“What no eye has seen, nor ear hear, nor heart of man imagined the plans that God has for them that love him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9
If you had asked me one year ago about my plans for this coming year, staying in California would not have been my answer. So here is a little context for those who might be wondering. In August of 2024, I started Ministry Bound at Ironwood. This is an internship type program that gives college graduates training and hands-on experience in camp ministry. One of the things I enjoy most about the program is the desire to teach the interns the philosophy of Ministry. While it is applied specifically to Ironwood, this philosophy is something I can take wherever the Lord calls me to serve. During my first year, I worked on the program team. While I enjoyed many aspects of my job, I was unsettled about staying long term if the opportunity arose. However, at the end of May, 2025, God used one of our philosophy meetings to challenge how I was viewing the opportunity to serve at Ironwood. We looked at the difference in mindset between a job and a ministry. This really put into perspective for me the difference between an eternal and a temporal mindset.
From there, the rest is history. When I came back to camp from summer break, I still did not have intentions of staying long term at Ironwood. However, God had different plans. This year, I will be transitioning from Ministry Bound to Resident Staff at Ironwood and serving on the Sequoia Meadow team. Sequoia Meadow? Where is that? I am glad you asked. Over the summer, Ironwood acquired a small campground (Sequoia Meadow Christian Camp) up in the Sequoia National Forest. This is located about 4 hours from Ironwood. There will be 5 of us on Ironwood’s resident staff that will spend half the year up at Sequoia and the other half of the year at Ironwood (since Sequoia Meadow is not set up to do winter camps yet). What will my job be? That is a wonderful question. As of right now I do not have one specific role. I am kind of a catch-all. I do know that I will be helping with the bookkeeping and then just filling in wherever needed. There are still a lot of unanswered questions and several months to keep planning.
I could say a lot more on how God has been working especially through this opportunity with Sequoia Meadow but to keep things on the more concise side, I’ll save it for later. In any case, I ask for your support. First, and most importantly, I ask for your prayer support. As I stated earlier, there are still a lot of unanswered questions. Please pray for wisdom and clarity as the directors and the Sequoia Meadow team plan for the 2026 season. For me personally, please pray for wisdom as I transition my permanent residency out to California. There are a lot of little details to think through and miles to travel to make the transition.
Finally, please pray for financial support. The first part of Ironwood’s Mission Statement states “Ironwood is a home missions ministry…” This means all their resident staff are considered missionaries. Now that I know I will be staying at Ironwood for the foreseeable future, I will be raising support to continue to serve at Ironwood. Please pray that God would provide individuals and churches who are willing partner with me and financially support the Lord’s work here in California. If you personally or your church would be interested in supporting me and the work the Lord is doing, there are a couple ways to give. You can go to ironwoodcamp.org/give and fill out the form or reach out to Ironwood or me about setting up other options to give.
While I have tried to keep things short and simple, you may still have questions about what all this means or how something works. Please feel free to reach out and ask your questions about anything I just shared. It will be my goal to send out quarterly updates. If you would like to get notified when I send one out, please let me know.
Congratulations, you made it to the end of this post! Was that a lot of information? Probably, but I am ecstatic to be a part of the Lord’s Ministry here at Ironwood and look forward to sharing the great things he will do with you all!
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