Parents Visited

Hey guys. I know its been a long time since I've been on this, but I have a had alot going on. For starters my parents came! We had alot of fun, but it was just nice to see them and have them in person to talk to. It was amazing to show them my life up here. On Friday we drove around the area and went to Copper and met some of my coworkers. Later that day my family and the Berrys went to Denver and played around at this theme park thing. My dad enjoyed playing around with Andy and Nic so that was fun -- laser tag, virtual video game, bowling. We got home late but it was definitely a fun day. The next day we went shopping at the local outlets. But it was snowing lightly so that added to the fun. I know my mom enjoyed getting to see the snow falling. Then that afternoon we all went to the tubing hill at Copper. Oh man that was alot of fun. We created all kinds of ways to go down the hill as a group. It was fun. I have pictures that I will put up later. It was sad to see them go, but I know I will be home in a month and that makes it okay.
Please pray for our efforts to plan this mother/daughter retreat. We are hitting some blocks but its all in God's timing and its just kinda hard to wait...

Prayer

As part of our assignments at High Country, we have to read certain books. For starters we have to also read the book of Acts, and then in addition to that, we were assigned Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire -- the story of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church. I already knew a basis of that story but reading that book was definitely empowering. It just is about the power of prayer and how that is the key to everything and to seeing God work be fruitful. It encouraged me to seek God in prayer for everything -- especially to pray over anything i do up here. Then God decided to prove His point even farther. Yesterday Shanna and I had a meeting with Cherie (the pastor's wife) and she showed us her prayer journal. Since Cherie is very very organized, we weren't too thrilled about the idea, knowing we wouldn't be able to do it. But she actually gave us our own prayer journals and showed us how to use them. They are 3 spiral notebooks with different sections for prayer topics -- praise, family, friends, church, intercession, and the world. So anyways I filled some of mine out today and I am so excited about using it. My prayer is that it will be a consistent desire to use it and to cry out to God for everything. Please pray for that to happen. I have already noticed a change in my heart towards needing prayer. Needing it not just doing it when I want something. But continual conversation with God and then God outpouring back to me... Anyways I'm excited about starting this journey. And please feel free to hold me accountable to it! =)
love you guys!

Easter

Happy Easter everyone!
We had a fun day. Last night Trish and Andy went on a date and I watched the kids. We went out for pancakes for dinner =) and played games until bedtime. This one game seemed to never end. But then we woke up to easter baskets full of goodies. I had gotten the kids one big thing of candy and then a card and chocolate bunny for Trish. We got dressed for church. I actually wore a skirt! You have to wear one for Easter... haha. But yeah at church we had a huge brunch and then the church service. We had alot of family and new guests so that was exciting. After church the Berry's, Alison (the youth) and another family stayed at the Estes' for Easter lunch and easter egg hunt. haha It was fun. So yeah then we went back home and started homework and readings and whatnot.... the not so fun part.
Anyways. If you could just pray for Shanna and I as we struggle to feel used and effective up here. We are also in the middle of planning a retreat for the moms and daughters of the church, so please lift that up as we make decisions and for the people who come!

Skiing

Sorry I haven't written stories in a while so i will write about an old one and then about Easter. On Wednesday of last week, I got to go skiing with Shanna and my cousin, Madeline. She was here on a church ski trip to Copper. This was her first time skiing, so on Tuesday when they got there she took ski lessons. And then Wednesday she went with her friends down American Flyer lift, which are hard, especially for beginners. So after lunch, we took her back over to the greens (easy) and spent the afternoon there. And she did so good! Madeline didn't fall at all for the 3 hours we were out. And it looked like she had fun too. Shanna boards so she went faster than us but she got to work on some techniques and stuff. But for me I realized I had gotten alot better. I didn't fall and I actually enjoyed the skiing, istead of freaking out all the time and just being scared. So that was very exciting to realize. Hopefully Shanna and I will be able to get out some more before the mountains close. But yeah it was fun hanging out with Madeline in a place other than her house and my grandmothers. Just a time for us to get to know each other outside of holiday catchups. Here are some pictures of us from that day.

Give Me Words to Speak

Calloused and bruised
dazed and confused
My Spirit is left wanting something more
Than my selfish hopes
and my selfish dreams
I’m lying with my face down to the floor
I’m crying out for more
So Give me Words to speak
Don’t let my Spirit sleep
Cause I can’t think of anything worth saying
But I know that I owe You my life
So give me Words to speak
Don’t let my Spirit sleepEvery night, every day
I find that I have nothing I can say
So I stand here in silence awaiting Your guidance
I’m wanting only Your voice to be heard
Let them be Your Words
I just don’t understand this life that I’ve been living
I just don’t understand (x2)
I just don’t understand these lies I’ve been believing
I just don’t understand (x2)

God, I just need the words. I know that I need to say more than the things I have. I need to bring the conversations from about God to how they don't know Him. And thats the hardest part....

High Country Church

Well things are changing once again in our church. Yesterday was Tyler, our music minister,'s last day at HCC. He has decided to work with another group in the area and possibly revive his traveling music ministry with his wife. So just pray for our church. Things in general are a little crazy but as long as the Holy Spirit is apart of everything, its all good. So pray that the leadership (which is just the pastor and the secretary now) will seek God in all that they do and seek God's guidance in how this new model of house church should work. My family and I went to lunch with Tyler and his family and Shanna and Alison. It was fun, but also sad becuase I just got to know Tyler and everything. So just pray for the situation.
Today we (shanna and i) had meetings with Jeff about our schedule and kind of like discipleship. It went well. Part of it was that we watched a video sermon that everyone else watched sunday morning. It was so good. It was all about risking your life/comfort for ministry. He just encouraged me to just really be forth right in talking about Jesus to my coworkers. I've definitely laid a foundation, they know I'm a Christian, and I know a little on where they stand on some stuff. But I need to just go for the hard stuff.
Tomorrow is another ministry opportunity for us. We have a group of like 35 kids coming from Mississippi and we are going to pass out hot chocolate to guest and workers at Keystone. Shanna and I are going to make the hot chocholate...haha. But yeah it should be fun!

Playmaker

At Copper, we have a variety of phrases that summarize their goals, missions, ideals. One of them is our weekly playmakers. These are people who have demonstrated those phrases to the guests or in their job. There is usually about 5 or so a week and then at the end of the month those people have a party in their honor. (its appetizers really). All that to say that I am a Playmaker for this week. haha. =) im excited. I got it for a situtation i resolved about a month ago with an angry customer. So this is the write up that got emailed around...

http://itwcoweb/Intranet/content.aspx?appID=3&pageID=427

Road Trip

haha One of Shanna's friends was here skiing with the family in Steamboat Springs. They invited Shanna to go skiing with them yesterday and she invited me to go along too. Even though we can ski for free there with our copper employee pass, we decided we would just join them for dinner instead of the whole day. The drive is like an hour and fortyfive minutes away from Silverthorne, so we left at like 3. The road was definitely a curvy two lane road and Shanna did a great job of driving. We ate at Tequila's (a Mexican resturant there in Steamboat) and then headed back around 8. It made for a long night, but it was fun getting to see another resort and hanging out with Shanna. I know she was glad to hang out with her friend from home too. haha while we were there we went window shopping in the resort village. We found this fur shop. haha. We tried on this huge fur hats and took a picture. I dont think anyone could have seen around us with these hats on. And they were like a bunch of money too. haha.

The other funny event of the day was that Shanna and i decided to check out all these outlet shops that Silverthorne has. We started out at the green village and didn't find anything we want or could afford and then headed to the red village. Well i found a zales outlet store! haha everything was still really expensive but i did find a ring for like 200 that i liked =) and then we found the jackpot. Harry and David's. haha we basically ended up going grocery shopping at Harry and David's. It all looked amazing! But we bought some stuff (thank you grandmother) and then headed to steamboat. So the only thing we bought after a day of shopping was food. haha. Don't you think Shanna and I fit as friends? haha. But it was fun. So mom and dad when you come you will definitely have to check that out with me!

Well I'm at work and bored but I guess I should get off this. =)

A visit from home

I'm officially a fan of Valentine's day. The family I live with actually bought Jonathan a plane ticket to come visit me for valentines'. How awesome is that! =) So he came this past weekend for a great (although quick) visit. He flew in on Thursday and we spent some time in Denver and headed back home. We had a great dinner as he got to meet the Berry's. =) I think they got along great, although I know it was a little hard for him to walk in and fulfill expectations. The next morning we woke up really early and went to my work. I worked from 7:30 to about 11, while Jonathan wandered around and visited Copper. After I got off we went skiing! I was wondering how good he would be since its been a long time since his last time, but once we got to the top of the mountian he became a natural. Or expert. He was so good. But yeah I did really well for myself though -- my technique is definitely improving. After one run, he went on and skied a couple of blues by himself. We went home exhausted and took a nap. For dinner we went out and then went to our Friday night small group -- so he got to meet the pastor and some of our church family. Saturday we ate an amazing breakfast Andy cooked then hung around the house with the Berry's and spent some more time with them. But unfortunately we had to leave pretty soon after. We talked through main street frisco and then went to denver. And he headed back home to Nac. I am so glad he came and got to experience a little of my life here. Now he has a face and picture of stories I tell and I was just refreshed and encouraged to have him and a piece of home back with me. Anyways. so that was my great weekend!!

Encouragement

Guys, I just wanted to thank everyone for all they have done to encourage me the past couple of days. It has truly been a Godsend. I am doing great, but having some struggles with my assignment here. Specifically the work with the youth at the church. I love my church body but not having any youth group makes it difficult. And i'm a little confused with the leadership so i dunno. Supposed to have a meeting with leadership tonight and hopefully suggest some ideas that Shanna (the children's intern) and i came up with. Its just hard being an 'outsider'. But anyways despite this, yall have been amazing in sending notes, texts, messages, emails, and phone calls to me. It has really lifted my spirits and just reminded me I am capable with God and He brought me here for a reason. And that reason will be fullfilled through me and others here. Knowing that loved ones are coming soon is also helping! =) Anyways. I just wanted to say thankyou!

PS And what's with this election? Who's up for a 4 year vacation in London?

Tubing and Saturday

Yesterday went we tubing at Copper with a bunch of girl scouts and others. I actually went on my lunch break. My boss is technically gone and i said it was my way of testing our products so i just took a really long lunch. =) We had a blast! Alison, Shanna, and I went together for our first run and it had two huge bumps and we definitely caught some air! Then the girls (some were from basketball and then it was other church girls we know) all decided to go down the steep last one together. We all chained together with our hands and went flying down. it was scary for some but after that initial time, they were committed! They went down that for the rest of that time. =) I hopefully have pictures but they are on Shanna's camera.

Today is saturday and i worked. I only worked for 4 hours but it seemed really long. Kinda stressful at work for me, just because I feel I'm constantly being scrutinized and watched for my performance. But as a whole we are doing well with meeting our goals so we got pizza for lunch. =) I actually brought doughnots for breakfast to work on friday morning and left a note on the box about having a great day. Everyone just was so appreciative and i enjoyed being able to uplift everyone. I hope to continue to do little act of kindness, i feel that it helps to redefine their ideas of Christians. They are so negative to the idea of church, that something as simple as doughnots goes a long way.

Unfortunately I am feeling a little down physically. I just have this ache in half of my throat and i am so afraid of actually becoming sick. So im drinking alot of water and trying to get rest (although its not happening) and taking some vitamins and medicine. so please pray i continue to stay healthy -- i certainly dont want to pass this on to anyone either.