Fall in the Northeast

Some pics of our fall this year...

Derek's Birthday

For those of you who don't know, Derek's got his "dream" guitar for his birthday this year. Thanks to all of our family and friends who donated money towards his guitar!!
Here are some pics...

Thanksgiving!

We spent Thanksgiving this year at my Aunt Laura's house in New Jersey. My cousins were both there and it was a wonderful long weekend. We were able to make some homemade cookies, watch lots of movies and eat even more food! She did a great job cooking and making it feel like "home".
Thanks Aunt Laura!!!

pumpkins galore!

Yesterday we spent the evening carving pumpkins with our friends. Here are some pictures!
This one is mine...
Aelah sitting with Derek's, mine, and her pumpkins.

October so far...

October: We finally got moved in to our new "loft" and started preparing for a week long trip to Nova Scotia, Canada. Some dear friends of ours who were on staff here at YWAM New Haven recently moved back to Canada to start a community on their family's orchard. They have over 100 acres of apples, peaches, and pears. (Mostly all apples) Derek and I and our good friend Kendra took all eight students on the 18 hour van ride up. It was the most beautiful ride I have ever been on. Fall was in full force up north. And I finally got to go to Maine. The last northeastern state to visit. Canada was such a nice change of scenery, literally. And the apples....oh how I wish you could taste them. Honey Crisp are their specialty. They are so sweet and crispy...mmmm. Our team picked over 30 bins in four half days. Pretty good, huh?!? Each bin contains 25 loads of baskets holding 65 apples, so you do the math. Thats a lot of apples. I had so much fun cooking most of the day for the team and Ryan and Mare, our wonderful hosts. Derek and I look forward to going back soon. The ride home was a little quicker, only 15 hours. We are all definately tired of being in the car. The students were great though. No complaining at all. We arrived home on Saturday night late and the students had one free day before leaving again on Monday for Marietta, PA. We always take our schools down there every semester to visit the home of the Ehrman's. They have a beautiful old mansion that they, with the help of us YWAM'ers, have restored. We even tore up the brick sidewalk last spring and re-layed it. So a few other staff members went on that trip this week with the students. Derek and I are getting some much needed rest. There is a spot in our bedroom, right on the bed where we pick up a wireless signal, so I have used that excuse to not get out of bed much today. :) We that about brings us up to date... We promise to update more often, even if its just with pictures of the beautiful New England fall foliage. We hope you are all doing well. Please send us an email or give us a call. We would love to hear from y'all.
Love,
Derek and Rebecca

September

September was somewhat of a blur. We started the DTS, which is always exciting, but very tiring. We all look forward to about week 2 where we are getting into a rhythm and things start to settle down. Week 2 came and went with no hope for rest or rhythm. We decided to move our offices from the "Loft" to an open floor of one of the houses our leaders' own. For two weeks we packed up a 5200 square feet office space to move into a 1500 square feet third floor space. We were able to sell and give away quite a bit of our stuff. But we still had so many memories to try to take in before leaving. The last week in September was spent moving. So many van fulls of things to load and unload. Needless to say, we were running on fumes. Derek was the main mover, he spent every day all day long moving and packing. He got quite the work out. Some where in there I also flew home to IL for a three day weekend to spend some much needed time with my family. Jeremy brought Sarah, his fiance for those of you who don't know, home to meet the parents. Jacob and I had already met her and were so excited to see her again and get to know her more. It was such a great weekend. Lots of laughing as always. Then on the 30th was our 1 year anniversary. Can you believe it??? I know we couldn't. Where did the year go? So much change and exciting new adventures together. We spent the day in Mystic, CT. We started with a fun aquarium where we were entertained by a funny sea lion. Then we drove downtown to the historic city's heart. We visited Mystic Pizza for lunch. They took a walk down the beautiful harbor. Its full of cute little shops and the river is full of old ships and sail boats. We headed home for dinner. Derek made us a very tasty sea food dinner. We had a great time reminiscing about the past year and our future. What a great way to end a very exhausting month.

August

Wow, how the time flies by. I was talking to my aunt the other day and she was begging for more updates on here. I guess I never knew if anyone ever read them or not, but it was a nice motivation for me to keep going...I also never feel like there is too much new going on, but like she said, I am in it, so I'm sure there is lots to say. So here is goes, one month at a time.
August:
We returned home from the crazy summer of weddings back home in Illinois. Our friends and co-workers(if thats what you call co-missionaries) moved in to their very own home so we spent the first two weeks helping them renovate, paint, and watch their two young ones so they could spend about every waking hour working. They one of my very best friends Anne arrived from Germany, her home country. She and I were both bridesmaids in our friend Erika's wedding, which was August 18th. Derek was also in the wedding as one of the groomsmen. Our final wedding of the year. It was so wonderful to spend time with Anne, she is a very special person in Derek and I's life.
Right around the time of Erika's wedding I got sick again. This time I was determined to figure out why I seemed to be allergic to weddings. It seemed like every wedding I was in, including my own, I got extremely sick. And also at Christmas last year. So as soon as I started feeling sick, Derek and I went straight to the doctor. She started me on some medicine for heartburn and told me that she wanted to run more tests. We were leaving the next day for Erika and Sean's wedding, so the tests would have to wait for now. The medicine helped some, but I was still having horrible stomach aches and heartburn. One of my friends at the wedding told me about her similar problems. She suggested going off of dairy to see if that would help. It did! Also, I started doing research on IBS. I never knew what it was exactly, but little did I know that I would have ALL the symptoms. So I started following all the diet restrictions for that as well. Then I found that when I ate bread my stomach would swell up, so I did more research on wheat allergies, and what do you know, I had all the symptoms for that as well. So now I am on a strict no dairy or wheat diet. It helps you lose weight thats for sure. I am starting to feel so much better. I still take over the counter meds for heart burn, but for the most part the diet and vitamins recommended help tremendously. I am hoping to be able to get off the meds soon.
What a crazy packed month. I didn't realized how busy we were.
On top of all of that, we were also planning for our Fall Discipleship Training School to begin. Our students would be arriving Sept. 5 so we had lots of work to do.

Weddings, weddings, weddings...

I guess they say that when you reach a certain age all your friends get married. I never really believed them until this summer. We have had six weddings to attend this summer. Derek and I were asked to be in two of them, which was so nice and all of them were so beautiful. We have one more coming up this weekend, and then we should have a nice break for a while until they all start up again next summer! Congratulations to Stef & Genae, Seth & Karis, Daniel & Lacy, Ronnie & Andrea, Caleb & Andrea, and this weekend, Sean & Erika.

The rest of our summer was filled with friends, family, and lots and lots of work. When we got back from our trip to IL we starting remodeling a house here in our community for one of the families we work with at YWAM. We finally got them moved in two days ago and they are happily settling in. Its so amazing how much fulfillment you get from transforming a house into a home. I guess a lot of the work we do here with YWAM and in our community you don't always see the results or the heart changes. I know we are "storing up treasures in heaven" and that God sees all the work that is being done, but sometimes its just really nice to see something transformed before your eyes. The house really has turned out so nicely. The houses around here are all hundred of years old, so they have seen their share of families and gotten beat up around the edges. I really wish sometimes that the walls in houses could talk so we could hear all the stories of what they have seen and experienced with each family.

Derek and I are in need of prayer. This summer has also been a summer of sickness. Living by the grace of God also means sometimes not having a lot of money. Since we have been here we have had enough money every month to pay all of our bills, but our bank account has slowly diminished. I got sick twice this summer which meant unexpected doctor bills. God has been so faithful to us and will continue to be. But that doesn't always make it easy to trust. We just take it one day at a time. The doctors still aren't for sure what is causing my stomach to be so upset, but they are confident it is nothing too major (or poses a threat to warrant surgery). So please be praying for my health and our finances.

We are planning a trip to Seattle for later this fall. There is a group there that has started a worship time called Urban Hymnal that Derek is wanting to check out. Urban Hymnal is a liturgy service with all original music and art. It hasn't started yet, but we are going to try to be in Seattle for the first one. Derek wants to start something similar in New Haven. We have a free place to stay once we get there, which is such an answered prayer and a blessing. One of the staff here is from Seattle, so her family has offered their house to us, free of cost. We will just have to pay for our plane tickets, and food.

Thank you for all your support and prayers. It was so nice to be back in Illinois for the summer and visit with everyone and attend all the church services. Our plan is to come back around Christmas to visit again, but please feel free to come out and see us any time. There is always a place to stay out here. Talk to you all soon!
Love,
Rebecca & Derek



To make a Tax Free Donation, Please send check or money to YWAM and send to:
YWAM
Attn: Accounting
P.O. Box 3000
Garden Valley, TX 75771
Please do not put our names anywhere on the check (for tax purposes) but include a separate note designating it for Derek and Rebecca Bennett. Thank you!

Hello Everybody! Happy Summer...I'm so glad its finally here. Well we just wanted to keep you updated on our outreach. The day we were supposed to buy the tickets to Prague, only 2 of our group had the money to pay. So we spent the weekend praying about the trip and came back on Monday to make a decision. On Monday we had all gotten a word from God. We were all to go somewhere different. One is going to Portland, Oregon, one to Ireland, one to Arizona, and other places as well. Derek and I felt that we were to go to Seattle,WA to spend some time with a community of artists and musicians and the YWAM base leaders there. We are not yet sure of our dates, we are still waiting to hear back from them, but we are definately going. So please keep us in your prayers. Also, please pray for the rest of our group as they all go out alone with God on a new adventure. We really feel like this is a great time for us to pull away and spend time with Him as He uses us to speak to others in practical ways. We will be home in IL July 4th. Hope to see you all then!
Love,
Rebecca and Derek

spring time

Wow. How fast the times go by. We have been so busy the past few weeks. Rebecca made a quick trip home to Illinois to help out her step-mom, Patty made a nice visit right before Easter, and we were able to retake some wedding pictures (to check some of them out go to this website: web.mac.com/benhartbreaker then at the top go to "us" and click on the two links at the bottom). Just a few highlights! Things have been going so well here in New Haven. Our community that we are living in is in the process of restructuring, which is really exciting. Our goal is to have a community where people can come to gain wisdom and support in becoming apprentices to the Lord. We strive to make a lasting impression on the people and towns around us, hoping that someday if we were ever to leave, they would feel a loss without YWAM/Axiom. Our new website will be up soon for our community: www.ywamaxiom.com So keep checking in the next couple weeks for it! Plans are in the making right now for outreach. We are excited to share that we will both be leading the outreach along with a good friend, Dave Henry. We are going to Prague in the Czech Republic to work with gypsy children and to build a fun teen center. We are really getting excited about that. Also this week, Rebecca took over as the new accounting person. Its so exciting to see her using the gift of mathematics that God has given her. Also, creative worship night, also known as NOW (Night of Worship) is still going strong. Its definately been a fun environment for us to come together and see the amazing gifts of art and music that God has put in all of us. We are in PA this week studying at one of our teacher's home. He is unable to take off work for a whole week, so we venture down here and stay in his amazing home that God has blessed his family with. Its a nice break from the busy city life. After this week, there are only four more weeks of class left. How fast the time flies by. We are really excited to see where God leads us as a couple and also as a community here in New Haven. Please keep us updated on your changes and prayer requests...We always love feedback! Have a great day!

Creative Worship Night Begins

Before we moved out here at the end of December, I felt God lay it on my heart to have a night where creative people can come together and have a time to offer up their gifts to God. We have been meeting and praying about it for the last couple of weeks and last night we had our first meeting.

We had a very good turn out. A lot of people from our community showed up. We gathered and prayed in the loft and asked God what he wanted to do and after that we started to worship.

There were people playing music, people painting and drawing. People were dancing and working on photos on there computers. We came together and it was a lot of fun. We have had a word of celebration spoken over us in some prayer times that we've had leading up to this time. Last night was a true night of celebration.
We sat around as a community and just had a good time enjoying our God.

This is going to become a bi-weekly thing and if any of you visit we would love to welcome you to our night of celebration.

The Forum is Finally Here

We have been very, very busy the last few weeks getting ready for our students to arrive and now they are here. We have been enjoying getting to know our new friends and we are really excited about our continuing relationships with these people who are very hungry for God. Our first week of class started Monday and we are thriving in it. It is very exciting to look at this group of people who have come here expecting something from God and knowing that they will be changed in this next four months.

Our living situation is very interesting. We live in very close quarters with a family of three. We are also sharing a kitchen and bathrooms with another couple. It is taking a little getting used to but we are really enjoying getting to know these families.

This next week we are going to be starting a creative worship night. It is something that God has been putting on my [Derek's] heart for a while. We are going to be gathering musicians, poets, writers, painters, sculpters, etc. together to come and seek God's face for the his purpose in our lives, in our art, and for the city of New Haven. We are coming together to give God our gifts. I'm incredibly excited for it to get started. Be praying for us in this endeavor.

Rebecca has been given the opportunity to work with an organization call Joshua Expeditions, which is an organization that facilitates tours all over the world for Christian high schoolers. She will be leading an Ivy League tour for a group of high schoolers. She will be traveling to Boston, New York City, and New Haven visiting eight different colleges and universities. At night she will be leading times of devotion for these students. She is very excited about getting to participate with this organization. It is a very good opportunity for us.

Please be praying for our finances. We are still needing monthly supporters. We are hoping to go on outreach for two weeks at the end of the Forum to Prague in the Czech Republic.

Our love and prayers,

Derek and Rebecca

Yesterday we had the chance to go to New York City to be in the audience for the Rachael Ray show. In case you don't know who she is, she is a cook and has recently started a morning tv show with a live audience. It was fun to be a part of that. We got some fun freebies. And one of the Dreamgirls, Anika Rose, was our celebrity guest on the show. Afterwards we took a stroll down Times Square and had some dinner, pizza of course, while we people watched. It was a lot of fun. Hope you all are well. Talk to you soon!

our new lives

Good morning! I hope you are all doing well and having a great new Year! Derek and I are doing very well up here in New Haven. We are freezing cold at the moment, but thats to be expected. We just wanted to give you all an update to what's been going on in our lives. We have started back into the normal routine of things at our base/ministry. Our week starts off with a staff meeting Monday mornings, then in the afternoon we have a Forum meeting for the school we will be staffing. Tuesdays follow with local outreach: we are currently going to two places, a soup kitchen and tutoring Refugee children. Then on Wednesday we have prayer/intercession. Thursday we have tutoring again and my friend Ricci and I pick up clothing donations from Once Upon A Child and bring them back to the Loft to be sorted out. On Friday mornings we take the clothes down to C-Town, a grocery store located in the rougher part of town, and hand them out to whomever choses to come by. Its a really great time of ministry for us. Then on Friday afternoons we have a time of silence/solitude with the entire staff here. Its a time of reflection and a time to be still before the Lord to see all that He is doing in our lives and around us. The rest of the time when we aren't out in the city you can usually find us here at the Loft doing odd jobs and preparing for the next school to start. We are always excited to hear from our friends and family so please look us up when you can. Miss you all!
Derek and Rebecca
a link to our YWAM-New Haven website is: www.ywamaxiom.com