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The past few months have been incredibly eventful in many different ways, both in our lives and in our ministry. Thank you all for your continued support and prayers, as they have been a great encouragement to us!

The Ministry
Since out last update, I’ve had an intense teaching load: Two lectures on the book of Daniel and two lectures on the Gospel according to Matthew for our School of Biblical Studies, and two further lectures on Matthew for our new evening program (Bible Foundations Course).

Daniel has remained one of my favorite books to teach and continues to move my heart with the message of God’s sovereignty every time I read it. This was my first time teaching Matthew, but I was eager to give it a try since it’s my favorite Gospel. Whenever I study to teach a book, it’s inevitable that my heart is ministered to by the specific book I’m reading. Matthew held a timely message for me in presenting Jesus as the true Messiah, in a time and culture when it’s all too easy to create “little messiahs” for ourselves. It was a joy to teach!

Our Ministry has also recently been blessed by a new office space for our staff to work and our students to join us in study. As a ministry that has previously had to “tabernacle” for most of its existence, it’s been amazing to have our own space to settle in.

Family Life
The Good – Samantha’s pregnancy has been progressing smoothly and we’re increasingly excited (and terrified) to meet our new baby! We also recently had the amazing opportunities for Benaiah to spend time with both sets of grandparents (he also got to experience snow for the first time!).

The Less Good – Despite the positive momentum with work and Samantha’s pregnancy, these past few months have brought a number of difficulties.

• Samantha and I were recently blessed with enough funds to buy a second used car. Though we felt that we had done our due diligence in the process, the car has since been fraught with issues and has placed a greater financial burden upon us.
• Due to a botched fix done by previous management (and before our lease), our apartment recently suffered from multiple broken pipes and leaks, which led to an extensive process of discerning the problem and fixing it. We also did not have a very positive experience with our management office throughout the ordeal.

But after about a week of staying with some very gracious and wonderful friends, we’re finally back home.

Prayer Requests
Our primary concern right now is the physical and emotional health of Samantha and the coming baby, please pray for them as the time draws near! Second, please pray for the situation with our car, whether that entails paying to have it fixed or trying to resell it. Third, although Samantha and I have received a lot of unexpected financial support these past months (Thank you Jesus!), we continue to remain underfunded and we also experienced the loss of a couple supporters who are unable to continue giving during these difficult times. Please pray for our finances as we continue to seek to do God’s will here with Emmaus Bible Ministries.

Thank you all again for your love. Despite the struggles, Samantha and I have felt incredibly blessed by the support we’ve been shown.

– The McRaes

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 🙂

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

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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!

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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.

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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

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Greetings.
Hello dearest friends and family. Thank you once again for your patience as it has become increasingly evident that our family blog is moving towards a bi-monthly existence. We appreciate all of your continued attention and support and we hope you are are doing well amidst the seemingly ever-present chaos of 2020!

What’s New?
School has ended! As of the month of May, the students of the Emmaus School of Biblical Studies 2020, have graduated! It was truly bitter sweet to have witnessed the culmination of a great year with wonderful students, but to have our celebration somewhat hindered by the necessary protocols in response to COVID19. As you can see below, we were able to meet in person at the last, but not without taking precautionary measures.

At least it made for a cool band pic. We’re really proud of this group!

What’s next for Emmaus?
For our ministry, the first thing we like to do after each school year is ask ourselves, “How can we make this ministry better?” That means that our summers are primarily focused on improving existing programs and polishing our curriculum. Aside from that, it’s also a time where we can begin studying for next year’s lectures and work on raising more individual support.

As some exciting news, we’re also building the structure of a new program that we’re planning to “pilot” this upcoming year, the “Emmaus Night Course” (we’re working on the title).  Basically, this will function as an intermediary program of sorts, between our 14 week Biblical Narrative Series and our 10 month School of Biblical Studies. This program is designed for graduates of our Narrative Series who want to continue going deeper with their Bible study but can’t necessarily commit to the our 10 month school. It’s still in the planning phase, but we’re very excited to be adding yet another avenue of accessibility for learners who want to know God through His Word!

What’s next for the McRae Family?
This summer is a bit unique for our family in a couple different ways. First, Samantha and I have decided not to renew our current lease (which ends mid August) in favor of finding a larger living space. One bedroom is becoming increasingly difficult for us. This means that we have two months to pack up our stuff, find a new and affordable living arrangement, and move. We have a few options in the works, but would appreciate all prayer!

Second, I (Jacob) will be starting off our next school by teaching through the book of Genesis for the first time. For many reasons, I find this to be a daunting challenge, but one that I’m very excited about. So, much of the summer will be spent studying for this book. Here’s a sample of the books I’ve been perusing so far:

Though I’m only at the beginning of my preparations of Genesis, I’ve already been thoroughly enjoying the process!

Prayer Requests
1. Moving. This is definitely the greatest point of anxiety in our lives right now.
2. Emmaus. There are a number of new challenges arising this coming year, and between studying for new books and creating curriculum for new programs, it can feel a bit overwhelming. We would also appreciate prayer for wisdom and guidance as we prepare for the upcoming school amidst the continuing COVID19 situation.
3. Fundraising. As always, Samantha and I are working towards building our financial support base. Currently, I’m working part time at a local church on their facilities team to help supplement. While aspects of doing that are enjoyable, we’d love the freedom to focus our full attentions on Emmaus.

We love you all, and thank you for your continued support!

-The McRae Family

Obligatory Benaiah Pictures:

Friends, family, supporters, we hope this month of May finds you well! Like most of you (I’m assuming) we have been spending most of our days looking out of windows, hoping things will go back to normal soon. But if you’re anything like me, it might be a relief to hear about something other than COVID-19 for once. That being said, I also don’t want to skip over an opportunity to encourage those of you who may feel stuck somewhere between disappointment and despair. If that’s you, I’d like to direct you to our previous blog on The Doctrine of Disappointment. (I’d also love for you to reach out to us through our contact page!).

We also wanted to take a moment to extend our sincerest thanks and gratitude toward all of you. With the various difficulties and trials that we are all facing right now, Samantha and I were incredibly humbled and touched by the generosity that has been shown us this past month. Where we expected to experience a loss of support, we experienced an increase. We have truly felt the love! You all are amazing!

What’s been going on?
Aside from dealing with the same things all of you are probably dealing with, things have been going well here with us and our work for Emmaus Bible Ministries.  While things have certainly looked different, we’ve been plugging right along with classes through Zoom.

Speaking of classes, I recently taught through 1st John for our school, the last book I’ll be teaching this school year. It’s a great book to study as we begin wrapping up the school year for these students because it’s a book of assurance for believers. As a former student, I can testify to the wonderful problem of having a ton of new Bible information swimming around in my head, and this book does a fantastic job of summarizing deep theology in simple statements. For a six chapter book, 1st John has an incredible amount to say on things like the doctrine of God, sin, salvation, Christology, the Holy Spirit, and even eschatology!

What’s next?
Right now we’re getting ready to head into our final weeks of class with Revelation, followed by graduation for our students. As Student Coordinator of Emmaus, my current job has been to focus on processing applications for next year’s school, starting in August. This is always one of the most exciting processes, seeing other’s get ready for a life-changing year in God’s Word. (Cue the promo video!)

Prayer Requests
COVID has not come without its struggles for our community. One of our students recently suffered the loss of their father as a victim to the virus. Obviously, this type of loss would be indescribably difficult on it’s own, but the process of grieving and experiencing comfort from those around you has been greatly hindered through all of this. Please keep our students and staff in your prayers.
 
It’s also that time of year again, and Samantha and I are looking at the end of our lease coming up soon! We’re desperately trying to find an affordable upgrade to our living space in the remaining time we have left. There are couple things we’d like to ask for prayer on. 1. Either an increase in our monthly support or to find an affordable alternative living space 2. Some favor and guidance in trying to navigate this process amidst the additional obstacles that COVID has put up.

We love you all,

The McRae Family