For the love of Fall...

Have I ever mentioned that I love this time of year? There are so many positives; the weather is cooling off, high school soccer starts, hunting seasons start up, and winter is just around the corner! I actually like all of the seasons, with summer being the least favorite. The beginning of summer is nice, but I'm not a big fan of 95º-plus temps and the associated fire season & smoke here in MT.

Speaking of smoke, we have had about 10 days of beautiful, clear, cool weather. Daytime temps have been in the 70's and low 80's, nights cool off to the upper 40's, and no smoke to speak of. There are still many fires around the state, but the cooler weather has helped slow them down quite a bit.

Our first soccer matches are this weekend. We play Missoula Big Sky on Friday and Missoula Hellgate on Saturday. Our varsity team is looking really good...we already had a strong team, and now we have a new transfer student from Seattle who will be 1st Team, All-State this year easily(maybe the best HS player in the state)as well as a new foreign exchange student from Mexico who will be a very strong defender for us. We are very excited! My head coach has been coaching HS soccer for 10-12 years now and he said that this is the strongest, deepest team that he has ever had, and he has won 2 state titles! It is also a special year for me as most of the 12 seniors this year were on my JV team the first year that I started coaching. My JV team is looking good as well. We need a little work on offense, but the defense and midfield look very solid.

Bird hunting season opens Saturday! Its time for Haddie to start earning her keep :) I think that she is very ready for it and she will do great. I need to work with her on live birds some, but her retrieving work is solid. I bought her a vest to protect her chest and belly from thorns and things and now she barrels through obstructions like it was nothing. We might get out Saturday morning but it will probably be Monday morning before we get some serious hunting time in.

Please continue to pray for us. The church in Columbus is checking our references this week and we are looking at an interview in the very near future. We are also praying about a church planting staff position in Belgrade. Both places are awesome and we would enjoy the work in either, but we really want to discern God's will and make the right choice. Also, please pray for us as we minister here. God has opened several opportunities to share with people and we would like to be able to follow up with them. I have had a chance to share the Gospel with several people at Lowe's and with our new assistant coach while we were at camp last week. Please pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to work in their lives and bring them to the place of repentance and faith.

Ashes, ashes it all falls down

We woke up to a layer of ash on everything this morning! Since we have the windows in the house open, this includes everything near a window in our house. I was told today that this extreme smokieness was not from the fire to our north (the closest one) but from one over the mountains - I guess the weather patterns changed. Anyway, it's really weird and I thought I'd share. Hope you had an ash-free day :)

Netty Pot

I do not often watch Oprah, but sometimes I have a day off or get off early and I take a peak. The last two times I've watched, Dr. Oz has been on. So, they demonstrated and sang the praised of the netty pot. With all the smoke and my aforementioned boogerie nose and Michael's bad sinuses, I decided to try it. I love it. It looks like a tiny teapot. You fill it up with warm salt water, pour it in one nostril with your head tipped to the side and let it come out the other side. When the water first starts going through all your sinuses, it sort of feels like accidentally inhaling salt water. Imagine that! But after the initial sensation, you don't really notice it anymore. I tried it and liked it. I thought it would be good for Michael, too, but I didn't think I'd actually be able to convince him. But I did! And it's really work for him with his tiny nostrils. Now I do it once or twice a day - whenever I feel a little stuffy. It softens everything up and washes it right out. Of course you're going to have to blow your nose a couple of times when you're done, but I'd rather have a bit of a runny nose than a stuffy nose any day. Let me know what you think :)

Weather Updates and more.

Well, I was going to write yesterday and tell you that it had cleared up and we had been able to see the mountains for the past two days, but . . . no more. It seemed fine this morning but now the sky is all smoky white. It has cooled down a bit though - upper 80's to low 90's for the highs and getting down to the mid 50's for lows at night.

Soccer starts tomorrow! They might have to rearrange the practice schedule because they might not be able to practice outside because of the smoke. It's funny, the tell us the air quality is bad so we should stay inside (just like they do other places) but if we don't have air conditioning, why be inside instead of outside? Where was I? Oh, yes, soccer. Michael's really excited about this season, so we'll see how things go.

He's also excited about hunting season! We're having a lot of fun working with Haddie on her retrieving for this season. Maybe he'll even get me some shooting practice and I'll be able to get a deer this year!

I'm hoping to be able to watch some of his games this year around my work schedule. When it cools off a little bit more I guess I'll be getting started on some quilting.

Please continue to pray for us as we are seeking God about where He would have us serve. Michael has been approached by another pastor who is looking for a church planter to be on staff at his church. This is in an area of Montana that actually has some Hispanics, which is exciting! We're clueless. Both opportunities would require a lot of learning on the job but would also come with a mentor and a variety of opportunities for ministry.

Anyway, that's about it for now. We love you guys and love being able to read about what's going on in your lives just like you do ours. Thanks for your love and prayers.