Prayer List

Isabelle – Over the break Isabelle went to church with one of our leaders and heard the Gospel and told the leader that she wanted to make coming to STK a priority this semester. Please pray for her as she was not a Christian prior to Christmas break.

Hailey – Hailey has been coming for over two years and was not a Christian. For the last year, she has talked with me, I’ve shared the Gospel with her, and she “want’s to be a Christian but…” in general she struggles with people who say they are Christian but don’t act like it.

Family – We have a couple moving in with us while they look for housing to stay up her in the Keweenaw. Prayers for them to find housing, and prayers for our family as we “settle in” with them moving in with us.

New Year Reflections

My family got some time away from home with our in-laws. Every year we take two vacations: Christmas Break and Summer Break. It’s always the week between Christmas and New Years and a week around the 4th of July. We go down to my in-laws who graciously let us stay in their basement for the entire time. My wife usually does a 1000+ piece puzzle, my children will either be swimming, making cookies, watching Christmas shows, or eating popsicles. I usually take the time to reflect on what next semester looks like and what I learned last year vs want I want to learn this year.

This year is a bit odder

• We started a new Campus Ministry – This is odd to me because of my abhorrence of Admin work and generally preferring to be “boots on the ground” vs “Making big decisions”. Yet, when I got fired, the Lord made it very clear we had work still to do, and with the decay of campus ministries and the discipleship pandemic we have, it seems the Lord has blessed this work already with the amount of students we have who are willing to hear the Gospel.
• We planted a Church – Again, not something on our to-do list, but both my wife and I want to see churches that go out and “preach the Gospel as you go” and truly teach from the pulpit, going through the Scriptures intentionally. People rallied around that, and before we knew it, we had 10ish families interested in planting a church, and Evangel Presbytery was eager to help by providing free schooling. Again, we found more need and God has supplied us with a building even (for free too!).
• We had another daughter – Not unexpected, but Elisabeth has kept me on my toes as she has preferred to be far more destructive than Abigail was at her age, she also demands more from me. It’s always eye opening to see how, through how our children act, we see how God views us and our needs.
• We’ve been given even more work – I now teach at the Christian School, am getting ACBC Certification in Counseling, have 12 Seminary Credits, we have more students coming in and checking us out, and handing out more Hot Cocoa than any other year so far.

God has been continuing to push me, to ask of me if I am really willing to lead His Sheep.

Pastors

In John, Jesus says these words

7 So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees—and the wolf snatches and scatters them— 13 because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.

Pastors, Evangelists, Teachers, etc. are called to be “under shepherds” to shepherd for God, His Sheep, while we continue on this Earth. Specifically here He is talking about how true Shepherds of Gods sheep, fight for them. They have to endure, nurture, protect, feed, its a very grueling process to take care of sheep in the wilderness.

This last year, the #1 thing I have had to learn is fighting for sheep. From getting fired and trying to find the students safe refuge in other organizations, to finding people without a church home in the church plant, I keep running into a recurring problem that there are few Pastors fighting for their sheep. Their are few sheep that feel protected, fed, and Shepherded. Whether it’s students, adults, or even my children, I keep being taught over and over that feeding them is not placing a bale of hay out, but figuring out how each sheep is in need of what nutrients. Growth is not merely getting fat, it’s becoming strong. Encouraging growth in someone, walking someone through to get stronger in their faith, equipping them to run the good race, depends on much more than just feeding, but depends on digging in deep with individuals and cultivating something more.
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​The #2 thing I had to learn is to do more things I dislike. I don’t like managing websites, writing emails, handling taxes, any admin work really. I don’t like being my own boss, I rather like having someone manage the expectations part because setting my own expectations has (so far) led me to not meet them (like even remotely). There’s many parts of serving God that are more tedious and seem like it’s superfluous, yet in order to do all this well, it must be done. Learning to do this, well, timely (still working on this), and Excitedly is a task in itself.

The #3 thing I have learned this year is Scope. I have a lot of dreams and desires, many too big for my shoes. A Hot cocoa tent with bibles and evangelism books to handout, bringing an evangelist on campus, retreat, advance, evangelizing on campus, discipling students, hosting a speaking event about Christianity, hosting a Psalm Psing in the Rosza, caroling in town, I could go on with all the things I want to see. Learning to narrow the scope of each event to a few things:
A Purpose: 1 Goal with many options for other opportunities
A (realistic) Expectation: What is a reasonable outcome of this event
A God Given desire: Is what we are trying to do a focus of God or of man
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Has allowed me to narrow down what I am trying to focus on and instead give tasks out to students or church members, and see what they can do with it, while focusing on my job of discipling students and training them in the biblical worldview, and reaching out the Lost and calling them to repentance and faithfulness in Christ.
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The first thing I am working on this year is reading more, I want to read at least 200 books this year (100+ pages) and get more varied on my understandings of some fun things (like wood working techniques) and “work things” like Church History. I am also going to learn how to Garden to help my wife get some more produce this year.
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That’s our reflection and look forward to the future. For now anyways. There’s still work to do from 2024 (Year end statements for Giving, Storyboarding, etc) but from us, we pray you had a Merry Christmas, that God blesses your New Year and fills you with His Spirit to accomplish all His Good works without fail.

To God be the Glory

Brandon Charbonneau