Joy here! Thank you for checking into the blogspot to find out the latest. I have been somewhat occupied, as we just welcomed our second little grandSON into our family! Everett John Klassen was born on December 19th. If you wish to see some very cute pictures, you can check out my personal blogspot at thoughtsfromacountrymouse.blogspot.com
However ~ I am assuming that you are checking into the Women Refreshed blogspot to find out what is new, or what has happened lately. So, allow me to bring you up to date.
Here are a few details to chronicle the journey up to now.
In September we hosted the come, walk and pray on our land that will be the future home of WRATW and our personal home.
October 1st we put our home/land in Anola, Manitoba, up for sale. We were thinking that perhaps we were already getting into a bad time of year for home sales, but we are trusting God on it all.
At the same time, October 9th to the 16th, I flew to Colorado Springs, Colorado to take a week of intensive teaching/interaction under the direction of Dr. Larry Crabb (New Way Ministries). I was one of 30 students in the School of Spiritual Direction, class #33. It was an amazing week ~ simply amazing. I firmly believe that this is where God wanted and needed me to be. I also believe that God is going to use this time for His purposes when it comes time to operate the retreat centre.
However when I returned home, and found out that our house had not been shown yet ~ I felt somewhat discouraged. It just seemed that we were hearing God on what we needed to do, and now we were ready to sell ~ ready to move ~ and no one was interested. I will be honest, I struggled with the “non-sale” of our home. I walked, and walked… I talked with the Lord, I wept, I prayed some more…
At the same time we were experiencing one of the nicest falls ever! Alvin was hoping that he would still be able to pour the foundation of our barn/shop before winter. However, we were waiting for the plans for the shop and also for the house. The municipality needed both at such time as we went for a building permit. Jerald was working hard on the plans.
Meanwhile Lori Mayer who does graphic design, willingly worked on a logo as well as on letterhead for the ministry. Lori donated her time to this and I was so grateful!
We decided to dig up some trees from our land in Anola, and plant them on the land on Henderson. But where do we plant them so that they won’t be run over when the big trucks eventually begin coming onto the land with building supplies? Regardless, it was fun to plant a few trees.
Right around this time, my daughter-in-law Leah said to me ~ that it seemed that God moved, and we followed. Then he moved some more, and we followed some more. And then God told us to jump, and we did, and now it seemed like we were in this big long free-fall. That is really how I feel ~ but that being said, I know that I am not going to hit the ground and be splattered all over the ground. I know that God has his hands on us, and on this ministry, and while we do not understand his time line ~ we know that HE DOES have a timeline for Women Refreshed at the Well!
During the fall, I had the joy of getting a few more financial donations! This is so wonderful ~ to see a tangible affirmation of God’s hand on this ministry! Little by little (a hundred dollars at a time) our bank account is growing! We have come to dream about the furniture that will be needed for instance, to furnish the five bedrooms for retreat use, or the furniture in the chapel, library, sunroom and so on.
It was also a real answer to prayer, to have Wayne Schellenberg take over the role of treasurer. Wayne comes from a long banking background, and while our books are very simple – it was nice to turn them over to him! I praise God for Wayne’s interest and willingness to be involved!
As November wound up, we decided to take our house off the market. At this point Alvin and I were really okay with this decision. As I walked the perimeter of our land in Anola, I continued to give our home and land to the Lord. The bottom line is: we need to sell our house in order to go forward on building our home/retreat house in spring. Financially, selling our house is a must! So as I walk, I have been “giving it to the Lord” and praying in advance for the person/persons who will buy our home after winter when we re-list it.
As far as our plans go ~ our barn/shop (which we had originally thought we would be able to build in fall) ~ we are still waiting to have the plans finalized. And our house/retreat house plans, we are still going over with Jerald. We are trying to keep our plans to a size that we can afford to build, and that stays big enough for 5 women to stay at one time, but the right size to feel “warm and inviting”. Blue Jay Family Works has talked a little about when building will begin, etc. Please pray about these plans, and about the guys as they plan on the build, Lord Willing in Spring. Somehow it doesn’t seem too far away now that it is January 1st.
Last but not least, there was an article written by Sheila Braun for the Manitoba Cooperator. She had read the article in Christian Week, and after we talked via email a bit – she asked if she could write an article, and I am so pleased and grateful again that God has opened one more avenue. Today when I checked womenrefreshed@gmail.com I was pleasantly surprised to find an email in response to the ChristianWeek story, as well as an email in response to the Manitoba Cooperator. And – both writers did not live in Manitoba currently! It is very exciting to see how God is working in all of this! I am so excited!
So please pray:
- for Jerald as he fine-tunes the house plans
- for the person/persons who will buy our Anola house and our land. We are praying that whoever buys our place will love it as much as we have. We are also praying for the “right selling price”.
- for the guys (Josh Klassen, Michael Thiessen and Alvin Klassen aka Blue Jay Family Works, as they make plans for the build)
- for those willing to donate financially toward the ministry
- for a couple new board members to join the board
- for God to continue to use the articles to his glory!
Thank you for reading this long post! I just wanted to bring you up to date finally, on where things are at with the ministry.
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