Praise the Lord, we finally have a house to move into! We found a nice mobile home park in town that had a few available units, and finally heard back yesterday afternoon that we'd been approved for a newer 3-bed 2-bath. We were a bit nervous about the idea of living in a mobile home throughout the long Wyoming winters, but this one seems very well constructed and winterized, and the park management seems very responsive and eager to keep their residents happy and safe.
In the midst of this housing transition, we have already been quite busy with ministry. Besides serving in various ways on Sundays, James is also helping Pastor Hartman with a weekly Bible study on Tuesdays, filling in occasionally on Wednesday nights, ministering at the jail every other Friday, visiting new members of the community on Saturdays, and will eventually be recording some short devotional broadcasts for the local radio station. He is also doing his programming job full-time, so he's definitely staying busy! I have been playing either the piano or organ each Sunday, and will be starting to help with children's church this coming Sunday. We are also gearing up for a week-long VBS in the middle of June. We have enjoyed getting to know the people in our church, and look forward to many months of service and fellowship together with them!
We've also enjoyed exploring the area around Kemmerer, as we waited to be approved for housing. There is so much variety and beauty here - from ranch land to ridged buttes, from steep mountain slopes to the turquoise-blue waters of Bear Lake, from hidden wildflowers to a broad scope of active wildlife, and of course a very BIG western sky! I've created a few albums of some of our adventures, if you'd like to take a peek (click the individual photos and then hit the "info" icon to see captions):
We would appreciate your prayers as we settle in to our new home and get to know our church family better. Please pray for opportunities to be an encouragement and a help to the people here, and ways for both of us to get further involved in the community. VBS is also coming up in the next few weeks! We'll be meeting in the mornings, Monday through Friday, and expect about 30-40 kids. Most of those kids will be unsaved, so please pray that the Gospel will go forth clearly and that children would come to know Him personally through our ministry. Our "Ocean Commotion" theme is focused on Noah, so there will be plenty of lessons about obeying God and trusting in Him! James and I will both be helping with that in various ways, from artistic preparations (E) to handing out flyers (J), playing piano in the opening and closing sessions and helping with the 5-7 aged kids (E), and co-leading the game time (J). James will also be continuing his regular full-time work and preaching at Tuesday night's Bible study in Cokeville.
On the non-ministry side, we would appreciate prayer as we set up our new home over the next few weeks, and deal with things like changing our residence and finding new doctors in the area.
Thanks for your continued prayers. We love you all!
For the sake of His name,
James & Elizabeth Johnson