Servant's Heart Camp ~ Week 2

We headed back up to Servant's Heart for week #2 arriving around 3PM.
 My hope was that the 4 of us could spend this week together, but Erin
 had to stay home because her job at Chick-Fil-A was to start....
 Instead we brought Jordan, a friend from church, to help with the work!

 Terry began work right away... laying block....

 He finished the corners that evening! On Tuesday, a couple showed up with
 paper towel holders for the cabins they wanted to donate. It turned out to be
 the parents of a man in our church! We all had lunch together, then Mr. Work
 helped Terry lay block in the afternoon! What a blessing!
 Josiah & Jordan had fun working...running equipment! They were busy back
 filling the drainage ditch & around the foundation...

Josiah

Jordan

 We happened to be there the week the Fry's church was having revival. We
 headed to church that evening after supper to hear Alton Beal from Ambassador
 Baptist College preach.

 Wednesday was another long work day.....did I say we had beautiful weather?
 It couldn't have been nicer!

 Terry continued to lay the block, but what I was amazed at was what Josiah &
 Jordan were doing....

Team work!

 Jordan was taking that shale and dumping it into Josiah's bucket, then he was
 dumping it and spreading it inside the foundation! Pretty neat idea! We headed
 back to revival services that night while the guys did facetime with their class
 back home!

 Thursday was another long but productive day...block laying finished, spreading
 stone inside the foundation, cleaning up the area around the new foundation, even
 getting started on the decking!....

 All that was left for Friday was tarring the walls, finishing the decking and back
 filling the foundation... if the tar was dry...

Almost finished....

 This last picture was taken in the late morning...unfortunately, the great weather
 turned and by lunch it had started raining.... They did manage to get all the decking
 on and covered with plastic as the rain started falling.They were so close to being
 finished! Only two walls to tar and back filling to do! Terry ended up going back up
 for the day about two weeks later to finish this part of the process.

 I want to end with two other pictures... one is the drainage ditch covered (Josiah
 had started on that last week) & the other just one of the MANY beautiful pictures
 of the fall colors.....

                                              God is good....all the time!

Servant's Heart Camp ~ Week 1

Sorry for the long delay... this post actually happened over a period of 2 1/2 weeks, not all back to back.

The end of September and first week of October we went to Ramey, PA to
begin the foundation for a cabin at Servant's Heart Camp. Terry, Josiah & I
left early Monday morning and had a beautiful afternoon and evening for 
them to work....

Before breaking ground

 Unfortunately, that would be the only nice day that week....the weather turned 
 colder with off and on rain showers, then turning to heavy rain midweek making 
 it hard to dig footers! (The original plan was to dig and put in two foundations, 
 but the rain and finances quickly turned that decision to one!) 

Still working while it's dry...

Cutting in the water & sewer lines...can you see how wet the ground is?

 

Footers poured early Friday morning

  A few other projects were able to be done this week too... in spite of the rain...
 A few trees had to be cut down and taken to a pile on the property....

That's Josiah on the tractor!

 Josiah also helped finish a drainage ditch for the new sand volleyball court to be
 added this coming year...

The volleyball court is just behind the machine Josiah is on...

He got a lot of experience with running equipment this week!

 We were able to go home for the weekend to attend a family reunion and our
 home church's Sunday services before heading up for week two...

Early September Happenings

  Most of the beginning of September was spent working on a room being
  added onto one of our current buildings at church. It will be used to hold
  chairs and tables and whatever else will fit!

 The only pictures I took was the day he poured concrete.....

 He also spent a very rainy weekend at a Men's Retreat at Servant's Heart Camp
with several men from our church and some from other churches. He said it was
 a good weekend even though it did rain!

Standing in Awe.....

      
      Psalm 86:10 - "For Thou art great, and doest
               wondrous things: Thou art God alone."
        
         Truly we serve a great God! As we think about how quickly things 
         are moving with this ministry, we are truly amazed & awed by how
         great God is to us! No, we do not have a fifth-wheel trailer yet. And
         no, we haven't had as many meetings as I thought we would. BUT,
         in 9 short months, we have 20% of the support we need a month!
         THAT is amazing to me! God is good & does good things, not 
         because we are special but because He is God and He loves to show
         His goodness to His children. Thank you, God for your goodness to
         us! Praise the Lord!
 

Going a Little Farther From Home...And Receiving A Big Blessing!

 We were invited to our friend's daughter's wedding August 21st in Northwest
 Missouri and while we were there we also were  able to present our ministry
 in their church!

 Since their daughter is the piano player and she was gone on her honeymoon,
 Josiah played his cello while their son played his guitar...

 We had an afternoon service where we sang a special and Terry gave testimony about
 our ministry & preached.The neat thing is, the very first missions trip Terry took was to
 Romania with this friend, Matt. He is now the pastor of that church in Missouri and that
 trip planted the seed in Terry's heart & mind for the ministry we are now in! That was
 back in 2000! Praise the Lord for His goodness & His timing!

 The big blessing came in the form of a phone call... Mt. Zion Baptist Church called to
 let us know they have taken us on for support! Praise the Lord! He is so good to us!

Reunited Again!

 As August began with Terry working hard to get Hope Baptist ready
 for their first service, our children arrived home on the 10th! It was
 great to hear about their time serving! I hinted to some of their time
 in  this post.
 If you have never been on a missions trip, we highly recommend one
 of  these trips ~ either the Juarez Project that I posted about in June &
 July (take a minute to read over those) or a regular week trip to El Paso
 where you will put together John & Romans Monday & Tuesday mornings
 and use those scriptures to hand out in Mexico in the afternoon & evenings.
 You can find out more about both of those trips on Bearing Precious Seed's
 website BPS El Paso.
 You can also e-mail us for more information ~ finmin2014@gmail.com We'd
 love to hear from you! It will definitely change your life!

 Also at the beginning of August I was able to attend ASL Institute at Valley
 Forge to continue work on sign language learning! It was a very interesting
 time for me! I would appreciate your prayers for me in this, do we ever get
 too old to learn something new?

 So that's what we've been up too at the beginning of August!
  

Northeast Vision Summit

       The very end of July Terry & I attended the annual Summit
       at Solid Rock Baptist Church in Berlin, NJ. This was a unique
       experience! Our purpose for going was to make some contacts.
       Well, with an attendance of approximately 1900, there were
       plenty of those! Can I tell you we were a LITTLE overwhelmed!

      We did get to hear David Gibbs, Jr. speak twice along with some
      other very good preachers. We also were able to go to some
      separate sessions that we picked based on the title of the class!
      That was very interesting! You had no idea who the speaker was,
      just what was being taught!

     We did make one connection though! A pastor from Moscow, PA,
      had contacted our pastor about some work he needs done and he
      happened to be at the conference!

      It was a lot to learn ~ 10 different preaching or teaching times,
      in a little amount of time ~ 2 1/2 days! But it was a great time of
      learning for us both!

Hope Baptist Church

Early in July...

      The beginning of July had Terry returning from Romania on the 2nd
      and Erin & Josiah leaving on the 9th!

      Terry came home and had to have a little time to recover...he had
      picked up a cold while in Romania and it never really went away
      over there. Then, when he got home he had a repeat of the same
      symptoms for about a week! This only stopped him a few days....
      he still made time to paint at the church!

      Erin & Josiah headed to Bearing Precious Seed, El Paso for a
      month of service there. Last year they served for 2 weeks, so
      this was a bit of a stretch! It was a great trip for them though.
      They were able to help with 2 trips into Juarez, 1 trip to the
      Najavo nation in New Mexico, and spend an off week with
      their sister & brother-in-law!

      We are thankful for all the opportunities the Lord allows us to
      serve Him! And for children who are willing to serve the Lord
      wherever He leads them!

Summer Camp

       While Terry was in Romania, Erin, Josiah & I attended Mt. Zion's summer
       camp in Hanover,PA the fourth week of June. I'm sorry I didn't take any
       pictures so I will keep the post brief!

      Erin & Josiah went as campers, this being Erin's final year as a camper. I
      went as a teen counselor. This year marked my 8th year of camp as a
      counselor! I never went to camp as a child or teen (I didn't get saved until
      I was 20), so camp has become one of the greatest opportunities to serve
      for me!

     This year we had a great speaker, Phillip Bishop, from VA. You can hear his
     sermons that he preached at camp on sermon audio's website.   Here 
     is the link to that page.

     There was good unity from the many churches that were there. It is great to
     meet new people and to catch up with old friends too! I think it is as much
     fun being a counselor as it is a camper (but I will never know for sure....)!
     And it is great to be able to hear preaching two times a day for that week.

     As long as the Lord allows I plan to serve at camp! And I am looking forward
     to next year already....Erin can go serve as a worker!

16 Days in Romania !

       On June 15th at 6:45 PM Terry left Dulles International Airport for what
       would be 16 long days in Romania! Although he didn't know it then.....

       His overnight flight to Europe had him landing in Paris at 8:25 AM
       with no sleep! He had a 2 hour layover then it was off to Bucharest with
       another 3 1/2 hour layover and a final flight to Timisoara, Romania
       landing at 6:35 PM. That's 24 hours of flights & layovers, with very little
       sleep....not the best way to start a massive building missions trip!!

      He was picked up after church by Jonathan & Kristy (the ones who needed
      help at their house). After a not so restful night, it was off to the work!
      Much planning & getting of materials that first day. But there was also work
      going on too! Concrete stairs to try to bust out! Thankfully they decided to
      rent a saw!

      I'm not going to give you a day by day account of everything... I wasn't
      there! But I do know he started putting 10 - 12 hour days in, even though
      he ended up with a cold that he picked up once he arrived there! And
      once Jason got there (a man from our church who, thankfully, went to help)
      they increased to 15 - 18 hour days! The final day they did not sleep at
      all! They worked until 2 AM, packed their suitcases & headed to the
      airport at 4!

      He arrived home completely exhausted! They were not able to get all the
      work finished, but they were able to get it to the point that the missionaries
      could get it finished! Below are some before & after pictures....

The baby's room after!

The baby's room before

The baby's room during

                                                                

                           

Those concrete stairs!

I'm sorry these are so small, they were
taken with a phone (I believe). It gives
you an idea of just what those stairs were
like!
   

<----This is the hall & stairs before anything....















 This is after the floor & stairs were finished---->

Finished & Painted!

   And just a few more....

         This is the hall looking out the front door....with Jason laying tile there in the
         corner of the picture.

Finished!

 

 

 

 

         The finished pictures were sent to us by e-mail from Jonathan & Kristy after
         they painted & cleaned up the place!

         While they were there they also fixed a leak in the church roof...sorry, no
         pictures. It was a good, long, tiring trip! They were glad to be able to be a
         help to one of our missionaries though! 

Many Projects ~ Busy Month

 June began with many projects going at church & planning for a trip
 to Romania. We had a work day at church the first Saturday; getting
 a lot of work done to the outside of the church building.... siding,
 windows, etc. (Sorry there are no pictures!)

 Then a spur of the moment call had Terry & Josiah going overnight
 to Servant's Heart Camp in Ramey, PA. It is a fairly new camp and
 they needed some water lines hooked up & covered before their first
 week of camp...in 3 days! I didn't get any pictures there either...Erin,
 Anna & I were on a Graduation/ Birthday trip. You can go to their
 website here though to see pictures of the camp.

 This trip happened 3 days before Terry left for Romania as well, so
 like I said these were busy days!  The rest of us were busy with camp,
 for Erin it was 2 weeks of camp back to back! We also had Baptist
 College of Ministry in at church the night after Terry left.

 The Lord is good to us all the time....more than we ever deserve!
 Next time I will post about his Romania trip....until then~ take time
 to praise the Lord!

The month of May

        I must start off with an apology..... I am sorry I have not kept this blog current.
        High speed internet is coming! So I hope that will make it easier to post!


        The month of May was a little slower work wise....maybe. If you count working
         at our home church & at home slower! Terry's days were filled with just that,
         working at church ~ cutting trees & finishing the prophet's chamber, working at
         our Pastor's house, working at our house ~ part of our agreement to live here was
         that Terry would do some work to get the house ready to sell & working to help
         others in our church.

         He also spent time making phone calls to churches to try to get meetings to
         present our ministry ~ not a fun thing for someone who doesn't like to talk on the
         phone!

         I was able to fill in and teach the 4th - 6th grade Sunday School class at the end
         of the month. I do miss teaching the 1st - 3rd graders!

         And on a personal note ~ we had a graduation & wedding to attend this month!
         With Terry's trip to Romania coming up ~ we were busy making those plans
         as well!

          Sorry there are no pictures for this post.....

Missions Conference

This year we were asked to be a part of our own church's missions conference
April 29 - May3. It was great experience for us! Bill & Marcia Hardecker and
Don Chitty, Jr. were the other missionaries. 

We were able to: go to Shady Maple for breakfast Thursday morning, sing as
a family Thursday night, Terry gave a 15 minute challenge Friday night,
participate in visitation on Saturday morning, take part of the panel discussion
during Sunday School, teach junior church and show our presentation during
morning service!

 I'm sorry but the only pictures I took were of the preaching Friday night!

Terry giving his challenge

Brother Chitty...no they did not plan to match!

Brother Hardecker ~ we call him Pastor Bill...

It was a great time and we appreciate the support that we have from our own
church family! Please continue to pray for us & our ministry! We certainly do
need and appreciate it!

Friday April 17th ~ Juarez Project Day 5

                    Our final day of the trip! It is amazing how quickly a week goes!
                    This morning we had to have our morning meeting in the bus
                    because the conference room was set up for someone else! After
                    our meeting & breakfast we went back to the plaza to hand out as
                    many John/Romans as we could! And as busy as it was it didn't take
                    long!
          

               We all gathered back to the central plaza at 1 for a time of preaching &
               singing. The man who allowed us to use his sound system told us to come
               back and use it again! This time Pastor Campana preached and some of
               the workers sang some songs with Pastor Marty.

               After that we had to head back to Pastor Sosa's church for lunch BUT.....
               we didn't use the bus to get to the plaza since there wasn't a good place to
               park it, so we all got there in different vans & cars. Well, too many people
               left without taking more people so we ended up putting 21 people in a 15
              passenger van WITHOUT the back seat! Can I tell you it was a little crowded?

The back of the van....some are hidden in the very back...

The front.... Liv had to sit on a cooler in between the seats!

                         We made it safely to Pastor Sosa's church and had a great lunch &
                         time of fellowship!

Jimenez's, Sosa's, & another Pastor & his wife.....

                   It was so neat to hear them talking and laughing in Spanish, what a
                  blessing! I am sorry I forget the name of the other Pastor & his wife...
                  they didn't know any English so it was hard to communicate with them.
                  They came every day though from pretty far away to help! Praise the Lord!

                  We ended up splitting up between Ofelia's Suburban & BPS's van to get
                  back across the border. Brother Hector & Trevor took the empty bus.
                  They made it back to BPS before we did! We had another great time of
                  fellowship for dinner....Pastor Marty and brother's Rob & Richard took
                  everyone out to El Taco Tote! We had a great time! They all headed out
                  to Colorado in the early morning and we left to come home later that
                  same day.

                 It was a great week and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to
                 be involved in distributing God's Word to the people that He loves! We
                 serve a Great God Who does Great things because He loves us!


                  
                  

Thursday, April 16th ~ Juarez Project Day 4

      Thursday morning hit and many were not feeling well... Brother Hector included!
      We still had our meeting in the morning at 7 and we were blessed to hear from our
       son-in-law! His shared his testimony with us and we had a great time of prayer.

         Brother Hector shared with us that the area we were going to go to had three
         different reports of ISIS being there so he did not have peace about our going
         to work there. Instead, we went to few busy streets and just handed out to the
         cars stopped at the red lights.....like we did on Monday.
         For lunch we went back to Pastor Campana's church and then had a few hours
         to rest....we had to slow things down a lot for those who were not feeling well.
        

Passing the time....at first just sitting around...

Then getting in on the action...

Playing outside Pastor Campana's church

           After our rest it was time for the evening meeting. We went to a park near
           where we had been in 2009. The first picture shows the emptiness of the lot.
           The second shows after all the people showed up!

                 
                     A man showed up on his motorcycle to see what was going on.....

              I was just about to walk over to give him a John/Romans when Fred got
              one to him.....and this is what he did.....

         How it thrills the heart to see a person so interested in the Word of God! Oh
         how I wish Americans would be so receptive to God's Word!
        
         Praise God! 15 people were saved at this meeting! It was a wonderful time and
         we were able to get back at a decent time.....though we tried to go get ice cream
         again but they were closed. So we all just headed for bed to rest up for our last
        day in Juarez.

Wednesday, April 15th ~ Juarez Project Day 3

                    Wednesday began a little on the shaky side... many in our group were
                     suffering from stomach issues.... We had our morning meeting at the
                     hotel followed by breakfast and then we headed to the plaza where we
                     would be passing out John/Romans to ALL the people passing by...

Liv and Josiah in the background

A glimpse of the street during a slow spell...

                Most of the time there were so many people passing by you couldn't get
                a J/R to everyone...poor Josiah, he was our runner....to the bus to get more
               John/Romans to hand out....he would no sooner get back with a box and we
               would have finished the previous one!...soon he started bringing two!

             There is an interesting story to the above picture~ I'll try to be brief...
             The man in the plaid shirt is a missionary named Blake, he was in a
             conversation with the man in front of him about salvation....he did not
             make a profession but he heard the gospel! Farther back Terry is talking
             to a man (yes, he spoke English!) who was saved but was telling Terry
             about his home life. He was having a hard time making a living, so Terry
             & Blake both gave him a few dollars to buy a bag of candy to sell on the
             street. A little bit later, he came back to show that he did indeed buy candy
             to sell! He even gave them each a piece...

             After we met near the central plaza, Brother Hector had talked to a man
            who had a sound system set up (the man was actually preaching to the
            people sitting around) and he agreed to let us use his system! Pastor
            Marty from CO played his guitar and sang....

           And Brother Hector preached (sorry, no picture). For lunch we headed
          to a different church~ La Esperanza. We were supposed to work with
          this church that evening but the pastor decided to have church instead
          of a meeting in the park. This gave us some time to go back to the hotel
          and rest. Since plans had quickly changed, we went to Pastor Sosa's
          church for their Wednesday night service. It was good for those who were
          a little under the weather. The services were good, some of the group gave
          a testimony and their teens sang a special....

           We were able to get back to the hotel fairly early and since there was a
           Soriana behind it, we decided to go get some ice cream. If you have been
          on the regular trip in the summer, you know that on the long day,Wednesday,
          we usually get taken to a Soriana to be in the A/C and they have an ice cream
          shop in the front of the store.... any way, we took Hector, Ofelia,Sarah, David,
          Trevor, Liv, Erin, Josiah, Fred (from WA), and Nathan (from AZ). We had a
          great time! (Sorry for the poor pic, but you get the idea....)
           

                        It was on to bed from there. We had one more full day to work.