The latest from Mark and Kris Crooks

Many special greetings to the church family at North Shore!  Thank you for your continued support and prayer! Here is just a brief update on things going on here:  

We are seeing some very encouraging growth in the lives of our "leaders in training". Over the past year our lead Italian couple: 

• put their house up for rent and moved in closer to the church so that they can become immersed in the life of our community.  Pray for courage to continue taking steps of faith like this one!
• is raising funds to start a non-profit, under the umbrella of The Lighthouse (our church) to offer practical help to people in need.  Pray for success in getting this project off the ground and providing support for them and for the church.
• is beginning an intense leadership training course to become more prepared for pastoral ministry. Pray for them to be faithful to study and pass on what they learn to others.

Monday we begin a two week sports outreach camp for kids. We have a team of 6 American coaches that will work with our church to run one week of basketball camp and a second week of multi-sports.  Pray as we will be sharing the Gospel with around 80 children and their parents who are very hard hearted cultural Catholics with no understanding of the grace of God.

This Fall we will re-launch our ESL program under the leadership of one of our church members from the UK. She has caught a passion for the Great Commission and decided to leave her secular work (elementary teacher) and begin using her skills to teach English as an outreach of our church. Please pray as we have had many high hurtles to clear - and many still to go in order to get this program back up and running. It is truly an effective tool in our community for getting to know people, demonstrating the power of the Gospel in our lives and talking to people about their relationship with God.

Our son, Josh, and his wife, Alissa are expecting their first child due in the beginning of September. They are living in Grand Rapids, MI and active the ministry of their church there. Please pray for them as they start this new adventure of raising their own children in Christ!

We have a couple and a single gal here serving internships in our ministry.  Zach & Jordan are a couple from MBI with us for 6 weeks, helping to produce two videos for use in outreach and community life. Alana is a student from Cedarville who is concentrating on cultural and linguistic adaptation. Please pray for them as they serve along side of us and as they seek God's guidance concerning career missionary life in their future. 

Gratefully yours!

Mark & Kris

Ben & Sam