Showing posts with label WA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WA. Show all posts

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Our Important Dates

- Our romantic beach walk, when I realized I liked Duane (24th)

- Flirting on the beach (26th)

- When he told me he liked me and I said, "I thought so" (28th)

- We started dating (3rd/4th)
- Our first official date (5th)
- I was given a carnation (24th)
- God told me that the carnation, romance and Duane were all from Him (28th)

- We drove to Moab to go camping with his parents (28th)

- We "accidentally" looked a rings, and played a joke on our friends, telling them we eloped (1st)

- Duane gave me carnations (5th)

- Our engagement pictures (15th)

- My good-bye party where Duane was given a certificate to take 1 staff member of his choice to Colorado (17th)

- A hike in the snow to the train tunnel to take cute pictures (22nd)

- The day Duane proposed and we got engaged (15th)

- And of course our wedding, which will be on May 21st

Friday, December 17, 2010

Duane & Becky's Story

Once upon a time, there was a man named Duane, who loved India. So he came to Cascade, Idaho to work with more people who also love India. That's where he met a cute dread-head named Becky. Together they had fun, hiking with friends, and soaking in the hot springs.

Then their team went on a Faith road trip, which ended up being 3 weeks long. That resulted in suspicious things such as: Duane getting really protective when the home-sick NYC kid gave Becky a hug, because she was from his state. “Sorry” the boy said, “she must be your girlfriend…” Well, not yet, but it sure did appear to be true…Or in San Francisco, when Becky had the worst sinus infection ever, took nightquil and slept for two days. Duane was really concerned…you would have thought she was dying…

Then in Mendocino, California, there was that long walk, barefoot on the beach, watching the sunset, and talking for hours. It was the most romantic date ever, except for the part where Becky didn’t know if Duane liked her, but she knew she was falling for him.

A couple days later, in Discovery Bay, Duane said to Becky, “would you like to go down to the beach and watch the sunset with me?” The response was a smile and a nod. As the sun set he confessed that he liked her, and she said, "I thought so" and awkwardly left him hanging, so he had to ask, "um, do you feel the same way?" "Oh, yes!!!"

After a long, flirtatious drive back to Idaho, the couple talked to their leaders, and officially started dating.

At last it came time to meet the parents on a camping trip in Moab. The couple had fun, mountain biking, hiking, and sleeping outside in hammocks! As a joke they took a picture of them wearing rings, and e-mailed it to some friends. This is referred to as the time they “accidentally” looked a rings… but it worked out conveniently for Duane. Dresses as pirates they returned to their excited friends. It was rather disappointing to admit, it was just a joke.

As they prayed about what their future would look like, rather than Duane stay in Idaho, it seemed that it was time for Becky to move on. At the pirate/hippie good-bye party, Becky was given a “thank you” so big that it didn’t fit on the card, and Duane was awarded with the right to take one staff member of his choice to Colorado.

The day after Becky arrived in Colorado Springs Duane insisted they go for a walk in the Garden of the Gods. She put her camera in her pocket, and noticed he had something in his pocket, which didn’t look like his phone, but it wasn’t a ring box either, so she wasn’t too suspicious.

As they walked, he talked about how this was his playground, and finally it was going to be a romantic spot, now that his princess was here. As they rounded a corner of “Twin Spires” Duane talked about how the 2 different colored rocks somehow merged into one, like a married rock, if that is possible. There were flowers and a card on the ground. Becky figured he must have had a friend put it there. Since he is a romantic guy anyway, this might just be a “welcome to Colorado” gift.

The card had pictures of them on the front and inside a picture of Duane with…her mom and step-dad? Duane said, “I just had a crazy weekend in Pennsylvania, and I called your Dad too,” as he got down on one knee and pulled out a ring and put it on her finger. She kissed him, for the first time, (since they weren’t going to kiss until we are engaged), and now they were engaged!

A distant voice yelled, “so, is that a yes?” That’s when she noticed our photographer stalker, and discovered that the random thing in Duane’s pocket was the voice recorder…so yes, they have it all on video…

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

What we learned...

Three weeks into the school, God got us out of our comfortable classroom to teach us about pioneering, leadership, and hearing the voice of God. We learned it as we lived it. Our little faith journey ended up being 3 weeks long. I could tell you everything we did, but more importantly I would like to share what we learned.

First off we learned not to be presumptuous, but to keep asking God what His will is in every decision we made. Later we recognized the gifts God had given us and how we had used them on the road trip. We also encouraged each other and acknowledged each other’s strengths.

I grew in boldness - whether speaking up in team meetings or later going to a leader and offering my advice on a situation. In seeing how God sometimes gives me insight, at one point a leader pulled me aside and asked, “what do you think about...”. I was also hurt when after I took initiative, I was told “you can’t say that; you’re not a leader.” Actually we are all leaders, that’s why we’re in a school about leadership. I may not always say things as nicely as I should, but I am still proud of myself for growing in being assertive.

Last week, as we debriefed the trip we realized underlying tension in the team because of poor communication and misunderstandings. We apologized and found reconciliation. Although the road trip was amazing, I feel if we had a chance to do it again, it would be even better...

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Day 14-17: Discovery Bay

These past few days were a "normal" lecture week only crunched into 3 days, and taking place at a different base/campus. It was really good... with lots and lots of notes...
Somehow, we had free time one afternoon, so we went into town. At one cute little tourist shop we found this quote, which is something our speaker said this week:
We felt like being here was not so much for our team, as much as for our speaker to connect with people here who are interested in the country he has served in. He was also able to network with some people in the city this morning. While he was away, we had "team time." Which I kind of led...I'm so proud of me :)
Three weeks ago, when praying about the road trip, we felt "all our individual gifts will be used," so my question for our team was, "what is one of your gifts you saw God use during the trip?" or "what areas of gifting have you seen growth in?" We each shared about ourselves (it's always fun to challenge people with recognizing their own gifts). Then we encouraged and affirmed each other. It was good...

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Day 13: Driving...all day long...

Most of us felt we should go north, but Nelson heard “go home,” (as it turns out, our trip north will take us through his home town). Since this week’s speaker’s flight had a layover in Seattle, he just got off there, rented a car, went to Discovery Bay and was adopted by their School as he awaits our arrival.

The funniest part of this trip is Josiah (the school leader) felt he was not supposed to go with us, so we left him behind. I hope all goes well for him and he finds his way back to Idaho…His absence forces the rest of us to rise to the occasion and step into areas of leadership.
Our team spent Sunday enjoying the beauty of God’s creation as we drove along the coast and in out of the mountains and Red Wood forest. We even passed the “World Famous Drive Thru Tree,” so we stopped and asked about it, discovering it’s only 1 mile out of the way and cost $5, but our van would be too big to drive through it. What’s the point of that?
So a little while later we stopped at the beach, and got surprised by the size of some of the waves. It was great fun…after changing into dry clothes we continued North.
Be praying for our team. While we feel the best is yet to come and more growth – that also means being stretched in leadership, team unity and personal humility. In the past two weeks almost every one of us has taken our turn to break down, fall apart, and cry (at least all the girls cried).

As you know, I fell apart in San Francisco – being sick, tired, and hating cities. After resting and enjoying The Lord’s Land, I feel refreshed and recharged. Today I stepped back into helping lead rather than resting – taking over the grocery shopping, calling friends to see if we can spend the night in Longview, and being the point person for our communication with Discovery Bay, since I know people there.

I am back to lovin' the adventure of this road trip, even though after 12 hours in the car, I started going crazy and then I bought candy, had a sugar high, and then a power nap. Now we are chillin' with our friends in Longview :) but I really should go to sleep... tomorrow more driving...

Monday, June 21, 2010

Summer Thus Far...

2 months ago I arrived back in Idaho, glad to be home, but unsure of what exactly I would be doing...as it turns out, it's been a little bit of everything.

As I'm witting this sitting at the table in a quaint little cabin in Discovery Bay (in Washington State). A group of us drove about 13 hours to come here for a Fundrasing Seminar.

Being that I was homeschooled, and I already read the book, I wasn't going to come. Then Carrie asked me to be her Nanny this week. So baby Will and I get to chill out and when he naps, I sit in on some of the seminars...It's a nice relaxing activity after the craziness of the past couple weeks.
The beginning of June we went straight from a week of cooking for  fire camp, to the welcome dinner for the Backpackers D-School. We've got 5 students this summer - all guys, and there's 2 guys and a girl staffing the school.They are a fun group, so I joined them for a backpacking trip last week. It was my first time hiking/camping in the snow, and I am not a fan of that.
So I volunteered to be their driver for the trip to the REI Garage Sale. That's where the REI Store sells damaged or returned out-door gear for AMAZING prices. In order to get a good spot in line at this huge event, we drove down Friday and spent the night camping out in front of the store. Now I have warm clothes for future snow camping trips, although the rest of the summer should be snow-free. I even brought my warm, water-proof jacket to Washington, because it rains here...a lot...

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Washington

Thursday we got up early so we could make it from Twin Falls, Idaho to Longview, Washington in time for our evening meeting.
A friend set up the event for us as a "anyone interested in m-work should come" type deal. So we had a bunch of high schoolers/young adults. The program was all ours, so Sam did his power point, I got to ask the questions and give out prizes, and Dave did statistics of m-work today and took pictures of Matt speaking,and of our small group discussion time.A bunch of people had been over-seas so after the meeting we had a great time chillin, eating doughnuts and sharing stores of crazy over-seas experiences...

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Mobile Tour

Upon returning to Idaho, I spent a couple days unpacking, settling in, catching up on what's going on, and helping out in the office. The guys had also just gotten back from part 1 of the mobile tour, and I overheard Joe discussing getting together with them to catch up on what was going on and plan out the next couple weeks. Carrie offered to make cinnamon buns, so I jokingly invited myself to join their meeting. I wasn't really going to go, because I was afraid they would try to convince me to join the mobile tour. 

Matt and Sam shared about the mobile tour. I thought they were just going places recruiting for our D-school, but really they are sharing the Father's heart for the lost and challenging people to get involved in m-work any way they felt led. They have a great slide show with facts, statistics and verses about m-work, and share with youth groups, young adult groups and Christian schools.

It sounded amazing, and I totally wanted to join. Instead of saying anything rash, I skipped out of the rest of the meeting to go to the church for "Soup and the Word" for the High Schooler's lunch break. I got to surprise them, because no one knew I was back...that was fun :)

Matt and Sam had said the mobile tour was great with 3 people, and Dave have been traveling with them. Then I found out Dave wasn't going on Part 2 of the mobile tour, so I asked to join. Thinking I would road trip with the all staff to Washington for Tommy + Lacey's wedding, and then go with the guys to Salt Lake the following week.

So on Monday, after the staff meeting Joe said, "you should go with the mobile tour to Twin Falls." Originally I was thinking that was not possible because we had a big mailing I committed to helping with, but we had finished it early. I was also focused on preparing my time of sharing about Children At Risk at the staff meeting, which had just ended.

So with no go reason not to go, I threw some clothes in a bag and hit the road Monday afternoon...