The swing of things

Well, here we go! Jim is now on his sixth day of his sixth school year, I have begun my new MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) year, and we are already in September. Here's what this year looks like for us so far:

Jim is continuing to sponsor both the student council and the environmental club at Woodland Park High School. This is his fourth year of "STUCO" and third for the environmental club. There are quite a few extra-curricular activities that occur between these organizations, but it is also my fourth and third year of learning to adapt around those! When it is appropriate, the kids and I tag along for various activities. It is fun to be a part of Jim's job in that way.

I started my fourth year in MOPS yesterday. MOPS is a program that meets in a church, provides childcare and breakfast (and coffee!) to moms of kids kindergarten-age and younger, teaches them relevant, practical things, and gives them time to connect with other moms in the community. It changed my life three years ago, and I have been on the leadership team for the last two years. This year I started a new "job" in MOPS. I am the prayer and care coordinator, so I make sure the needs of our 60-some moms are being met. The last two years, I coordinated the creative activities, which is a little more of a practical job, so I am excited to have a relational role this year.

We are continuing a small group of four couples from last year, this year breaking into guys/girls small groups as well. I am excited to deepen these relationships together. We were never a part of a small group when we attended First Presbyterian in Colorado Springs, so this has been a fun new aspect of fellowship to participate in.

We just completed our fourth Bible course, which covered early church history. Only six left. We will complete about one a month, so hopefully we will finish up in March. I am taking classes while the kids nap in the afternoon (pray for long naps!) and Jim takes them after the kids go to bed in the evening. We completed our fourth course in just two weeks' time to catch up which was a little hectic, but now we should be able to fall into a comfortable schedule to finish the others.

We are starting a new training program developed by Africa Inland Mission, called "Timothy in Training". It looks at the Biblical model of Timothy, so we pair up with some mentors, and go through a workbook that gives us assigned reading, discussion topics and other things to think about to better prepare us for our move to Kenya. We asked our friends the Cormans to be our mentors. Chad and Nicole spent many years in Malaysia as missionaries, have two beautiful little children, and we are just so excited to have their wisdom and guidance in this stage of our lives.

Africa Inland Mission has created an online checklist for outgoing missionaries to keep our to-dos organized. Between communication, computer/email/website set-up, travel documents, support raising, and other logistics, it helps us complete all necessary tasks on time. Saves a lot of headaches all around I imagine! We keep up on that list every week.

So there's a rather mundane overview of our lives at the present moment, but now you'll know what we're doing if we don't blog for a week again!

Back to School

This week Jim has returned to school, and we even started a little pre-school with Faith! We're working on following directions and learning Bible verses, and later will get more into letters and numbers. I acquired a set of alphabet flash cards quite a while ago, but never looked at them. They are... um... a little confusing when it comes to "c".

Ten points of extra credit to whoever can come up with a clever way to dispel Faith's confusion!

Remembering Grandma

It's been a while since we posted here... sorry! Seems that time has gotten away from us. I (Jim) would like to share a few thoughts from Grandma's memorial service about a week ago. Her 4 children wrote a "Tribute to Mama" which I was honored to read part of, along with my cousins Rob and Lisa. I'd like to share a couple excerpts:

"Of course no tribute would be complete without mention of Daddy. He and Mama were a team not only in the rearing of children, but in the way they tackled the issues of life. They were, in fact 'one flesh' as described in scripture... ... Mama and Daddy met in Paonia and dated for about two years; they were married on June 12, 1946, the day after she graduated from the University of Denver with a bachelor's degree in library science... ...For the past 63 years they have lived in the home they first moved into though it has been enlarged and updated.

Six days a week Mama and Daddy worked very hard on the farm. Although Mama's first responsibility was homemaking, she often helped Daddy when called upon - like when the tractor got stuck and it took two to pull it out. In fact, last fall the two of them hauled third cutting hay by themselves.

She taught her girls how to be proper wives to their husbands, and her boys how to treat their wives. And her instruction was always laced with concern for others even to the end of her life when she was more concerned about how Gary, Judy, Wayne, Debbie and Doyle were doing (all with surgeries pending at the time) than she was about herself

When Mama had pushed to the limit of a young girl's [or grandson's] frustration, she would say, 'It'll never be seen from a galloping horse.'

Mama also knew how to salvage her children's self-esteem. During a Frazier family trip to Beaver reservoir, Stina [my mom] and her kids picked chokecherries to make jelly. They were lush a plentiful, so they picked several buckets full. When Stina took them to Mama to get her help making chokecherry jelly, Mama got a funny look on her face. They had picked sarvis berries - not chokecherries! Stina was ready to throw them out, but Mama assured her they could make something out of them, tasteless though they were. And so they made sarvis berry jelly. No one knows if it was ever eaten, but Mama was more than willing to put forth the effort to preserve her little girl's dignity.

Both grandchildren and great-grandchildren have enjoyed hours spent on Grandma's lap having stories read to them... ...she loved to hike and seemed to know the name of every wildflower encountered along the way. her curiosity was contagious and gave permission to explore what was over the next hill or around the next bend...

As children we often took our mother for granted, but as adults we see in her the model of a servant's heart... ...We, and our children, have been the beneficiaries of her selflessness. She has set the bar high - incredibly high, for all of us.

We will miss her terribly until we meet again on that heavenly shore when Mama will no doubt have things to show us and to tell us about her latest adventure. Mama's life is summed up in Hebrews 12:1-2a:

'Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith...'

We love you, Mama, and we WILL finish the race well knowing nothing would please you more."

A particularly poignant moment was a hymn Grandpa requested his children sing during the service. The title was "Never Give Up" the refrain is below:

"Never give up, never give up,
Never give up to thy sorrows,
Jesus will bid them depart.
Trust in the Lord, trust in the Lord,
Sing when your trials are greatest,
Trust in the Lord and take heart."

Something I'll never forget is at the end of the hymn, Grandpa shouted, "Amen!" I am honored and incredibly grateful to be following such a godly example. I really enjoyed my time with Grandpa last week, making hay, fixing farm equipment, and just sitting listening to his stories. Thank you all for praying! Praise God for Grandpa's wonderful attitude, despite the difficult circumstances.

Faith's first fish!

If you remember back to April, Faith got this fishing pole for her birthday and has been practicing diligently! She's gone fishing a few times since then, but wasn't able to catch anything.
On our short stint back at home last week, Faith and Jim went fishing on a Sunday afternoon for a special trip together. They had a wonderful time together and Faith got to finally catch her first fish!

A picture of a very excited little girl:

Proud little girl
Faith's catch of the day. She's pretty quick to tell you that "I caught TWO! But daddy only caught one."

Here's the video of her second catch. What Jim didn't get on video earlier: "Oh, I caught my first fish! Oh, I love it! Oh my first fish!" Evidently everyone else at the lake was able to hear her excitement too! Faith sure is a keeper!