A week ago, I had this email update all set to send when I had to change plans and prepare to fly to the Maritimes for my Grandmother’s funeral. It was a very good trip, and I was able to visit with lots of family and many others who knew her. It was such an honour to give a eulogy for grandma, and I enjoyed talking to others and hearing stories about her as I prepared it. Also, a good gospel message was preached, as per my grandmother’s request. Thank you for your prayers for our family. It is much appreciated.

This update was written to cover the first books to arrive 10 days ago, and we are now expecting the rest to arrive within a few hours. The warehouse is about to get very full!

New books are starting to arrive!

The first books of the No Ordinary Story series have started to arrive from the printer. The first one to arrive, No Ordinary Book, is part of the set, but also meant to stand alone. It’s a small booklet that can be used as a “pre-evangelism” book to help explain what makes the Bible unique and trustworthy and worthwhile to understand. It isn’t meant to be a comprehensive book and answer every question (it is only 48 pages long), but it is designed to whet a person’s appetite for the Bible, tear down some preconceived ideas they may have, and start to build confidence in God’s Word. No Ordinary Book does this by looking at just a few apologetic examples as you can see from the table of contents.

LIke the rest of the books in the No Ordinary Story series, this is a short book that is easy to read (not a dry textbook!) and can be read quickly. It will also feature artwork throughout to help reach a modern audience and many different age groups.

Read more about this new series at goodseed.com/no-ordinary-story-the-series.html

Over the weekend our kids were excited to see the first bit of snow coming down in our yard, confirming that summer is over and Fall is on us! We now have two opposing snow forts in the back yard. After a very cool and wet summer, we are hoping this melts quick!

With Fall here we are back in the full swing of things with the kids at school and other activities. Two of the kids are now involved in quizzing at church, so they are busy doing Scripture memory and getting ready for the first competition. Naomi is teaching a childrens’ Sunday School class and I am leading the adult class this Fall at our church, as well as preaching one Sunday a month at another smaller rural church.

Please pray for our family as we are involved in church, school, and just the busyness of life, that we keep our priorities straight.

Please pray too for additional financial support for our family.

Everybody takes first-day-of-school photos these days, and this year ours coincided with a chapel day, so they were in dress uniform for their small Christian school. We decided to have some fun and take a goofy photo on day two as well, showing life after the excitement of day one, but the teenager didn’t want to be in some silly photo.

Evangelism Partnerships
In the last week I’ve had a few opportunities to talk to people using our evangelism resources in their ministries. I love hearing how people are using these Gospel tools.

A pregnancy care centre here in Alberta re-ordered 7 cases of our children’s book, “The Lamb.” They put one of these evangelism picture books in each gift basket they give to everyone who comes to them for help from their community. This is a wonderful idea for sharing the Good News with those in a challenging time of life.

Yesterday, we shipped 400 copies of “The Story that Matters” to a church in the US that distributes these books annually at a juvenile detention center within their community. Again, a great ministry to those who in need.

Please pray with us for those churches, ministries and individuals using these tools to share the precious Gospel message in their communities.

Family camping trip in Jasper

Dear Friends and Family,

Summer has flown by and we have much to update you on.

Both Troy and Naomi have been working on various aspects of a new series we hope to print this fall. Naomi has been editing and proofreading and Troy has been updating some teaching video files to be included with the books. This new series is call the No Ordinary Story Series. It is a series of small, “bite-sized” booklets that give a creation-to-Christ overview similar (but more condensed) to what you find in The Stranger or By This Name. They are easy to read and are geared to a secular viewpoint. They will be ideal to use with those who aren’t great readers who would be intimidated by one big book. These will be a great fit for both teen and adult study groups.

Printing this series will cost $27,000, and currently, we have a donor who has agreed to match donations toward the printing of these books, up to $13,500. Funds that are received over and above this amount will go into an account towards translations of our materials.

In addition to the work on the NOS Series, Troy has been labouring many hours with paperwork, trying to appease various levels of government with their annual requirements. A lot of this paperwork is new to Troy and has been quite challenging to understand and know how to fill out properly.

So two major prayer requests:

1. For us all, as we push hard to get the NOS series ready to print and provision of funds
2. Patience and ability to complete government paperwork to their satisfaction.

Kenya

We are encouraged by various stories that we hear on a regular basis. We were thrilled to send a fellow labourer in Africa some materials and visual aids to help his tremendous ministry in Kenya. He has been using GoodSeed resources for some time and we have been following his adventures on social media as he seeks to share the gospel.

“All the visuals I desired and prayed for plus more visuals. Plus the tabernacle. Plus many books and DVDs. And workbooks and teacher’s guides! Thank you so much GoodSeed ministry. Thank you so much. I will faithfully use these materials to evangelize, make disciples and train disciple makers. All to the glory of God.”

India

Another individual wrote to share how she used The Lamb to teach children in India. She wrote:
“Over the sessions I was amazed to observe how the children were developing an understanding of the truth of the fact that we are sinners and the significance of the sins of the people being placed on the lamb and them coming to the truth of Jesus being our sacrificial lamb. … I was also able to discover how so many of the children believed their good works/behaviour would give them favour with God and so I was able to address this.

“On the last day as they were worshipping the Lord singing ‘Jesus Lamb of God’ some of the children were weeping as it was obvious there had been a revelation of the truth imparted into their hearts. I was so delighted as there were approximately 150 children in each session and I was so encouraged to see the Holy Spirit bring these truths to them and working on individual hearts.”

Thank you so much for partnering with us as we desire to make the precious truths of the gospel clear and easily accessible.

Troy & Naomi

PS Check out our blog for photos of some summer activities.

Spring continues to slowly make its presence known around our community and our yard, and we are enjoying spending more time outside. Life is busy (as it seems to be for everyone) but seems especially packed these days.

We have been busy doing lots of things as a family and have done some special events. The above photo is of us outside the Calgary Courts Centre where we went for a special open house, mock trials, and tours of the detention centres. Very eye opening and fun day, especially for Ellie as she thinks she wants to be a lawyer someday.

The law finally catches up with these hardened criminals.

Troy has been getting occasional speaking opportunities at a very small community church and our family has been enjoying that. He preached last weekend, and will be speaking there again this weekend. The following weekend there is a men’s camping trip and Troy has been asked to speak there as well. Please pray for him as he prepares messages for these ministry opportunities.

Some other exciting things for our family is that Adelaine was recently baptized! We had a really special day with family visiting, and over lunch, sharing their own baptism stories. We rejoice to see her take this step of obedience and faith.

Ethan was supposed to get baptized that morning as well, but three days beforehand, he got a…

Thankfully, it wasn’t a bad break, but it was a little wedge that cracked out right next to the growth plate by his elbow. He and some boys were running around at school and Ethan tripped over someone, put his arm out straight to catch himself, and physics said something had to give. He was in a splint for two weeks, and after another x-ray and consultation with a surgeon at the Calgary Children’s Hospital, it was decided that he could go without the splint. He is healing quick but still has some aches and pains in his arm. He is doing well and back to his usual (high) energy levels. Please pray for continued health and improvement.

First Job!
Naomi and the kids have taken on the janitorial job at their school. This have given the kids some tithing/saving/spending money, and some good work experience.

Spring time is also a time for our kids to be involved in school conventions and school events. At a school fundraiser, both Adelaine and Ethan performed some music in front of about 200 people. Adelaine has been taking piano lessons from Naomi’s mom (and practices on the piano given by Troy’s mom!), while Ethan has been taking guitar lessons for the last few months. This was Ethan’s first performance before a crowd, and they both did very well.

Ellie travelled to Manitoba to compete in a Sr. Convention (her first), while Adelaine and Ethan competed in the Jr. High Convention. These conventions are opportunities for the kids to develop a skill and compete against other students in that area (See some of Adelaine’s art). Ethan was disappointed to not be able to do some physical games because of his broken wing, but overall the kids did very well. Ellie got first place for a short story while competing against many students who were older.

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We are so proud of these kids and the gifts the Lord has given them.

Also in April we celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary!

Thank you for your prayers and support that enable us to serve. More ministry news in our next update.

Because of Christ,

Troy & Naomi