Hello Friends,
These are some stressful days and times that we currently are living in. Words like isolation, self-quarantine, and social distance are unnatural to us. Humans are social beings. Yet we find ourselves here, locked inside our homes to combat an unseen enemy. How do we defeat this enemy? By being unnatural and learning to isolate, self-quarantine, and always keep a distance in any social gathering. In due time we will eventually beat this. Something I keep reminding myself daily is this, that God is on His throne. He was there at the beginning of time. He was there to watch His only Son die on a cross. He was there during all the wars. He is here now for COVID-19. Hebrews 4:16 says this, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” To encourage you, at the bottom of this update letter, I have included a bit from C.S. Lewis that Barakel’s Camp Director Paul Gardner shared with us. It is really worth a read.
What have the Mirons been doing?
Well, with the shutdown of schools, Rita has now taken on the role of a teacher. Everyday, she is preparing lessons for the kids. She is actually quite good at it. Celia and Eli are both enjoying the work, and have made really good progress in areas where they were lacking. One could say I could really make a strong argument for home-schooling in my house.
I am still working. Hours have been cut, but I am thankful to still have a job. One benefit of working less has been an increased amount of family time. We are all enjoying the extra time together. We also have a few projects at the house that we are working on to get it ready to sell when it is time.
Where we currently are:
We are happy to report that our support level is 78.20%! Even in times like this, when the whole world is scared, God still showers us with blessings. After a little hiatus, over this past weekend another family came on as supporters! We are so very thankful for all our supporters. We know that we are in your prayers. God is working. Technically, for all the number savvy people out there, we currently need $980/ month more and then we can move north to Camp. That is not too bad at all. We believe that it will continue to come in. With the way the world is right now, it may not be May but maybe late Spring to early Fall sometime. God’s timing is always perfect, and we are trusting Him.
Our sending church Crossroads Community Church (www.cccshelby.org) is tentatively having a commissioning service for us on April 19th at the 10AM and 11AM service. Staff from camp will be there along with some supporters. We would love to see you there. There is a strong possibility it will be postponed due to COVID-19 but we will keep you in the know.
Continue to pray for us please. Pray that during these times we can grow closer first to our Savior, Jesus and to each other. It has been amazing to be at home more with them. Pray that during these times, churches and camps and families would not be hurt (financially or spiritually or emotionally) and that we can be a beacon of hope to the lost. Please pray for the Bennett family and Kathleen Anderson as they are in the home stretch of finishing their support raising. Pray that God would continue to send us supporters so we can minister full-time at Camp Barakel with the rest of the staff. Our hearts long to be up there where we know we are called, but we must wait with patience till God approves of the timing.
A little encouragement:
C. S. Lewis’s words—written 72 years ago—ring with some relevance for us. Just replace “atomic bomb” with “coronavirus.”
“In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor car accidents.”
“In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; and we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
“This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.”
— “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948) in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays
Your friends in Christ Jesus,
Dave and Rita Miron (with Celia and Eli)
Galatians 6:14
