Divine Appointment In Sorrento

Well, we found out why God wanted us stranded in Sorrento.

Wednesday morning we prayed that God would show us why He wanted us to be in the small town of Sorrento and that God would use our family somehow while we were there. Jesse and Heidi and Jon and Sharla left for the family they were staying with in Surrey (since there was no need for them to stay with us in Sorrento).

Around noon, Dad went to a small thrift store behind our hotel and started talking to the owner and found out he was a Christian. After the owner found out our situation and that we sang as a family, out of the blue he asked if we would be interested in doing a concert at their church that evening for their bible study group! He said he would have to ask the pastor first though. Dad said we would be more than willing.

The fellow that owned the thrift store then called the pastor. The church has a husband and wife pastoring team and the wife does the bible studies. When he talked to the pastor's wife, she was amazed. Apparently, she had been trying to prepare a study for the bible study, but things weren’t coming together and on Tuesday (the day that our van broke down) God told her that there was no need to worry because someone else would take care of it. Another part of the story is that when he phoned, the pastor had been out for most of the day, but she was in there when he called as she had run into the church to get something and that is when the phone rang! There are a lot more details how God put it altogether as well. It is amazing how God works!!

Well, in the evening the thrift store owner and his wife took our family to the church in his truck and car (his truck pulling our trailer). Then at 7:00 PM we had a concert in their Pentecostal church for the bible study group as well as some others that were invited. There was such a sense of God’s blessing on the concert. There were about 30-40 people there. Several people shared afterwards how different events in their lives made the concert so meaningful. They also blessed us so much financially that the amount was well over twice as much as all the costs of van repairs. God is so good. It was such an encouragement to all of us

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.

I love that verse a lot. I’m learning to trust God more and more everyday…

Thursday, the part came in for the van and the mechanic was able to install it quickly. We were back on the road around 2:00 PM. We arrived in Surrey, BC in time for a very nice supper with our Great Aunt Lorraine. She is such a sweet lady. We will be staying here for a few days. And she has wireless internet!! :)

Thank you all sooo much for your prayers! There is some sickness going through our family right now. I was totally rotten sick yesterday, but I am doing way better today. We have a concert today at about 1:00. Pray that God will bring healing to all those who are sick.

Thanks!

First Update…

Well, we had left at about 6:00 AM Friday morning in the cold dark morning. It was really raining before we made it to Lethbridge. In fact, the car directly in front of us hydro-planed and did a 360 right in front of us then went into the ditch near New Dayton. It was pretty scary to watch. But, by Calgary the roads were great. It was amazing to drive through the mountains. If I was driving my own vehicle I probably would have stopped a dozen times for photo shoots. We safely arrived at the Shonwise family on Friday evening in time for an awesome Greek style supper!

We had a concert in Kelowna at the Shonwise family’s church Saturday evening then tore down and came home for some super banana cream pies our hosts had prepared!

We left the Shonwises Sunday morning. Thanks to the Shonwise family for being such great hosts!

At about 1:00 PM we arrived at the DenHollander family’s home. They had a great soup and sandwich lunch waiting. In the evening, we did a concert at the Five Corners Pentacostal Church in Salmon Arm.

On Monday, we had the chance to play a ton of volleyball with the DenHollanders, and some friends. (Cassons, Harbages) Great time! Then, we came home and had an awesome full fledged thanksgiving dinner with the DenHollanders in the evening. So good!

Today, (Tuesday morning) we left the DenHollander family around 11:00 AM. It was great to re-connect with them!

Shortly after leaving the DenHollanders, we heard a belt start to scream in our van. We pulled over right away. By the looks of it, the pulley that carries the belt that powers the alternator broke. So, we had to be towed to the nearest town, (Sorrento, BC). After a mechanic looked at it, we got the news that we will need a part for the van that won’t arrive till Thursday. We are sooo grateful that don’t have a concert scheduled until this Friday. We are also very thankful that we have roadside insurance that will cover our expenses while we are stranded here. I’m not sure why God allowed this, but I’m sure He has a good reason. I am using our hotel’s wireless internet right now.

God bless and keep praying for us!

Pictured is a shot from our concert in Salmon Arm , BC. Photo courtesy of David DenHollander.

Upcoming Tour

Well, Lord willing, we are off on another tour. This time we will only be gone for about three weeks and are going west this time. We plan to go through BC and then a couple of places in Washington state. I absolutely love traveling and doing concerts with my family. We have a bunch of new songs for this tour as well. I love doing the new songs the most.

If you are in the BC or Washington state area, feel free to contact us about coming to sing as we still have a couple open slots. As concerts are confirmed we will post our schedule to: http://www.josties.com/Tour.html

Please pray for God's blessing on this trip and for us as we share the message we are bringing.

Without God we are nothing.

Contentment...

Something that I have been thinking a lot about lately is contentment. What brings contentment?
It obviously has nothing to do with what you own. Look at all the humble families in foreign countries that are full of contentment and happiness with nothing but each other and the basics to live. And then you can look at how miserable wealthy people that have 8 cars and a huge home can be.

I think contentment is about having a grateful attitude. There is so much for every Christian to be grateful for at any point in there life. The Bible says, "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God". There is much more joy in being content with what God has provided you. And everyone around you will appreciate your attitude too! Like the quote goes, "Nobody really cares if you are grouchy, so you might as well be happy!".

I personally believe that if we cannot be content wherever we are in life right at this moment, we cannot find contentment at anytime. If you are not content before you buy the sports car you still won't be content after, if you are not content with life before you get married you will not find contentment after.

So, right now, take a moment to thank God for all the blessings that He has given you and be content wherever you are in life right now. I am so grateful for all the blessings God has given me. Such as my godly parents, family, cousins, friends, good health, and for so many other blessings...

1 Timothy 6:6 "Now godliness with contentment is great gain."

New Tobias Bass Guitar!

Well, I have been praying about buying a new 5 string bass guitar for the last while, and this past week God provided one for me.

It was amazing how it all worked out. I had been looking for one for sometime and I really wanted a good one. I talked to a bassist friend about what the best bass would be. Well, after searching for a while I found a Tobias bass on eBay that was listed in Medicine Hat, AB. Tobias is a very good brand name for basses. I prayed about it a lot and I really felt at peace to bid on it. I placed my bid of $1525.00 US right before I went to bed. I was pretty sure I was going to outbid as that bass has a SRP of $4500.00 USD. But, I prayed if it was God's will for me to win it, it would happen. I woke up the next morn surprised to see that I had won the bass for $1525.00 US! I paid for the bass and made arrangements for my Grandparents from Med. Hat to bring it out the next day. It all worked perfect!

And the encouraging part is that the seller went to our www.josties.com web site and found out we were Christians. He then told me that when he listed his bass on eBay was kind of nervous about doing it since he hadn't listed anything on eBay before, so he prayed God would send just the right buyer for the bass. And that's what God did!

I am so happy with the bass. It has incredible tone and craftsmanship. I am still getting used to playing a bass with 5 strings instead of 4, but I am starting to get the hang of it.

It is made out of Bubinga solid wings with natural hand rubbed finish. It also has laminated in mahogany and swamp ash. It has a 5 piece laminated Asym contoured neck-through, dual truss rods, Pau Ferro fingerboard, with 24 frets. Bartolini curve top pickups and 18 volt electronics. Volume control with push/pull slap tone, pick up balance control, bass, mid and treble boost or cut, mid select toggle switch and Grover machine heads. Just incredible.

(Pictured is my bass guitar)

Two Tips to a Safer Internet

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God...." Jesus Christ - Matt. 5:8

A real desire I have it to protect myself from being exposed to inappropriate/immoral content found in spam and on the Internet. Better to be safe than sorry. I will share a couple of them with you.

#1: Browsing
One area of the Internet that is very hard to predict is the ads. They are often banners or they are on the side. You can be very careful what sites you go to, but sometimes there will be a bad ad at an otherwise safe site. Even some 'Christian' sites have inappropriate ads as their 'sponsors' choose what ads to post.

One safe way to avoid basically ALL ads and ALL pop-ups is to use the Mozilla Firefox browser with the 'Ad-Block Plus' add-on. The ad-blocker software actually PREVENTS ads from even loading up on the page. Both are completely FREE and SAFE to download. And even if you are already used to Internet Explorer, the switch is very easy and only takes a few minutes. It is very easy to import all your bookmarks/favorites, etc.

Instructions: If you do not already use Mozilla Firefox for browsing download it from this link: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ Once downloaded add this 'extension' from this link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

Once both are installed subscribe to the free Filter Subscription. The 'EasyList (USA)' subscription works the best. (It should automatically ask you which subscription you would like to use.)

#2. Email/Spam

Spam is another very unpredictable danger. If you receive a large amount of spam the odds are that some will have inappropriate content. Never click open a spam email and I HIGHLY recommend to turn the preview pane off on your email client. This way only those messages you deliberately open are displayed. The pictures in spam mails are usually made so spammers can see if you open them and that means a lot of spam. Also, be careful what sites you submit your email address to.

Instruction on how to turn the preview pane off: Outlook Express: Click View Menu > Layout and remove the check mark beside Show Preview Pane. Outlook Express 6.0 offers a "Read all messages as plain text" option. This is a good alternative to disabling the preview pane.

Another suggestion would be to install a spam filter. As with all spam filters, you need to watch it for a while at first to make sure the filter doesn't remove any good emails. If it does, just add the good email to the white-list. I use a software called SPAMfighter. The standard version is free to download and easy to use with Outlook. (download link here: http://www.spamfighter.com/)

Feel free to make a comment if you have any other good ideas or suggestions or questions! God bless as you all continue to honor and glorify Him in every area of your life!

Bales and Baby!

Well, first off, we heard some very exciting news over the weekend! I'm going to be an uncle again! My older brother, Jonathan and wife Sharla told us that they are expecting! Great news! The precious little Jost/s is due March 3rd. I know Jon and Sharla will make great parents.

On another point, at this time of the year we always have to deal with baling all the hay! Jonathan generally does all the swathing and baling and the rest of us pick them all up. This year there are about 1400-1700 bales to pick up. We like to start really early in the morning and get a couple loads of 100 in before breakfast. What makes it easier in the morning is the cool air AND looking forward to the breakfast that mom prepares! This morning she made french toast with homemade syrup, fruit salad with yogurt and fried ham. Mmmmm! (Pictured) Previous mornings she has made pancakes, eggs, bacon and toast, fruit, coffee, etc. Pretty sweet mom, eh?


We try to arrange our schedule so that we don't have to get any loads in the afternoon heat. The combination of sweat and alfalfa flakes going down your back does NOT bring a warm fuzzy feeling! We aren't exactly singing mom's song, "Country Sunshine" when that happens. :-)

This past Friday we got up early and picked up a couple loads before breakfast, but by 8:00 it was already close to 30 C above! And by the afternoon it hit 43 C above (about 108 F)! I just about sweat all day even in the house. Fortunately we didn't have to pick up any bales up after breakfast.

God bless!

-Josiah