Dear friends and prayer warriors,
I have to start by saying how grateful I am for each of you. I feel I am one of the most blessed men in the world. When you come upon me with a bewildered look on my face like I have no idea what is going on just know, it is because I don’t have any idea what is going on. It is a very authentic look that has pretty much become my resting face. I have found it is in those moments that I actually realize I don’t know what is going on that I can just look behind me and see the absolute grace and mercy of my heavenly Father lavished over my life. It is hard to question where He is taking us when we look at where has already led us.
For the last month or so I cannot help but find myself humming the melody to “Little is much when God is in it” I believe it is because I look around and see so much. I see really small encounters that turn into so much because God was in that encounter. I see small amounts of funds committed to the Lord that He uses in great ways. I see little disciplines that He has made great victories out of. I could go through my whole life history and see how little is much when God is in it. My prayer for today in this turning season of our lives is that I can see the greatness of God in the little things around us right now in this moment without the worry of it not being enough. I have found over the last several years that my stress level and anxiety is directly associated with thinking what I have will not be enough. The fact of the matter is that I have never had enough and I never will. What a freeing thought, I will never have enough without you Lord. I am grateful for the reminders around us that whisper “little is much when God is in it.”
This last month has had a lot of ups and downs. We have had like a total of a lot of snow. That snow melted really fast and caused quite a bit of flooding in our area. The waters washed out several culverts on many of the side roads as well as flooded several families out of their homes. While the flooding was going on our district had a main water line break underneath one of the flooded creeks, because there was so much water the water department had a hard time finding the break. It took them over a day just to find the break, when they did find it the flooding made it very difficult for them to make the repairs. Some of our area was without running water for over two weeks. On one hand we were helping people get out of their homes using some of the camp’s canoes and then on the other hand we were handing them a bottle of drinking water. We had so much water everywhere yet not any water to drink.
Our district did a great job of getting clean water. We were able to have over 30 pallets of water go through the camp and be a place to use for distribution to folks in the community. There were many people that helped. I am grateful we had a wonderful group of young people from Arkansas here that helped us in a lot of ways, while having the most pleasant spirits as they worked without running water to come back to here at the camp as well.
There is a great deal ahead of us as we prepare for summer camp. I am leaving this Sunday after church services for Turkey. I covet your prayers over this trip for myself as well as Amanda and the kids while I am away. There is a lot to be done around the church and camp, along with vehicle issues and some medical things, it is easy to begin second guessing the timing of the trip, but I do believe God is working things out and I am believing Him for a great blessing through this opportunity. There are some things I would love to be able to do for the missionary family there in Turkey, if you feel led to be a blessing to them please let me know.
Speaking of summer camp; When I return from Turkey there will be a group of men already here to help work on some construction projects. There are some new things we are hoping to introduce to the camp this summer. Two of them being a new water slide and a low ropes course. These are things we have worked at adding to the camp for quite a while now and are excited to hopefully have them done before camp starts, or at least the first week. We are also hoping to add a roof over the big porch on the building. This will add another space for small groups during the rainy days or the really hot days.
We always have some needs in front us through the summer to enable camp to run. I ask you to pray about how you can have a part in what God is doing here at the Chanku Waste Ranch. We have a large budget for fuel that needs to be met along with the 4,800 water bottles and granola bars needed to serve the children each day throughout the summer. Along with many other things that I have no doubt will be met as needed.
Living here I see God raising up a new generation of young people. I believe some will continue to go on and live for Him, continuing to share the gospel to their generation and the ones to follow until the whole world hears that Jesus is alive. Salvation has come. I pray you can see the greatness of our God in the little things around you.
There are some big visions and dreams for the coming days and it will require some changes as well as for each of us here to get a little more uncomfortable. Through it all ahead I know that God is faithful and there has never been a time when He was not triumphant. I thank God for each of you and know that you already do so much on our behalf and yet I still ask you to continue to press on praying over us.
Learning to serve the Lord in all we do,
The Haddens