Visiting Ohio: West Liberty and Cable

Christmas may be over, but our house is still decorated on the inside and our Christmas snow just this morning arrived outside, so I am feeling pretty good about justifying to myself that it's not TOO late for me to write about our Christmas celebrations. :)


VM Christmas Party
December 15 and 16, we were invited to our District Representatives' house in West Liberty, OH, for a Village Missions Christmas party. They had invited several nearby families affiliated with VM. Charis and I rode with Diane and Chris drove separately with Allen and Josiah so that we would be able to utilize the 4-hour drive, getting some good conversation that we don't always have time for in our day-to-day work.

Our drive went well, and the time at the Hernandez house was a lovely time getting to know other missionaries a little better. In attendance were our family;

• Allen & Diane Sparks (our mentors); 
• David & Joann Hernandez (our newly-appointed District Representatives);
• Jeremy & Mindi Sarver and family - recently began serving in West Liberty, OH (taking over for David & Joann when they became DR's). Mindi is Allen & Diane's daughter, and I believe she and Jeremy met through the youth group at Liberty Chapel. They have adorable 6-year-old twins and recently adopted a baby (now 6 months old); 
• Wayne & Marcia Taylor - serving in Cable, OH. I'm not sure how long Wayne has been going to the missions conference at Grace College, but he was the missionary representative that I spoke with when we first began considering working with Village Missions, so we enjoy having that connection. 
• Sheldon Blattner - David & Joann Hernandez's son-in-law
• Mike & Alisa Kane - Mike was the son of Village Missionaries, and now serves on Village Missions' Board of Directors

Since we had a long way to drive home with the kids, David and Joann graciously offered to allow us to stay the night at their house. We were so grateful for their generous hospitality!

While we were in the area, Allen and David arranged for us to visit two other nearby VM churches/parsonages.


Union Chapel: West Liberty, OH
Jeremy Sarver gave us a tour of Union Chapel Community Church and their parsonage in West Liberty, OH. He and Mindi began serving as missionaries there this past summer; previously, they had been in Volga, IA for 8 years.

Back row: Allen & Diane, Dorothy (Allen's mom), Mindi & Jeremy
Front row: Noah & Belle (twins), and baby Elijah

Union Chapel

Sanctuary

Upstairs they have a wall in which people from the church have written notes,
Bible verses, or signed their names through the years

Signature from 1918

New Life Christian Church: Cable, OH 
The morning before we left, Wayne and Marcia took time out of their day to invite us into their home and show us around the church just outside of Cable (about 30 minutes away from West Liberty; downtown population: 93). The main sanctuary was built in 1863. Wayne and Marcia have been serving there for about 10 years, and served on (I think) 3 other fields prior to that.

Marcia & Wayne

New Life Christian Church

Village Missions 50-Year "Jubilee" throw hanging in the church

Sanctuary

We so appreciated these missionaries taking time out of their schedules to give us some other perspectives of  different VM fields! We always appreciate hearing about others' experiences, the ways in which different individuals connect in different ways in the communities, and any other wisdom they are willing to share with us. It was a wonderful couple of days!

Wonderful, but exhausting ;)