It is hard to believe we have been on the field almost 9 months!  A lot has happened in those months, a lot to us, a lot to the house, and a lot with our servicemen.

I think we are finally finding our battle rhythm.  The definition of battle rhythm is: “a deliberate daily cycle of command, staff, and unit activities intended to synchronize current and future operations.”  It’s getting into the daily rhythm of life and all that happens with your job.  Penny has had wonderful opportunities to connect with many ladies through PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel) and has found friendship with Chaplain wives as well as mentorship opportunities with younger ladies.  Penny has been cooking up a storm ever since we got here.

I continue to work with the Chaplains, mentor guys, and counsel them.  It’s rewarding to see growth in their spiritual lives!  We have been studying the book of James verse by verse on Friday nights and see anywhere from 20 to 25 servicemen and their families out to the house.  We are also making progress getting the house known in the community with pastors, businessmen, and the such.  Many businesses have donated product or their time to the house.

Emily has found employment at Olive Garden as a hostess and seems to be enjoying it, she also is involved with PWOC and has made some good friendships with servicemen wives.  She also continues to help us out on Friday nights when all the guys come over for a home cooked meal and Bible Study.

Kelsey is making friends and feels more connected now.  She is almost done with homeschool for the year, which she is very excited about!  Kelsey has been a great help along with her sister watching little kids on Friday nights, cleaning the house and helping make food.

The renovation on the house continues to go well.  We are almost done painting the interior of the house, currently we are painting in the Kitchen area, there is still a lot of trim to paint white but we are making progress!  We’ve had many helpers over to paint, thank you to each of you!  The attic has been cleared of all the old insulation and the exterior walls and attic are being insulated this week.  In two weeks our work crew from Alaska arrives!  They will install all new Anderson windows into the house!  Anderson windows and White’s lumber really stepped up to the plate with a 40% discount!  That’s huge!  The guys at R-Factor Spray Foam gave a deeply discounted price on the insulation work and Bernel Kempney with Kempney Electric donated a full day of labor to help with recess lighting wiring in the attic as well as various other electrical issues in the house!  The funding for the renovation has steadily come in, it has been wonderful to see God provide for His ministry here at Ft. Drum though you!  Thank you for your prayers and gifts!  We still need new doors and the furnace duct work needs to be addressed before winter and then we will enter the final stage of renovation.  If you would like to learn more please click HERE.

We are finding rest in the process of all of this.  Penny has gotten better at saying “I’m not doing anything on the house tomorrow, I’m going to quilt.”  I’m finding time to snooze on the couch when needed.  Life is still pretty hectic and we look forward with anticipation to the day when we can simply “live and do ministry” in the house and not have to “work on the house.”  Penny and I did get a chance to slip away for a week in April to go to the T4G conference.  We met up with some of our church family from Soldotna Bible Chapel and had a blast hearing excellent preaching, singing great hymns of the faith, and enjoying the fellowship of friends!

We want to leave you with some more pictures of what we’ve been up to!

 

 

Thanks for taking the time to catch up with what we are doing!  Blessings to you all!

“Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders which You have done, And Your thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, They would be too numerous to count.”    -Psalm 40:5