A night out with the leaders at Ruby Tuesdays!

We are in the airport again with a 1 and 1/2 hour delay waiting to fly back home to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.  So with the time i thought i could update the blog.

We had a great time here in Trinidad and Tobago meeting with the regional leaders.  We took a lot of time to just share with one another whats really going on in the ministry and also whats going on in our hearts. Its always nice for Renita and I because we are fairly new to pioneering and mostly all the leaders have pioneered or still are so its encouraging to be around familiar situations.

Our Ghetto coffee maker

We got a lot of updates from YWAM International which was really good.  They are really talking about how we so easily can go astray and not really dig in as a community campus.  Especially how the "Nature and Character of God" is not being taught as it used to be in different nations and YWAM locations.  It hit us to the core.  There was also a lot of talk about updating and re-amping our Discipleship Training schools (DTS) within the region and that was great for us since we are leading our first DTS starting March 2013.

The Regional Leaders blessing the YWAM Trinidad and Tobago Campus

Dave Harper(good friend) updating us on the International DTS Center

Sarah, Anna and Lydia, the three daughters of Shamus and Sherri with Renita

Blessing Shamus and Family as they take on directing YWAM Trinidad and Tobago

May 13 - Traveling again...

Renita teaching music class at the Mayreau Government school

Finishing up the tile in the house.

This past week we were able to finish all the tile in our second staff house which was great and we are hoping to get electric and finish the interior by June when we will be having our annual board meeting there.  We are still in need of money to buy our transformer and material for plastering the outside of the house and the 30,000 gallon cistern that will work as our water reservoir.  We are hoping we could get this all finished by mid to late August.

Our tomato garden is finally starting to ripen

Well we are off to a week of meetings in Trinidad where we are having our annual Regional Meetings with the southeast caribbean YWAM bases.  This is our first time in Trinidad and Tobago so we are excited to go to a new country and also see the base there.  It is always a good time for us to be with seasoned leaders and get closer to them as we continue to see our region serve God.  We leave T&T on thursday and will spend a night in St. Vincent and then Friday afternoon we will take the ferry to Mayreau after a day of shopping in town.

A day off grilling at the beach with friends.

Pray for protection for our campus as we are away and also for our staff Annie who is in St. Vincent needing healing from fibroids and also Shawn who is in Puerto Rico receiving training with YWAM.  We did hear from Shawn and he is getting major breakthrough in his heart and ministry which is so exciting to hear.  So continue to pray into that with us.

April in Mayreau

Wow, so about 7 months later i figure i betterupdate our blog... its been a busy 7 months what can i say.

Well a lot has happened in the last couple months. We as a team have been growi

ng into a lot of the shoes that needed to be grown into as far as running a YWAM campus is concerned and we are also realizing that there are more shoes than there are staff so it has been fun and challenging at the same time.

We are moved into our staff house and are working on finishing touches. Thanks to lots of work teams Renita and I just about have our own little two bedroom apartment which has been a hu

ge relief for us as the last ten months have been super good and stretching with our living arrangements.

We were also able to construct a small cabin for camp and are starting the second one currently.

We have been working hard at misc. ministry opportunities such as our weekly Kingdom Seekers Kids ministry as well as mobilizing trips up to St. Vincent, speaking at churches and Youth Groups, Guys tuesday night bible study on Mayreau, the community church in Mayreau and other random things.

Just to let you all know to keep praying for three newly saved men on our little three mile island called Mayreau. Lemore - 21 - just gave up a life addicted to anger, marijuana, alcohol and many other things and gave his life to God. Devon - 20 - recently gave his life to Christ but is not doing well in his faith, seems to be that giving everything up to God for him has been a challenge. Fitzalan - 35 - gave his life to God about 6 months ago. He was a serious Alcoholic and he has been totally clean for like i thin

k 4 months now. He desires to work in the ministry. Is a little shy and timid.

These are my three best friends i would say in

Mayreau besides the team. It is quite enjoyable for us to hang out with these fellows.

Renita is enjoying accounting and is really pouring herself into the children of Mayreau right now. We are hosting whats called "GospelFest" for the first time in Mayreau so she is helping lead a choir for adults, kids and is helping with a children's dance and recital.

I think we need a vacation on some remote island or something... j/k wow its getting late. Well i just thought i would send out something small to all of you and i pray that you are blessed and encouraged by the work that God is doing around the world and specifical

ly Mayreau.

Transition into God

The Last month has been very busy for Renita and I with all the building/work teams and relationship building in Mayreau we began to feel the weight of being Directors. Thank God He is always there to carry it.

We were able to have almost everything on the house finished on the one side prior to our leaving for Pa on September 1st. We hope to be moving in by the end of october which will help us greatly since our rent on Mayreau is quite steep. Getting into the house will also help us get started in preparing for long term visions, which we couldn't necessarily start since we were in a temporary location. We will now be able to start preparing for camps in 2011, starting a garden, and making Mayreau feel more like home. We again just want to say a huge thanks to God and those who volunteered their time and money to come and build our first staff house! God is so Good!

For now we are excited to be back in PA right now. Yes, we are home in Pa for

about a month. Renita was in her cousins wedding on the 18th and we decided to take advantage of our trip home and spend our anniversary, Sept. 6, up at Renita's parents cabin which was so refreshing for us after 4 months of a very busy schedule.

We are working on getting some things together while we are home and also visiting family and friends which is always recharging for us. We have decided to send down a container full of Renita and I's personal belongings as well as some basic furniture and miscellaneous appliances.

We are looking forward to going back on october 7th and starting afresh as the Lord continues to increase our desire to see His Vision for YWAM SVG come to pass which is to mobilize, restore and disciple this generation... and that is where we start. As we pioneer sometimes Renita and I look at each other and think "What are we even doing?" because we're not seeing to much fruit right now, but we realize that we are laying foundations for t

he next 10, 15, and 50 years so that there will be an abundant harvest in the nation of SVG and the surrounding islands and the world. So pray that we would continue to keep our eyes on Jesus and not necessarily on "what we see". We believe deep in our spirits that God has called us for such a time as this as Youth With a Mission Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is pioneered.

There are two others working with us with YWAM SVG and they are Shawn Milton, a jamaican who is currently back home raising funds as he prays about a 5 year commitment to YWAM SVG and Annie Bobb, a Vincentian who is our Mobilizing Director for the base. If you would be interested in supporting either of these two or have questions on how much they are in need of please contact us by e-mail (thelapps@hotmail.com).

Thank you for your continual support and prayers... we feel them greatly! If you would like to see more pictures of the building check out our base website at www.ywamsvg.org.

Work teams

Well, sorry we have not posted anything lately. Our time in the last three - four weeks has been very full but good. We have hosted 16 people helping to build the first staff house for YWAM SVG on Mayreau from lancaster pa. Needless to say after three weeks our house is almost live able and by the end of the third work team coming from august 7th to the 13th the one side of the house will be done completely. We are extremely grateful for those ones who sacrificed a lot to come down and help with the building process of this campus. We look forward to the day when young Vincentians are discipled and sent out from the very spot we are building right now!

If you would like to see more pictures please go to our YWAMSVG.org website and click under my albums.

We would like to say a special thank you to all those who came down, Ron Weaver, Joey Hartranft, Woody Landis, Fred Weaver, Tim and Adam High, Wes and Renae Nolt, Ryan and Rachel Horst, Ken Yoder, Paul Weaver, Larry Zimmerman, Todd Shirk, Jay Burkholder. And we look forward to having Mike Eby, Bob and Dawn Weaver, Chad Kilheffer, and none other than my pops and brother Tim and Justin Lapp. We look forward to seeing all you guys soon.

Renita and I are heading up to mainland St. Vincent for a couple days this upcoming week to get some more materials. We are so blessed to have people from home coming to bless Mayreau. Thank you so much! God Bless, We pray that you are encouraged from reading this update and please feel free to check out our ywamsvg.org website for more pictures. Blessings!

This Past Month In SVG

(Picture of our Prayer and Dedication day)

The community wakes at about 5:30 with the sun here in Mayreau, you get up and do your work as early as you can while its still in the seventies. Work can include doing your laundry: washing by hand trying to save as much water as you can since Mayreau runs off of rain water or going and digging footers for houses etc. After that take a half hour to be with the Lord while watching the incoming sailboats make their way to beautiful Mayreau.

90 degree temperatures start to creep in, chicken/fish, rice and breadfruit normally for lunch. Normally at this time during the day you don't go where you cant find shade. Its so hot even in our house its hard to be working. So you try to take a nap in your already sweat soaked clothing.

The School on Mayreau lets out at about 3 pm so normally we will have kids rush to our house to see what we are doing. Renita twice a week carries a bible study with the young girls here.

(Renita having Bible Studies with Ranesha on Mayreau)

The evenings are filled with lots of bible studies, the whole community on Mayreau is so hungry for the Real Jesus. Renita and I will occasionally take a walk to the top ofour hill to stare at the amazingly unpolluted starry host or walk down to "Canash" one of the local beaches on Mayreau.

Night times are usually filled with loud reggae music on the island and if we walk through the village you will see lots of rum and marijuana. Sex is blared on the radios and you can see into peoples eyes that there is something more than physical inthe atmosphere. Mayreau carries a large witchcraft spirit that is currently being rooted out. The islanders know about it but are afraid of it.

Mayreau got its name from the french who came and settled on it... "May" means "My" in english... and "reau" in english means "domain" So the english meaning of Mayrea

u is "My domain". Little does anyone know here, "The earth is the Lords and the fullness there of." We came to be set captives free here in Mayreau and God is doing just that.

Josh and Renita here. Hopefully you can maybe now see where we are from a different perspective. Mayreau is a beautiful island and the people here is what makes it that way. The community is so hungry for God. For the real Jesus. And we pray that they will see Him through us.

We are currently establishing a Youth With A Mission campus in the nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Mayreau is one of the grenadine islands. Mayreau is not its

own nation but is apart of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. We moved here about a month ago. It is about a four hour ferry ride from Mainland St. Vincent to Mayreau.

(Josh speaking at a local church in Mainland St. Vincent)

So most of our last month has been spending time building relationships with the islanders of Mayreau. We have been up to mainland two times already and currently weare there now. To set up a base is not the easiest. We had to go through the details of setting up banking here, setting up accounts at different grocery and hardware stores, setting up a place for us to live in Mayreau, getting internet and phone to that spot, etc.

We also came up to mainland St. Vincent on the 15th because we had a meeting with the Prime Minister and his Cabinet on the 16th. God and His merciful hand granted us unbelievable favor as we met with the P.M. So by the grace of God we were granted duty free concession for all of our things we ship here. They even expressed interest in helping see this project of YWAM SVG come forth. God is so good.

Our container and truck with goods shipped in about thursday this week from PA. We are hoping to carry these things down on a barge in the next week. We need to pray

that customs does'nt hold anything up and also for the right barge to come along that we may use to carry our items to Mayreau.

Ron Weaver(renita's dad) and Joey Hartranft (Josh's brother-in-law) are coming on the 21st to help with the process of getting the container and truck down to Mayreau. We need to pray for them as well as they come in.

( Picture of us with the Prime Minister)

We are building our first house in Mayreau. Work teams are coming in about a month to help with that process. We thank you for your continual prayer support concerning these things.

Renita and I are personally doing very well. We feel the weight of setting all this up but on the same hand we feel God's grace in ways never before. I personally don't think that we would be able to do what we are doing with out it. Renita has really taken charge with setting up and maintaining our accounting for the base. We have two others here working with us. Shawn Milton from Jamaica and Annie Bobb from St. Vincent. So we do appreciate your prayers and support. We hope you are blessed as you go through your day. Remember the children on Mayreau!

Mayreau Pictures

Just some pictures from our move to Mayreau and our prayer and dedication time.