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.

Here in Mayreau

Well we are here in Mayreau. Much has happened in the last ten days since we left home.

We had a YWAM Regional Leadership meeting in Barbados from the 17th to the 19th and it went very well. We were encouraged and we were also able to encourage others.

We flew into St. Vincent on the 20th and ferried down to Mayreau on the same day. The following day we spent from 6:30 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon prayer walking around our property on Mayreau dedicating the land to the Lord. We pounded stakes in with the fruit of the spirit written on them and we would stop and take communion at different spots. We also would symbloize cleansing of the land and annointing of the land by sprinkling water and olive oil on the different boundary markers around our cactus and thorn infested property. I think i sweated a pound or two that day. haha.

Praise the Lord there was a house that opened up for rent for Shawn, Annie, Renita and I. Its a real blessing right now. We do have water by rainfall. We have about 1,000 gallons right now so please continue to pray fo rain to fall on Mayreau. It is a nice three bedroom house. This really was a testimony for us of how the Lord provides. Renita and I came with a tent and a camp stove in our luggage beacuse we were not sure whether a house would open up for rent or not. Praise God he is our Provider!

We also got to speak in the church here on Sunday which was awesome! We each shared a little bit and we really felt the excitement of the church. The Lord is moving!

We tried fishing last night for our dinner. Unfortunately we only caught three fish and only one was really big enough to really eat. We still very much enjoyed our evening.

There is a lot going on right now on the mainland concerning our shipment of the container and truck for the building project so we appreciate your prayers for the details to be sorted out with the government officials concerning it.

Renita and I are doing great. The Lord is greatly encouraging us in this time. Continue to lift us up in your time with the Lord as it is greatly appreciated. We love being here in Mayreau and we are so blessed to see with our eyes how the Lord is so greatly moving in Mayreau!!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Wow three more days till Renita and I fly out!!...

This past two months being home went by so fast and yet were so meaningful and refueling. Seeing family and friends has been very meaningful for Renita and I.

We did get a lot accomplished while we were home. As many of you know Renita and I are moving to Mayreau in 4 days and with that comes a decent amount of work like building our house and having to get all of our supplies there. We do have a building committee team that has really helped Renita and I with the building of the base. Ron Weaver aka Papa Weaver has really given a lot of his time to helping us get a container loaded and ready for shipping as well as a truck. We have really worked hard the last two months with all of this and with Gods grace those two items will arrive on Mayreau in a month and we will be able to unload and focus on setting things up for our work teams in July and august.

Well since we have been home we also have been able to do things like set up a YWAM St. Vincent and the grenadines website, this doesnt mean that the site is functioning yet but we are slowly chipping away at that. We also got the accounting set up for the base and Renita is being mentored on how to run quick books. We as a ministry team (Bill and Val Landis, Annie Bobb and us) sat down for a couple days and sought the Lord for more vision and direction which lead to creating our Vision Statement, objectives and goals for the next five years as a mission. This was so helpful for us as we can now more clearly see what God is trying to do with YWAM SVG.

The next step is leadership meetings in Barbados for 4 days (may 16th-20th) and then we have a prayer and dedication time on site in Mayreau. And then from there on out we are putting our hand to the plow i guess you could say in lots of different ways. Our primary objective this year is to really focus on building relationships in Mayreau's small 250 person community with which includes aout 50-60 kids under 15. We are also going to be building our first staff house in July and August of this year and we are thinking about sending another team down in the winter of 2011 depending manpower and resources. So we really appreciate your prayers. There is a lot going on and sometimes if i really step back and think about all that is really going on i have to look up and say "Lord this is Yours because you know i cant in myself" So please be encouraged that The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is alive and moving in the earth. His heart is to set the captives free so pray that just that will happen. His Kingdom Come, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven is what i think Jesus told his disciples to pray. Thank you for following us on our blogsite. Any e-mails or words for us just e-mail us at thelapps@hotmail.com. Be blessed!

We're back home

Well Renita and I arrived home on the 10th, had to saty an extra night in Miami but we made it. We are so excited to be back home spending time with WMC and ACTS and family and friends! We look forward to seeing many of you in the 2 months that were home.

We are currently working on quite a bit of stuff with setting up building teams that are coming down in June and July of this year to hopefully build the house that Renita and I will live in and we are also working on organizing the container that is to go down for that team to SVG so you can be in prayer for that!

And we will also be having our team member Annie Bobb who will be pioneering with us in St. Vincent and Mayreau coming up to stay with us for the first two weeks in April so we are looking forward to that as well!

Currently we are taking the next three days, just Renita and I, to go before the Lord and just hear his heart away from life so to speak... so we are looking forward to that. And we just want to continue to thank all of our supporters, finacial and also those who pray for us, we appreciate it more than you know and Renita and I feel so blessed to be doing what we are doing! When we come home it is a humbling thing to realize how blessed we really are with the families that are not only strong Christian supportive families but they are really getting involved in what we are doing and the Missionary support Team that i would say the Lord blessed us with and also the friends that are so excited for us and continue to encourage us in the things that might seem crazy to others. So thank you to those who are constantly being an encouragement to Renita and I. It means the world to us!

The End of DTS - Soon to Come Home

We are now getting ready to shift gears from hot humid Jamaica to cold dry Home. We are

actually looking forward to going home, not necessarily for the weather but to see family and friends again that we havent seen in quite a while.
The Last three weeks have been awesome. The DTS graduation was on the Feb. 27th and we had a fun and productive week of debriefing with the school from the 22nd to the 26th. It was a really full demanding week for us as we wrapped up the DTS for the students and us.
it was hard to say good bye to all of the students who were now close friends but we are getting thorugh as we continue to ask the Lords blessing on every single one of their lives!
Now, after a decent week of resting and slowly packing up and getting things ready to go home we are just about full speed ahead with closing our time here in Jamaica and getting things in order so we feel at ease when we reach Pa on tuesday.
You can definitely pray for us as we close our time here in Jamaica. It is hard for Renita and I as we make friends and then have ot leave them. Pray grace for us that we would be able to bless our friends here in Montego Bay and be ready for when we hit home!
Renita and I feel this upcoming 2 month season at home is key so we now that the enemy will try to throw us for a loop right away so we are asking God for grace as we face different challenges when we get home. Thank you all for praying! We love hearing how people are doing overe-mail. peace and love everybody!!

"See every trial as an oppurtunity to walk in obedience" - Jim Baumann

St. Vincent

Hello everyone,
Renita and I are still in St. Vincent and the last three weeks have been so full and internet was scarce. We now moved into apts. that have wireless, hallelujah! We are only on St. Vincent another 5 days but we as a team are looking forward to an awesome time of debriefing and just giving God thanks for what he did through us and in us personally and corporately as a team.
To give a quick summary of what we have done in the last four weeks: On the 18th of January our outreach team arrived and we went right to Chateaubelair on mainland St. Vincent. We stayed there unitl the 1st of February. Our time there was for a lack of better words incredible! We got to see God move mightily in the small town of "Chato." We had many open air services where we brought a different flavor to this towns normal "crusade". We partnered with the local church and had open air worship sessions that lead us to walk thorugh the streets with about 60 people from the town. We put on dramas and did lots of really fun stuff in the town. Futball(Soccer) was the main sport in the town so a couple of us would go and play with the locals a couple times a week just to build relationships. Our overall time there i would say was really valuable for the reason of inspiring some youth there to seek more than the norm. We had youth meetings and had people over to our house. It was just really fun as i look back on it how we demonstrated Gods Love in a new way to the town of Chateaubelair!
On the 1st of February we headed for Mayreau! In Mayreau we really connected with the locals at a heart level. We learned a lot as a team there as we were stretched out of our comfort zones by staying in tents and eating different foods and just adjusting to the slow life on Mayreau. We had some really awesome prayer times in Mayreau including the time when we woke up at 12 am and didnt get back into bed until 2 am. It was so awesome! We could feel Gods passion and heart burning for the locals. We worked with mostly kids on Mayreau and it was a real joy!
On the 9th we came back to mainland St. Vincent and stayed in Anisville up until yesterday, the 13th. In that time we mainly worked in Mesepotamia Emmanuel High school. This school is one of the main schools that Renita and I will be working with in the coming years of us living here! It was so incredibly exciting to share our hearts with these young men and women. It gave Renita and I such life to see the faces and the reason God is calling us here. Truly the enemy is running rampant in the youth of St. Vincent and it is a very sad thing but what i saw in the time we spent in Emmanuel School was a dim fire that just needed to be blown on. The Lord is moving in the hearts of the youth here and Renita and I are so thankful to God for letting us be apart of his mighty move in the youth, into the now generation of St. Vincent!
We are currently on our time of outreach where we debrief as a team and just give lots of time to praising God and reflectng on what he did thorugh us personally and corporately as a team on outreach.
On the 18th we fly back to Jamaica and finish up the school on the 26th. We plan on staying another week and a half in Jamaica after the school ends to bring closure to our time there before coming home.
As the Lord brings us to your mind your prayers are appreciated! We thank all of you who are giving finacnially to us and are giving of your time in praying for us. Renita and I cannot say thank you enough!

Pictures from St. Vincent

St. Vincent

Hello everyone,

Renita and I arrived in St. Vincent Jan. 9th and we have had a full week already gone by here. We have had a board meeting and we are also working on setting things up for our outreach team that arrives on the 19th in St. Vincent. We did some speaking in churches and schools as well which was very faith stirring to see the faces that Renita and I will be living with in the next 5 months.
This morning we are headed to Mayreau to do some further examination of the island and what will be possible with work teams and shipping containers.
This week has been very good for us as a board. We have been able to figure a lot of things out with the help of Renita's parents (Ron and Erma Weaver) and also Wes and Renae Nolt. The board here is being spearheaded by Norm and Donna Chubb and also Bill Landis. We really want to thank those who have been praying. Trust me the Lord is opening doors for us that we werent sure would open.
It has also been a decently relaxing week were Renita and I can sleep in a bit. We are staying in a decent hotel and praise the Lord we have air conditinoing in our rooms!! We are about 50 steps from the ocean line so its been nice to get out there twice in the last week for a bit and relax.
Continue to keep us in your prayers!
Also PLEASE PLEASE be in prayer for Haiti. The Caribbean Nation has had an earthquake in its Capital city "Port of Prince" and there are possible 100,000 people dead. This nation was just getting its feet back from a hurricane that hit about 2 years ago. Please lift this nation before the Lord. We have 2 YWAM bases there that were not hit and are starting relief work. Thank You for your prayers!
Blessings to All!