Sometimes you have to marvel at the handiwork of God, or as David said: “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). We saw Him working as he kept one of our soldiers safe after a horrible motorcycle accident right outside the Hospitality House. Luke was stopping by to show off his new motorcycle when a vehicle behind him ran into the back of his bike at close to 50 mph. His bike and the vehicle were severely damaged and Luke had to be taken to Syracuse Hospital about an hour away by helicopter. Luke was sedated and intubated and spent the night in the ICU. There is much more to the story but here is the ending, within 24 hours he walked out of the hospital and on the way back to Ft. Drum texted us to find out what was for dinner. It was Friday night and Penny had made sweet and sour meatballs. Luke walked into the house greeted everyone and ate dinner! He has been recovering well and we are blown away that he didn’t have any significant damage. Praise The Lord!
That was just one thing – a tremendous thing, which we have seen lately. We continue to see soldiers faith grow from their involvement at the house, they find community here and encouragement from the Word to grow and reach out to other soldiers on Garrison. We recently said goodbye to five more soldiers and their family, as they PCS on to new Army posts. We are looking forward to seeing how God will use them at their new duty stations. Yet we continue to see new faces walk through the door weekly as our remaining soldiers invite new friends to the house! It’s all bittersweet but we realize that this is the culture in which we live and work within the military.
The Beaudin family has remained busy: Penny continues to mother soldiers, counsel, mentor, and teach life skills such as sewing and cooking. She loves her interaction with the many ladies she pours her life into and continues doing Bible Studies with them. Todd also continues to disciple and mentor soldiers, has been busy working with the youth of Ft. Drum, the Chaplains, as well as renovation on the house. He also has been doing some recruiting and teaching on missions for Cadence. The House Bible study on Friday nights continues to go well and we will start into the book of Ephesians soon. The girls continue to help out daily with chores to child care to being surrogate little sisters for the many who call this House their “home away from home.”
As always, here’s some pictures to fill in the gaps and show you our ministry to these awesome men and women!
Penny making 160 cookies for soldiers of the 1-87 deploying that evening. Our guys deserve some homemade love on the way to secure our freedom.
We told the girls we would do something special with each of them. Emily wanted to go shopping in Montreal, Canada
Kelsey wanted to see her bestie, Cristiana Moyer who lives in Virginia.
Kelsey recently celebrated her 15th birthday!
Bible study in the backyard of the house
It’s very common for soldiers to hang around for hours after Bible study to fellowship and play games!
Todd and Jedidiah Schlung (one of his youth group kids from Alaska) who is now a doctor in Rochester, NY went on a motorcycle trip to visit some knife factories in Upstate NY
Ontario Knife company as well as Olean Knife company (now owned by Cutco) made WWII Ka-Bar knives for our troops
You can’t keep a hungry soldier away from food and great fellowship! Even after you suffered a traumatic accident on your motorcycle! Praise God for Luke’s safety! Notice the hospital gown and scrub pants!
God had your 6 brother!
Nori being affectionate with Vanessa
We still watch dogs! Dixie and Nori enjoying a truck ride!
Nori helping Kelsey with school work
Watching Gage (big dog compared to Nori)
Lindsey and Gage
We have said goodbye to 5 wonderful friends and soldiers this PCS season. It never gets any easier 😦 Saying goodbye and praying for Josh. May God continue to do tremendous things in your life!
Saying goodbye and praying for Sean. May God continue to do tremendous things in your life!
Saying goodbye and praying for Joseph. May God continue to do tremendous things in your life!
Saying goodbye and praying for Mark. May God continue to do tremendous things in your life!
Saying goodbye and praying for Trey & Jessica & girls. May God continue to do tremendous things in your life!
So honored to be “coined” 1SG Trey Albertson! It was a blessing to serve you and your family!
Penny has always wanted to see a hot air balloon. She definitely got to see one!
Penny teaching Chaplain Eskind how to put a bobbin in a sewing machine.
Penny and the girls cooking!
Todd doing some recruiting and teaching on missions for Cadence at Grace College and Seminary.
Nic and Todd making trim for the house
This is the brains of the HVAC system that was installed into the house. There are now 3 zones and programable thermostats. Central air AC will be added soon!
Installed vacuum dampers that control how much air and to what floor it goes.
Pat Soluri from Security Plumbing has donated two Saturdays to install the heating components and will probably be here for another two Saturdays for the AC. We are so thankful for Pat and his love of soldiers!
Todd completed the master closet.
Working on some recessed bookshelves in Emily’s room.
After two years Todd finally got shelves built and unpacked his books!
Out shooting at the range with Nic and Ruben.
Talking to Chaplain Justin Smith via FaceTime. He is deployed in Afghanistan, it’s great to be able to encourage each other from so far away!
We were asked if we would help feed the single soldiers of the 1-10 Battalion a Thanksgiving Dinner and of course, we said YES!
We had over 40 people at the house for Thanksgiving this year!
A special visit from the VP of field ministries at Cadence Headquarters! We loved having Todd & Karla Tillapaugh with us!
Todd, Penny, & Kelsey helped out with VBS late August on Ft. Drum!
Todd continues to play drums for the Ft. Drum chapel service.
Teaching the Ft. Drum youth group about Meteor ball! They loved it as much as the Soldotna Bible Chapel youth group did for 20 years!
Helping lead the Fall youth retreat
… and teaching them about the garbage can game!
Kelsey being brave on the high ropes course!
As Christmas comes along we are reminded that many soldiers don’t get to go home for the holidays so being able to come to the Hospitality House and decorate our tree is a close second!
Many soldiers don’t have family close when they come home from deployment. We were honored to pick up Keven and celebrate his home coming after 9 months abroad, even at 2am in the morning!
Thanks for your support in prayer and finances! We couldn’t do this without you and it’s our honor to partner with you in this ministry! To God all the Glory!!
The Beaudin Blog 