Jenifer's wedding

Jenifer's wedding was full of fun experiences. She and Kevin spent hours buying and envisioning the decorations. They wrote out unique and touching vows. They incorporated American and Chinese customs to the delight of all. On Monday, two nights before the wedding, Jonna held a personal shower for her. We dressed three grandmothers in toilet paper lingerie which was a big hoot and then sent Jen on a honeymoon dressed very bizarre under blindfolding amid much laughter from her cooperative dramatization. For her new mother-in-law, it was a first shower party and she was very happy. Tuesday, John & I hauled big twigs (6 ft tall) and buckets of sand to town to begin the decorating of the ballroom that was rented at the local college campus. The wedding and reception were both to be held there. Huge swags of teal and silver cloth with Christmas bulbs were hung dangling from the ceiling. Three Christmas trees were center stage full of lovely things. The big twigs lined the center aisle laced with pearls and beads. Every table had vases of white twigs and flowers in them surrounded with tea lights, artificial snow, and teal popouri. It was a Winter Wonderland theme and was beautiful. Tuesday night our little family stayed with Jen in her new condo and we crashed into bed early, exhausted and excited.

All the wedding photos aren't yet available so my selection is few but the left photo is them in their wedding attire and to the right, Jen is wearing a second dress for the reception that is edged with the Chinese wedding color of red.

The wedding day began very early. The first photographer showed up at 8:15am with another crew of videographers coming within the hour. We and they were all in Jen's small one bedroom condo. Karen, Kevin's sister, came and began the makeup process under filming and then Jonna and her mother helped her dress. While she sat quietly waiting in her bedroom, two other Chinese girls showed up along with mother-in-law to prepare for groom's coming. Kevin, along with three other men, came to bribe his way in to pickup the bride. Games, laughter, and shouting was ringing throughout the condo for the next half hour. It was great fun and filming. Everyone was all smiles. The bride was loaded up and taken for photo shots at a local historical theatre before reaching the wedding site where family photos were taken. Then the wedding and reception followed.

The wedding was in English and Chinese (through interpreter) with unique features of the groom praying over his bride while encircled with other praying wedding persons and she returning the compliment with a lovely song to her groom. Their vows were touching reminders of where they had come from and where they hoped their relationship would develop to. One bridesmaid and groomsman were in escort along with four lovely children (2boys, 2girls). Her father and mother walked her up the aisle.

The reception was outstanding. Jacki Prettyman, Joyce's sister, made a fabulous three tier, fondant wrapped cake and supervised the food set-up. The college caterers set up all the tables and food tables, arranging them beautifully in white tableclothes and teal decorations. Four kinds of cookies were present from Joyce and Jacki and a neighbor of Jacki's. Joyce and Jacki combined efforts to make dainty hor d' sandwiches and BBQ'ed hot links. Sushi, spring rolls, and crab ragoon were provided by Kevin's uncle Joe. The college caterers brought in veg and cheese trays with crackers along with coffee, tea, water, and punch and all the necessary condiments and tableware with that. It was a sight to behold and noone went away hungry.

However, there was still more to come. An hour after the reception, a Chinese tea ceremony commenced at the home of Kevin's mother. Kevin and Jen served us tea individually and received our blessings and counsel in exchange. Then, we all went for a late family meal together at Hemingway's in the Bass Pro Shop. It was a Very Full Day and one we greatly thank our Father for.

Thanksgiving family time

Well, since this blog is about our life and our ministry, we would like to share a few memories of Thanksgiving with the Spohn family. We met at Jackie Prettyman's in her new commercial kitchen. We are a family of cooks and we all had a great time around the many tables cooking, laughing, and eating together. Thank God for a family that loves one another.

Jenifer and her fiance, Kevin joined us. Kevin is the previous owner of a restaurant business that still thrives here in the Springfield metropolis so we have added yet another cook to the kitchen. We may need to enlarge the kitchen, sis! Or start our own little HGTV show? What fun!

Some prefer to do the eating and so they rested while the others cooked. Loren will soon be sent for a year to Afghanistan . He has already served two times in Iraq. We are a family that is proud of those serving us in the military. Rest well and eat plenty for there are hard days ahead.

Gifts of love

Since being called to "GO", we have received several gifts of love. We willingly gave away our chickens and dog, and sold our goats; or almost all of them. We had two young does we had great hopes for and when we wrote out a sales advertisement for them, the lovely Studdard family responded with an offer we couldn't refuse-to keep and care for them till our return. Their offering is one of sacrifice and love.
When travel is required, communication becomes of key importance. The next two gifts of love are helping to fulfill that key need. One was a new laptop computer so we can keep in touch with all of you and the other was an offer to take over our cell phone bill. What a great blessing these gifts are to us. We just won't let you be "out of sight, out of mind". We will write and when we are back home, we will call. We hope you will do the same. We love hearing from you and all the more when we are far away from home.

By Faith

By Faith...the first of November, David, of Clouse Motor Co., bought the truck he believed we were supposed to drive to Mexico. WHAT! Do you know how much those things cost? Before Thanksgiving, it was paid for. Wow! During that month, By Faith, some problems were noted and repaired. By Faith, the taxes and tags were paid. By Faith, the repairs and insurance will be paid as it must be debt-free to be qualified to drive through Mexico. God must surely have some big plans in store for us. What an adventure to walk with the King.

Called

The next step is to finish the east wing, making it the front/dining room. But in the midst of that preparation, new things began happening. By divine appointment, we met James and Cassy, a young family who were so excited about a new adventure they were getting prepared to take to south Mexico. The same day we meet Sue and felt incredibly drawn together. She and her husband had founded the missions base in south Mexico where James and Cassy were going. A few weeks later the Lord told us to lay aside our work and go meet Sue's husband Duane in Tulsa, Okla. God spoke to our hearts to come alongside these people and He began to knit us together. At the same time, John was recalling a vision he had in India. He was on the edge of a Grande Canyon chasm and the Lord was saying to him to step off. When he stepped off, two angels carried him across, through a cloud. On the other side were short, black-haired people jumping up and down, smiling and waving, beckoning him to come. As the angels set him down, they surrounded him and led him away to their village. He expected to find those people somewhere in India but never did. The first of September, John and his brother David went to view the Roca Blanca mission base in Oaxaca, Mexico and see what God was doing there. John was thrilled to find the people of his vision and was delighted to speak in a couple of the missions training classes on the campus.
Roca Blanca can be viewed online but in brief, it is a training, equipping campus for all ages. There are schools for the children, youth, pastors, worshippers, missionaries, as well as sewing, vo-tech, and language classes. A medical/dental clinic operate there also. Its setting is incredibly gorgeous, spread along the beach at the base of some beautiful mountains. These mountains are full of tribes of Aztec/Mexican peoples of many dialects and many heathen practices.
The campus is so full of students that there are no accomodations so the suggestion was made that if we were to come work there, we would have to provide our own housing with a travel trailer. That means a good truck is required to haul the trailer over the 40 plus hours journey. That's a tall order when all our income has gone into building. But, it was an order from the King Most High and where He sends, He provides and equips. So, we wait and watch and work. Yes, we're still building the barn.

Front center finished

Here's the finish to this point. Now to get the east wing done so the wind won't blow into the kitchen doors from that side.

Hurry!

It was late October, the wind was blowing cool, wet air and the pressure was on to hurry and get the front wall done, get the wood stove set up, get the kitchen moved into because winter was coming. Joyce was cooking under the roof but in the open air and the nights were getting shorter and colder. Jenifer designed the kitchen floor this time and John rebuilt two sets of old cabinets plus made some additional pieces to put it all together in place. There was much rejoicing the day we moved into that cozy little kitchen and started a fire in the little wood stove. The kitchen became the center of all life.

You probably noticed in one of the last pictures of helpers that Joyce and Faith were putting up wood with motar in between. That was the cordwood front wall of the kitchen. It begins with cutting down cedar trees and peeling the bark from them. They dry for a year and then its time to cut them into the desired length (more helpers pictured) and stack them up with the papercrete motar. We have 10 inch walls with beauty and asthetics as well as good insulation and purpose. Its not hard work but it is very time intensive. NOW that its done, we really love it and are glad we choose to try this new alternative method.

Helpers

With the spring came new help. We are so grateful to all who have come to serve. Our neighbors dug us out of the mud several times, moved heavy logs with their equipment, loaned us tools as needed, and helped us chop paper. We have great neighbors.

We have had several from our family and our church family come to help. Joyce's parents have spent days at a time helping in various areas. Groups of families from our fellowship have come and spent a day working with us. Even children 2-6 years old helped clean mud off the sweet potatoes for storing and then helped us eat hot dogs and all the picnic trimmings. We had some helpers who came more than once and some that simply took the work to their house to do. When we needed it most, we had help!

Bees, Chickens, and Bread baking

More images of spring on the Clouse farm (at Grandpa McConnell's house) with John checking the bees, chicks hatching and scratching, and fresh bread in the kitchen. :)

Spring is sprung

Ah! Finally, spring is here. John's black iris is blooming, kids and kittens are born, new puppies invade our space, and life is grand. The kitten is now our Lucy cat, the puppies and goats are gone except two kids. But that is another story.

Floors and more

It was an exciting day when we began covering the plumbing with flooring. This is a granite floor that our daughter Jonna designed and we laid. Next to grandpa's place was a kitchen countertop business. They were throwing away tons of scrap pieces so we began gathering the pieces to use for flooring. This floor was laid from one entire sheet of countertop that shattered before it could be used in anyone's kitchen. We were able to spread it out to cover the bathroom area.

The next floor was done in papercrete, with the intention to overlaid it in granite. Papercrete is part ground paper, part concrete which makes it insulated and cheaper material to use. It is time consuming in that the paper must first be ground and left to soak before using. We would wear face masks, goggles, ear plugs, and hat gear but we still came out looking tarred and feathered, covered in paper dust. Papercrete spreads wonderfully but in the area we laid it and with the wet weather conditions of this year, it didn't dry and set up quickly so it remained much too soft. We probably won't recommend it to anyone else for flooring but we loved it later in building walls.

Step by step

Whoops! You are getting a preview of the barn raising behind the new garden. Okay, so here's a pre-preview as step-by-step we began putting on tin siding, adding windows, setting the blocks from last year's raised bed to the front of the barn for landscaping, and adding old barn boards to the front top. We battled the red clay in rain (and this was a rainy year), ladders and time that were too short, and ignorance but, we did progress. Perserverance is the key.

First & Second gardens

Our first garden at the land was small. We did one raised bed and some tomato plants alongside. The larger garden was still at grandpa's house. The raised bed didn't really suit us so this year we built a lasagna style garden same as the one at grandpa's. It produced very well and was a year of full harvest, fulfilling the word the Lord gave us concerning it.

More help

We decided to put a root cellar in for storing vegetables. We tore apart a dairy barn for those concrete blocks, then hauled them from their original site to grandpa's, then to the land, and now to the building site. We got the foundation all prepared and tried laying the blocks. That's when we got discouraged and two brothers from our church family came up to give us a hand and show us how. They completed a good sized portion that day and taught us how to continue. We thank God for the help just when we needed it most.

Barn raising

Raising the structure required some help. We had a friend and his crew come in for two weeks to lift the heavy logs in place, attach the rafters, and screw on the tin roofing.

Then, for the next two years we traveled back and forth from Rogersville to Fair Grove while taking care of grandpa and two gardens and trying to build. It has been a big learning experience with lots of physical exercise involved! No gym workout was needed on the side.

Barn beginnings

The woodpile grew till it was over Joyce's head. Telephone and electric poles were gathered from the winter ice storms in Mo. and Okla. These would be used for the building the barn structure. Two other barns had been taken down to furnish us with the rafters, tin siding, foundational concrete blocks, and plywood flooring in the loft. But I'm getting ahead of myself. After clearing the land, we had the well dug and septic laid. Then the barn was begun at the back of the clearning, leaving room up front for the "home spot".

At the time we bought the property, we were living with and caring for John's grandfather in Rogersville, Mo. about an hour's distance from the property. We went up as often as possible and began clearing the land, felling one tree at a time. All cedars (which were the prevailing majority) were kept to build with and the remaining varieties were cut up for future firewood. Huge bonfires of brush motivated many prayers for the neighbor and our safety. After spending nine years in India as "guests" without physical labor, the many hours of hard labor that went into clearing was certainly stretching but it was with a grateful heart that we applied ourselves.

Coming home

August 2005 the Lord sent us home from N India to "set up a base". Within a week of telling us to go home, He provided the funds to do just that. We came home and began looking for "our place". We were in a coffee shop just before Christmas when the Lord directed John to go talk to a newcomer in the shop, asking him to take our family's photo. We met Paul that day who became our dear friend and real estate agent. We were his first customers and the first property he showed us became our new homeplace. Here is a pic of it as we first saw it.