Staff Conference was an amazing week! We worked and played hard!
Here is our staff team at Camp Lebanon!
Here is our staff team at Camp Lebanon!
Happy Tuesday morning friends!
Thank you so much for praying for Conference. It was..... Huge! God sized! Amazing! Fun! Can you tell I am a little bit excited?
Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of his wonderful acts. Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. I Chron. 16: 8-12
I could stop right there and you would know our hearts! We are truly grateful for the Lord and his care in our daily lives.
Our new staff dinner was a really fun night. On the surface, it may have appeared to be a group of people laughing and sharing dinner. Underneath, God was beginning the process of building trust and community for a team that will serve together for many seasons! We have a highly qualified team of staff raising support to serve with Reign. This is a huge responsibility and a tremendous blessing.
Conference was a hit! Logistically everything went well--whew--thanks for praying. But, the most important work was done in hearts. We personally met with staff members encouraging them, challenging and exhorting them as they serve in missions. (sprinkled with lots of love and laughter of course!) We spent time in prayer, lots of teaching times about ministry skills and serving with integrity.
As an Executive Leadership team, we are studying John 15 and we are applying this to our lives and our staff team. It's exciting to serve in God's power and for His purposes alone.
Next on the horizon....we have an alumni retreat at the office this weekend. I have alumni traveling in from all over the mid-west and even Arizona! We will spend 24 hours reminding them that they are loved by a huge God, they have a purpose in this world and a huge world to reach.
Students are bombarded with media, billboards, friends and even family circumstances. This retreat is a small window to remind them of huge God stories they are a part of and how God desires to speak to them every day! Pray that we can encourage students who are hurting and discouraged and draw them back to Jesus to be refreshed. I also want to speak into the lives of the "do-ers" to just "be". Pray for clear communication and how to reach the students that attend.
Love to all----the McHargue's
It's like Christmas at our house....packages everywhere....favorite people coming to town and we're cooking our favorite treats!
Conference started today!!!!
We had 6 new staff at our house for dinner tonight. It was a wonderful night sitting on the deck eating salads and yummy food. But, it didn't stop there...we laughed long and hard and shared God stories! God is doing amazing things as these 5 people prepare for full time ministry. Thank you for praying for us and supporting us as we train and serve this wonderful team of professionals called to passionately serve God in full time ministry.
Our living room is piled high in luggage now and we leave in just a few hours to drive to camp for our international staff conference.
I worked on our annual report this week and was crying by the 2nd page!!! Oh my stars---you should hear the stories! People accepting Christ, stories of financial provision and seeing our huge God work in lives. I get "God-bumps" (an Izzy phrase!!) just thinking about them.
I would cherish your prayers Monday afternoon. I'm speaking on leadership and the need for leaders that take a hard look at their inner life and make sure they are doing the work of bending the knee to God. It's easy to be busy in ministry and make it all about self, but, I will be challenging myself and others to seek God first-no excuses.
Steve will be busy all week with logistics, teaching and coordinating the staff during the week. We love this week-------thanks for being on our team and praying!
We have another Alumni retreat on October 12-13. I love seeing them enter into full time missions and ministry!
Love to all-Kristen
It feels like fall in Minneapolis! We have had 5 days of mist and rain. Corin is humming and padding around the house in his slippers with hot tea in hand! (he loves rainy weather best!!)
Steve and I are having so much fun preparing for staff conference. The theme this year is "Journey of a lifelong learner......jump in!" It's an oldy but a goody........we want our life story to be one of continued learning and yielding to the Spirit of God. Thanks for being a huge part of our journey of ministry and learning!
Our staff team will be arriving in less than a month ready to hear from God!
I love when our staff gathers---the tired rest, the sport crew goes off and conquers the frisbee golf field, the kids play together--memorizing verses and new songs about Christ...............and then we worship.
Our staff team loves to worship. I see peace across their faces as God really meets them and refreshes them. We talk about ministry, life, hard stuff, needed details and always..........always.......challenge our staff to live with authenticity. We have a great team. It is an honor to serve with our staff.
At the end of the day, all we have left is Christ and all we have to present is our authentic life. All the masks will fade, the programs disappear and the agendas will be no more. At Conference--we ask our staff to step aside.......look deep inside and see where their strength is really coming from. If not Christ, what is the point? Pray that as a ministry this is always our heart.
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We have lots more news----but, I'll save it for another email. Today---we pray for Conference and wait to see what God has for each staff member. Ministry is so much fun. It's amazing to see God at work.....truly working.....He is good.
Kristen and the clan
Packing day is not a fun day at our house....except when it is TRAINING CAMP packing day. My clothes have all been wrestled into a bag and now I'm filling my creative tank by blogging and journaling! (And, I'm ignoring the big pile of to-do's dancing across my desk! shhhhhh.) Here are some photos from life the past week or two......
To the left is a picture of Corin and Izzy ready for the spring piano recital
Isabelle in her first ballet tutu for her dance recital. She loved it....except it was REALLY itchy.....why do pretty things have to itch???? They danced to "Stars and Stripes Forever". I loved watching her dance---she dances with joy and abandon! Just the way we should all approach life. I am really proud of the way she has worked this year in school, dance and piano. Time to deal with the desk.....I think it is growling at me.....until we meet again! Kristen for the clan
School is finished for the year!!!! I always love closing the last textbook, boxing up the supplies and dragging out the swim gear! It's so nice that God created seasons of life. I'm thankful we have a God that values working hard and playing hard. I also love the seasons of life...you focus on learning and growing as a child..........then transition to sharing as an adult.
Corin took his driver's permit test this week............and can't wait to help drive us to Training Camp. (I'm scared!...not really! But, really.........how did he get this old????)
Corin and Isabelle are having fun in their dance recital---Isabelle's ballet is BEAUTIFUL and Corin is so fun to watch....he just wears his emotions on his sleeve when he dances.
Our next update should be from ROYAL SERVANTS TRAINING CAMP.
Saturday night......I am sitting here at Training Camp in Lewiston, IL. 
The adventure started yesterday (Friday) by taking a look at the property that Reign is in the process of purchasing to be our new Training Camp. The land is beautiful, rolling grassland close to Portage, WI. We thanked God for bringing us this far in the land process. It really feels like a place that we can call home. Please pray with us that we can finish raising the funds to purchase this property. The owners daughter told us yesterday that they were thrilled to have a Christian Camp on their family farm......pretty cool! From there we traveled the rest of the way to camp, arriving at12:30am. We were blessed by the camp staff at Living Springs Camp(where our current camp is). They offered to feed us breakfast & lunch for the next couple of days. The threat of rain today gave us the opportunity to be flexible with our preparations for setting up camp. Since we are in the middle of a hay field one of the first priorities was to set up shelter from the sun and rain. We put up 2 large canopy tents, a screened in tent that will act as our kitchen. The tents that our staff will call home were put up by the end of the day. We emptied several large duffel bags (we call them blue packs) that contained equipment from last summer.....there were a few surprises of bugs, open containers of and other things. 
One of the fun things for me was to see 3 of our new staff on the field working along side the rest of the staff. Training Camp is the a great place to get to know people and start to build community. Pray for these staff as they continue to raise their support and begin to serve full-time with Reign. I really enjoy being down here and working side by side with my staff team......this where we begin our summer prep.....the place where God shows up in student's lives.
The adventure started yesterday (Friday) by taking a look at the property that Reign is in the process of purchasing to be our new Training Camp. The land is beautiful, rolling grassland close to Portage, WI. We thanked God for bringing us this far in the land process. It really feels like a place that we can call home. Please pray with us that we can finish raising the funds to purchase this property. The owners daughter told us yesterday that they were thrilled to have a Christian Camp on their family farm......pretty cool! From there we traveled the rest of the way to camp, arriving at12:30am. We were blessed by the camp staff at Living Springs Camp(where our current camp is). They offered to feed us breakfast & lunch for the next couple of days. The threat of rain today gave us the opportunity to be flexible with our preparations for setting up camp. Since we are in the middle of a hay field one of the first priorities was to set up shelter from the sun and rain. We put up 2 large canopy tents, a screened in tent that will act as our kitchen. The tents that our staff will call home were put up by the end of the day. We emptied several large duffel bags (we call them blue packs) that contained equipment from last summer.....there were a few surprises of bugs, open containers of and other things. 
One of the fun things for me was to see 3 of our new staff on the field working along side the rest of the staff. Training Camp is the a great place to get to know people and start to build community. Pray for these staff as they continue to raise their support and begin to serve full-time with Reign. I really enjoy being down here and working side by side with my staff team......this where we begin our summer prep.....the place where God shows up in student's lives.
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