For those of you who don't know, I've been living in Central Oregon for almost five and a half months and I'm loving it. I live and work at Young Life's Washington Family Ranch with Mark 2 Ministries in a small town known as Antelope. It's been a challenging five and a half months in the sense that I live in the middle of absolute nowhere without a car and no cell phone service what-so-ever. The closest grocery store is an hour away. The closet Target is two hours away. But one of the coolest things about living here is that this is literally my backyard:
This picture was taken about 12 hours after first stepping into the Canyon at the end of September from my back porch.
I love the physical beauty and vastness of this place, although, at times the 64,000 acres of land that I live on can be intimidating. The same God who created this whole universe in six days, still cares for the matters of my heart; is sometimes unfathomable while looking at such landscape.
Besides the natural beauty of this place, there are other things that I have grown to love. Here's one:
This is Autumn Webster. She was my roommate, best friend, and fellow VB native for the first four months I lived here. Autumn started her journey back East about a month ago and I miss her dearly. She's like a soul sister. She has two awesome cats, Artie and Bubba, who we affectionately call hot air balloons. Autumn, "Awa", has a huge heart for serving others, singing happy birthday as many times as humanly possible on one's birthday, she's a great listener, and an even better encourager. She would also love to be in Israel longterm at some point in her life. She's pretty cool. We call ourselves the A-Team.
From Left to Right we got: Mandy Lofdahl, Lauren Crapser, myself, Amanda Shaffer, Natalee Giddings, and Autumn Webster.
And no, we did not plan to color coordinate on this day. I work with all of these fine folks (Bri and Billy are the only staff who are MIA). Amanda was here when I first got out here to help in a transitional time for Mark 2. She and her husband, Matt, are getting ready to have their first child and I can't wait to meet him! Shaffer is one of the craziest, most fun people I know. She lived with Autumn and myself when she was out here and she was apart of the A-Team.
Here we got Autumn, Bri, and Natalee. I have now had the privilege of living with all three of these ladies and they are all absolutely wonderful! Bri is from South Dakota - the land of the snow and Natalee is from the great state of Georgia. Bri and I love watching the Biggest Loser and the Bachelor. Natalee and I love talking about all things Southern including, but not limited to, Paula Deen, The Flying Biscuit, and SEC Football.
My most favorite day of the last five and a half months came just over a month ago. And it is captured in the photo below:
From Left to Right: Autumn, Lauren, myself, and Billy
It was the day before Autumn and Lauren were moving back to Virginia. The day started a little too early for my liking where Autumn, Lauren, Billy, and myself went down to the river for the sunrise. It was FREEZING out, but it was the best morning I've had since I've been here, no contest. We spent an hour and a half together in Autumn's car watching the sunrise over the river. The time was filled with some great conversations, pictures, and memories.
The day didn't end there. That night after work, the four of us along with Bri and Natalee, went back down to the river for a bonfire. The night was filled with even better conversations and memories. I loved that day I love these friends.
One final picture:
This is a picture from the WFR driveway. I love this part of the driveway. It has brought many of pictures of my time here thus far. It reminds me of the Lord's beauty and handy work. If you ever need an excuse to come out and visit me, just look at this picture and you'll be on the next plane out here.
This is all for now. I will update y'all later on in my journey.
