Kelly and Jesica's Update

Update from Jesica

2009-07-16T20:35:00.000-07:00

So its really exciting to see how faithful God is.....even when your not faithful to Him! God is so good! Kelly and I were out at this families house just having dinner and they told us we can LIVE WITH THEM FOR THE WINTER! This family had a special place in our hearts already. Their daughter is 20 and amazing! The mom cooks phenomenal and alot of it is from her garden! And the dad is so smart and funny! I am just so blessed by how much God is providing! And extremely thankful! Thats all for now.....please keep me in your prayers! :)

2009-07-12T13:05:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody!! Kelly here!

We just got back from doing a service for a little church in Troy Montana. Troy has a population of about 925! It looked smaller though, it takes about 5 minutes to drive through it. (crazy!) The little church we visited was called "the Door of Hope Church" and it had a congregation of about 20 people, including us and children! In the past few years they have been through 4 pastors and one that lived in Spokane Washington who did sermons through the internet on their little projector screen! It was such a blessing to be there! Jeremy and I were accompanied by Eddie Campos on the cajon and worship was sweet! There was an older gentleman named Dennis, that comes regularly that has been deaf his whole life but was never taught how to communicate properly. They never taught him how to read lips or sign, or even read very well. His sister, Lola, has done her best to teach him some signing and some lip reading, but this poor man has lived the majority of his life without communication with people! (He could barely sign his own name!) So it was incredible to see him this morning watching his sister signing the words to the worship and trying to sign the words himself! It just showed me that I take SO MUCH for granted! And I also wondered what kind of amazing conversations God has had with him. How God knows exactly how to meet Dennis and speak directly to him, and supply all his needs! We need to catch ourselves complaining that we "cant hear the Lord" or "well if the Lord would just tell me..." the Lord does tell us, and the Lord is speaking! We just have to take the time to listen! And we cant be so focused on our own lives like I was with whether or not I'm supposed to be here in Bonners Ferry. There are so many more lives to be concerned over! Souls to be won to the Lord! Bondage's to be broken and chains to be loosed!!! The enemy has a hold on the people here and I cant be wasting time wondering about the Lords will for my life when I know where I am supposed to be right now, and be faithful in that! I know I am called here! I know the Lord has a will, I just need to be obedient and pray for the Lords will in others lives. Colossians 1:9 "For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." Be encouraged, take heart, and start fighting for the heart of your King! The unsaved around you.

With His love,

Kelly

Bonners Ferry Week 1

2009-07-09T19:54:00.000-07:00

Romans 10:14-15 "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" (our mission verse for this year)

..... So... Bonners Ferry is small, but God is doing something BIG!!! In a population of about 2,500 there are over 22 churches!!!!! on our block alone we counted 5 different churches. A Baptist church across the street from a Catholic church which is neighbored by a Mormon church, which is down the street from the Methodist church... there are also a LOT of Mennonites which are kind of like "Christian Amish" people, but they are very legalistic and like Mormons in the sense that they shun anyone who disobeys their way of life. So as you can see there is a lot of confusion and hurt in the people of Bonners Ferry and they need the FREEDOM that Christ brings through His wonderful gift of salvation. So please, please be praying for the lost souls here!!!

We arrived the 4th of July, the evening before the Vision Casting, helped on the final touches of cleaning and preparing, then went "into town" (down the street) to watch some fireworks on the fairgrounds with our fellow folks!!! That was fun! Woke up early for our first team meeting/prayer power up for the service. We had just under 200 people show up!!!! Thats about a 9th of the whole population on just the Vision Casting service!!! And it was all by word of mouth! These people are starving for something fresh and new! But they are also very skeptical of "church" at the same time. In the week we have been here we have come across quite a few people that have been hurt so much by church and legalism. Its really sad.

The Lord has been blessing us like crazy! A family has blessed us with a 40' fifth wheel tailer to live in until winter! Its amazing!!! Fully loaded with kitchen, bathroom, sleeps 10, plasma TV's, and just spacious enough for us to live comfortably until we can afford something more stable. (a cute 2 bedroom, 2 bath house with huge porch and back patio is about $550-$700 a month) its incredible!!!

We went shopping and bought our first groceries, then an amazing lady, Brenda, and her daughter, Trisha, surprised us with TWO MORE BAGS of groceries, fresh fruits and veggies from her home grown garden, AND a $25 gift card to the BTC (grocery store)!!! (WHAT A BLESSING)

We have been loving it here, missing our families terribly, but loving it here.

Thanks for your prayers! We will update soon!!!!!

Love you,

Kelly Dobbs and Jesica Houlihan