A Letter From Hannah...

Hi Everyone!

God has given me the great opportunity to go and study at the Joshua Wilderness Institute. JWI is an intense 9 month program up at Hume Lake with Theology based curriculum. Joshua's mission statement is "Transforming the Life Effectiveness of God's People". You can go to Joshuawilderness.org and view their full mission statement and 15 core values. Out of this program, I hope to build critical thinking skills, learn life skills necessary for effective practical living, to be challenged to develop convictions to become a person of moral and ethical character, identify and evaluate my personal

philosophy of life, and to discover my calling and central purpose for life.

I will be taking classes such as Elements of the Bible, Christian Life and Ethnics, and Pauline Epistles while attending JWI and be able to put what I learn into practice on mission trips throughout the year. We will be going to places like LA to work with inner city and homeless children, Mexico to work with deaf children, the Dominican Republic to work with the needy and a 2 week trip Israel to actually walk in the places that we have been studying in our Bible classes.  After the 9 month program, I will spend the 2013 summer working at Hume Lake youth camps.

In order for me to attend this program, I am in need of help both spiritually and financially. A very important way for you to help would be to pray for my year. Pray for the finances to be raised, pray for my heart to be open to God’s leading, and pray for our safety on the trips. Your prayers are always welcome. I also ask, if you can, donate to help me pay for the JWI program. I am currently looking for a job to help cover some of the cost and during the year will also have the opportunity to work off some of my tuition by working during the winter season at Hume Lake camps. This will cover about 25% of the $15,000 cost. I will need to raise the remaining $12,000. I will need to raise $4000 by mid July in order to ensure my place at Joshua. I will then need to pay the balance in monthly payments. Are you willing to make a one time gift to help me out? Or maybe you would be willing to donate each month to help cover the $800/month cost from September to May. I do need to send in my $500 deposit in mid May to commit to the program, so I do ask that if you wish to donate that you respond by May 10^th.  All donations are considered a gift and unfortunately are not tax deductible.

Thank you so much for your time and support! I look forward to this awesome, life changing journey. God Bless!

                                          Cruce, Libro, Et Arto

                                         The Cross, The Book, and The Plow,

                                          Hannah Elizabeth Pettey

Wow.. time flies when you are having fun.. and even when you aren't!

So it has been awhile since I blogged.  Alot has happened... Hannah started her senior year, Bekah started 8th grade, I started a second part time job teaching chemistry, we had Christmas and new year.. now here it is March 2012! 

What is new with us you say?  Well just about everything.  We are in a season of heartache, transition and uncertainty.

Things at church have been not very fun for awhile.  Finances of the church, people leaving, people saying hurtful things.. . The church is not thriving.  Not able to meet it's financial obligations. Not able to keep going. We thought it was going to pull out of the nose dive, and just when we thought it had, there was more "stuff" that happened and it became clear that our church, the one we had been faithfully serving for 20 years, the one whose members are our family, the one that we are not sure how to go on without, is closing.  So as of April 1st, Tim is out of work.  We will probably have to move out of the area.. the only home our kids have ever known.  It has not been an easy season for us.  There are MANY unknowns... like where we will live, what if Tim can't find another position, what we will be doing, who will we be ministering to...  but even with the many unknowns, there are a few knowns too:  We KNOW that God will take care of us.  He knows what we need, He knows who we are, He loves us.  Also, we KNOW that we have each other.  We have our family.. we have our faithful friends, we have people who love us.  We know that as difficult as this will be, we will look back and be able to see God's hand all over it.  The next few weeks I am sure will be full of heartache.. how do you watch something that you put so much love into shut it's doors?  I am worried about my kids.. worried about their emotional well being.. worried that this will turn them off of "Church".. worried that they will be forever scared by this.  But I know that God sees my kids too.  He loves them, He wants them to thrive.  I know that whatever happens to us, there will be some good things to hold onto.  But until then, we will have to face the heartache.  We will have to face the change.  We will have to endure the pain. We will have to shed the tears (believe me, there have been more tears this year than in my previous 48 years put together!)  We will have to trust God more and more.  I have loved living here.  I have become a Californian..a Santa Marian... I can't imagine living anywhere else... but i will.  I will go where God takes us.  I have a plan in my mind of where I would like to go.. but I am waiting on God to show  where HE wants us.  I am sorry if this is rambling.. I have just had a need to express what I am feeling.  I have people I can talk to, but it is hard to get the point across when you are sobbing.  Typing it out helps me process it. I know that we will survive this.. God will bring us through it.  I am looking forward to when I can blog about that!