respect… in most all of them, you will find a realistic common denominator in that they suffered tremendous-ly for their Faith in Christ. They have deliberately cho-sen the difficult path, over the easy; they have chosen God over the god of SELF. With reckless abandon of all they held dear, they chose Christ above all that the world had to offer! Who is ready to sign up… in today’s America? And yes… I am as guilty as anyone else! Now, we have said all of this… but today, how will you & I encourage the people around us? How will we respond to adversity in our own lives? My hunch is this… if we respond well, there will be people knocking your door down to find out how you did it… If we take the route of bitterness & anger toward God, Our Sover-eign Lord… who shall pay the price? In the relation-ships that God has put you in, ask “Why has He put me here?“ Are you willing to lift a hand to honor God? While counseling at times will help a person to feel treasured, our ultimate goal is to help them treasure God. Consider Mt. 13:44-45. When we get a glimpse of the treasure available in our Father God, we will count all things as dung in comparison to the reality of relationship with Him! IF WE CAN HELP OTHERS VALUE CHRIST ABOVE ALL THAT DEATH WILL TAKE AWAY, THEY WILL BE THE FREEST AND MOST RADICAL, SACRIFICIAL PEOPLE IN LIFE! Thanks to our many supporters who have made mira-cles happen! May God Bless & Keep You! Your Pray-ers & Financial Support is greatly appreciated! In His Grip of Grace!

Tim & Michelle, for all the Weaver House - Administrator

“God’s Sovereignty in Suffering?”

Where Men Find A New Beginning!

Let’s begin with several observa-tions…Mutual coun-seling should be a normal event within the conversations & relationships of the Body of Christ…

The aim of true Counseling is to bring glory & honor to God… and God gets the most of glory when we are the most satisfied with Him. Based on the truth of these statements, it is impera-tive that we build an accurate vision of God in both our hearts & minds... it must help us view suffering not as a threat to our satisfaction in God ( it can be), but as a means to deep satisfaction in God (and it is). The American Culture says… Maximize comfort, security & ease… avoid anything that hints of bringing discomfort, pain or suffering. Then, let’s add in our natural bent to-ward self-gratification & pleasure. The result is the sig-nificant undermining of our soul’s capacity to find satis-faction in God in the midst of suffering. Have we missed it as Americanized Christians? What would it look like to consider suffering as a normal & purposeful part of life in our daily conversations… as opposed to responses of surprise when pain shows up at our doorstep? I am convinced that suffering is more the normal, ra-ther than the exceptional. Suffering is a certainty that will come to people when they fully embrace the Savior. Am I prepared in heart & mind to accept this? I Invite you to consider the great people of faith from the scriptures, those during the reformations, the great missionary stories, current men that you highly

April - June 2013 *** 113 N. Industrial Park Rd. Washington, IN 47501 *** (812) 254-3399 *** freshstarttrainingcenter.org

Recently, as we shared with the ladies at the jail, a series on Anger Resolution, we discussed what ex-pectations can do to relationships. Whenever I set up an expectation of a person, situation, or circum-stance, I set myself up for disappointment. People will fail us, no matter how good their intentions may be. Situations and circumstances in our lives, will always have potential for not being quite what we desire or “expect”. In essence … Expectations Destroy Rela-tionships! When I set up expectations of others, the stage is set for their failure, my disappointment, and thus the destruction of our relationship. So, how do I handle expectations? Do I simply need to expect nothing from others? I believe that we will always have expectations, but, I can develop a heart and mind that does not require others to live up to my expectations. A heart that does not cause my relationships to be dependent on my expectations. I can only do that when my heart is in tune with God,

and I allow Him to control my responses to my “unmet” expectations. Can I allow others to make mistakes? Can I give them the benefit of the doubt that their intentions were good? Can I allow God to fill in the void that may arise due to an “unmet” ex-pectation?

Do you have expectations that have been dashed in relationships or by circum-stances and situations? Re-member, ultimately Expec-tations will Destroy Rela-tionships if we have not surrendered our hearts, minds, and responses to God. Naomi & Randy Bechtel - Secretary

Lately I read the story of Je-sus sleeping in the boat while there was a storm going on around him and his disciples. The disciples

raised the question,” Master, carest thou not that we perish?” (Mark 4:38) I know that I often face the pres-sure of storms rocking the boat that I am using to car-ry me through this life; things such as position, mon-ey, being cared for by others...the list could go on. I know that I have asked the question many times over the years, “Master, carest thou not that I perish?” I also see the answer that Jesus gave the disciples

and I think about why it was that Jesus could rest in the storm. Jesus is also calling us to rest (peace), knowing that He made everything in the world at the beginning. While He walked on earth, He demon-strated his sovereignty in every area we would con-sider biological needs in this life - things like: food (feeding of the 4-5,000 people), calming storms, healing the sick, money from a fish, making wine, and more. Then in all this he says to us in “the Ser-mon on the Mount” … take NO thought for your life … seek ye first the Kingdom of God and these things shall be added unto you - Matthew 6:33! Praise the Lord, may His promises “FLOAT YOUR BOAT”!!! Jay & Mary Ann Martin and family - Marriage Counselors

“Does Jesus Care?”

“Expectations”

Bible Fund & Jail Ministry Reminder

We covet your prayers as we share the Word of God with the men & women at our local jail. You can partner with us in the work through your donation to the Abe Knepp Memorial Bible Fund. We provide study type Bibles for the inmates at an ap-proximate cost of $12.00 each. Watch our next newsletter for a more detailed report on the Jail Ministry.

Christian greetings to all in the Name of Jesus Christ! It is still a wonderful and glorious blessing that we have, to greet each other in His Name! I’m reminded of a story I heard just an hour ago. It is about a university in Florida, where a young male student refused to obey a textbook order. I’m not sure what this order was supposed to prove, but the class was told to write the name Jesus on a piece of paper, throw it on the floor and stomp on it. My question to you as you read this is, “how much do you honor and respect the Name of JESUS?” The Helping People in Need Seminar is sponsored by Fresh Start Train-

ing Center and Deeper Life Ministries, of Plain City, Ohio. This year it was hosted by Fresh Start on January 22-24, 2013. WE had a fairly good turnout of people who wanted to know more about how they can help people in need. Next year it will be hosted by Deeper Life. Before, during, and after the seminar we were planning and practicing for our annual Public Relations trip. This trip was from February 1st through the 13th. We started out with a program at Crossville, Tennessee. Then we had three programs in Georgia and three in South Carolina before heading south to Sarasota, Flori-da where we had two programs. On our way back north we had two programs in Montezuma, Georgia before finishing up in Mississippi and Alabama. On February the 24th and 25th a few of us had the privilege to attend the funeral celebration for a former resident (Weldon Hirt) in Kansas. Our deepest sympathy and our prayer support have been extended to his widow, Donna. Donna, you will always have a warm spot in our hearts. Bryan and Virleen Fleagle were blessed to take a trip to Harrison, Arkansas to attend the baptism of a for-mer resident, Mikael Howard. Unfortunately the baptism was postponed due to bad weather, but they were able to spend some time with Mikael. It is a wonderful thing to have your friends go all the way with God and surrender their whole life to living for the true God. God bless you real good, Mikael, as you continue to live for Him! I personally have been exceptionally blest the last couple of months. I have been al-lowed to start training under the HEART program. Plus, I get my own personal mentor, and believe me, I need one. I guess you could say, “Maybe I’m growing up a little bit in spite of my older age.” Blessings to all, Mark Miller - Shop Assistant

Mark, Irene, Julia, Evan

Staff Reflections

P.R. TRIP MEMORIES

P.R. trips are full of memory making opportunities from the initial boarding of the bus, to practices, prayer times, ironing, cleaning, and sharing in the

programs themselves

Residents

L to R : Nathaniel, Dave, Tony, Joe, Jonathan, Conrad, Earl, Mark, John

I came to Fresh Start to change my life in the are-as of purity, anger, and bitterness. It started when I was in school and got involved in some immorality with some of the guys. It brought shame and guilt into my life. I just hid the sin because I was scared of what would happen. When it came out, I con-fessed it and gave my heart to the Lord, but that did not last long. I didn’t really understand everything. After I was out of school I started working away from home and I began to hang out with the wrong group of people. I got involved in pornography, masturba-tion, and immorality with a girl. I did confess that lat-er to get the authority off my back. Then one of the guys I worked with suggested for me to go for help. So, I considered it and with some encouragement I decided to come to Fresh Start. Since I am here I have confessed everything and I am free from those sins. But God is still working on my performance lifestyle that I lived so that I would be accepted. I think I am gaining ground to freedom from it, and what a burden that has lifted off of me - to be free from those sins and having everything in the open. I can’t thank God enough for what He has done for me. I ask that you keep praying for us as we work through our struggles. - Nathaniel Resident

Hello! I was born and raised in a godly Christian home, church, and school. I accepted Christ at the age of 12 and was baptized at the age of 14. I be-came very religious, but unfortunately my heart was still much the same as it was before. In my upper teens I got into wrong music, books, and magazines. I was often deeply depressed and very withdrawn and lonely. I did not like authority. I was also very lustful. All of this continued year after year! I did a lot of good works trying to gain the fa-vor of God and man. Then about a year ago, at the age of 27, I started watching bad videos. My heart has been filled with shame, guilt, lust and fear all these years. I felt helpless in trying to break free from these evil habits. I was exceedingly addicted to them, especially the videos and books. I was also very bitter, very angry at authority in general and especially God. I came to Fresh Start December 11, 2012. God has been doing a marvelous work in my life. He has been drawing me to Himself, but it is a fierce battle every step of the way. I have rededicated my life to God since I have been here, but it has not been easy. I am learning self-discipline, good work habits, how to face my problems head on instead of ignor-ing the, and submission to authority. My independ-ence is so terrible, terrible hard to give up. The Christian life is not a playground but a battle-field. It is a life of daily surrender and dying to self hourly. I earnestly covet your prayers, as I am still seriously struggling in these areas! - Mark Resident

Congratulations! Jerry & Sarah Miller completed the program on March 11, 2013 and returned to Kansas. We wish them God’s blessings as they apply the principles they learned here to everyday life.

Praise The Lord

Financial provision: We have been seeing many miracles, usually on a weekly basis

A rewarding PR trip (See pgs. 3 & 5) A new dishwasher Changed lives

Prayer Requests

Staff: Single Mentors, Married Couples Housing Project Possibilities Strong shop sales again this year CHECK OUT OUR MONTHLY PRAYER CALEN-

DAR ON THE HOMEPAGE OF OUR WEBSITE

Sometimes, as we do Public Relations Trips we ask ourselves questions such as; should we go with a large group as we do in the winter, or should we go with a small group as we do in the fall? Are

there ways we can better convey the work that transpires here at the Training Center? How can we be the best steward of the resources that God has given us? One of Abe’s highlights, while he was still with us, was being able to just load everybody in the bus and go share what God is doing in the lives of resi-dents and staff. When you take the bus and everyone goes, sometimes that limits our being able to go to some churches because of the larger group. We do try to share in a variety of different settings. If you would have an interest in having Fresh Start share a program in your

area we would love to hear from you. We do get varied responses as we share in dif-ferent churches. Some, have felt we were too specific. Some have felt it was exactly what they needed to hear. Some were blessed by the men sharing their testimonies, others were blessed to hear the beauty of the songs, and some were blessed by knowing more of what goes on at the Training Center. One response that blessed me was from a friend of mine after we had shared with them at their church. In his comments he said that they had council meeting a couple of days after we were there and that they felt led to divide the men and women as they shared with each other. The open sharing and confessing that resulted was very refreshing and he would have contributed it to the willingness of the men to share openly about their deep struggles that they had faced and were facing. It seemed to give them courage in sharing openly with each oth-er and was a necessary step in the path toward freedom. Again, I just want to praise God for His redeeming work in the lives of man-kind. I thank God that it is not about us as men getting it perfect, rather it is about the work He wrought for us on the cross so that we can experience for-giveness and cleansing from the mess we make of our lives when we are at the helm. A brother in Christ, Virlin & Rosie Yoder and Carla - Assistant Administrator

A testimony that was received fol-lowing one such P.R. trip: “I was touched by the program and tes-timonies your group gave on your re-cent PR trip through the Southeast. And through your booklet ‘Discipleship & Accountability Resources’ there has been some talk of setting up more local mentoring and discipleship.” (The resource mentioned is availa-ble for download at our website.)

PPUBLICUBLIC RRELATIONSELATIONS

We invite you to check out our website: freshstarttrainingcenter.org

Fresh Start, Inc. Quarterly Financial Report

January - March 2013

Beginning Balance ……………………………………….……………….. $41,294.77 INCOME Donations …………………………….. $ 66,322.78 Interest ………………………………… 7.10 Misc. …………………………………… 290.94 Phone …………………………………. 32.65 Resident Fund ……………………….. 875.00 Shop …………………………………….. 26,677.53 TOTAL INCOME …………………………….$ 94,206.00 EXPENSE Allowance ……………………………. $ 30,745.21 Deductions ……………………………. —0— Equipment …………………………….. 5,325.15 Food …………………………………… 5,396.91 General Maintenance ………………… 413.24 General Supplies ……………………… 1,876.78 Housing ………………………………… 16,462.38 Insurance ………………………………. 1,444.65 Jail ………………………………………. 506.99 Misc. ……………………………………. —0— Payroll Taxes ………………………….. 9,394.01 Postage ………………………………… 858.52 PR/Follow-Up …………………….……. 4,947.48 Printing …………………………………. 1,034.16 Resident Fund …………………………. 875.00 Sales Tax ………………………………. 573.53 Shop Expense …………………………. 40,650.43 Staff Training …………………………… 581.40 Study Material …………………………. 1,064.28 Travel Expense ………………………… 720.73 Utilities …………………………………… 7,378.48 Vehicle Expense ……………………….. 3,409.93 TOTAL EXPENSE …………………….…….$133,659.26 ENDING BALANCE ……………………………………………………...… $ 1,841.51

Founders The late Abe Knepp & his wife, Viola

Local Board

Gerald Wagler, Chairman Ray Lengacher, Vice-Chairman

Kevin Wagler, Secretary Rick Wagler Virlin Yoder Marlin Yoder Tim Weaver

Sam Yoder

Advisory Board

Myron Mullet, Abbeville, SC Calvin Yoder, Wakarusa, IN Glenn Horst, Elmira, ON Vancen Miller, Bourbon, IN Joel Martin, New Holland, PA David Yoder, Jr., Auburn, KY

Staff Tim & Michelle Weaver Family Administrator, Washington, IN Virlin & Rosie Yoder Family,

Assistant Administrator, Montgomery, IN Kevin & Dawn Eshleman Family, Shop Foreman, Hephzibah, GA

Jeremy & Vanita Sensenig Family HEART Program Facilitator, Newmanstown, PA

Bryan & Virleen Fleagle Family, Houseparents, St. Thomas, PA

Matt & Crystal Swarey Assistant Houseparents, Donalds, SC

Jay & Mary Ann Martin Family, Marriage Counselors, Dundee, NY

Evan Kornelsen, Counselor, Prague ,OK Mark Miller, Shop Assistant, Washington, IN Naomi Bechtel, Secretary, Montgomery, IN

Irene Plett, Cook, Boley, OK Julia Hershberger, Stuarts Draft, VA

PRSRT STD AUTO

U.S. POSTAGE PAID

SHOALS, IN PERMIT NO. 18