Bobcat, VBS and coming posts

Here's a quick one for those regular blog readers.

VBS was great. I had a lot of fun with the little kids and 2 or more kids from other classes came to know the Lord!

Sunday night we had some friends over to watch a soccer game and Michael called me downstairs to look at a bobcat that was looking in our window!! Michael went outside and whistled at it and it turned around and looked at Michael so he could take a couple of pictures. It was cool! I'll try to get him to post the pictures.

Coming posts that I've been thinking about but need a little time to think about in order to write: "Yada Yada" and being more green. Hope you're looking forward to them.

Well, we're off to Texas at 6am tomorrow to see Michael's family, especially his grandparents who aren't doing so well. Pray for safe travel and that we won't have plane troubles so we can make it back for church on Sunday.

Love you all,
Christina

Green

Well, it's been at least two weeks since I've been on here. We had a great time with my parents. It was so good just to BE around them, it had been awhile. God was also very gracious in the areas of weather and wildlife. We had beautiful, clear mild days to begin with. We were able to take Mom and Dad to the top of the hill and let them see two of our favorite mountain ranges, the Beartooth/Absarokas and the Crazies. Then when we went to Yellowstone National Park it was 30 degrees and snowed for most of 24 hours. It looked like a Christmas card and we saw almost every animal there was to see: elk, bison, bald eagle, grizzly bear, black bear, coyotes. . .I'm pretty sure there were more, but those are the really impressive ones.

Now they've been gone for more than a week and the countryside is really starting to green up. The snow we saw in the mountains was rain down where we live and the grass had already perked up before they left. We've had a little more rain since they left and now the trees are looking green, too. This past weekend through today the highs have been in the 80's and 90's, but tomorrow the high is in the 50's I think! Can you even believe it? 50 in the middle of May?

Last Friday Michael held his first outdoorsmen event. The guys had a lot of fun and most of the guys from the church came, but they were disappointed that only 3 men from the community were there. But, now they heard the gospel and now there are three more men to talk up the events for next time.

We are gearing up for VBS. This is the last week of school, next week is prep-week and then we're going to Outrigger Island the first week of June. I'm nervous and trying to get prepared to teach the kindergarten class - I've never taught a VBS class before let alone one so young, but I'll have a great helper in the Bridger, one of our youth. The youth are the helpers in all the classes so they can get prepared to teach the material for their mission trip two weeks later.

I think that's all to catch you up on. I love you all and I am now heading off to read your blogs and catch up on your lives for the past two weeks :)

I love Montana

I wanted to start off by saying that and here are some reasons why:
1. We have four seasons (not just summer and Christmas)
2. The pace of life is slower (even slower now that we live in the country). Maybe it's not slower, just more relaxed. Or maybe it's just me, maybe I've learned to relax. OK, enough soul-searching
3. I get to see snow-covered mountains on my way into town every day.
4. and other various reasons that I'm sure will come to me as soon as I'm done blogging.

All of that was to let you all know that I like our life and the work God has given us to do.

But, I miss my family. My parents are coming for a visit and will arrive next weekend and I can hardly wait! A whole ten days; it will be so wonderful.

On the other hand, I've been looking at my brother-in-law's blog (Phillip) and I am now officially in withdrawals from my nieces and nephews. It's been 1 1/2 years since I've seen any of them from either side of my family. I love to watch the kids at church and see the funny things they say and do and after we're here for a little while longer I'll be able to start seeing them grow up and I'm sad that I'm not getting to do that with my own family. I also can't hug my sisters when they have a bad day or just hang out with them.

Don't get too worried about me though, I have these (we'll call it homesick even though I don't miss the South at all) "homesick" episodes periodically. I can blog about it now because my Mom can't be too worried about hearing that I miss them since she's coming to see me :) I'm sure none of this "kid-missing" has anything to do with me not having any kids yet either, right?

Anyway, lets just turn this into an encouragement to love on your family whenever you may get the chance to see them. And if you see them a little more than you might like, try to think about what it would be like not to see them at all (be serious!)

I love you guys and miss you.

Spring - A Weather Rollercoaster

This time of year is what earns Montana the saying "If you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes, it will change." Two Mondays ago, it snowed 5 inches! It was not even freezing outside so it was almost melting off as fast as it was coming down, but it came down all day long. This provided much needed moisture. This past Wednesday night it rained for probably 2-3 hours! Again, much needed moisture, but in a very different form :) I've also now heard that it is supposed to get up to 70 degrees by Sunday! The clouds and wind toady are keeping me skeptical of this weather report, but we'll see. I'm planning on breaking out my flip-flops and capri pants for church if it does get that warm. As I wait for some of this moisture to start having its affect and turn things green around here, I'm wishing you all a beautiful and happy Spring.

Visiting In-Laws and Sunday School Lessons

As I write my second post in about a week, I'm really hoping that my loving aunts are giving as much flack to their own blogging-challenged daughters as they are to me :)

Well, I've got a busy week ahead. Micheal's parents are coming up at the end of the week. They are bringing Wanda's old car so they have something to drive when they come to visit and they will be here when Michael is presented with his preaching license. We are excited to be able to spend some time with them.

Also this week I'm going to be working to finish two Sunday School lessons in one so that for the rest of the year I will be teaching/outlining our Bible reading before it happens instead of afterward. I had thought of this a couple of times but not done anything about it, so God had one of my Sunday School ladies suggest it :) Isn't God good!

I now feel compelled to share with you a very interesting thing God has brought me to ponder through His word. In our Bible reading this week we started reading through Judges. Chapter 11 introduces us to Jephthah. Jephthah made a very unwise and rash promise to God and ended up sacrificing his own daughter in fulfillment of this promise (something that was expressly forbidden by God.) Reading this passage frustrates me because I wonder how someone could be so stupid. Two points: 1. It is amazing the things that don't seem wrong to us when we are far from the Lord. (or are mindlessly submerged in a culture that is far from the Lord) 2. I need to be careful not to commit myself to things without seeking the Lord's wisdom/leading in a matter first. I have several opportunities that have opened up for me this week. One is to enter the pharmacy tech training at the pharmacy where I work. This would usually be a two year degree but instead of paying for school I could get paid to work while I receive this training. The other opportunity is to be on the leadership team for the state women's ministries. How exciting! But I really want to know that either or both of these opportunities are what the Lord has for me now before I agree to either one.

Thanks for your prayers in this matter and your unending interest in our lives :)
We love you.

Gee, I Really Wish You Would Blog More

So, an unnamed aunt (who is not actually a blood relative) called me just to say "You need to blog more!" :) She's right. I'm working on working out my schedule. You see, I now work Monday through Wednesday. I'm still trying to figure out how I worked a full-time job and kept my house clean. Maybe it wasn't all that clean or maybe my house now is a lot bigger. Anyway, I haven't figured out a good schedule yet, but I'm trying. So, enough of excuses, on to the updates.

I am really liking my job at the pharmacy. As I alluded to before, three days a week is feeling like full-time to me. I have a great time while I'm at work, but when the end of Wednesday comes, I'm glad I don't have to come back again until Monday :) We are still keeping ourselves busy with working on the house. From the sound of it you'd think we live in a fixer-upper, but we don't. We're just busy making it our own.

I hope everyone had a very blessed Easter Sunday. We started ours off with an outdoor Sunrise Service. When the service was over, the temperature was 15 degrees!! My fingers and toes were the only things that got cold, though. It was a really great service in conjunction with two other churches in town. Afterwards, we had breakfast at the church and then continued with Sunday School and our regular Worship Service. Michael did his first Lord's Supper service yesterday and it was really great.

Although the temperatures from yesterday morning might look otherwise, we have actually been pretty warm here since the middle of February. Since the warm-up started so early, we thought it would get cold again before the warm weather stuck around, but it's not looking like it. We have our days here and there, but mostly the temperatures have been getting up to between 45 and 60 for the last six weeks (that's quite toasty for this time of year up here)! Michael's hoping the cold weather will peak it's head out again when my parents come to visit in April :) I was ready for the cold to stick around a little longer, but now that it's been on the way out for so long, I'm starting to get Spring fever :)

All in all, things are going quite well. We are looking forward to the presentation of Michael's preaching license, which will happen on April 6th. That Sunday Michael will also give a 100 days report of all that has happened since we got here and cast a vision for the next 100 days. Michael's parents will be joining us for that occasion, as well, so we should have a very fun and exciting day.

From the Pastor's Pen, March

Last month in our daily Bible reading schedule we read through the book of Leviticus. While it is not an easy one to stay with (lots of laws and sacrifices and stuff) there is an important picture that we should consider.

This picture comes from Leviticus 16 and the Day of Atonement. The priest was to take two goats for the sin offering; the first goat was sacrificed in the normal way and its blood sprinkled on the altar. With the second goat the priest was to lay both of his hands on its head and confess all of the sin of Israel, "and put them on the goat's head" (v. 21). Then he would drive the goat out into the wilderness and let it go, where it would "carry off on itself all their sins" (v. 22). This is where we get the term "scapegoat."

This is a great picture of what Christ has done for those who believe in Him.. "the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Is. 52:6b). Christ bore our sins on the cross. To "bear" sin means to be responsible for it, or to take the penalty for it. So Christ endured the consequences of our sin for us. The second part of the picture is this: "As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us" (Ps. 103:12). Like the "scapegoat," Jesus carried our sins far, far away from us and God remembers them no more.

This is just one of many beautiful pictures the Lord has given us in the Old Testament. I hope that you will consider this as you think about Easter!

Pastor Michael