Well we are finally moved in and enjoyed my parents and sister with her husband and kids for Thanksgiving.  It was a little weird not having any students or other friends but we had a great time any way.   We always take time to talk about what God has done over the last year and things that we are thankful for, well this year we didn’t do it but later that night God brought something to my mind.  My mom, Zach, Kylee & I were playing a game called “Buzz Word” and how you play is you are given a clue and the answer has to contain the buzz word so of course it was very late and I yelled out something that made no sense but contained the buzz word and we all just busted out laughing.  Our stomachs ached and I remembered I haven’t laughed liked that in a long time.

I am truly thankful for my family and the joy that they are especially after hearing of my precious friends in Oklahoma who lost their 6 yr old daughter this morning after 2 1/2 years of a battle with cancer.  I am planning to go back and Kylee wants to go with me, I think the funeral will be on Wednesday so we pray for save travel and a celebration that Anna is not suffering any more.

I am looking forward to this weekend as Kylee and I will enjoy a great weekend before she turns twelve in January.  We are going to go stay in a hotel and talk girlie stuff (sorry men who are reading this)

We pray all of you are doing well and experiencing God’s love.

This week’s quote from Hudson “Mom, I don’t need a coat, I’m a man!”

Last weekend we had separate retreats for the guys and gals.  And what a time we had.  The guys stayed at a ranch about 2 hours north of Boulder.  We had a great time discussing what it means to be a Christian man, playing paintball in the National forest, shooting other more dangerous guns, eating meat, building a massive fire, laughing, and more.  Pictures have been withheld to protect the innocent.

I think the girls talked about Jesus, watched movies, and knitted, and ate chocolate.  Sounds a little sedated, but they all said it was wonderful. Then they made dinner for us guys when we returned from our wild, man time.  The guys did have flower for each girl at the dinner, so we’re not just uncouth, meat eaters.

Hooray!!

God has made a place for us to pitch our tents.   We have found a house to rent for awhile and have moved out of our storage unit.  We are grateful to have some more space and we can actually invite people to our house.  Julee is thriving as she organizes things and its kind of like an early Christmas opening boxes we haven’t seen for 5 months.  The kids have had a great time setting up and organizing their rooms.

So 5 months after moving from Arizona, we have a settled, established feeling.  We are also grateful for the incredible Pruett family who have shared their home with us during this time.  God blessed in ways we would have never guessed.  Our families have bonded in a way that would never have happened otherwise.  We are connected now very deeply and its like our family has expanded by 10.  Its a little hard to explain, but it was very good, even with all the challenges.

Thank you for your prayers in this matter.  And pray that we can still find a house to buy (and be able to buy it) in Boulder.  We are hoping that by next summer we will be in a home we own.

I’ll get some pictures up soon.

As I have thought about one of the primary tasks of our ministry, I think that it is connecting people to Jesus. Not just passing on information, teaching some skill or other, playing, running people through a set of ministry programs so they have been discipled, rather setting an atmosphere where students can hear, see, meet with Jesus.

We might like to think ( certainly only in moments of pride) we can transform individuals with our vast ministry skill, but O how wrong we are. Jesus transforms people from the inside out and our ministry is only truly successful when students are connected with Jesus so that He is changing them from the inside out. Discipleship is helping people become apprenticed to Jesus in His school (to borrow from Dallas Willard).

So when we say that we are discipling students, first we mean that we are doing all we can to introduce them to close, intimate relationship with Jesus.

Nov. 5, 2007

This weekend we were able to look at three different rent houses. One was a great house. The owner had just bought it 6 weeks ago and had totally redone everything, so it looked very fresh but it had no front yard or back yard which for the dog and kids it’s kind of a must. The other house, well let me put it this way, when we left I felt like taking a shower. Three college guys who have started a band were renting it, that is probably enough said. The third house might actually work, it was smaller square footage but we could probably leave some stuff in storage and at least have a place for us to settle down. We have a call out to another house that is in Louisville, which is a few miles down the road.

Kylee continues to take violin lessons and enjoys her teacher (one of the Challenge students). Zach is still practicing the piano, which the Pruett’s just got tuned, so he can now know what the notes are really suppose to sound like. Josh is starting up wrestling with the high school team. Caleb will get his driver’s permit this week!!! PLEASE PRAY FOR ME. Hudson is working on his letters and sounds and I’m working on his attitude.

It is getting cooler here but still beautiful, we are going to have to go dig (and I mean dig) out our winter hats, gloves and boots pretty soon.

Would love to hear from you all.

Julee