Mark and Jen Brenner

Mark is the Chief Financial Officer and teaches Christian Ethics classes for the School of Discipleship. He is currently pursuing a Bachelors Degree in Religion from Liberty University. Jen volunteers in our landscaping department. Mark and Jen are both graduates of the School of Discipleship.

Brenner Family Update

November 2024

Stephen has been in the USAF for the last three years. He has been stationed in Texas, Louisiana, South Korea, and now in Minot, North Dakota. Over that time, he has been working on EGRESS systems for B-52 bombers, and F-16 fighter jets. His team services and replaces ejection seats and the explosive charges related to blowing off aircraft canopies, in the event of an emergency where a pilot must eject from the plane. He has been promoted regularly and is now the rank of senior airman. He has learned to thrive in the work that he is doing and is now tasked with teaching the newbies. His yearlong deployment to South Korea has just come to an end and he expects to finish out his remaining year and a half enlistment at Minot Air Force Base, in Minot, ND. Stephen has spent his free time pursuing boxing and mixed martial arts as a hobby and fitness routine. He is looking forward to off base housing and the hunting and fishing opportunities that ND affords. There are also good Christian friends that Stephen has made over the last three years that are stationed at Minot and he is looking forward to reconnecting with them.

• Pray that Stephen will be able to find a good church to connect with while he is in Minot.
• Pray that he will be able to find off base housing to meet his needs.
• Pray for God’s protection and provision for Stephen as he serves the remainder of his enlistment time.
• Pray that he will thrive spiritually in this new environment and have ample opportunities to witness and challenge others in their faith.

Rachel spent from September of 2023 till August of 2024 on a yearlong mission trip called the World Race. She spent approximately 2 months in each of the following countries: Guatemala, Romania, Albania, Turkey, Nepal, and India. This trip was life changing for Rachel as she grew in her faith while ministering in a large variety of ways. In each country, her team was connected to a host ministry, assisting in whatever the host ministry needed. Sometimes it could be church planting work, visiting those in need, running a VBS, sports ministry, prayer ministry, or street evangelism. Rachel was “raised up” as a squad leader partway through her year. She would love to return to mission work on future trips with the World Race organization. Right now she is working as a nanny, and other odd jobs as she focuses on getting healthy. She has battled CIRS, chronic inflammatory response syndrome for the last couple years. This is caused by an allergic type auto immune response to mold exposure. She is currently being treated by mold exposure specialists and making some progress.

• Pray for Rachel to be completely healed from the mold toxicity exposure. The chronic fatigue, neck pain, and neurological symptoms from CIRS are a heavy weight to bear.
• Pray for her encouragement and direction as she seeks to return to the mission field. She is currently signed up to volunteer for a few weeks in January 2025 at the World Race HQ in Gainesville, GA.
• Pray that God will bless her with iron sharpening iron friendships and a continued vision for spiritual growth and serving God with her whole heart.

Michael graduated with a BS in Biology from Edinboro University. Then he worked a variety of jobs, including medical laboratory work, and building construction while preparing for physician’s assistant grad school. In May of 2024 he began a 2-year physician’s assistant program at Cedarville University. The first year is all classroom work, learning about health, the human body, and medicine. He is currently about 2/3 through the first year. In May of 2025 he will begin a year of rotations, where he will spend approximately 4 weeks each in 9 different health / medical disciplines. The locations for each rotation are not set yet, but he will have the opportunity to see a lot of the country, maybe even Alaska. His class will graduate in May of 2026 and there are many job opportunities for him to choose from. Meanwhile, Michael was selected by his peers to be class chaplain. He has a great heart for the church and for the ministry of the Gospel. I have no doubt that church leadership / teaching and preaching of some sort will be in his future.

• Pray that Michael will have great memory recall and focus as he has a heavy classroom work load for the next 5 months. He has exams almost every week from now until May 2025.
• Pray that Michael will deep and meaningful spiritual interaction with his classmates as they work and study together. Most if not all of his class are Christians and they hold Bible study together.
• Pray for the selection of rotation locations and logistics as that is happening over the next couple months.
• Pray for Michael to have wisdom from above as he ministers in his class, and with those in his church fellowship.

Jen is doing very well. She is our household prayer warrior. She organizes our advisor meetings along with another staff member, who is like another daughter to us, Hunter Uplinger. Jen meets with and helps disciples our students. We currently have three young ladies in our advisor group, Amelia Orr, Sierra Williams, and Alyssa Weiand. Jen also heads up our Mexico Mission trip day camps, and ladies ministry. She does a great job of keeping our home running smoothly and we appreciate her hard work and effort.

• Pray for Jen that she will have a sound mind and clarity to process the daily things that come into her life.
• Pray for her ministry with our advisees and with the day camps during the Mexico Missions trip.
• Pray that she will find peace and joy in doing the things that she loves and is good at, i.e. crafts, writing, teaching, gardening, art, etc. (She often feels guilty and an internal pressure to forgo normal good things, related to mental struggles that she has had for many years.) I am always telling her to, “Do Fun Things!”.
• Pray for her as she learns how to help her parents in their older age, both are in their mid 80s. Her father is in middle to late stages of Alzheimer’s, and that presents a real challenge as we navigate that road.

My job title is now Director of Construction / Special Projects, and I am more often than not working on some type of special project. Sometimes those projects are related to timber management, and often they are related to operations or other aspects of the ministry. Problem solving related to electrical, HVAC, and engineering type situations are right in my wheelhouse. I am currently managing the construction of the second fort turret at Fort Wilderness, and will be working on remodels of staff homes and the Conklin house remodel, likely to be started in 2025. I sometimes hire and supervise construction crews, order materials, work with the architects / engineers, meet with inspectors, and work through code issues to keep the projects rolling. I try to keep the wireless Internet working and help anywhere else I am needed.

I also organize the Mexico Missions trip with Mark Carpenter, and assist him with projects regularly and as needed.

I still try to stay in shape through the hobby of long distance cycling, and have plans for a coast-to-coast trip from New York City to Los Angeles sometime in the next couple years. Jen’s electric bike is working well and we have been able to do some biking together in 2024. I am also coaching volleyball in Corry with a great group of people that are dedicated to the development of the kids in our Corry area. This has been a needed point of contact for people at MMR to get to know families in our area. Nearly everyone on my volleyball team has gotten connected to Miracle Mountain Ranch through summer camp. Lastly, I am in the final stages of getting my private pilot license. I have just a few more requirements to meet. The weather has not been too conducive to flying over the last couple of weeks, but I am looking forward to celebrating the completion of this goal and to see how God will use this.

• Pray for a great group of people to attend the Mexico Mission Trip this April. We need 30-35 people to have enough help to make the trip run smoothly.
• We are still looking for churches and individuals to support the drilling of several more wells, about $7000.
• Prayer for Pastor Alex and his wife Irene, from the church plant in Babicora, Mexico, that they will be able to get a visa to come to the US to visit their support base and that for their financial support. We have been actively raising support on their behalf to accomplish the church planting and outreach to unreached people groups.
• Pray for wisdom as we come up with the remodel plan for the recently purchased Conklin house. It may be the new housing for long time staff members, Adam and Chelsea Marshall, but there will be a lot of work to get it ready.
• Pray for me to have an impact in the lives of those young ladies that I am coaching in volleyball, and for it to draw the local people to Christ and to the ministry of MMR.
• Pray for me as I finish my pilot requirements to obtain my license.

Love,
Mark, Jen, Michael, Rachel, and Stephen