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Ready or not, here comes the summer

June is just around the corner – our busy time of the year. I just wrote the following memo to the AIM staff in advance of the deluge: OK gang, here we are, poised on the edge of the summer’s cliff, ready to dive off. I hope you’re all feeling adequate in the Lord to the task ahead. As I walked …
By Seth Barnes

June is just around the corner – our busy time of the year. I just wrote the following memo to the AIM staff in advance of the deluge:


OK gang, here we are, poised on the edge of the summer’s cliff, ready to dive off. I hope you’re all feeling adequate in the Lord to the task ahead.

As I walked out of the office this afternoon, I saw Bill Pagel‘s list of projects (about eight of them) that still need leaders. It reminded me of those days early on when Sue Mast and I would burn the midnight oil looking for people to staff our projects.


And over at Next Step [our discipling ministry], people are getting ready for the first training camps. There’s a hum in the air as final preparations are made.


At home, Karen and I are feeling it. Tomorrow Leah leaves to join the Mexico work crew. The last time down there wasn’t easy, so this evening there are more than a few tears being shed and reassurances given about how it will go.

You’d think after our past struggles that we’d just give up, but we believe in getting back on the horse. We trust Anne Milligan and Thomi Wilson a lot. We know that when we’re in Africa, Leah will be with family down in Mexico.


I guess that’s how it is for all of us, no matter where our assignment around the world this summer. We’ll all have our own unique challenges, and along the way, we’ll get to rely on one another in ways that, though they may feel uncomfortable, are God’s design for our lives.


Please uphold one another in prayer.


We love you,


Seth and Karen


p.s. If you think about it, please pray for Leah. Pray that she bonds with her team and that she has a life-transforming time the next month. Although in many ways she is especially challenged, we believe that she bears a responsibility to go and serve the world’s needy. She’s 18 and this is her fifth time spending a month or more as a missionary (the last three without Karen and I along). I don’t care what your challenges are, you can serve. Leah sets an example for all of us.  If you want to write her a letter of encouragement, here’s her address for the next five weeks:


c/o Anne Milligan
PO Box 130
Los Indios, TX 78567

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