Praise the Lord!

2016 is here and its an exciting time to be serving the Lord! Im going to cut to the chase and give a big (but brief) overview of what all has been happening with the ministry here in Wilsey.

We arrived here on the last weekend in August of 2015. Priority #1 since then has been figuring out a place to live. The Lord has provided a house for us, however it is not in a livable condition right now. It has probably sat empty for at least 10 years and needs A LOT of work before we can get in. In the meantime, we have built an apartment in our main building – its 399 sqft. so we’re learning to love each other more than ever before. (we’re ALWAYS in each others’ way). Joey Orebaugh has been a huge help in getting us nestled in for the winter.

If you are interested in seeing a “needs” for getting the house livable I will post that separately.

I drove the family to North Carolina for Thanksgiving. Megan and the kids ended up staying there until Dec. 30th to soak up as much family time with the grandparents as possible. I drove back to Wilsey with my dad and uncle shortly after Thanksgiving and brought a bunch of our stuff from NC (four-wheeler, winter clothes, furniture, and some tools). We arrived back in Wilsey on Dec. 31st and spent New Year’s eve snuggled up in bed!

So far I’m enjoying the weather; I prefer cold weather. While in NC over Thanksgiving there was a bad ice storm that came through Wilsey. A few trees and lots of branches came down but no damage to anyone’s home that I’m aware of. Then we missed the first snow of the winter while in NC for Christmas. There is still residual snow and ice left over but no snow since. The average temperature the past week or so has been about 30 (down to about 18 at night). Staying warm in our apartment has been a bit of a challenge. I have purchased a heater for the room but am a bit too chicken to tap into the gas line in the basement; never done that before. We have space heaters running in the room to keep warm for now.

Here is what we’ve been able to accomplish thus far:

1. Met all city compliances for all properties. Mostly all yard work.

2. Received our Incorporation documents!!! Woot woot, that’s right! HIS CHURCH – FELLOWSHIP OF WILSEY is official. Weird.

3. Gutted out the house we plan to move into. This involved busting plaster off the walls, carefully removing EVERY piece of Lath from the walls (Megan wants to reuse it for decorations), and clearing all the old insulation out of the walls.

4. Built one apartment in the Loft of the main building. My vision is to build two apartments in the loft area. These will serve as dorms for the girls that come for this summer (and will be the future dorm rooms for girls that are attending the School of Ministry).

5. Hooked up hot water in the kitchen. I’ve learned that I DO NOT like plumbing.

6. Installed a washer and dryer in the girls’ shower room. We were spending a lot of money going back and forth to the laundry mat every week.

We’re looking forward to seeing what the Lord is going to do this year! Our vision for 2016 is as follows:

1. Begin holding weekly services for teenagers. Currently our building needs a lot of interior cosmetic repair before I would invite anyone over to worship with us. Plus we have nowhere to put our furniture and clothes and … “stuff” until we are able to move into our house. Over the past 15 years if I’ve learned anything, it’s that teenagers could care less about the way a place looks, as long as they’ve got somewhere to hang out and fellowship. So our plan is to open our doors for them…and any adult who doesn’t mind the massive amount of clutter.

2. Move into our house! Tiny houses are becoming the new fad…yeah, not for me. 399 sqft with 3 kids and 3 dogs… no thanks.

3. Finish the School of Ministry Bible Curriculum. We have finished making the workbooks and have them in .pdf form. We still need to get the audio from tape to .mp3.

4. Build our Aquaponics System and Greenhouse(s). The Lord has provided a 14ft diameter / 4ft deep pool to raise fish in. We plan to build greenhouses and grow food using the fish water to fertilize the plants and the plants to filter the fish water.

5. Open the Wilsey Cafe. If the Lord will allow it, I’d like to see the Wilsey Cafe up and running perhaps by the end of the year. This might be able to provide a little bit of income for the ministry. We will use the food grown in the greenhouses to help supply the Cafe with fresh ingredients.

We covet your prayers for this upcoming year and long to see the Lord move in powerful ways for His Glory!