Moved In... Sort of

Well we are moved. We left at 6am Friday morning to head to Wilmore. My mom and sister helped us get to Dalton, GA and then Matt's parents helped get us the rest of the way to Wilmore. We finally get to Wilmore around 5pm, had dinner, and were off to bed by 10pm. The next day we spent all morning unloading the truck thanks to Matt's parents and Brett and Jessica Maddocks. We had lunch with Matt's parents, went to Walmart, returned the truck, and came back home to our new house to unpack. We are about 1/2 way done and are excited that we can finally walk through our house without running into too much stuff. Today we are spending the day cleaning, unpacking, and trying to get our address changed at the bank, insurance companies, and a few other places. Tomorrow the job search begins. We will keep you updated. Also here are our other new emails that you may be able to catch us at more often than the ones in the previous post:
mattstout@windstream.net
sarabethstout@windstream.net
Also here is a picture of our new house. We live in the apartment behind the stairs on the bottom.

Tornado pictures

So my mom's house got hit pretty hard by the tornado last Sunday morning. Seth is living back at home and so he was there with my mom during the crazy storm. They saw the tornado coming and climbed in the closet and when they came out here are some of the things they found:
This what the house looks like from the front. There should be a covering over the porch and there shouldn't be those big holes in the roof if you didn't know. Luckily, Nancy (my brother's girlfriend), her family, and some of my brother's friends came out and helped clean up all around the house and farm.


The pool is under that fallen fence. The door is usually hidden by the fence also.


This is the power line down behind the truck.


Due to the roof being ripped off the house they now have a nice sun roof in the closet and puddles in all the front closets of the house. The light normally doesn't show through!



This is one of the 4 barns that are now leveled. Only 1 barn made it through the storm.


Here is the back side of the barn.

This is Burr, our donkey. He was caught under the barn when it collapsed. He is ok but Ginny was not as lucky. She is now in "donkey heaven".

This is my grandparents house. Last time I was there those holes weren't in their house either.

On another note, we are packed and ready to hit the road at 6 am...hopefully. Just pray for safety as Matt drives the really big moving truck! We will update you all as soon as we get there and get internet.
Also here are our new emails:
Matt- Matt_Stout@asburyseminary.edu
Sara Beth- SaraBeth_Stout@asburyseminary.edu

New Address and website

Well we were hoping for a downstairs apartment and we found out yesterday we did! This is such a blessing b/c we were not excited about having to carry all of our stuff upstairs to an apartment. So here is our address:
The Stouts
102 North Maple Street
Box #9
Wilmore, KY 40390

We have knocked out a lot of the packing in the last few days but I am sure there is much left to do and I am sure we will have a problem somewhere along the way. However, we will pray for no problems and a pleasant and successful move. I also hope we will be able to get a little bit of rest over these next 9 days. I will continue to keep everyone updated! Thanks for the prayers!

Also when you get a chance everyone needs to check out a few websites.
1. www.artofmanliness.com- it is a really great website for guys. It is all about "how to be a Man" and other articles. Matt and I really liked some of the things we found. It isn't a Christian site but it definitely has some great ideas and guidance.

2. http://bigsandygilmore.smackjeeves.com- This is the website for Matt's comics he has been writing. I think they are really great, creative, and funny. Check them out!

Ok well that is about it for now. I'll write more later!
~Sara Beth

May 08 Newsletter

Dear Family and Friends,

We have had a great year here at the Wesley Foundation. It will be sad to leave, but we are excited about our future in Wilmore, KY. So much has happened since our last letter.

Our mission trip to Guatemala was amazing. We enjoyed loving on the children, painting the house and shed, cleaning, cooking, and much more. Matt and the three other guys on the team spent two days building two doors for the school bathrooms and one door for two teenage boys so they could have some privacy. Sara Beth got to help with Christmas decorations again and even spent a few days putting information into different databases. The team got along great and with this being our first mission trip we felt it was very successful. We are excited about future mission trips.

The last two months at Wesley have been great. We had a 5 day, 24 hours a day prayer event. We filled all the slots! We had a team to participate in Relay for Life and they raised over $400. We had our annual end of the year Semi-formal. The theme was “Hollywood Red Carpet” and it was just a great time of fellowship, food, and dancing. Now we are just breezing through the last days of the semester. This last week of school we have just hung out at Wesley watching the “Back to the Future” Trilogy and playing lots of video and board games. It has been a restful week for the students and us!

Now we are planning to use the next two weeks to pack and clean. Our moving day is May 16th and we are excited about what is in store for our new life in Wilmore. Please pray for us as we look for jobs and adjust to living in a new town. We have an apartment but aren’t sure of what our new address is yet. We will update our blog with all the information and an update as soon as we get to our new home. Remember our blog is: http://mattandsarabethstout.blogspot.com/.

Once again we want to thank each of you for all the support you have given us over our time at Wesley. We couldn’t have done ministry without your prayers and financial support. We pray God’s blessings over each of you and will continue to keep you update on the Life of the Stouts as much as possible in our blog!

Much love and many blessings,
Matt and Sara Beth Stout

Famous Victor

Famous Victor is one of the kids at La Senda. He is 8 years old and has an amazing story. He was born with hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus is disease where water surrounds the brain and causes the head to swell. Victor's head was only 3cm smaller when he was born than it is now at the age of 8. To find out more you can go to: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/hydrocephalus/detail_hydrocephalus.htm#104253125.
Victor was abandoned at the hospital by his biological mother; and then when the people who were going adopt him got to the hospital and saw how sick he was they abandoned him too. The hospital then called Steve and Pam, the missionaries who run La Senda, to come get him. When they got to the hospital they saw how sick he was and said they could not take him. Steve and Pam decided not to take in children that sick b/c it would hinder their relationship with the other 20+ children. Steve and Pam went home and the next morning woke up and talked about it and after much prayer and God speaking to both of them individually went back to the hospital and after Victor's surgery to drain the water out of his head Steve and Pam took him home. The surgery was to put a pump that went down to his stomach to flush the fluids out of his head and into him stomach. (Oh yeah by the way Pam is 7 months pregnant at the time they took home Victor!)
When Victor got to La Senda he was very sick and took lots of Steve and Pam's time. He didn't walk until he was almost 2 years old and even when he did he had to literally hold his head up with both hands. They were raising 2 toddlers at the same time and still had 20 other children. They were busy parents.
Well a little after Victor's 2nd birthday they took him to the doctor b/c the pump had begun to form a large tumor like bump around it. When Pam got him to the doctor they did a lot of scans and other tests. It turned out that the pump had to be taken out b/c there was not anymore water to be pumped and so the body was rejecting it. It just didn't make any sense, but Victor was fine. He still had the mark on His brain that is there when a child has the disease, there just wasn't any water. They took Victor home and told the children that the doctors and Steve and Pam had no idea what had happened but Victor was fine. Then one of the children, Yaqueline, said "We know what happened. We prayed for 2 years and God healed him."
God healed Victor. He still had the scar on his brain to remind the world of what Victor's disease, but God had healed Victor.
Victor made it into some big medical magazines and has been named Famous Victor. The other day they were at the doctor, says Pam, and another visiting doctor was in and said he was so glad to finally meet Famous Victor b/c he had heard and read so much about the miracle.
God is so good and spared this child. Now Victor can go on to do great things for the Lord!

Guatemala

We returned from Guatemala this past Saturday. It was a wonderful experience and full of fun! We spent the week at La Senda Children's home and School. La Senda means "The way home". Here are a few pictures so you can share in our experience.

This is a picture of the whole group.

We spent Wednesday in Antigua. It is a beautiful city full of history. That is a volcano in the background.

This is the playground! Look at the background. I don't remember anything like that in the background of our elementary playgrounds!
















Happily painting! And the finished product!










During the week we did a lot of projects. Some of the girls taught English classes and the rest of us cleaned, made Christmas decorations for the kids to send to their sponsors next Christmas, and I put information into the computer. I spent 2 days in front of the computer. The guys built 3 doors, planted flowers, and fixed sinks. We all spent the last 2 days of the trip painting. As you can see in the pictures above Matt and the guys (with the help of some of the girls) painted with black paint that resembled tar. Needless to say we are still removing black paint from our bodies. Also Matt is very proud of the door he and our friend James built. It took them all day but now 2 teenage Guatemalan boys now have some privacy in a house of 20 children!

















































































These are just some pictures of the children. To the left is Steven in his overalls. He is just so cute I had to include this one. Steven has lived at La Senda his whole life, it is the only home he has ever known. Above right is Samy playing soccer. All the children love soccer and play all the time. Two Above right is Matt playing with Carlos. Above left is Matt and I with the 3 brothers from the coast. The boys have a family but there family sends them to La Senda so they can get a better education. Two above left is Matt playing on the slide with the children. He look like he is having so much fun...or could be in much pain. You decide! Below right is Lupita with me and Below left is Matt with famous Victor. Maybe I will write about Victor next time I blog. His story is amazing. It is truly a miracle!
















































Here we are, the happy married couple, leading our first mission trip together. We feel it was successful and God was glorified. What more could we ask for?

Seminary

Matt and I have officially gotten accepted into Seminary and plan to move sometime in the summer. Matt will be going for his Masters in Divinity and I will be working on my Masters in Counseling. It is very exciting and we need your prayers and any help you have in finding a place for us to live and work. We will let you know more as we get closer to moving time!
Also you can be praying for us as we continue to prepare for our Spring Break mission trip to Guatemala March 8 to 15. We have 3 fundraisers this week: a Talent Show, a Guitar Hero Tournament, and a Yard Sale. The Lord has been so faithful in providing up to this point. We have gotten in $14,500 of our $18,000 we need. So please be in prayer for that!