Plans vs. Direction

Proverbs 16:9 ~

We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.

Like everyone, our plans have changed drastically for these last couple of months. In fact, right now, we should be ending our time in Turkey, preparing to travel to Salamanca, Spain. God has been SO GOOD though. While we were so disappointed to have our outreach plans change, outreach here at YWAM-Tyler has been amazing. 

So what have we been up to?

Our plan B outreach was called “Camp Arise and Shine”. The scheduled time frame was from March 26 – April 24. Before it started, we were given the option to stay for this local outreach, or leave. Normally, to receive a certificate of completion for a school you must complete an outreach, but because of the extenuating circumstances YWAM waived the requirement to complete outreach. We prayed and we felt 100% like we were supposed to stay.

Many students did leave, but there were several who stayed… And the outreach combined students from all of the schools that ran this winter (School of Evangelism, School of Worship, Discipleship Training School, Crossroads DTS). They ran the outreach like camp — we were grouped with 3 other families, and together formed Team Please and Plank You*; 6 adults and 13 kids made up our team, along with Leandro, our team leader.  We served together — weeding, mulching, fence cleaning, blogging; worshipped together {outside}, and participated in team competition. We worked hard together — Eli included!

Shortly after the week got started, further restrictions were added by the government that no longer allowed us to worship together outside. Leadership made adjustments, and we shifted to small group gatherings in the evening of less than 10 people. It seemed like everyday there was a new restriction put in place. And we seemed to be the only YWAM base who still had students around. Leadership made the decision to end Camp Arise and Shine on April 3. We were really bummed! We were having such a good time working & worshipping together. But God had a plan in all of it…

Many of the students that were here are late teens/twenty-somethings, so they made their way back home. YWAM Tyler allowed us families to stay, and volunteer around base. What a gift! As things were getting crazier here, Michigan was really intensifying. That we’ve been able to shelter in place in warmer weather, with lots of access to outdoor space has been an amazing gift. YWAM Tyler made many modifications to the cafeteria style eating we do to accomodate regulations & guidelines. I’ve never had to shop for toilet paper! We’ve stayed healthy, as well as those with which we live in community. 

Our days post-outreach quickly took shape. Neil, Nolan and Landon got started right away working on Grounds and Maintenance teams. Nolan and Landon are proficient with weed whackers! And Neil has gotten to help out with a bathroom remodel and building a playset. The guys have all gotten some experience patching potholes around base, rebuilding fences, trash pickup, among other things…

My days have been full of potty training, and kindergarten teaching. I did not know when we would ever have time to potty train, but it turns out that sheltering in place is prime training time! Titus has been a champ — it’s a big change and he’s had a great attitude! Schooling Eli over the last year has been challenging with Neil and my own classes and schedule, as well as our travel schedule over the last 9 months. This shelter in place allowed us to really focus and catch up on some things that we just never seemed to get to. Eli loves to play handyman with dad whenever it’s safe for him to do so. 

The girls have connected with some of the women staff around base who have made it their job to take on all kinds of odd jobs! They’ve helped paint bunk beds, weed parking lots, weed volleyball courts, wash windows and doors, among other things… They’ve also been helpful extra eyes and hands during potty training 😉 

In addition to all of the work we’ve been able to do around here, maybe most important is the relationship building that’s been happening. We lived with a sweet family with 2 young boys. And even though we’d lived together for 3 months, we were busy with classes and our kids were in childcare… it’s a different story when you are really doing life together. The other family that lives in the Annex of our dorm is from Mongolia. They have a teenage boy and 2 girls — our girls especially have really grown in relationship with their girls. They too, are such a sweet family, and we’ve so enjoyed getting to know them these last few weeks.

So what’s next for us?

Back to the title of this post… we’re heading in a direction and holding all of the steps loosely. Our direction is to join staff here at YWAM-Tyler. We love it here and we feel called here. We will be helping staff the next Family DTS scheduled to start June 30. Neil and I are excited to together be part of discipling other families and walking with them through an amazing, life-changing process. 

This means that life as full-time missionaries officially starts for us! (Honestly, I could have never imagined that being a sentence I would type out! What??!!!) If you want to learn more specifically about our mission as a family, we would love to share that with you more personally. 

Amy 248-568-9007 (amygreb6@gmail.com)

Neil 586-567-0150 (neilgreb@yahoo.com) 

We are going to be making our way to Michigan the weekend of May 8/9. We are really hoping to connect with family and friends there!  We also need to get into our storage unit and get that packed up. Our tentative plan is to return to Texas mid-June. 

So yeah, back to that verse in Proverbs… The last month and a half hasn’t looked at all like what we thought it would, but it’s been GOOD. Thank you Lord. Thank you that You see further, and You use WELL all of the craziness in the world….

• P.S. I wanted to share the story behind our team name, Please and Plank You….

One evening, our friend Siovhan shared that her friend did a 30 day planking challenge, and thus the Dorm 3 Plank Challenge was born! We planked most nights together for a couple of weeks — we all have stronger core muscles now 🙂 This challenge united our dorm of families! We were only in competition with ourselves — each person improving their own time was the sole goal.  Aaaaannnndddd, our team of parents & kids blew the Camp Arise and Shine team competition out of the water! No one could match our enthusiasm for camp & competition!