Updates

Okay, well we're "settled" now--if settled means things are in full swing...We're loving the gorgeous mountain views, and we find Payson to be a very pleasant town to live in. Our church is very warm and loving, and we're meeting more and more people. JR is doing well at his job, and he will be going full time in the near future. Emily started dance classes on Wed., and it was a bit hit! She very enthusiastically showed her teacher everything she already knew how to do. During one of their stretching exercises they pretended to put peanut butter and jelly on the bottoms of their feet, and she has been practicing that one all week. Adrian is talking ALL the time, and he's actually speaking pretty clearly in full sentences all the time now. Sun. the 22nd is his 2nd birthday, and we're going to visit the Salt Lake City zoo to celebrate. He loves animals, and he loves to tell you what the animals say. Bugs are his biggest obsession and fear right now. I've been doing lots of work with the church as we prepare for a mission team from Kentucky to come do Kids' Clubs and Sports Camps. They will be here one week from today, so this is kind of crunch time. JR and I are also leading worship at church, and it is quite the experience. My rusty and limited piano skills are being put to use while JR plays the guitar. Our band is growing weekly. This week we added 3 singers, and we have a drummer practicing with us. Hopefully, he'll be playing with us next week. It's amazing to me how a good drummer really fills in and keeps us on track. We do 4 songs weekly, and we will be leading at our church's Praise in the Park service on June 25. I am more than a little nervous about that one. Yeah, the music would be the thing that keeps me the busiest and stresses me the most every week. It is getting easier little by little though. I am also beginning to pick up some tutoring business (I have 3 students), and my new adventure is teaching piano. I have one very excited 10 yr. old that I'm teaching piano right now. Hopefully, I'll be kicking off my Spa business soon too, so I have a feeling things will only get busier from here. I'm still learning how to use Blogspot, but I'm going to try to post some pictures on here soon, so you'll have some images to go with the things I've told you about. Thanks for keeping up with us!

--Becky

We finally made it!

Thank you for all your prayers over the last couple of weeks as we made the physical journey to Utah! We arrived Fri. the 9th at about 5:00 PM, and many members of our church arrived within the hour to help unload, provide dinner, and fellowship. It was a little chaotic, but it was such a warm reception after a long, tiring 2 days of travel. The kids are doing well settling into their new house, and Emily is especially excited about the dance class she gets to start in June. Emily has already made several friends at church, and Adrian just tags along with whatever his big sister is doing. JR began his job on Mon., and he already got a 50 cent raise today. His manager at Fastenal is definitely LDS (he was discussing buying a wheat grinder for their long term supply of food that the LDS are supposed to keep), but his district manager is very turned off by the LDS church. He was very interested to hear what JR was doing. Kyle is the manager, Matt is the district manager, and Sean is the sales rep. that JR works with. I'm still settling in and unpacking boxes, and I've been battling allergies/sinus infection since Sun. Church was refreshing on Sun., but the kids will take some time to get used to it. There is no nursery/kids' classes until it is time for the sermon, so both of our kids will have to learn to sit in the service some. Emily kept asking to go to her class, and she didn't understand that she couldn't go until later in the service. There were at least 30 adults at church on Sunday and at least 20 kids. Yesterday was my first trip to the grocery store in Utah, and it felt a little eerie even though I was in a normal Walmart. It's strange to be in place and realize that you are so drastically different from the people surrounding you. Somehow you don't feel that way in the Bible Belt even though many of the people around are not Christians either. I realized that we probably stuck out like a sore thumb as non-LDS because Emily was riding in the cart carrying her little bottle of Diet Coke, and we bought coffee. We have found some incredible restaurants in Payson (great Mexican and Chinese). Tomorrow I can begin cooking at home more because they are delivering our new stove! I've made dinner in the crock pot the last 2 days, and I must admit that we didn't eat today's experiment. I decided to buy tuna instead of chicken for my concoction because it was cheaper, and we opted for Chinese because none of us wanted to eat tuna and noodles in the crock pot. I guess in the end the chicken was cheaper after all. Tomorrow I can be back to cooking the way that I know how to cook! Thank you for all your prayers!

In Christ,
Becky Hopson

Praises:
*Safe trip to Utah
*Great services at Crossings last Sunday
*New stove coming tomorrow!
*JR got a raise

Prayers:
*Becky to get well
*Emily and Adrian to continue to adjust (and JR and Becky as well)
*Matt (JR's district manager)
*Kyle (JR's manager)
*Sean (sales rep. JR works with)
*Ways for us to meet people outside of the church (esp. Becky)

The Latest...

For those who haven't heard, our move date is May 9th. On that day we will begin the 19 1/2 hour trek to Utah with a Penske truck filled with all of our worldly belongings, JR's truck, and my van (filled with a 3 yr. old, an almost 2 yr. old, a basset hound, and me). Anyway, that should be an...interesting trip. Please pray for that. JR will begin work on the 12th at Fastenal, and I will get us settled into our new home. Right now we're cleaning out, preping for a garage sale, and beginning the packing process. JR is crazy busy at work right now, and he's exhausted. Pray for supernatural strength and endurance right now. In fact, he won't even be coming home tonight because they are hauling "hoppers" all night (I have no idea what a hopper is.) We still have a couple of trips to make as well (one church and one family), so we will definitely be busy bees over the next 3 weeks. I can't believe we are leaving in 3 weeks! God has done so much to get us there in a time frame that far exceeded our efforts and expectations! We are so looking forward to uniting with the loving church family at Crossings and planting our lives in Utah County. Thanks for praying!

Brother Toner

Oprah and Course of Miracles

If you haven't seen or heard about the new big religious movement that Oprah is promoting, I encourage you to watch this video. It is very eye-opening and scary! It is apalling to me that so many people are falling for these lies, even Christians. It's all about feeling good and serving yourself. It showed me, yet again, how harmful it can be to take a statement or Scripture out of context, and it reminded me that we truly need to study the Word for ourselves and know what it says.

It really is very similar to the LDS religion. One person took Scripture and twisted it to fit what they wanted. That person was charismatic enough to garner attention and support, and Satan used it to confuse people and cause even Christians to stumble into this pit of lies. We must remember though that we know Who wins in the end. Their may be 2,000,000 + followers of this "religion", but our God is bigger. He can overcome anything and destroy anything as He sees fit. Followers of Christ need to be diligently studying the Sword of the Spirit to fend of the evil one, and we need to be fervently praying for God to have mercy on us in this dry and weary land.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW4LLwkgmqA

4 1/2 Weeks!!!

Hey Everybody!

Thanks for praying for us while we visited Utah. We had a great trip! We got to worship with and share with Crossings Church in Payson. We were able to secure housing with a lady from the church, so we have the blessing of living in a house above a Christian (quite a rarity in Utah County). We got to see the area, have sweet fellowship with 2 young couples from Crossings, and visit for hours and hours with Mickie and Rendi (church planter and wife). JR put in tons of job applications and resumes. He has several good possibilities, but he hasn't found just the right thing yet. We would really love for JR to work just a part time job if the hourly rate was decent, so he has much more time to work with the church. So far the job options have been 45+ hours with a fairly long commute. We are praying that God will provide something more suitable, but he may have to take one of those until something else opens up.
We are still speaking at various churches in Texas and sharing our heart for the people of Utah (we have 2 more this month). Right now we are focused on preparing to move. We are contacting moving companies about estimates, and we are gathering donations from churches and individuals to help off-set the cost of moving. We're also starting the inevitable clean out and have a garage sale process. JR is still working tons of hours in his oil field job(41 hours as of Wed.), so pray for stamina for him there.
Emily visited the urologist on Apr. 1, but so far we have no news there. They simply scheduled more tests and appointments. We are limiting her to 32 oz. of fluid a day and restricting caffeine, chocolate, carbonation, and citrus, but we haven't seen any real improvements yet.
Our estimated move date is May 12, so we are pressing on towards that goal. Thanks for your prayers and encouragement; they are greatly appreciated.

Praises
*Home in Utah
*Great, rejuvenating trip to Utah
*Our move is now on the horizon!


Prayer Requests
*Partnerships with more churches
*Job for JR in Utah
*Stamina for JR now
*Funds for moving expenses
*Emily's health

Thank you for your prayers!

In Christ,

Becky Hopson

14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
Rom. 10:14-15

March Update

Hello Prayer Warriors!

We just wanted to send a quick update on our situation with our move and ministry in Utah. JR and Becky are flying to Utah this Thurs. to meet with Mickie, the church planter, and the Crossings Church. We will be in Utah for 5 days, and we will be very busy while we are there! J.R. will begin looking for a job, and we hope to secure some idea of housing as well. We will also get to worship with Crossings Church for the first time! Yeah! They have asked J.R. to share his heart with the people, so please be in prayer for that as well. Our estimated date for moving is the middle of May, but that is obviously dependent upon a job for J.R. Because pretty much everything is controlled by the LDS church there (97% Mormon in the town where we are going), so it may seem difficult to find a job. However, we know that our God is bigger than that, so we have faith that He will provide the perfect job for J.R. in His perfect time. As far as finding housing goes, that may already be taken care of.

Our major prayer requests at this time:
*A job for J.R. in Utah
*Housing for us in Utah
*Safe travel to and from Utah this weekend
*Emily's health problem--we see the urologist on Apr. 1
*Continuing to gather support from NAMB and individual churches


Praises:
*J.R. was able to find a good 4 wheel drive truck that we could afford for the snowy conditions in Utah.
*We now have 4 churches that have pledged to support us.

Thank you so much for your prayers! We'll should have a good update when we get back next week. If you have any specific questions, let us know.