The flat roof on the Women's dorm is leaking... again.
A metal quonset has been donated to Mountain Ministries
and will be moved to the Women's facility to be used as a machine shop.

It's been a colder and rainier than normal winter here. That seems to be what everyone is having.  We've had ice storms and snow enough for three winters.  It's only the middle of February but I'm hoping we are heading around the bend to Spring weather.  I noticed the heather is blooming and I'm looking forward to daffodils sprouting any day.

Lou has had A-Fib episodes more than normal in December and January but he has not had one in the past 3 weeks. We would appreciate prayers that he doesn't have any more.  When he goes into A-Fib he has to stop whatever he's doing and get off his feet.  Taking a nice long nap or taking it easy for a day fixes the problem but that doesn't get what he's working on finished so it's hard for him to relax without feeling frustrated.

If you are wondering what he might be working on lately... there's the normal to do list of keeping the toilets and drains functional... changing locks and issuing keys... swapping out non-working washers and dryers (we get quite a few used machines donated that don't last long). Then there's the odd ball problems like when one of the freezers stopped keeping things frozen. Turned out that the problem was someone had plugged it into a different outlet in the room... and that outlet was controlled by the light switch on the wall by the door.  Lou would go down to take a look at it and it would be running fine.  Later he'd get a call that it STILL wasn't keeping things frozen...  He figured it out.

Someone donated a 14 ft tall metal quonset and that is going to be taken down and brought here to be used as a machine shop. They will be able to work on vehicles out of the rain for a change.  That's gonna be a Blessing!

The flat roof is leaking again in the Women of Faith dorm building. In the summer we don't get much rain here.. so it only leaks from October to April.  It's been patched and worked on every summer since we've been here but nothing has stopped the leaks.  It needs to be fixed. Estimates are running between $30,000 and $40,000 depending on materials used.  We think a donation of $27,000 has been promised but it's not here yet. Pray for it to arrive and please pray for a little extra to come along with it to meet additional needs. The utility bills almost doubled what they were last winter due to all the unusual weeks and weeks of cold weather we've had.

I may have mentioned in a previous newsletter that last October the Men's facility had a fire. It started in one of the empty trailers. It was empty because they had been replacing the floor. That fire spread to other trailers and in a matter of moments six trailers, a vehicle and a wooden building housing the Director and his family were destroyed. No one was harmed and No lives were lost. It happened in the middle of the night but everyone got out in the nick of time.  Some in the program and some volunteer staff, lost their stuff, their bedding ... and their beds.   This week the first of two used double wide manufactured homes made their way up the Men's mountain.  Kelly Otton, the Director of the Men's facility, told us that it takes a special kind of person to drive a rig hauling these up there.  The Men's facility is up a ways into the mountains and the last stretch is pretty steep and all gravel.  One double wide was donated.  The other was sold to Mountain Ministries and paid for with the donations that had come in after the fire in October.
Some pictures of the fire are on the Mountain Ministries website:
 http://www.mmrnw.com/

There have been several more graduations in the past few months but the graduation last Sunday was pretty special. Ashley, from the women's program graduated and there were plenty of joyful tears. She is a young woman in her teens who came into the program over a year ago. She was pregnant and living on the street.   No place to go. One of the graduates from the Men's Mountain found her outside a grocery store in Portland and brought her here just before Christmas 2015. She gave birth about six months later to a little boy. He was pretty little at birth but had been through a lot.  After the birth, the daddy of the baby showed up wanting her to leave and go with him.  She decided to stay and finish the program. That was a big step forward. When she first arrived, Ashley did not feel she belonged anywhere and said so many times that she wanted to leave... It took months for her to see how much she was loved. Months of prayer and Bible study to understand how much Christ loved her. She's a very wonderful mom who gutted it out. It took her over a year to finish the program but she's not a quitter, that's for sure. She wants to make sure her son grows up knowing the Lord. She will stay on as a mentor to others coming into the program.

All of the men and women in the Mountain Ministries program need your prayers.  Their battles and their addictions do not end at graduation.

I usually write about all the positive news going on here but this January we were very saddened to learn that Ethel Brady, one of the 2014 graduates who returned to Lame Deer, Montana, has been charged with manslaughter and assault.  The manslaughter charge alleges that Brady, while driving under the influence of alcohol, killed a person identified as K.K. near Lame Deer. The assault charge alleges that on the same day, Brady “willfully and recklessly” assaulted a person identified as J.S., resulting in serious injury.  Brady faces a maximum 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted on the assault charge and a maximum eight years and a $250,000 if convicted on the manslaughter count.  Please pray for her, her family and the family that lost their loved one. 

If you are wondering what I've been up to lately ... I have been busy with taking and editing photo's since last November ... first the Mountain Academy school photo's and more recently the Shiloh Church directory photo's.