Deborah Mayom is a mother of eight children, a survivor of the long and brutal civil war in the African nation of Sudan, an immigrant to the US and, most importantly to her, a woman of prayer. Last year, through circumstances that can only be attributed to the Holy Spirit, she became something else, something she never expected to be growing up in a war zone—a Trinity Academy parent.

 

School let out at Praise Academy in Shreveport on May 20. Students, teachers and Mission team members celebrated the completion of their first year with hymns and brownies (prepared by the pre-K class) before capping off the day with a water balloon launch. For Joan Pingel, the principal, a favorite moment came when several students ran to get their final projects—ABC booklets featuring letters, words and pictures—so they could show them off. The students expressed sadness at the close of the year, and one told Joan he planned to wear his uniform every day during the summer.

 

Five a.m. The alarm sounds, and 20-somethings Andrew and Emily Hayden shuffle downstairs in their suburban Burnsville, MN, home. With their one-year-old son asleep upstairs, they sit on wooden barstools at the kitchen counter and pray together, following a format in their Marriage in Christ manual.

 

In July in Burnsville, MN, Jim and Norma Cahill (Servant Branch) held a day camp for kids in their yard, with help from some Action volunteers.

 

The Colorado Springs branch celebrated Lord's Day in Eric and Mary Faith Hall's backyard July 9, with visitors from two branches - Saskatoon and Rockford.

 

2016 Action Summer interns Savannah Willard, Mary Hagens, Noah Root, Maria Nicklaus and Andrew King (Servant Branch) hosted a plant sale on a June weekend to raise money for their summer work.