Verse to consider today: 2 Timothy 2:13 “If we are faithless, ‘”he remains faithful– for he cannot deny himself.”‘
Oct. – Nov.
Hello and happy early Thanksgiving! We pray that you are all finding an abundance of ways to feel thankful this week. Perhaps not living in Florida, where it’s still 80 degrees outside, is one way you can feel that ; ) But in all seriousness, Samantha and I are extremely happy to be here and have every reason to feel thankful as we work in the positions we felt God calling us to. Thank all of you who have given encouragement and support!
Around mid. October, we (Emmaus Ministries) hosted one of our first “Biblical Narrative Program” sessions here at Canterbury Retreat Center. For those of you who are unfamiliar with what that is, you can take a look at our previous blog post that talks about our 3 new programs. In summary, this session was designed to reach the general community by giving them an overview of the first 5 books of the Bible (Pentateuch). This was the first of our ten part series that is designed to give an in depth overview of each book of the Bible, for the general public, over the course of a year.
We had a great turn out and received very encouraging feedback! Our hope is that this group will continue to grow as we continue to reach those in the community around us who are unable to attend our full School of Biblical Studies.
We were also able to host a separate event for a young adult discipleship group. And this session was part of our “Biblical Literacy Program,” which is designed to provide various seminars for churches and community groups. This particular one was a complete Bible Overview, where we took this particular group through the entire story of the Bible from Genesis through Revelation.
This class also went over very well! It’s so exciting to see how all of the hours of planning and praying are beginning to come to fruition. It is truly an incredible thing to see so many people seeking to know God through His Word, and such a privilege to help facilitate it! And for those of you who have helped us to continue our work here, this is also in part because of your generosity. Thank you.
Aside from our work with Emmaus, Samantha and I were very blessed this past month to be able to catch up with some old friends. 
We briefly traveled to Virginia to see our friends (Max, Cambria, and baby Andrew) who were taking a short break from their missional work in Cape Town, South Africa. They are incredibly inspiring people who have given their lives to help disciple and lead people into godly lifestyles. If you would like to learn more about them and their work in South Africa, you can find their website here.
Prayer Requests:
– We would appreciate your prayers as we’re in the process of receiving and approving student applications for our School of Biblical studies. We ask for wisdom, and more students! 🙂
– We also ask for prayer for some of our family who are having medical issues at this time.
– Samantha and I are still very short of our fully funded goal of receiving $3,000 in monthly support. We’ve seen incredible evidence of God’s provision for us here, but we still allow ourselves to become stressed and anxious over meeting our financial needs. We would really appreciate your prayers in this. If you or someone you know might be interested in helping us meet those needs and continue our work here, we would ask for your prayerful consideration in this. For directions on how you can give, Click Here!
Happy Thanksgiving! 🙂
-Jacob and Samantha
The McRae Family 