Anthony & Shawna Myers Newsletter (Winter 2023)

We were sitting on the plane in Orlando ready to travel to visit the base in Australia, when we heard an announcement that everyone had to disembark the plane. The FAA had shut down the country for at least two hours, just in time for us to miss our departure, and our connections the rest of the way! We were in Orlando airport most of the day trying to see if we could reschedule but it didn’t work out, then we had to locate our luggage. For some reason, the Lord did not want us to go on this trip. We are possibly rescheduling it for August, after the summer teams. We were so looking forward to being in Australia for their Debrief. It is summer “Down Under” so they had teams going to Thailand, Northern Australia, and New Zealand. We were also looking forward to stopping in Hawaii for a few days on the way back for our 30th anniversary, but we’ll have to work out something else. 

A big “thank you” to everyone who sent cards for our 30th anniversary (Mar. 2022) and Shawna’s 60th birthday in November 2022. My twin brother, Steve, came down from Winnipeg to help us celebrate. It was a wonderful surprise. Jessie and John came for a week too. We did an Escape House and just hung out together. 

Thank you for praying for Darin since he had his ACL surgery. He is recovering well and is at the three-month mark. He is on goal with the rehab and is looking forward to being ready for fall football.

On December 3, we welcomed our second grandchild, Cohen Anthony. He is almost three months old and is already an Eagle’s fan (even if he doesn’t know it)! We were able to meet him for the first time at Christmas and share with many friends over the holidays. We were able to go back to PA in February to help Anthony’s parents move into their new home. The farm is still in the family, but they built a home on another piece of the property. It also happened to be the same weekend as the Super Bowl! Though it wasn’t the outcome we would like it to have been, it was a great game and we enjoyed seeing it with other Eagle fans! We had some grandpa and grandma time with Sophia and Cohen too! They are such a joy. Anytime we get time with them is a blessing. 

As we were getting ready to come back from PA, we received a text from Jess that she was going into the hospital for a few hours to be monitored because she slipped on some steps. Everything was OK, but she was already progressing and Raelynn was pretty-much ready to come into the world. Within a few hours, on February 13, Raelynn Ari Kwak was born! She is a beautiful, healthy baby girl. We already had flights scheduled to go to Texas on Feb. 22 (which was Jess’ due date), to help them out for a week, but we were praying Raelynn would come on time or early! The Lord answered our prayers. It’s fun to watch our children grow up and have their own families. We are blessed.

Not only are we blessed with family and friends, we are blessed to be serving here with Teen Missions. The work, especially overseas, is growing by leaps and bounds! Over our Christmas holidays, which is summer for other countries, we had Boot Camps running in Australia, Honduras, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Later this spring we will have Boot Camps in Zambia, the Philippines, and Asia (two sensitive countries), and more during the summer in Malawi, Cameroon, Madagascar, Cambodia, and another Asian country. For the sake of the staff and students in some of our Asian countries, we cannot give some specific locations or details. 

We have many retreats coming up this Spring so we will be helping with the cooking. The retreats help fund the Bible school here. We have a number of returning volunteers also, for which we are thankful. We look forward to a few youth groups coming and helping us set up for Boot Camp in April. We will also be having our annual Mud Run on May 6.

At this time, we are scheduled to stay home this summer and help run the office while teams are out. As of now, there are 190 teens and leaders registered for this summer. 

Anthony continues to oversee the work outside. The new Bible School building is complete and work is being done to redo the Conference Center rooms and offices. I (Shawna) am in the Personnel Department helping with staff needs, newsletters, housing, and whatever else is needed. 

We enjoy the fellowship of the staff and students here and are thankful for some new staff (families and singles) who have joined recently. We are blessed by our staff family. 

We are also thankful for you all, for your love and support. We feel blessed to be able to serve here at Teen Missions. Let us know if you have any prayer requests and please come and see us if you are near the east coast of Florida. We would love to spend time with you and show you the ministry.

As we close out 2022, we would like to share some of what the Lord has done!

 There were 1,532 team members and leaders who attended Boot Camps overseas with 3,181 salvations recorded.

 Our 38 Rescue Units care for children and adults who don’t have anyone who can care for them. They come to the unit and are helped with basic medical needs, teaching them to grow gardens, as well as spiritual needs and educational.  They ministered to 2,431 people and saw 3118 salvations.

 We have nine Matron units which provide care for young girls who have to travel miles to get to school. The units are close to the school, so they can live there while going to school. 439 girls were cared for and 309 salvations were recorded.

 At this time, we have 471 Sunday schools. In 2022, 51,000 kids (and some parents), attended the schools with 75,004 salvations.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!

Thank you for your many finances and prayers that keep this ministry going. 

Anthony & Shawna