June 2011

CMR 419 Box 139 APO AE 09102 Phone: 641-569-7246 avanwyk@clubbeyond.org kvanwyk@clubbeyond.org

Austin & Katy Van Wyk

Serving in Heidelberg, Germany with Club Beyond Facebook: Austin & Katy Van Wyk www.mcym.org hossandkatylin@gmail.com

Dear friends, We are nearing the end of our FIRST six months here in Germany, and boy have they been amazing and crazy and busy and wonderful and hard and challenging and stretching and a beautiful picture of Gods amazing love and provision and protection! In April, Club Beyond held their FIRST ever Middle School Adventure Camp (MSAC)! Our community of Heidelberg filled a bus full of middle school students and adult leaders and drove five hours to an awesome facility in Belgium. During the day students and leaders rode mountain bikes, climbed rock walls, drove go-karts, kayaked, played human foosball, and traversed high ropes courses, building relationships and conquering fears at every turn. In the evenings, we heard from a great speaker who told the students (many for the FIRST time), that they take Gods breath away! Throughout the week, small groups of six or seven students played with, ate with, attended club with, and slept in tee-pees with their adult leaders. Austins group of seventh grade boys included several who had never before attended church or chapel, or even Club. One of those boys was Jason. At the beginning of the week, Jason made it very clear that he was not religious, and had very little interest in the spiritual side of camp. So it came as a welcome surprise, a couple days into camp, when Jason asked Austin if he could be the one to pray before a meal. After a couple of questions about the proper procedure, Jason prayed his FIRST prayer. Katys group also had a fun FIRST! Rachel lives with her older brother and sister-in-law and often feels like she takes a back seat to their lives with their young sons. The family does not attend chapel, in fact before attending MSAC, she had never even opened a Bible. Before camp, her sister-in-law purchased a Bible in the bookstore so that she wouldnt feel left out, and Katys group enjoyed a special moment when the packaging came off, and Rachel opened Gods word for the very FIRST time. A couple weeks after returning home from MSAC, we were blessed to attend our FIRST staff conference and training! It was a wonderful time to be with our staff family and hear from a great, godly speaker. As we head into the month of June we are facing many more FIRSTS: our FIRST summer in Germany (it gets surprisingly hot, believe it or not!), our FIRST graduation season with students from
Katy and her small group getting ready to conquer the rock wall! Continued...

Shawn and Jason - two of the guys from Austins small group

For the ministry of:

Austin & Katy Van Wyk

Account: 30607 Serving in Heidelberg, Germany with Club Beyond
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Heidelberg High School, our FIRST summer service project in Romania (coming up June 24-July 2), and we are right in the middle of our FIRST PCS (Permanent Change of Station) season. A typical tour of duty at a given station lasts three years for every Army family. That means that at the end of every three years, the Army will move them to their next duty station. The community in and around Heidelberg is somewhat unique in that we are the headquarters for the Armys main leadership body; therefore, the three year rule is bent and often broken in our case. Thus far this year we have experienced the phenomena of PCSing outside the typical season (which usually falls between June and August), but the number of people leaving during the next three months seems staggering. We are told that the percentage of people leaving this year is not atypical, and that alone helps us understand why this is always a hard time of year. Though we have only been here a few months, we are preparing ourselves for the FIRST of many hard goodbyes! We hope you know how much we appreciate your prayers and support! We know that we could never do this without all of you! Thank you for being such an integral part of this ministry! Serving with you,

Enjoying our FIRST spring staff conference

Boot Camp - children of deployed soldiers get to experience some of the things their parents deal with while at war (MREs, night vision, camo face paint, Humvees, physical training ,etc.)

Praises and Prayer Requests Praise the Lord for the beginning of great relationships at Middle School Adventure Camp! Praise the Lord for safe travels for all of our communities to and from MSAC! Please pray that the preparations for service project will come together, for safe travels to and from Romania (30 hour bus ride each way), and that God will do amazing things in and through our students there. Please pray for families and staff as PCS season is truly upon us. Pray for goodbyes and welcomes, that we may do both well!