May 2023

Hello friends and family!

I would say that we’re all breathing a sigh of relief, but it’s more like taking a gulp of air before diving into the 100-meter freestyle race. Off-season has ended and summer is mere days away. What a great time to look back at all God has done and forward to all He’s promised to do!

Camp News

The last few weeks of off-season is usually consumed with preparation. Most teams spent a good portion of last month cleaning, organizing and taking care of details so they can perform well during ten hectic weeks of summer. Think of it as getting the engine in your car ready to run at 120 mph for five hours straight. In the midst of that, we served fourteen different camps with camper numbers well over one-hundred most weekends.

In the wake of summer deadlines and the day-to-day schedule, projects have understandably dropped off a little in the past month. However, we are extremely grateful for a few volunteers who have worked hard to reshape a portion of our road, making it more erosion resistant and easier to maintain. We also saw the arrival of three new-to-us shipping containers. That’s more than 8,000 cubic feet of extra storage space! In the kitchen, our brand-new CombiTherm oven was installed after months of shipping and supply woes.

Graduation was the last event of the winter and spring season. Three young ladies graduated from the Defined program and moved on to the next steps in God’s plan for their lives. Two of them will work on summer staff and the third will be back for a year of Ministry Bound in the fall. I had the privilege of being their dorm leader during their first and second year. It was so neat to look back on their lives and see how God has grown them to be more like His Son in the last three years!

Palkki News

Gabe did a lot of summer prep in his own work area, looking forward to having an energetic crew of Leadership Live teens helping in the shop and around the grounds. He cleaned up the Treasure Yard in the shop area to make room for the shipping containers. This included straightening out a road and moving several trailers to a new parking spot. He also did some major reorganization of the MAG Shop’s equipment bay and tool room. Outside of work time, we hosted the Ministry Crew for a Saturday evening cook-out. Gabe grilled burgers like a champ and good times were had by all. (Unfortunately, I was having too much fun to take pictures, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.)

After a full month of working only three quarters of the week, I must say that I enjoy it immensely. There has been time for long talks with friends, house-cleaning projects that have been put off, making dinner on time, and more reading and writing than I’ve been able to do in years! Of course, my job area hasn’t been boring either. Besides running meals, I’ve also finished a yearbook and three graduation slideshows, prepped for our summer schedule, made an airport run to Las Vegas, and purchased more than 150 pounds worth of drinks for our summer sponsors and speakers. My writing project for the Broken I Ranch has been finished and handed off for production. I’m looking forward to seeing what our junior camp team does with my work! (Stay tuned for mid-summer pictures!)

Gabe and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary on May 21st. In the break week between crazy and crazier, it was a good time to reflect on everything that’s happened since we got married. We only had a week between the wedding and jumping into summer staff positions. Then fall hit with a smaller Ministry Crew and a larger camp load than usual. We transitioned to being resident staff in January, running full-tilt into projects and more camp than ever. In between there have been fun times with friends, unexpected twists to our plans, good days, bad days, lessons to be learned or taught, dinner bells and bulldozers.

To be honest, it’s been a hard year. Time was short and adjustments were not. Mistakes were made. The pressure seemed never-ending. But God has used this stage in our lives to teach us so much about His character, His Word and ourselves. In the midst of the busyness (indeed, because of the busyness!) He has proved Himself to be the only treasure worthy of our worship. Our marriage, our work, our comfort, our desires… all of these failed to bring the satisfaction found in making God our highest priority and bending every grain of our existence to the cause of serving and knowing Him. We look forward to growing in that satisfaction next year and forever.

“Lay up for yourselves treasure in Heaven… for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Matthew 6:20-21

Love in Christ,

Gabe and Cheyenne Palkki

PS: Swing by the gallery for some interesting desert life pictures, including some of my favorite people! Our praises and prayer requests have also been updated!