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I’m working from my “mobile office” today and am reflecting on the whirlwind of Easter-prep over the past several weeks. As I am debriefing myself on the Easter-happenings I can’t help but be overwhelmingly thankful for each of the other three members of my immediate family that God has so richly blessed me with.

We took and I posted this family photo on Easter Sunday with the caption, “I’m so proud to serve Jesus with this team!” – and that couldn’t be more true! It really is a blessing to know that our family-team is ALL-IN to make MUCH of Jesus Christ, TOGETHER!

As I continue to review the past few weeks and the opportunities for ministry a genuine smile forms on my face as I remember our kids stuffing Easter Eggs with a team of volunteers from our church – the same eggs they would help a similar group of people spread all around our church property – and minutes later, those same eggs would be “found” by these two as they hunted them with their same-age peers from the community. I’m smiling as I reflect on my wife playing phone-tag for weeks with our ‘hopeful’ candy-donor for the egg hunt, her MANY trips to area-stores to gather supplies for our Easter festivities at church, her late-nights preparing food and kid-friendly activity pages for the possible visiting young people during this Season. I’m reminded of her willingness to overwhelm her community-connections with our Easter-events and her personal invitations to many over the past several weeks. At our Easter Egg hunt alone, I’m certain a large portion of families who attended from our community were personally invited by her!

And just last night, after we returned from a quick 24-hour post-Easter visit with my parents a couple hours away in Middleburg, we returned to our Easter-just-happened-here-home for only a few minutes before the opportunity to visit a newly-hospitalized member of our congregation presented itself and ALL THREE OF THEM jumped at the opportunity, ran back to the family minivan and went with me to visit this gentleman and his wife at the hospital.

While I’m the only paid minister at our small church, I can say without a doubt that our ministry team is far-larger and often comes in a package of 4-people who share the same last name of Sheets. I’m thankful for the ministry-heritage I was born into that reflected some of these same characteristics – with an understanding that while Dad was the pastor, our entire family had been given an opportunity to serve Jesus, His Church, and love on people!

I pray that I can continue to lead my family to minister TOGETHER – even in ways we haven’t even imagined yet!

Here’s a video of our “Sheets Family Quartet” singing ‘Mercy Tree’ this past Easter Sunday morning –

We’re so glad we made the trip to Waynesboro, PA and the Renfrew Museum & Park this afternoon for their 20th Annual Fun Fly event!

We took some fun kid-photos, toured the museum, met some great people, the kids built their own kites, and I even got the chance to launch my GoPro up into the air attached to a 12-foot delta kite whose owner was more than willing to let me do so!

The video footage was anything but stable, but I did manage to snag a few great (in my opinion) still images!

Here’s a short video from a few hundred feet above the Museum and Park –

And here are my favorite aerial photographs from the day:

My other favorite pictures from around the park today:

My buddy Mike Foster blogged this powerful reminder today on the same day I watched the following video from NewSpring.

Both are well-worth your time.

Video –

Mike’s blog post.

Just because it’s not happening here doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

profileIn late 2012, I had the privilege of traveling to Swaziland with a team of pastors and laity to serve on a mission team for two weeks. While we were there, our team served the Emmanuel Wesleyan Bible College with both physical labor (painting and maintenance) and by teaching local pastors at a pastor’s conference.

The trip was both challenging and rewarding.

I have the opportunity to join another team this year – in October/November 2014 for a return-trip to Swaziland to serve in a similar capacity by loving and teaching local pastors to serve the Lord and His Church in the country of Swaziland.

As I prepare spiritually and mentally for this opportunity I am once again startled at the seeming ‘impossibility’ of raising the necessary funds to get there. I am confident, however, that the Lord will provide the necessary funds to make this trip a possibility. And this is where you might be able to play an active-role in seeing the Lord provide –

I am a full-time pastor in Shippensburg, PA, a husband, and proud daddy. I do not have the ability to “put in a few extra hours” at my job for an increase in take-home pay. What I’m hoping to find are plenty of friends and family (and even strangers!) who may be willing to help me get BACK TO SWAZILAND to serve the Lord and His Church.

I’m not able to offer much in return for your generous financial help except the few ‘reward levels’ outlined on the fundraising page which may help you help me reach my goal in the time I have before our trip. You may or not be aware that I have a few “freelancing abilities” that may or may not be of use to you personally – but if my skills in woodturning or graphics design would be a benefit to you in return for you supporting financing my trip, please do not hesitate to contact me to discuss something. You can contact me via this page or via email directly: stevan[at]stevansheets.com.

I am seeking to raise $3700 for this trip and here is how that breaks down:
Mission Trip Team Registration: $3000
Site fees (processing): approximately $300
Other (travel to airports, reward supplies, etc.): $400

Thank you for considering helping me get BACK TO SWAZILAND!