Students and Missions

Dear Prayer Partners,
First of all, I want to say THANK YOU for all of your faithful prayers for our family over the past 6 years! God has been so faithful to answer hundreds of prayers! Just looking back through each of our newsletters, it was amazing to see how so many of them were answered. That is because of your faithfulness and belief that prayer WORKS! Recently, we had asked each of you to be praying for the Lord to lead us to the next step of our family’s journey with Him. Once again, He has been faithful to answer those prayers!
Almost immediately after we arrived home in April the Lord opened a door of ministry opportunity. This is the way that the Lord worked to bring us to this next step in our journey with Him.
We met a man in Zambia that was familiar with the ministry needs in the state of Arizona. When he shared about the lostness and the state of the churches in Arizona our hearts were broken and we knew that we needed to pray for Arizona. He asked for our resumes and three days after we arrived home (Monday) we received an email from a pastor in Arizona. The pastor’s name is Phil and he explained to Kendall that he would love to talk to him about becoming the Student and Missions Pastor at his church in Casa Grande, Arizona. Tuesday, Pastor Phil called to talk to Kendall and it was incredible how his heartbeat was in tune with ours. Friday night, Kendall had a phone interview with the search committee. After the interview, we both had a peace about whatever would come from the interview. Monday, the phone rang and we were invited as a family to travel to Casa Grande to visit for a week to see the place, meet the people, and see if this was the place that God was calling us.
May 14th-20th our family spent time in Casa Grande. We were blessed to spend time with many church members in small group and in different settings. During our time, the kids got to visit schools and really liked a school in the town. Kendall and I felt like this was the place that God was calling us. It is a place of great need and many ministry opportunities. Kendall was able to spend time with some of the youth and many of the men in the church. I was able to spend time with some of the youth girls and several women in the church. It was an encouraging time and a blessing for our entire family. That Sunday, Kendall was asked to share our calling and his vision for the student and missions ministry. At the end of the service, the church voted and agreed that Kendall was the man God was calling to serve at Trinity Southern Baptist Church. We were overwhelmed and felt so loved by the Trinity family!
Currently, we are in Texas with Kendall’s family. We are enjoying our time at the ranch in the quiet and slow pace of life! On June 28th, we will drive to Phoenix. July 1st, Kendall will begin working at the church. July 7th, he will travel with 5 other adults to Durango, Colorado to take the students to camp. Please pray for unity and for Kendall to have good times with the youth and getting to know them better. Pray for our travels and transition to our new home in Arizona! God is so good and we are so blessed! Thank you all for praying and as always, TO GOD BE THE GLORY!
Blessings,  The Helgren Family

 A group of us from Trinity hiked "CG" the mountain in Casa Grande while we were there and prayed over the city.

 Pastor Phil and Kendall on CG

Trinity Southern Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona... our new mission field!