Lenhert Family

Dear Family and Friends,

We could never have imagined how fast our first year of marriage would go. From the moment we drove away from our wedding venue to now, it is incredible to reflect on how amazing and good our God is.

In our Gallery, The Start of our Adventure shares a little of our first two weeks of marriage. I don’t believe it quite captures our joy of finally being together after our entire relationship being spent apart, but I hope it captures a little. Traveling from the beaches of San Diego to the mountains of the Eastern Sierras and Lake Tahoe, we got to enjoy the incredible creation of God by road-tripping, kayaking, hiking, and exploring. Every missed turn and wrong path only added to the adventure. We felt truly blessed that we were able to have time to do things we both loved together, and have been able to continue to do so all throughout our first year of marriage.

Since May, we have seen an incredible summer here at Wolf Mountain. As campers explored themes of being all in for Christ and how the message of the gospel needs to be delivered wherever they go, we saw spiritual growth all around us. Within the 470 campers we served this summer, we saw over 200 life changing decisions made for Christ! These decisions included reading the Bible, becoming missionaries, following God’s will, letting go of bitterness, and making assurance of salvation. In terms of salvation alone, we saw over 40 decisions, eight of which were from Horsemanship campers! We praise God for the work of His hands and for the team he brought to Wolf Mountain to serve.

JD’s Horsemanship program was completely full three of the four weeks this summer, which served as a great opportunity to reach kids who may not necessarily come from Christian homes. Between round pen chapel, morning analogies, and sessions, kids who may have never even heard the gospel were surrounded by it throughout the week. As they grew in knowledge about horses, they also grew in knowledge about God. JD also saw his first two graduates of the Horsemanship program, which marked not only a great accomplishment for the two girls who put in years of hard work, but also the dedication and work JD has put into the program to build it into what it is today. While I was able to help with some of the Horsemanship weeks, I was also quite busy serving as the Teen Camp photographer and first aid provider. I loved getting to know the campers personally as I followed them around to different games and activities, and had many wonderful, encouraging conversations while bandaging up scraped elbows and driving campers up the hill. We praise God that there were no major injuries with any of the campers and that every child went home having heard the good news of the gospel. Thank you so much for your prayers. They helped make this summer possible, helped young people draw closer to God, kept them safe while at Wolf Mountain, supported us as we served, and carried us through our hard moments.

Leading up to summer, my grandmother’s health had begun to decline rapidly. Her husband, my grandfather, had gone home to be with the Lord last December right before Christmas, and my grandfather on my father’s side also passed away last September. The thought of losing a third grandparent within the span of a year seemed overwhelming, but, on June 20th, the Lord took my grandmother peacefully home. My mother, who had spent most of the last year taking care of them, was also able to be her as the Lord brought her into heaven. While hard, we thank God for His mercy in taking her to where she has been longing to be. That time of grief was intertwined with camper needs, Horsemanship tests, and even recovery after I was in an accident in early July. Despite the hardship of that time, the goodness of God never diminished, and despite the busyness of our schedule, JD and I were able to attend her memorial service and funeral in the beginning of August. All three of my grandparents are experiencing the joy and presence of God more fully than we can even imagine, and God continues to comfort our hearts and hold us close to Him. What an amazing God we serve.

After summer officially ended, JD and I were able to visit both sides of our families during break. Afterward, near the end of August, we celebrated our one year anniversary in Tahoe. We did a lot of hiking, exploring, paddleboarding, and hiding from the rain. We ate ice cream while racing thunderclouds and ordered take-in when the thunderclouds beat us. We thank God for an incredible year that has truly displayed His working in our lives. He has provided in abundance, carrying us through every hard moment and blessing us with opportunities and memories that we could not have had without His hand leading the way. Every need He has met, and He has answered more prayers than we could ever deserve. “The Goodness of God” was the song I walked down the aisle to one year ago, and it seems to have been the theme of our first year of marriage. Every day we come home to a life that is built on His goodness, no matter our circumstance, and we are so grateful.

We are already well into our fall season! The heat of summer has turned into cooler weather, and every day that we left the top of the Jeep off after summer ended turned the Jeep more and more into a camouflage vehicle. At camp, JD has been hard at work fixing fences and irrigation with the wonderful assistance of one of our Life Institute guys that has joined us this year. He is looking to take on four more horses this December, and is excitedly preparing the way for a larger Horsemanship program next summer. I meanwhile have joined the registration team here at Wolf Mountain, as well as am helping run our fundraising and social media. We have already hosted planning retreats, kids’ camps, and are in the middle of multiple weeks of women’s retreats. Serving those who come through our gates here at Wolf Mountain has truly been a joy. We are thrilled to be a part of this ministry, and look forward to all that is to come. We are so grateful for you joining us as we follow God, and we look forward to sharing more updates soon!

In Christ,

The Lenherts

PS: Check out our updated Praises/Prayer Requests page for this fall, as well as the new photos in the Gallery from our summer!