Merry Christmas from Shepherd's Inn! We hope this update finds you well and in the midst of a wonderful celebration of Christmas. It's been an amazing and full year here in Tennessee, and we've begun to wind down, spending time with family and friends for the holidays. Before we wrap up the year, we wanted to give you an update on what's been going on at the inn, and what we're looking forward to in 2022.
Presently insulation is being installed in the lodge, with our drywall scheduled to be delivered the Monday after Christmas. We were blessed to receive some incredible gifts on Giving Tuesday and the weeks after, providing for our interior paint and almost all of what’s needed for drywall install. We currently need about $1,500 to pay for that. Once provided, we will get our drywall contractor started and have that done within a couple of weeks (it’s a big house).
Hopes and Goals
As we step into 2022, we’ve been praying about our hopes and what goals we should set. Our journey this year has given us opportunity to meet with new friends serving in the church and on the mission field, and strengthened our resolve to provide as many opportunities as possible to be a refuge for those seeking rest and encouragement. The need for a safe place to be heard, a quiet place to engage with the Father, and a warm place to be loved on and cared for is abundantly evident to us. That has made it clear what our goals should be.
The obvious goal is to complete the inn and open the doors (we’re praying late spring/early summer), but we’re also developing more immediate ways we can provide the ministry of the inn. This would be in the form of day visits where a minister and/or their spouse could come for lunch and a day of prayer on the property, with access to our hiking/prayer trails. We would also like to offer evenings where we can share a meal with individual couples for a time of listening, prayer, and encouragement. We were able to do a few of these this past year, and they were so good.
Another goal is to begin sharing in more churches the need for minister/missionary care and continuing to develop strong relationships with the body of Christ. As we promote the need for this type of care, we believe the church will be strengthened. So many are unaware of the challenges their church staff may be facing or the encouragement their local or global missionaries need. When the leaders in the church are healthy and serving from a place of rest, so the church will be also.
With all that in mind we are setting a goal to bring Cheryl on full-time in 2022. We don’t have a solid date on this, but in order to begin offering more ministry now, and the upswing in responsibility at the inn, we will need her to be settling into her role here. We are praying for provision for that through recurring gifts to the Barnett fund, and we are also looking at ways to supplement our income until the inn is up and running.
Our final goal is to get our office, utility room, and apartment underway. This will be located in the adjacent building to the lodge, which will be “The Carriage House.” Cheryl and I have been living a camper for the last year overseeing the construction of the inn and developing the property. We are blessed to have a warm place to live onsite, but we would like to move into something more permanent before we open the lodge. We believe we will be able to do most of the work to the Carriage House with volunteers, and we estimate the cost to be $50k.
Pray - Promote - Provide
To see these goals come to fruition, we are asking you to continue to pray, promote, and provide. As we’ve shared before, God has been faithful to provide for every next step. We cannot emphasize enough how amazing this has been to see and experience! His abundant blessings through His sons and daughters has been both miraculous and awe-inspiring.
We ask you to:
Pray that the Father would continue to provide people and resources to complete the inn.
Promote Shepherd’s Inn by introducing us to your church’s ministry team. We would be incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to encourage them and share the vision of Shepherd’s Inn with your church family.
Provide by giving of your time and your gifts to see the inn completed and ministering to those who serve.
Our areas of greatest need are the Punch List, Christmas at the Inn, and the Barnett Support fund. Prayerfully consider a one-time or recurring gift to Shepherd’s Inn.
Click here to give online and for our mailing address. All donations are tax-deductible.
Thank you for helping us take these next steps on our journey and for the many prayers, encouraging words, and generosity you have shared with us. It helps us, especially on the challenging days, to know that you are on this journey with us. We are incredibly grateful.
We hope you and yours have an amazing Christmas celebrating the coming of Jesus at his birth, his coming into our lives today, and looking ahead to his glorious return. We pray you would experience His presence throughout this season and into the new year!
Merry Christmas from the Shepherd’s Inn team!!
