We few out to Denver late July where Laura's parents picked us up and took us to Greeley where we hung out with them for a few days. We went bouldering with the little brother, brewed beer with Dad, made a medieval costume with Mom and went and saw older brother's new apartment and hung out at Horsetooth Reservoir.
They dropped us off in Colorado Springs where our truck was parked in a friend's parent's driveway. We had a good time talking with Mrs. Parr about faith and life. Encouraged, we set off for Gunnison. It was amazing to pull in to a friend's house and find the community you left still going strong. We pulled in late at night and found a bunch of people hanging out after just sharing a meal. It seems like it was what we were looking for all summer - close fellowship of loving friends who lived around each other.We caught up with friends around town for a couple days and met a girl named Katie who was visiting the little community. More about that later. We then left for Ridgway to attend Laura's college roommate's wedding - Tiffani and Rusty. Beautiful wedding, it's always exciting to see others enter into the covenant of marriage. Tough but worth it! (We just reached our first anniversary on the 14th. (: ) We stayed at John's Aunt and Uncle's house and took a beautiful 4-wheel drive trip up Imogene pass from Ouray to Telluride. Thousands of wildflowers of every color graced the scenery amongst 13,000 feet tall passes. With the cool night air and beautiful mountains - we missed being in Colorado!
We headed back to Gunnison Sunday morning for a church service that will stay in our memories a long time. We got to watch Katie get baptised after coming to the Lord that week. It was wonderful to have interacted with her that week, listen to her life's story and come alongside other brothers and sisters to tell her about the wonderful truth of the gospel through Jesus Christ as opposed to through the mormon church. Anyone who reads this please pray that her faith would be guarded and that other Christians could come alongside her and encourage her. She needs much prayer for her family situation right now as well in Pueblo and South Dakota. We got to drive her back down to Pueblo when we left and talk with her about life and faith. We were filled with such joy to have the chance to encourage her. It seems like most people we invest time and love into we are in the long haul with them - wanting them to experience the full freedom in Christ but seeing slow progress. To see God move so quickly and powerfully in Katie's life was amazing. Praise Him!
We then stayed with Brian in Colorado Springs helping him with the last details of getting ready for his bike trip, then headed out one evening and drove through the night to get us all back to Minneapolis. Brian then left to start his trip and we stayed here, getting anxious about the future. Work potentials were falling through, and our desires and ideas about what would be next were unclear, different, or seemingly unattainable at the present. God has been patient and very faithful to us however, blessing us more than we deserve, and while we don't have a next big goal in mind, we are still learning and growing. We just got back from a couple days hanging out with John's brother Stephen in Duluth, and we leave for a leg of Brian's trip on Saturday and then possibly to visit relatives around the Chicago area. Please pray that we would continue to draw close to the Lord! Sorry for not updating much, please feel free to bother us by phone, facebook, e-mail or leaving a comment!
Philippians 3: 8-15121314
For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
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