Wyoming

This past week Mark and I and Paul and Brooke took a vacation to Jackson, WY to hit up Jackson Hole ski resort. We watch a lot of Warren Miller flicks, and the bonus, other than getting to see some crazy skiing and snowboarding, is that they give you a little insight into tons of different ski places around the country and the world. Jackson Hole had shown up a few times, and we had always heard amazing things about it, so we were pumped to finally get over there to check it out for ourselves. We had a blast! We got to ski/ride one day at Grand Targhee [tar-GEE] in Alta, WY [even though you can only get there via Idaho], go snowshoeing near Yellowstone National Park [they close the roads in the winter so you have to park about two miles short of the park and walk or snowcat in during the winter], and spend a couple days on the slopes at Jackson Hole. The only thing that could have made the week better would be not having everyone but me get sick at some point, and possibly a little fresh snow. Apparently we hit the longest window of snowlessness they'd had yet. Oh well...can't complain too much. It was still a great week!

Our drive took us up and over the Continental Divide.

Mark and Jess with the Tetons peaking over the horizon behind us.

Brooke and Paul with the Tetons in view.

The Tetons...Grand Teton is the one kind of in the middle that sticks up the highest. Middle Teton and South Teton are the two points to the left of the Grand. We had no snow the whole time we were there and the skies were cloudless giving us amazing views!

The view from Teton Pass. I think the mountains look painted!

Snowshoeing...we were attempting to find some hot springs, but the directions we were given were pretty vague, and we never did get there...it was a great afternoon anyway...so beautiful!

The only wildlife we saw while snowshoeing was this moose. It was pretty cool, although he was leary of us and kept an eye on us until we were out of sight.

I love snow! It creates some of the coolest formations!

This is a lot of snow! I just fell in love with the snow blankets and random formations we saw all over the place out there.

The view from the top of Apres Vous Mtn at Jackson Hole.

We saw tons of paragliders while we were skiing at Jackson Hole. They would kind of hover on top of the mountain and eventually land in a field next to the parking lot at the resort.

Once again...that's a lot of snow. Jackson Hole has already had between 350-450 inches of snow this year!

Brooke learned to snowboard this week...she did awesome! By the end of day three she was working her way down some of the blue runs at Jackson Hole!

Wild, Wild West

I know that rodeos take place all over the country; I even discovered that there is one in the Quad Cities. But I discovered that if you come out west, when the rodeo comes to town it is a big deal. Everyone goes! There are even some schools out this way that have rodeo as an option for a school sport. Needless to say, Mark and I were excited when we were given two free tickets to the rodeo a couple weeks ago. It was really fun - we were in the third row, and I even got hit with a big chunk of dirt that one of the broncos dug up as he was trying to throw off his rider. We had joked about it before we went, but it really happened! It felt like someone threw a baseball at my arm. Overall, it was a great night. Here are a few pictures...they didn't turn out that great because the rodeo is pretty fast-paced...so most of our pictures ended up blurry. But, you get the idea....

This guy was awesome! He is from Mexico and had a horse that sort of danced around while he did some cool tricks with is lasso. At one point he had the lasso twirling around both him and the horse. It was pretty crazy!

Bucking Bronco. I'm pretty amazed. The guys who ride these things look like rag dolls being thrown around. Not sure how their bodies take the beating. I think they only have to stay on for 8 seconds to qualify for a score. It's amazing how long 8 seconds feels when you're watching someone get whipped around like that!

Bull-riding. This was crazy, too. The bulls are mean and so once the rider is off, they kind of look like they would like to take out a lot of people around them. There are even two special "clowns" that come out for this event to get the bull back into his corral. Not sure I would sign up, but to each his own...

This was the main "rodeo clown." He was pretty funny...kind of like a stand-up comedian in between events. At one point he got on a motorcycle and jumped over a very large trailer attached a very large truck.

Overall, the night was cool...I'd recommend it to anyone if you get a chance...at least once :).

Oh So Busy

So, I'd like to say I have a really good excuse for why I haven't updated the blog very often, but I don't think I do. I think, when we moved here, I imagined myself updating pretty often, since Mark and I are sharing a job and therefore, have a lot of "free" time. However, for whatever reason, it feels like we're really busy! I want to say that I just feel like I'm too busy to blog, and it reminds me of our friends, Josh and Kari Jackson who felt the same way when they were traveling [they were digging holes and felt busy, so it's not quite that extreme, but it still connected in my mind]. So, sorry for those of you who have checked back and found the updates lacking. Here's a quick overview of life in the past month or so:

*Christmas: Mark and I got to go to my home in WI for Christmas, which was pretty cool since we didn't think we'd get to. It was a great time with my family, and we always leave wishing we could have had one more day.

*Visits: Right after we got home from WI, Mark's parents showed up here in Rapid City, and we had a great time with them as well. They got to see Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse, and we did a little hiking/cross-country skiing as well. We love any chance we get to get up into the hills to do something outdoors!

*Colorado: Paul is awesome and has agreed to allow us to periodically re-arrange our work schedules so that we can head down to CO to snowboard. We got to do that last week, and it was awesome! We stayed with Em and Josh [ALWAYS so fun! - Can't wait til next time!], and got to meet there new dog, Cody. We also got some time at Copper Mt. and Eldora. We've always heard of Eldora, and never really went b/c it's smaller, but when we got on I-70 and hit 10-mi/hr traffic at Evergreen, we decided to pull off and head over there. It was a great Saturday place! Not crowded and great snow!

We're still living with Brooke and Paul, and at this point, it looks like we're going to stay there! We've all agreed that it's been a good time. It's definitely brought new dimensions to my understanding of community, and has been much easier than I would have guessed before we came here [not b/c of brooke and paul, but more just the idea of living with another couple]. We've had a great time watching movies, playing games, and hanging out!

As you can see above, we've gotten connected well with our staff. The pictures is of a day we call "Staff Celebration" and includes several elements, one being, on this occasion, lazer tag.

I also have been spending a lot of time working on seminary applications and reading Harry Potter, which Brooke and I have gotten sucked into, and which our husbands lament and can't wait until we're done with. :)

So, there it is. Life as we know it here in Rapid City. It's hard, but somebody's got to do it. I could get used to this working half a job thing!

Life in Rapid City

We're here! We landed in Rapid City after a whirlwind week of visiting both Duke and Princeton Seminaries in North Carolina and New Jersey respectively, packing up our meager possessions, and hitting the road. In the matter of a week and a half we had logged nearly 3000 miles, but had seen cities, mountains, and everything in between. We even got to visit with some friends along the way as well, which made the journey even that much more fun.

Now, here we are, adjusting to a new life here in Rapid City, SD. Currently we are living with our friends, Brooke and Paul Kind, in their two bedroom, two bath apartment, which just happens to be about a 1 minute drive from Fountain Springs Community Church, where we are sharing a position as Assistant Pastors. It is a crazy adjustment going from each of us working a full-time ministry job to each of us only having to work half-time. In a lot of ways it's really nice. We have a lot of free time to just hang out, work on seminary applications, and enjoy the Black Hills for all they have to offer. We are looking forward to a few months of ministry, snowboarding, winter hiking, and exploring the areas near and far.

As for the church, we have had a great time getting to know people and experiencing life in a smaller church. It is very different doing ministry in a church of 250 than in a church of 2500, but it has been fun to experience the differences. I look forward to our seminary experience next fall, and know that this experience will be invaluable to understanding ministry in a whole different dimension than we've known it in the past.

In a lot of ways, it still feels like we're on vacation. I know as time goes on it will begin to sink in that we live here now and that this is home [for now]. I don't think this will be a bad thing...but I do think it will be hard at times. I definitely miss the friendships I had formed back in the Quad Cities, and am increasingly thankful to the welcoming smiles and open arms with which we've been received here at Fountain Springs. I do believe God has led us here, and He has been faithful to pave the way for the transition to be as smooth as possible. For this, I am thankful, and I look forward to all that He is going to do in us and through us here.

To all those in the Quad Cities, I say, "I miss you!! Come visit!" And if that's not possible, at the very least, leave a comment :)

Life is Journey, not a Destination...

...and a journey implies change, movement, and hopefully, growth. Yes, we are transitioning. We've known for some time now that we want to go back to school to get our Masters', and we even knew that it might be in the fall of '08. What we didn't know is that the transition away from Heritage would end up being so early. The church wanted to know as early as possible if we were headed to school next fall so that they could begin searching now to fill our positions. A few months ago as we really began praying about this decision and soon after, we got a call from a good friend of ours out in Rapid City, SD. He mentioned that their Lead Pastor had just made the decision to move to Michigan and that he would be stepping up as Interim Lead Pastor for a few months while they dove into the process of finding a new Lead Pastor. At first, it was casually thrown out that maybe we could head out to Rapid City for a few months to work with him during the transition. We laughed and thought it would be fun. But soon after, we really began to feel like it might be an option and began praying about it more seriously.

Long story short, we will be heading to school next fall [school yet to be determined, although we are applying to quite a few], but we will be making a detour along the way. Mark and I will be heading out to Rapid City in a few weeks for a grand total of 5 months to work alongside Paul as Interim Associate Pastors at Fountain Springs Community Church, before hopefully hiking the PCT and heading to school in the fall.

Our feelings right now are, as expected, bittersweet. We are excited about getting to connect with and work alongside Paul and Brooke out in Rapid City, hike, and head to school, and yet, there are so many people here in the Quad Cities that will be so hard to say goodbye to. We have had a great 2.5 years here. We've learned a lot, grown a lot, and made some amazing friends along the way. There are so many great people here at Heritage.

Change is hard, and yet there's excitement in what the future holds. We know we will look back with joy, and yet we look forward with anticipation at what God has next for us.

Thanks to everyone at Heritage who has supported us, prayed for us, and made our time here great. We've loved seeing God work in your lives, and look forward to hearing updates on how that continues to happen. This blog will continue to be updated, so we're always only one click away!

Mexico Update

First, I would like to say thanks to everyone who joined us through prayer. Our trip was amazing, and I know that so much of it was a result of the prayers that lifted us up from around the world. We couldn't have done it without you! Here are some pictures to highlight our time in Mexico. As a reminder, half of our team was TLC, the deliverance ministry of Heritage, and I don't have any pictures of their ministry, since the meetings are confidential. They worked tirelessly all week, though, and God used them tremendously in the lives of so many of the pastors over in Mexico.

Where to start? How about with the food! The food was amazing - we had 15 incredible ladies volunteer to cook our meals for us throughout the week [on rotation]. I never had to wonder if I would like the food. We at the majority of our meals at this long table in the fellowship hall at the Wesleyan church in Huichihuayan.

Mexican transportation. Normally we rode in a van and a suburban, but we were headed up to the top on a mountain on a not-so-good road, so we got to ride standing up in this truck for an hour as we wound slowly up the mountain [and then back down!]. The church we were going to, despite is more remote location, was our biggest night of ministry! There were about 3x's as many women and children at this church than at any other church we went to!


Our half of the team would split up by gender. The women worked with women and the men worked with children. While the guys were off playing with and teaching the children, we would read John 13:1-17 to the women, wash their feet and talk with them, then someone would share a little bit at the end.

The women in Mexico don't ever really get to feel special, or loved on, so it was so much fun to see their response to us washing their feet. They would giggle and seem very shy about the whole process. We would talk to them as best we could with the Spanish we knew, and by the end, you could just see the walls come down. They loved it!

We had a few hours between painting and our women's ministry, so we were taken to this natural spring in Huichihuayan. We sat on that rock for a long time debating on whether or not to go in, but finally made the leap together.

These were the kids at the church in La Pimienta. They were so much fun!

Our half of the team [L --> R]: Joe, Jess, Amy, Holly, Mike, Craig, Deb, Bri, Dustin, Arturo [down front]. Arturo is the District Superintendent over the Central Mexico district. He was with us throughout most of the trip and is a fantastic leader and all-around fun person.

Huichihuayan is a little town with mountains on either side of it. The view everyday was gorgeous.

We spent most of our mornings painting the inside [and a little bit of the outside] of this church in a town about 25 minutes from Huichi called Aquismon. It has been abandoned for a long time, and they just recently found a pastor, Jael, to take the church. It was in desperate need of some work.

Joe carrying our load of foot-washing tubs.

One of the many church's we went to for the women's/children's ministry. This is the church at the top of the mountain we went to via the back of the truck [see picture above].

Our lovely abode where 14 of us stayed with one bathroom :). It actually worked out quite well, surprisingly!

After our last day of painting in Huichi, we had an afternoon off and were taken to place called "Las Pozas de Edward James." Click here and here for more info on Las Pozas and Edward James. It's a truly fascinating place to see. If you ever get the chance to go there, do it. It's totally worth it!

More of "Las Pozas"

A handful of the wonderful ladies who did all of our cooking and served us so wonderfully.

We had one last afternoon off, and Ben [co-leader with me and former missionary to the area] took us to Pago-Pago, this place full of waterfalls and swimming holes.

A few of us climbed into the waterfall, and then continued on past it and up a few more. What's amazing about this place is that the farther back you go, the more and more waterfalls you find! It's just so incredible!

Our last couple days were spent in Valles, a larger city about an hour from Huichihuayan. Our team was split up and we stayed in homes. Holly, Amy, Bri, and I stayed with Jael [Khaki pants, striped shirt], who will be the pastor of the church we were painting. She is only 28! We really connected with these girls [Jael and her two sisters and another family member] and had a great time with them the last couple days.

Our last day was sunday, and several people preached in different churches, before we headed back to eat lunch and prepare to leave Monday morning. Here we are at about 3:00am Monday morning, waiting to go to the airport 2 hours away.

All in all it was an incredible trip. We washed nearly 300 women's feet, helped prepare a church for her congregation, ministered to countless little children, and had tons of fun in the process. our team got along incredibly well, and everyone had great attitudes the whole time [and if they didn't, they didn't share them with us!]. I couldn't have asked for a better trip or a better group of people to go with. We even had a couple on the team begin to sense a call to go back for a longer period of time. This trip was definitely a gift, and I'm excited to see how our church continues to partner with the churches in Mexico in the future [we send two teams a year]!

Ciudad Valles, Mexico

One week from tomorrow I will be heading down to Mexico on a mission trip, and I am looking for a prayer team that will support us in prayer throughout the whole trip and even for a little while once we return. I would be honored if you would consider being a prayer partner for me and for my team. You can click on the letter to enlarge the photo and read the letter.

Muchas Gracias!

La Pura Vida

Here's a picture recap of our time in Costa Rica/Nicaragua. The Costa Rican slogan is La Pura Vida [the pure life], and it's easy to see why - the country is filled with lush rolling hills and mountains, quaint towns and friendly people. It was a great experience!

Mark sitting in a park in San Jose, Costa Rica, the day after arrival.

A couple days after we got there, we did a little exploring in the hills around Cerro Chirripo, the highest point of CR. It was SUPER beautiful, and since we got up at 5am to catch a bus up there, it felt like we got to explore for a LONG time!
PS: this is a banana tree.

We walked this road for awhile and eventually ended up in Cloudbridge Nature Reserve. But the whole walk was this pretty. Really.

We eventually found this waterfall in Cloudbridge. One of many there.

Mark "rock climbing" on the wall of our hostel in San Gerardo de El General.

All the buildings in Granada, Nicaragua were painted sweet bold colors like this one.

The courtyard of The Bearded Monkey hostel in Granada. The center is open, but the sides have a roof. The doors across the way are the bathrooms. I'm taking the picture from the balcony by our room.

Here we are on the beach in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua.

We spent most of our time in Nicaragua with Josh and Kari Jackson, who just happened to be in Central America the same time as us. It was a blast to have friends to hang with for 4 days in the middle of our trip.

Mark and I went to see sea turtles lay their eggs...while we were waiting, we got to see a beautiful sunset.

Here's the turtle laying her eggs. They wouldn't let us take flash pictures of the turtles in the dark, so this is what we get to remember via picture :).

Back in CR for a few days before we left, we spent a day in Monteverde, CR doing a zip line canopy tour. We get to zip through the trees on these lines. Our trip had 11 lines...the longest being a half mile and over 400 ft. in the air!

Here's Mark waiting to get launched.