If you find yourself here, reading this newest post, please know that we now have a private Updates webpage letting friends and family know the latest on this story, The Covering. Please contact us with your name and email address if you'd like to join us in prayer.
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Dear Friends of The Covering,
What beautiful days we are in! Spring is full in bloom here in Flowery Branch, GA. The Lord has blessed and arranged plans for us to go to Kentucky this weekend through next. He has provided a friend’s home to stay in, funds for the trips, and a week full of meetings and relationship-building. We also plan to attend a wedding for Judah Chadwick, the young man who has agreed to manage the livestock part of The Covering. We ask for your prayers regarding the above, for travel-mercies and wisdom. Please also pray that we will be open and ready for the Lord to direct our path where He will, and that we’d be flexible with our time and each other-- that true Love would be at the for-front of our minds and coming from our lips. “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed. To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is! The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.” Proverbs 15:22-23, 33 Dear Friends and Family,
God is so good providing us with exciting days as He's allowing us to take big and little steps toward our ministry goals and dreams with The Covering. Here's the latest update: The Fiscal Court in Grant County, KY had their 2nd public reading last week of the required zoning text amendment!!! Praise the Lord for His timing. Now, the ball is in our court (and remains in His hands). We now need to negotiate a contract on the land, prepare an Engineered site plan, and then present it to the Board of Adjustment to get the conditional use permit applied to that property. If they approve it, then it's simply a matter of buying the land, building some cabins, and opening the gates to one and all who would like to experience The Covering on their next restful vacation. Sounds easy, right? J Only the Lord could work out these details. Please pass this along to all your friends and pray about how you might participate in being a part of making The Covering a reality. By the way; please pray for Mark and Jamison as they work diligently in helping us develop the materials for the government and investor presentations. As well, we’ve secured new web domains for The Covering and will be working on the new “official” web site. We’re so grateful to the Lord for bringing folks like Mark and Jamison into our path and who believe in the vision and ministries enough to graciously assist with their expertise. Thanks guys! We greatly appreciate each of you who pray for and encourage us in this massive undertaking and vision for spreading the gospel in this way. We pray the Lord will bless you as you seek to live His abundant life now. 1 Thes.5:23-24 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. Brothers, pray for us! Some Potential Next Steps: -Gather Interested Investors -Put Contract on Land -Complete Presentation -Give The Covering Presentation to the Planning & Commission Board Live. Grow. Rest. Thankful and loving you because of Christ, Neil & Elizabeth Philpott We are excited to report that our latest trip to Kentucky was successful, and plans are progressing… slowly… “I will worship while I’m waiting,” right? Here is a brief listing of the prayers and praises during our latest trip in September:
The following goals are now projected as a 6-month process:
Beyond the God-sized requests listed above, we ask for prayer regarding the following:
We are so happy to report these unique opportunities:
We covet your prayers and continued encouragements as we walk this path daily. We know this is a HUGE dream that only God could make a reality. Please consider how you might help us spread the word. Like, Share, and Comment as often as you can. We never know who the Lord might use to help us see this through. Blessings to you all… "Can we watch that video again where the train goes right through Walmart?"
That's what son number two said when he wanted to watch the unbelievable site of a train passing through an open market overseas. Oh, may we plant more seeds next weekend so he will know that food comes from God's soil, not from Walmart! BTW, we buy tape and notebooks at Walmart. : ) Of course we died laughing and winced all at the same time by his comments. Hey, he's four. If there's one thing God is teaching me about these days, it’s this: to count our various trials in life as JOY, realizing that God continually fashions us for His specific service.
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4 One such trial that I’m wrestling with is choosing what specific methods of farming He would want us to begin with as a business model and how it can practically springboard conversations into the Gospel. Additionally, and quite obviously to those of you who have talked with us about The Covering, we wonder how we should plan to financially support this ministry and our family. A practical lesson I’m learning and re-learning is that my vision for The Covering is not mine – it’s from the Lord; therefore, I’m not the One dictating what the farm will ultimately look like. As I continue to research clean food farming techniques, the unconventional, yet practical, method of Micro-Gardening has peaked my interest. This concept could intensely change the look (and size) of The Covering considering we wouldn't need as much land for teaching guests to be “food independent” from an Industrialized food system and become personally accountable and God dependent with this type of productive gardening system. You can view some examples of this unique option on the Facebook page and envision what I'm suggesting as it could be an educational opportunity within our ministry offerings at The Covering. Scheduling mini-seminars and/or hands-on workshops could educate urban/city dwellers about how they too could eat "clean foods" right from their own back porch, patio, or apartment window. I'm excited about these ideas for a couple of reasons. First, it provides us the opportunity to encourage guests to become informed about food independence and the practical and simple ways they can begin at home (while demonstrating God’s wisdom and provision through His creation). Second, it reduces the (land) requirements of The Covering and consequently reduces our initial start-up costs. Don't get me wrong, we'd still like to have some traditional gardens large enough to provide complete food independence for our family and our guests; however, it wouldn't require quite as much as originally expected if we integrate some of these micro/vertical garden ideas in the midst of it all. Please take a moment to glance at some of these ideas on our FB page and then feel free to make comments either here on the Blog or on the FB page. We'd really like to hear from you. It would certainly be an encouragement to us to get your thoughts. Please continue to pray for us as we pray for you as well, and may The Lord bless us all as we do. I've noticed that since the Genesis of creation, everything that is healthy appears to have some form of protective covering. Feathers cover birds, fir covers animals, and vegetation or organic matter covers our soil. Coverings have always protected and provided characteristic variances that drive an organisms distinctiveness in our Creator's majestic ecosystem; however, when God made man on the sixth day, Scripture tells us two details about mankind that it says about nothing else regarding what God created. First, man was naked. Second, man walked with God.
Those two defining and significant characteristics, I believe, are inextricably tied to the fact that only man was created in the "image" of God (Genesis 1:27); hence, man needed no covering, nor even knew he had any needs, because he walked with God. Their fellowship broke that day Man believed the questioning lies about God's Word assuming life could be better without His protective and personal covering. At that point in time, Man knew the guilt of sin and became aware of his nakedness. God chose to provide a temporary covering through a sacrifice- one that foreshadowed God's plan to establish a permanent covering (total forgiveness) for man's sin. He offered His innocent son, Jesus Christ, as the perfect, sinless sacrifice and allowed his blood to be shed to forgive our sins. Through faith in Christ who lovingly took our consequence, we can have direct fellowship with God as Adam once did. "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9 It is within this foundational idea that The Covering was named. Our purpose is to point visitors to Jesus Christ, the ultimate covering required to be joyfully sustainable in this life and the next. At the Covering, we hope to give guests direct and indirect opportunities to understand how all of creation can live, grow, and rest through man's renewed fellowship with God. (Romans 8:19-25). We just had to giggle: People are already wanting to make reservations at The Covering. The Sullards know they'll just have to wait :) with us on the Lord's timing, but this other family... the one who wrote to ask our pricing... yikes, that's was a little scary! So much for this website being (for now) just for those who are standing with us on a journey! I guess social media is rightly named. "Ready or Not, Come On Over Again..." was the call from our sweet, new friends, Noah & Dorothy Sanders, who farm in Alabama. Many of you know we traveled south twice recently for family celebrations, so on our returns trips, we were able to meet with the Sanders and learn more from them about serving the Lord through gardening/farming and honoring him through food production. We all had a hand in working side-by-side with Noah and Dorothy doing something on their farm: preparing raised beds, washing chicken mobiles (we'll explain this term in the near future), gathering dozens of eggs, milking the cow, and just visiting & talking through life as we worked. We are grateful to Noah's parents, Tim & Wendi, who have hosted us at Rora Valley Farms while Noah & Dorothy's home is being built. We have been encouraged in the faith! Thank you for exemplifying Colossians 3:16 "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God." Click here to learn more about the Sanders Farming Ministry & an up-coming garden conference. Let us hear your comments so all who read will be encouraged as we lift the Lord higher! The beautiful state of Kentucky is where this dream lands because The Ark Project, which Answers in Genesis (AiG) is building, is sure to bring literally millions of visitors. It is within our vision to support AiG's ministry by providing a unique place to stay. We trust our guests would have the opportunity to understand God's created order and to appreciate and understand His command to take dominion and be fruitful. Like AiG, we too want to extend to guests the hand of redemption because of Jesus Christ while building a relational bridge through quality, God-designed food production and the blessing of rest.
Feel free to roam the website as we continue to add more information to help you envision The Covering more completely. (Click) Contact Us to give us your constructive feedback, ideas, & encouragement. We would love to hear from you. See below to reference our continuing prayers. Please let us know if you'll help us pray. You have been in our continual, and now more specific, prayers over the past few months, and we truly anticipate hearing from you how the Lord is working and how we might more specifically pray for you. We thank the Lord for you and greatly appreciate your prayers and service to our family over the years. With great excitement and conviction we ask that you would continue to pray for us as we diligently seek God's leading for our future. You may know, at least in part, that the Lord has laid a specific vision on my heart. For about seven years, this dream, The Covering, has been slowly developing, and I am thankful to God that it has taken root in my wife and children's hearts as well. Its foundation is simple: to honor and glorify the Lord and expand His Kingdom through a poly-agricultural, organic farming enterprise in Kentucky. Picture unique cabins scattered throughout rolling farmland where guests would relax and enjoy immersing themselves in God's amazing creation in a whole (and holistic) new way. Through gardens, produce, & animals, The Covering would showcase God's beauty, provision, and design as well as minister to the community leaving all who experience it with no excuse but to praise Him for His good works. We invite you to become a part of His council to us (Prov. 11:14) by welcoming your questions, comments, and involvement in this ministry. The Covering website was produced so you can picture what our hearts envision and see how the Lord further develops this ministry; likewise, a Facebook page was established so you can receive ministry updates and prayer requests. Please let us know if you will commit to faithfully pray with us by clicking here. Current Prayer Requests -
Thank you again for your friendship, support, and love. We look forward to seeing how the Lord changes all our lives as we stand together in prayer and thankfulness for His mighty works and graciousness. Thank you for taking the time to read this post!
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Current Prayers* to be faithful in our marriage covenant, family decisions, and Christian walk Archives
May 2017
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