Finally, the January Newsletter

Better late than never, but, as promised, here is a copy of the January newsletter and some snow pictures.

January 2008

Greetings Family and Friends

2008 is off to a running start! First off, our family is doing well. Despite the “Smoky Valley Crud” going around, we have been healthy. Butch had a touch of a cold over Christmas but nothing like this “crud”. Grady, Spencer and Becca are on the down hill side of the school year. They had two full weeks off at Christmas, but within days of returning to school have been counting down to the end of the year. Mom & dad are too! It’s nice to have them around during the day…most of the time!

This next week we are off to sunny California, without the kids. This will the first time since moving here that we have been able to get away without them. A time or two we have gone into Reno without them but that doesn’t count because they were for hospital visits and such. Our District Representatives for Village Missions, Walt & Rosanna, host a getaway every February for the couples in their district. It will be nice to go and be encouraged and just relax for a few days.

Upon our return we jump right back in with a Ladies Luncheon and a new Bible study on Wednesday evenings. It is Jennifer’s turn to speak at the luncheon so part of the time away will be spent preparing for that. She enjoys it so it’s not really like working. Our new Bible study will be “Charting the End Times.” We are praying that this study will motivate people to come. One of our biggest struggles has been “How do we get people excited to study God’s Word on their own?”

The ladies are busy planning for their Spring retreat at Lake Tahoe. It will be held in April. This year we are praying that 23 ladies would attend this event. You may ask “Where did you come up with 23?” Well, that’s how many beds we have to fill! Our theme for this year is, “Sharing Our Laughter, Sharing Our Joy,” based on Proverbs 17:22. This being our second retreat Jennifer has a lot more help in planning. Several ladies have stepped up to cover the various tasks of the weekend. Two ladies are praying about speaking which will help this be a retreat for Jennifer as well.

We are looking forward to visitors from our home church, Lake Tapps Community Church, at the beginning of April. We are hoping the weather is great so that we can put new siding on the Parsonage. We are always open to visitors and if you’d like to help us complete some projects, there are plenty to go around! Our Vacation Bible School is July 28 – August 1. We are praying for 75 kids. This a week we could definitely use some help to reach all those kids. Visit http://svccvbs.blogspot.com/ to get updated information on VBS.

It’s been cold here since Christmas. We had some snow in the days following Christmas that is still around because it doesn’t warm up long enough for it to melt. We’ve had a few days of snow in the past week that just add to what is already on the ground. On Sunday it did warm up for a bit so a lot of snow began to melt, however, the ground is so frozen that the melted snow had no place to go. So now we have a lot of ice in the yard and driveway. We are blessed to have a man in our congregation with a plow on the front of his quad so he does a good job of plowing the driveway and parking area.

We continually praise God for allowing us to serve Him in Round Mountain. He is blessing our ministry and growing our church. He has given us many opportunities to build relationships with people through our hobbies. We have also been able to come alongside those who are experiencing great trials in their lives. God keeps showing us through the people we meet that we are exactly where He wants us to be. I love Ephesians 2:7-10 from the Message. It is a great reminder to us of God’s plan for our lives. “Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.” God does the saving, we do the work.

Praises & Prayer ~
Praise the Lord for Jennifer’s Dad and Step-mom staying with the kids so we can go to the Southwest Getaway next week. Pray for safe travel for all.
Pray for Spring ministries ~ Bible Studies, Ladies luncheons, and Ladies Retreat. Pray that God would motivate our congregation to study God’s Word and grow in their walk
Pray for Youth Group and Kids Club ~ that these ministries would grow, that the kids coming would be excited and invite their friends, and that the leaders would be relational with the kids
Praise the Lord for those who blessed us with “extra” gifts this past Christmas. Also praise the Lord for new supporters. We are still a little short but God continues to stretch our finances to cover our budget.

Thank you for all your support and prayers. As always, we would love to hear from you. You can reach us at the address above. If you would like to support us financially please contact us so we can send you the information.

Serving Him Together,
Butch, Jennifer, Grady, Spencer and Becca


Sandy, belly deep in the snow! There was about 6 inches this day, then th ewind blew and we had drifts 2 and 3 feet deep.

The Toiyabe Mountains on the west side of our valley.

Round Mountain Gold Mine, covered in snow, the haul truck drivers don;t likeit much when it snows.