Quick trip to Nebraska

The girls stayed overnight and day at the Coburn's. Suzanne and I drove the car and van up to Nebraska around 7am, and had a productive day. We got to see a number of the church people throughout the day.

-We stopped at the church where Bible School was in session and the children had prepared a special welcome basket of food, cleaning supplies, and paper products. Thank you so much. The items will be come in very handy in the coming weeks. We got to see a number of the adults and children there.

-We went to the Geneva courthouse to take care of our drivers licenses, vehicle inspection, title, registration, license plates, etc. We got everything done in less than an hour. It was all in the same building. Gina waited on us, and her daughter Krista also stopped in to see her mother.

-We parked the car in the parsonage garage. It will stay there for the summer.

-At lunch time we went to Shickley and had lunch at Dawg's Cafe with Wes and Don and Shirley. The fish was awesome. We met pastoral people from a local church and enjoyed catching up with them.

-After lunch we took Don back to the farm and then drove back into Shickley. We stopped into the post office to put a hold on any mail that ends up there before we do.

-Next stop was the hardware to return paint swatches for the girls room. We ran into John, Wes, Linda, and Roland there. We then drove around the block to the Swartzendruber construction and flooring. We met with Kay and picked out some carpet for the basement.

-We stopped at the parsonage to take a couple measurements and ran into George, Matt, Ron, Randy, and Brett.

-Finally, Suzanne and I hopped in the van and drove back to Hesston around 5:30pm. It was good to be with the girls again.

It will be here before we know it. I can hardly wait!

Some buildings

This is the main lodge where we had our meals and some activities. The picture was taken Tuesday morning when we were leaving. It snowed overnight.
This was our cabin (Aspen). We lived on the second floor of this building. It was a beautiful retreat center with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. I hope you enjoyed this picture show. We've got more, but I've also got some other things to do. It is going to be 92 degrees here in Hesston today. Looking at the snow makes it feel cooler:)

Everybody hands up

How cute! The girls worked and played hard, and slept pretty well to boot. Alyssa is hugging Courtney. It may be hard to believe, but this is actually Suzanne and I's bed. We got up and then Suzanne took this picture of the "raised hands while sleeping". They are so precious to us. We have really enjoyed spending time and making memories together.

Sawing

One of our assignments was to clear a "branch" off of a trail high above camp. It turned out to be two large branches. We ended up cutting them into about 6 pieces and dragging them down the hill half way. The picture above shows Courtney and I trying saw it together. The girls were real troopers. Hiking up so high and sitting in the rain for a little while. We were up here for about 2 1/2 hours. As you can tell, it was a very steep incline.

We had an option of a gas powered chain saw. But this was a lot more fun for all. Suzanne and I had a lot of laughs. Especially when I was jumping on the log to break it. I lost my balance and nearly fell down the hill. If I would have got rolling, I doubt I would have stopped before either hitting a tree or getting to the bottom of the mountain.

Kettle popcorn

One evening we had kettle popcorn cooked in this kettle. The sugary stuff got eaten up faster than the non-sweet stuff. Here are just a few of the people (out of about 50) that were there during the weekend. I may get some spelling's and names wrong.

(John and Christy Frederick on the far left, Corbin the camp director in the tan shirt and blue jeans, Mary the cook in the dark blue shirt and black pants, 4 of the 5 Voth family members from Hesston starting with father in striped shirt then mom followed by daughters Marie and Dorothy, behind them you will see me talking with Marvin and Vi Miller. My dad and Marvin lived in South Bend together while they were still single.)

A beautiful view

We hiked up behind the camp to "staff ville". It is where the male, non-counselor staff live. We then hiked up on top of this ridge and decided a family picture was in order. In the back ground you can see part of the pikes peak bottom. If you hiked up there, you would then have about 4 miles up a ridge behind this view to get to the peak.

Gold mine

We explored a gold mine that is on the camp. It is a horizontal shaft about 400ft long. It was about as big as you see it here the whole way in. My head lamp batteries were weak and died completely about 2/3 of the way in. I had to confiscate a little girls flash light to finish the trail in. This was about a third of the group that went in.

Suzanne the dare-angel

Suzanne was very brave and decided to go rock climbing and rappelling. She was way up high and out on a rock face. We went hiking out to where she was. I was especially afraid for the girls as they got close to the edges. I was happy to be back on land a little more flat after this hike.

Hiking up the mountain

We all enjoyed hiking on the many trails around the camp. This was a fun morning hike that involved climbing up the side of the mountain that was very steep and very high.

Trip to Colorado

We had a good time in Colorado at Rocky Mountain Camp in Divide, CO. It was a first annual Work and Play Camp. We worked at the camp doing cleanup and other work, and played by hiking and other stuff. The girls loved it! We loved it! It is beautiful.

We met a lot of nice and friendly people. Some of them knew us or our parents. Others were new acquantances all around. I will post some pictures in some upcoming posts. We were there from Friday evening through Tuesday morning.

We had all kinds of weather. Sun, clouds, rain, hail, sleet, snow, wind, calm, 35-55 degrees. We contemplated trying to hike towards pike's peak. There was knee deep snow about half way there. Then it snowed over a foot at the peak the night before we were planning to go up. We decided to just go home instead. We'd love to go back. If you are free next memorial day weekend, I think they are doing the work and play weekend again.

Memorial Weekend fun

Alyssa's last day of school concludes tomorrow at noon.  We will pick her up and drive North to Salina.  Then turn east on 70 towards Colorado for a couple hours.  We are spending the weekend (Friday-Tuesday) at Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp.  It is about 8 hours drive from Hesston.  We are helping them with pre-camping season cleanup.  It is kind of the way I remember vacation's with my family when I was growing up.  A mixture of service and fun.  We expect to work just a little less than half the time and play a little more than half.  Oh yeah, that doesn't leave much time for sleep, does it?

Our basement and other places will be occupied while we are gone by the owner and some siblings.  Just in case you drive by while we are gone and see people hauling stuff out of our house:)  As long as you don't recognize it as our stuff, they are probably okay.

More Ready Than You Realize

I finished my first book of the summer in one week.  It is a book by Brian McLaren.  The gist of this book is that we need to be "Spiritual friends" to or with people.  It is written from a predominantly post-modern perspective, which is helpful in better understanding many people alive today.

Here are a couple ideas that caught my attention:

-How can our churches become safer places for seekers to seek, and still remain safe places for those who have found a life-giving connection with God to grow in their faith?

-Engaging in spiritual friendship will not only help others become Christians, it will help us become better Christians, who love God more than ever.

-Goal - Helping people take the next step.

This last concept really struck me as a part of my role as a pastor.  It isn't just about getting people to make a commitment or getting them to get involved in church work.  A goal is growth; going deeper with God.  No matter where someone is at the goal is a closer relationship with God than they currently have.

Tough job, but God will be doing the work.

Good or Bad place to start

I was thinking this morning as I walked around the Arboretum.  In the short time that we have had to get to the know the people of Salem Mennonite, we like them.  They seem to like us too.

The song sung at our Hesston College Commissioning service was going through my head, and here is a phrase, "I will hold your people in my heart."  I was struck by the thought that I can love these people.  I plan to love them.  They have a special place in our hearts, and we aren't even living there yet.  This is a good place to start full time ministry.  Or is it?

The thought occurred to me that it could be a bad place to start ministry.  Why, you may sadly ask.  I am going to make all of my mistakes with them.  I am going to fail at things and get things badly wrong at times.  And if I love these people, then I am going to hurt the people that I love.  So, it really is a bad place to start.  But yet, it seems like a great place to start.

May I have the grace to fail faithfully, and may you at Salem have the grace to forgive and teach.

(Just in case anybody was concerned, there is no change in plans.  God is taking us to Shickley!)

Sabbatical

It's not every assignment that begins with a Sabbatical.  What a blessing is it is to spend time here with my family before jumping into full time ministry.  We are getting projects done, preparing for our move to Nebraska, reading books, dreaming about the future, going to parks, making memories.

My prayer for the people of Salem is that they continue to grow in the their walk with God, and their understanding of who they are under the leadership of the Interim Pastor.

My prayer for our families is that we will have time and wisdom to make transitions for what will concieveably be a long time a long distance apart.

In all things, may God be glorified.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to my mother (in blue) and Suzanne's mother (in white):

You are loved, blessed, and a blessing to many.  Thank you for being our mothers, and being you.

God bless you,

Shawn and Suzanne

College is done for now

This week has been a different one for us, now that college is done.  Suzanne worked all day Tuesday through Thursday at the College, helping with cleaning of the cafeteria.  I had Emberlynn and Courtney at home.  We had some good times together.  We were at the Arboretum, took Bernard to the Wichita Airport, visited several parks, went on walks and bike rides, cleaned debris out of the ditch/river behind our house, played games, rode scooter, roller skated, swam in the little boat pool, picked up Alyssa after school, made and ate lunch, took Alyssa to piano lessons, worked on a sermon, and I'm sure I missed something.

It's days like these that I really appreciate Suzanne and the time that she invests in our girls.  I do it for 3 days and I am exhausted and short tempered:(  She does this for days without end.  I love Suzanne for so many things.  This is just one.  I am guessing that most moms feel like they come up short, and hope that their children turn out okay in spite of their childhoods.  Suzanne does really great.  Better than I think she realizes.  She is a wonderful mother.  Our girls and I are blessed to be with her:)

Graduated

Liked it.

Thanks to family, old friends from Hesston (college and church), and new friends from Shickley. 

It is good to be done.  My head needs a rest.