Judah & Elena Kelly Newsletter (Winter 2024)

Hello from the Kellys!

Australian Adventure

It has been hectic the past few months. We just got back from traveling to Australia and Fiji with Teen Missions Australia. We left at the very beginning of December and traveled twenty hours flying over to Brisbane, Queensland, where the Teen Missions base is located. After a short day of sightseeing, we went straight into the Leader’s Training Seminar for about a week. Towards the end of the week, we moved into tents; to our surprise we found that it was quite pleasant as there was less heat, humidity, and mosquitos. I (Elena) unfortunately discovered that Queensland has very large spiders that like making their way into and around our tent. Despite that, we enjoyed our time at the Boot Camp there and with our team. Rallies every night were a favorite, as we got to worship, hear a message from different speakers, and get prayed over at the altar. We also saw God working a lot in the lives of the team members. A great memory was one night at a rally when they had a service where the kids were quite literally able to take something they wanted to give to God, to the cross and leave it there (where they had a little bonfire to burn the slivers of paper the kids had written on). The kids ended up staying a while by the cross to kneel and pray.  We feel many lives were changed that night. It was an amazing experience. 

Our Time in Fiji

We had a very small team of six team members and four leaders. At first, we found it was a bit strange because we’re used to teams of around 20 kids;  but by the end, we had all grown very close and had a hard time saying goodbye. Fiji was also a great time. We were at a Christian youth camp in Nadi, helping out the family that runs the camp. We did some renovations, helped with lawn work, painted, and built new bunk beds for the dorms to replace the ones that had been destroyed by termites. We also had the opportunity to go to local churches to share, as well as have a kid’s church group come to the camp so that we could do our presentation and play games with them. By the end of our time in Fiji, it seemed like our team had grown very close to each other and to the Lord. We thank God for that. 

Debrief in Australia

After our time in Fiji, we flew back to Australia for a time of debriefing before heading back home. On our sightseeing day, while we were at an inflatable water park a girl from another team had slipped and fallen into the lake and another girl had also slipped and landed on the first girl’s neck. She later said that she lost consciousness briefly while in the water, but somehow managed to pull herself out of the water back onto the inflatable where she then couldn’t move. The lifeguards brought her back to the shore where we had a leader with us who was a trained EMT. He was worried about a serious neck injury so they did not move her. She was complaining about weakness and neck pain and she also kept losing consciousness. The kids from the other teams began to pray for her. The ambulance arrived and took her to the hospital and for the rest of the day, everyone was very concerned about her. That night she walked back into Debrief while we were worshiping and even singing the lyrics to the song “Nothing I hold onto”, which says “I lean not on my own understanding, my life is the hands of the maker of heaven”. We saw how her life had been protected by the maker of Heaven himself and what a miracle it was that she was completely fine. Praise the Lord!

At the end of Debrief and after some tearful goodbyes, we headed home. Our trip was uneventful and restful and we got back to the U.S. on the 20th of January. Since then we’ve been settling back into work and seeing friends and family. We are very grateful for our experience this winter and we look forward to the future. This upcoming summer we will be going on an eyeglass and medical team to Tanzania. Judah and I don’t have experience with this type of team, but we are very excited.

Thanks!

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us and supporting us in this journey so far. We couldn’t do this without you! Judah and I are excited and ready for God to continue to use us in His ministry and to bring you along with us on this adventure. We are happy that we have a group of financial and prayer supporters that allow us to be able to fulfill the great commission together with the Lord. It’s hard for us to explain the difference that we’ve been able to make in these kids’ lives every year, but we want you to know that we are abundantly blessed to be able to do these things because of your support. We again say all these things with Christ’s kingdom in the front of our mind and give glory to the Lord. 

“So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.⁷ He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.⁸ For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.⁹” 1 Corinthians 3:7-9

God sees your labor.

These are a few ways you can pray for us:

For our trip this summer—protection, blessed ministry, and unity amongst our team.

We are in the process of selling our cars that have been unreliable and are praying for God to provide an affordable vehicle for us. 

As we work on raising support, we will be able to share our ministry with others and grow our community of prayer partners. 

The Kellys 

God bless you!

Thank you for praying for the Kelly family and thank you for your continued partnership with us. Praise God!

Our Contact Information: 

Email: [email protected]