The green house, the ducklings, boy's shower room, chickens and Joe Newton working on the building.

It's almost Mother's Day.
 (We're almost half way through the year!)

Last night, roses were passed out to each and every woman at dinner. All the women, every single one of us in the room were given a rose for Mother's Day. Doesn't matter if they were mother's or not, they got a rose because, it was explained, because they are all life giver's. Whether they birthed a child or not, they were put here on earth to be Life Giver's. To take care of someone or something. It's inside of them. It's a trait that God put inside of each female. Women know it's there. We can feel it.

Lou's been busy keeping the toilets working. A real challenge in this old school building even if they weren't in almost constant use. The commercial toilets are being changed over to residential ones whenever one comes through donations. Love, Inc. gets a steady supply of donations from Home Depot and once in awhile... one comes our way. The main reason for the switch over is because these old commercial toilets have expensive metal parts that are very hard to get even if there were affordable.

Last year Lou and Kenny worked on the women's showers, creating five private shower stalls out of a group shower area and putting in five washers and five dryers where the gym lockers used to be. This spring it was time to tackle the other shower room and turn it into a "boys" shower area. The women in the program can have their children with them but the boys need to be under 10 years old to be allowed to live in the women's dorms with their mom's. (If they are older than 10, they go to the men's facility to live but they are bused here daily for school and noon meals.)

All that was needed to make a boy's shower room happen was funding. Mountain Ministries and Shiloh Church weren't giving the go ahead because they just did not have the funds to cover the expense. We were hoping a hot water tank would come through Love, Inc. donations but that just didn't happen. We decided to put the items needed on our charge card and just get it done. Total was just a little over $500.

Last fall a green house was gifted to Mountain Ministries so the guys took it apart, being very careful to take pictures so they could put it back together again, loaded it on a truck, brought it back and stacked it neatly on a pile. This Spring it was time to put it together and they wished they had taken more pictures when they were taking it apart. It was quite a jig-saw puzzle but Lou and Kenny figured it out. The louvers on the doors were missing a few pieces but Lou was able to make them with his new lathe. It's fairly sturdy and should last for many planting seasons.

About a week ago someone donated 8 chickens and then a few days after that a mama duck with a dozen ducklings showed up. A chicken coop of sorts was built pronto and a good sized area was fenced off for the chickens. The mama duck flew off and left her babies behind the same day she got here. I don't know why that happened. Raising ducks seems to be a new experience for everyone here. Someone came up with a heating lamp for the ducklings and they seem to be growing and thriving just fine. They are brought inside at night but in the daytime they have their own little dog house inside a small fenced area with a little wading pool to swim in. Needless to say the children here LOVE them.

Joe Newton has a month before he leaves for a Hard Hats for Christ project in Wyoming or Utah... (I can't remember which it is now.) He's making headway on finishing the paint project he started last summer painting the buildings here at the Mountain Ministries Women of Faith facility. He's power washing and as soon as the lift is rented, he will start painting the front of the three story building. God Bless Joe Newton.

He is as dedicated as he is hard working. If you or your church would consider supporting Joe & Sherry Newton, contact them by calling Hard Hats for Christ at (360) 423-5022. They are faith supported full-time missionaries. Sherry stays and works in the Hard Hats office while Joe is gone weeks at a time on projects.

I wish I could post pictures of the women and children so you could see the real reason why we feel the Lord has us here. It's not about the building ... it's about the people. Always has been and always will be that way. Women overcoming addictions to drugs and/or alcohol is the main focus. God Bless them all. It's not easy.

Prayer requests: Please lift prayers for funding for the expenses of the women's facility. They would never say so but we can tell that things are a bit tight for Mountain Ministries. They will have to rent a lift and buy paint for the painting project if Joe is going to get it done before he has to leave on his next project. Please send checks made out to Mountain Ministries Women of Faith :

Attn: Tad & Connie Kruse, Directors

MOUNTAIN MINISTRIES WOMEN of FAITH
P.O. Box 1120
Rainier, OR 97048