Psalm 34:11 (NIRV)

Blessing in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

I wanted to share with you the blessings of our summer here at Good News Mission. We had 3 weeks of day camp this summer averaging 30-35 children and adults. God has been so good and faithful!!! We had 3 children to accept Jesus as their Savior and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for supporting us thru prayer, giving, donating, encouragement etc. Through your giving you have had a BIG part in these children making the most important decision of their lives, and therefore you will reap the blessings as well. It has been such a good summer mixed with challenges. It amazes me how Satan works so hard to disrupt or tear apart God’s work. Unfortunately this summer we had a parent that when confronted with something pertaining to her child, took it out on the Mission and those who volunteered/worked here this summer. God protected in such an amazing way and through it all our numbers increased, children got saved and people got off the fence and stood strong for what was right. God we give you glory and honor. It is amazing what God will do when you let go and allow Him to work and be in control. This summer we had fellow BCM missionary, Lois Lass, to come and help out with day camps. She is such a blessing to our family and to the Mission, and the kids loved her. She was in charge of verses memorization and keeping Tim in line (is that even possible!!!! LOL) Tim taught from BCM’s teaching material “God Provides for Us” which is the journey through Exodus. The children learned so much and Tim will be continuing the study in Bible Club this year. As I stated earlier attendance at the Mission has increased. We are averaging 20-30 children and adults. We have new families coming in and it is exciting to see these precious new faces. This past week I was honored in being in the delivery room of one of my ladies. Her husband stepped out for just a moment and missed the beautiful Elizabeth Joelee’s grand entrance into the world! She is so precious and weighing in at a whopping 3 lbs 13.8 oz. and 16 ½ inches long. My lady’s husband could not spend the night with her to help her out so I volunteered to stay and help. I got to know her heart in such a special way… the hardships, the joys, the challenges of her life. I got to be friend, mother, and spiritual adviser. I am so blessed in this ministry that God has given us and so thankful that He finds us worthy to be His instruments and a part of His plan for Good News Mission.

Our family has experienced some challenges this summer pertaining to schedules. We now have all three children in some type of therapy and are spending 3 days a week in Cookeville. John Allen has been going to physical therapy due to posture issues and low muscle tone. Joshua and Jacob are going for occupational (OT), physical therapy (PT) and speech therapy. On top of this we go in and attend CBS (Community Bible Study). All of us love going to CBS. Each child has their own classroom where they learn about God. John Allen, Joshua and I are studying Acts and are learning about the Holy Spirit and His role in our lives and in the church. John Allen has gotten involved in the youth group at our church. I volunteered to be the youth leaders side kick. What a difference in attitude in my oldest son! We have had some problems with our boys in their behaviors toward each other. John Allen has found something that is HIS own thing that involve his younger sibling s. This has made a huge difference in him and his behavior toward us and his brothers. He looks forward to going every Sunday night and his youth leader (the pastor’s wife) is so good with these teens. Our first night we had 12. The second week saw us at 20. God is moving and I am so glad to be where He is working. Our son Joshua we had to change his meds around due to him leveling out on the one he was on. We had to switch to a different category of drug and it was a very trying 3 weeks. We switched again and have our loving, sweet Joshua back. Jacob has had a couple of appointments with specialist at Vanderbilt. We have had some test done and are waiting for the results of them to decide as to what needs to be done next. We have seen the neurologist and after he looks at the results from some test that were done will decide if they will warrant us going back or not. We have seen the geneticist and they have decided to test Tim and I to see what needs to be done next concerning Jacob. Right now we are ok with all these doctors appointments. It seems to be nothing life threatening or that will require any extra stuff on top of what we are already doing with the different therapies. God is in control and is guiding our steps and we are ok.

We are doing Bible clubs at the Mission on Tuesday afternoons and as I stated earlier Tim is continuing the journey in Exodus. We pick up children and adults and we feed everyone a meal before Tim teaches. We continue to do our Sunday afternoon Bible studies at the Mission. Again a meal is provided and Tim along with a helper teaches the children as I teach the adults. We are praying about starting an adult Bible study toward the end of September. Please be in prayer for this. Our desire is for Tim and I both to facilitate this… our only concern is that there will be about 10 children. We are praying that we will be able to find 2 people to commit to come and either baby sit or do something special with them while the adults meet. Right now we are looking at 1 to 1 ½ hours at the most one time a week. Please be in prayer with us on this matter. The people are so hungry for God’s word and are excited for this new class to start.

We are so blessed!! God is doing great and mighty things in our lives and we give Him all the praise and glory that are His. We thank each of you for the part that you have in our ministry. You are such blessings to our family and to our different ministries. Our hearts are full of thankfulness in your sacrifices of love that allow us to minister. May God richly bless you all above and beyond what you expect.

Hearts greatly blessed,

Sarah & Tim Tinkel