Friends and Family,
What an incredible year this has been, filled with blessing and life happenings. While we don’t have space here to share all of the intricate details, we’ll try to highlight some of them for you.
One of the biggest things has been the long-awaited construction of the house/lodge. Currently we are working on finishing the framing. There is a tremendous amount of work yet to be done. We have been cutting all of our boards from huge logs. This is saving over 50% of the cost, but takes a lot of time and energy. We have had several great teams down to help and seen lots of progress. It’s really a boost to us to have folks come and invest their time in the work here.
We received a container packed full of all kinds of things - from a whole house generator, appliances, tools, construction supplies, to a farm utility vehicle. It was awesome to watch all of these items being brought together and so many folks working together to make this shipment happen. Once again, we were hammered with a huge import tax, and once again reminded that nothing comes as a surprise to our God as he provided the money right away through some of you – His servants. How humbling it is to see such an outpouring of love to us, and the ministry down here. We cannot thank enough all of those who were involved in this.
We have had the property here open to churches and local families so that they could come out of town and relax. Many have come and we have been able to share Jesus with them as God gives us the opportunity. It has been really neat to see how God has brought people out to us to minister to, when we can’t be as involved as we would like in other ministries while we are focused on construction.
We are preparing some of the areas on the property for more church camps coming in January. We have cleared a space for a soccer field and are working on solutions or bathrooms, tent pads, and mosquito-free areas. We hope to have a swimming pool for next year’s camps, but for now we are trying to remove all the caiman, piranha, and electric eels from our pond so the kids can have a safe place to cool off. God has been faithful to keep us this year.
We praise Him for His constant provision and protection. We have had no violent events or threats.There have been a few frightening happenings with insect bites and bumps and scrapes but God has protected us through each event. We still have not figured out what is going on with Vanessa’s illness. She is going back to the capitol city to have more testing this month. Pray that we will be able to find a solution, as it has been very limiting to her. We know that God is trustworthy, although at times it is difficult to not “lean on our own understanding” as scripture tells us.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. We are so very grateful to you. For those of you who have e-mail or internet access, please make sure we have your e-mail address or look us up on Facebook as Vann Vanessa Brock for more pictures and current news. May our Heavenly Father continue His rich hand of blessing on you as we continue to serve Him together.
~ Vann, Vanessa, Corynn, Ethan, and Clara Brock