2008 In Review

Hey all,

Hope you all are doing well and had a special Christmas with your families. We really enjoyed our Christmas and have so much to be thankful for.

I'm attaching our family newsletter below. Emily wrote it this year.


Hello Everybody!

Emily here. For some reason my family asked me to write our Christmas letter this year - I have no idea why, since I can’t write worth beans, but I’ll give it a shot.

I guess I’ll start in January. On January 17, Lucy Elizabeth Jost was born to Jonathan and Sharla. She was born 7 weeks premature, so she had to stay in the Lethbridge hospital for about 4 weeks. We are so thankful to the Lord that she is perfectly healthy! She is the most beautiful bright eyed thing you will ever see and we all adore her to pieces! We also recorded our new CD “Trust in the Lord” in February. The Roby family came up and set up their equipment at Jesse and Heidi’s. We did it in two weeks, it was a really great learning experience and once again we are very grateful for Roby’s being willing to come and sacrifice that time to help us out!
April\May we went on a six week tour through SK, MB, Ontario and Michigan, doing 21 concerts. Once again, God was so faithful to protect and provide for us. We met a lot of really neat people and it was so cool to see God working in the lives of other fellow human beings. Jesse and Heidi also came with us.

In June, after being home for 2 weddings and the planting of our garden, we went on a three week tour down to Colorado. Made a lot of new friends and were always being reminded of Gods love and mercy...such as the time after one of our concerts (in Nebraska) when dad and some of the men from the church went out to look at the tire on our trailer. Dad had noticed something was wrong with it after we got there. They jacked up the trailer to take a look at it and when they lifted up the trailer the tire fell right off! There was no way we should have made it safely to that church. The tire technically should have fallen off long before that. God is so worthy to be trusted!
July we were able to have some of our good friends the Hounsomes out for a couple of weeks and they helped with the huge task of picking up all the bales that my brother Jonathan cut/baled.

Our summer was very full with filming Joel’s movie “Little Jake and Harry”. A lot of fun and a lot of work! We were very grateful to have the help of Luke Collin, JD and Audrey King and Shayne Hounsome. I won’t bore you with details...however if you would like to watch the movie you can find it at: www.littlejakeandharry.com :)

In September, we were able to go to a family camp in B.C. which my dad and Jesse spoke, and our family sang. It was a lot of fun and awesome to get together with some other big families and fellow believers! It was a hard time for Hannah-Grace as she fell out of her top bunk bed at 3 am. onto a cement floor! She suffered a broken collar-bone and concussion. This was the first broken bone in our family, if you can believe it!

Fall was busy with school, music and other home finishing/renovation projects.

Dad continues to be an awesome leader for our family. He is such a servant and an amazing example to us kids of trusting the Lord. I couldn’t ask for a better dad! I am so grateful for a loving dad who will listen to me when I need to talk. He is an incredible and loving husband to Mom. He is still driving school bus and busy working in the shop and around our acreage, is getting pretty good on the dobro and is pretty much amazing on the guitar.

Mom is amazing. She is such an incredible mom and wife and serves her family no matter how she is feeling. She is such an encouragement to anyone she comes in contact with! She is still writing fantastic songs. In fact, she has been on a bit of a roll lately and has written about five in a month’s time. I don’t know how she does it. Mom is one of my best friends and is such a godly role model for me to follow. I am so thankful to be able to talk with her about anything and she always has words of wisdom for me.

It’s been awesome to see God open doors for Jesse and Heidi for ministry. I have so much respect for them and their commitment to seeking God’s kingdom first. Jesse has also been leading an Apologetics Bible study at their place every week that we all really enjoy attending. He does an excellent job of leading it. Heidi also wrote a very powerful book this last year and it been great to see God use that. John-Michael is almost two and is a very adorable little guy. We always love it when we get to babysit him.

Jonathan and Sharla have such servants’ hearts. Jonathan has a handyman business which God has really been blessing. I really admire his and Sharla’s generosity and diligence. They are both incredibly hard workers. Sharla is a really super mom to Lucy. She is such a gorgeous, happy little doll! Jonathan and Sharla also make beautiful music together!

Josiah (21) is still quite single. He is busy with his graphic design business, “Siah Design”. God has really blessed it. He has even had to turn down work he has been so busy. He does logos and websites but mostly logos. He is very creative and wants to honor God with all his work. Josiah is incredibly patient with all his siblings. I think I should get a lot of the credit for that though... I build a lot of character in my family. All of us really look up to him and we couldn’t ask for a more loving and godly older brother. He has also gotten very good on the electric bass and stand up bass. Yeah, all in all Josiah is pretty cool, and whoever gets him is getting one cherry pie of a guy. I am most definitely not advertising though. I don’t want him to leave anytime soon.

Joel (19) has been very busy with his film this year. He has been doing a lot of studying on the art of film making and is passionate about making films that will honor and glorify God. He still has dark wavy hair and a charming sense of humour. Joel is constantly making me laugh. He has become our group’s soundman and I must say he does a pretty good job of it. He has really good ear for it. So you are probably wondering why he isn’t up front with the rest of the family? Joel’s response to that is that he has way too many other talents to pursue. Ha...ha...

Well, the only drawback to writing the family’s Christmas letter is that you don’t really get to brag about yourself. Well, I suppose I could....but I won’t. I am in my last year of high school (Whoopie!) and really enjoy singing and doing music with my family. I also really enjoyed getting to act in “Little Jake and Harry”. It was difficult acting someone so very, very far from my character, but was a lot of fun. :)

Jeremiah (15) keeps busy with school, music and woodworking. He plays the guitar and is getting pretty decent on it. He is also really maturing and growing into quite the young man. He is getting pretty tall, loves any kind of sport and is very athletic.

Joseph(13) is a little book worm! I guess I shouldn’t call him little though since he is now taller than me.... which really isn’t that hard. He is a very loving and responsible older brother and uncle and really has a desire to please God. He is John-Michael’s favorite. Joey also continues to be a little smarty pants and has the most abstract sense of humor....Bless his heart.

Joshua(11) is a very hard worker and is a huge help to dad. He is always generous and thoughtful.
Amy-Joy (9) is such a spunky girl. She loves reading, sports and has a beautiful singing voice. She also just started knitting and crocheting. She loves being an aunt and helping mom in the kitchen. Hannah-Grace (7) is our little drama queen. But has such a sweet and gentle spirit and is so loving. She keeps us all laughing with her great sense of humor. Hannah is also an amazing little artist...I wish I could draw like her...even my stick men are pathetic.
Judah (5) is very mature for his age (most of the time) and is Josiah’s little buddy. He loves being an uncle and does a great job of it. He is constantly asking questions and is very smart.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and God bless you all as you continue to seek after Him! He is so trustworthy and faithful!

In Christ,
Emily Hope

Teaser Trailer for Little Jake and Harry

After much hard work, Joel and the team were able to finish and submit the film, "Little Jake & Harry" to the 2009 San Antonio Independent Film Festival. It came right down to the wire, but we were able to get it sent postmarked Oct. 1st.

Joel just finished making the trailer yesterday:



Feel free to share with your friends!

Home Life and Poll Results for How Many Siblings You Have

Hey all,

Been really busy the last while. Especially with Joel's film project Little Jake and Hairy. It is a comedy based on the story of Jacob and Esau set in the wild west. Joel's hoping to have it finished in time to submit it to the San Antonio Independant Christian Film Festival.

Here are some pics:

Emily with the writer of the script (Jesse):





I've also been really busy with my graphic and web design business. Recently relaunched my website: www.siahdesign.com

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Poll Results for How Many Siblings You Have

OK, so for the last several months I've been conducting a poll regarding the size of your family.

Here are the final results:

How many siblings do you have?

0-3	26 (24%)
4-7	39 (36%)
8-10	26 (24%)
11+	15 (14%

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Total votes: 106

It appears that the minority of readers to my blog have between 4-7 siblings. 0-3 and 8-10 came in tied at 26. And there were 15 votes for 11+ siblings. I was really surprised to see that large of a number for that column. It's encouraging to see a lot of other large families are out there. :)

The next poll I'm conducting is:

"If you could meet one of these Bible characters for one hour today, which one would you choose?"

David, Paul, Esther, Noah, Adam, Jonah, Ruth, Daniel

Please put in your vote!

God bless!

Safely home again - Baling - Friends visit

We arrived safely home from our tour on July, 7th. We had another amazing trip!

On Thursday, (July 3rd) we drove by Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse sculptures. We weren't able to come in close to Mt. Rushmore though as it was totally packed with people. There were cars parked over 2-3 miles back in both directions. Pretty popular place these days!

Friday, (July 4th) we arrived at the Jeff and Laura King family home. We had such a blessed time with their family. They have 7 kids aged 3-19 and live near Billings, MT. Mr. King played Major League Baseball for 12 years with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals. It was neat to talk to him about that. We played a lotof whiffle ball and Speed Stacking with them. It was such a blast!

Speed Stacking with the Kings:



Sunday (July 6th) we had a good time of fellowship with the King family in the morning. In the afternoon we did a concert in Billings at the Yellowstone Baptist College. We always enjoy meeting new people and sharing with them afterwards.

Early Monday morning we left the King family and headed home. We stopped in Great Falls, MT to do a load of grocery shopping and then we came home. We also had the axle replaced on our trailer.

After getting home, we had a TON of weeding and yardwork to catch up on as well as 2,000-2,500 bales to pick up.

We were very blessed to have three of the Hounsome kids (Zack, Gabriel and Zoe) visiting from Ontario for 10 days (from July 10th to 21st) and they were a huge help picking up all the bales and are all really hard workers! We also had help from two of Sharla's friends visiting from Washington (Lucy Endicott and Anja Martenson). It made the job way more enjoyable doing it with friends! One morning, we picked up 500 bales before breakfast! Mom always had a great breakfast waiting. :)

The bale picking crew:


We had a boat load of fun with the Hounsome kids during their visit which included hiking West Butte (Sweet Grass Hills), tubing down the river, music, baseball, eating ;), talking, etc. It was hard to say goodbye to them yesterday!

Gabriel, Joel, Myself and Zack posing as water fountains at Writing On Stone park. (A little photoshop help) :)



It is Mom and Dad's 27th wedding anniversary on the 25th of July! They will be going down to Whitefish, MT for about 10 days for a little vacation together. Mom's parents own a home there and it is a super cool place to relax and have fun. Mom and Dad are such awesome parents and are a great example of a loving couple. :) Hope they have a great time together in Whitefish! Pray that they have a super and edifying time and that all the kids here at home behave. ;)

Have a super day in the Lord!

Time in Colorado!

Ahh... we had such a super time at the GospelGrass Festival in Calhan, CO! Met so many great people and heard tons of great music.

We arrived in Calhan on Thursday afternoon where Mom and Dad checked into a hotel for the weekend (room courtesy of the event organizer). Joel, Jeremiah, Joseph, Joshua and I were able to set up a couple of tents and spend the weekend right at the same location as the festival. Thursday night, we did some music along with High Prairie (the Gregg family) and Grandpa's Neighbors (the Neal family). It was a really neat night. There was a great turnout for the evening.

The festival was such a blast. Here are some of the highlights:

- There were about 20-30 bands there. Almost all the family bands were homeschooled. There were bands from North Carolina, Oklahoma, New Mexico, etc., as well as quite a few from Colorado.
- There was a band scramble Saturday night. (Emily helped judge.) Everyone did really well. The band I participated in came in 2nd. :)
- We used our sound system for the indoor concerts and Joel did approximately 18 hours for the festival and everyone really appreciated it.
- Lot's of really good workshops were going on....like dobro, mandolin, guitar, etc.. Mom helped lead a couple of song-writing workshops.
- We played 5-10 hrs. of Ultimate Frisbee in Whittemore hall. It was awesome! Played 'till 1:00 AM some nights. :)

Overall, the festival was really edifying and had a really sweet spirit. Would love to go back again next year! I'd say that meeting new people is one of the best parts about traveling to these events and being able to sing and play together for the Lord.

Unfortunately I've misplaced my Canon camera so I don't have most of the pics from the weekend. But, hear are a few pics from my smaller camera:

The Hartman family band:
Desert Skies:
The Foley band:

Sunday morning we said goodbye to all our new friends and left for the Ernie and Julie Gilbert home. We did an outdoor concert in their yard that night. There was a really great group there, in an incredible setting. Beautiful country! Sunday night we stayed with Ernie Gilbert's parents home, Dick and Sharon. They were very hospitable and loving people. Very interesting and talented, too!

Monday morning, we were able to have a really good visit with Ernie and Julie Gilbert's family. They have 5 kids and are such a God honoring young family that I know God has great plans for. Monday evening we left their home and stayed with the Langemann family in their beautiful home in Lakewood, CO. We've known them for years, but it was really good to visit them and get to know them on a deeper level.

The Ernie and Julie Gilbert family:


Tuesday (July 1st - CANADA DAY!) morning, the Langemanns served us a delicious special waffle breakfast with whipped cream, strawberries and raspberries. We left their home around noon and went to the Red Rock Amphitheatre. Wow, that place is huge. Really cool to see it.It is the top spot for outdoor concerts in the U.S., and almost every famous group has performed there at some time or other. Tuesday evening we traveled to Erie, CO to do a concert at the Life Song Church where the Boardwell family was hosting us. They have 7 children. It was a really encouraging evening with some unique opportunities to minister afterwards.

Wednesday morning we left the Boardwell home and traveled to New Castle, Wyoming. We plan on going to Mt. Rushmore tomorrow as we make our way to Billings, MT.

Until later! In Christ,

Josiah

On The Road Again (And grateful for God's Protection!)

Last Thursday we left on the road again. We traveled to Regina the first day and stayed with some good friends, the Durstons, for Thursday night. We always have an awesome time with them! Friday we left for the Thousand Oaks Gospel Camp jamboree. It was a really awesome weekend with really nice weather. There was a really good turnout as well. There were over 1500 people in attendance for most of the weekend. We had a lot of fun hanging out with one of the other family music groups - the Waddington family - from North Dakota. We also got to spend a few hours with our friend, Judy Ford, who came out to spend Saturday at the Jamboree.

We left for Mandan, North Dakota Monday morning. We got held up at the border for almost two hours, which was totally unexpected. The complication was with getting our CD's into the States. But they eventually let us through, thanks to the fact mom is American. :) One of the border inspectors that inspected our van was a Christian and he said he had been praying that we would be able to get through the whole time. That was really encouraging, and it was soo relieving to FINALLY get through. We raced to Mandan for our 7:00 PM concert. We got there at about 6:45. We totally RACED the set-up and were able to do set-up in about 20 minutes.

After the concert (the smallest audience I think we've ever had...only 35 people!), we stayed in the church that night. Oh yeah, we also started having problems with the charging system on our van, but made it to Mandan. After the service, Dad found a GM dealership open until Midnight, and they agreed to look at our van that night. They had to replace our alternator, and were able to get it done by Tuesday morning. When it was ready, we left for Springview, Nebraska to do a concert at the New Hope Community church. The concert that night went really well as the people really seemed to connect with the music. A really neat group of people there. We also had to set up in record time that night, too! The group of believers there really refreshed us in many ways.

After the concert, Dad went out to our van and noticed that one of the hub covers on one of the trailer wheels had been worn off. A closer look showed that the entire bolt and wheel bearing had been totally worn off! Some men from the church helped jack up that side of the trailer. And lo and behold, when they lifted it up, the wheel fell off! Nothing had been holding it on! We were all a bit dumbfounded to say the least. We were SOOO grateful that God had kept the wheel on. There is no explanation for why it stayed on. If the wheel had fallen off while we were on the freeway, the results could have been devastating. It was such a reminder of God's protection and care for us. It can only be explained as a miracle. Praise the Lord!

Another huge blessing is that one of the men from the church was very experienced with fixing that type of thing (he actually builds trailers) and he was able to fix the axle and rebolt the tire on by 10:00 AM the next morning and he didn't charge anything. Such giving people there!

Today (Wednesday, June. 25th) we left Springview, NE and traveled to Ogallala, NE. Tomorrow we will go to Calhan, CO for the GospelGrass festivel for the weekend, and our concert tomorrow night.

I may not be able to do another update for a while. Thanks AGAIN to all of those who are praying! It means so much!

Back Home, Wedding, Birthday, etc. :)

Sorry it's been so long since my last post! Once we got home I got totally wrapped up in everyday life again.

We safely made it home on May. 16th. On the last two days of our trip our van started having issues though. But thankfully we made it home without breaking down. God showed Himself so strong through the whole trip answering all our prayers. The motor has been fixed since then. We had to replace both heads.

Once home we had a lot of yard work to do. :) We prepared and put in the garden and did lots of mowing and such. The younger kids all getting back to their school, etc. I've also had a fair bit of graphic design to catch up on for clients and such.

On June. 6th it was Judah's birthday. He turned 5 yrs. old. He is my little roommate and I love him to pieces. He has one of the sweetest personalities I know of. He has such a sensitive spirit.

Judah with his birthday cake:


This last Saturday (June. 7th) we had the privilege of witnessing my cousin Elizabeth Fehr marry James Heikoop. It was such a blessed wedding with lots of beautiful music. The whole day definitely brought glory to God. There were so many great friends there to catch up with as well. They will be living near Mt. Pleasant, Ont. It will be strange to have cousin Lizzy living on the other side of Canada now. We'll miss her a lot.

The signing of the registry:

Lizzy and James singing at the reception:


Later on this month we will be heading out for a mini to Manitoba for a jamboree and then down to Colorado. We'll be leaving around June. 17th and most likely getting back early July.

Until later!

Josiah