Our church has a pretty elaborate Christmas play each year, and this year John was recruited to play a part. He played an old man. Enjoy the pictures.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Monday, November 19, 2007
The First Snow!
We have finally had our first significant snow here in Montana this year. And it was a big one! We probably got about a foot of snow Sunday and Monday. Its beautiful. The evergreen trees covered in snow are my favorites. Sometimes I feel like I live in Narnia. I feel blessed to live in such a beautiful part of God's creation where He shows us his splendor in so many ways.
We couldn't let the first snow pass by without sledding, so we went out after school for just a few minutes and played. Scout still loves chasing the sleds down the hill but won't have anything to do with actually getting on the sled. He picked up a new game this year though- Catch the snowballs in your mouth. He is a funny dog.
We couldn't let the first snow pass by without sledding, so we went out after school for just a few minutes and played. Scout still loves chasing the sleds down the hill but won't have anything to do with actually getting on the sled. He picked up a new game this year though- Catch the snowballs in your mouth. He is a funny dog.
Anyway, we didn't bother digging our car out this morning, and we probably won't for awhile. (Why didn't we put it in the garage? Good question. I was wondering the same thing myself when I realized I needed it this afternoon.) We only have one more day of school this week, and then its Thanksgiving Break!
With all of this snow, we are getting even more excited about Christmas. I think we are getting more excited this year because we are actually hosting Christmas for my family. We are also glad that we don't have to spend our whole vacation traveling, which can be exhausting.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Love the Poor
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about what it means to love others like Jesus loves them. I am teaching a junior high girls class at church and we are studying a book called Being a Girl Who Loves. I'm sure I'm learning as much as the girls are, if not more. One topic that I have been considering the last few days is loving the poor and what that means for us today. Jesus told us to love the poor. I think we (by we I mean I) tend to replace that word love with judge. We feel it is our job to judge whether or not they have a worthy reason for being poor, and then based on that judgment we decide if we can love them or not. John and I frequently drive to Missoula on the weekends. Every time we go there is a man standing on the corner in front of Wal-Mart with a sign asking for money. Every week we drive by and I judge him, thinking he should just get a job. Maybe he should just get a job, but Jesus says love him, he doesn't say judge him. In Marion we lived across the street from a group of guys we were honestly scared of. Being a young woman, I was afraid to be at home alone. I was judging them. Maybe I was correct in my judgments, but that is not what I was supposed to be doing; I was to be loving. Occasionally these men would come over to use our phone, and once they asked for money. One particular man John really was able to establish a relationship with. He started coming over to borrow the phone, and then he would stay and talk. This happened often when I was not even home. John played his guitar for him and he loved it. He played worship music, and sometimes the man asked for prayer and John was able to pray for him. I think that this is what it means to love the poor, but considering we lived there for a year we did very little loving of these men. I only know the name of the one man who frequented our house. I never took the time to meet any of the other men, or even the random kids who played in the yard. What an opportunity we had. Its not like we didn't do anything, but I just keep thinking of how much more we could have loved these people. I also keep thinking that if I were to move back to the same apartment, I probably still wouldn't do anything. How hard it can be to love strangers, escecially strangers who are so different from us. I have a hard time leaving my comfort zone, but yet that is exactly what we are called to do.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Hunting in Montana
Heather and I were debating whether or not to go hunting this year. Neither of us have ever been hunting before, and I have to admit that I was a little hesitant about the whole idea. Many of you know that the ranch where we work gets a lot of its meat from hunting. During the first week of hunting in Montana we do not have school, and the kids go out with their housedads and other staff. Heather and I decided to get tags for deer because deer tags are less than $20, and that is a cheap alternative to beef.
We went hunting one day with some of the staff from the ranch and a couple of the kids, but we saw very few deer and non that were close enough to take a shot at. Later that same week, we were going to visit a friend of ours in north-central Montana. Her dad owns a 4,000 acre ranch, so we thought this would be a great place to hunt. Central and Eastern Montana is so different than the Western part in which we live. Our friend's ranch was flat and desolate, with very few trees. Deer are more prevalent in this part of the state and since there are few trees it is easier to spot game.
On Saturday we went out shortly after daylight, and we spotted deer within the first hour. We really couldn't get very close, so we kept looking. We spotted a couple of does that were close enough that I could have probably taken a shot. I had the gun on one of them, but just didn't think I could hit it from that distance. We got back in the truck and drove some more until we spotted a herd of deer. There were probably ten deer and one of them was a nice size buck. I told Heather that she should take the shot since I chickened-out on my shot. We made it close enough and she took a shot at the buck. All of the deer except for the buck ran off, which I thought was weird but he wasn't acting like he was hit. She fired two more times but missed. She told me to try, so I shot several more times. He had been laying down but got up at this point and started to run away from us. We followed him for about a quarter of a mile, I shot again, and missed. At this point you are probably realizing how bad of shots we were. The next couples hours were spent following the buck. We would get close to him and then we would keep moving away from us. I knew that if I couldn't hit him laying down, I probably shouldn't try to hit him running. Our friend was with us and was becoming just as frustrated as we were. We felt we couldn't less this large buck just get away. Also, we kind of thought that I had hit it because I could see something that looked like blood on its mouth.
We had walked so far from the truck that our friend decided to go get it and we would keep following the deer. At one point, we met up with some hunters at a road that the deer had crossed, and they said that the deer had definitely been shot. The red that I saw on its face was blood because somehow I had managed to shoot it in the face. Yeah, I know. Who shoots a deer in the face? We followed the deer, and I was able to take two more shots that could have hit it but it certainly didn't drop. We drove around the field that it was in and finally got within 50 yards of the deer. I chambered a round and brought down the buck. The last shot I took definitely did the trick and it was pretty much dead when I approached it. At this point, we were able to see just how many of our shots actually hit the deer. I had hit it in the jaw, across the front of the leg, and then the finally kill shot. I felt horrible about this entire process. I wanted to kill the deer with one quick shot so it wouldn't suffer, but it certainly didn't happen that way. At this point, I think Heather and I had no desire to go hunting again. We were able to get the deer field dressed with the help of our friend's dad, which was a interesting and probably too graphic for this blog. The buck was a pretty good size mule deer, and he had a 4 X 3 rack. This meant a total of seven points, three on one side and four on the other.
Maybe the funniest part of this whole trip was that we took our four door car with us, so that is how we got it home. I didn't like the idea of putting it in our trunk, so we wrapped it in a tarp that I had and put it on the top of the trunk. It was extremely red-neck and definitely turned some heads on the five hour drive home. Some hunters at a gas station commented on the nice size of the deer, but I bet they were crack jokes the rest of the day about the deer strapped to the back of our car.
After all of this, Heather doesn't have any desire to fill her tag this year. We had the deer butchered here at the ranch, since there were several other deer being processed. We were able to quite a bit of meat from the deer. I don't know if I will ever hunt again. It will need to go a lot smoother if I do. I would love to get an elk since they taste amazing and the tags are just a couple more dollars than a deer tag.
We went hunting one day with some of the staff from the ranch and a couple of the kids, but we saw very few deer and non that were close enough to take a shot at. Later that same week, we were going to visit a friend of ours in north-central Montana. Her dad owns a 4,000 acre ranch, so we thought this would be a great place to hunt. Central and Eastern Montana is so different than the Western part in which we live. Our friend's ranch was flat and desolate, with very few trees. Deer are more prevalent in this part of the state and since there are few trees it is easier to spot game.
On Saturday we went out shortly after daylight, and we spotted deer within the first hour. We really couldn't get very close, so we kept looking. We spotted a couple of does that were close enough that I could have probably taken a shot. I had the gun on one of them, but just didn't think I could hit it from that distance. We got back in the truck and drove some more until we spotted a herd of deer. There were probably ten deer and one of them was a nice size buck. I told Heather that she should take the shot since I chickened-out on my shot. We made it close enough and she took a shot at the buck. All of the deer except for the buck ran off, which I thought was weird but he wasn't acting like he was hit. She fired two more times but missed. She told me to try, so I shot several more times. He had been laying down but got up at this point and started to run away from us. We followed him for about a quarter of a mile, I shot again, and missed. At this point you are probably realizing how bad of shots we were. The next couples hours were spent following the buck. We would get close to him and then we would keep moving away from us. I knew that if I couldn't hit him laying down, I probably shouldn't try to hit him running. Our friend was with us and was becoming just as frustrated as we were. We felt we couldn't less this large buck just get away. Also, we kind of thought that I had hit it because I could see something that looked like blood on its mouth.
We had walked so far from the truck that our friend decided to go get it and we would keep following the deer. At one point, we met up with some hunters at a road that the deer had crossed, and they said that the deer had definitely been shot. The red that I saw on its face was blood because somehow I had managed to shoot it in the face. Yeah, I know. Who shoots a deer in the face? We followed the deer, and I was able to take two more shots that could have hit it but it certainly didn't drop. We drove around the field that it was in and finally got within 50 yards of the deer. I chambered a round and brought down the buck. The last shot I took definitely did the trick and it was pretty much dead when I approached it. At this point, we were able to see just how many of our shots actually hit the deer. I had hit it in the jaw, across the front of the leg, and then the finally kill shot. I felt horrible about this entire process. I wanted to kill the deer with one quick shot so it wouldn't suffer, but it certainly didn't happen that way. At this point, I think Heather and I had no desire to go hunting again. We were able to get the deer field dressed with the help of our friend's dad, which was a interesting and probably too graphic for this blog. The buck was a pretty good size mule deer, and he had a 4 X 3 rack. This meant a total of seven points, three on one side and four on the other.
Maybe the funniest part of this whole trip was that we took our four door car with us, so that is how we got it home. I didn't like the idea of putting it in our trunk, so we wrapped it in a tarp that I had and put it on the top of the trunk. It was extremely red-neck and definitely turned some heads on the five hour drive home. Some hunters at a gas station commented on the nice size of the deer, but I bet they were crack jokes the rest of the day about the deer strapped to the back of our car.
After all of this, Heather doesn't have any desire to fill her tag this year. We had the deer butchered here at the ranch, since there were several other deer being processed. We were able to quite a bit of meat from the deer. I don't know if I will ever hunt again. It will need to go a lot smoother if I do. I would love to get an elk since they taste amazing and the tags are just a couple more dollars than a deer tag.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Trail of the Coeur D'Alenes
This weekend we set out on an adventure. We had heard of a bike trail that crossed most of the Idaho Panhandle. It is the longest paved bike trail in the United States (at least that's what we read), so we thought we should take advantage of this and get out and do it. After putting it off for several weekends because of weather, we finally geared up and headed out Friday after school. By the time we got to the trail, which was about 1 1/2 hours away, loaded up our bikes with all of our camping gear and clothes, etc. it was already getting late. We were only able to ride about 10 miles before we saw it was going to get dark soon, so we found a campground and settled down for the night.
The next morning, we got up and headed out again, with what we thought would be about 62 miles to ride for the day. The trail was beautiful, flat, and paved, so we really enjoyed it. We were, however, freezing and our toes were numb. The sun finally came out in the afternoon and we did warm up. We had decided beforehand that we would stop at one of the towns along the way where the oldest building in Idaho, an old Catholic Mission, still stands today. The sign said it was 3 miles from the trail so we went that direction but after at least 4 miles on the same road, seeing no signs, we decided we had missed something. We asked a man along the road, who gave us some directions that didn't really make sense, so instead we just decided to turn around. About a mile from the trail John spotted a tiny, white paper sign that said "Old Mission" so we turned and finally found it. It was worth the extra trip to see. The building was built by hand without tools in the 1800's. You can still see the straw and mud used on the inside of the walls. It was incredible to see what they were able to build with so little.
So after seeing this, we got back to the trail and pressed on toward the goal- Heyburn State Park. We finally made it after 72 miles and I'm not sure I've ever been so happy to eat macaroni and cheese and canned chicken.
That night we had a visitor, who also must have been happy about macaroni and cheese. We woke up to a loud bang on our picnic table around 4:30 am. We realized suddenly that we hadn't done anything with our food to prevent animals from getting into it, and we had left our bear spray in our bag beside the picnic table. We were convinced that there was a bear just outside our tent and were scared to death. John yelled to try to scare it off, but it only growled. It walked around and growled some more, then we heard noises at the trash can across the road from our tent and a chirping noise... It was only a raccoon! Before I realized it was a raccoon, I don't know if I have ever felt so helpless. I just kept praying that God would keep us safe and whatever it was would leave and not come back. It did. We went back to sleep and woke up thankful to be alive.
That morning we headed back to Mullan, which took about 7 hours of riding, resting, eating, and
drinking lots of Gatorade. We enjoyed the ride and all of the adventure that it brought (except the growling raccoon). The last 10 miles were brutal and we were so glad to be back in our car and in normal clothes and to sleep in our own bed and have a nice dinner. This makes it sound like we were miserable, but we really did have a good time. Our muscles are sore and still recovering, but it was a huge accomplishment for us to take on this long of a trip in a weekend. We rode longer both days than we have ever ridden in a single day. Just call us Lance Armstrong... Next stop- Tour de France. Okay maybe not.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Back to School
Summer has ended and we are back to school. We started school August 27th but we had a 5 day weekend because of Family Camp, so we will go back tomorrow after a long break. Once again we had a frantic race to get everything ready the last few days before the big day, but we managed to get everything done. The first week of testing and chaos is over and we are settling into the normal routine. I am finding that this year is going more smoothly than the beginning of last year, now that I know how everything works and what to expect from the kids. We both have pretty good classes, and are excited to see what this year brings for the students and for ourselves. It is great to see the kids so excited about the beginnning of school and to hear their goals that they have set for themselves. Hopefully as the year progresses they will be able to achieve and even surpass those goals.
Family camp was fun this weekend. It was a nice retreat from normal everyday life, and the speaker had some powerful messages about the dynamics of families. They were great for everyone to hear, but I think he especially got through to some of our kids who have been so broken by their families. We are constantly being reminded of the backgrounds of our students, but I don't think we can ever be reminded enough. In the midst of a difficult situation with a student, it is sometimes hard to remember that they didn't have the life that I had growing up, and that there are circumstances beyond their control which have affected their lives in a negative way. Not that we are to dismiss their behaviors and put the blame on others. We must teach them to move past these circumstances and to put God in control of their lives instead of their dysfunctional lives.
Family camp was fun this weekend. It was a nice retreat from normal everyday life, and the speaker had some powerful messages about the dynamics of families. They were great for everyone to hear, but I think he especially got through to some of our kids who have been so broken by their families. We are constantly being reminded of the backgrounds of our students, but I don't think we can ever be reminded enough. In the midst of a difficult situation with a student, it is sometimes hard to remember that they didn't have the life that I had growing up, and that there are circumstances beyond their control which have affected their lives in a negative way. Not that we are to dismiss their behaviors and put the blame on others. We must teach them to move past these circumstances and to put God in control of their lives instead of their dysfunctional lives.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Fishing Adventures
John and I are not really fishermen. We occasionally tried to fish while living in Indiana, but never really had much luck. This summer, John was determined to get out and fish at camp, especially after spending the money to buy a fishing license. He finally had the opportunity to go out on the boat with Bob, the master fisherman, one of the last weeks of camp this summer. Bob taught John how to fish for salmon on Lake Mary Ronan, and showed him where to go. That day he caught 3 salmon and a 16" rainbow trout. He was pretty proud of his first real fishing trip.
So after having success the first day, he decided to take me back up to camp and try again. We went out with one of the housedads from the ranch and must have just hit the right place at the right time, because we caught 18 salmon between the 3 of us in only 2 hours. We could have continued catching them, but we had to go in to check the fishing regulations to be sure we weren't going over the daily limit. By the time we got back out, the fish weren't even biting anymore. We fried up the salmon and dozens of perch that the kids and the housedad had caught and had a great dinner.
So after having success the first day, he decided to take me back up to camp and try again. We went out with one of the housedads from the ranch and must have just hit the right place at the right time, because we caught 18 salmon between the 3 of us in only 2 hours. We could have continued catching them, but we had to go in to check the fishing regulations to be sure we weren't going over the daily limit. By the time we got back out, the fish weren't even biting anymore. We fried up the salmon and dozens of perch that the kids and the housedad had caught and had a great dinner.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Spring in Montana
Travelpod has not worked out as well as we had hoped, so we are going to try this to keep you all updated on our lives. We haven't been doing a good job of keeping in touch and letting everyone know what is going on, so hopefully this will help with that.
Lately, we have been incredibly busy with end of the school year work, but spring has been wonderful. We have enjoyed the warm weather and the chance to be outside finally. We have been riding our bikes again, which we had missed so much over the winter. We went on a hike to a waterfall in the mountains with one of the groups that was here a few weeks ago. We are looking forward to the summer when we will have work teams coming on a regular basis. I am excited to meet new people who support our work from all over the country.
School ends in just 2 weeks. I (Heather) am going to be teaching summer school for most of June, while John works with the work teams. In July, we will be going to camp to help out there, and then in August we will be able to relax finally.
We have been doing well. We enjoy what we are doing. Sometimes we get frustrated with the little things, and we see kids who are making the same mistakes over and over again. It is hard to see repeated failures, but when we put it in perspective we are better able to understand. When we come to God he doesn't make us perfect overnight. We have to go through a painful process of change that really continues throughout our lives as Satan is constantly attacking us. We cannot expect the kids to instantly be changed, especially when we consider their backgrounds. We have to see them as Christ sees them, and be patient with them as they try to change a lifetime of wrong choices, made by them and many times by their parents as well. We have to show them love, not the frustration we often feel. Christ loves them even in their imperfection and we must do the same.
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