Hello dear friends and family!
Thank you for taking a moment to click the link and read our blog! Here’s an update on all that’s new with us here in Florida:
What’s New?
It’s been a very busy number of weeks since our last blog! First, we had a really awesome time being visited by family. Benaiah was very excited to spend some time with the grandparents for his birthday.
Samantha and I also celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary in September š
As to our work with Emmaus, our programs are in full swing and things have been moving along at an incredible (and tiring!) pace. Our Biblical Narrative Series recently kicked off and we’ve been able to start engaging with students in-person and online every Monday night. (for descriptions of our various programs, click the link jacobandsamantha.org/emmaus-ministries/)
Along with this program, we’ve also launched a new program that also runs on Monday nights. This new program functions as “next level” for graduates of our Biblical Narrative Series, who desire to take their learning experience to a deeper level. And since I had just taught the book of Genesis for our 10 month School of Biblical Studies, I had the privilege of starting off our new Night Course by teaching through Genesis once again. This means that we’re reaching around 125 people every Monday through three different Bible training programs!
Right after teaching in our night course, I taught the books of Jonah and Nahum for our daytime School of Biblical Studies. These two books were new teaching assignments for me and so I was excited to jump in and study as much as I could. Surprise, surprise, these two tiny books are packed with tons depth and great messages, and it was an incredible experience getting to teach through them. Hopefully I can write a complimentary blog in the near future that talks about some new things I’m learning in the Bible. But here’s a quick example of some of the light reading that went into teaching these two specific books.
My current teaching assignment is on the book of Daniel. And for those who’ve followed our blog for a while, you’ll know that this is probably my favorite book to teach! So I’m looking forward to digging in again with some new commentaries.
Exciting News
And finally, for those who’ve made it this far in our blog, we have an exciting surprise announcement!
That’s right! We’re expecting Baby McRae #2 in early May, 2021.
Prayer Requests
As you can probably guess, right now our main concern is preparing for the arrival of our newest family member. Samantha has not been feeling great throughout this first trimester, so prayers for her will always be appreciated throughout this process.
Along with this, Samantha and I have remained short of our fundraising goal ever since we started our work with Emmaus, about $1000-per month short, to be precise. Throughout this time, I’ve been working part time for a local church and Samantha has occasionally taken baby-sitting gigs. While this has helped us make sure we can pay our bills, we really don’t feel like this is sustainable for us, nor is it bringing in the full amount we need in order to meet our goal. Along with this, we have been hindered from engaging with the ministry in the capacity that we long for and feel called to. Now that we’re looking at adding a family member, we’re trying to step up our efforts to raise support for our work here. If you’re not already a regular supporter, or maybe if you’d like to increase your monthly giving amount, here’s a link to where you can give: emmausbibleministries.org/donate#staffsupport
Or if you have questions about our ministry and what we do, please feel free to visit our contact page and get in touch!
Thank you,
– The McRae Family
Obligatory Family Pictures
The McRae Family 