With less than 2 days until May is over I am realizing that I haven't posted an update this month! May has been great and filled with so much fun and work and craziness. We have spoken to a few small groups about this whole journey we are on, we have held a garage sale and a bake sale to help raise support, we have raised the most support this month so far, and we are SOOO almost done getting our condo fixed up to sell (tell everyone you know, it's adorable and right in the middle of West Knoxville, close to everything!). We have exactly TWO months left to work at our current jobs before switching to full-time missionary preparation and the summer is already flying by. Addalyn graduated 1st grade, Dean finished his second year of preschool, and we finished our last year at Cedar Springs Weekday School 😪 We attended our very last FPStudents 😭 and we are starting to feel the tug of the "goodbyes" and "last times."  THANK YOU to every person/family/group that...

The  Blog updates. Let's be honest, I stink at getting out blog updates. When major things happen or when we visit St Kitts or big break throughs occur, those are the easy things to write about. We LOVE being able to shout "Look what God did here!" And "Wow God is really coming through this way!" It's much harder to write in the in-between. It's not easy to say all the little things leading up to the big moments. I want you to WANT to read this blog after all :)   However, not every part of the journey has felt big. Much of it has not even felt joyful, especially not exciting, or not even like much more than a list of challenges and complaints along the way. Deciding how to best represent what our ministry will be and how God is shaping all of this has been a big decision.    So we are going to just go with honest. And honestly, this season of preparation is not the most fun. Don't get me wrong, we are still wildly excited about our calling and St Ki...

As many of you know, this journey to get us to St Kitts, and even to this point has been quite a long one! This July will be four years since God first put working in ministry on our hearts. April will be three years since He connected us with St Kitts. Three years that felt like an eternity. We had goals we had to meet; get out of debt, figure out what God wanted us to do on the island, and then get prepared to do what He called us to. As God directed us for the last 3 years He also equipped us. He has taught us faith, patience, dependance on Him, and developed our passion and relationships with Him to a whole new level! We still have goals, but suddenly they seem much more concrete and possible and terrifyingly urgent; sell our condo, sell our cars, and mostly to be 100% support raised by October 1. He is still using these seemingly impossible goals to teach us and mold us and to prove Himself as our faithful provider who we can trust in and rely on.  All this time we have b...

We are so incredibly excited to be able to say that God has provided money for us to pay off all our debt 8 months early!!! That has been a huge hurtle that we have struggled through over the past 3 years. It just shows us that if we are diligent and faithful that God is faithful to provide.  God has continued to amaze us over and over again in this process! From unexpected money to job and shift changes that provide better hours for ministry, letting us serve and learn at Celebrate and connecting us with CR people from around the country! He has given us so much clear direction and has guided us every strep of the way.  Our next two hurdles to leaving this country and moving to our beloved St Kitts is 1. Sell our condo and 2. Raise 100% of our support.  Our condo is located in West Knoxville near West Town mall, it's a little over 1,000sq ft and we are asking a great and low price! So please spread the word! To be 100% support raised we need: Moving Exp...

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all had a wonderful day! We tried to soak up every minute of what may be our LAST Thanksgiving in the states for a few years. It was really nice :) Last month we had the opportunity to head back to our beloved St Kitts. We joined up with a team from  Rockpoint Church  from Crawfordsville, IN for the week! We enjoyed getting to know each team member and doing ministry with them for the week. Two of the team members, Kevin and Bruce, heave been a HUGE support to us and our future plans for the island. Rockpoint has a wonderful Celebrate Recovery program that Kevin started and that Bruce has helped run. Kevin is also a state representative for CR. They spent the week going with us to meetings and speaking on the radio! We met with Superintendent Connor of the Prison and with Pastor Harris. Both men were excited and encouraging about Celebrate Recovery on the island. They also see the need and they are ready for something that can make...

We are so excited to let you know about the next steps we are taking towards moving to St Kitts! On our last visit to the island God really started revealing His plans for us there. St Kitts has a large percentage of drug and alcohol abuse, specifically cocaine and marijuana. The island currently has no recovery programs in place and drug use has been consistently on the rise. When we got home last year, we started praying about how we could help with recovery ministry. Then God started to weave us together with an organization called Celebrate Recovery. Celebrate Recovery is a biblically balanced program that helps people overcome their hurts, hang-up, and habits. We began serving with our own church's Celebrate! Program to learn about group meeting recovery ministry. Then our friends, the Graysons, introduced us to Kevin Parker. He is a state representative for CR (celebrate recovery) in Indiana. Kevin, and his church Rock Point, have a HUGE heart for CR and they already...

    Hey Everyone! It has been quite a while since we have written (and with as much as I, Katelyn, can talk I know you're all surprised ;). God has been doing some excited things the last couple of weeks and opening some doors to help us be better prepared for St Kitts! Aaron got changed to 1st shift at his job (woohoo!!!!!!!). Now he works mornings and afternoons like a normal person, yay!!! Before, Aaron was working late into the evening so it really hampered us in trying to pursue some of the ministry opportunities that God was pushing us to.     We are going to start a new small group (so if you go to FP and need a group, let us know)! God has had it on our hearts for a while. Mostly Aaron's heart, I was trying to block it out because we love our old small group so much, but God knows how to work out His plans instead of ours. We are very thankful for this new step that will allow us to grow in leadership skills and to expand the circle of our Christian church ...