I have so much to write about 2021, but I first want to begin by thanking so many who have supported Skybacher Ministries Inc. in 2021!!! Thank you!! Thank you!!! Thank You!!! I have often felt unworthy to ask for support because I was worried about making people feel uncomfortable or what they might think. God has revealed to me over and over again in 2021, that it isn’t about me!! That if Skybacher Ministries is what God has called me and my family to, and it’s a purpose that God has for this community and beyond, then it cannot be stopped! There is no resource that he can’t use or provide. There is no ask that he doesn’t know what we need. To ask people for help in serving, to support financially, or to come along side in prayer is part of what He has called me to do. Over and over again through all of this season, God has shown that he is faithful.
Truthfully what I have been asking God most for in recent weeks and days is healing! I got sick in the beginning of October and my whole entire system took a major hit. I couldn’t make sense of what was going on, let alone think about serving or helping anyone else. This was a feeling I hadn’t ever experienced in my life. I’m the one who is supposed to feel young and be strong and be able to push through anything right? But that was always my own way. He has a way that is better. It’s crazy in the 18 years of Skybacher Ministries we have always had to trust fully on God as provider. There have been moments when we didn’t know how we would pay this bill, or feed our kids, or get through this week – and He always came through as provider. Each year in the summer we would spend much of it thinking how will we get through the month of August and September without financial support and a check showed up, groceries showed up, blessings showed up! It is the very nature of what Skybacher Ministries is about – we started with $0 – 18 years later God is still showing up. And it is the very nature of who God is!!! He is a PROVIDER!!!! If you lack healing he can provide! If you lack wisdom He can provide!! If you lack support He can provide!!!
This season it has been Him providing healing and rest – which is something I have always rejected because I didn’t think I needed or deserved it. I was wrong. The fact is our summer camps were way beyond what we could have asked or imagined. People were so desperate for their kids to experience joy and community. I always put pressure on myself to make sure that the kids and families experience the ultimate joy and love possible during the summer – that becomes infinitely more challenging as you have nearly 150 campers per day and 30 staff to take care of. In the end I truly did give it my all, but it left nothing for the fall and start to the school year. We cancelled events and dropped much of our programming as I had to focus on getting myself and my family better. God provided rest, something that I hadn’t taken in 18 years of ministry! God providing healing! True healing that I wasn’t able to push through or just make it work on my own.
What does this mean for 2022? Well I feel like our eyes are back refocused and fixed on Jesus – the author and perfector of our faith. God is still healing me and and at the same time providing wisdom and guidance for where to go from here. Families and young people need to know that there is a healer, provider, life-giver, waymaker, Good Shepherd, protector, that they can turn to. One of the bigger things that God has been putting on my heart is 1-on-1 sports mentoring – people are paying big money for their kids to have people train them in a respective sport so they can someday land a scholarship and then their parents can post to the world about it. But what is the young person really gaining out of all of this? What if the sports training was just the method for connecting, and the primary goal was to give guidance and mentorship to the young person? We are looking for people who love teaching a sport (soccer, basketball, baseball, volleyball, etc.) and would then be given a youth to teach and mentor about life. (Does this excite anyone else as much as it does me?) We are excited to get back to our summer camp ministry, but with a new perspective.
If this is something that you feel you can get behind then we are looking for volunteers to serve, we need financial backing, and we need surround us in prayer!! Oh Lord do we need prayer!! We praise God for the fact that we are still here!! and we want to throw off all that hinders and run the race marked out for us in 2022! Fixing our eyes on Jesus!!
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
Hebrews 12:1-2