Brant and Mary Lane Newsletter (Winter 2024)

Teen Missions Sunday School Ministry Thrives

Those who are familiar with Teen Missions in the States may think the only ministry work occurring is the summer program that happens each year, starting with Boot Camp in Merritt Island followed by preteen and teen teams serving the Lord for several weeks all around the world. However, this is not the only ministry of Teen Missions. We have bases around the world that minister to their communities through their Boot Camps, sending youth around their country to share the Gospel. There are several other ministries they take part in, and one that is thriving is the Sunday School ministry. There are currently 508 Sunday Schools that are meeting during the week in the different countries where Teen Missions is serving. Here is a testimony from one of our Sunday schools in Madagascar:

“There is a boy named Osca, and he is 9 years old. He is very kind and he is diligent in attending our Sunday school. He remembers every lesson we taught them in our circuit. One day we asked him “What makes you happy to study with us?” Then he said, “What I really like is that it increases my knowledge.” And I kept asking him again “Do you know more about Jesus?” Then he said, “No, but I want to know more about Him.” So I started to tell him about Jesus, and he was very happy. He then decided to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior. After that, he said, “I will tell to my Mom when I come home, and also starting now, I will invite my friend to attend Sunday school.” So he does that now. So now many of the kids in this place come to attend our Sunday school through this boy. Praise God!”

Family and Ministry Update

We were very thankful for the time we had with our family over Christmas. It began with our oldest daughter, Annabelle, visiting us in Florida after she finished her Fall semester at Charleston Southern in South Carolina (SC). For about five days, the six of us were able to spend quality time together before driving to SC for the holidays. We spent about two weeks in SC. During that time, Mary spent half of it fighting the Flu, so she missed seeing her brothers and their families. Thankfully, Brant, Annabelle, Allison, Jonathan and Jesse were still able to visit everyone, and they didn’t get sick. Despite the sickness, we cherished our visit to South Carolina. 

January 1st marked the one-year anniversary of our move to Florida to serve at Teen Missions. It has been a big adjustment for all of us, and it is still hard as we are away from Annabelle most of the year. Even so, we thank the Lord for His many blessings and how He continues to work in our lives. 

Annabelle is thriving at school, making the Dean’s List this past semester. She has even been asked by the president of the college to sing at an upcoming event. It’s hard to believe she is almost through her Junior year. This summer, she will be doing an internship for her college major and also plans to go on a mission trip with Refuge 139 (a ministry of JAARS), to Germany. She will be sending out more information about that soon.

Allison is doing really well in her Junior year at Merritt Island Christian School. She will be taking the ACT test in March and is starting to look at possible colleges to attend. This summer, she will be on the Leadership Development Team in Mongolia with Teen Missions. 

Jonathan stays pretty busy between doing his schoolwork and taking care of several lawns on the street. He also helps Brant often with different projects. They just finished building two raised beds for us to grow our vegetables! This summer, he has decided to go to the Philippines with Teen Missions.

Jesse’s favorite thing to do is play with his friends. When he’s finished with his schoolwork he is usually down the road playing with his friend James, and he also enjoys facetiming his good friend, Ezra, from South Carolina. Jesse is trying something new this Spring. He has been asking to play baseball for a couple of years, and we signed him up to play Little League Baseball in Merritt Island. He is very excited!

Brant works hard at Teen Missions. He is managing the equipment and vehicles. This requires lots of maintenance work. Sometimes Brant will be welding or fabricating and sometimes he may be operating equipment. We are getting ready for the summer ministry, with a leader seminar happening in March. Brant will be teaching one of the classes. Mary continues to homeschool Jonathan and Jesse during the week. She is also teaching a class at the TMI Sojourner school twice a week called Biblical Places, People and Customs. This past Fall, Mary began working with the onboarding of new/potential staff to help and encourage them as they build their partnership team to serve at Teen Missions. She can do this from home along with editing reports that come in from the overseas Sunday schools. At the end of March (March 29-April 7), she has the opportunity to serve with Refuge 139 in West Asia, ministering to missionary kids while their parents are taking classes. 

The teen and preteen summer teams are filling quickly, and right now, Brant and Mary, along with Jesse, will be leading a teen team to Brazil. We are looking forward to this opportunity and working with the teens. 

Prayer Requests:  Please pray for our family as we’re serving in our roles at Teen Missions and just go through our lives each day. Another prayer request is that all the prayer and giving partners needed for Mary and Annabelle’s upcoming trips with Refuge 139, will come together (please contact us if you’d like more information), and also the prayer and giving partners for the summer trips with Teen Missions. Brant has a fractured finger that is healing from an injury at work, so please pray for complete healing. Finally, pray that our children will do well in their school. We want to finish this school year well!

We praise the Lord for all the many things He is doing in our lives, our family’s lives and the ministry at Teen Missions. We also praise the Lord for each of you. Without your partnership through prayers, encouragement and giving, we wouldn’t be here at Teen Missions. You are vital in this ministry and are just as much a part of it as we are! Please know we love you and pray for you! 

Love,

Brant & Mary Lane

For more information about our upcoming trips, you can visit the following websites:

For Allison and Jonathan, go to  https://teenmissions.org/involvement , then scroll down and put their name in the search box.