We thought we'd give you a review of 2018, and a look forward to 2019.

As I start this newsletter, the “Snowpocalpse” is happening outside – snow and sleet alternating and accumulating, shutting most things down, and stranding us at home for the day, and possibly tomorrow. That means we may miss Church as we’re expected to have several more inches of snow overnight. Sitting, however, by a warm fire after a good meal negates most of the worries that a winter storm can cause.

As we look back on 2018, we stand amazed at what the Lord has done for us, as well as how he has used us. None of this could have been done without your prayers and support.

A year ago we were still looking for a home in Ironton, starting to wind down my job of 9 years, and looking forward to all that God had in store for us at Dayspring Bible Camp. Now we have a home, are part of a great community, school and local Church, and can definitely see that God is using us.

I’ve spent most of my time at Camp - when there are no ongoing camps – repairing the old stone cabins. My goal was to complete the lower level of Camp before it gets too cold to continue, but I didn’t quite make it. I finished all of the lower camper cabins, but only got ¾ of the way done on the Chapel, and still have the Cook's Cabin and Speaker's Cabin to finish. They’ll just have to wait for the spring thaw.

Of course, the best and the hardest part of camp work is the camps! We had about 400 kids cycle thru the various camps this year, some were at more than one camp. Two of those camps were Day Camps - the kids come in the morning and leave in the afternoon after a full day of both getting a Gospel message and having a lot of fun.

The Day Camps can pack a lot of kids in, as we don't have to house them overnight, but it also means a lot of kids per Counselor. This means less one-on-one with the kids, but many of these kids come back from year to year, and that gives you a jump start with them. The up side of Day Camps is that you get the night off. This gives some great time to have fellowship with the other workers there. Noreen and I were both counselors at the Fredericktown Day Camp and Sam helped by being general staff.

The Arcadia Valley Day Camp is technically a rental camp - its run by an E-Free Church in St. Louis. They run things quite a bit differently than our other day camp, and we learned quite a lot from watching and helping. We're hoping to incorporate some of their ideas into this years camps.

At Junior Camp this year 4 of the 8 boys in my cabin made professions of faith, while a couple of the others said that they were already saved. This, of course brings me much joy, but my heart goes out to those other boys who still don't know the Lord. After a Saturday afternoon to get my laundry done and pack up again it was off to Church, then back for Sports Camp.

Sports Week was truly wonderful! With Dave Thomas as Director, Ken Miller as our Speaker and Louis Dooley as our Sports Director, we had a powerful troika of Godly men to lead the Camp. This camp had kids from 7-17, and it was pretty full.

Different sports and games were played every day, and we even had a Camp Olympics. One of the most fun games was Mudball - softball on an intentionally flooded field. It gives sliding into base a whole new meaning. We also had a dunk tank on the last day. Everybody got a chance to dunk the Director, and kids who earned enough points by memorizing Bible verses got to pick a counselor to try to dunk. Noreen, Samantha and I all got wet - several times!

The highlight of the week had to be Louis Dooley sharing his testimony with the camp. He told how he had been a drug dealer with everything - money, cars, friends, whatever he wanted - until he got caught and sentenced to life plus 100 years for armed robbery and attempted murder. Everyone paid rapt attention to his story, and were amazed at what God has done in his life. If you'd like to know his story, read his book: "Prison Saved My Life: I Recommend It For Everyone."

The boys in my cabin were much older for this camp, and many have been saved and walking with the Lord for some time. There were, however, several who were not saved. While only one of them publicly made a profession of faith that week, a week or two later the father of another boy called to say that his son was now also professing faith in Christ. This is the reason we have such a heart for Camp.

A weekend Family Camp rounded out this year’s schedule for camps, and then it was the end of summer and a return to normal for the kids. That meant starting school, but after several years of home-schooling, that wasn’t normal for them. Differing curriculum and teaching schedules put the kids too far advanced for some classes and not up to speed for others, so adjusting was difficult. Happily, after one semester, they are all caught up, making As and Bs, with one of them a straight A student.

Samantha, after spending the summer working at Dayspring, now has a job with the local bank, after looking for quite some time.

Of course, the year was not without it’s trials as well. Vehicles proved to be one of our biggest problems, but also one where we saw the Lord provide for us as we trusted in Him.

Every vehicle seemed like it needed new parts constantly, from batteries and brakes to waterpumps and whatnots! Our newest vehicle was our 2005 van, but after all the other work we did on it, the transmission went out. A rebuilt one would set us back $1600, and take me several days to put in, but then we would still have a van with 348,000 miles on it, waiting for something else to go wrong. God instead provided us the same make of van, one year newer and with nearly ½ the miles of the old one for that price!

That still left me with a ‘98 Taurus that was falling apart, but again God provided. A friend of my sister had a 2013 Hyundai that he had to give up due to vision problems, and couldn’t get a fair price for it from any dealer, nor would anyone even look at it when he tried to sell it privately. He decided to sell it to us for what the dealer offered (1/3 it’s value), and take payments!

Along with the everyday trials, there are everyday blessings as well. Our neighbor Don is a Christian brother who has been a great friend and helper whenever needed. We usually go together to a Men’s Prayer Breakfast once or twice a month. A few miles down the road is Lionel Smith, who runs a pilot training program for Missionary Pilots. When I first met him I found out we have an old friend in common, Roger Stuber, who I’ve know since I was 12 or 13, and who sent Lionel pilots to train when he was a Missionary Pilot in Indonesia.

We found a great Church nearby that’s very involved in the community, and the children enjoy Awana and Youth Group there, while Noreen and I enjoy the Bible Studies, fellowship and preaching.

As we look forward to the new year, we see both opportunity and challenges ahead.

This year we are ramping up the number of week-long camps. While this is both an opportunity to reach more kids with the Gospel, it’s also a challenge to get the staff needed. Counselors especially are hard to find, so if you have a week free this summer, I’d invite you to come down and help! Not cut out to be a counselor? Kitchen staff and general staff are needed as well!

More camps are also more expense. Dayspring lets kids in regardless of their ability to pay, and many of our campers come to our Camps for just that reason. Our scholarship fund is always in need of refilling, so contact me if you’d like to help.

Before this becomes a novel, let me close by saying we sincerely appreciate all of you prayers, support and notes via email or Facebook, and that we miss our regular interactions with you.

Love in Christ,

Tim Noreen Dreste  the girls