Pat Storey Newsletter (Spring 2021)

Greetings from the heat & humidity!

Summer has arrived at Teen Missions and it feels like Boot Camp. We are all getting excited to meet our team members and to have Boot Camp. The break last year was good, but we are beyond excited to get back to normal.

We have approximately one month until arrival day and there are about 300 teens and leaders coming, in spite of COVID 19!!! Boot Camp will be a little different this year. Each person must come with a negative covid test and we will not allow any visitors at all—even for the Commissioning service. We realize that once we get healthy kids here, we don’t want to risk anyone bringing the virus in and team members getting sick and not being able to go on their team.

I will be leading another footwashing team to Tanzania and with four other leaders and 22 team members, it should be a great summer! Please pray for us as we go. We will be washing the feet of kids that may never have another pair of shoes. We will be taking care of any first aid needed, then giving them a pair of shoes and socks. This is a very rewarding team and usually draws team members that are maybe a little more serious about missions and serving the Lord. It should be a super trip!

Big Top Day was good this year. We purchased a brand new tent this year because a storm damaged the old one the last time we used it. It’s going to be very nice to use for Boot Camp classes and rallies. Big Top Day is always a day when all of the staff leave their usual jobs and help put up the big tent and even though it is a lot of work, it’s a day we all look forward to and have a great time working together to get it done.

A group of our staff, students and interns have been travelling the country helping with the Teach Them Diligently conferences. These conferences are for homeschool parents, so our crew has been taking care of the teen and children’s programs to allow both of their parents to attend all the classes.

Teen Missions Mud Run was last Saturday, May 8. It was a great day! We had 665 people who came and enjoyed the course. The biggest run so far! We always have some competitive races first thing in the morning for people who are serious about these things and the rest of the day are more relaxed and fun for families and younger people. It is a 5k course and this year there were 35 obstacles, most of which were very muddy. I will put a picture or two here, but you can see more mud on our facebook page. All the proceeds from our Mud Run are sent to our overseas bases to help with medical needs of the orphans who attend our Sunday schools and Rescue Units.

As you know, I have been serving as dorm mom this past year. My time will be over when this term ends and I will be moving back to Heavenly Street. It has been fun living on the base and near the students who are a bunch of very fun people. I have enjoyed them a lot.  When classes start back up in September, we should have a newly remodeled Student Center, which will be very nice for the students and they won’t need me anymore. :(  Hopefully, they will come visit me on “the Street” (as we call it).

I am in charge of packing duffel bags with items that our bases need so that our teams can deliver them. My team, being a footwashing team, will be taking shoes. I believe, when all is said and done, we will have about 1,600 pairs of shoes and socks packed. Each team member will carry two 50# duffel bags full of shoes. This means that their personal belongings for a month overseas must fit into a backpack which Teen Missions provides them. It is sometimes a challenge to make that work (they ARE allowed to put their sleeping bags into a bag with shoes) and it makes for a fun pack-out day (that is a little bit sarcastic). Honestly, though, for me it does make pack-out day less stressful because most of our packing is already finished ahead of time.

As always, thank you all so much for praying for me and for TMI and thank you very much for your financial support! I love you all so much and appreciate you more than I can put into words. If there is ever anything I can pray for YOU about, please be sure and let me know. I would love to pray for you!

Serving Him with you,

Pat