Two Months Away
It has just now occurred to me that in two months and a day, I (Ryan) will hop on a plane, and as long as the folks at the border don’t have a new, arbitrary piece of information they surprisingly need from me, I will be at Rock Nest Ranch, preparing for a summer of camp ministry (some of you may recall that last summer the border patrol agent demanding to see my college diploma before allowing me in the country!). Leanne and the girls will join me after a few weeks.
This last weekend I got the chance to preach here at Evergreen, and I was given the topic of Missions. I was really fired up about the opportunity to preach on missions, and the only trouble was that I had a lot more to say than I had time allotted to say it. Normally for preaching at Evergreen we aim for 45 minutes, and it’s not uncommon for sermons to last even 50 minutes. Often when I preach, I end up with a sermon that is a little shorter, around 38-42 minutes. Well, I made up for it this time, with a 57 minute sermon. If you are looking for a way to burn 57 minutes and what to hear me share from God’s word and from some of my experience on the subject of missions, you can find it at https://www.youtube.com/live/2mEMTz5BXQA?si=9ARnDF3VV_CHj5YT. I start preaching around the 24:40 mark.
Spring has been good for our family. We had a chance to get away for a week together at my sister’s vacation house in Klickitat, WA, which was a blessing. The picture below is from the clear night sky, looking toward the Klickitat River Valley during our week away. Right after that week, we had sickness run it’s course through 3/5th’s of our family, but we’re grateful to be past that, for now, anyway. We have taken the Spring off from soccer for the girls. In it’s place, Mabel has rejoined art school, Estelle is taking piano lessons, and Rosie continues to be in ballet. And, of course, friends are a big part of both of the lives of our older two as they are in their teen and pre-teen years. Leanne received big news from the dentist a month ago that she needed braces to correct a teeth-grinding issue. This was a giant surprise, and it has been a big adjustment for her, but she is doing a great job with it. My world has been filled with work at Evergreen, and I am excited for a new discipleship ministry initiative that I am piloting this Spring, with great hopes of making this something we adopt eventually on a church-wide level.
Need for more workers
I meet with our Rock Nest Team just about every Monday morning for an hour or two on Zoom, in order to talk together, plan for the future, pray, and care for each other. Most of the time Leanne is not able to join for those meetings, because Mondays are the days she goes out to her parents house to be a caretaker for her mother. In those meetings, though, one of our primary conversations and efforts in prayer centers around staffing for the summer. We continue to pray for the Lord’s provision for the folks we need. Please pray with us, because if camp needed to start today, we would not have sufficient staff, particularly with regard to cabin leaders. Not enough cabin leaders means turning kids away from camp, and we are so hopeful that we don’t need to do that. I shared last month that we had one team let us know they weren’t going to be able to come. Well, not for lack of effort, but we have actually lost another team, and not found any new ones to replace them. Our dear friends and teammates from Hope Community Church in Tucson had in mind to again bring a team, as they have done for many years in a row, but that team just didn’t materialize this year. So we continue to pray and knock on as many doors as we can, in an effort to find folks to join us this summer. Would you pray with us? And maybe you could “knock on a few doors”, too. If you know of anyone who might serve for some or all of the summer, I would love to be in touch with them.
With the current shortage of staff, it has been easy to get discouraged, and in the last month I realized a problem in my own focus. Yes, the need for more staff is real. But where was my gratitude for the excellent staff that the Lord has already provided? We have a handful of folks, including a few teens for Evergreen, who are planning to come serve for the whole summer. And we have a teams coming from Sunset Bible Church and from Evergreen to serve for the weeks of Teen Camp and Jr Camp #2, respectively. What a gift to have those two teams coming! As some of you know, Sunset Bible Church is pastored by Jay Mosser, who was my youth pastor, and he is the one that introduced me to Rock Nest back in the 90’s. While I don’t think Jay is joining us, we are so happy to re-establish that connection with Sunset and with one of their other pastors, Stephen Abishima. The team from Evergreen is such a great bunch, as well, and I’m excited for the people for who have signed up to be a part of that team. The team is being led by a missionary couple from Evergreen, Joel and Andi McMartin, who just happen to be living in Vancouver for a short season while on home assignment, after serving a decade or so in Senegal. While on home assignment, they are still making trips back to Africa, and most commonly Ivory Coast. In fact, they are in Ivory Coast right now, so please pray for them as they travel and serve there over the next month before returning to Vancouver! I am truly grateful to have Joel and Andi leading our team from Evergreen this summer.
New Role for Us
Because the team from Tucson isn’t coming to Rock Nest this summer, that creates a significant leadership change. Frank and Beth Bumb, who have been the team leaders from AZ for all these years, have served as the Work Crew Leaders in an admirable way. To not have them as a part of the leadership team at camp for the summer will be such a big shift, and we will miss them so much! In their absence, Leanne and I have been given the task of leading the Work Crew for this summer. We are excited to serve in that way, and for the unique discipleship opportunities that will provide for us among the Work Crew team that is made up of mostly younger teens. But we also recognize that we are filling some pretty big shoes, and we know that by filling this role, we won’t be able to serve in some of the other ways we served last year. And since Leanne is coming up a bit later than me, I will be leading this team on my own before she arrives in early July to join me in the work.
Prayer Needs
- We continue to pray that the Lord would provide the staff we need for this summer at Rock Nest Ranch. Please pray for for connections with individuals, couples, or small car-fulls of people who would come serve with us for one or more of the weeks of camp this summer.
- Pray for gratitude in us. That we would be grateful for the ways the Lord has invited us to serve Him, grateful for the workers He has provided for the summer ministry, and grateful that we can trust Him with the rest of our needs.
- Pray for wisdom for how to step into this new role as Work Crew Leaders well. We want to be used by the Lord in significant ways as we disciple the teens and adults who are on our team over the course of the summer. And we want to make sure all the work gets done well and efficiently, too! There will be dishes to do, a kitchen to clean, toilets and showers to scrub, floors to vacuum or mop, and much more!
Conclusion
Thank you for your role in confirming our calling at Rock Nest, praying for us in this ministry, sending us out with great financial care, and receiving with great joy our reports of the work the Lord is doing in this ministry!
Ryan and Leanne Donovan
PS – Between the time I wrote this prayer letter and them time I hit send, I received a call from a young man in Gallup, New Mexico, who is interested in serving with us at Rock Nest. Praying he is able to join us!
Rock Nest Summer Schedule 2026
- Summer Staff Arrival Date – June 24
- Summer Staff Orientation – June 25-28
- Teen Camp (13-15 years old) – June 29-July 5
- Junior Camp 1 (9-12 years old) – July 8-13
- Junior Camp 2 (9-12 years old) – July 16-21
- Family Camp – July 24-27
- UIM All Staff Conference in Nebraska – Aug 4-8 (Happens every 5 years)
