Caleb's birthday and a new dog

 On October 9th, Caleb celebrated his 16th birthday! As I always say, I can't believe our youngest boy is 16. Another boy to teach to drive soon, Lord help us ;-)  As always we had numerous celebrations. He is a fine young man. We are proud of the man he is becoming. The Lord will use him to do great things.

We also just adopted a little dog. The family has been wanting a dog for a while. Here are some pics:

Trip to See Alanna and Levi

 We had a great time visiting with Alanna and Levi in Kansas City last week. It is always great to spend time with our kids. They are doing great with their jobs and studies. Levi has been promoted in his role with the security on campus and is enjoying that. He will be finishing his bachelors in business in May and then will most likely continue on to a Masters of Divinity next fall.

We went to a farm/zoo place there that was a neat place. 

Emma wasn't too sure of the goats

Lots of pics with bubby Levi.

We celebrated Emma and Caleb's birthdays again with Levi and Alanna.

The girls spent the night with Levi and Alanna and Alanna took them to see Levi's work.

Lots of game time.

Luke wanted to ride in Leiv's police car.

The girls needed a ride too.

It was good to visit Levi and Alanna's Church as well. 

Red Nueva Vida Pastors Retreat 2025

 

Our 2025 Pastoral Retreat is in the books. This is an important time of connection and growth for all of us. I love the privelege of getting to lead this group. Please continue to pray with us for all the Lord has done and will do through the ministry of Red Nueva Vida in the USA. Check out more pics and info about the retreat below.

We started our time sharing together about praises and challenges in ministry and prayed for each other

We had some time of worship together too

Pastor Jonathan shared the word with us and talked about fervent prayer which was our theme for the retreat.

Of course we had a bonfire together and shared.

More prayer time early Saturday morning.

Pastor Randy Spacht shared with us Saturday morning. He is a great expositor of the word! He talked about how Christ is building his church and what the statement, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of heall shall not prevail against it" from Matthew 16:18 means and its implications for us as pastors.

This was a workshop we did further building out and applying the message on fervent prayer on Friday night. Pastor Daniel Godbey led us in this workshop.

I got to finish our time with a conversation together about what it means for us as a team to form and execute the vision God has given us as a hispanic disciple-making network in the USA. We will continue to work on this in the weeks and months to come.

A Special thanks to Daniel, Jonathan and Randy for sharing at the retreat. Also a big thanks to Piedmont Church who helped sponsor part of the retreat!

Red Nueva Vida USA: Chicago Trip, Baptisms, and People of Peace Training

 

Here is a quick update on the ministry with Red Nueva Vida/New Life Network. I (Ben) traveled to our church partner just north of Chicago to visit and serve them and their pastor. I was able to witness a special time of baptisms as well at a park and a great time of fellowship after.

On August 31st we celebrated the day of New Life Network in which we celebrate all God is doing globally and also take a special offering to support a project together. This year we helped raise money for Venezuela. We are beginning to partner with about 12 churches there.

We commissioned 2 new disciplers on this Sunday as well.

New Discipleship Group

This a new disicpleship group that was started in May and I was able to join them for some training this last Sunday and will be doing this the next couple of weeks as well. Please pray with them as they work towards forming a church.