September 2019 Ministry Update

Hello All,
I hope you are all doing well and enjoying God's goodness. Summer is winding down. God has been keeping us quite busy. Here are some the of things we've been up to...

Awards Celebrations

It was such a blessing to finish Awana's club year attending many awards celebration nights. So much fun to see these clubbers receiving recognition for their achievements the past club year.

Camp!!

I had the opportunity again to attend West Coast Honor Camp. WCHC is an "Awana Style Honors Camp" held at Lassen Pines every summer. What a joy to spend a week with teenagers and leaders from Northern CA and Nevada who reached a level of achievement by completing their books. These teens spend the week developing a closer relationship with Jesus, building friendships, and serving God during various missions projects. My role at camp is to mingle with these teens and leaders celebrating their achievements and thanking them for their service. Many lifelong friendships have been formed at camp.

Family Time

Great to take a little time off every now and then and spend time with family. Definitely recharges my batteries.

Jack graduated High School

Baseball game with my dad

A couple days in Long Beach, CA for Jack's Power Lifting Competition

Reno Aces game with the boys

Utah

As you recall, part of my role is serving as Team Leader for a group of wonderful Awana missionaries. I had the opportunity to take a train to Utah for a few days to work with the Awana missionary their. We spent that time meeting with pastors and other church leaders to help and encourage them in their ministries. We met the Executive Director for the Utah/ Idaho Baptist convention and he invited us to attend and set up a display at the UT/ ID Annual State meeting in Idaho Falls later this fall. This will be a great time to connect with pastors from Utah and Idaho. Praise God!

4th of July

Every year my home church enters a float in the Truckee 4th of July parade. Fun times and great community outreach!! Thank you to all the volunteers who helped put this together.

Awana Ministry Director Online Leadership Training

We continued on with our online Awana Ministry Director Trainings. The key to any successful ministry is leaders. As I tell our AMD's, "Great ministries don't build themselves, great leaders build great ministries. So if you want to have a great ministry invest in leadership". Working with other missionaries from around the country, and using modern technology, we had the opportunity to invest in Awana Ministry Directors from Nevada, California, Arizona, Texas, and Alabama. So much fun to invest in these folks as they lead their ministries to reach more kids with the love of Jesus.

Summer Trainings

Every summer we get the opportunity to spend time either training new clubs or helping existing clubs refine their ministry. 

New Club Training at Hope Church- Boulder City, NV. Hope Church started Awana this year, and I was blessed to train their leaders on starting Awana. There registration night yielded 54 registrations. Praise God for how He is working in Boulder City. 

Leader Training at Southern Hills Baptist in Las Vegas.

Summer Outreach-

Over the summer, we try to spend time reaching out to smaller communities in the hope of developing ministry in these areas. Here are some of the places either we or our teams have gone to.

Parkside Bible Fellowship from Fallon, NV sent a team on our behalf to Wells Baptist for a 2 day outreach including a movie night and a 1 day "Awana Kidscamp". We are hoping this will develop into a long term ministry at some point down the road. Please be praying for Wells.

Mesquite, NV

Crescent Valley, NV

That's if for now. Thank you again to everyone who prays, supports, encourages, gives, serves, laughs and seeks after God. TOGETHER, we are reaching children with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ...what a wonderful ministry God has allowed us to be a part of. I thank God for you and the work He is doing in and through you. See you again sometime down the road.

If you'd like to financially support our efforts to reach children, you can send donations to:

Jeff Gilpin

P.O. Box 697

Truckee, CA. 96160

** All checks should be made out to Awana with a note on the memo of the check "Gilpin Support/ Acct 319"

you can donate online at:

awana.org/ missionary/gilpin

Facebook Live- Building your Team, ie recruiting volunteers

Facebook Live- Retaining and Appreciating your Volunteers

"News You Can Use" Youtube Live Webinar

April 2019 Ministry Update

Hello Everyone,
Spring is here (Yea!!). We have been incredibly busy...God continues to work in our ministry. Here is a report of all that we've been up to:

Worldlead Training in Dallas, TX- Worldlead is a ministry of Boca Raton Community Church to connect and close the leadership gap around the world by building future Christian world leaders. Awana in the US has partnered with World Lead and I attended as a participant to learn and then pass on that training to other missionaries and ultimately to our Awana Ministry Directors in the field.

Navajo Ministry- We had new Navajo Leader training in Farmington, NM, but was postponed due to snow. However, I spent a weekend in Gallup and met with Pastor David Hilderman to discuss the future of the Navajo ministry. Please be praying for this ministry.

Travel-

• Logged over 14,000 miles
• 4 trains
• Multiple Uber rides
• Slept in 14 different beds
• Gallons of coffee drank
• 5 different fast foods

Online Awana Ministry Director Training- Leadership is the key to a successful Awana club. We have been working at providing training especially for Awana Ministry Directors. One of the challenges for our area is the large geographic barriers to bringing Awana Ministry Directors together for training. We used Facebook Messenger video chat as a way to bring these AMD's together digitally. At our first AMD training, we had AMD's from Boulder City, Las Vegas, Reno and Bishop, CA. A lot of fun to see these AMD's embrace their leadership role and network with each other.

Bible Quizzing- So much fun to see kids from our area grow in their Biblical literacy. Bible quizzing is a big part in that process. We attended the Bible Quiz in Reno and were asked to be quizmaster at the quiz in Las Vegas...lotta fun!!

Sierra Bible Church- Reno

Spring Valley Baptist Church- Las Vegas

Summit Journey- San Diego

Summit Journey is a nationwide high school event that brings Awana Journey Students from all over the country for a Volleyball Tournament, Fine Arts Competition, Bible Quizzing, AwanaGames and Citation presentation ceremony. So much fun to spend time with these high school students

I invited myself to be on the "Greeting Team" (go figure) as we welcomed teens from around the country to Summit Journey

Old Friends at Summit

Opening Ceremony

Adults can earn Citation too. Awana Ministry Director Christy Cronk from Sierra Bible Church - Reno was presented with her Citation Plaque at Summit Journey- What a great leader and example for us all.

Missionary Conference at Awana Headquarters- We spent at week at Awana Headquarters with missionaries from around the country finding out about updates from Awana and looking at new and better ways to equip leaders to reach kids with the love of Jesus. Fun time.

US Missionaries from around the country

Working with a great team from Alaska, Utah, and Texas- Wonderful group of people

New T&T Materials

Was one of 5 US Missionaries to be recognized by Awana CEO Valerie Bell and President Matt Markins for my work in the field. Humbled that God can use me.

Club Visits- One of my favorite things to do is spend time at clubs talking with kids, encouraging and thanking leaders for their service and watching God work in these clubs. Here are some of the places we've been to in the last few months.

Summit Christian Church- Sparks, NV

 

Valley Christian Fellowship- Gardnerville, NV

Shadow Hills Church- Las Vegas

Canyon Ridge Christian Church- Las Vegas

 The River Ministries- Topaz Ranch Estates, NV

South Reno Baptist

Mountain Vista Baptist Church- Carson City, NV

City Bible Church- Bullhead City, AZ

First Baptist Sparks, NV

 New Life Fellowship- Lovelock, NV

Mason Valley First Southern Baptist- Yerington, NV

Green Valley Baptist- Henderson, NV

Oasis Baptist- Henderson, NV

Snow, snow and more snow- Keeping up with the snow in Truckee was a huge challenge for our family this year, but that is part of living in the mountains. 

That's it for now. Thank you again to everyone who prays, supports, encourages, gives, serves, laughs and seeks after God. TOGETHER, we are reaching children with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ....what a wonderful ministry God has allowed us to be a part of. I thank God for you and the work he is doing in and through you.  See you again sometime down the road.

If you'd like to financially support our efforts to reach children, you can send donations to:

Jeff Gilpin

P.O. Box 697

Truckee, CA. 96160

Make a note on the memo of the check "Gilpin Support Acct 319"

or donate online at awana.org/missionary/gilpin

January 2019 Ministry Update

Hello Everyone,
God continues to work in Nevada through the ministry of Awana. Here is a report of what He has been doing.

Mid Year New Club Training- We had the opportunity to train a new club. Mason Valley Southern Baptist Church in Yerington, NV asked us to come out for Awana Basics Training in December. They started their ministry in January. Praise God!!

Club Visits- Part of my responsibility and really my joy, is to visit the Awana clubs in our area to meet and talk with the clubbers as well as encourage leaders. Here are some of the places we've been to over the last few months.

Calvary Baptist Church- Bishop, CA

First Baptist Sparks

Antelope Valley, CA Awana

First Baptist- Parker, AZ

Havasu Alliance Church- Lake Havasu City, AZ

Life Church- Las Vegas, NV

Summerlin Community Church- Las Vegas, NV

South Reno Baptist Church

Las Vegas Golden Knights- Ryan took me to a Knights game for a father/ son outing. What a blessing!!

Thank you again to everyone who prays, supports, encourages, shares, serves, laughs and seeks after God. Together, we are reaching children with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I praise God for you and the work He is doing in and through you. See you again down the road.

If you'd like to be a part of our ministry, and support our efforts to reach children with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, you can send donations to:

Awana/ Jeff Gilpin

PO Box 697

Truckee, CA. 96160

*Make a note on the memo of the check "Gilpin Acct 319" 

Or

Donate online at:

 awana.org/missionaries/gilpin/