Shonn & Lori Foy Newsletter (Winter 2024)
Happy 2024!
On January 3rd, we celebrated our 1st anniversary of returning to Teen Missions! It is unbelievable how quickly a year has flown by. We are thankful for all that we have seen God do through the ministry of TMI in 2023 and look forward to ministry opportunities in 2024.
God is Good All the Time!
In mid-November, we traveled to Indiana to spend some time with Erinn and Ryan as they welcomed their son, Oliver Dean Tahtinen, into the world on November 16th. What a blessing it was to be there! He has a heart arrhythmia, so it was a difficult beginning. Praise the Lord, the doctors have found the right medicine combination, and he is thriving! Oliver is grandbaby #7, and he is, of course, incredibly cute. Pray he continues to thrive and outgrows his condition.
Christmas was a blessed time celebrating the birth of Jesus! We celebrated with Katie’s family early since they were going to the West Coast for Christmas. We joined Jesse and Ema’s family at church on Christmas Eve Day, then ate and opened presents with them. We headed to Charleston on the 27th to celebrate with Shane, Jodie, and Quinley since they were in TN for Christmas. Our last Christmas celebration was with Erinn, Ryan, and Oliver in Indiana in January!
We spent January 3-10, 2024 in Honduras. What a blessing to be with our staff and students and to see their Boot Camp in progress! We praise the Lord for all they do to train the next generation of missionaries in Honduras. The enthusiasm and excitement of the teams were contagious, and we enjoyed our time with them. We are the staff ‘encouragers‘ for the Honduras staff, and we are grateful we were able to meet them all in person. Shonn had the opportunity to speak at their Commissioning Service. We also traveled four hours with a team to their project site and saw them set up a mini Obstacle Course and prepare for a kids’ camp they were hosting.
Since our last update, we have been very busy with the Legacy Lakes Christian Retreat Center (on the Teen Missions property). Shonn is the director, and I am the scheduling coordinator. Teen Missions began renovating our two dormitories, Adam and Eve, a few years ago, and the improvements have added great appeal to our accommodations! Adam Dorm has been finished since June 2023, and Eve Dorm will be done this month. With both available to receive guests, we can house approximately 190 people. We receive requests daily from youth groups, family groups, schools, college ministries, and other ministries to use the facilities. We are excited to see how the Retreat Center ministry will grow! All proceeds from the Retreat Center are used to provide free tuition for our Bible school students at the Sojourner School of Ministry here at TMI. Currently, we have 13 students studying missions here in FL.
We are doing something new at Teen Missions this summer in July. After the teams are commissioned at the end of Boot Camp, we will host two weeks of teen camps with approximately 200+ high school students on our property. Summer staff and students will be welcoming these groups. Introducing new churches and youth to the ministry at TMI will be exciting, and we’re praying that some of them will return in 2025 as team members. We are looking for volunteers to help us for those two weeks! (July 7th-20th)
We are very excited to announce that Katie and Chris are expecting a baby boy! Callahan Foy Chadwick will arrive in June to join big sister Piper (7) and big brother Theo (4). We enjoy being so close and have been happy to attend programs that Piper and Theo have had at school! Pray for a healthy pregnancy and birth!
Shane, Jodie, and Quinley are doing well in the Charleston area. Quinley (7), is in 2nd grade at a Christian school at their church. She loves gymnastics and enjoys competing! We are meeting them in Savannah for one of Quinley’s competitions in March. Pray that God will bring a child needing love into their home through adoption!
Jesse and Ema are very busy fostering two babies right now and raising their boys, Emmaus (8), Silas (5), and Simon (3). The boys are active, attending a Co-op Christian school and playing soccer. We love being close enough to watch their games on Saturday mornings! Pray for strength as they raise their boys and love the babies who come through their home.
Thank you all for your loving support and prayers for us. We do not take either for granted and are always grateful for you. We would appreciate prayers for strength, health, wisdom, and endurance to run the race with patience!
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways, and He will make your path straight.”
Proverbs 3:5,6
