone waves and says hi to her!

The week ahead is a busy one for us! Thursday the storehouse is hosting Second Harvest, a local food-bank ministry that we partner with. They are setting up at the storehouse Thursday morning to help distribute food to the needy in the area. Also on Thursday, a friend from Raleigh is coming to install a new air-conditioning unit for a needy lady in the area who has been without air-conditioning for over a year. We are so excited to have a friend coming to see first hand the benevolence side of our ministry and to partake in this with us. Friday we will spend another day doing clean up of the store house with the help of some members of U-Turn for Christ, a two-month minimum residential ministry of restoration, designated primarily for men and women struggling with the sin of addiction.

On a side note:
Over the past two weeks a big question that Daniel and I have been asking the team is, "Why are we HERE?" What we mean by this is why are we here in the Greeneville/Johnson City area specifically and not in another region as we seek to launch our pastor training ministry? That question has been answered by our team but it was also answered locally as I, Meredith, was driving home one day last week and saw the sign of a local Seventh Day Adventist church below:

Note that it's the Seventh-Day Adventist asking the question. Scary.

How do you take away the message of what it says? For me, it hit me to read, "How important is doctrine really? You decide if it is". Doctrine is truth. How important is truth in our churches? As Christians? Paul talks over and over about the importance of holding to sound doctrine and not being swayed by the heresies of those false teachers who sought to destroy the people around them with lies and incorrect teachings. This is why we are here. Because this local church is not teaching what is true. They are questioning whether truth is even important. Many churches here are not teaching what is in accordance with sound doctrine. As we launch our pastor training ministry here our heart is that men and women can truly begin to take hold of sound doctrine and understand the importance of it as they share it with those around them and in their congregations. Hopefully, like a small flame, this region will begin to change because of it.

Things to pray for this week:

* Pray for our friend as he travels from Raleigh to install an air conditioner.

* Pray for the food distribution Thursday.

* Pray that God will open doors for the pastor training side of our ministry to begin in the near future.

We love you all!
Daniel, Meredith, and Lily Shrader

Cute ladies!

Cousins!

Headed down to the lake.

Lily doesn't like the water yet!

Hanging out on the dock with Hunter and Hayden.

Checking out the water.

Showing Granny around the dock!

Walking around with cousin Cameryn.

Checking out the puppies. :)

Playing with Papa's hat!

Wakeboarding on the 4th.

We made it!

2011-06-19T22:50:00.000-04:00

Hi Friends and Loved Ones!

We've made it to East Tennessee! The Lord graciously provided a place for us to rent on my trip 10 days ago. I came up with the moving truck last Sunday. I'd like to say a special thanks to Jimmy, Proctor, and Trey for coming all the way from Wendell, NC to help me unload all of our stuff! I spent a couple days getting Lily's room set up, and then Meredith and Lily came up last Tuesday. We've spent most of our first week painting, cleaning, and unpacking. By God's grace we've almost finished setting up the house! Thank you so much for your prayers as we transition. I promise pictures soon.

On a more somber note, Earlene lost a nephew who lived here locally very unexpectedly this week. He died sitting at his computer. He was only 45. The funeral was this evening, and the graveside is Monday. If you would, please say prayer for Charlie and Earlene and their family as they grieve this week.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support!

the Shraders

Ready... Set... STOP!!!

2011-06-08T12:24:00.000-04:00

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Hi Friends!

Lily helping pack. She's saying "Let's get moving!"

Please say a quick prayer for us today. Our bags are packed and we're on the verge of moving. We were all set to take the first load of stuff today. However, yesterday we found out that the house we rented in Greeneville, TN has lead paint on the exterior, and due to the extensive chipping, we don't feel like it would be a safe environment for our nine month old. So, after taking a day to pray about it, we're looking at other housing options. I'm headed to Tennessee today, Wednesday, to look at some other properties that are available and prayerfully to find us a new place to live. Please pray the Lord would provide a place for us. If we're able to find a place today or tomorrow, we're going to try and move this Sunday! Thank you for all your prayers and support. I'll update you as soon as we find something!

I want to go outside!

First trip to the pool.

Initial shock at the cold :)

:-(

Granny gave me this outfit!

Aunt Faye gave Lily a wagon.

Off for our morning walk about 6:30am.

Her favorite toy is a spoon.

HA!

WE'RE MOVING !!!

2011-05-16T22:10:00.000-04:00

Easter Sunday!

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!!! At last we have a move date. We'll be relocating to East Tennessee June 11-12, just less than a month from now! There is excitement in the Shrader household! It's been a wonderful 9 months since we began this process, as we have had the privilege of watching the Lord provide marvelously for our needs. We sincerely appreciate your prayers over the coming month as we prepare for our big move.

Aside from the obvious excitement over our impending move, Lily is providing us with plenty of excitement as well. In the past month, she's cut her first tooth and now has a couple more on the way. She's mastered crawling and today pulled up by herself for the first time! She's already into everything, and so I can only imagine what it's going to be like when she's walking in a couple of months.

We sincerely appreciate your prayers. Here are some things we'd love for you to pray for in the coming month.

Please continue to pray for Meredith as she transitions out of her job. Her last day is May 31st!

On Thursday, Meredith and I will celebrate 4 years of marriage! On that same day, one or both of us will be making a mad dash to Tennessee to look at a couple of rental houses and hopefully sign a lease! We're planning to go up and back in one day (it's about 700 miles round trip), so please pray the Lord would keep us safe on the road.

Please pray for the remainder of our support to come in over the next month as we transition. Presently, we have raised about 80% of the support we need.

Finally, please pray for the moving process as a whole, that we'll be able to find the right place to live and make all the proper arrangements to get our stuff from here to there!

Going for a stroll!

First reaction to applesauce.

She was not impressed.

But she tried it again. You'd have thought it was a lemon.

Beautiful Shrader ladies on Easter Sunday.

Lily in her Easter dress.

Meredith started extreme couponing this month. This is her first haul. Retail value: $55. Total OOP: $4.50

Lily feeding the neighbor's goats.

And checking out the baby chicks.

Lily loves dogs! and our neighbor's dog Dixie loves Lily!

Lily's first trip to pick strawberries!

They were yummy!

Bedtime! Lily loves to eat a book at bedtime. :)

This is my first attempt at cake decorating - for my sister-in-law's baby shower.

Our sweet neighbors gave Lily a swing! She loves it!

FASTER!

Big smiles!

I love this picture!

3 Generations on Mother's Day!

Getting Close...

2011-04-19T21:04:00.000-04:00

Hi Friends and Prayer Warriors!

Family photo April 18

Thank you so much for taking the time to lift us up before the throne of King Jesus. It is the power of the Holy Spirit moving in us that enables us to press on every day. We are excited to be preparing to move to East Tennessee to join the Cornetts and the Havens serving with Mountain Vision. Presently, we’ve raised about 75% of our necessary monthly support goal. We’re working diligently to raise the remainder of the necessary funds in order to move from North Carolina to Tennessee by the summer. Since we began this process last July, we’ve been praying we would be able to move by the end of April. Sadly, we’re not quite going to make that goal. However, by God’s grace we won’t miss it by very much, a move by the end of May is very plausible. Last week, Meredith put in her notice at her job that she’s leaving! This is a huge step of faith for us, and we’re both very excited about it. For us, it solidifies the reality that leaving is right around the corner.

If you've been following the blog and praying for our ministry, but haven't yet committed to partnering with us financially, we would ask that you prayerfully consider doing that at this time. It's NEVER our desire that anyone feel pressure to support our ministry financially, and that only those the Lord clearly leads to give would do so. It's our heartfelt desire to be able to follow the Lord's direction and begin to actively minister in Appalachia, and we're getting close. We just need a few more financial partners to be able to make the move. If you feel like the Lord might be leading you to join us, please give me a call or send me an email and I'll follow up with some instructions on how to do that.

In our home life, Lily is growing like a weed. It’s hard to believe that she’ll be eight months old on April 23. By God’s grace, she’s finally learned to nap well and sleep well at night, so the sleep deprivation in our home is slowly subsiding. It’s been a busy year for the Shraders. With my sister’s wedding June 5, all four of my siblings will have gotten married since July of last year. Add to that the birth of my daughter and my sister-in-law presently expecting twins, and there have been a lot more family functions this year than usual. It’s been a blessing getting to spend the extra time with them before we relocate to Tennessee, and I’m thankful the Lord has given our family this wonderful year.

Things you can be praying for:

On Wednesday night, April 20, I'll be sharing about our ministry with good people at Temple Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC. Please pray that some of those who attend would be moved by the Lord to partner with our ministry!

Please pray for the last 25% of our support to come in directly, so we will be able to transition to Tennessee before the summer.

Please pray for Meredith’s transition out of her job. She works in mental healthcare and some of her patients are not taking the news of her departure well. Please pray that all of her patients will be able to comfortably adjust to new providers in the next 6 weeks.

Please pray that Lily will come to know the Lord at an early age, and that she’ll truly be willing to give her life completely to Him. This is our prayer for her on a daily basis.

Finally, please pray for our friends and neighbors who were affected by the terrible storms and tornados that tore through North Carolina on Saturday, April 16. Among others, some dear friends of ours had a tree destroy 30-40% of their home, and they’ll be displaced for another month or so during the reconstruction.

Here are some recent family photos- most of them from my brother Sam and his wife Alex's wedding reception. Notice that Lily is making a different face in almost every picture. She's very expressive!


These are Lily's 7 month photos!

Finally, a few pictures of East Tennessee

2011-03-16T23:55:00.000-04:00


Peas! Lily was expecting sweet potatoes, and I gave her peas for the first time instead. She was less than thrilled :)

Hello Friends and Prayer Warriors!

Thank you so much for praying for my trip to East Tennessee. Dion and I had a great trip, and the groundwork is starting to come together for a summer trip from Central Baptist, though we've still got some details to be ironed out. It was great to see Charlie and Earlene, and Bill and Judi. It was also good for me to start to get a feel for the geography, since our ministry is a little bit sprawled out at the moment. Overall, I was encouraged and Meredith and I are excited about getting there.

Praise the Lord we've been blessed with some new financial partners this week. We've got approximately $1400 a month left to raise to be able to move, which is outstanding. Currently I'm working hard and we're praying hard that the Lord will bring in these funds in the next six weeks or so! Please continue to pray for the Lord's provision. If you have friends or family members who might be interested in learning about our ministry, PLEASE send them a link to the blog and to our youtube video! If they watch the video and the Lord pricks their heart, then perhaps the Lord will lead them to seek our more information and possibly join us! If they watch the video and decide they're not interested, that's okay too. But there's no harm in passing along the opportunity!

For reference, the link to our youtube video is http://www.youtube.com/danielshrader

When I coached high school cross-country running, I always taught my kids to save a little bit until the end of the race, and then when they see the finish line, to turn it on and sprint as hard as they could all the way to the finish. Right now, we can see the finish line in the support raising process, and we're trying to turn on the sprint to be able to move by the end of April. Please pray for us during this time, for endurance, for new contacts, and for the Lord to provide the means for us to move in a timely fashion!

In our home life, Lily is growing, recovering from a cold, and almost crawling. She's having a hard time adjusting to Daylight Savings Time this week as her naps and bedtime have all shifted, and for that we'd appreciate your prayers.

Charlie and Earlene's house. They restored a beautiful old farmhouse!

The view from Charlie and Earlene's front porch.

Ethel is disabled, and the only entrance to her house is on the second floor. Without a ramp, she cannot get down.

Our ministry is bringing in a team to build an 84' long ramp, which will come to about where Kenneth, Ethel's husband, (in overalls) is standing.

Free range chicks!

This is a potential project. Edna, who is also disabled, needs a ramp built off the left end of the porch.

Strategizing.

Edna cannot get into the tub by herself, and needs to have her tub converted to a walk-in shower. This is another potential project.

Clothes on shelves in the Storehouse. This is our home base for our benevolence ministries.

More clothes for needy families.

This tank is inside the storehouse, and needs to be relocated outside.

The air compressor in the center of this picture also needs to be relocated outside the storehouse.

This is the back of the Storehouse. A shelter needs to be constructed here to house the air compressor in the previous pic.

Now for some gratuitous Lily pics.

Another fun face!

Sweet smile!

Trying to get to the grass!

Fun with the Family!

2011-03-02T22:58:00.000-05:00

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The last two weeks have been filled with family adventures. My brother Josh married his delightful girlfriend Rebecca after six and a half years of dating! They're a wonderful couple and we're excited to see what the Lord has in store for them in the future. It was my privilege to participate in their wedding as an officiant. It was my first wedding since being formally ordained in November, and I'll always remember it. The weekend of the 19th, we made a mad dash down to the beach so Meredith could participate in Becca's bachelorette festivities, and Lily got to experience the beach for the first time.

We praise the Lord for the new families that felt led to join our team in the past two weeks. We are still praying that we'll be able to move to Tennessee in April. Please continue to pray for the Lord's provision as we work diligently to raise the remainder of our support.

Tomorrow (March 3) I'll be driving over to Tennessee with Pastor Dion from Central to meet with Charlie and plan out the logistics for a summer mission trip from Central Baptist in Wendell. Please pray that the Lord will keep us safe as we travel, and that we'll have a a productive trip.

I hope you enjoy following along on the blog. I love being a dad, and it's my pleasure to share my little girl with the world. I hope you get a smile out of this video. Be careful about making a baby laugh too hard!

Here are some pics of our latest adventures, including Josh and Becca's wedding!

Looking cool in my new sunglasses!

First beach outing!

Dad's idea. Lily immediately began crying when the cold water touched her feet :(

Lily loves mommy!

My new sister-in-law Rebecca!

The Shrader women, L-R: Sharon (David), Meredith, Becca (Josh), Alex (Sam), and Kristen (Jake).

She likes sweet potatoes!

"Who gives this woman to be married?"

"You may kiss the bride!"

Jim and Juanice Scott were like my grandparents growing up. I'm so glad they got the meet Lily!

Learning to sit up!

And falling over :)

1st ride on the 4-wheeler! She wasn't thrilled :)

Someday she'll enjoy riding the tractor with her papa!

Correcting the last post :)

2011-02-13T20:18:00.000-05:00

Hi Friend and Prayer Warriors!

Okay, The format I put the videos up on www.youtube.com/danielshrader didn't work very well, so I've changed it. Instead of 4 videos to watch, there's just a single 6 minute video that explains who SERVE is, what our Mission is, and how you can help. That video is here:

Hopefully, this new format will make it not only more convenient for you to watch personally, but also more convenient to forward to your friends who might be interested in learning more about our ministry.

Again, thank you for all your prayers and support!!!

New Videos Are Up!

2011-02-10T23:04:00.000-05:00

Hi Friends and Prayer Warriors!
(If you can't see the pictures or videos in this in your inbox, go here: www.danielandmeredithshrader.blogspot.com)

I hope you are having a blessed week. I've been working on a variety of things, including a way to introduce friends and family who don't live locally to our ministry. What I've done is put together about 6 minutes worth of video that explains who we are, who SERVE is, what our mission is, and how people can help. It's just a snapshot introduction intended to provide the basic details about us and our ministry. Those videos are embedded here on the blog, but also on my youtube channel, www.youtube.com/danielshrader

What I would love for you to consider doing is sending an email to your friends and family members who you know have a heart for missions, and might be interested in learning more about our ministry. Simply send them a note explaining that we are friends of yours, and that you would love for them to watch our videos to see if the Lord would place it in their heart to follow up and seek out more information. I'll be glad to explain everything we're doing in greater detail and answer any questions they may have. Thank you for prayerfully considering this!

A brief personal introduction.

Who is SERVE?

What's our Mission?

How can you help?

In our home life, Lily is growing like a weed. Though I've been a little slack with the camera lately, I finally took some time to get some current photos. She's REALLY tall for her age, and has a sweet temperament. She's sleeping better, so thank you so much for your prayers on our behalf! Check out this clip of her laughing. She thinks momma is hilarious!

Just for fun, here are some of the most recent pics of little miss Lily!

Check out this latest video of Mountain Vision Ministries

2011-01-31T23:20:00.000-05:00

Hi Friends and Prayer Warriors,

There's new video that was put together for our ministry showing some of the things we're involved in. I would love for you to take a couple of minutes and check it out. Mountain Vision exists so that Christ may be glorified among the people of Appalachia. Part of that ministry is hands on reaching out to people, and part of it is equipping local church partners to take the gospel into their communities in meaningful ways. I hope you're encouraged by what you see. God is changing lives, and we're excited to get to be a part of that.

If you can't see the video in you email, check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJF4n6gqwh8

Support Update:

We're excited to let you know that we've raised right at 60% of our monthly support, or $3200 per month in commitments. We are blessed to have supporters at every giving level, but it is the sum of the parts that make up the whole. Every one of you is necessary, and we are sincerely thankful for your faithfulness to partner with us!!

We are praying that we would be able to move in April, so please continue to pray with us that the Lord would bless our efforts to raise the rest of the necessary funds!

Personal Update:

If you've followed this blog at all, you know that our daughter has always had difficulty sleeping and hence, so have her mom and dad. We have regularly asked you to pray that the Lord would enable Lily to learn to sleep, and give us the endurance to survive until that happened. Well, I'm happy to tell you that the Lord appears to have answered that prayer. Lily has now dropped back to one feeding at night, and she has learned to nap on her own in the crib. The naps are still brief, 30-40 minutes, but they are becoming regular. Meredith and I still have a ways to go before we fully recover from almost 5 months of sleep deprivation, but the situation is definitely improving and we're finally getting some more sleep. So thank you for your prayers!!!

I have been slack about taking pictures of Lily this month, but she's growing like a weed, and I'll post more pics next time.

Please Pray for "Proclaim" the Denton Bible Church Missions Conference

2011-01-20T18:28:00.000-05:00

Hi Friends and Prayer Warriors!

Mel Sumrall is the founding pastor of Denton Bible Church, which he planted in his 50's. After turning the pulpit of DBC over to Tommy Nelson, he became the first missions pastor at DBC and launched DBC missions. Now in his early 80's and less able to travel the globe, he is currently planting a church in Decatur, Texas!

Thank you so much for your prayers for our family while I was in Texas this week. God answered your prayers, and we made it through the longest separation in our marriage! It was a productive 5 days in Denton, but I'm very glad to be home. Lily managed to grow in just the few days I was out of town. Crazy.

There are few things I would love for you to pray for in the coming days. Friday night 6-9pm and Saturday morning 8am-2pm is Denton Bible will be having its semiannual missions conference. Here's an invite.

Proclaim Missions Conference - Proclaim2011.com from Denton Bible on Vimeo.

Tommy Nelson on Missions - Proclaim2011.com from Denton Bible on Vimeo.

Please pray that the Lord's presence will be felt at the conference, and that all of the pieces will come together flawlessly! The cool thing about this conference is that most of the SERVE missionaries from around the globe are going to be there, as are a number of missionaries serving with other agencies. This means you'll get a chance meet some of the Lord's finest servants with stories from the front lines in missions! So, for those of you in North Texas, I strongly encourage you to attend at least part if not all of the conference.

Another thing you can be praying for this weekend is my sermon on Sunday. I'll be sharing with Calvary Bible Church in Williamston, NC about our ministry and also sharing from God's Word. I appreciate your prayers as I prepare.

Please also be praying for Meredith to be able to get some rest! She did an amazing job with Lily while I was out of town, but she has to working today and tomorrow, and of course the weekend is full so rest is going to be a bit hard to come by. Pray that when she has the opportunity to sleep, she'll be able to do so!

Thank you so much for your prayers!!!

The Mountain Vision Ministries team, minus Meredith of course. It was great to finally all be in a room together and to learn more of what's going on in the ministry in Tennessee!

Daniel Orozco is a stud. He left his career as an engineer at Peterbilt to move his family, (wife Marie and 5 kids) over to Nice, France as full time SERVE missionaries!

John Brown works in the missions office at DBC. He's been a dear friend and mentor for almost a decade.

Greg and Tom are 2 of my Texas buddies from a decade ago. They're awesome!

Brandon and Christine Hembree were classmates with me when I was in the Missionary Training Institute (MTI) at DBC. They just finished their first 4 year term in Shanghai, China, and are getting ready to go back for four more years! Both of their children (Julia and Hudson) were born in China!

Our table in the DBC foyer for the missions conference.

Dennis and Allison Omondi are serving the Lord in Kenya. Dennis is training pastors like crazy, but most proud of the fact that the SERVE Compound in Kenya boasts the largest SERVE logo in the world. They're a wonderful couple.

Missionaries praying for missionaries. Priceless!

Learning from Christ about broad-based leadership training.

The DBC missions staff with our Mountain Vision Ministry team. It was a great time together!

We Need Your Prayers While I'm Travelling!

2011-01-13T16:53:00.000-05:00

Hello Friends,

Tomorrow I will by flying out to Denton, Texas for the DBC Missions Conference. This will be my first trip away since Lily's arrival, and the longest Meredith and I have been apart in our 3 1/2 years of marriage. I'll be in Texas until Wednesday the 19th. We sincerely appreciate your prayers during this time. Please pray for Lily's ability to sleep to develop. We've seen some progress, but in general it continues to be erratic. Meredith is already exhausted, so the next week will be a real challenge. Please pray for the Lord to give Meredith an extra dose of energy to take care of Lily through the fatigue.

While I'm in Texas I will be meeting with my other East Tennessee team members and working on a ministry strategy for this summer and fall, so please be in prayer that the Lord's guiding hand would be in our time together.

Support raising is going well. I met with the mission's committee at Grace Church in Greenville last Sunday, and it went very well. I've had a number of encouraging meetings with potential supporters, so pray that the Lord would move in their hearts to partner generously with our ministry. I'll be preaching at Calvary Bible Church in Williamston, NC a week from Sunday, so please be in prayer for my sermon preparation over the next week. We're certainly praying the Lord would raise up partners from within that church as well.

I want to say a special thanks to those of you who are presently supporting our ministry financially. We appreciate your sacrifice. Our goal is to be moving to Tennessee in April, so the next couple of months will be critical. Please continue to pray that the Lord would give us strength and protect our family during these next few very busy months!

Mommy is already teaching Lily to read!

Lily is not so sure about this camera that keeps flashing at her!

Distracted by daddy while memaw reads me a book.

First attempt at solids!

Initially, she's curious.

mmm...that tastes funny!

NOOOO MORE PLEASE!

But we insisted.

Chillin' and checkin' out the snowman.

We gave up pretty quickly. She didn't manage to swallow much.

Playing with dad.

Newspaper for scale. Lily is REALLY tall at 20 weeks. She fills out 9 month clothes comfortably.

How do you keep Christ in your Christmas?

2010-12-23T20:34:00.000-05:00

Lily's first snow came early! This was December 4th!

Meredith and I are excited to be celebrating our first Christmas with Lily! Having Lily has put a lot of things in perspective for us, and for that we're truly thankful. In particular, we have been talking a lot about how we will teach our daughter the true meaning of Christmas. Though both Meredith and I come from Christian homes, the more I reflect on it, the more I don't think that Christ is the center of our families' Christmas traditions. To be honest, I think the truth is there's probably nothing that we do as part of our Christmas celebration that wouldn't happen in a non-Christian home at Christmas. The focus of the day is spending time with family, eating good food, and of course, presents. As a parent, this is a big concern for me. I really don't want to ask my daughter what Christmas is about in a couple of years and have her reply be "PRESENTS!!!"

So here's my question for you. How do you keep Christ in Christmas at your house? What specific traditions do you have that intentionally guard against Christmas becoming a secular holiday about spending time with family and getting presents? We would love your feedback. You can simply reply to this email or comment on the blog and let us know what you think.

For the record, I am not against spending time with family and giving/receiving presents. Those things are great. It's just that I wonder if sitting around a tree watching kids tearing open mountains of packages filled with plastic stuff is how the Lord would have us celebrate the birth of King Jesus.

We want to wish you a very Merry Christmas filled with the LOVE and HOPE of King Jesus. His birth changed history, changed our lives, and we pray it has changed yours as well!!!

Lily LOVES bath time. This is a snippet of our bedtime routine!

Lily loves standing in her jumper!

Ordination and Thanksgiving

2010-12-01T11:33:00.000-05:00

Hello Everyone!

I want to say a special thank you to everyone who was able to come to my ordination service on the 21st. It was great to be surrounded by so many of my friends and family on such a special day. I also want to say thanks to the many, many people who helped out, from Pastor Ed and Chris Abner who spoke at the service, to the many people led by Mrs. Tricia Faison who put together a wonderful reception following the service. It was a night I'll never forget.

Lily all dressed up for Daddy's ordination service.

Two beautiful ladies!

Elders and Deacons were invited to pray over me as part of the ordination service.

Pastor Ed presenting my ordination certificate and CBC's gift, a new Bible!

A very sleepy Lily with her Grandpa at the reception.

Since then, life has continued its steady pace forward. My brother Josh asked his girlfriend Rebecca Hall to marry him on the 20th, and we're excited that Becca will soon be a Shrader officially. Now that I'm ordained, they've asked me to participate in marrying them. It's really exciting that my first wedding as an ordained minister will be my brother and sister-in-law!

Josh proposing.

That's a "YES!"

We were blessed to spend Thanksgiving with family. The Lord has blessed us richly this year with such a precious little girl, that this Thanksgiving has special meaning. Giving thanks is something we're called to do daily, not simply on one turkey-filled holiday a year. We've had to learn to give thanks in recent months during some very challenging circumstances. Though Lily has a wonderful temperament, she had colic and has acid reflux, which meant we had a couple of exhausting months! Today, she's past the colic and the reflux is being controlled with an antacid, so she's sleeping much better! For Meredith and I, it's been a challenge to learn to give thanks not just on the good days, but on the bad ones as well! The Lord has been teaching us patience and selflessness, and for that we are truly thankful!!!

Laughing at Aunt Faye at the Richardson Thanksgiving!

I'm starting to like hair bows!

Uncle George

Cousin Kaley

Cousin Amy

Lily checking out the spread at the Shrader house!

Uncle Josh

Aunt Becca

Aunt Sharon

Grandpa!

Laughing at Grandpa Shrader!

Last week we had some 3 month pictures of Lily taken, and they came out great! You can see them for yourself on the photographers website here. Just click the "View Category Slideshow" link at the top of the page. http://proofs.saraedavisphoto.com/category.php?event=311724&id=807018#90021668

In spite of the busyness of the holiday season, God has continued to bless me with opportunities to meet with potential supporters. We've now raised almost exactly one third of the funds we move to Tennessee! Please continue to pray that the Lord would raise up the partners that he would have to join our team!

If you know someone who does not get our blog updates and would like to, would you mind forwarding it along to them or replying to me with their email address? If you're not sure if someone gets it or not, you can simply reply to me and ask. Thanks for your support in this way!!