I Might Be Breaking a Record!

Well folks, I have officially lived in Oregon for over a year now. September 29th marked the day that I loaded a plane with all my junk for the West Coat. And what a year it has been. It has been a year of great struggle with many of set backs and successes, tears and laughter, milestones and memories.

I am still not sure what the Lord has in store for me when my contract is up at the end of December, if I stay in Oregon or if I head somewhere else. With that being said, regardless of what happens next, this may be the first job that I've had in five years that I haven't transferred or left at the end of a year. Staying put after a year - that's a plus!

I will say one thing about living in Oregon that's for sure: I have a pretty awesome family here who have adopted me in as one of their own. And I am forever blessed by this sweet family. Kory and Sara and their three stellar kids have been an absolute joy. They have opened their door, their house, their fridge, their couch, their lives, and their hearts to me as I brought tears and sadness in those early days. They sat, listened, encouraged, and prayed for me when I was struggling. They have laughed with me when I was in a good place. They have served a protective role to me, the one with all the allergies and accident-proneness. They have always brought love and for that I am very grateful. I have no clue where I would be if it weren't for Kory and Sara.

Great friends they are. Well, great family.

This just happens to be one of the very few normal, good, shots of Sara and I tonight at the Canyon Ladies Dinner.

I don't have ANY pictures of the rest of my Oregon family, but I'll be working on it. In the meantime, I'm sure there will be more tears, laughter, and jelly belly's shared!

The Landscape Never Gets Old

Here are some of the reasons how I see the Lord here in Central Oregon:

John Day River

Clinging to the Lord's promises....

How fickle my heart and how woozy my eyes

I've been thinking a lot in the last few days about my future and what it would look like to not live on the Ranch. I've had several people in the last week or so ask me what I'm going to do when my time with Mark 2 is "up" in a few months; will I stay on or will I head Back East?

Honestly, I don't know at the moment. For a long while, it was a definite, I'll head back East and then there was a time that I thought maybe I could be out here for longer than expected. Sometimes I feel like I'm looking at the situation with blinders on - not knowing if there is a clear path to take.

As I sit on my front porch at twilight (more to come on that subject soon, I promise) I listen to Mumford & Sons, freezing because it is not quite spring here yet and contemplate what's next in life. I have grown to love this place more than I thought. I mean, how could you not when this is what you see at sunrise?

And at the same time, how can you compare it to home?

How fickle my heart and how woozy my eyes.

and another thing...friends

I've heard my dad say several times in my life the term "and another thing...friends". This meaning that you have those friends that you may not be in your everyday life, but when you talk, it's like nothing has changed nor has it felt like any time has passed. It's like conversation is more like "oh hey, and another thing is..." No matter what happens or where y'all are at, you pick up your life/conversation like nothing has changed...like conversation and your friendship just keeps going. It picks up where you left off, like no time has passed.

Meet Sam Winks. Sam is one of those "and another thing" friends. This picture was taken in August of '07 at our friends, the Signorinis' house. Sam and I have been friends for...well I can't remember exactly how long, but it's got to be somewhere in the 7 - 10 year range. I believe we met and became friends at Rockbridge at some point, but honestly I can't remember. When I moved to Jasper, Georgia to Young Life's SharpTop Cove almost 5 years ago (August '06), Sam was going to SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design). At this point we had been friends for years, but never lived in the same city (Sam's from Richmond). Sam often came to STC on the weekends to help Wrangle. I remember the very first weekend that Sam came to STC when I was there. It was like a piece of Virginia while living in Georgia. I was so excited to see him and to hang out with him whenever I could.

Well our friendship went from a friend you enjoyed hanging out with whenever you happened to see each other to having a friend you enjoyed living life together that following summer - summer '07 when Sam was the summer bike intern at STC. That summer, especially the end of the summer, was filled with great memories of adventures to find tshirts, sitting on the roof of The Mill, or just simply hanging out.

Sam and I have seen each other maybe two or three times since that summer - once when I lived in DC and an other time being this past July when I was in Richmond. The thing with Sam is that we may not hang out a ton or even talk but every couple months, but when we get on the phone with each other, our conversations are never less than an hour. And no matter where I'm at in life or how confused I am on a certain situation or life in general, Sam is often quick to listen, slow to speak, and great at giving advice.

I talked to Sam on Wednesday night for about an hour and it felt like we were on the phone for about 3 minutes. It's really a neat blessing to see where the Lord has brought Sam on this journey called life. It's an even bigger blessing to have a friend who knows you well and can be a person of encouragement in life - to be a person to call and say "and another thing is..."

I think we all need those friends.....friends like Sam.

Internet from the Plane?

So here's something new to me: internet connection from an airplane. Relatively speaking, computers and especially laptops aren't that old in the grand scheme of things. Neither is flying for that matter. So it somewhat baffles me that I can update my blog from the plane...while listening to Mumford & Sons. I love Mumford.

Anyways, I'm on my way back to Antelope after a week of vacation "Back East". My dear brother-in-law, Josh Goodman, got married this past weekend to Lindsay Cummings. It was a great wedding and great reception. I was able to see some of my favorite people that day. It was so great. I'm just so excited for Josh and Lindsay. I can't wait to see what the Lord does in and through them in their marriage and ministry in Roanoke.

Unfortunately, I took all of like 3 pictures this past week (which I have yet to upload) and only one at the wedding and it wasn't even of the bride or groom. What a bummer! (I still love you Fetzers!)

So back to Oregon I go. Getting ready to gear up for summer in the Canyon. We have just over 2 months until about 1,000 high school and middle school kids come to occupy our two camps, Canyon and Creekside! So many of these teens will be hearing about Christ for the very first time in their lives! How great is this!

Life in Central Oregon

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.

New Hero....Ben Tuel?

The above picture includes a sweet Capernaum friend of mine, Mika (pronounced Me-ka). Mika was in my cabin - a quick shout out to my Peddler Mill Ladies - this past week at Rockbridge.

Put Mika on hold for a hot sec while I give you a little background to this story and explain the title of this entry.

The July Assignment Team at Rockbridge had a 5 week assignment with the Capernaum week being their final week - so of course, they're tired. Chris Buda was speaking and Ben Tuel and Kirk Wilson were the Program duo for our camp trip. One of Ben's characters was called Gary the Label Guy. The girls in my cabin LOVED Gary the Label Guy!

Well, after Buda (which a good number of our kids called him Gouda, ya know - the cheese, all week) gave the sin/cross talk, we returned to our cabin for Cabin Time. As I was in the midst of explaining the seriousness of the condition of sin and the act of the cross, dear sweet Mika asked, "Does Gary the Label Guy love Jesus?"

I stopped mid-sentence and asked. "What?" Mika repeated herself and I just laughed and assured her that yes, Gary the Label Guy does, in fact, love Jesus. This spun into a whole knew Cabin Time based on why Gary the Label Guy loves Jesus. Through out the entire Cabin Time and the rest of the day Mika kept asking if I was sure if I was sure that Gary the Label Guy knew Christ. And when I asked her if she wanted to start a relationship with Christ, she said no.

So, to make a long story somewhat short. Later that night as we were getting ready for bed, Mika asked me one more time if I was sure that Gary the Label Guy loves Jesus. I assured her that he did and I asked her if she was ready to love Jesus. She said yes and we prayed right then and there for sweet Mika to start a relationship with Christ.

So here's to you Ben Tuel - A.KA. Gary the Label Guy - for paving a way for kids to know Christ.