Merry Christmas to Friends and Family - December 2007

Dearest Family and Friends,

Merry, merry Christmas!! We hope you are well! We are thinking of you and praying that you are experiencing peace and blessing. It’s been one year since we left our home in Colorado and moved to Northern Arizona. The climate is the same (high altitude. snow in the winter) but just about everything else in our life is very different.

November 2006 Josh took leave from IBM for a job opportunity with Young Life (a non-denominational Christian outreach ministry to middle and high school students) (sorry if this is review). He is the manager of Young Life’s camp called Lost Canyon fulfilling a life-long desire to participate in a forum where Jesus is shared and kids are loved (away from the day to day of life). God really used Josh’s time as a manager at IBM to build his skills to be prepared to lead the 20-person team here. He is great at this job, too, and now he drives a golf cart to work. He would also say that work is still work and “people issues” exist in every job to grow us, but he’s where he’s supposed to be for now. The camp is two miles up the road from a small route 66 town (population 3000). We’re about an hour from the Grand Canyon and there is a train that goes to the Canyon that draws tourists to our town (complete with cowboys that “rob” the train and have a shoot-out). I ran into an unknown but familiar man at the William’s community Thanksgiving dinner and my mouth blurted out what my mind had been trying to figure out, “You’re a cowboy!” Apparently, they have other jobs as well. I finally feel at home in my Safeway and post office here, but don’t spend much time in the actual town.
We live in the only house on the camp property surrounded by the Kaibab National Forest with a little pond in front (it looks like winter wonderland right now). Besides college and the 5 years following, I have only ever lived in a suburb (similar houses, community pool etc). This is my first experience without neighbors. When camp is in session, however, I have 400 neighbors 350 yards away. I do not borrow a cup of sugar from any of them but sometimes we will eat with them in the dining hall. The camp has high school or middle school kids here all summer for a week at a time and then the winter has weekends booked for church retreats, conferences, and weekend camps. I like having an indoor gym, game room & gift shop in walking distance and elk poop in the yard, but I miss our wonderful neighbors.
Another big change is that I’m home schooling our boys this year. The local public school was not recommended and driving 72 miles a day (2 round-trips to a neighboring town) became old. I had been deliberating between getting a job and going back to school and I got both. We bought scripted lesson plans with a complete curriculum program to help us figure it out, and we belong to a home school group in town where I’m getting to know some families. We take art with the group and do some recreational things. I love being around the guys and the flexibility, and my patience is growing (?). I’ll let you know how the year goes for the boys, but I am learning a great deal (and we don’t wake up early or make lunches).
Ryan (10) and Justin (9) like to play (outside in the snow, board/card/video/computer games, with Legos and Pokemon, pool, ping pong, disc golf and anything with Dad). They also like to read and jump on the trampoline. During the summer they ran all over camp (and ate most of their meals in the dining hall as well)...we barely saw them unless we had friends here. They are making up for lost time with me with the home schooling thing.
While we don’t have all our amazing Colorado friends and church here, our camp staff is great and they have been a family for us. We hang out with a lot of 26 year olds (average age of our staff). We have lunches, dinners with staff and families, and women and men’s bible study almost weekly. When we “get over” being older than them (or being the boss) we have fun (especially playing games) and we pray we will build friendships with people in town in 2008.
the4smileys.blogspot.comIf I had to pick a couple of many blessings to praise God for in 2007 it would be growing closer in our marriage and the extraordinary love and support from our family and friends with visits, calls, prayer, emails and hosting us so we could get out of town. Moving is certainly the hardest thing I’ve done in a while and God sustained us while we were lonely with 67 visitors (some repeat offenders) during 20 visits (and we left town about 15 times). We appreciated it all so much. You are always welcome here.
God bless you far and wide.