Weekend with Kasey

I had an amazing weekend last week with Kasey and Dyle and Kadyn. It was just what the doctor ordered!! Nick, Josiah, and Erin drove me to Gunnison late Friday night. They ended up staying until around 2am visiting. It was so much fun! Kasey and I took a wonderful 3+ hour walk and did LOTS of talking! :o) Thanks Kasey and Dyle for having me! I loved it!! I can't wait to do it again.

Me, Kadyn, and Kasey!

Thanks again for an amazing time!

House of Promise

Each Wednesday night I go to the House of Promise through the 'Teen Challenge' program. This is a place where women with children under the age of 5 live. These women are recovering addicts or have husbands in jail, etc. They go through a one year faith-based program to get their lives back under control with the help of Jesus Christ. After their first year they can re-enter the program for another year. During this transition year, the girls live at the home but start working in the 'real world' again. These women have touched my life in an amazing way!! I am blessed by their testimonies and what God has done--changing them into beautiful women of God! (Due to confidentiality, I can not mention the women's names or their children's names)

Welcome sign

Giving love to one of the little girls.

She wanted to fly over and over....

One of the mothers with her twins and daughter.

Two of the boys with Andrew (far right)

They loved to climb all over me!

Me and my sweethearts!

One of the mommies with the youngest member of the house family.

Another mommy with her daughter

Rocking the littlest angel.

God provides!!!

God has been providing for me in amazing ways since I've been here at YWAM! My lecture is completely paid off and almost my entire outreach! God has been providing in amazing ways!

God told one of the students to buy me a sleeping bag for outreach. He had no money himself, but told God that if He provided him the money for the sleeping bag that he would buy it! Well, an hour later he got a call. He was told that his uncle put money in his account specifically for something he felt God told him to buy for someone. Well, that someone was me, and this student bought me an amazing sleeping bag!! I was so overwhelmed at how much God loves me...God told a student to buy something for me, and his uncle provided the funds to do it without ever knowing. Jesus loves ME!!!!

Trying out my new North Face mummy bag!

Two thumbs up! It is awesome!!!

Serving

Directly after outreach at the Reservation a group of us went to a local church in Montrose, CO and served the congregation's Valentine's Day Banquet. It was a great time!

L-R: Korine, Ian, Me, Josiah, Erin, and Sophie

The six of us posing with our napkins: do you like my shoes for the occasion? I didn't have any black ones to go with my outfit, so flip flops had to do! Glad I am a nurse and not a waiter...

Being silly

During the time we were serving I started getting very dizzy and almost passing out. I thought my blood sugar was messed up, but after arriving back on base the dizziness continued for several days. I was not able to walk a straight line and would run into the walls a lot. I had to be escorted as well! After several days, the dizziness left me. This has happened randomly for 3 times now. I am just praying that it is away for good and nothing is seriously wrong with me! :o)

Fun at YWAM Cimarron

Here are a few pictures of how we fill our limited free time! Enjoy!!

Nick contorting

Little Andrew leading worship.

Gathering around the piano for worship

The boys playing pranks on Jenni. They took the plywood from under the mattress and just replaced the mattress in hopes that she would fall through...it didn't work they way they wanted!

720 feet of yarn...yep, the boys are still ahead!

This was Jenni and my prank to the boys: bags of snow into their tub...

...and toilet...and sinks!

Jenni and I congratlation ourselves on a job well done!

We do have a lot of fun with all the work and studies....that is, WHEN we have free time! :o)

Adventure with Pastor Daniel Smiley

During our last day at the Reservation Pastor Daniel took us for a hike up to a mesa above his homestead. We had an amazing day and didn't want to leave! The view from the top was breathtaking!

This is the remains of his grandfather and father's hogan.

Daniel leading with Bosco, the dog, and my outreach leader, Ian following.

Jenni and I on the top of the mesa. Me, Josiah, and Aaron leaning over the edge!

A cool looking tree

Smile....

We left our names as a time capsule...

Me, Josiah, Aaron, and Nick

My fearless leaders: Ian and Michelle...Ian will be my outreach leader for overseas.

A view of the mesa

Daniel and Jenni telling us about the prayer column...

Each rock represents burdens or troubles that a Navajo is carrying. They must carry a rock that represents the size of their burden from the mesa floor to the top and leave it there. When they feel their trouble coming back and burdening them they just have to look to the top of the mesa and see their 'burden' in the prayer column. Because the ground is so flat you can see the prayer column from miles away.

Enjoying the view

The group of us: (L-R)

Pastor Daniel, Michelle, Ian, Josiah, Nick, Lisa with Andrew, Korine, Aaron, Erin, Jenni, Craig, Martha, and Tim holding Daniel with Bosco in the background

Engraving our names in the stone

Each person Daniel takes to the top of the mesa gets to carve their names into the rock face as a memorial of who was there with him. It was a lot of fun!

Josiah and I each carving our names into the rock...what memories! -- NO, we are NOT holding hands! Definitely against YWAM rules! lol....it definitely looks like we are though!

Here's my signature on the rock wall...

...and YWAM Cimarron's logo!

Riding in the back of the truck on the Res...reminded me of PNG all over again!

Trying to hold on in the back of the truck while riding down a very bumpy dirt road at high speed! L-R: Aaron, Josiah, Sophie, Nick, Lisa, Jenni

Navajo Indian Reservation Outreach

February 1st-6st we spent in Arizona at the Navajo Indian Reservation. The girls stayed in the church and the guys stayed in the hogan close by. We had an amazing time and were able to get a lot of work done there at the church. I helped to clean the kitchen of the pastor's home, picking up trash in the area, and cleaning the graveyard. Pastor Smiley lectured during the morning and then we worked after lunch. We had the wonderful opportunity to get to meet several of the local Navajo people and worship with them in their homes for Bible study. This experience took me back to memories of Papua New Guinea!

There were so many rainbows in this cloud! Awesome!!

I was so excited to be able to stop at the Four Corners National Monument! I have always wanted to go there and we did! Another dream come true!

Standing on 4 states at once with the wind viciously blowing my hair!


Aaron, Josiah, Jenni and I enjoying ourselves...

The sign welcoming to the church

This was our bathroom for the week...no running water = no showers!

A beautiful sunset view from the church

Dry ground everywhere!

Standing on a cliff during a afternoon walk.

Nick cooking our lunch with Craig overseeing!

Sophie and I enjoying their hard labor!

A typical hogan.

View inside the hogan.

An evening at the park...we were SO happy to wash our hands with running water!

Enjoying myself! It was a beautiful walk and view...

I've always wanted to see these type of homes built into the rock...see the petroglyphs?

The view from the top of the canyon.

This is the graveyard near the church. When a family member dies they bury them and then place decorations over the graves. They do not touch or come back to the graves again, so there were lots of weeds and broken decorations which we cleaned up.

Clearing weeds from the graves.

When a Navajo dies they kill his horse over the grave so that it's blood runs into the ground with him. They leave the saddle on top of the grave and throw the horse outside of the graveyard. There are fields of horse bones close by!

Horse bones

A traditional Navajo dinner...frybread and Mutton-corn soup.