Please lift up our dear friends Frank and Lela Sanchez

thank you for praying for us, for the church, the missions trip, the house, our family, the community, and all that God is doing in our lives. 

The summer is flying by and we have had weird weather lately-  very unpredictable….lighting, rain; but.. thankfully we have had a fair amount of sunshine as well. 

Mandy Wilmoth is here for the summer.  We all love spending every minute that we can with her; she is a blessing to everyone in the church and our family.

The house is amazing-  praise the Lord!  I cannot wait to post all of the pictures of the fun we have on this property.  Frog catching, fishing, rowing around in the pond, riding bikes on the neighborhood trail, running, and exploring.

The kids keep me busy every second of the day-  so it is very difficult to get my “to-do” list done- hence the lack of posts lately, please forgive me.

God did a great work with the missions team from California-  opening up many new doors for ministry for us here in Kentucky.

We miss you all!

May the Lord come soon

I put up only two days posts of our seven day missions trip-  more to come……

The team then headed up to Tollesboro Kentucky to help out with a food pantry, and a christain school in need of repairs. 

Brenden painting the crosses

a new clean look

kim is so happy to paint!

Thanks to Mr. Jon Higgins the electtrical is now SAFE… and functioning for the food bank freezers

What a blessing the california team from Wildwood was… so much was accomplished in one week… 

We learned about hunger at a local farm where we were also able to volunteer weeding, and harvesting vegetables.

State Statistical Brief: KY

Food insecurity rate

13.6 %

Child food insecurity rate

19.0 %

Under 5 rate

23.3 %

Population

4,241,474

Poverty rate

15.5 %

Child poverty rate

21.0 %

Unemployment rate

9.8 %

Plowshare Farm donates is harvest to a local soup kitchen and needy families in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

Bob teaching us about the weeds

the whole team at plowshare farm

dick hard at work removing weeds

picking green beans

eating green beans

picking

eating

potatoes

Good day at Plowshare!

Ok, so obviously we have been out of contact with the computer for a while… sorry.

I could go on with a long list of why, but suffice to say, life got in the way of life on-line.

Our newest news is really future news. Their is not much reason to try to catch you all up on the past, by the time we write again all of these things will have happened so we’re letting you know about them beforehand, sort of a Back-to-the-Future episode.

1. After 2 years of apartment life we will be moving into a beautiful home on the edge of Elizabethtown. Check the photos.

2. God has stirred the hearts of men/women at Wildwood Calvary Chapel to join us for an amazing week of ministry in Kentucky. Opportunities include, Eastern Kentucky Outreach, Work Project on Dittmar home, Plowshare Ministries. We and the body of Emmaus are so excited.

3. Mandy Wilmoth with once again return to her home away from home for the hottest month’s of the year (june/july/august), can’t wait.

Prayer Requests

Adan / Zoe join us as we pray for God’s desire for there school. New house means new school district, we are praying through home school, public, or if the Lord provides private.

New house means new ministry, we are praying the Lord would open up many doors of opportunity to minister in our new neighborhood and surrounding area. 

Summer missions team, ministry, discipleship, 

Emmaus sunday morning children’s ministry, we have as many kids as we do adults, (sometimes more). We are praying the Lord would pour out His Spirit on our teachers, equip and in able them with His wisdom, insight, power, direction and strength.  

Please pray for Gabe Dittmar, he has recently been added to the Sunday morning rotation for the grade school class, his response to the request is a huge answer to prayer.

I know it’s short but that’s what happens when you don’t have a computer.

blessings,

josh

psalm 27, read it, pray it, live it

PICTURES

Okay I am going to let this post speak for itself….

We went to the most awesome flea market in the world… well that is what the sign said.  I knew that we just had to visit this place-  after all it is the most awesome in the world. 

everything in the boxes $1.00

Zoe spent $1.00 on 15 packs of gum

you can eat there, but we chose not to.  But look at all those fried things that they offer.

not quite sure what they use wetsuits for in Kentucky?

here is a redneck wind chime….and only $5.00

here they have a wide variety of incense cones…. all kinds of smells

Here Adan is sniffing poison….seriously

I am not sure if I would like to scent the house with this smell…although I do have to admit I was curious to smell it.

How about scenting my house with this…. now that’s more like it!

Or for you prince fans-  look they have purple rain scent…. and the one next to it is Hot MaMa!

Diego found something that he liked

this is what Bella thought about the flea market

Do you remember your first job? 

Recently our 13 year old got his first job-  A dog sitter. 

Here he is with MacBeth on their way to the dog groomers.  Not only is he able to earn some money, but also learn responsibility in the real world.  One of the MANY assets of living in an apartment complex that allows pets-  a big need for dog walkers during the day.

Something is new…   Things are changing,    and our hearts are deepening for Christ.

Many of you ask us:

What is God doing in Etown?  What is happening with the Ministry there?  How is the church?  Is it growing? Are lots of people getting saved? 

And although these are great questions,     And    I am sure that your heart has been burning with anticipation for us to share the Great and Glorious things that God is doing here;

I must confess and warn you  :  IT MAY BE DIFFICULT TO SEE

Don’t get me wrong there are questions that we must ask ourselves like:

is our church healthy

are they growing in their faith and knowledge of the word

are they being used by God

do we have enough support coming in to continue to pay the bills

But…the Lord keeps reminding us that even though He did call us out here to plant a church

(which we have and are doing) it is so much more than CHURCH…itself, it goes deeper than that. 

It is about us…you…what He is doing inside of  you, inside of us, the things that you cannot actually see.

It is about where He will take you to accomplish His will for your life.  What He will bring you through, how He can use it to change you, mold you, teach you, if we allow Him to.  If we can surrender to Him, allow Him to take us wherever it may be, do whatever He is asking of us, (don’t think that I went without kicking at times), and all the while realizing HE LOVES us, and everything He does… Is for our good. 

Can He take me to a place I did not want to go, give us a burden that seems to difficult to bear, and show us the most incredible things about himself through it all.  And bring us into a deeper love than we have ever experienced. 

ABSOLUTELY!

As I asked the Lord to give Us something to describe what He is doing here in Etown with the fellowship, and with our lives, all I could come up with is this…..

We are falling deeper in love with this amazing God. 

It is a stillness and closeness that we have yet to master.

It is something deep, something inside that cannot be seen.

He is working on us…changing us…changing us all….   and that is good.

Charlene

I am sure that most of you have seen or heard about our huge ice storm that hit Kentucky last week…read this

It started last Tuesday with some crazy rain, the temps were so low that the rain began to freeze, and everything was covered with ice.  Josh and I went out on a walk with Diego on the trail behind the house, this is what it looked like:

Diego wondering if it is safe down there?

Here you can see the whole tree limb covered in ice..

It was so gorgeous, the only way I could describe the beauty is that it was like the chronicles of Narnia, everything was sparkling, crystallized and beautiful.  I have never seen anything like it before.  I was in awe…speechless at the beauty and handiwork of God.

Icicles were hanging everywhere..

Freeman Lake-  we really get to see all of the seasons here

we spent Wednesday and Thursday cooped up in the house, it was freezing and very dangerous outside.  People were loosing power from the electrical wires freezing and trees were falling down everywhere from the weight of the ice.  Schools were out and businesses were closed.  Finally Friday it warmed up a bit… it took me an hour and a half to chip  the ice off  the front window of the car.  The kids and I took our neighbor Patti out with us to the store and run some errands, and Josh was able to work half day.  Our friend Krista spent two nights  at our house because she didn’t have any power.  We were able to do some sledding with the kids but it was very icy and dangerous (that did not stop us but we did end up popping the raft that we were using. 

Saturday it finally warmed up to the 40’s I got some incredible pictures before everything melted

I still am in awe of God’s handiwork, and even through the difficulties and inconveniences that the storm brought, I feel so lucky to get to see this stuff…. wow! 

Job 37:1  My heart pounds as I think of this.  It leaps within me!

verse 5  God’s voice is glorious in the thunder.  We cannot comprehend the greatness of his power.

Vs 6 he directs the snow to fall on the earth and and tells the rain to pour down.  EVERYONE STOPS WORKING at such a time so they can recognize His power.

Vs. 10 God’s breath sends the ice, freezing wide expanses of water.

There were many effects of damage from the storm-  power outages, water conditions, roads closed, businesses closed, no work, and NO SCHOOL.  PRAY FOR ME…. we are going on day 7 tomorrow of all the kids being home. 

here are some of the pictures of the trees broken from the ice-