The Brock Family

Camp Happenings

I have decided that 80 degrees is the new 0 degrees. Therefore, we have had negative 50-degree temperatures here at camp. Despite the cold, Ironwood has been busy. While we do not have many campers in November and December, these final months of the year bring the two day, all staff planning meetings and budget deadlines. Fewer campers, also, means more time to work on projects.

Unfortunately, Ember and I missed this year’s planning meetings due to sickness. Being sick, however, did not get us out of turning in our budgets. Since it was our first year fully in our jobs, we both had a lot to learn. Thankfully, God has provided immensely for camp. While camp has had to make some cuts, we are still functioning and ready for another year of ministry.

Not only has God provided for the everyday functioning of camp, but also, He has provided for the number of projects around camp. The Hacienda’s fire/pizza oven/smoker addition to the courtyard had its final piece put in place on our last day of work before vacation. We installed the first antennas on one of the Wifi Towers. We uploaded the 5^th episode of the Youth Leader’s Brain on YouTube. In addition to all of that, a donor made it possible for us to purchase equipment for a second, portable studio. Now, we can run two studio sessions simultaneously during Tweakage (a camp conference in February) and Youth Leader’s Retreat.

Church Happenings

This past year, Ember and I started with working with the youth group at Faith Baptist Church of Cherokee Road. At the beginning of November, I had the privilege of taking the juniors and seniors (really just a junior and a senior) to the Youth Conference at International Baptist College and Seminary in Arizona. As this is the college Ember and I attended for three years you would think I would know how to drive there without any problem. Well, it turns out, when you decide to take the shortest possible route and neglect to turn on the “avoid dirt roads” settings you find yourself on a dirt road. By dirt, I mean sand. Having grown up in the desert my whole life I was undaunted by the 3 miles of sand between me and the next “real” road. At this point in the story all you need to know is that we made it to Arizona and just because I thought I broke an axel doesn’t mean that I did break an axel.

In December, we hosted the youth group Christmas party at our house. Since we had pumpkins left over from Fall, Ember and I decided to do Christmas Pumpkin Decorating Competition (which is exactly what it sounds like). After decorating the pumpkins, we posted pictures of them on Facebook and gave everyone about an hour and a half to vote. We watched a Christmas movie and drank hot chocolate. After the movie, we tallied the votes and I’m still bitter that my pumpkin didn’t win.

Family Happenings

With all both work and church being busy, we haven’t made much progress on our house. Dad and I did replace the sliding glass door with French doors during Thanksgiving break. I’ll be happy if I never have to install another French door (a foolish hope). If you ever visit our house chances are we are going to excitedly show you the French doors. Just smile and nod, we understand if you don’t share our same excitement over the doors. If, however, you had the unfortunate opportunity to try opening the old sliding glass door you may just be as excited about the new doors as we are.

Atticus is 3 months old! Somehow, he just keeps getting cuter. He started smiling and babbling. Ember and I are in a stiff competition with the fan in our room which Atticus has a developed an affinity for. He smiles at that fan constantly! We are looking forward to watching him continue to grow.

Praises

• God has begun to provide financially through he loving gifts of a few people.
• We were unexpectedly given groceries.
• Ironwood survived 2020 and is ready for a full year of ministry in 2021.
• We were able to replace our sliding backdoor with French doors. (This may not seem like a big deal, but if you were lucky enough to try using our old door then you know how big of a deal this is).

Prayer Requests

• COVID restrictions lift so that we can serve more churches in 2021.
• Atticus continues to grow and stay healthy.
• Continual progress on the house (we have a long list of projects we want to do).
• Bodie will be taking his final class for his bachelor’s degree this spring.

For God’s Glory,

Bodie and Ember Brock