Dear Friend,
Lisa and I hope this letter finds you
doing well. It has been an interesting month for us and we are trying to figure
out how August flew by so quickly. After completing the mileage log for our
Park Avenue, we know time on the road contributed! Driving 3,800 miles in one
month surely takes time, don’t you think?
Many of these miles racked up during
the two trips made to the Colorado Springs area in a space of two weeks. I wish
I could say the two trips were for leisure, but they were business trips that
formed around taking Duaine and Romy to Summit Ministries for a two week
Christian Worldview Conference for high school seniors and college students.
The boys sat in on 70 hours of classroom time while they were there and in
between classes were able to take in some sights around the area.
These two trips turned into overnight events
that included visits with a number of friends I have ministered to and with
over the years. During the first trip out to Manitou Springs, I stayed
overnight in Pueblo and had supper with a friend who attended the TFC Rallies
at the same time I did when I was in high school.
Then on Monday morning, the 6th, I
headed back into Kansas via a route through Garden City. While there, I had a
meeting with a friend who is the director of that region’s juvenile detention
facility. It was interesting to tour the facility and we even talked about how
it would have been nice to build something like that in Beloit instead of
closing that facility and moving the girls to Topeka.
After
my first meeting of the day, I had lunch with a girl who spent time at the
Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex in Topeka. She lives in Garden City and
wanted me to meet her friends. It was nice to have the opportunity to visit and
see how well she was doing. If her plans have panned out, she has started
college now.
Leaving Garden City, my next stop was
in Ellis which is west of Hays on I-70. There I visited a TFC alumnus who
graduated high school in Clyde back in 1992. As I walked into his house, he
shouted out that I looked the same now as I did twenty years ago. (I must have
been a pretty rough looking 27 year old.) This visit was a tough one, as this
young man lost a leg while serving in the United States Marine Corp fourteen
years. To complicate things, he wound up having heart bypass surgery back in
July. We spent about 90 minutes catching up and had a very good time of prayer
together.
As
I left Ellis, I wondered when I would see Donny again. Then I received a call the
weekend of the August TFC Rally, which was also the day I picked up Duaine and
Romy from Colorado, that Donny had to be flown in an air ambulance to the K.U.
Medical Center. He spent the next two weeks having invasive surgeries to remove
diseased muscle tissue that could have killed him. The past two Tuesdays, I
left for Topeka early so I could visit him in the hospital. By now, he should
be back in the Wakeeney hospital for several months of physical therapy and
recuperation.
I don’t share these stories to pat
myself on the back. I share them to say thank you for supporting our work with
Teens For Christ. The visits I had on both trips to Colorado (some by phone) involved
people from all stages of my career serving the Lord here in Concordia. There
are other stories from the past two weeks which would make this an eight page
prayer letter if I got into details. Instead, I will close with this verse:
"And how shall they preach unless they are
sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach
the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!"" ~
Romans 10:15 (NKJV)
You, my friend, give us the means to preach
the gospel of peace as the Lord directs us in and out of the lives of so many
different people. Some of the encounters might be brief, but the eternal
results will be lasting. Just as in Donny’s case. Years ago, I prayed with him
after a TFC Rally as he trusted Christ to be his Lord and Saviour. That brief
moment will be what sustains him for the long months ahead!
Thank you for your prayers during the
month of August. Please keep us in your prayers as we enter into another school
year of ministry. It will be interesting to see what all takes place. We will
have many things to share, I’m sure!
Until then, take care and God Bless You!
Yours
For Youth!
Kent & Lisa Otott
Romans 10:15
Kent & Lisa Otott
Romans 10:15
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