Noteworthy News...

On Sunday evening (Jan. 18th), I received a call from my brother, Marc.  After about an hour, I had the great privilege of leading him to Christ!  He immediately called our Pastor and shared the good news with him and arranged to be baptized the following Sunday.  We drove down from High Springs to Fort Myers and I was able to baptize him in the A.M. service!  Praise the Lord!

 

The New Church Plant

 

We should be leasing a building right on the main highway in High Springs by the end of this week.  Once we rent the building, we will choose the Grand Opening date for Victory Springs Independent Baptist Church!  The church website will be up and running by the end of this week and we are truly excited!  Please feel free to visit the site at www.vsibc.org next week!

 

We still have much work to be done and many 'details' to get accomplished for the big day.  We are needing some funds to pay for all of the literature to be printed, some supplies to be able to do some TLC renovations to the building, and to purchase a sign/banner for the front of the building.   So please be in prayer with us as we kick things into 'high gear' over the next few weeks!

 

 

An update on Joshua...

When God led Joshua to Golden State Baptist College, we were thrilled and excited for him.  We love GSBC! 

He immediately began to make friends, work in the different ministries of the church, and also began to help others with encouragement and with their college work.  He would stay up until 2 a.m. helping some of his friends by proof-reading their papers.  He loved helping others and loved his ministries.  He loved the hard preaching in chapel and gave us all of the outlines every day!  He would call us 3-4 times a day with the exciting news of college life and his spiritual life as well. 

Then one day back in October, he called us to tell us that he was burdened with something and really felt that God was leading him to make a big decision.  He wouldn't tell us what it was at first, just only to pray for him as he would begin fasting for a couple of weeks. 

After a couple of weeks, he finally told us that he wanted to counsel with us about coming back 'home' to work with us in the new church plant here in High Springs and to continue his college degree by correspondence.  This took us off guard as we knew that God had knitted his heart with GSBC.  We counseled him to continue to pray further and that God confirm the right direction and decision.  This was a very big decision to make and not one to be taken lightly. (We have long ago taught Josh the steps to knowing and finding God's will for your life...it was great to see him taking those steps!)

After another couple of weeks, Josh called us to tell us that it was a very difficult decision to leave college but that he knew it was in God's plan for him to work along side us and complete his degree via correspondence.  He has the perfect peace of God in this decision.  As his parents, we also had prayed along with him and came to the same conclusion.  However, it wasn't until Josh told us his final decision that we shared with him that God had given us the same answer.

Josh has already begun contacting several colleges and will be soon continuing his degree.  We have also discussed the responsibilities that he will undertake here at Victory Springs Baptist Church (future name!) and he has already begun working.  He will be heading up the Junior Church, lead the music and be the music director, and head the teen department.  He has even completed the first block of Sunday school lessons for the Teen department and is currently working on arranging the first month of specials and music!

Yes, it was a hard decision for him because he loves GSBC.  But as Josh says, "The best place to be is in God's will!"

Some Before & After Pics.....

Well, we still have little things to do here and there, but for the most part, we are close to being totally finished with the interior of our new home...We LOVE it!!!  Most of the furnishings were either given to us or we found great deals on Craigslist!  (we love craigslist!!!)

Here are some Before and After Pics:

The Master Bedroom before

 

The Master Bedroom before

Our Finished Product!

 

 

Our Master Bathroom was pretty bad before...

 

Master Bathroom - Kami's Sink Area...

 

Patrick's Sink

Elisabeth's and Brenna's Room - Before

After...

Do you think they love horses?

 

Josh's/Guest Room Before...not sure what the deal is with all of the shelving???

What a great theme!!!  Fly Eagles Fly!!!  He confiscated my Eagles decorations that we had boxed up...

Josh's Desk area...

 

Fireplace Area...

 

We have enjoyed our fireplace so much!  Especially since the temperatures for the past couple of days have been in the 20's at night!

 

We love the cozy feeling....The love seat makes a great place to snuggle in front of the fire!!!

 

We will post the other Before and After pics of the rest of the house in the next post...we hope you enjoy the pics as much as we enjoy the way our 'home' has turned out!

 

Our Renovation Time Line...

It has been a hectic past 1  1/2 months as we have managed to purchase our 'new' home, accomplish major renovations, move our family, and have been trying to get settled in.  We wanted to be in our new place by Christmas and we worked day & night to make it a reality.  After closing on the house on December 2nd, we began the major overhaul. 

We had ordered carpet to be installed on Monday, December 22nd and made the trip back to Fort Myers to finish packing, cleaning and loading the U-Haul on the 20th in time for the carpet.  After getting everything squeezed in the U-Haul, we drove up to Fort White and unloaded everything into the living room.  Our goal was to have the carpet installed on Monday, unpack, and have everything in place by Christmas day. 

However, the rain moved in and the carpet install was cancelled until Friday, December 26th.  So, we made due with our cramped quarters and enjoyed our Christmas...including our Christmas tree which we cut down from our property!

The carpet was eventually installed and we began to unpack and now things are finally in place.  There is still more 'little' jobs to do on the inside of the house but we are getting there.  The outside has also been slowly getting a facelift as well.  Our goal is to get most of the things done in the next week, take a week or two off to get our strength back and then begin laying the groundwork on the new church plant.

My next post will be of the final pics of the renovations!