Hello everyone, it’s been quite some time! In our last update, we left you right at the end of our 2019-2020 school year, before our summer break officially began. Thank you for your patience! Although our silence has been long, our time here in Florida has been anything but quiet. And though I had hoped to write this update a couple of weeks ago, our past month has been a whirlwind. Here’s what’s been happening.
What’s new?
We moved!
If you’ve kept up with our blogs, you’ll know that this has been a long time coming, but we finally found a location that’s a little bit closer to our work and we were able to upgrade from a 1 bedroom apartment to 2 (which is like paradise for us at this point, also, our new address will be located on our “contact” page). This new change has been greatly desired, but unfortunately the moving date ended up falling in our first two weeks of school, and more specifically, during the week that I was teaching 6 hours on Genesis for the first time. While I was working during the day and spending nights studying for Genesis, Samantha was juggling Benaiah and the majority of the packing (she’s a champ!) It’s been a very stressful month, but God is gracious and things are moving along well now.
School of Biblical Studies
Before our summer began, the Emmaus Staff held our annual planning meeting where we assigned the next school year’s teaching assignments. Our goal for the teaching staff is that each teacher will slowly begin building a “library” of books from the Bible that they’ve taught two or three times over the years. This helps the overall knowledge base of the staff grow and allows us to be more flexible with our book assignments. In the past two years, I’ve generally taught the same books for our School of Biblical Studies, but this year I’m expanding my teaching library and have picked up a number of new books, so much of the summer has been spent in fresh preparation for this new teaching challenge
As with everything else, COVID has caused a lot of disruption in our typical School preparations. To be frank, we were expecting to receive little or no interest in our 10-month school program. But as usual, God surprised us and we received 6 students for our 2020-21 school year!
*Please note that social distancing protocol is enforced in our program, though students are allowed to remove their masks while seated.
COVID has made circumstances a bit awkward and challenging at times, but the students of this school year have a clear determination to know God through His Word, which always breathes life and energy in our work here with Emmaus.
We’re also gearing up to start our other yearly programs; the Narrative Series and our new Night School program. Both of these programs are less intensive than our 10-month school, and are more accessible to larger groups of people. So far, we’re seeing great numbers from those who have signed up for these programs, even amidst all the chaos this year has thrown into the mix of our lives. People are still hungry for God’s Word!
What Now? // Prayer Requests
Aside from the normal school classes, Samantha and I are going to be working on settling into our new home over the next couple of weeks, and I’ll also be starting preparations for the next books that I teach while continuing my part-time work doing lawn-care for a local church.
As for prayer requests, we ask for prayers concerning out new home, that it would continue to be a blessing for our family as we adjust. We also would love prayer concerning our ongoing support raising efforts. We’re well aware that this has been an incredibly difficult season for many who’ve been left without jobs or income. We truly consider ourselves very fortunate to have been little affected by this reality up to this point, though at times it can be a major source of anxiety for us, since we rely so heavily on the support of our friends and loved ones. We’re praying that the grace for this season will continue not only for ourselves, but those who have been most affected by these circumstances.
As always, thank you for your continued support. And if you would like to consider making a donation towards our mission, you may do so here: https://emmausbibleministries.org/donate#staffsupport
With our love and blessings, The McRaes
The McRae Family 