Dear Friends and Family,

 

Last weekend was Mothers Day - where did the time go?  I am desperately behind on keeping up with letting you all know what's going on!

 

Firstly, thank you all for you prayers and support over the last couple of months.  We have felt the effects of you prayers and they have greatly reduced the weight on our shoulders.  

 

Where do I begin to get you all up to date?  Well, at the beginning, I guess.  It's been a whirlwind ever since we were accepted by the Dayspring Board back in Oct. to come work here.  We were quickly commended to the work here by our home Church, Emmaus Bible Chapel, and started our planning.  We looked long and hard to find the right house, one close to Camp, affordable and large enough for 6 people.  Thanks in large part to the hard work of Rick Babb, our excellent Realtor and Brother in the Lord, we found it.  It's not perfect, and after living in it for a month, I'm finding all it little shortcomings.  

 

After finding a house, we had to find a bank that would loan us the money to buy it - and, since we couldn't wait until we sold the old house, we had to qualify on my existing salary.  We also had to do that before I quit my job to come here! That also happened, thanks to a lot of people.

 

During all this time, I was wrapping up my job.  Which was doubly hard as we had just been acquired by another company in Aug. of last year?  The new owners are Christians, and understand why I was leaving, but I still had a lot to do to get ready.  After 9 years, I had become a key person and the only one that even understood some of the jobs that I did.  So I had to train several people to take over various parts of my job, take care of the old business location, where my division was still stationed, and prep things for the move to the new location.  During all this time, we're working to raise support, and prep things for the move to the new home!  

 

We were able to close on the new home on March 23rd, and on April 13th, I said my last goodbyes to my old job and the friends I had made there.  April 14th, I started at Dayspring Bible Camp, and moved in to the new house.  I moved in.  Noreen and the girls are still in St. Louis.  Elizabeth is finishing up her school year at Dayspring Academy (no relation) on the 23rd of May, while Emma and Lilly are finishing up their home schooling with another family. We hope to make the 'big move' on Memorial Day weekend.  If you have nothing planned, come lend a hand!

 

At Camp, I'm focusing right now on deep maintenance.  Our oldest dated cabin has an inscribed date on the concrete windowsill of Aug. 12, 1921, and it sure looks its age! These are all built using natural stone and concrete inside a form.  I've been tuck pointing, and replacing missing stones on them, and it's made me feel like Nehemiah, who was also sad about the condition of the walls in Jerusalem.  Working with natural stone, I've come to appreciate more the masons of old who did this work.  I learned that part of being a stone mason is being a puzzle maker.  You have to find the right size and shape of stone to fill in the missing pieces.  This really slows things down.  

 

The first few cabins weren't too bad, although one did have an entire top corner missing.  The one I'm working on now is one of the 2 oldest, and it seems that they used dirty sand or muddy water in their mix and it's crumbling all over.  I've used over three times the mortar mix on this one as on any of the others, and I'm not even 1/2 done!  I think the Lord is perfecting my patience through this one.  

 

The Lord has also blessed us with some great neighbors.  Just up the hill our 'next door' neighbor Don is a Believer and already becoming a great friend.  He had a tree that was too big for him to take down so I offered to do it for him. I climbed up, tied in and took off 2 large limbs on the back side, then dropped it for him.  He then offered to mow my lawn, since my mowers are still at the old house, and did a manicure on it!

 

A few miles down the main drag is Lionel Smith.  Lionel runs Christian Wings for the World, a Missionary Pilot School.  I wanted to get to know him as Samantha is considering becoming a missionary pilot.  As we are sitting there talking about flying, he said something about changing weather conditions, which reminded me of a story a missionary pilot I knew once told me.  I started off, "I remember Roger Stuber once telling me about..."  "You know Roger?" he interjected.  "I just had coffee with him 3 weeks ago in Peoria.  He sent us a lot of students to train."  "I've known Roger since I was a kid," I told him.  "I just spoke at his Church in Tremont a month ago!"  Friends of friends become your friends real fast, especially when they are fellow Believers.  I think it's just another one of the hidden jewels God has for us.

 

Noreen and Samantha have just returned from their trip to Angola Prison in Louisiana.  They volunteer for the Returning Hearts program that teaches men in the prison to be fathers even from prison.  They always have great stories to tell, and I can't wait to here them all.  While they were away I brought Emma and Lilly here with me.  They've been helping at Camp and around the house, as well as getting to know the property here.  They can go from excited to bored pretty fast, though.  

 

Many times our Christian walk is the same.  Sometimes we are excited about what the Lord is doing, and other times we seemed bored with it all, and just seem to be plodding thru.  This is when we should remember the promise made to us in Gal 6:9 - "And let us not loose heart in doing good, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not grow weary."  God always has a purpose for us, and we need to keep on even if we don't see that purpose.  He will reveal it to us eventually, so just keep on doing what he wants you to do now.

 

This again, is a lesson from Nehemiah.  Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem to build the walls, but found that the Lord had much more for him to do as well.  He willingly took to that work and the Lord made it prosper.  

 

Before this becomes a book, I want to close with a request for prayers for the upcoming camps in June, as well as for our move and adjusting to things at the new home.  Thank you all again for your prayers and financial support that has made this possible for us.  We know we aren't reaching everyone with our e-mail list, so please feel free to share this with your friends, Church or prayer group.  And please have them drop us a line so we can add them to our e-mail list.  For this of you who have requested it, you can go to assemblycare.org/donate for instructions on how to financially support us.  Just mark it for Tim and Noreen Dreste.  

 

May the Lord bless you all and keep you all in His care,

 

Tim Dreste, 

Noreen, Samantha, Elizabeth, Emma Lilly