Dear Friends and Family,
Wow, what a year so far! We have much to catch up on! Our daughter, Johanna Jean Judd, was born on May 12! Ronni and I are loving being parents to our sweet little girl! She loves music (especially banjo), travels well, and seems right at home in ministry life!
Back in February, Jerry Iamurri, who is the CEO of our mission board, InFaith, and Adam Fladie, who is our regional director, came to our area for a visit. Ronni and I had a blast being their tour guides as we visited various InFaith missionaries and their ministries here in Eastern Kentucky. Jerry and Adam are the real deal and it was a joy to spend time with them driving through the hills and such a delight to see how God is using our fellow InFaith missionaries! InFaith’s love and care for their missionaries is greatly appreciated. I have been asked to be an area coordinator, which basically means I am a “boots on the ground” resource for fellow missionaries to speak with, pray with, etc. and able to represent Adam and the mission to our area missionaries and vice versa.
As many of you know, our former mission and ministry, Kentucky Mountain Mission/Youth Haven Bible Camp, has gone through some significant changes and challenging times. Our friend, Steve Smith, came out of retirement to be the interim camp director. Steve asked Ronni and I about the possibility of us helping with some of the music for the camp season, and we were glad to help with the Spring retreat, as did or friend, Patricia Montgomery, who is also with InFaith. This summer, I had the privilege of helping with music for part of orientation and of doing a song most nights during the camp season, with Patricia doing the bulk of the music. Her daughter Allie also worked as a counselor and helped on the music team. In fact, Ryan and Breslyn Dodge, Daniel, Julee, Jon, and Joe McIntosh, and Jeremy Holt all helped in some way or the other this summer at camp, so there were representatives of every InFaith family in our local region there! Once we had the clearance from our doctor for Johanna to be out in the public, she and Ronni joined me at camp in the evenings. I was also able to help with the paddle boats during the morning sessions of the two special needs camps called, “Sonshine Camp.” The Lord incredibly blessed the summer! As many of you know, Youth Haven was unable to have camp last year. This year, there was an incredible spirit of joy! A number of campers placed their faith in Christ and a number made decisions about walking in closer fellowship with Him!
Meanwhile, local church ministry continues! By God’s grace, we saw more kids coming to youth group at Idamay before it paused for the summer and it was great to see many of them at camp! Steve Smith is teaching the group this Fall and we are being guided in a new direction for Wednesday nights and hope to be able to provide details soon. We have a new couple that has been attending New Prospect and we greatly enjoyed doing pre-marital counseling with them! Speaking of weddings, I also had the great privilege this Spring of officiating the wedding of Ronni’s brother, Dominic, and his bride, Kelli! It was a beautiful day! This summer, I also officiate the wedding of Ronni’s cousin, Dalton, and his bride, Adrienne! It was another beautiful day!
The album that we have been working on for a while is finally recorded, mixed, and mastered! We are trying to get together art work and other details together that are necessary to launch it out into the world, as well as put finishing touches on the book. This has been a lot of work, but such a joy, and we can’t wait to share it with you! Jon McIntosh, son of InFaith missionaries, Daniel and Julee McIntosh, and his cousin, Jon Stankus, have generously given of their time and talents to help us film some videos to go with these projects!
As always, thank you so much for your prayers and generosity that make this ministry possible! We appreciate your prayers as we seek finish raising our support. As I write, we just returned from Camp Nathanael, this past weekend, where I had the privilege of leading music for the ANAM Appalachian Regional Conference. We are hoping to be back on the road soon, so if you would be interested in having us do a concert in your area and/or having me speak, please let us know!
In Christ,
Sam & Ronni Judd
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